TO HIS

GOOD COUSIN, MR. MICHAEL COSOWARTH.

By Richard Carew of Anthony.

AND now I have, as 'twas thy kind desire,
Unkindly gentle censure of thy skill:

And with a rugged brow I did retire,

The love I love thee with, and will love still;

For Love is blind, and winks to see the ill,

When friends' perfections have a wandering got;

But I that love with truer faith did kill:

Faith sware I should that was amiss out-blot;
Faith sware I should, but Love sware I should not:
Thus Faith and Love each other daring bold,
When thy Muse saw, "be still," quoth she, "I wot
That to amend, which any other could.”

And straight thy Muse herself did sweetly end it;
As all the world it cannot now amend it."

a Harl. MSS. 6906. It is prefixed to Cosowarth's MS. Version of the Psalms, of which a specimen will hereafter be given.

TO HIS

BEST COUSIN, MR. MICHAEL COSOWARTH.

By Henry Loke.

I

MUSE to see the modern wanton Muse

To glory in these borrowed fabling toys, Whilst they the Muse of Muses all abuse, Which fills the ear and heart with perfect joys. Such scan thy verse, but scant can scan aright

The height of thy conceit, or depth of skill:
In David zealous chaunts they not delight,
But, Micha like, perhaps controul thee will,
Some this impeachinga seek to smother thee,

That would no profit have but of their vein!
But like thyself might all men prophets be,
Say I, and with like merit honour gain,

Then some one grateful witness of thy praise
Would seek with lasting words thy fame to raise."

a Query.

b Harl. MSS. 6906. It is prefixed to Cosowarth's MS. Version of the Psalms, of which a specimen will hereafter be given.

ཉྩ*པཉྩསཔཉྩས�**་་་་་་་་་

SONNET.

By H. Grey.

FAIR crystal eye, remain still fierce and cruel!

Your wanton smiles charm, wound, and kill my heart.

Ah, no, smile still! my heart is of such fuel,

As burneth when your eyes their frowns impart!

Ah, mitigate but these fair shining rays,

So clear transparent that they dim my sight!

No: veil them not; for then my grief displays;

And Hope doth fail, when your eyes hide their light. Sweet, cruel, mild, fierce, smiling, full with tears, Love finds sufficient to increase my grief;

None giving hope, but all augmenting fears,

Briefly, all these do take away my life.

Sweet, hide yourself, lest your fair sight dismay me;
Nay; hide you not! your absence sure will slay me!"

A poet not recorded by Ritson.

Harl. MSS. 6910, f. 152.

ON AMBITION.

AMBITION with the eagle loves to build,

And on the mountains dreads no winter blast, But with self-soothing doth the humour gild, With arguments correcting what is past; Fore-casting kingdoms, dangers unforecast; Leaving this poor word of CONTENT to such, Whose earthly spirits have not this fiery touch.

But pleasures never dine but on excess,
Whose diet, made to draw on all delight,
And overcome in that sweet drunkenness,

His appetite maintained by his sight,

Strengtheneth Desire, but ever weakeneth Might.
Until this ulcer ripening to an head,
Vomits the poison which it nourished.a

ON LIFE.

Ан, Life, sweet drop, drown'd in a sea of sours,
A flying good, posting to doubtful end;
Still loving months and years to gain new hours;
Fain time to have and spare, yet forc'd to spend;

Harl. MSS. 6910, f. 127.

The growth, decrease, a moment all thou hast;
That gone, are known; the rest to come or past.

Ah, Life, the maze of countless straying ways,
Open to erring steps, and strew'd with baits,
To wind weak senses into endless strays,
Aloof from Virtue's rough unbeaten straits;
A flower, a play, a blast, a shade, a drain;
A living death, a never-turning stream."

MELICERTUS'S MADRIGAL.

From "Robert Greene's Arcadia."

WHAT are my sheep without their wonted food?
What is my life except I gain my love?

My sheep consume and faint for want of blood;
My life is lost unless I grace approve:

No flower that sapless thrives,

No turtle without fear,

The day without the sun doth lour for woe.
Then woe mine eyes, unless thy beauty see
My sun Samela's eyes by whom I know,
Wherein delight consists, where pleasures be!
a Harl. MSS. 6910, f. 127.