HYMN TO DIANA. QUEEN, and huntress, chaste and fair, Now the sun is laid to sleep, State in wonted manner keep:* Earth, let not thy envious shade Heaven to clear when day did close: Lay thy bow of pearl apart, And thy crystal shining quiver; Give unto thy flying hart Space to breathe, how short soever: THE LOVER'S IDEAL. I freely may discover What would please me in my lover, Neither too easy nor too hard, *Come, but keep thy wonted state, MILTON.-Il Penseroso. She should be allowed her passions, WANTON CUPID. LOVE is blind, and a wanton; In the whole world, there is scant [one] No, not his mother. He hath plucked her doves and sparrows, While sick Venus waileth. WAKE! MUSIC AND WINE. WAKE, our mirth begins to die, Quicken it with tunes and wines Raise your notes; you're out: fy, fy! * The germ of this song may be traced to the following epigram of Martial: Qualem, Flacce, velim quæris, nolimve puellam, Nolo nimis facilem, dificilemve nimis : Illud quod medium est, atque inter utrumque probamus, Thus rendered by Elphinston : 'What a fair, my dear Flaccus, I like or dislike ? I approve not the dame, or too kind, or too coy; We banish him the quire of gods, Then all are men, For here's not one, but nods. THE FEAST OF THE SENSES. THEN, in a free and lofty strain, Running division on the panting air; As free from scandal as offence. VOLPONE; OR, THE FOX. 1605. FOOLS. FOOLS, they are the only nation Worth men's envy or admiration; Your fool he is your great man's darling, Tongue and babble are his treasure. Even his face begetteth laughter, And he speaks truth free from slaughter;* And sometimes the chiefest guest; * Reason here, observes one of Jonson's commentators, has been made to suffer for the rhyme, slander being the word apparently designed. Hath his trencher and his stool, COM LOVE WHILE WE CAN. OME, my Celia, let us prove, To be taken, to be seen, These have crimes accounted been.t THE QUEEN'S MASQUE. 1605. THE BIRTH OF LOVE. O beauty on the waters stood, When love had severed earth from flood; So when he parted air from fire, He did with concord all inspire; There is a Fool's Song in the Bird in a Cage of Shirley (see Shirley's songs in this volume) which seems to be formed upon this song. The leading idea of this song is taken from Catullus. It was a favourite theme with the old dramatists, and will be found treated in a variety of ways amongst their songs. And there a matter he then taught CUPIDS SHOOTING AT RANDOM. IF all these Cupids now were blind, As is their wanton brother, Or play should put it in their mind What pretty battle they would make, And each one wound his mother. EPICENE; OR, THE SILENT WOMAN. 1609. THE GRACE OF SIMPLICITY. STILL to be neat, still to be drest, Though art's hid causes are not found, All is not sweet, all is not sound. Give me a look, give me a face, Than all the adulteries of art; They strike mine eyes, but not my heart.* *This is one of the best known of Jonson's songs, and a remarkable illustration of the art with which he constructed these compositions. The first verse is an evident preparation for the skilful flattery and delightful sentiment of the second. Nothing less than the fascinating result to which it leads us could excuse its want of gallantry. |