My love is full of noble pride; To let that fop, Discretion, ride False friends I have, as well as you, Who daily counsel me Fame and ambition to pursue, But when the least regard I show MAY the ambitious ever find Success in crowds and noise, While gentle love doth fill my mind With silent real joys! Let knaves and fools grow rich and great, Let conquering kings new triumphs raise, And melt in court delights: Her eyes can give much brighter days! Her arms, much softer nights! SIR CHARLES SEDLEY. 1670. This gentleman held too distinguished a rank in the witty though dissipated court of Charles II. to be forgotten in a work dedicated to elegance and beauty. Sedley was born about 1639, of a very respectable family. His abilities, which were not only shining but solid, might, with proper application, have rendered him an eminent statesman. He died in 1701. Sedley seems hardly to have merited, as a man of genius, the eulogium of his friend Rochester "SEDLEY has that prevailing, gentle art, PHILLIS, let's shun the common fate, If from this height our kindness fall, JOHN WILMOT, EARL OF ROCHESTER. 1674. It is not too much to assert, that the character of this nobleman has never been fairly appreciated. Originally a man of virtue as well as talents, he appears to have degenerated from this rank principally by too early an association with the witty, the dissolute, and the profligate; a circumstance that he deeply deplored in his dying moments, when the pleasures to which he had once abandoned himself could no longer seduce his reflection. The following lines, addressed by him to Charles II. from Wadham College in Oxford, when he was only thirteen years old, would be honourable to the head and heart of any writer. "Whilst England grows one Camp And loyal Kent renews her arts again, Fencing her ways with moving groves of men ; These verses do credit not only to the loyalty of the writer, they speak the virtuous affection with which he reflected on the memory of his illustrious father, who had engaged with zeal in the cause of Charles I. and to whom the son of that unfortunate monarch was indebted for the preservation of his life, and the subsequent enjoyment of the throne. Rochester died on July 26, 1680, before he had completed his thirty-fourth year, having by that time entirely destroyed a constitution naturally excellent. His Lordship was born at Ditchley, near Woodstock, Oxfordshire, April 10, 1647. My dear Mistress has a heart - Soft as those kind looks she gave me, When with love's resistless dart, And her eyes, she did enslave me : But her constancy's so weak, She's so wild and apt to wander, That my jealous heart would break, Should we live one day asunder. Melting joys about her move, Killing pleasures, wounding blisses; She can dress her eyes in love, And her lips can warm with kisses. Angels listen if she speak, She's my delight, all mankind's wonder: But my jealous heart would break, Should we live one day asunder. ALL my past life is mine no more, The time that is to come, is not; Then talk not of inconstancy, If I, by miracle, can be This live-long minute true to thee, 'Tis all that heaven allows. |