CONTENTS. ΙΟΙ ORIGINAL ADDRESS "TO THE READER," 1661. PRELUDE. Not dim and shadowy, like a world of dreams, Now,-while few questions of the fleeting hour We see Old England torn by civil wars, We see how those who raved for Liberty, So that with iron hand, with eagle eye, Well had he probed the hollow friends who stood Distrustful of him, though their tongues spoke praise; Well read their fears, that interposed delays To rob him of his meed for toil and blood. A few brief years of such uneasy strife, While foreign shores and ocean own his sway; Amid success, weary betimes of life. So passing, kingly in his soul, uncrown'd, With dark forebodings of th' approaching storm, He leaves the spoil at mercy of the swarm Of beasts unclean and vultures gathering round. For soon from grasp of Richard Cromwell slips Semblance of power he ne'er had strength to hold And wolves each other tear, who tore the fold, While lurid twilight mocks the State's eclipse. Then, from divided counsels, bitter snarls, Deceit and broken fealty, selfish aim— Where promptitude and courage win the game,— Self-scattered fall they; and up mounts KING CHARLES. ; June 1st, 1876. J. W. E. Charles.-"They say he is already in the forest of Arden, and a many merry men with him; and there they live like the old Robin Hood of England. They say many young gentlemen flock to him every day, and fleet the time carelessly, as they did in the golden world." (As You Like It, Act i. sc. 1.) § I. CHOYCE DROLLERY INHIBITED. E may be sure the memory of many a Cavalier went back to that sweetest of all Pastorals, Shakespeare's Comedy of "As You Like It," while he clutched to his breast the precious little volume of Choyce Drollery, Songs and Sonnets, which was newly published in the year 1656. He sought a covert amid the yellowing fronds of fern, in some old park that had not yet been wholly confiscated by the usurping Commonwealth; where, under the broad shadow of a beech-tree, with the squirrel |