Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

Did raise a child for her defence to shield her from

th' unjust.

And Daniel chosen was then of his wrong to

weet,

How, in what place, and eke with whom she did this crime commit.

He caused the Elders part the one from th' other's

sight,

And did examine one by one, and charg'd them both say right.

Under a mulberry tree it was ;' first said the one. The next named a pomegranate tree, whereby the truth was known.

Then Susan was discharg'd, and they condemn'd to die,

As right requir'd, and they deserv'd, that fram'd so foul a lie.

And He that her preserv'd, and lett them of their lust,

Hath me defended hitherto, and will do still I trust.

THE CONSTANT LOVER LAMENTETH.

INCE fortune's wrath envieth the wealth
Wherein I reigned, by the sight

Of that, that fed mine eyes by stealth
With sour, sweet, dread, and delight;

Let not my grief move you to moan,
For I will weep and wail alone.

Spite drave me into Boreas' reign,1
Where hoary frosts the fruits do bite,
When hills were spread, and every plain
With stormy winter's mantle white;
And yet, my dear, such was my heat,
When others froze, then did I sweat.

And now, though on the sun I drive,
Whose fervent flame all things decays;
His beams in brightness may not strive
With light of your sweet golden rays;
Nor from my breast this heat remove
The frozen thoughts, graven by Love.

Ne may the waves of the salt flood
Quench that your beauty set on fire;
For though mine eyes forbear the food,
That did relieve the hot desire;
Such as I was, such will I be ;

Your own; what would ye more of me?

Her anger drove me into a colder climate

A SONG WRITTEN BY THE EARL OF

SURREY,

OF A LADY THAT REFUSED TO DANCE WITH HIM.1

RACH beast can choose his fere according to his mind,

And eke can shew a friendly chere,

like to their beastly kind.

A Lion saw I late, as white as any snow, Which seemed well to lead the race, his port the same did show.

Upon the gentle beast to gaze it pleased me, For still me thought he seemed well of noble blood to be.

1 Dr. Nott's remark on this piece, "That it is valuable from the circumstance of its preserving an account of a quarrel between Surrey and the fair Geraldine, which, as we hear nothing of any reconciliation afterwards, was the occasion probably of his renouncing his ill-fated passion," is an amusing instance of first imagining a fact, and then making every circumstance support it. The learned editor, as in most other instances, assumes that Geraldine was the subject of the poem, without a shadow of evidence; and gratuitously gives it this title "Surrey renounces all affection for the fair Geraldine," whereas, in all the printed editions, it bears the title assigned to it in the text. There is no doubt that Surrey personated himself by the "White Lion," which was one of the badges (and not the arms, as Dr. Nott asserts) of the house of Howard, derived from their descent from the Mowbrays, Dukes of Norfolk. The word "pranceth" in line 7, alluded to the position "rampant" of the animal, and

And as he pranced before, still seeking for a make, As who would say, 'There is none here, I trow, will me forsake.'

I might perceive a Wolf as white as whalèsbone; A fairer beast of fresher hue, beheld I never none; Save that her looks were coy, and froward eke her grace:

Unto the which this gentle beast 'gan him advance apace.

And with a beck full low he bowed at her feet, In humble wise, as who would say, 'I am too far

unmeet.'

But such a scornful chere, wherewith she him rewarded!

Was never seen, I trow, the like, to such as well deserved.

With that she start aside well near a foot or twain, And unto him thus 'gan she say, with spite and

great disdain:

perhaps a playful reference was intended to Surrey's invitation to the lady to dance. But there is not any reason to presume that by the Wolf the fair Geraldine was intended, though it is almost certain that the family of the lady adverted to bore that animal on their standards, or in their arms. Dr. Nott has cited a MS. in the Museum to prove that the Fitzgeralds, Earls of Kildare, used a Wolf as their crest, but this is unsupported by any other authority, and Drayton, with more probability, says, that the lady meant by the "Wolf," was Ann, the daughter of Sir Edward Stanhope, who became the wife of the Protector Somerset. The Stanhope family once used a Wolf as their crest, in consequence of their descent from Maulovel, and a Wolf is still one of the supporters of the Earls of Chesterfield, Stanhope, and Harrington. See Collins' Peerage, ed. 1779, iii. 301, 302. It is proper to add, that the family of Arundell of Lanherne, in Cornwall, bore a white wolf as a badge.

'Lion,' she said, ' if thou hadst known my mind

before,

Thou hadst not spent thy travail thus, nor all thy pain for-lore.

Do way! I let thee weet,1 thou shalt not play with

me:

Go range about, where thou mayst find some meeter fere for thee.'

With that he beat his tail, his eyes began to flame; I might perceive his noble heart much moved by the same.

Yet saw I him refrain, and eke his wrath assuage, And unto her thus 'gan he say, when he was past

his rage:

'Cruel! you do me wrong, to set me thus so light; Without desert for my good will to shew me such despite.

How can ye thus intreat a Lion of the race, That with his paws a crowned king devoured in

the place.

Whose nature is to prey upon no simple food,
As long as he may suck the flesh, and drink of

noble blood.

3

If you be fair and fresh, am I not of your hue? 3 And for my vaunt I dare well say, my blood is not untrue.

I let thee know.

2 Apparently an allusion to the defeat and death of James the Fourth at Flodden Field, by Thomas, then Earl of Surrey, the Poet's grandfather.

3 Query, is it to be understood by this line that Surrey was related to the lady, or did he only mean that his lion was of the same hue as her wolf?

E

« AnteriorContinuar »