Page 92-'Come, worthy Greek! Ulysses, come.' Homer, Odyssey xii. 184. Δεῦρ' ἄγ' ἰὼν πολύαιν' Οδυσεύ, μέγα κύδος Αχαιῶν . . . It is to be observed particularly with what ease this song of 'well-languaged Daniel' runs upon the tongue. Such ease would be remarkable in a lyric of mere emotion or ecstasy: it is wonderful in lines that discuss a question of high morality. E.g.: 'But natures of the noblest frame And with the thought of actions past When Pleasure leaves a touch at last To show that it was ill.' CIII Page 104-'The Nightingale, as soon as April bringeth.' From the poems appended to Sidney's Arcadia, ed. 1598. Also in England's Helicon. Philomela. The legends differ, making now Philomela, now Procne (the swallow), to suffer Tereus' violence. CIV Page 105-As it fell upon a day.' For an extended and weaker form of this little poem see the Sonnets to Sundry Notes of Music, appended to The Passionate Pilgrim, 1599, 'by W. Shakespeare. At London: Printed for W. Jaggard, and are to be sold by W. Leake, at the Greyhound in Paule's Churchyard.' But in this little book of thirty leaves, 16mo, even Marlowe's 'Come live with me and be my love' is audaciously claimed for Shakespeare. In the third edition of The Passionate Pilgrim, Shakespeare's name was cut out of the title-page, possibly at his own request. The present poem was 'conveyed' out of Poems in divers Humours, appended to The Encomion of Lady Pecunia: or the praise of Money, the last book of verses written by R. Barnefield, or Barnfield, who was born in 1574, the eldest son of a Shropshire country gentleman; was educated at B. N. C., Oxford; and died at Dorlestone, Staffordshire, in 1627. On leaving Oxford he came to London, consorted with the poets there, and himself published at least one immortal lyric; but his Muse was silent after his twenty-fifth year, when he went back to live the life of a country gentleman and no doubt to remember Clements Inn and 'the chimes at midnight,' in his Staffordshire home. As it fell upon a day' was also included in England's Helicon. Page 105, line 14-Tereu, Tereu! For the meaning of this cry see the poem preceding. Pandion was Philomela's father. CV Page 106-'While that the sun with his beams hot.' The author of these delicate and simple-hearted lines cannot be discovered. They appeared first in Songs of Sundry Natures, 1589, where they were set to music by William Byrd, a gentleman of the Chapel Royal, previously (1563-69) organist of Lincoln Cathedral, and one of the earliest of Elizabethan composers. It was copied 'Out of M. Bird's Set Songs' into England's Helicon. CVII Page 108-'The earth, late choked with showers.' From Scylla's Metamorphosis, 1589. Imitated from a poem of Philippe Desportes: 'La terre naguère glacée Est ores de vert tapissée, Les bois sont couverts de feuillage, Des oiseaux la troupe légère Je sanglotte, soupire et crie Par les plus solitaires lieux. Les oiseaux cherchent la verdure: Moi, je cherche une sépulture, Lodge was an admirer and imitator of Desportes, of whose poems he speaks, in 1589, as 'being for the most part Englished and ordinarily in every man's hands.' Cf. note on number CCXX., 'First shall the heavens want starry light.' CIX Page 109-' Little think'st thou, poor flower.' Having omitted the three concluding stanzas of Donne's poem, I now repent and add them in the notes: 'But thou, which lov'st to be Subtle to plague thyself, wilt say "Alas! if you must go, what's that to me? To Well, then, stay here: but know your heart?" When thou hast said and done thy most, A naked thinking heart, that makes no show, How shall she know my heart? Or, having none, Practice may make her know some other part, Meet me in London, then, Twenty days hence, and thou shalt see There to another friend, whom you shall find CXIV Page 113-'Clear had the day been from the dawn.' From The Muses Elysium, Nymphal vi. CXV Written Page 114- Like to the clear in highest sphere.' by Lodge on a voyage 'to the islands of Terceras and the Canaries.' This little poem-the gorgeous imagery of the Song of Songs set in finest Renaissance work-may be taken as a beautiful and striking illustration of the influence of Italian art upon English literature: an influence which began with Surrey and Wyatt, and was not finally superseded by French models until the Restoration of King Charles II. Page 114, line 1-the clear. The extreme, surrounding crystalline æther of the old cosmography. CXVIII Page 117-'One day I wrote her name upon the strand.' The lady of this sonnet-the Elizabeth whom Spenser married in Ireland on St. Barnabas' Day, 1594, and for whom he wrote his magnificent Epithalamion—was almost certainly Elizabeth Boyle, of Kilcoran by the Bay of Youghal, a kinswoman of the Great Earl of Cork. Dr. Grosart (Complete Works in Verse and Prose of Edmund Spenser, vol. i.) has discovered a grant, made in 1606 by Sir Richard Boyle to Elizabeth Boyle, alias Seckerstone, widow, of her house at Kilcoran for half-a-crown a year. Now it is known that Spenser's widow married one Roger Seckerstone in 1603; and it is, to say the least, unlikely that there were two Elizabeth Seckerstones (unusual name !) in the neighbourhood at the same time. Page 117, line 1-upon the Strand. The strand of Kilcoranthree miles long-is famous. CXXI Page 119-There is none, O, none but you.' From Light Conceits of Lovers: being the second part of Campion's Two Books of Airs (circ. 1613). But the lines are given by Dr. Hannah to Robert, Earl of Essex (Elizabeth's luckless favourite, and writer of CCCIII.), on the testimony of Aubrey's MSS., whence they were printed by Dr. Bliss, editor of Wood's Fasti.' CXXII Page 120-'Give place, you ladies, and begone!' appears among poems by 'Uncertain Authors' in Tottel's Miscellany, 1557 -the first English Anthology, where it bears the title given in our text. Ascribed to John Heywood (with title A Description of a Most Noble Lady') in a copy in the Harl. MSS., where two execrable stanzas are tagged on to adapt the poem to Queen Mary. CXXIII Page 122-You meaner beauties of the night.' From Rel. Wotton. Written upon the 'Queen of Hearts,' Elizabeth, daughter of James I. and wife of the Elector Palatine, who was unhappily chosen King of Bohemia, Sept. 19th, 1619. Sir Henry Wotton in that and the following year was employed on several embassies in Germany on behalf of this unhappy lady, whose reign in Prague lasted but one winter. The poem first appeared (with music), in 1624, in Michael Este's Sixt Set of Bookes, etc.: was afterwards printed in Wit's Recreations, 1640, in Wit's Interpreter, 1671, and in Songs and Fancies to Severall Musicall parts, both apt for Voices and Viols, Aberdeen, 1682. It also found its way, with variations, among Montrose's Poems; and Robert Chambers (ignorant of Wotton's claim to the authorship) printed it in his Scottish Songs as 'written by Darnley in praise of the beauty of Queen Mary before their marriage.' It has been a favourite mark for the second-rate imitator; and 'additional verses' are common. Page 123-There is a Lady sweet and kind.' From Thomas Ford's Music of Sundry Kinds, 1607, three stanzas being omitted. CXXXII Page 129-'There is a garden in her face.' From Campion's Fourth Book of Airs, (circ. 1617); but the poem occurs in Alison's Hour's Recreation, 1606, and Robert Jones's Ultimum Vale, 1608. CXXXIII Page 130-'My Love in her attire doth show her wit.' From Davison's Poetical Rhapsody, 1602. CXXXIV Page 130-'Still to be neat, still to be drest.' Imitated from the Basia of Johannes Bonefonius. See note on CXLVII.: this number should be compared with the three following, all by Herrick. CXXXVIII Page 133-For her gait, if she be walking.' First printed in Mr. Gordon Goodwin's edition of Browne's Poems in 'The Muses Library' (London: Lawrence & Bullen, 1894), from the MS. in the library of Salisbury Cathedral. CXXXIX Page 133-Love not me for comely grace.' From John Wilbye's Second Set of Madrigals, 1609. CXLII Page 136-Lady, when I behold the roses sprouting.' From John Wilbye's Madrigals, 1598. It is paraphrased from an Italian madrigal 'Quand' io miro le rose Ch' in voi natura pose Non so conoscer poi Se voi le rose, o sian le rose in voi.' CXLIII Page 136-Rose-cheek'd Laura, come.' From Campion's 'Observations in the Art of English Poesie. Wherein it is demonstratively prooued, and by example confirmed, that the English toong will receiue eight seuerall kinds of numbers, proper to it selfe, which are all in this booke set forth, and were neuer |