The law, you see, would you condemn, But sure to work you such despite I cannot have the face. Yet Reason would, I should have 'mends; For that in any wise To have mine own restor❜d again It will not me suffice. You had my heart, when it was whole; The old law biddeth tooth for tooth, Give then your heart to me for mine, DIRGE. SITTING late with sorrows sleeping, a Harl. MSS. 6910, fol. 158. I might see from high descending "Muses, now give over writing; Nymphs, come tear your tender hairs; Shepherds all, come shed your tears; Cupid's waxen but a warling; Death hath wounded Honour's darling. Cursed Death, and all too cruel, As no love of Life should please me? Go, my flock; go, leave your feeding; I shall lose you every one.a b This is like Sydney's manner; perhaps it may be found among his Poems. Sorrows, now come show your powers; Earth, give over bringing flowers; Never tree let bear more fruit; Let all singing birds be mute; For the heart of Love is broken." And with that, as in a cloud She did all her shining shroud; When sweet Phillis gave such groans, As did pierce the very stones; That all the earth with sorrow shaked; And then poor Coridon awaked." THE SEA. WHO life doth loath, and longs Death to behold, And yet would live with life half-stony cold, And yet as ghastly dreadful as it seems, Bold men, presuming life for gain to sell, Dare tempt that gulf, and in those winding streams Seek ways unknown, ways leading down to hell! b a Harl. MSS. 6910, f. 146. b Ibid. f. 165. DESPAIR. AMONGST the groves, the woods, and thicks, The stubs, the shrubs, the thorns and pricks, Within a cave of years unknown, In doleful thoughts to end my days; And when I hear the storms arise, That troubled ghosts do leave their grave, With hellish sounds, and Horror's cries, And when I feel what storms they bide, Which do the greatest torments prove, Then let me not my sorrow hide, Which I do suffer for my love! a a Harl. MSS. 6910, f. 163. This was Francis Davison, the Editor of "The Rhapsody," a curious collection of Elizabethan Poems, which is reprinting at the Lee Priory Press. He was son of the unhappy Secretary, whose story is so well-known. There is a simple vigour and harmony in these versifications, which gives them intrinsic merit. The sixth stanza of this psalm appears to me to convey a beautiful image in the most simple and harmonious language. It is not among the least attractions of these productions of Davison, that they exhibit such an happy variety of metre. Davison had a nice car for the changes and modulations of lyric rhythm. |