EDWARD DYER. Circa 1540-1607.

My mind to me a kingdom is;

Such present joys therein I find,
That it excels all other bliss

That earth affords or grows by kind:

Though much I want which most would have,

Yet still my mind forbids to crave.

MS. Rawl. 85, p. 17.3

Some have too much, yet still do crave;

I little have, and seek no more:

They are but poor, though much they have,
And I am rich with little store:

They poor, I rich; they beg, I give;

They lack, I have; they pine, I live.

BISHOP STILL (JOHN). 1543-1607.

I cannot eat but little meat,

My stomach is not good;

But sure I think that I can drink

Ibid.

With him that wears a hood.

Gammer Gurton's Needle.2

Act it.

1 There is a very similar but anonymous copy in the British Museum. Additional MS. 15225, p. 85. And there is an imitation in J. Sylvester's Works, p. 651.

HANNAH: Courtly Poets.

My mind to me a kingdom is ;

Such perfect joy therein I find,

As far exceeds all earthly bliss

That God and Nature hath assigned.

Though much I want that most would have,

Yet still my mind forbids to crave.

BYRD: Psalmes, Sonnets, etc. 1588.

My mind to me an empire is,

While grace affordeth health.

ROBERT SOUTHWELL (1560-1595): Loo Home.

Mens regnum bona possidet (A good mind possesses a kingdom). —

SENECA Thyestes, ii. 380.

2 Stated by Dyce to be from a MS. of older date than Gammer Gurton's Needle. See Skelton's Works (Dyce's ed.), vol. i. pp. vii-x, note.

STILL.

- STERNHOLD. · ROYDON.

23

Back and side go bare, go bare,
Both foot and hand go cold;

But, belly, God send thee good ale enough,

Whether it be new or old.

A sweet attractive kinde of grace,
A full assurance given by lookes,
Continuall comfort in a face

The lineaments of Gospell bookes.

An Elegie; or Friend's Passion for his Astrophill.1

Was never eie did see that face,

Was never eare did heare that tong,

Was never minde did minde his grace,

That ever thought the travell long;

But eies and eares and ev'ry thought

Were with his sweete perfections caught. Ibid.

1 This piece (ascribed to Spenser) was printed in The Phonix' Nest, 4to, 1593, where it is anonymous Todd has shown that it was written by Mathew Roydon.

SIR EDWARD COKE. 1549-1634.

The gladsome light of jurisprudence.

First Institute.

Reason is the life of the law; nay, the common law itself is nothing else but reason. The law, which is perfection of reason.1

Ibid.

For a man's house is his castle, et domus sua cuique tutissimum refugium.2 Third Institute. Page 162.

The house of every one is to him as his castle and fortress, as well for his defence against injury and vio lence as for his repose. Semayne's Case, 5 Rep. 91. They (corporations) cannot commit treason, nor be outlawed nor excommunicate, for they have no souls.

Case of Sutton's Hospital, 10 Rep. 32.
Magna Charta is such a fellow that he will have no
sovereign.
Debate in the Commons, May 17, 1628.

Six hours in sleep, in law's grave study six,
Four spend in prayer, the rest on Nature fix.3
Translation of lines quoted by Coke.

GEORGE PEELE. 1552-1598.

His golden locks time hath to silver turned;
O time too swift! O swiftness never ceasing!
His youth 'gainst time and age hath ever spurned,
But spurned in vain; youth waneth by encreasing.
Sonnet. Polyhymnia.

1 Let us consider the reason of the case.

For nothing is law that is not

reason. - SIR JOHN POWELL: Coggs vs. Bernard, 2 Ld. Raym. Rep. p. 911.

2 Pandects, lib. ii. tit. iv. De in Jus vocando.

8 Seven hours to law, to soothing slumber seven ;

Ten to the world allot, and all to heaven.

Sir WILLIAM JONES.

His helmet now shall make a hive for bees,
And lovers' songs be turned to holy psalms;
A man-at-arms must now serve on his knees,
And feed on prayers, which are old age's alms.
Sonnet. Polyhymnia.

My merry, merry, merry roundelay

Concludes with Cupid's curse:

They that do change old love for new,
Pray gods, they change for worse!

Cupid's Curse.

SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 1552-1618.

If all the world and love were young,
And truth in every shepherd's tongue,
These pretty pleasures might me move
To live with thee, and be thy love.

The Nymph's Reply to the Passionate Shepherd. Fain would I, but I dare not; I dare, and yet I may not; I may, although I care not, for pleasure when I play not.

Fain Would I

Passions are likened best to floods and streams:
The shallow murmur, but the deep are dumb.1

The Silent Lover.

Silence in love bewrays more woe
Than words, though ne'er so witty:
A beggar that is dumb, you know,

May challenge double pity.

Go, Soul, the body's guest,

Upon a thankless arrant:

Fear not to touch the best,

The truth shall be thy warrant:
Go, since I needs must die,
And give the world the lie.

Ibid

The Lie.

1 Altissima quæque flumina minimo sono labi (The deepest rivers flow with the least sound). —Q. CURTIUS, vii. 4. 13.

Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep. - SHAKESPEARE: 2 Henry VI. act iii. sc. í.

Methought I saw the grave where Laura lay.1

Verses to Edmund Spenser.

Cowards [may] fear to die; but courage stout,
Rather than live in snuff, will be put out.

On the snuff of a candle the night before he died.·
Remains, p. 258, ed. 1661.

Even such is time, that takes in trust
Our youth, our joys, our all we have,

And pays us but with age and dust;
Who in the dark and silent grave,
When we have wandered all our ways,
Shuts up the story of our days.

But from this earth, this grave, this dust,

My God shall raise me up, I trust!

Raleigh's

Written the night before his death. — Found in his
Bible in the Gate-house at Westminster.

Fain would I climb, yet fear I to fall.3

[History] hath triumphed over time, which besides it

nothing but eternity hath triumphed over.

Historie of the World. Preface.

O eloquent, just, and mightie Death! whom none could advise, thou hast perswaded; what none hath dared, thou hast done; and whom all the world hath flattered,

1 Methought I saw my late espoused saint. - MILTON: Sonnet xxiii. Methought I saw the footsteps of a throne. - WORDSWORTH: Sonnet.

2 If she be not so to me,

What care I how fair she be?

GEORGE WITHER: The Shepherd's Resolution.

8 Written in a glass window obvious to the Queen's eye. "Her Majesty, either espying or being shown it, did under-write, If thy heart fails thee, climb not at all.'"- FULLER: Worthies of England, vol. i. P. 419.