THE GHYRLOND OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARIE.' ERE are five letters in this blessed name, Which, changed, a five-fold mystery design; The M the Myrtle, A the Almonds claim, R Rose, I Ivy, E sweet Eglantine. These form thy ghyrlond. Whereof Myrtle Green, The gladdest ground to all the numbered five, Is so implexèd, and laid in between, As Love here studied to keep Grace alive. The second string is the sweet Almond bloom, As it alone, and only it, had room To knit thy crown, and glorify the rest. The third is from the garden called the Rose, The fourth is humble Ivy, intersert But lowly laid, as on the earth asleep, Preserved in her antique bed of Vert, No faith's more firm, or flat, than where't doth creep. But that which sums all is the Eglantine, Which, of the field, is 'cleped the sweetest brier, 1 From "The Female Glory; or, the Life and Death of our Blessed Lady, the holy Virgin Mary, God's own Immaculate Mother. London, printed by Thomas Harper, for John Waterson. 1635." I doubt much whether these stanzas are Jonson's. F. C. Inflamed with ardour to that mystic shine Thus Love, and Hope, and burning Charity, As if they adored the Head whereon they're fixed. 康 THE REVERSE, ON THE BACK SIDE. HESE Mysteries do point to three more great, On the reverse of this your circling crown, All pouring their full share of graces down, The glorious Trinity in Union met. Daughter, and Mother, and the Spouse of God, Most holy and pure Virgin, blessèd Maid, Sweet Tree of life, King David's strength and tower, The House of gold, the Gate of heaven's power, The Morning Star, whose light our Fall hath stayed. Great Queen of Queens, most mild, most meek, most wise, Most venerable Cause of all our joy, Whose cheerful look our sadness doth destroy, The Seat of Sapience, the most lovely Mother, Thou Throne of glory, beauteous as the Moon, Who like a Giant hastes his course to run, B. I. COCK LORREL'S SONG.2 HEN broiled and broacht on a butcher's prick [skewer], The kidney came in of a Holy Sister; This bit had almost made his devilship sick, That his doctor did fear he would need a glister: "For hark," quoth he, "how his belly rumbles!" The jowl of a Jailor was served for a fish, With vinegar pist by the Dean of Dunstable, Two Aldermen lobsters asleep in a dish, These got him so fierce a stomach again That now he wants meat whereon to feed-a; He called for the victuals were dressed for his train, And they brought him up an Olla podrida, 2 In the recently published volume of Loose and Humorous Songs, from Bishop Percy's folio MS., is a version of the Cocklorrel Song in the Gipsies Metamorphosed, which contains a multitude of various readings, and the above six stanzas, which take the place of the single one, commencing "The jowl of a jailor served for a fish," at vol. vii. p. 394. F. C. Wherein were mingled Courtiers, Clown, Of Civil or Common;-Player and Whore; Countess and Servant; Lady and Woman; Mistress and Chambermaid; Coachman and Knight; Lord and Huisher; Groom and Yeoman ;- ODE αλληγορική. I. HO saith our times nor have nor can Behold where one doth swim, 3 These spirited, and thoroughly Jonsonian stanzas, are prefixed to a Poem, published in 1603, with the following title, "PANCHARIS: The first Booke, containing The Preparation of the Love betweene Owen Tudyr, and the Queene, long since intended to her Maiden Majestie; And now dedicated to The Invincible James, Second and greater Monarch of Great Britaine, King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, with the Islands adjacent. Printed at London by V. S. for Clement Knight. 1603." This work, of which only one copy is known to exist (among Burton's books in the Bodleian) was first described in 1865 by Mr. Collier, in his Bibliographical Catalogue, vol. ii. p. 443, and afterwards reprinted in the following year in his "green series," or "Illustrations of our Old English Literature." Particular attention was called by him to this Ode of Jonson's, which has notwithstanding been overlooked by Mr. Hazlitt. The notices of Scotland are especially interesting, as showing for how many years before he actually visited it, the localities of his ancestral land had occupied his mind. His mention of the drinking habits of the Danes, in the same year in which Hamlet was first published, has hitherto escaped Shakspearian commentators. F. C. Besides the other swannes admiring him, Betray it true: A gentler bird than this Did never dint the breast of Tamisis. II. Mark, mark, but when his wing he takes, Whilst pleased Apollo Smiles in his sphere to see the rest affect In vain to follow. This swanne is only his, And Phoebus' love cause of his blackness is. III. He showed him first the hoof-cleft spring, Where Pindar swam; The pale Pyrene and the forked Mount: To brooks and broader streams, From Zephyr's rape would close him with his beams. IV. This changed his down, till this, as white As the whole beard in sight, And still is in the breast; That part nor winde, Nor sun could make to vary from the rest, Or alter kinde; So much doth virtue hate, For style of rareness, to degenerate. V. Be then both rare and good: and long Continue thy sweet song. |