CCCLIX LOVE LOVE bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back, But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning 'A guest,' I answer'd,' worthy to be here': Love said, 'You shall be he.' 'I, the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear, I cannot look on Thee.' Love took my hand and smiling did reply, 'Who made the eyes but I?' 'Truth, Lord; but I have marr'd them: let my shame Go where it doth deserve.' 'And know you not,' says Love, 'Who bore the blame?' 'My dear, then I will serve.' 'You must sit down,' says Love, and taste my meat.' So I did sit and eat. Geo. Herbert. SIR WALTER RALEIGH'S PILGRIMAGE 325 CCCLX SIR WALTER RALEIGH'S PILGRIMAGE GIVE me my scallop-shell of quiet, My scrip of joy, immortal diet, My bottle of salvation, My gown of glory, hope's true gage; Blood must be my body's balmer; No other balm will there be given; Whilst my soul, like quiet palmer, Travelleth towards the land of heaven; Over the silver mountains, Where spring the nectar fountains: There will I kiss The bowl of bliss; And drink mine everlasting fill Upon every milken hill. My soul will be a-dry before; Sir W. Raleigh. CCCLXI THE CONCLUSION EVEN Such is Time, that takes in trust But from this earth, this grave, this dust, Sir W. Raleigh. NOTES I Page 1, line 1-' Hark, hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings. Compare with the opening line Lyly's verse on p. 44: 'Who is 't now we hear? None but the lark so shrill and clear; and Davenant's 'The lark now leaves his watery nest And climbing shakes his dewy wings.. IV Page 3, line 1-'Phoebus, arise!' The text (except in the three concluding lines) is that of the Maitland Club reprint (1832) of the 1616 edition, the last published during Drummond's lifetime. The ending there given, however, 'The clouds bespangle with bright gold their blue: And everything, save her, who all should grace.' seems comparatively weak. Page 3, line 4-Memnon's mother is Aurora. It was by Penéus, in the vale of Tempe, that Phoebus met and loved Daphne, daughter of the river-god.-Ovid's Metaph., Lib. I. Page 4, line 12-When two thou did to Rome appear. Cf. Livy, xxviii. II (of the second Punic War, B.C. 206): In civitate tanto discrimine belli sollicita. multa prodigia nuntiabantur et Albae duos soles visos referebant.' A like phenomenon is mentioned again in xxxix. 14 (B. C. 204). Cf. also Pliny, Natural History, ii. 31. Thus translated by Philemon Holland: 'Over and besides, many Sunnes are seen at once, neither above nor beneath the bodie of the true Sunne indeed, but crosswise and overthwart : never neere, nor directly against the earthe, neither in the night season, but when the Sunne either riseth or setteth. Once they are reported to have been seene at noone day in Bosphorus, and continued from morne to even.' (This is from Aristotle, Meteor. iii. 2, 6.) 'Three Sunnes together our Auncitors in old time have often beheld, as namely, when Sp. Posthumius with Q. Mutius, Q. Martius with M. Porcius, M. Antonius with P. Dolabella, and Mar. Lepidus with L. Plancus were consuls. Yea, and we in our daies have seene the like, in the time of Cl. Cæsar of famous memorie, his consulship, together with Cornelius Orsitus his colleague. More than three we never to this day find to have been seene together.' Drummond's reference is perhaps to the famous instance itali cised. Page 4, line 19-These purple ports of death. Elsewhere Drummond speaks of the lips as those coral ports of bliss.' 'Lips, double port of love.' Ports = gates. Page 4, line 24-Night like a drunkard reels. 'And flecked darkness like a drunkard reels V Page 5-'Corydon, arise, my Corydon.' Professor This artless and beautiful song is from England's Helicon, where it is signed Ignoto. Like most pieces thus subscribed it has been attributed to Sir Walter Raleigh, but with no good reason. VI Page 7-'Get up, get up for shame! The blooming morn': line 2, the god unshorn: Imberbis Apollo. For a full account of the May-day customs alluded to in this glowing pastoral, consult Brand's Popular Antiquities, vol. i. pp. 212 sqq. VII From Page 10-'Is not thilke the merry month of May.' The Shepherd's Calendar: May. This is one of the few instances in which I have ventured to make a short extract from a long poem and present it as a separate lyric. IX Page 11-See where my Love a-maying goes.' From Francis Pilkington's First Set of Madrigals, 1614. XV Page 15-Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.' The advice is of course a commonplace of the poets; but Herrick's opening lines seem to be taken direct from Ausonius, 361, ll. 49 50: 'Collige, virgo, rosas, dum flos novus et nova pubes, Et memor esto aevum sic properare tuum.' |