In Zeuxeses (with pensill far more fine),
So have our modern poets late done well,
Till thine appear'd (which scarce have paralel).
They like to Zeuxes grapes beguile the sense,
But thine do ravish the intelligence,

Like the rare banquet of Apelles, drawn,

And covered over with most curious lawn.

Thus if thy careles draughts are cal'd the best, What would thy lines have beene, had'st thou profest That faculty (infus'd) of poetry,

Which adds such honour unto thy chivalry?
Doubtles thy verse had all as far transcended
As Sydneyes Prose, who Poets once defended.
For when I read thy much renowned pen,
My fancy there finds out another Ben
In thy brave language, judgement, wit, and art,
Of every piece of thine, in every part:
Where thy seraphique Sydneyan fire is raised high
In valour, vertue, love, and loyalty.

Virgil was styl'd the loftiest of all,

Ovid the smoothest and most naturall;
Martiall concise and witty, quaint and pure.
Iuvenall grave and learned, though obscure.

But all these rare ones which I heere reherse,
Do live againe in Thee, and in thy Verse:

Although not in the language of their time,
Yet in a speech as copious and sublime.
The rare Apelles in thy picture wee
Perceive, and in thy soule Apollo see.

Wel may each Grace and Muse then crown thy praise
With Mars his banner and Minerva's bayes.

FRA. LENTON

TO HIS HONOURED AND INGENIOUS FRIEND
COLONEL RICHARD LOVELACE
ON HIS "LUCASTA"

NHAST as Creation meant us, and more bright
Then the first day in 's uneclipsed light,

Is thy Lucasta; and thou offerest heere
Lines to her name as undefil'd and cleere;
Such as the first indeed more happy dayes
(When vertue, wit, and learning wore the bayes
Now vice assumes) would to her memory give:
A Vestall flame that should for ever live,
Plac't in a christal temple, rear'd to be
The Embleme of her thoughts integrity;
And on the porch thy name insculpt, my friend,
Whose love, like to the flame, can know no end.

The marble step that to the alter brings
The hallowed priests with their clean offerings,
Shall hold their names that humbly craved to be
Votaries to th' shrine, and grateful friends to thee.
So shal we live (although our offrings prove
Meane to the world) for ever by thy love.

THO. RAWLINS

TO MY DEAR BROTHER

COLONEL RICHARD LOVELACE

LE doe my nothing too, and try
To dabble to thy memory.

Not that I offer to thy name
Encomiums of thy lasting fame.
Those by the landed have been writ:
Mine's but a yonger-brother wit;
A wit that's hudled up in scarres,
Borne like my rough selfe in the warres;
And as a Squire in the fight

Serves only to attend the Knight,

So 'tis my glory in this field,

Where others act, to beare thy shield.

DUDLEY LOVELACE, Capt.

DE DOMINO RICHARDO LOVELACIO ARMIGERO ET CHILIARCHA, VIRO INCOMPARABILI

E

CCE tibi, heröi claris natalibus orto;

Cujus honoratos Cantia vidit avos.

Cujus adhuc memorat rediviva Batavia patrem,
Inter et Herculeos enumerare solet.

Qui tua Grollaferox, laceratus vulnere multo,
Fulmineis vidit monia Pacta globis.
Et cum sæva tuas fudisset Iberia turmas,
Afflatu pyrii pulveris ictus obit.

Hæc sint magna: tamen major majoribus hic est,
Nititur et pennis altiùs ire novis.

Sermonem patrium callentem et murmura Celta, Non piguit linguas edidicisse duas.

Quicquid Roma vetus, vel quicquid Græcia jactat,
Musarum nutrix alma Calena dedit.

Gnaviter Hesperios compressit Marte cachinnos,
Devictasque dedit Cantaber ipse manus.
Non evitavit validos Dunkerka lacertos,
Non intercludens alta Lacuna vias,
Et scribenda gerens vivaci marmore digna,
Scribere Cæsareo more vel ipse potest.

Cui gladium Bellona dedit, calamumque Minerva,

Et geminæ Laurùs circuit umbra comam. Cujus si faciem spectes vultùsque decorem, Vix puer Idalius gratior ore fuit.

H

AD EUNDEM

ERRICO succede meo: dedit ille priora
Carmina, carminibus non meliora tuis.

ΠΕΡΙ ΤΟΥ ΑΥΤΟΥ

Λουλάκιος πολλαπλασίως φίλος ἐστὶν ἐμεῖο.
Τοὔνομά ἐστι φίλος, καὶ τὸ νόημα φίλος.
Καὶ φύλον ἀντιφυλῶ μεγάλοισιν ἀγάκλυτον ἔργοις
Τῆς ἀρετῆς χειρὸς καὶ φρενὸς ἀγχινόος.
Ὁς νέος ἐν τύτθαις πινυτῶς σελίδεσσιν ἔθηκε
Ποιητῶν ἕκαστον χρώματ' ἐπαγρόμενος.
Φρουρον Μουσάων, ποκινῶν ἐσσῆνα Μελισσών,
Ἐν Χαρίτεσσι χάριν, καὶ Μελέεσσι μέλι.

Scripsit Jo. HARMARUS

Oxoniensis, C. W. M.