MADRIGAL. My thoughts hold mortal strife, I do detest my life, And with lamenting cries Peace to my soul to bring, Oft call that prince, which here doth monarchize; Who caitiffs scorns, and doth the blest surprise, Against the window beats; then, brisk, alights And pecks, and starts, and wonders where he is; Attract his slender feet. Winter, 246. See likewise a stanza published by Mr. Mason, and originally intended by Gray to have been introduced into his Elegy: There scatter'd oft, the earliest of the year, By hands unseen are show'rs of violets found; .. grim-grinning king.] Milton, I believe, has been justly and universally considered as unrivalled, where he says of Death that he Grinn'd horribly a ghastly smile. I cannot resist the opportunity of setting before my readers a passage, which, though dissimilar in its subject, and inferior in its merit, yet eminently well expresses that mixture of contrary passions which is frequently sublime. I have always considered this instance as approaching nearer to the manner of Milton than any thing I have met met with in the whole course of my poetical reading. In the Masque of the Gods, introduced in the Argalus and Parthenia of Quarles, the goddess of the night is thus fancifully habited: her body was confin'd Within a coal-black mantle, thorough lin'd Late having deck'd with beauty's rose his tomb, Drummond, Edinb. 1711. Fol. With sable* furs; her tressés were of hue Hung, like a spider's web; her face did shroud She sternly shook her dewy locks, and brake B. III. p. 112. For this mixture of opposite passions, see Spence on the Odyssey, p. 77, a truly classical work, by no means so popular as it should be, and to which we may well apply what Dr. Johnson has asserted of Watts's Improvement of the Mind: "Whoever has the care of instructing others, may be charged with deficience in his duty, if this book is not recommended." See also Dr. Henry More's Mist. of God. liness, B. VI. Ch. v. who compares the pleasures of this life to the grinning laughter of Ghosts, &c. * Milton has arrayed night in sables : with him enthron'd Sat sable-vested night. P. Lost, II. 962. + Rory.] This word seems very undeservedly disused. Fairfax has it in his Tasso : And shook his wings with roary May-dews wet. 108 SONNETS. ΤΟ SIR WILLIAM ALEXANDER*. THOUGH DRUMMOND. The Sir W. Alexander to whom this sonnet is addressed was afterwards created Earl of Stirling. He wrote poetry, a list of which is given by Mr. Pinkerton, in his Ancient Scotish Poems, p. 121. He was a particular friend of our Drayton's, as should seem from the verses of the latter on Poets and Poesy. He there styles him, That man whose name I ever would have known To stand by mine, &c. There is a sensible little tract of his, entitled "A Censure of some Poets, Ancient and Modern," and addressed to Drummond of Hawthornden, his intimate friend, preserved in the Edinburgh edition of the latter, p. 159. TO DELIA. LOOK, Delia, how w' esteem the half-blown rose, No sooner spreads her glory in the air, But straight her wide-blown pomp comes to decline; * Daniel, Son. 36. summer's honour.] Honour is frequently used by our old poets for beauty. The Latins used honos in the same manner for pulchritudo. As in Horace: Non semper idem floribus est honos B. II. Od. ii. A VISION, UPON THIS CONCEIT OF THE FAIRY QUEEN. METHOUGHT I saw the grave where Laura lay, Within that temple where the vestal flame At whose approach, the soul of Petrarch wept, SIR W. RALEIGH. TO SLEEP*. SLEEP, silence' child, sweet father of soft rest, Sole comforter of minds with grief oppress'd. On this subject poets of all ages and nations have been very eloquent; suffice it to say, that Shakspeare, in his Henry the Fourth, Part II. Act III. Sc. i. has surpassed every thing that has hitherto ap |