See there the happy troups of purest sprights And now before-hand help to sing ON MR. GREENIIAM'S BOOK OF THE SABBATH. WHILE Greenham writeth on the Sabbath's rest, A thousand hands shall toss each page and line, ELEGY ON DR. WHITAKER'. BINDE ye my browes with mourning cyparisse, Those sadder shades vaile my light-loathing eie: If ever breath dissolv'd the world to teares, Or hollow cries made Heaven's vault resound: If ever shrikes were sounded out so cleare, That all the world's wast might heare around: Be mine the breath, the teares, the shrikes, the cries, Yet still my griefe unseene, unsounded lies. Thou flattering Sun, that ledst this loathed light, And wakst the westerne worldes amazed eies? Heare we no bird of day, or dawning morne, Now shall the wanton Devils daunce in rings 'King's professor, and master of St. John's College, Cambridge; he died in 1595. This Elegy was annexed to the Carmen Funebre Caroli Horni, 1596. N. Seldome had ever soule such entertaines, [crowne. There now he lives, and sees his Saviour's face, Meanwhile, the memorie of his mightie name Ay ming'd, ay mourn'd: and wished oft in wast. Is this to die, to live for evermore. A double life: that neither liv'd afore? THE LIFE OF WILLIAM ALEXANDER, EARL OF STIRLING. BY MR. CHALMERS. WILLIAM ALEXANDER, another of those men of genius who have anticipated the style of a more refined age, is said to have been a descendant of the ancient family of Macdonald. Alexander Macdonald, his ancestor, obtained from one of the earls of Argyle a grant of the lands of Menstrie in the county of Clackmanan; and our author's surname was taken from this ancestor's proper-name. He was born about the year 1580, and from his infancy exhibited proofs of genius, which his friends were desirous of improving by the best instruction which the age afforded. Travelling was at that time an essential branch of education, and Mr. Alexander had the advantage of being appointed tutor, or rather companion, to the earl of Argyle, who was then about to visit the continent. On his return to Scotland, he betook himself for some time to a retired life, and endeavoured to alleviate the sorrows of ill-requited love by writing those songs and sonnets which he entitled Aurora. Who his mistress was, we are not told; but it appears by these poems that he was smitten with her charms when he was only in his fifteenth year, and neither by study or travel could banish her from his affections. When all hope, however, was cut off by her marriage, he had at last recourse to the same remedy, and obtained the hand of Janet the daughter and heiress of sir William Erskine. Soon after his marriage, he attended the court of king James VI, as a private gentleman, but not without being distinguished as a man of learning and personal accomplishments, and particularly noticed as a poet by his majesty, who, with all his failings, had allowable pretensions to the discernment, as well as the liberality, of a patron of letters. James was fond of flattery, and had no reason to complain that his courtiers stinted him in that article; yet Mr. Alexander chose at this time to employ his pen on subjects that were new in the palaces of kings. Having studied the ancient moralists and philosophers, he descanted on the vanity of grandeur, the value of truth, the abuse of power, and the burthen of riches. Against all that has ever been objected to courts and ministers, to minions and flatterers, he advised and remonstrated |