"Choice nymph! the crown of chaste Diana's train, "Upon her forehead love his trophies fits, Upon her brows lies his bent ebon bow, And ready shafts: deadly those weapons show: Yet sweet that death appear'd, lovely that deadly blow.2 FROM THE "MISCELLANIES." AGAINST A RICH MAN DESPISING POVERTY. If well thou view'st us with no squinted eye, Our ends and births alike; in this, as I, My little fills my little wishing mind, * * Whatever man possesses, God has lent; * To reckon how, and where, and when he spent ; The more thou hast, thy debt still grows the more. But seeing God himself descended down, To enrich the poor by his rich poverty; His meat, his house, his grave, were not his own; Let me be like my head whom I adore! Be thou great, wealthy-I still base and poor! 1 Thy incomparable beauties throw all perfection into the shade. * Compare Parthenia with Spencer's Belphabe.-See p. 62. FROM CHRIST'S VICTORY AND TRIUMPH. A HYMN. Drop, drop, slow tears, and bathe those beauteous feet, To cry for vengeance sin doth never cease. In your deep floods drown all my faults and fears; FROM "CHRIST'S VICTORY AND TRIUMPH." Upon two stony tables, spread before her, Where good, and bad, and life, and death, were painted: But when that scroll was read, with thousand terrors fainted. Witness the thunder that mount Sinai heard, On this dread Justice, she, the living law, All Heaven, to hear her speech, did into silence draw. "Dread Lord of Spirits, well thou didst devise To fling the world's rude dunghill and the dross Of the old chaos, farthest from the skies And thine own seat, that here the child of loss, Of all the lower heaven the curse and cross, That wretch, beast, captive, monster, man, might spend Clodded in lumps of clay, his weary life to end. "His body, dust-where grew such cause of pride? That his own soul would her own murder wreak,2 And if all fail'd, these stones would into clamours break.3 149 1 Reckoning; from the custom of chalking a line or score for each item of debt incurred. Allusions to this are innumerable-"Here's no scoring but upon the pate," says Falstaff in the battle of Shrewsbury, with a rueful remembrance of the less destructive scoring of tavern bills. 2 Insisted upon working her own murder. 3 Luke xix. 40. "How many darts made furrows in his side, He fled thy sight, himself of light bereaved; "And well he might delude those eyes that see, And judge by colours; for whoever saw A man of leaves, a reasonable tree? But those that from this stock their life did draw, Proclaimed trees almighty: gods of wood, Of stocks and stones, with crowns of laurel stood, Templed, and fed by fathers with their children's blood. "The sparkling fanes, that burn in beaten gold, Yet these are all their gods, to whom they vie "The fire, the wind, the sea, the Sun, and Moon, Of the world's city, in their heavenly bowers; And, lest their pleasant gods should want delight And but in Heaven proud Juno's peacocks3 scorn to light. "The senseless earth, the serpent, dog, and cat; And drunk with the vine's purple blood; and then Because he only yet remain'd to be Worse than the worst of men; they flee from thee, And wear his altar stones out with their pliant knee. 1 Deified their ancestor. Venus; the foam-born, so called from the fable that she rose from the sea near the island of Cythera. The peacock was the bird of Juno; the cagle, of Jove; the dove of Venus. FROM CHRIST'S VICTORY AND TRIUMPH. 151 "Who makes the sources of the silver fountains That should have most sense, only senseless be, "Were he not wilder than the savage beast, If reason would not, sense would soon reprove him, To see cold floods, wild beasts, dull stocks, hard stones out-love him. "Under the weight of sin the earth did fall, The five proud kings, that for their idols fought, The Sun itself stood still to fight it out, And fire from Heaven flew down, when sin to Heaven did shout.* PHILIP MASSINGER. (1584-1640.) PHILIP, the son of Arthur Massinger, a gentleman in the service of the Earl of Pembroke, was born at Salisbury in 1584. After receiving his early training in Wiltshire, he went up to Oxford, where for a time he was kept at the charge of Lord Pembroke. He left the university at twenty-two, and repaired to London, where he devoted his life to the cause of the drama, and became a fellow-worker with Shakespeare, Johnson, and Fletcher. Although his plays attracted much attention, he appears to have lived in great poverty. Mental toil and poor living undermined his health. He was found dead in his house at Bankside. His body was attended by the comedians of London to the churchyard of St. Saviour's, where the interment is registered, "March 20, 1640; 1 Compare Job xxxviii. et seq. 2 Unintelligent like a beast. 4 "Dathan."-Num. xvi. 27-33. still."-Josh. x. 11, 13. "Fire came Aweful, reverential; full of the fear of God. "Stony shower."-Josh. x. II. "Sun stood down."-2 Kings xviii. 26-40. buried Philip Massinger, a stranger." His chief works are "The Unnatural Combat," ," "The Duke of Milan," "The Great Duke of Florence," and "A New Way to Pay Old Debts." Less pathetic and less imaginative than most of the secondary dramatists, he is more melodious than them all. His comedies are deficient in humour, but contain many accurate and interesting sketches of life. FROM "A NEW WAY TO PAY OLD Debts." Lovell. Are you not frighted with the imprecations By your sinister practices? Over-reach. Yes, as rocks are, When foaming billows split themselves against When wolves, with hunger pined, howl at her brightness, I am of a stolid temper, and like these, Steer on, a constant course, with mine own sword. If called into the field, I can make that right, "Right Honourable ;" and 'tis a powerful charm Or the least sting of conscience. Lovell. I admire The toughness of your nature! WILLIAM DRUMMOND. (1585-1649.) "DRUMMOND, the first Scotch poet who wrote well in English, was born at Hawthornden" (Southey), near Edinburgh. His father, Sir John Drummond, held a situation about the person of James VI. The poet in his youth studied law, but relinquishing that profession, he retired to a life of ease and literature on his beautiful patrimonial estate. His happiness was suddenly interrupted by the death of a lady to whom |