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HERRICK,

1591-1670 (?).

His first volume of poems appeared about the year 1647 with the title

of Noble Numbers, or Pious Pieces. Some of his most popular lyrics, Cherry Ripe, Gather the Rosebuds while ye may, To Daffodils, To Blossoms, have been set to music. Following, as has been pointed out, after the earlier poets, Suckling, Carew, Jonson, &c., the Comus and Arcades of Milton, he enjoyed the advantage of having the best models in that species of composition: yet he owes quite as much to his own natural genius. Herrick, or the Rev. Robert Herrick, to give him his full title, was the friend and boon companion of Ben Jonson, with whom he seems to have been accustomed to hold high revel; and his productions, if not quite so libertine as Carew's for example, are scarcely such as might be expected from one of the clerical profession. It may be remarked too that these Anacreontics were published by him at the ripe age of some fifty-five years. Ejected from his Devonshire incumbency by the Republicans, he was reinstated at the Restoration, and was living so late as the year 1670.

TO THE VIRGINS.

'O dass sie ewig grünen bliebe

Die schöne Zeit der jungen Liebe!'

GATHER the rosebuds, while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying,

And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,

The higher he's a getting,

The sooner will his race be run,

And nearer he's to setting.

That age is best which is the first, When youth and blood are warmer : But being spent, the worse, and worst Time shall succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry :
For having lost but once your prime,
You may for ever tarry.

CHALKHILL.

First half of the Seventeenth Century (?).

THE pastoral romance of Thealma and Clearchus, published by Isaak Walton in 1683, was, until comparatively recent times, ascribed to the author of the Complete Angler himself. Amongst other reasons against Walton's authorship the most conclusive seems to be, that the muse of that redoubted angler was scarcely equal to such a performance. We have no doubt, therefore,' says the writer in Chambers's Cyclopedia of English Literature, 'that Thealma is a genuine poem of the days of Charles I., or James I. The scene of the pastoral is laid in Arcadia, and the author, like the ancient poets, describes the golden age and all its charms, which were succeeded by an age of iron, on the introduction of ambition, avarice, and tyranny. The plot is complicated and obscure, and the characters are deficient in individuality. It must be read, like the Faery Queen, for its romantic descriptions, and its occasional felicity of language. The versification is that of the heroic couplet, varied, like Milton's Lycidas, by breaks and pauses in the middle of the line.'

THE VOTARESSES OF DIANA.

WITHIN a little silent grove hard by,
Upon a small ascent he might espy
A stately chapel, richly gilt without,
Beset with shady sycamores about :
And ever anon he might well hear
A sound of music steal in at his ear
As the wind gave it being :-
Would strike a siren mute.

-so sweet an air

A hundred virgins there he might espy
Prostrate before a marble deity,

Which, by its portraiture, appeared to be
The image of Diana :- -on their knee

They tendered their devotions: with sweet airs
Offering the incense of their praise and prayers.
Their garments all alike,—beneath their paps
Buckled together with a silver claps :

And cross their snowy silken robes, they wore
An azure scarf, with stars embroidered o'er.
Their hair in curious tresses was knit up,
Crowned with a silver crescent on the top.
A silver bow their left hand held; their right,
For their defence, held a sharp-headed flight,
Drawn from their 'broidered quiver, neatly tied
In silken cords, and fastened to their side.
Under their vestments, something short before,
White buskins, laced with ribanding, they wore.
It was a catching sight for a young eye,
That love had fired before :-he might espy
One whom the rest had sphere-like circled round,
Whose head was with a golden chaplet crowned.
He could not see her face, only his ear

Was blessed with the sweet words that came from her.

Clarinda came at last

With all her train, who, as along she passed
Through the inward court, did make a lane,
Opening their ranks, and closing them again
As she went forward, with obsequious gesture
Doing their reverence. Her upward vesture
Was of blue silk glistering with stars of gold,
Girt to her waist by serpents, that enfold

And wrap themselves together, so well wrought
And fashioned to the life, one would have thought
They had been real.*
Underneath she wore

* See the fascinating picture of the heroine in the Greek romance of Todorus.-Theagines and Chariclea,

A coat of silver tinsel, short before,

And fringed about with gold: white buskins hide
The naked of her leg; they were loose tied

With azure ribands, on whose knots were seen

Most costly gems, fit only for a queen.
Her hair bound up like to a coronet,
With diamonds, rubies, and rich sapphires set;
And on the top a silver crescent placed:
And all the lustre by such beauty graced,
As her reflection made them seem more fair.
One would have thought Diana's self were there;
For in her hand a silver bow she held,

And at her back there hung a quiver filled
With turtle-feathered arrows.

Thealma and Clearchus,

THE POET OF POETS.

A SWEETER Swan than ever sung in Po :
A shriller nightingale than ever blest
The prouder groves of self-admiring Rome.
Blithe was each valley, and each shepherd proud
While he did chant his rural minstrelsy.
Attentive was full many a dainty ear:
Nay, hearers hung upon his melting tongue,
While sweetly of the Faery Queen he sung;
While to the waters' fall he tuned her fame,
And in each book engraved Eliza's name.

K

Anon.

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