LI

From the Reliquiae Wottonianae. Dr. Hannah gives as the title of this poem "Upon the Sudden Restraint of the Earl of Somerset then falling from favour." It probably has reference to the fall of Somerset in 1615, but Park supposes, though on no good grounds, that it has reference to Bacon.

LII

The ordinary reading in the second line is “will serve Thee." I restore the rhyme.

LIII

From his Elegy on Sir Philip Sidney, printed in Todd's Spenser, vol. vi. pp. 82-96.

LV

From the Paradise of Dainty Devices. Appended to it are the initials M. T., which Percy who reprints it in his Reliques thinks may be the reversed initials of Thomas Marshall, whose initials are attached to another poem in the collection.

LVI

The author of this powerful poem, which was first printed in 1608 in the second edition of Davison's Poetical Rhapsody, cannot be ascertained with certainty. It has been commonly attributed to Sir Walter Raleigh, and is included by Birch in his edition of Raleigh's Works, and by Sir Egerton Brydges in his edition of Raleigh's Poems. It is attributed to Raleigh in a MS. poem in the Chetham Library at Manchester (8012, p. 107) undoubtedly written while Raleigh was still alive, and among the Ashmolean MSS. at Oxford are two poems, one purporting to be an answer to it, and the other a defence of it by Raleigh himself. The defence was probably not by Raleigh, but it is plain that the writer had no doubt that Raleigh was the author of the original poem. The presumptive evidence therefore in favour of Raleigh is strong. It has been assigned to Lord Essex, to Francis Davison, to Sir Edward Dyer, to Joshua Sylvester and to others, but on utterly

unsatisfactory grounds. For a full discussion of the question see Dr. Hannah's admirable edition of Poems by Sir Henry Wotton, Sir Walter Raleigh, and others, pp. 188-199.

LVIII

From Divine Meditations and Elegies, 1622. The pathos and beauty of this lyric far outweigh its imperfect rhymes and the singular grammatical solecism in the first stanza. Of its author nothing more is known than that he belonged to a good family, was baptized in February 1585, and that he is probably to be identified with Captain John Hagthorpe, who was serving in the navy between April and September 1626.

LIX

From Spectacles, 25, 27. Joshua Sylvester (1563-1618) is one of the few Elizabethan poets who deserves more attention than he has received from modern students.

LX

From Nosce Te-ipsum, a poem on the Immortality of the Soul, first published in 1599; one of the most eloquent and powerful philosophic poems in our language.

From Flowers of Zion.

LXI

LXII

From the History of Women, book iv. It is an epitaph on Ethelburga, Queen of the West Saxons.

William Alexander (1580-1640) created in June 1633 Earl of Stirling, was the author of a long and dreary poem on the Day of Judgment, some miscellaneous poems, and of four Monarchicke Tragedies: Cræsus, Darius, the Alexandrian

Tragedy and Julius Cæsar. The extract given is from Darius, which appeared in 1603. It has been supposed that Shakespeare had this passage in his mind when he wrote the superb verses in the Tempest, IV. i., " And like the baseless fabric," etc. Porson was fond of quoting Stirling's lines which he pronounced to be superior to Shakespeare's; but, stately and majestic though they are, few would agree with Porson. It may be added that Stirling afterwards greatly altered and spoilt the second stanza: see the version in his Collected Works, 1637. I give the passage as it appears in the quarto, 1603.

LXIX

This eloquent religious poet, a member of the Society of Jesus, was born about 1562, and was executed, a martyr to his faith, in February 1594-95. Well might Ben Jonson say (Conversations with Drummond) that had he written this piece he would have been content to destroy many of his own pieces.

LXX

Written by Donne in the severe illness which brought him to the point of death three years after he became Dean of St. Paul's. See Walton's Life.

LXXI

These verses were written by Sir Walter Raleigh on the night before his execution, and were found in his Bible.

LXXII

From the 42nd section of Stephen Hawes' Pastime of Pleasure, first printed in 1509. Of Hawes nothing more is known than that he was a native of Suffolk, and was Groom of the Privy Chamber to Henry VII. His poem on the whole is tedious, but it has much more merit than is commonly allowed, and historically it is of great importance. Both Sir Walter Scott and Longfellow have appropriated the last beautiful couplet of the extract given in the text, without however acknowledging their indebtedness to Hawes.

BOOK II

(1625-1700)

LXXIII

To his son Vincent on his birthday, November 1630, being then three years old. Corbet (1582-1635) was successively Bishop of Oxford and Norwich, and no more jovial Bishop ever adorned or astonished the Episcopal bench. The poems by which he is best known are his Faeries Farewell and his Iter Boreale, but Corbet had as little of the touch of the poet as Swift.

LXXIV

From Silex Scintillans, part i. In this beautiful poem is undoubtedly to be found the germ of Wordsworth's great Ode.

LXXV

Instead of selecting

From The Mistress of Philarete. from Wither poems which are now somewhat hackneyed, viz. the lyrics" Shall I wasting in despair," and "Hence away thou siren leave me," and the fine passage about the power of poetry in the Fourth Eclogue of the Shepherd's Hunting, I have chosen this which Charles Lamb marked as "of preeminent merit," a judgment in which every one must concur.

LXXVI

From the Miscellaneous Thoughts in his Remains, vol. i. Pp. 244, 245. I have connected the two fragments by omitting some verses which intervene. It is difficult to associate with the author of Hudibras sentiment so noble and refined

as these verses express. No critic, so far as I know, has

378

noticed that underlying the wit, worldliness, and cynicism of Butler was a fine, if thin, vein of poetic sensibility which peeps out timidly even in Hudibras.

LXXVII

From Hesperides. Herrick's best lyrics are among the commonplaces of every anthology, and are therefore excluded from this. If I cannot give his diamonds I have endeavoured to give two or three of his pearls.

From Castara.

LXXVIII

LXXIX

From Castara. Love has rarely found so pure and lofty a laureate as Habington. His Laura was Lucy Herbert. I have ventured to curtail this poem by the omission of the four stanzas which intervene in the original between the second and the last.

From Hesperides.

LXXX

This pretty poem is in rhythm an echo of the second song in Ben Jonson's Masque The Gipsies Metamorphosed.

LXXXI

William Cartwright, born, according to one account, in 1615, to another in 1611, passed most of his life at Oxford, as a lecturer and preacher, dying prematurely in 1643. His Comedies, Tragi-Comedies, and poems were published posthumously in 1651. Ben Jonson is reported to have said of him, "My son Cartwright writes all like a man," a compliment which Cartwright rewarded by an eloquent poem to Jonson's memory. As a lyrical poet he belongs to the Metaphysical School.

LXXXII

I have been told that this poem was a great favourite with Tennyson, who was fond of quoting the lines beginning "But at my back." He has himself borrowed from it.