Grace and remembrance (17) be unto you both, And welcome to our fhearing. Pol. Shepherdess, (A fair one are you) well you fit our ages With flowers of winter. Nature and Art. Per. Sir, the year growing ancient, Not yet on fummer's death, nor on the birth Of trembling winter; the fairest flowers o' th' feafon Are our carnations, and ftreak'd gilly-flowers, Which fome call nature's baftards: of that kind Our ruftic garden's barren, and I care not To get flips of them. Pol. Wherefore, gentle maiden, Do you neglect them? Per. For I have heard it faid, There is an art, which in their piedness fhares Pol. Say there be : Yet nature is made better by no mean, But nature makes that mean: fo, over that art, Which you say adds to nature, is an art That nature makes; you fee, fweet maid, we marry A gentle fcyon to the wildeft ftock; And make conceive a bark of baser kind By bud of nobler race. This is an art Which does mend nature, change it rather; but The art itself is nature. Pol. Then make your garden rich in gilly-flowers, And do not call them baftards. A Garland (17) Grace and remembrance.] Rue was called Herb of Grace; Rosemary was the emblem of remembrance: it was ufually carried at funerals and anciently supposed to ftrengthen the memory; for which purpose it is prescribed in some old books of physic. J. and St. : Per. A Garland for middle-aged Men. -I'll not put The dibble in earth, to fet one flip of them; No more than, were I painted, I wou'd wish fore Defire to breed by me There's flowers for you; Hot lavender, mint, favoury, marjoram, A Garland for young Men. Cam. I fhould leave grazing, were I of your flock, And only live by gazing. Per. Out, alas! You'd be fo lean, that blafts of January Wou'd blow you through and through; now my faireft friend, I wou'd I had fome flowers o' the fpring, that might For (18) O, Proferpina, &c.] Milton ftrews the hearfe of his Lycidas with beautiful vernal flowers, not unlike those the pretty Perdita wishes for the garland of her lover. Purple all the ground with vernal flower: Bring the rathe primrose, that forfaken dies, The musk-rofe, and the well-attir'd woodbine, Bid For the flow'rs now, that, frighted, thou let'ft fall O, thefe I lack To make you garlands of, and, my fweet friend, Flo. What like a corfe? Per. No, like a bank, for love to lie and play on; Not like a corfe: or if; not to be bury'd, But quick, and in mine arms. Bid amaranthus all his beauty fhed, To ftrew the laureat hearfe where Lycid lies. A Lover's The reader will find a paffage, worth comparing with this of S. in As you like it, p. 27, the note. See alfo Ophelia's distribution of flowers in Hamlet. -Ut fumma veftem laxavit ab orâ, St. (20) Sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes.] I suspect that our author mistakes Juno for Pallas, who was the goddefs of blue eyes. Sweeter than an eye lid, is an odd image: but perhaps he ufes fweet in the general sense, for delightful. J. It was formerly the fashion to kifs the eyes, as a mark of extraordinary tenderness. I have fomewhere met with an account of the firft reception one of our kings gave to his new queen, where he is said to have kissed her fayre eyes. The eyes of Juno were as remarkable as thofe of Pallas. BOWTIS TOTVIα Hgn. Homer. St. A Lover's Commendation. What (21) you do, Still betters what is done; when you fpeak, (fweet) I'd have you buy and fell fo; fo, give alms; When you do dance, I wish you A wave o' the fea, that you might ever do And own no other function: each your doing, (22) Crowns what you 're doing in the prefent deeds, Honeft (21) What, &c.] So, a little further, one of the com pany fays, This is the prettieft low-born lafs, that ever And when it is faid afterwards, She dances featly-the old hepherd adds, So fhe does any thing. Ovid, that great master of love, well affured of the truth of this, that every thing done by the perfon we love is agreeable, thus makes his Sappho complain, in her epistle to Phaon. My mufic then you could for ever hear, And all my words were mufic to your ear; Then with each glance, each word, each motion fir'd, Pope. (22) Each your doing, &c.] That is, your manner in sach act crowns the act. 7.. Per. O Doricles, Honeft Wooing. Your praises are too large; but that your youth, You woo'd me the falfe way. Flo. I think you have As little skill to fear, (23) as I have purpose That never mean to part. They call him, Doricles: he boasts himself To have a worthy feeding: (24) but I have it Upon his own report, and I believe it; He looks like footh. He fays, he loves my daughter; I think fo too for never gaz'd the moon Upon the water, as he'll ftand and read, : As 'twere, my daughter's eyes and to be plain, Clown's (23) As little skill to fear.] To have skill to do a thing, was a phrase then in use equivalent to have reason to do a thing. W. Thefe paffages are in the true character of youth in the different fexes: fincerity on one fide and confidence on the other. Deceit and diffidence are the fruits of riper or more rotten years. Mrs. G. (24) Worthy feeding.] W. propofes breeding. But J. conceives feeding to be a pafture, and a worthy feeding to be a tract of pafturage, not inconfiderable, not unworthy my daughter's fortune." |