Specimens of the British Poets ...

With green hath clad the hill, and eke the vale; The nightingale, with feathers new, she sings, The turtle to her mate hath told her tale. Summer is come: for every spray now springs. The hart hath hung his old head on the pale; The buck in brake his winter coat he flings, The fishes float, with new repaired scale; The adder all her slough away she flings; The swift swallow pursueth the flies small; The busy bee, her honey now she mings, Winter is gone, that was the flower's bale; And thus I see, among these pleasant things, Each care decays, and yet my sorrow springs!

GIVE place, ye lovers, here before

That spent your boasts and brags in vain;
My lady's beauty passeth more
The best of yours, I dare well saine,
Than doth the sun the candle light,
Or brightest day the darkest night.
Vol. I.

B

And thereto hath a truth as just,
As had Penelope the fair;
For what she saith, ye may it trust,
As it by writing sealed were.
And virtues hath she many moe
Than I with pen have skill to show.

I could rehearse, if that I would,
The whole effect of nature's plaint;
When she had lost the perfect mould,
The like to whom she could not paint.
With wringing hands how she did cry!
And what she said I know it, I:

I know she swore, with raging mind,
Her kingdom only set apart,
There was no loss by law of kind,
That could have gone so near her heart;
And this was chiefly all her pain,
She could not make the like again.

Sith Nature thus gave her the praise,
To be the chiefest work she wrought;
In faith, methinks, some better ways
On your behalf might well be sought,
Than to compare (as ye have done)
To match the candle with the sun.

SONNETS. FROM Tuscane came my Lady's worthy race ;

Fair Florence was sometime their ancient seat; The Western Isle, whose pleasant shore doth face Wild Camber's cliffs, did give her lively heat ; Fostered she was, with milk of Irish breast: Her Sire an earl, her Dame of princes' blood; From tender years in Britain she doth rest With King's child, where she tasteth costly food.

Libros