torical poems, the Baron's Wars, the Polyolbion, and the rest, are now but little read, but one of his sonnets (see p. 79), ranks with the finest in the language, while his ballad on Agincourt and his Nymphidia are not only famous, but are still comparatively familiar. Mr. Saintsbury says of the former: The Agincourt ballad is quite at the head of its own class of verse in England-Campbell's two masterpieces (given here on pp. 376, 379) and the present poet laureate's direct imitation in the 'Six Hundred,' falling, the first some what, and the last considerably, short of it. The sweep of the metre, the martial glow of the sentiment, and the skill with which the names are wrought into the verse, are altogether beyond praise." (Hist. Eliz. Lit. 141.) The impetuous metrical rush of the poem, one of its chief merits, has also been imitated by Longfellow in The Skeleton in Armour.

AGINCOURT.

84.-Camber-Britans. Cambria was the Roman name for Wales; hence by Camber- (or Cambro-) Britans is meant the Britons who were in Wales, as distinguished from those of the same race in Cornwall or elsewhere. The Cambro-Britans appear to have been especially noted for their skill in chanting poems to the harp, while the poetic genius of the British in Cornwall was shown more particularly in the dramatic form. The concluding part of the dedication has consequently an especial appropriateness.

25. And turning to his men, etc. Henry is said to have exclaimed before the battle that he "did not wish a single man more." (See Green's Hist. Eng. People, I. 542.) Shakespeare makes effective use of this incident. Hen. V. IV. 3: "God's will! I pray thee wish not one man more," etc.

85.-49. The Duke of York, i. e. Edward, second Duke of York, and grandson of King Edward III. The account in the text is here substantially accurate. York commanded the right wing, and was a little in advance of the line, Henry the centre, and Lord Camoys the left. (See Shakespeare's Henry V. IV. 3, when York asks and receives the right of " leading" the "vaward."-52. Henchmen followers. (See Skeat's Etymol. Dict.)-65. Noble Erpingham, i.e. Sir Thomas Erpingham, "who threw up his truncheon as a signal to the English forces, who lay in ambush, to advance."

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86.-82. Bilbows swords. From Bilboa, a Spanish town famous for its blades. The word also means fetters, an especial kind of fetter being also manufactured at Bilboa. The word is used in both senses by Shakespeare.-89. When now that noble king, etc. Here again the poet keeps pretty

close to historic fact. Henry was actually forced to his knees, by a stroke from the Duke d'Alençon, "so violent that it dented his helmet." (See Church's Henry V., p. 81.)97. Gloster, i.e. Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, younger brother of the king. Thomas, Duke of Clarence, alluded to here as Clarence, was also the king's brother.

87.-113. Crispin day is on the 25th of October. Cf. Shakespeare's Henry V. IV. 3. "This day is called the feast of Crispian," etc.

THE SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY

LYRISTS

88. The selections in this group have been chosen primarily for their intrinsic interest, and secondarily because they illustrate the nature and course of English verse in its lighter and shorter forms, between the closing years of the Elizabethan period and the new era of the Restoration. The age of Shakespeare and Spenser is very far removed in spirit from that of Dryden and Pope. These intermediate poets for the most part show us the way by which English poetry passed from the earlier to the later time. John Donne, the first poet of the group, is, from one aspect, really an Elizabethan, since he was born in the same year as Ben Jonson and died six years before him; while Edmund Waller (1605-1687), the last poet on the list, lived twenty-seven years after the Restoration, and was farther removed from the Elizabethans than the earlier poets of the group, being related rather to Dryden and poets of the later day. (For account of this period see Masson's Life and Times of Milton, Vol. I. Ch. VI., and The Age of Milton, by J. H. B. Masterman.) Many of these poets affected a fantastic style, full of far-fetched images or " conceits." Their peculiarities are thus described by Dr. Samuel Johnson: "The most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence to gether; nature and art are ransacked for illustrations, comparisons and allusions; their learning instructs and their subtilty surprises, but the reader commonly thinks his improvement dearly bought, and, though he sometimes admires, is seldom pleased." (Cowley," in Lives of the Poets.) The founder of this school (or at least the poet most influential in promoting this fashion) was Dr. John Donne (1573-1631), who, born of Roman Catholic parentage, became a clergyman of the Church of England, and at last Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral. With Donne may be associated his friend George Herbert (1573-1633), also a clergyman, who wrote some of the best religious poetry in the language, and two other writers of sacred poems, Richard Crashaw (1613-1650 ?) and Henry

Vaughan (1622-1695 ?), who may be classed as Herbert's followers. Abraham Cowley (1618-1667), a disciple of Donne, was a famous poet of his day, and George Wither (1588-1667), a satirist, Puritan, and follower of Cromwell, were other religious poets of the time. James Shirley (1596–1667), whose splendid Dirge (p. 103) may be appropriately compared with Beaumont's Westminster Abbey (p. 65), an imitative rather than an original poet, represented the traditions of the Elizabethan drama and carried them on into the Restoration time. another group stand the Cavalier Lyrists, light, gay, and amorous, Richard Lovelace (1618-1658), Thomas Carew (15981639?), Sir John Suckling (1609-1641), and the London wit and Devonshire clergyman, Robert Herrick (1591-1674).

DONNE.

ELEGY ON LADY MARKHAM.

In

Lady Markham died May 4, 1609. She was the daughter of Sir James Harrington, and wife of Sir Anthony Markham. Francis Beaumont also wrote an elegy to her. This poem, which illustrates the subtle, over-elaborated quality of Donne's work, shows also the extraordinary, if occasional, poetic beauty which sometimes accompanies it. Note, for example, the fineness of description displayed in the allusion to the retiring tide leaving "embroidered works upon the sand," and the beautiful definition of tears as "the common stairs of men," by which they climb to heaven.

89.-28. Elixir.-The sense appears to be that the grave as a limbec (or alembic) shall transform her, or distill her substance, into something more precious, as buried clay is changed to porcelain. So that, when God annuls the world by fire to recompense it, her soul shall animate flesh of that spiritual quality which He shall then make and name the Elixir, or transforming agency of all things. (See n. on The Elixir, p. 606.)

A VALEDICTION FORBIDDING MOURNING.

90. These verses are quoted with especial commendation by Isaac Walton in his life of Donne. Donne wrote them to his wife when he was obliged to leave her to accompany an embassy to the French Court. His wife was reluctant to let him go, as 'her divining soul boded her some ill in his absence. Walton, after relating the story, adds of the verses: "And I beg leave to tell that I have heard some writers, learned both in languages and poetry, say that none of the

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Greek or Latin poets did ever equal them." (See Walton's Lives, "Donne.") Grosart remarks: "The metaphor of the compasses in the Valediction only so daring an imaginator as Donne would have attempted; and the out-of-the-wayness of it is not more noticeable than the imaginativeness which glorified it." He quotes Coleridge as declaring that " nothing was ever more admirably made out than the figure of the compass." Donne's Poems in Fuller's Worthies Lib., Vol. II. p. xl.)

SONG, SWEETEST LOVE.

91. This song, while by no means the best, is among the most generally known of Donne's short poems. The reader, unless he is of the inner circle of Doune's admirers, will probably be more impressed by its singularity than its beauty. Saintsbury thinks that it was inspired by the same occasion as the Valediction and written at the same time. He quotes the two opening lines of the last stanza, and thinks that they should be taken in conjunction with the forebodings felt by Donne's wife at his departure for France. (See A Valediction, etc., supra.)

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92.-34. Forethink me any ill anticipate any ill for me, as Destiny may fulfil your presentiment.

A HYMN TO GOD THE FATHER.

93. This poem is also quoted by Walton, who after saying that Donne "in his penitential years" regretted some of the lighter verses of his youth, adds that he did not therefore forsake heavenly poetry in his age, but that "even on his former sick-bed he wrote this heavenly hymn, expressing the great joy that then possessed his soul in the assurance of God's favor to him when he composed it." He tells us further that Donne caused the Hymn "to be set to a most grand and solemn tune, and to be often sung to the organ by the choristers of St. Paul's Church, in his own hearing, especially at Evening Service."

HERBERT.

THE TEMPLE.

The Temple, from which the selections here given are taken, is the collection of poems on which Herbert's fame chiefly rests. Walton tells us how Herbert in his last illness sent the MS. to his friend Mr. Nicholas Ferrar, of the so-called Protestant Nunnery at Little Gidding, saying that it contained

a