C-33 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY PniNTCOINU.S A. Cornell University Library PR1195.E6C33 English epithalamies, Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013293331 The Bodley Mead Anthologies EDITED BY R. H. CASE ENGLISH EPITHALAMIES THE BODLEY HEAD ANTHOLOGIES .^ English Epithalamies l^y Robert H. Case Musa Piscatrix By John Buchan IN PREPARA TION English Elegies By John Bailey English Satires By Charles Hill Dick ENGLISH EPITHALAMIES by Robert. H.Case ) 'CHICAOO; A CMcClUtg^ A. \^o\^'^ \ Sluid si me jubeas Tkalassionem Verbis dicere non Thalassionis ? Martial. INDEX PACB Introduction vii A. List of Omitted Epithalamia written BEFORE 1700 liii B, List of Epithalamia published since 1700 Ivi Anonymous . 25, 39, 100, 169, 172, 186, 186, 187, 188 AusoNlus, Part of the Cento of, imitated in English Verse 172 Baron, Robert 14S Beaumont and Fletcher 38 ,, Francis ...'.... 65 „ Sir John 94. 95 Braithwaite, Richard 86 Brooke, Christopher 83 Campion, Thomas 31 Carew, Thomas 135. 136 Cartwright, William 126, 144 Catullus, An Epittialamium from .... 169 Chapman, George 23,40,81 D'Avbnant, Sir William 162 Dbkker, Thomas, etc xxxii, 24 Donne, John 48, 74, 77 Dowland, John, Edited by 39 Drayton, Michael 114' Dryden, John 166, 166 D'Urfey's, Thomas, [From] "Wit and Mirth; or. Pills to Purge Melancholy" . . 186,186,187,188 Ford, John 117 Fletcher, John 93 .. (?) 37 ,, Phineas 123 Gil Polo, Caspar 4 Glapthorne, Henry 1 39. 140 V vi INDEX PAGE GooDERE, Sir Henry S' Gould, Robert 176 Herrick, Robert . . .88, 103, 107, 140, 141, 142 Heywood, Thomas 421 44 Howell, James I5S JONSON, Ben 27, 34, 117 Jordan, Thomas iS° Marvell, Andrew 158 Nabbes, Thomas i37> 138 Ogle, George 189 Peacham, Henry 54 Quarles, Francis no Randolph, Thomas .... xxxviii, 127, 129, 133 Roxburghe Ballads 25 RuTTER, Joseph 134 Secundus, Joannes 189 Seneca, L. Ann^eus 151 Shakespeare, William (?) 37 Sheppard, Samuel (?) 154 Sherburne, Sir Edward 151 Shirley, James 146, 147, 148 Sidney, Sir Philip i Spenser, Edmund 6, 17 Sylvester, Joshua 97 Theocritus 166 Vaughan, Henry , 149 Wither, George 67 Wit Restored 100 Young, Bartholomew 4 Appendix : "The maner of rejoyfings at manages and weddings," from " The Arte of English Poesie,'' 1589 195 . INTRODUCTION The aim of the present volume is to bring together, for the first time, the Epithalamia or nuptial songs of the Elizabethans and their successors. Lyrical far the most part, they constitute an important section of this branch of our poetry ; and their frequently sustained fights, and repeated instance of beautiful and skilfully constructed stanza, mark them out for study in connection with its development. Nor do I see anything against such a concentration of Hymeneal sweets, in the fact that the freedom of allusion provoked by their occasions cannot be wholly ascribed to contemporary rfianners. Individual temperameKt played its part here as it must in all things ; but clearly as the following pages will evidence this, the counter proposition is true so far, that these poems, being complimentary and, in most cases, specially occasioned, could not exceed the limits of good manners as understood at the time of their compositions for wMch reason, they are not the spon- taneous outcome of lewd wit, as may be said of certain ■■ miscellanies, reprinted in all good faith by scholars for the use of scholars, but perverted by the sly annotation of booksellers' catalogues to the undue profit of the vendor and the gratification of readers whose least concern is Literature or its history. If, indeed, apology be needed viii INTRODUCTION for that frank recognition of fact which led to the non- exemption of the highest from allusions such as may be met with in many of the Epithalamia here reprinted, may it be permitted to refer the reader to Mr Coventry Patmore's instructive remarks on "Ancient and Modem ideas of Purity" : see the Essay No. XV. of " Religio Poetae, 8;c." 1873. • The term Epithalamium, originally used to denote the song at the bridal chamber as distinguished from those sung during the wedding procession or at the feast, has long been attached to every kind of nuptial poem, provided it be supposed to precede or even immediately succeed the nuptial night, and concludes with a few good wishes more or less allusive to the occasion. The present collection is meant to include nearly all English poems so styled hj their authors, or that may plausibly he classed as such — whether brief songs or longer poems, whether original or translated — to the close of the seventeenth century, with a few admissions from the early years of the eighteenth. Others, down to the present day, so far as known to me, are indicated at the end of this Introduction. Narrative poems, such as Suckling's delightful "Ballad of a Wedding," and its imitation by Cleveland ffj, or Braith- waite's "Shepherds Holyday" are, of course, inadmis- sible, though excluded with regret that is quite unfelt in the case of the numerous " Odes " and " Poems " usually entitled " Upon the Marriage," etc., which are mostly merely congratulatory and not particularly referred to the bridal day, though some of them are here and there inaccurately described as Epithalamia. For the place which the Epithalamium held among the INTRODUCTION ix many ceremonies, varying mth time and locality, with which marriage was associated hy the Greeks and Latins, the reader may turn to the Appendix to this volume, com- prising a quaint chapter on " 2'he maner of rejoysings at mariages and weddings" from George Putten- ' ham's (?) " Arte of English Poesie," 1589. Many of ' the ceremonies themselves are referred to in our English Epithalamies, and the\j are delightfully ilhistrated by Chapman in his continuation of Marlowe's "Hero and ■ Leander," wliere, in the fifth sestiad, Teras tells the tale • of Hymen's nuptials and sings the song hereinafter printed. More exact and scientific accounts will be found in the standard dictionaries of antiquities, and in earlier compilations such as Gronovii " Thesaurus Graecanim Antiquitatum," and Graevii " Thes. Antiq. Romanorum," Vol. viii. in each case. The following exceipt from Lucan is interesting in this connection, as indicating by negation the customs that prevailed in his day. I quote it from the rendering of Spenser's friend, Sir Arthur Gorges, and conceive it to • show the elegance and metrical ability of this forgotten writer, the Alcyon of " Colin Clout's Come Home Again " : — " ^11 Ceremonies they forbeare ; Ofdy the Gods their luitnesse nueare. 'The Parch nuith Garlands ivas not dight. The Pillars luant silke-ribbone ivhiie, No Tapers lent a flaming light: r No stately steps of I'vory Joynd to the bed nukere they should lye : The Curtens and the Couerlets No gold embrodery besets -. X INTRODUCTION No matron there, luitk crovjne of state. To guard the bride till it luere late. From companing her spoused mate : No 'vaile oflawne did hide or grace Her modest lookes and bashfullface : Her mantle that did loosely flye. No fair e imbossed belt did tye : Rich Carkanets her necke had none. Set out ntiith pearle, and pretious stone ; But from her shoulders there did traile T)o--wne to her nuaste a simple •vaile. No melody nor musickei 'voyce Hid 'with these nuptials rejoyce : Nor suiting ivith the Sabines trade. No solemne feasts at all nuere madeT Lucatis " Pharsalia^ Bk. ii., i6*^. 3 i * Greek Literature unhappily retains mily the merest fragments of early wedding songs. They are almost all derived from a lost hook of Epithatamia by Sappho " (area 610 B.C. J, and are eloquent of her genius in such " lines as these : — riitrnpe, rrdvTa giipuv, oea of Theocritus, is smnetimes termed an Epithalamium : it is so styled in Fawkes' translation, for which see Anderson's " British Poets" Vol. xiii. The order of time brings us now to Catullus (86-54- B.c.^, whose Epithalamia are clearly imitated from Greek models. Mr Eobinson Ellis has some interesting remarks upon these poems in his "Commentary on Catullus," sec- tions Ixi. and Ixii. ; and after comparison with the frag- ments of Sappho's Epithalamia, cotyectures that Catullus probably drew from the entire poems " many of the ideas which give such a charm to his work." He observes, further, that Catullus either initialed or followed the * " Studies of the Greek Poets" 1893, third edition, chap. 10, page 283. xii INTRODUCTION fashion of his day in composing Epithalamia, and refers to the lost examples of Calvus and Ticida, quoted by The translations of Br Nott (1795) and Mr Ellis — the latter in the origiTial metres — are accessible, and, if I mistake not, the reader will agree with me in commending the ammymous version of the " Carmen Nuptiale " (see p. 169) unearthed from a miscellany dated 1701. From the "Carmen Nuptiale" also, Ben Jonson transferred to his masque, " The Barriers," the exquisite contention of the youths and maidens for and against virginity, putting their arguments in the mouths of Opinion and Truth respectively. It is not unusual to find the " De nuptiis Pelei et Thetidos" of Catullus referred to as an Epithalamium, a name properly applied to the beautiful song of the Parcae which it contains. Probably, though itself really a narrative poem of a supposed event in the distant past, the work was not without influence on the development we shall shortly be concerned with. The Epithalamium which forms the first chorus of the "Medea" of Seneca (circa Jfi a.v.), and of which I have given Sir Edward Sherburne's translation, narrowly . eicaped affording the first example of its species in the English tongue; but John Studley, who translated the - play in 1566, preferred to replace this chorus by one of his own, "because in it he saw nothing hut an heape of prophane storyes, and names of prophane idoles." Hitherto we have been dealing with the Epithalamium as a genuine song ; and independently of imitations from the Greek, the Latins had their own indigenous marriage. INTRODUCTION xiii smigs (in which they cried upon ijglassi^* as the Greeks y I upon Hymerueus), and those wanton extempore songs de- ^f rived from the rude Fgscennina, or jesting verse dialogues in which the rustics used to jeer one another. They are referred toat the close of the " Medea " chorus. But with i^cdiu^ writing about a.d. 90, we encounter a liter- i* ary development of the Epithalamium, severed from song ; proper, in which it puts on the graces of heroic poetry, becoming a long narrative poem in hexameters ; and this method, which we meet with again in Claudian (circa ^00 K.TI.), had subsequently great attractions for the Latin poets of the Renaissance. The poem on pp. 69-66, which is in the main a translation from Claudian, will indicate the kind of framework which became conventional with writers of Latin verse of that later day, but fortu- nately never attracted vernacular poets to anything like the same extent; whence, happily, the possibility of gathering together our English Epithalamies mitliout sacrificing variety. The poem of Statius (" Ep. Stella et ViolantilUe," Silvce I. 2), and those of Claudian (" Ep. Palladii et Celerince" : "De nuptiis Honorii et Marite"), nevertheless have many beauties which our poets were not 'slow to appropriate ; and for the nuptials of Honorius, Claudian also wrote, in various measures, short .strains which he terms " Fescennina," though the last only has any savour of the name's associations. Its pretty exhortation to a * Probably the name of the God of Marriage ; but ancient writers seek to explain it as that of a fortunate bridegroom on the occasion of the Rape of the Sabines, and so of happy augury. See Plutarch, in the lives of Romulus and Pompeius. xiv INTRODUCTION timid bridegroom has been often imitated. Very beautiful, too, seem to me the following lines of Statins : — " Poxe, dulcis, suspiria 'vates Pone, tua est j licet expositum per limen aperto Ire redire gradu : jam nusquam jamtor, aut lex, Aut ptttbr : amplexu tandem satiare petita Conjugii, et duras pariter remimscere noctes^ * To the third to fifth centuries belong, apparently, the two or three Epithalamia and fragments printed in the " Anihologia veterum Lot. Epigrammatum et Poematum " (1759-73) of the younger Burmannus : they do not present any new features of significance. Wemsdorf afterwards reprinted them consecutively ("Poelae Lat. Minores," 1780-98, Vol. iv.J, mth a preface on and enumerating Epithalamia in general, not excluding even such distantly related poems as Coluthus' "Rape of Helen." Hence, one is surprised to find him complain- ing of J. C. Scaligerfor reckoning the " Cento Nuptialis " of Ausonius, who flourished in the fourth century of our era, among nuptial songs. The reader can judge from the translation in this volume whether he is correct in de- claring it to be without congratulation and praise, etc. of the couple, on which grorund, no less than its being mere patchwork from Vergil, he founds his objection. Another Vergilian cento, the work of Luxorius, who flourished in * Banish far ever, sweet poet, your sighs and lamenting: Put them away, she is thine ; for now no longer forbid thee Law, nor doorkeeper churlish, the to and fro of her threshold: Come and depart as thou wilt, nor furtive nor rosily shamefast. Now shall thou tell, yea, hearken of lonesome nights past enduring. Past enduring but peat, for the arms of thy love are about thee. INTRODUCTION xv Africa in the early part of the sixth century, occurs in the aforesaid anthology of Burmannus. To the close of the preceding century probably belongs the " De nuptiis Philologice et Mercurii " of the Carthaginian Martianus Capella, a prose fable intermingled with verse, which may be here mentioned. The Muses sing a kind of Hymeneal to Philology on her impending union with Mercury and exaltation to the skies. It is the latter consideration rather than nuptial Joys that occupies theit lays. There are, in addition, extant Epithalamia of this period by the Gaul, ApollirMris Sidonius. These are in the narrative style, and into one he has even in- truded a catalogue of the Greek philosophers and their tenets, a case paralleled in later days by the German, Joannes Bocerus (1525-65), who celebrates and criticises the poets of his nation, including the bridegroom, in a nuptial poem for his friend Schoffer. But of a totally different nature are the late Greek Epithalamia to be found in the " Appendix Anacreon- teorum" inBergk's "Poeta Lyrici Greed," fourth edition, , 1882, Vol. Hi., and ascribed to the sixth and tenth centuri). \ These are in lyric metres, and have very much the air of • being the extempore songs of professional minstrels. ' One of them, indeed, claims in its title to be an un- premeditated -production ; but without this support, the constant repetition, conventional phrases, and appeals to the co-celebrators of the wedding, would lead one to the same conclusion, as also the fact that poems of Leon Magister for separate marriages are simply different arrangements of identical phrases. The names of the xvi INTRODUCTION authors have been preserved : they are Joannes Gazceus, Leon Magister, and Georgius Grammaticus ; and their poems are not unpleasing to read, with their many epithets in praise of the bride, whom they bid crorvn with nectar- fragrant violets, and declare a marvel to all but stony hearts. A short marriage song by a Greek monic of the twelfth century, Theodorus Prodromus, was for a long time, owing to his ambiguous language about it, attributed to the so-called Anacreon, and printed among the odes. In the translation of Francis Fawkes, it appears as No. 60. (See Anderson's "British Poets," xiii.) A moderate sized volume would contain the extant nuptial poems of Antiquity, but when we come to the Latin literature of modem Europe it is another matter ; for, like their Satire and Pastoral, the Epithalamium of the ancients made a special appeal to modem poets as the Revival of Learning gathered strength. It was in the pontificate of Boniface IX. that the coming of the Greek ambassador, Manuel Chrysoloras, woke that enthusiizsm for the learning of the ancient world tliat resulted in its determined acquisition by the West. Chrysoloras re- turned by invitation in 1396 to profess Greek at Florence; and two years later was bom, at Tolentino, the scholar whose sojourn at Constantinople, and subsequent long career in Italy as teacher, poet, and rhetorician, mas to do so much for the Revival. Francesco Filelfo (1398-1.^1) does not appear, however, to have set the fashion of writing wedding songs, for the several " Epithalamials " enumerated by Mr Symonds ("Renaissance in Italy," second edition, (11, 278), in illustration of his rhetorical displays, were INTRODUCTION xvii prose orations conceived, with Christian additions, some- wliat according to the precepts of Dionysius Halicar- nassus, a historian and rhetorician temp. Augustus. To take as a type the " Epithalamion" delivered ai the marriage of Beatrice of Este and Tristano Sforza in lJi55, the orator discusses the origin of wedlock. Did Cecrops of Athens in truth devise it ? Nay, God in Paradise. Christ endured to he bom in wedlock, and showed His approval of nuptials at Cana. Then follows an exhortation to chastity and co-ordinate virtues and duties, illustrated by reference to the constancy of Pene- lope and by other exemplars; and then praise of the couple and their ancestry, particularly of Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan. The verse Epithalamium, however, rapidly became a favourite with the poets, and there are early examples by Gabriel Altilitts (d. H8^ {T), or about 1501) and Joannes Jovianus Pontamis (1J^6-1503). Altilitts sang, in hexameter verse, the marriage of Isabella of Aragon with the Duke of Milan : his poem is partly modelled upon that of Theocritus, of whom he has imitative passages, and is descriptive and very lengthy, which made Scaliger (""Poetics," Book vi.J sauce his praise with a biting reference to the perpetual hunger of Italians for talking. But of mare importance here are the examples of Pontanus, in whom I do not think we can mistake the master of Joannes Secundus, and originator of that bold treatment of the subject-matter of the Epithalamium, and use for its expression of the graceful hendecasyllabic metre favoured by Catullus, which aided the genius of Secundus to win the high xviii INTRODUCTION praise of Puttenkam (see Appendix, p. 198 J, whose "young nobleman of Germanie" he is. Of PoiUanus, a sympathetic account will be found on p. 363 and onward, and again in later passages of the work of Mr J. A. Symonds just referred to : he is described as "an original and vigorous thinker, a complete master of Latin scholarship, unwilling to abide conteTited with bare imitation, and bent upon expressing the facts of modem life, the actualities of personal emotion, in a style of accurate Latinity." The various qualities on which this encomium is based give him an exceptional place among the Latin poets of the early RenaissaTice. Pontanus, who loved to sing the nuptials of his daughters in genuine song, has left several graceful Epithalamia in elegiac verse; but I give here part ' of a briefer example in the hendecasyllabic metre afore' said. A comparison with the more easily accessible Latin of Secundus will at once show the resemblance of subject and phrase, not due merely to their recourse to common masters : NUTtllS JOAN. BRANCHAtl ET MARITELLAE. " Nunc qualis tibi sitfutura pugna "Branchate tucipias : nonius maritus S^uum lis, et ntyva quum tibi sit uxor. Intras quum thedamum quiete prima, Ne statim 'veuias ad arma dico ; Sed blandis precibus, jocisque blandis, Vertentes aditum, cachinnulisque. IMisce his oscula, nunc petita blande, Nutufurtim tibi rapta, nunc negata, Slute per •vim capias : nee erubescus tMox ad lacteoUu manum papittas Tractans iniicere, ac suhinde eeUo Impressum tenero notare dentem. INTRODUCTION xix Necnon et tunudum femur latusque Tractabis ni'veum, mamique levi Ad dulcem "Oenerem 'viam parabis : Nam dulcis Veneris manus ministra est. "Post blanda oseula, garrulasque 'voces, Dulceisque iUecebras, jocosque molles : Post tactus teneros, Icvesque rixas, Sluum sese ad cupidos resohiit ilia tAmplexus, simul et timet, cupitque. tunc lignum cane, tunc licebit arma totis expedias, amice, castris, Telum comminus hinc et inde elie, Italorum Poetarvm" i6q8. XX INTRODUCTION ades Hymencee." The poem is a beautiful one, and no servile copy of its model, though a transplanted line occasionally occurs. As learning spread across the Alps, the area to he considered extends, and among the first transalpines we encounter is Joannes Secundus, whose name has been already particularly mentioned (p. xviLJ. This remark- able poet was bom at the Hague in 1511, son of Nicolas Everardus (in Dutch, Klaas Everts), and is said to hdve early adopted the term "Secundus " to dis- tinguish himself from a paternal uncle of identical Christian name. In spite of the brevity of his life, which terminated in 1636, his genius saved him from the oblivion which has, as a rule, been the lot of the modem Latin poet, and his " Basia" and other love poems have always been admired and read. The study of the old poets of love, especially Catullus, Tibullus, and Propertius, gifted him with an armoury of soft and caressing phrases and diminutives, which he employs with great effect in the expression of endearment. His Epi- thalamium, taking, as I think, the cue from Pontanus, ventures on a liberty of plan and expression, in which it may he as well that he has seldom been followed. The English translation in this volume first appeared in a translation of the "Kisses" published by Lintot in 17S1; anonymously, hut really by George Ogle, a translator of mark (170Ji.-J!fi). It was reprinted as an addition to another translation of the "Basia" in 1775, and is exceedingly well done. Secundus found a disciple in Jean Bonnefons, bom at Clermont in Auvergne in 1554, fvhose similar poem. INTRODUCTION xxi "Pervigilium Veneris," Jonson praised to Drummond, and said he had imitated. Latin Epithalamia now became more than numerous, and I propose merely to refer to a few in a somewhat discursive fashion, and without following the strict order of time, as ilhistraiions of the general trend or of par- ticular interest, my aim being to enable the reader to contrast that trend with the bent of our English examples. yTke majority of poets who clung to the learned tongue continued to favour the storial scheme of Epithalamium, producing narrative-mythological, or politico-descriptive poems ; or were at least debarred from originality by studious repetition, in cramping mosaic, of the phrase of the classic poets. They seldom escaped from hexameters or elegiac verse to lighter measures, and convention and other causes painfully limited their range of subject-matte r. Y Speaking of the poet Gaspar Barlwus (158Ji.-16J!i8), Hallam tells us* that young Dutchmen usually purchased Epit/ialamia in hexameter verse when ' th^ married, and contemptuously adds : " These nuptial songs are of course about Peleus and Thetis or similar personages, interspersed with fitting praises of the bride and bridegroom. Such poetry is not likely to rise high." But the patient student is not always imremarded. Ben Jonson, in a note to the poem given on pp. 34-6, acknow- ledges with unwonted scruple a line from Daniel Heinsius (1680-1665), " Cras matri similis turn redibis " : com- pare his- fifth stanza, lin€s 5, 6 : and I imagine that the "In nuptias Joannis Milandri " of the same graceful poet ' Introdttction to Literature of Europe^' Part in, chap. 5. xxii INTRODUCTION furnished him tvitk a hint for the second stanza of the song in Act it. sc. 2 of " The Demi is an Ass," afier- tvards the third stanza of "Her Triumph" in "A Cele- bration of Charis." The lines of Heinsius, prettily applied to a groom somewhat advanced in years, are : " Sic quoties oculos, quoties formosa puetta Ora >j j» Do. Do. Nov. 4, 1677 John Oldham . 1679 (?) Richard Duke. Acted and Nathaniel Lee printed 1686 Acted and John Crowne . printed 1681 Printed 1684 J. H. Songs in the Masque in Act i. sc. 3 of Ovid. An Epithalamium on the Names and Nuptials of Mr Wm. Drayton and the most devoutly vettuous Mrs Grace Drayton. Wit in a Wilderness of Pro- miscuous Potsie. N.D. An Epithalamium on the Noble Nuptials of Mr Will. Christmas, Merchant, and Mrs Elizabeth Christmas. {Ibid.) A mock Epithalamium com- posed for the Nuptials of an illiterate Brewer and his Bride. (Ibid.) Upon the Marriage of the Prince of Orange with the Lady Mary. Epithalamium upon the Marriage of Captain William Bedloe (satirical). Poems. (Works of the English Poets. Ed. John- son.) Song from Caesar Borgia, Act. iv. sc. I. "An Epithalamium." The Song at Atreus his Banquet. Thyestes,h.c\.\.sc.\. Crowne. Vol. II. in Dramatists of the Restoration. 1873. Songs in the Masque, Bk. V. of The Grecian Story, being an Historical Poem. 4to, 1684. Ivi LIST OF EPITHALAMIA ^.— LIST OF EPITHALAMIA PUBLISHED SINCE 1700. See Texts, pp. 169-194. Acted 1702 Richard Steele . . William Wycherley Song in The Funeral, Act v. 1712. An Epithalamium on the Mar- riage of Two very 111 Natur'd Blacks, who were to have their Liberty in consideration ) of this Match. Miscellany Poems. Folio. 1704. Acted 1707 George Granville (Lord ^ovug%'va.The British Enchanters. Lansdowne) Act v. Works, 1736. Vol. I. Written about John Hughes 1714 — Samuel Jones . . 1717 Lawrence Eusden 1723 Allan Ramsay . . Serenala for two voices on the Marriage of the Right ftonour- ; able the Lord Cobham to Mrs j Ann Halsey. Andersmis \ British Poets. Vol. VIL On his friend's Marriage, An - Epithalamium. Poetical Misc. 1714. Poem on the Marriage of His Grace the Duke of Newcastle, etc., etc. See Introduction, p. xliii. Epithalamium in "A Masque performed at celebrating the Nuptials of James Duke of Hamilton and Lady Ann Cochran." Poems of Allan Ramsay. Paisley, 1877. Vol. PUBLISHED SINCE 1700 Ivii (?) Allan Ramsay ... A Pastoral Epithalamium upon the happy Marriage of George, Lord Ramsay, and Lady Jean Maule. Poems of Allan Ramsay. Paisley, 1777. Vol. II. 1728 Do. Two or three other Marriage " Odes" will be found in Vol. I. of the same edition, Lady M. W. Montague Epithalamium (satirical). Works. (1690-1762) 5th ed. 1805. V. 193. William SOMERVILLE Canidia's Epithalamium (satiri- (1692-1742) cal). Poetical Works. Cooke's ed. N.D. p. 32. Written 1729 James Thomson ... A Nuptial Song. Mar. 14, 1734 Ralph Sedgwick, M.A. . Epithalamium on the Marriage of the Prince of Orange and the Princess Anne. 410,1734. See Introduction, p. xliv. April 27, 1736 The Rev. Wm. Thompson Epithalamium on the Royal Nuptials (of Frederick and Augusta, Prince and Princess of Wales). KrAmxstis British Poets. Vol. X. ROBT. DODSLEY (1703-64) Epithalamium. (Ibid. XI.) Acted 1711 Susannah Centlivre . Song in The Perplexed Lovers. Act V. Works. 1 76 1. Repr. 1872. ii. 315. Francis Fawkes (1721-77) An Epithalamic Ode, Intended for Music. Original Poems, etc. 1 76 1. Do. Epithalamium on the Marriage of a Cobler and -a. Chimney- sweeper. (Ibid.) Iviii LIST OF EPITHALAMIA — — Francis Fawkes (1721-77) Epithalamium (so called) of Achilles and Deidamia. Bion. Idyll. VII. Anderson's British Poets. XIII. Do. Epithalamium on the Marriage of Stratocles and Myrilla. Anacreon, Ode 60. (Ibid.) ( Christopher Smart Epithalamium (Ode VIII.) (1722-70) Poems. 1791. Vol. I. 16. See Introduction, p. xliv. Thomas Blacklock An Irregular Ode sent to a Lady (1721-91) on her Marriage Day. Poems. 3rd edition. 1756. Mr D Epithalamium. Dodsley's Co/- , (The Rev. S. Davies). lection of Poems. 1763. Vol.' V. 102. See Introduction,:! p. xliii. I Mr Parrat Ode to Cupid on Valentine's Day. (Ibid. VI. 137.) James Grainger, M.D. . "The Sixth Poem" of "The Poems of Sulpicia" in A ^. Poetical Translation of the Elegies of Tibullus, &.C. 1759. Vol. II. 253. Sept. 8, 1761 John Langhorne, D.D. Hymeneal on the Marriage of his present Majesty [George III.]. Poetical {Vorhs. Coolie's ed. N.D, See Introduction, p. xlv. William Julius Mickle Translation of an Epithalamium j (1734-89) written in Hehrew, &c. Poet- ical Works. (Ibid.) PUBLISHED SINCE 1700 lix Sept. 8, 1761 James Scott, D.D. . A Spousal Hymn addressed to his Majesty on his Marriage (George III.). Pearch's Col- lection of Poems. 1783. Vol. III. 98. See Introduction, p. xlv. 1774 (?) R. COLVIL An Epithalamium. See Intro- duction, p. xlvii. Dec. a6, 1774 Prof. Wm. Richardson Epithalamium on the Marriages, etc. See Introduction, p. xlvi. Thb Rev. James De-La- The Courtship of Zephyrus and CouR, M.A. Flora, written as an Epith- alamium on the Marri^e of LadyGrace Boyle with the Earl of Middlesex. Poems. Cork, 1778. See Introduction, p. xlvii. Percy Bysshe Shelley Fragment supposed to be an (1792-1822) Epithalamium of Francis Ravaillac and Charlotte Cor- day. Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson. 1810. Do. ... A Bridal Song. Posthumous Poems. May 2, 1816 Peter Pindar (C. F. The R 1 Nuptials ! ! or Lawler?) Epithalamium Extraordinary!! (Princess Charlotte and Prince Leopold). Dec. 18, 1834 John Moultrie . . . Epithalamium. Poems. 1837. Thomas Lovell Beddoes Songs in Death's Jest Book. 1850. Act iv. sc. 3. Alfred Tennyson . . The close of In Memoriam. 1850. Ix EPITHALAMIA PUBLISHED SINCE 1700 Thomas Love Pbacock . Hymeneal Chorus from the Phaethon of Euripides. Prater's Magazine, April 1852. Re- printed in Calidore, etc. Ed. Garnett, 1 891. Mar. 10, 1863 Jane Robinson . Epithalamium in honour of the Marriage of the Prince and Princess of Wales, by tlie Author of " Whitefriars," etc., as recited by Miss Avonia Jones at the Theatre Royal, New Adelphi, Tuesday, March 10, 1863. 8vo. 1863. Pp. 12. Edmund Gosse. Epithalamium. Flute. i8go. On Viol a>id Richard Le Gallienne Epithalamium. English Poems. 1892. ENGLISH EPITHALAMIES DICUS: EPITHALAMIUM. [The song of the shepherd Dicus at the marriage of Thyrsis and Kala.] Let Mother Earth now deck herself in flowers, To see her offspring seek a good increase, Where justest love doth vanquish Cupid's powers. And war of thoughts is swallowed up in peace, Which never may decrease, But, like the turtles fair, Live one in two, a well-united pair ; Which that no charm may st^, O Hymen, long their coupled joys maintain ! O Heaven, awake! show forth thy stately face; Let not these sliunb'ring clouds thy beauties hide. But with thy cheerful presence help to grace The honest bridegroom and the bashful bride ; Whose loves may everjjide, i Like to the ^^ and ^^O With mutual embracemems them to twine ; In which delightful pain, O Hymen, long their coupled joys maintain I Ye Muses all, which chaste effects allow, And have to Thyrsis shewed your secret skill. To this chaste love your sacred favours bow; And so to him and her your gifts distil. That they all vice may kill, And, like to lilies pure. May please all eyes, and spotless may endure ; Where that all bliss may reign, O Hymen, long their coupled joys maintain ! A From," The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia" : written 1580-1. This poem first appears in Foho of 1593- 2 SIR PHILIP SIDNEY Ye nymphs which in the waters empire have, Since Thyrsis' music oft doth yield you praise, Grant to the thing which we for Thyrsis crave : Let one time, but long first, close up their days. One grave their bodies seize ; And like two rivers sweet, When they, though divers, do together meet, One stream both streams contain : O Hymen, long their coupled joys maintain I Pan, Father Pan, the god, of silly sheep. Whose care is cause that they in ndmber grow. Have much more care of them that them do keep. Since from these good the others' good doth flow. And make their issue show In number like the herd Of younglings, which thyself with love hast reared ; Or like the drops of rain : O Hymen, long their coupled joys maintain 1 Virtue, if not a god, yet God's chief part. Be thou the knot of this their open vow, That still he be her head, she be his heart. He lean to her, she unto- him do bow, Each other still aHOw; 'J/ Like 4^ and niistleto^. Her strength from liim, his praise from her do grow: In which most lovely train, O Hymen, long their coupled joys maintain I But thou, foul Cupid, sire to lawless lust, Be thou far hence with thy empoisoned dart. Which, though of glittering gold, shall here take rust. Where simple love, which chastness doth impart. Avoids thy hurtful art; Not needing charming skill. Such minds with sweet affections for to fill ; Which being pure and plain, O Hymen, long their coupled joys maintain I SIR PHILIP SIDNEY 3 All churlish words, shrewd answers, crabbed looks, AH privateness, self-seeking, inward spite. All waywardness, which nothing kindly brooks, All strife for toys and claiming master's right, Be hence, aye put to flight ; All stirring husband's hate 'Gainst neighbour's good for womanish debate, Be fled, as things most vain : O Hymen, long their coupled joys maintain ! All peacock pride, and fruits of peacock's pride. Longing to be with loss of substance gay ; With retchlessness what may the house betide. So that you may on higher slippers stay. For ever hence away : Yet let not sluttery. The sink of filth, be counted housewifery ; But keeping wholesome mean, O Hymen, long their coupled joys maintain ! But above all, away vile jealousy. The evil of evils, just cause to be unjust ; How can he love, suspecting treachery? How can she love where love cannot win trust ? Go, snake, hide thee in dust, Ne dare once shew thy face Where open hearts do hold so constant place. That they thy sting restrain : O Hymen, long their coupled joys maintain 1 The earth is decked with flowers, the heavens displayed. Muses grant gfifts. Nymphs ,long and joined life. Pan store of babes. Virtue -their thoughts well stayed, Cupid's lust gone, and gone is bitter strife. Happy mail, happy wife I No pride shall them oppress. Nor yet shall yield to loathsome sluttishness. And jealousy is slain ; For Hymen will their coupled joys maintain. 4 BARTHOLOMEW YOUNG From the ARSILIUS HIS CAROL FOR JOY OF THE ^Dmna-of jj£^ MARRIAGE BETWEEN SIRENUS mayor, Gil AND DIANA. tinuation, Let novT each mead with flowers be depainted, litwn ^*s ^ ^^ sundry colours, sweetest odours glowing ; 1383, printed Roses yield forth your smells so finely tainted ; "'Ingtand's Calm winds the green leaves move with gentle blowing. Helicon," The chrystal rivers flowing '*°°' With waters be increased ; And since each one from sorrow now hath ceased, From mournful plaints and sadness, Ring forth, fair nymphs, your joyful songs for gladness ! Let springs and meads all kind of sorrow banish. And mournful hearts the tears that they are bleeding; Let gloomy clouds with shining morning vanish ; Let every bird rejoice that now is breeding. And since, by new proceeding. With marriage now obtained, A great content by great contempt is gained,*^ And you devoid of sadness : Ring forth, fair nymphs, your joyful songs for gladness 1 Who can make us to change our firm desires, And soul to leave her strong determination. And make us freeze in ice, and melt in fires. And nicest hearts io love with" emulation ? Who rids us from vexation. And all our minds commandeth. But great Felicia, that his might withstandeth That filled our hearts with sadness? Ring forth, fair nymphs, your joyful songs for gladness ! Your fields with their distilling favours cumber. Bridegroom and happy bride, each heavenly power! Your flocks, with double lambs increased in number, May never taste unsavoury grass and sourl BARTHOLOMEW YOUNG 5 The winter's frost and shower Your kids, your pretty pleasure, May never hurt I and blest with so much treasure. To drive away all sadness. Ring forth, fair nymphs, your joyful songs for gladness ! Of that sweet joy delight you with such measure. Between you both fair issue to engender ; Longer than Nestor may you live in pleasure ; The gods to you such sweet content surrender. That may make mild and tender The beasts in every mountain. And glad the fields and woods and every fountain, Abjuring former sadness, Ring forth, fair nymphs, your joyful songs for gladness ! Let amorous birds with sweetest notes delight you ; Let gentle vrinds refresh you with their blowing ; Let fields and forests with their good requite you, And Flora deck the ground where you are going, Roses and violets strowing. The jasmine and the gillyflower With many more ; and never in your bower To taste of household sadness. Ring forth, fair nymphs, your joyful songs for gladness ! Concord and peace hold you for aye contented, And in your joyful state live you so quiet, That with the plague of jealousy tormented You may not be, nor fed with Fortune's diet ; And that your names may fly yet To hills unknown with glory. But now, because my breast, so hoarse and sorry It faints, may rest from singing. End nymphs, your songs, that in the clouds are ringing. 6 EDMUND SPENSER June II, EPITHALAMION. 1594. Printed with Ye learned sisters which have oftentimes ■^•^Amoretti," Bgg„ ^„ ^g aiding, others to adorn, Whom ye thought worthy of your graceful rhymes, That even the greatest did not greatly scorn To hear their names simg in your simple lays. But joyed in their praise ; And when ye list your own mishaps to mourn. Which death, or love, or fortune's wreck did raise. Your string could soon to sadder tenor turn. And teach the woods and waters to lament Your doleful dreriment : Now lay those sorrowful complaints aside ; And, having all your heads with garlands crowned, Help me mine own love's praises to resound ; Ne let the same of any be envied : So Orpheus did for his ov7n bride ! So I unto myself alone will sing ; The woods shall to me answer, and my echo ring. Early, before the world's light-giving lamp His golden beam upon the hills doth spread. Having dispersed the night's uncheerful damp. Do ye awake; and, with fresh lusty-hed. Go to the bower of my beloved love. My truest turtle dove ; Bid her awake ; for Hymen is awake, And long since ready forth his mask to move, torch.] With his bright tead that flames with many a flake. And many a bachelor to wait on him. In their fresh garments trim. Bid her awake therefore,' and soon her dight. For lo ! the wished day. is come at last. That shall, for all the pains and sorrows past. Pay to her usury of long delight : And, whilst she doth her dight. Do ye to her of joy and solace sing, That all the woods may answer, and your echo ring. EDMUND SPENSER 7 Bring with you all the nymphs that you can hear Both of the rivers and the forests green, And of the sea that neighbours to her near, All with gay garlands goodly well beseen. And let them also with them bring in hand Another gay garland, For my fair love, of lilies and of roses. Bound true-love wise vyith a blue silk riband. And let them make great store of bridal posies, And let them eke bring store of other flowers. To deck the bridal bowers. And let the ground whereas her foot shall tread. For fear the stones her tender foot should wrong. Be strewed with fragrant flowers all along. And diapered like the discoloured mead. Which done, do at her chamber door await. For she will waken straight ; The whiles do ye this song unto her sing. The woods shall to you answer, and your echo ring. Ye nymphs of Mulla, which with careful heed The silver scaly trouts do tend full well. And greedy pikes which use therein to feed, (Those trouts and pikes all -others do excell); And ye likewise, which keep the rushy lake. Where none do fishes take; Bind up the locks the which hang scattered light, And in his waters, which your mirror make, Behold your faces as the chiystal bright. That when you come whereas my love doth lie. No blemish she may spie. And eke, ye light-foot maids, virhich keep the dore, [deer. That on the hoary mountain use to tower ; And the wild wolves, which seek them to devour, With your steel darts do chase from coming near; Be also present here, To help to deck her, and to help to sing, That all the woods may answer, and your echo ring. 8 EDMUND SPENSER Wake now, my love, awake 1 for it is time ; The rosy Mom long since left Tithon's bed, All ready to her silver coach to climb ; And Phcebus 'gins to show his glorious head. Hark ! how the cheerful birds do chant their lays And carol of Love's praise. The merry lark her matins sings aloft ; The thrush replies ; the mavis descant plays ; The ouzel shrills ; the ruddock warbles soft : So goodly all agree, with sweet consent, To this day's merriment. Ah I my dear love, why do you sleep thus long. When meeter were that ye should now awake, T' await the coming of your joyous make. And hearken to the birds' love-learned song. The dewy leaves among ! For they of joy and pleasance to you sing, That all the woods them answer, and their echo ring. My love is now awake out of her dreams, And her fair eyes, like stars that dimmed were With darksome cloud, now shew their goodly beams More bright than Hesperus his head doth rear. Come now, ye damsels, daughters of delight. Help quickly her to dight : But first come ye, fair Hours, which were begot In Jove's sweet paradise of day and night. Which do the seasons of the year allot. And all that ever in this world is feur Do make and still repair : And ye three handmaids of the Cyprian queen. The which do still adorn her beauty's pride. Help to adorn my beautifuUest bride : And, as ye her array, still throw between Sdme graces to be seen ; And, as ye use to Venus, to her sing. The whiles the woods shall answer, and your echo ring. EDMUND SPENSER 9 Now is my love all ready forth to come : Let all the virgins therefore well await : And ye fresh boys, that tend upon her groom, Prepare yourselves, for he is coming straight. Set all your things in seemly good array. Fit for so joyful day, The joyful'st day that ever sun did see. Fair sun 1 show forth thy favourable ray. And let thy lifull heat not fervent be, [Hfe-fuii. For fear of burning her sunshiny face. Her beauty, to disgrace. ' O fairest Phcebus I father of the Muse I If ever I did honour thee aright. Or sing the thing that mote thy mind delight, Do not thy servant's simple boon refuse ; But let this day, let this one day be mine ; Let all the rest be thine. Then I thy sovereign praises loud will sing, That all the woods shall answer, and their echo ring. Harkl how the minstrels 'gin to shrill aloud Their merry music that resounds from far. The pipe, tiie tabor, and the trembling croud, [fiddle. That well agree withouten breach or jar. But most of all, the damsels do delight When they their timbrels smite, And thereunto do dance and carol sweet. That all the senses they do ravish quite ; The whiles the boys run up and down the street. Crying aloud with strong confused noise. As if it were one voice, Hymen I lo Hymen ! Hymen 1 they do shout ; That even to the heavens their shouting shrill Doth reach, and all the firmament doth fill : To which the people standing all about. As in approvance, do thereto applaud. And loud advance her laud ; And evermore they Hymen, Hymen, sing. That all the woods them answer, and their echo ring. 10 EDMUND SPENSER Lo ! where she comes along with portly pace, Like Phcebe, from her chamber of the East, Arising forth to run her mighty race ; Clad all in white, that seems a virgin best. So well it her beseems, that ye would ween Some angel she had been. Her long loose yellow locks like golden wire. Sprinkled with pearl and pearling flowers atween, Do like a golden mantle her attire. And, being crowned with a garland green. Seem like some maiden queen. Her modest eyes, abashed to behold So many gazers as on her do stare, Upon the lowly ground affixed are ; Ne dare lift up her countenance too bold. But blush to hear her praises sung so loud, So far from being proud. Natheless do ye still loud her praises sing, That all the woods may answer, and your echo ring. Tell me, ye merchants' daughters, did ye see So fair a creature in your town before ; So sweet, so lovely, and so mild as she, Adorned with beauty's grace and virtue's store? Her goodly eyes like sapphires shining bright. Her forehead ivory white, Her cheeks like apples which the sun hath rudded, Her lips like cherries charming men to bite, Her breast like to a bowl of cream uncrudded, Her pap^ like lilies budded, Her snowy neck like to a marble tower ; And all her body like a palace fair, Ascending up, with many a stately stair, To honour's seat and chastity's sweet bower. Why stand ye still, ye virgins, in amaze. Upon her so to gaze. Whiles ye forget your former lay to sing. To which the woods did answer, and your echo ring? EDMUND SPENSER n But if ye saw that which no eyes can see, The inward beauty of her lively sprite, Garnished with heavenly gifts of high degree. Much more then would ye wonder at that sight. And stand astonished like to those which read Medusa's mazeful head. There dwells sweet love, and constant chastity Unspotted faith, and comely womanhood. Regard of honour, and mild modesty ; There virtue reig^ns as queen in royal throne And giveth laws alone. The which the base affections do obey. And yield their services unto her will ; Ne thought of thing uncomely ever may Thereto approach to tempt her mind to ill. Had ye once seen these her celestial treasures. And unrevealed pleasures, Then would ye wonder, and her praises sing, That all the woods should answer, and your echo ring. Open the temple gates unto my love. Open them wide that she may enter in ; And all the posts adorn as doth behove. And all the pillars deck with garlands trim, For to receive this saint with honour due. That Cometh in to you. With trembling steps and humble reverence She Cometh in, before th' Almighty's view ; Of her ye virg^s learn obedience, / ~ When so ye come into those holy places, To humble your proud faces. Bring her up to th' high altar, that she may The sacred ceremonies there partake. The which do endless matrimony make ; And let the roaring organs loudly play The praises of the Lord in lively notes ; The whiles, with hollow throats, The choristers the joyous anthem sing. That all the woods may answer, and their echo ring. 12 EDMUND SPENSER Behold, whiles she before the altar stands, Hearing the holy priest that to her speaks, And blesseth her with his two happy hands, How the red roses flush up in her cheeks. And the pure snow, with goodly vermeil stain. Like crimson died in grain : That even th' angels which continually About the sacred altar do remain. Forget their service and about her fly. Oft peeping in her face, that seems more fair, The more they on it stare. But her sad eyes, still fastened on the ground. Are governed with goodly modesty, That suffers not one look to glance awry. Which may let in a little thought unsound. Why blush ye, love, to give to me your hand. The pledge of all our band I Sing, ye sweet angels, " Alleluia " sing. That all the woods may answer, and your echo ring. Now all is done : bring home the bride again ; Bring home the triumph of our victory : Bring home with you the glory of her gain, With joyance bring her and with jollity. Never had man more joyful day than this. Whom Heaven would heap with. bliss; Make feast therefore now all tiiis livelong day ; This day for ever to me holy is. Pour out the wine without restraint or stay, Pour not by cups, but by the belly-full, Pour out to all that vtuU, And sprinkle all the posts and walls with wine. That they may sweat and drimken be withal. Crown ye God Bacchus with a coronal. And Hymen also crown with wreaths of vine ; And let the Graces dance unto the rest, For they can do it best : The whiles the maidens do their carol sing. To which the woods shall answer, and their echo ring. EDMUND SPENSER 13 Ring ye the bells, ye young men of the town, And leave your wonted labours for this day : This day is holy ; do ye write it down. That ye for ever it remember m^y. This day the sun is in his chiefest height. With Barnaby the bright ; * From whence declining daily by degrees. He somewhat loseth of his heat and ligW, When once the Crab behind his back he sees. But for this time it ill ordained was, To choose the longest day in all the year, And shortest night, when longest fitter were : Yet never day so long, but late would pass. Ring ye the bells, to make it wear away. And bonfires make all day; And dance about them, and about them sing. That all the woods may answer, and your echo ring. Ah ! when will this long weary day have end. And lend me leave to come unto my love? How slowly do the hoiirs their numbers spend 1 How slowly does sad Time his feathers move! Haste thee, O fairest -planet, to thy home. Within the western foam : Thy tired steeds long since have need of rest. Long though it be, at last I see it gloom, And the bright evening-star with golden crest, Appear out of the East. Fair child of beauty ! glorious lamp of love ! That all the host of heaven in ranks dost lead. And guidest lovers through the' night's sad dread. How cheerfully thou lookest from above. And seem'st- to laugh atween thy twinkling light I As joying in the sight Of these glad many, which for joy do sing. That all the woods them answer, and their echo ring. * S. was therefore married on St Barnabas' Day. 14 EDMUND SPENSER Now cease, ye damsels, your delights forepast; Enough it is that all the day was yours : Now day is done, and night is nighing fast. Now bring the bride into the bridal bowers. The night is come, now soon her disarray, And in her bed her lay ; Lay her in lilies and in violets, And silken curtains over her display. And odoured sheets, and Arras coverlets. Behold how goodly my fair love does lie, In proud humility I Like unto Maia, when as Jove her took In Tempe, lying on the flowery grass, 'Twixt sleep and wake, after she weary was With bathing in the Acidalian brook. Now it is night, ye damsels may be gone, And leave my love alone ; And leave likewise your former lay to sing : . The woods no more shall answer, nor your echo ring. Now welcome, night I thou night so long expected, That long day's labour dost at last defray, And all my cares, which cruel Love collected, Hast summed in one, and cancelled for aye: Spread thy broad wing over my love and me, That no man may us see ; And in thy sable mantle us enwrap, From fear of peril and foul horror free. Let no false treason seek us to entrap. Nor any dread disquiet once annoy The safety of our joy ; But let the night be calm, and quietsome. Without tempestuous storms or sad affray. Like as when Jove with fair Alcmena lay. When he begot the great Tyrinthian groom : Or like as when he with thyself did lie And begot majesty. And let the maids and young men cease to sing, Ne let the woods them answer, nor their echo ring. EDMUND SPENSER 15 Let no lamenting: cries, nor doleful tears, Be heard all night within, nor yet without ; Ne let false whispers, breeding hidden fears, Break gentle sleep with misconceived doubt. Let no deluding dreams, nor dreadful sights, Make sudden sad affrights ; Ne let house-fires, nor lightning's helpless harms, Ne let the Puck, nor other evil sprites, Ne let mischievous witches vrith their charms, Ne let hobgoblins, names whose sense we see not, •Fray us with things that be not : Let not the shriek-owl nor the stork be heard. Nor the night raven, that still deadly yells, . To a pleasant new tune. Wth^o- The night is passed, and joyful day appeareth pl'xxS most clear on every side. With pleasant music we therefore salute you, "Good morrow, Mistress Bride I" From sleep and slumber now awake you out of hand : your bridegroom stayeth at home j Whose fancy, favour, and affection still doth stand fixed on thee alone. Dress you in your best array ; This must be your wedding day. God Almighty send you happy joy, In health and wealth to keep you still ! And if it be his blessed will, God keep you safe from sorrow and annoy 1 This day is honour now brought into thy bosom and comfort to thy heart : For God hath sent you a friend for to defend you from sorrow, care, and smart. In health and sickness, for thy comfort day and night, he is appointed and brought. Whose love and liking is most constant, sure, and right: Then love ye him as ye ought! Now you have your heart's desire. And the thing you did require ; God Almighty send you happy joy, In health and wealth to keep you stilt 1 And if it be his blessed will, God keep you safe from sorrow and annoy 1 There is no treasure the which may be compared unto a faithful friend. Gold soon decayeth, and worldly wealth consumeth and wasteth in the wind : 26 ROXBURGHE BALLADS But love once planted in a perfect and pure mind, endureth weal and woe : The frowns of fortune, come they never so unkind, cannot the same o'erthrow. A bit of bread is better cheer Where love and friendship doth appear, Than dainty dishes stuffed with strife: For where the heart is cloyed with care. Sour is the sweetest fare. And death far better than so bad a life. Sweet bride I then may you full well contented stay you, cind in your heart rejoice ; ' Sith God was guider both of your heart and fancy and maker of your choice : And he that preferred you to this happy state will not behold you decay, Nor see you lack relief or help in any rate, if you his precepts obey. To those that ask it faithfully The Lord will no good thing deny ; This comfort in tiie Scriptures may you find : Then let no -worldly grief and care Vex your heart with foul despair. Which doth declare the unbelieving mind. All things are ready and every whit prepared to bear you company. Your friends and parents do give their due attendance together courteously. The house is dressed and garnished for your sake with flowers gallant and green. A solemn feast your comely cooks do ready make, Where all your friends will be seen. Young men and maids do ready stand With sweet rosemary in their hand, A perfect token of your virgin's life : To wait upon you they intend Unto the church to make an end : And God make thee a joyful wedded wife ! BEN JONSON 27 EPITHALAMION. Jan. s, 1606. [Concluding the Masque called by Gifford The Masque of Hymen, and first printed in 1606, 4to, as Hymenai, or the Solemnities of J\fasques and Barriers, magnificently per- formed on the eleventh and twelfth nights from Christmas at Court ; to the auspicious celebrating of the Marriage-union betmeene Robert, Earie of Essex, and the Lady Frances, second daughter of the most noble Earle of Suffolke, 1606. Jam veniet virgo,jam dicetur Hymenaus.f Glad time is at his point arrived, For which love's hopes were so long lived. Lead 1 Hymen, lead away I And let no object stay. Nor banquets, but sweet kisses. The turtles from their blisses : 'Tis Cupid calls to arm ; And this his last alarm. Shrink not, soft virgin, you will love Anon, what you so fear to prove. This is no killing war. To which you pressed are ; But fair and gentle strife. Which lovers call their life. 'Tis Cupid calls to arm ; And this his last alarm. Help, youths and virgins, help to sing The prize, which Hymen here doth bring ; And did so lately rap [rape. From forth the mother's lap. * See Introduction, p, xxx. The author's notes on this poem are in GifFord's edition. He prefaces it thus : " Of this Song then only one staff was sung : but because I made it both in form and matter to emulate that kind of poem which was called Epithalamium, and by the ancients used to be sung when the bride was led into her chamber, I have here set it down whole, and do heartily forgive their ignorance whom it chanceth not to please. Hoping that Nemo doctus me jubeat Thalassiottem verbis dicere non Thalassionis." 28 BEN JONSON To place her by that side, Where she must long abide. On Hymen, Hymen call 1 This night is Hymen's all. See 1 Hesperus is yet in view. What star can so deserve of you? Whose light doth still adorn Your bride, that ere the morn Shall far more perfect be, And rise as bright as he ; When, like to him, her name Is changed, but not her flame. Haste, tender lady, and adventer ; The covetous house would have you enter. That it might wealthy be, And you, her mistress, see : Haste your own good to meet ; And lift your golden feet Above the threshold high. With prosperous augfury. Now, youths, let go your pretty arms ; The place within chants other charms. Whole showers of roses flow; And violets seem to grow. Strewed in the chamber there. As Venus' mead it were. On Hymen, Hymen call 1 This night is Hymen's all. Good matrons, that so well are known To aged husbands of your own. Place you our bride to-night ; And snatch away the light : That she not hide it dead Beneath her spouse's bed; Nor he reserve the same To help the funeral flame. BEN JONSON 29 So I now you may admit him in ; The act he covets is no sin, But chaste and holy love, Which Hymen doth approve : Without whose hallowing fires, All aims are base desires. On Hymen, Hymen call ! This night is Hymen's all. Now, free from vulgar spite or noise, May you enjoy your mutual joys ; Now you no fear controls. But lips may mingle souls ; And soft embraces bind To each the other's mind ; Which may no power untie, ' I Till one or both must die 1 And look, before you yield to slumber. That your delights be dravra past number ; Joys, got vrith strife, increase. Affect no sleepy peace ; But keep the bride's fair eyes Awake with her own cries. Which are but maiden fears : And kisses dry such tears. Then coin 'em twixt your lips so sweet. And let not cockles closer meet ; Nor may your murmuring loves Be drowned by Cypris' doves : Let ivy not so bind. As when your arms are tvTined : That you may both ere day V Rise perfect every way. And Juno, whose great powers protect The marriage bed, with good effect 30 BEN JONSON The labour of this night Bless thou, for future light : And thou, thy happy charge, Glad Genius, enlarge ; That they may both ere day Rise perfect every way. And Venus^ thou, with timely seed, Which may their after-comforts breed. Inform the gentle womb ; Nor let it prove a tomb : But ere ten months be vrasted, The birth by Cynthia hasted. So may they both ere day Rise perfect every way. And when the babe to light is shown. Let it be like each parent known ; Much of the father's face, More of the mother's grace ; And either grandsire's spirit. And fame let it inherit : That men may bless th' embraces That joined two such races. Cease, youths and virgins, you have done ; Shut fast the door ; and as they soon To their perfection haste. So may their ardours last. So either's strength outlive All loss that age can give ; And though full years be told. Their forms grow slowly old. THOMAS CAMPION 31 SONGS AND DIALOGUES. Jan. 6. 1607. From The Description of a Maske, presented before the Kinges Majesiie at White-Hall, on Twelfth Night last, in lionour of the Lord Sayes, and his Bride, Daughter and Heire to the honourable the Lord Dennye, their Marriage having been the same day at Court solemnized. . . . 1607. 4to. {Works: ed. Bullen, 1889.)* Now hath Flora robbed her bowers To befriend this place with flowers : Strow about, strow about I The sky rained never kindlier showers. Flowers with bridals well agree, Fresh as brides and bridegrooms be : Strow about, strow about 1 And mix them with fit melody. Earth hath no princelier flowers Than roses white and roses red, But they must still be mingled : And as a rose new plucked from Venus' thorn, So doth a bride her bridegroom's bed adorn. Divers divers flowers affect For some private dear respect : Strow about, strow about I Let every one his own protect ; But he's none of Flora's friend That vTill not the rose commend. Strow about, strow about 1 Let princes princely flowers defend : Roses, the garden's pride. Are flowers for love and flowers for kings, In courts desired and weddings : And as a rose in Venus' bosom worn. So doth a bridegroom his bride's bed adorn. * The bridegroom was afterwards first Earl of Carlisle, and always a favourite of James. The bride's early death is lamented by Sylvester in Hanoi's Farewell. 32 THOMAS CAMPION Zephyrus, the western wind, of all the most mild and pleasant* who with Venus, the Queen of Love^ is said to brm^ in the Spring, when natural heat and appetite reviveth, and the gjad earth begins to be beauti- fied with flowers. Flora. Flowers and good wishes Flora doth present, Sweet flowers, the ceremonious ornament Of maiden marriage, Beauty figuring, And blooming youth ; which though we careless fling About this sacred place, let none profane Think that these fruits from common hills are ta'en, Or vulgar vallies which do subject lie To winter's wrath and cold mortality. But these are hallowed and immortal flowers With Flora's hands gathered from Flora's bowers. Such are her presents, endless as her love, And such for ever may this night's joy prove. Zephyrus. For ever endless may this night's joy prove I So echoes Zephyrus, the friend of Love, Whose aid Venus implores when she doth bring Into the naked world the green-leaved spring. When of the sim's warm beams the nets we weave That can the stubborn'st heart with love deceive. That Queen of Beauty and Desire by me Breathes gently forth this bridal prophecy : Faithful and fruitful shall these bedmates prove. Blest in their fortunes, honoured in their love. Flora. All grace this night, and Sylvans, so must you, OfT'ring your marriage song with changes new. T/ie Song in form of a Dialogue. Can. Who is the happier of the two, A maid or wife? Ten. Which is more to be desired. Peace or strife ? Can. What strife can be where two are one, Or what delight to pine alone ? THOMAS Campion 3J Bas. None such true friends, none so sweet life, As that between the man and wife. Ten. A maid is free, a wife is tied. Can. No maid but fain would be a bride. Ten. Why live so many single then? 'Tis not I hope for want of men. Can. The bow and arrow both may fit, And yet 'tis hard the mark to hit. Bas. He levels fair that by his side Lays at night his lovely bride. Cho. Sing lo, Hymen 1 lo, lo, Hymen I A Dialogue of four voices — two Basses and two Trebles. 1. Of all the stars, which is the kindest To a loving bride? 2. Hesperus when in the west He doth the day from night divide. 1. What message can be more respected Than that which tells vrished joys shall be effected ? 2. Do not brides watch the evening star? 1. O they can discern it far. 2. Love bridegrooms revels? I. But for fashion. 2. And why? i. They hinder wished occasion. 2. Longing hearts and new delights. Love short days and long nights. Cho. Hesperus, since you all stars excel In bridal kindness, kindly farewell, farewell. 34 BEN JONSON Feb. 9, 1608. EPITHALAMION. [Concluding the Masque called by Gifford, The Hue and Cry after Cupid, and first printed in 1608, 4to, N.D., as: The Description of the Masque. With the severcill Songs, cele- brating the happy Marriage of John, Lord Ramsey, Viscount Haddington, with the Lady Elizabeth Radcliffe, daughter to the Right Honor. Robert Earle of Sussex. At Court on the Shrove-Tuesday at Night, 1608. Acceleret partu decimum bona Cynthia mensem.*^ Up, youths and virgins, up, and praise The God whose nights outshine his days ; Hymen, whose hallowed rites Could never boast of brighter lights ; Whose bands pass liberty. Two of your troop, that with the morn were free, Are now waged to his war. And what they are. If you '11 perfection see, Yourselves must be. Shine, Hesperus, shine forth, thou wished star ! What joy or honours can compare With holy nuptials, when they are Made out of equal parts Of years, of states, of hands, of hearts I When in the happy choice The spouse and spoused have the foremost voice ! Such, glad of Hymen's war. Live what they are. And long perfection see : And such ours be. Shine, Hesperus, shine forth, thou wished star I * See Introduction, p. xxxi. The Epithalamion is preceded in the Masque by this descrip- tion : " Here the musicians, attired in yellow, with wreaths of marjoram, and veils like Hymen's priests, sung the first staff of the following Epithalamion : which, because it was sung in pieces between the dances, shewed to be so many several songs, but was made to be read an entire poem. After the song," etc. The remainder describes the following dances. BEN JONSON 35 The solemn state of this one night Were fit to last an age's light ; But there are rites behind Have less of state, but more of kind : Love's vyealthy crop of kisses, And fruitful harvest of his mother's blisses. Sound then to Hymen's war : That what these are, Who virill perfection see, May haste to be. Shine, Hesperus, shine forth, thou wished star ! Love's commonwealth consists of toys ; His council are those antic boys. Games, Laughter, Sports, Delights, That triumph vyith him on these nights ; To whom we must give way, For now their reign begins, and lasts till day. They sweeten Hymen's war. And in that jar. Make all that married be Perfection see. Shine, Hesperus, shine forth, thou wished star I Why stays the bridegroom to invade Her that would be a matron made? Good-night whilst yet we may Good-night to you a virgin say : To-morrow rise the same Your mother is, and use a nobler name. Speed well in Hymen's war, That what you are. By your perfection we And all may see. Shine, Hesperus, shine forth, thou wished star! To-night is Venus' vigil kept. This night no bridegroom ever slept; 36 BEN JONSON And if the fair bride do, The married say, 'tis his fault too. Wake then, and let your lights Wake too ; for they'll tell nothing of your nights,' But that in Hymen's war You perfect are. And such perfection we Do pray should be. Shine, Hesperus, shine forth, thou wished star! That ere the rosy-fingered morn Behold nine moons, there may be born A babe t' uphold the fame Of Ratcliffe's blood and Ramsey's name : That may, in his great seed. Wear the long honours of his father's deed.f Such fruits of Hymen's war Most perfect are ; And all perfection we Wish you should see. Shine, Hesperus, shine forth, thou wished star 1 * The Epithalamia of the ancients are constantly drawn upon by our poets : it would be tedious and unnecessary in a book addressed to scholars to indicate each psissage. A few pages back (third stanza on p. 28) we had the largosque rosar- um Itnbres, et violas . . . collectas Veneris prato of Claudian (Ep. Palladii et Celerinee), with the added touch of a poet, however : and here even the fragmentary Allocutio ad Sponsos of the Emperor Galienus is utilised : Cf. Ludite, sed vigiles nolite extinguere lychnos : Omnia node vident, nil eras meminere luterniie. {Buimanni Ant&o/ogia, 1759; i. 684.) t Jifis father's deed. The killing of the Earl of Gowrie (see Introduction, p. xxxi), by which he gained his title. SHAKESPEARE or JOHN FLETCHER 37 THE SONG. Roses, their sharp spines being gone, Not royal in their smells alone, But in their hue ; Maiden-pinks, of odour faint. Daisies smell-less, yet most quaint, And sweet thyme true ; Primrose, firstborn child of Ver, Merry Spring-time's harbinger, With her bells dim ; Oxlips in their cradles growing. Marigolds on death-beds blowing. Lark-heels trim ; All dear Nature's children sweet Lie fore bride and bridegroom's feet. Blessing their sense I Not an angel of the air. Bird melodious, or bird fair. Be absent hence. The crow, the slanderous cuckoo, nor The boding raven, nor chough hoar, Nor chattering pie. May on our bridehouse perch or sing. Or with them any discord bring. But from it fly 1 Sh. before i6i6. Fl. before 1625. From "The Two Noble Kinsmen." First prin- ted 1634. strewn flowers. 38 BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER Acted prob- SONGS from the Masque in Act I. of Prii^tldVe^g. "The Maid's Tragedy." SONG. Cynthia, to thy power and thee we obey. Joy to this great company! and no day Come to steal this night away Till the rites of love are ended, And the lusty bridegroom say, "Welcome light, of all befriended" I Pace out, you watry powers below ; let your feet, Like the gallies when they row, even beat. Let your unknown measures set To the still winds, tell to all That gods are come, immortal, great. To honour this great nuptial. The Measure. SECOND SONG. Hold back thy hours, dark night, till we have done. The day will come too soon : Young maids will curse thee if thou steal'st away. And leav'st their blushes open to the day. Stay, stay, and hide The blushes of the bride : Stay, gentle night, and with thy darkness cover The kisses of her lover : Stay, and confound her tears and her shrill cryings. Her weak denials, vows, and often dyings : Stay, and hide all. But help not though she call. SONG. Measure. To bed ! to bed ! come. Hymen, lead the bride. And lay her by her husband's side : Bring in the virgins every one That grieve to lie alone. ANON. [Edited by J. Dowland] 39 That they may kiss while they may say, a maid : To-morrow 'twill be other, kissed and said. Hesperus be long a shining. Whilst these lovers are a twining 1 [NUPTIAL SONGS.] From "A Pilgrim's I. Solace," Welcome, black night, Hymen's fair day ! jf 'SowUnd^ Help, Hymen! Love's due debt to pay: m'*^*'"!"'' Love's due debt is chaste delight, rArSs °' Which if the turtles want to-night, G^fr'"'' Hymen forfeits his deity, and night in love her dignity. Voi. iv. Hymen I O Hymen I mine of treasures more divine, '^^^-^ What deity is like to thee, that freest from mortality 1 Stay, happy pair I stay but awhile I Hymen comes not Love to beguile. These sports are alluring baits. And sauce are to Love's sweetest cates : Longing hope doth no hurt but this ; It heightens Love's attained bliss. Then stay, most happy 1 stay awhile I Hymen comes not Love to beguile. II. Cease, cease, cease these false sports 1 Haste, haste away I Love 's made truant by your stay. Good night 1 good night, yet virgin bride 1 But look, ere day be spied. You change that fruitless name. Lest you your sex defame. Fear not Hymen's peaceful war ; You'll conquer, though you subdued are. Good night ! and ere the day be old. Rise to the sun a marigold I Hymen I O Hymen I bless this night, That Love's dark works may come to light. 40 GEORGE CHAPMAN Feb.M,.6i3. A HYMN TO HYMEN FOR THE MOST TIME- Prmtedat FITTED NUPTIALS OF OUR THRICE- Chapman's GRACIOUS PRINCESS ELIZABETH.* theSe " Sing, sing a rapture to all nuptial ears, nuptials; Bright Hymen's torches drunk up Parcffi's tears. Memorable Sweet Hymen, Hynien, mightiest of gods, thft^o"' Atoning of all-taming blood the odds ; Honouratile Two into one contracting; one to two w"f " Dilating, which no other god can do : Court, tte Mak'st sure with change, and let'st the married try Terarito and ^^ ""*" *"^ woman, the variety. Lyncolhs And, as a flower, half scorched with day's long heat, m"b°' ^'^' Thirsts for refreshing with night's cooling sweat. The wings of Zephyr fanning still her face, No cheer can add to her heart-thirsty grace ; Yet wears she 'gainst those fires that make her fade Her thick haii-s proof, all hid in midnight's shade : Her health is all in dews ; hope all in showers, Whose want bewailed, she pines in all her powers : So love-scorched virgins nourish quenchless fires ; The father's cares, the mother's kind desires. Their gold, and garments of the newest guise, Can nothing comfort their scorched fantasies ; But taken ravished up in Hymen's arms, His circle holds for all their anguish, charms. Then, as a glad graft in the Spring sun shines. That all the helps of earth and heaven combines In her sweet growth, puts in the morning on Hi^ cheerful airs, the sun's rich fires at noon ; At even the sweet dews, and at night with stars, In all their virtuous influences shares ; So, in the bridegroom's sweet embrace, the bride All varied joys tastes in their naked pride ; To which the richest weeds are weeds to flowers ; Come, Hymen, then ! come close these nuptial hours * See Introduction, p. xxxv. The allusion in 1. 2 is, of course, to the death of Prince Henry, who died November 6th, 1612. GEORGE CHAPMAN 41 With all years' comforts. Come ! each virgin keeps Her odorous kisses for thee. Golden sleeps Will, in their humours, never steep an eye Till thou invit'st them with thy harmony. Why stay'st thou? See, each virgin doth prepare Embraces for thee ; her wrhite breasts lays bare To tempt thy soft hand ; lets such glances fly As make stars shoot, to imitate her eye ; Puts Art's attires on, that put Nature's down ; ^ Sings, dances, sets on every foot a crown ; Sighs in her songs and dances ; kisseth air Till rites and words past, thou in deeds repair. The whole court lo sings : lo, the air : lo, the floods and fields : lo most fair. Most sweet, most happy Hymen ; come ! away ! With all thy comforts come ! old matrons pray With young maids' languors ; birds bill, build, and breed. To teach thee thy kind ; every flower and weed Looks up to gratulate thy longed-for fruits ; Thrice given are free and timely granted suits. There is a seed by thee now to be sown. In whose fruit Earth shall see her glories shown, At all parts perfect ; and must therefore lose No minutes' time ; from time's use all fruit flows. And as the tender hyacinth, that grows Where Phosbus most his golden beams bestows, Is propt with care, is watered every hour, — The sweet winds adding their increasing power. The scattered drops of night's refreshing dew Hasting the full grace of his glorious hue, — Which, once disclosing, must be gathered straight, Or hue and colour both will lose their height : So, of a virgin, high, and richly kept. The grace and sweetness full grown must be reaped, Or forth her spirits fly in empty air ; The sooner fading, the more sweet and fair. Gentle, O gentle Hymen, be not then Cruel that kindest art to maids and men. 42 THOMAS HEYWOOD These two one twin are ; and their mutual bliss Not in thy beams but in thy bosom is ; Nor can their hands fast their hearts' joys make sweet ; Theii: hearts in breasts are and their breasts must meet. Let there be peace yet murmur, and that noise Beget of peace the nuptial battle's joys : Let peace grow cruel and take wrack of all, The war's delay brought thy full festival. Hark, hark, O now the sweet twin murmur sounds ; Hymen is come, and all his heat abounds ; Shut all doors : none but Hymen's lights advance : No sound stir : let dumb joy enjoy a trance. Sing, sing a rapture to all nuptial ears. Bright Hymen's torches drunk up Parcx's tears. ¥ reb.14,16.3. THE EPITHALAMION. From A Marriage Triumphe solemnized in an Epithalamium in memorie of the happy nuptials betwixt the high and mightie Prince Count Palatine and the vwst excellent Princesse the Lady Elizabeth, 1613. Reprint, Percy Society, 1842. See Introduction, p. xxxvii. You fairest of your sexes, how shall we Style you that seem on earth to be divine. Unless the musical Apollo he. And she the fairest of the Muses nine ? Not Daphne turned into a laurel tree So bright could be. So fair, so free, Not Ariadne crowned so clear can shine. Can Venus' yoked swans so white appear. Or half so lovely, when you two embrace ? Are not his parts admired everywhere. His sweet proportions, feature, shape, and face? Or, like her. Iris in her arched sphere. Or Hebe clear, To Juno near. To match this lady in her comely grace ? THOMAS HEYWOOD 43 Why should we these to Venus' doves compare, Since in blancht whiteness they their plumes exceed? Or to the Alpine mountains, when they are Clothed in snow, since monstrous beasts they breed? Why should we to white marble pillars dare Set two so fair, In all things rare, Since, save disgrace, comparisons nought breed? Unto your selves, your selves, then we must say. We only may compare : heaven, sea, nor earth Can parallel the virtues every way, Your names, your styles, your honours, and your birth. On to the temple, then I why do we stay ? Use no delay. Lose no more day : By this blest union add unto our mirth. Charis that strews fair Venus' couch with flowers, Join vTith the other Graces to attend you ; The Muses add their influence to your dowers ; Angels and cherubs from all ills defend you : The gods into your laps rain plenteous showers ; All heavenly powers Add to your hours Heaven's graces, and Earth's gifts that may commend you. Minerva, that of chastity hath care. And Jimo, that of marriage takes regard. The happy fortunes of these two prepare, And let from them no comforts be debarred. Bless them with issue, and a royal heir : Lucina fair. Let one so rare In all her future throes be gently hard." * ? hard or heard. 44 THOMAS HEYWOOD Prove thou, fair Fortune, in thy bounties free ; Be all the happiest seasons henceforth shown Temperate and calm, and full of mirthful glee ; All joys and comforts challenge as your own. What grace and good we can but wish to be. May you and she. As Heavens agree, Enjoy in your most happy prosperous crown 1 So shall the swains and nymphs choice presents bring, With yearly offering to this sacred shrine ; So shall our annual festives praise the Spring, In which two plants of such great hope combine. For ever this bright day eternizing. Timbrels shall ring. Whilst we still sing O Hymen 1 Hymen I be thou still divine I Feb.M,i6i3. A NUPTIAL HYMN. [From A Marriage Triumphe. See the preceding piece.] Now's the glad and cheerful day, Phoebus doth his beams display. And, the fair bride forth to lead. Makes his torch their nuptial tead : O thou Apollo bright 1 Lend us thy cheerful light, That thy glorious orb of fire We more freely may admire. But when seated in thy pride Thou behold'st the lovely bride. Envy not when thou dost find Thy one eye by her two struck blind : Thou art eclipst this day By a new Cynthia ; Who, though on earth she keep her sphere. Yet shines as fair, as bright, as clear. THOMAS HEYWOOD 45 If in clouds thou mask thy face, Blushing at thy own disgrace ; Or cast aside thy glistering rays, When she once her eyes displays ; We shall neglect thee quite. Thy power, thy heat, thy light ; Nor shall we miss thee being gone, Having two suns for thy one. 'T seems, when I this couple see. Thy sister I behold and thee. When you both were nursed long while By Laton' in Delos' isle : But the fair sun and moon Were there delivered soon ; Just as I see these two graced On earth, so you in heaven were placed. Equally shine in the spheres, In like beauty, and like years. No sinister fate betide The fair bridegroom and the bride. O never may black cloud Two such bright lustres shroud From the world's eye, but still shine Till fate make you both divine ! He a prince is, gravely young, Cato's head, and TuUy's tongue, Nereus' shape, Ulysses' brain ; Had he vrith these Nestor's reign. Enjoying all the rest Of Heaven (that we request). That they likewise would afford To manage these a Hector's sword. Had great Jove beheld this queen. When Europa first was seen. O'er the seas he had not brought her, Nor Agenor lost his daughter : 46 THOMAS HEYWOOD Europe, that spacious ground, Through the world so renowned. Had lost her style, and ere her death, It had been called Elizabeth. Had she then lived, Danae should Have died an Ancresse : showers of gold Had not rained down her to entrap ; All had been poured into your lap. lo had never been The great Egyptian queen. But for a goddess after death They had adored Elizabeth. Could a fairer saint be shrined, Worthier to be divined ? You equal her in virtue's fame. From whom you received your name, England's once shining star, Whose bright beams spread so far. Who but did lament the death Of that good queen Elizabeth ? To none I better may compare Your sweet self than one so rare : Like graced you are from above, You succeed her in her love. As you enjoy her name. Likewise possess her fame ; For that alone lives after death, So shall the name Elizabeth. Whilst the flower de luyce we see With our lions quartered be ; The white lion keep his place ; David's harp retain his grace ; Whilst these united are. Despite all foreign war. Four great kingdomes after death Shall memorize Elizabeth. THOMAS HEYWOOD 47 May that name be raised high, Nor in the female issue die : A joyful and glad mother prove, Protected by the powers above ; That from the royal line, Which this day doth combine With a brave prince, no fate, no death Extinguish may Elizabeth. May the branches spread so far, Famous both in peace and war. That the Roman eagle may Be instated some blest day. Despite of Rome's proud brags, Witiiin our English flags, To revive you after death ; That we may praise Elizabeth. That when your high crest is borne By the fair white unicorn, The wild-man, the greyhound, and Fierce dragon, that supporters stand. With lions red and white, Which withjhe harp unite ; Then the mlcot^ joined with these, May the Roman eagle seize. All the nymphs straw sundry posies Made of red, and of white roses ; On her bed wait all the Graces : Maids to them resign your places. Oh 1 may their nuptial love In time a blest heir prove, To make famous after death, Frederick and Elizabeth. 48 JOHN DONNE Feb.14,.6.3. AN EPITHALAMION ON FREDERICK COUNT ly^priSr PALATINE OF THE RHINE AND THE '■Poems LADY ELIZABETH, BEING MARRIED ON S^/'Sjj'. ST VALENTINE'S DAY.* Hail ! Bishop Valentine, whose day this is. All the air is thy diocis ; And all the chirping choristers And other birds are thy parishioners. Thou marry'st every year The lyric lark and the grave whispering dove. The sparrow that neglects his life for love, ^ The household bird vnth the red stomacher : Thou mak'st the blackbird speed as soon As doth the goldfinch or the halcyon. The husband cock looks out and straight is sped. And meets his wife which brings her feather-bed : This day more cheerfully than ever shine 1 This day which might inflame thyself, old Valentine 1 Till now thou warm'dst with multiplying loves Two larks, two sparrows, or two doves : All that is nothing unto this. For thou this day couplest two phcenixes. Thou mak'st a taper sec What the sun never saw, and what the Ark, (Which was of fowl and beasts the cage and park). Did not contain, one bed contains through thee ; Two phoenixes, whose joined breasts Are unto one another mutual nests, Where motion kindles such fires as shall give Young phoenixes, and yet the old shall live : Whose love and courage never shall decline, But make the whole year through, thy day, O Valentine 1 ^ Up then, fair phoenix bride, frustrate the sun 1 Thyself from thine affection Tak'st warmth enough, and from thine eye * See Introduction, p. xxxv. JOHN DONNE 49 All lesser birds will take their jollity. Up, up, fair bride, and call Thy stars from out their several boxes, take Thy rubies, pearls, and diamonds forth, and make Thyself a constellation of them all : And by their blazing signifie That a great princess falls, but doth not die. Be thou a new star that to us portends Ends of much wonder, and be thou those ends. Since thou dost this day in new glory shine. May all men date records from this day, Valentine I Come forth ! come forth ! and as one glorious flame Meeting another grows the same. So meet thy Frederick, and so To an unseparable union go : Since separation Falls not on such things as are infinite. Nor things, which are but one, can dis-unite. You're twice inseparable, great, and one. Go, then, to where the bishop stays To make you one, his way, which divers ways Must be effected ; and when all is past. And that y'are one by hearts and hands made fast, You two have one way left yourselves t' entwine Besides this bishop's knot of Bishop Valentine. But oh ! what ails the sun, that hence he stays Longer to-day than other days ? Stays he new light from these to get. And finding here such stars is loth to set? And why do you two walk So slowly paced in this procession? Is all your care but to be looked upon, And be to others spectacle and talk ? The feast VTith gluttonous delays Is eaten, and too long their meat they praise : 50 JOHN DONNE The masquers come late, and, I think, will stay Like fairies till the cock crow them away. Alas ! did not Antiquity assign A night as well as day to thee, old Valentine? They did, and night is come : and yet we see Formalities retarding thee I What mean these ladies which (as though They were to take a clock in pieces), go So nicely about the bride? A bride, before a Good-night could be said. Should vanish from her clothes into her bed As souls from bodies steal and are not spied. But now she 's laid : what though she be ? Yet there are more delays ; for where is he ? He comes and passeth through sphere after sphere. First her sheets, then her arms, then anywhere : Let not this day then, but this night be thine ; Thy day was but the eve to this, O Valentine 1 Here lies a she-sun, and a he-moon there ; She gives the best light to his sphere : Or each is both, and all, and so They unto one another nothing owe. And yet they do, but are So just and rich in that coin which they pay, That neither would nor needs forbear, nor stay ; Neither' desires to be spared nor to spare. They quickly pay their debt, and then Take no acquittances, but pay again 1 They pay, they g^ve, they lend, and so let fall No occasion to be liberal : More truth, more courage, in these two do shine Than all thy turtles have, and sparrows, Valentine 1 And by this act of these two phoenixes. Nature again restored is : For since these two are two no more. There's but one phoenix still, as was before. SIR HENRY GOODERE 51 Rest now at last, and we (As Satyrs watch the sun's uprise), will stay Waiting when your eyes opened let out day. Only desired because your face we see. Others near you shall whispering speak. And wagers lay at which side day will break; And win by observing, then, whose hand it is That opens first a curtain, hers or his : This will be tried to-morrow after nine. Till which hour we thy day enlarge, O Valentine I EPITHALAMION of the PRINCESS' MARRIAGE. Feb.M,>6i> By b H. Cr. MSS. 25,707. Which of you Muses please /:37*. Brit. To shew your cunning so, as to teach me ''^° To divide Love from Majesty, Where they do make one body, as in these? That, having laid aside That greatness which must swell Great Chronicles which that shall tell. The lower titles, bridegroom and a bride, May in this little volume yet reside; And, leaving this day's triumph, I may praise This night, for which this month doth give away two days. Since in this happy night, The same sheets may unite and wrap you two, My sheets of paper think they do Something like this if they your names unite : Except an angel's hand May only dare to strick [strike. Elizabeth and Frederick On the spheres' nine-string'd harp, which now doth stand Tuned to their names, imposing a command That I forbear that height : yet I may praise This night, for which this month doth give away two days. * See Introduction, p. xxxvii ; and for interesting information about the Gooderes, Mr O. Elton's excellent " Introduction tO Drayton," Spenser Society, 1895. 52 SIR HENRY GOODERE O most mysterious night, Which, by the setting of a sun and moon, Art clearer than a day at noon : How art thou happy by their sacred light ! Or what night is like thee? For, though by nature thou Art but a type of death, yet now Th' art root of life and long posterity ; And honoured with such virginity As that no other action so could praise This night, which to this month doth recompense two days. But though this night affords Light enough many mysteries to see. They must, as they which make them, be Naked, and not apparelled in my words. What shall my Muse do then? Like an old echoing wall. Some of those notes which spheres let fall She may send back, that my imperfect pen May give some pieces of their praise to men. And, silence being disloyal, make them praise This night, which to this month doth recompense two days. Lift up thy modest head. Great and fair bride ; and as a well-taught soul Calls not for Death, nor doth controul Death when he comes, come you unto this bed. Do not pursue nor fly. Enter, for when these sheets Open, the book of fate thee meets. Study 't awhile alone. But instantly Comes he that shall reveal it sensibly, And spend, in telling you what your fate says, This night, which to this month supplies her two lost days. And you, brave Palatine, That art the Destinies' great instrument. For this important business sent ; SIR HENRY GOODERE 53 Enter into possession of your mine. Here you may fitly feign These sheets to be a sea, And you in it an argosy, And she an island, whose discovery Spain (Which seldom used to miss) hath sought in vain.* Here end thy voyage, then, and thereby praise This night, which to this month supplies her two lost days. This is perfection's mint. Where the pure pliant gold and stamp must join. And now must turn to useful coin, And pleasure, which must take a sovereign print. Here is no thought of shame ; This is perfection's bath, Which all strength and all virtue hath ; This is perfection's sweet and sovereign balm, Which can all wounds of stormy passions calm. This being this night's force, who will not praise This night, for which this year may spare a month of days ! Now like two half-spheres set On a flat table, on these sheets they lie ; But grow a body perfectly. As half-spheres make a globe by being met. Still may you happy be, So as you need not spend So much as one wish to your end ! We'll vrish and pray whilst you enjoy, and we What length of life you wish shall plainly see By your now length'tting" out by sweet delays This night, for which this year may spare a month of days.f * Whose discovery Spain, etc. There had been talk of a proposal for her on behalf of the King of Spain. See Gardiner, Hist, of England, 1603-42, Vol. II. 153, ed. 1883. + Me jtidice, this poem justifies its disinterment from MS., notwithstanding the unavoidable and damaging comparison with Donne. 54 HENRY PEACHAM Feb.14,1613. From "^ The Period of Mourning... in Memorie oftheUte Prince, to- gether with Nuptiall _ Hymnes in Honour," &c., 1613. NUPTIAL HYMNS In Honour of the Marriage [Between Frederick, Count Palatine of the Rhine, and the Princess Elizabeth, as before.] I. All fears are fled, and from our sphere The late eclipse is vanished quite : And now we entertain the year With Hymenaeus chaste delight : Heaven, the first, hath thrown away Her weary weed of mourning hue. And waits Eliza's wedding-day In starry-spangled gown of blue. The huntress in her silver car The woods again surveyeth now: And that same bright Idalian star Appears on Vesper's vailed brow : Let Earth put on her best array, Late bathed in eye-distilled showers ; And melt ye bitter frosts away. That killed the forward hope of ours. Ye highest hills that harbour snows. And arm your heads with helms of ice. Be gardens for the Paphian rose. The lilly, violet, or de-lis : Low vallies, let your plains be spread With painted carpets of the Spring, (Whereon Eliza's foot must tread). And everywhere your odours fling. And tallest trees, with tender'st twigs. Whom winter's storm hath stripped bare. Leave off those rimy perivngs. And on with your more seemly hair. Forget, ye silver-paved floods. Your wonted rage ; and with your sound Revive the shores and shady woods That lay in deepest sorrow drowned. HENRY PEACHAM 55 Tell Amphitrite, when you meet, Eliza, princess, is a bride : And bid her with the news go greet The farthest shores at every tide ; And as ye wash high tow'red walls, With gentle murmur in each ear, Command these roydl nuptials Be solemnized everywhere. Let Thracian Boreas keep within. With eastern blasts that crops do kill, , And Auster wetting to the skin ; Be only Zephyr breathing still : Warm Zephyr to perfume the air. And scatter dov^n in silver shovrers A thousand garlands for her hair, Of blossom, branch, and sweetest flowers. With rosemarine and verdant bay. Be wall and window clad in green ; And sorrow on him who this day In court a mourner shall be seen. Let music shew her best of skill. Disports beguile the irksome night, But take, my Muse, thy ruder quill. To paint awhile this royal sight : Proclaiming first, from Thames to Rhine, Eliza, Princess Palatine. II. Nymphs of sea and land, away I This, Eliza's wedding-day. Help to dress our gallant bride With the treasures that ye hide : Some bring flowery coronets, Roses white, and violets : Doris gather from thy shore Coral, chrystal, amber, store. 56 HENRY PEACH AM Which thy queen in bracelets twists For her alabaster wrists ; While ye silver-footed girls Plat her tresses with your pearls. Others from Pactolus stream, Greet her with a diademe : Search in every rocky mount For the gems of most account : Bring ye rubies for her ear, Diamonds to fill her hair ; Emerald green and chrisolite Bind her neck more white than white. On her breast depending be The onyx, friend to chastity. Take the rest without their place ■" In borders, sleeves, her shoes, or lace. Nymphs of Niger offer plumes : Some your odours and perfumes. Dian's maids more white than milk, Fit a robe of finest silk : Dian's maids who wont to be The honour of virginity. Heavens have bestowed their grace. Her chaste desires, and angel's face. Ill.t Urania's son, who dwell'st upon The fertile top of Helicon, Chaste marriage sovereign, and dost lead The virgin to her bridal bed : lo. Hymen, Hymenaeus ! With marjoram begirt thy brow. And take the veil of yellow : now * Take the rest, etc. — i.e. Imagine the rest of the gems duly disposed, without further specification. + This poem is an adaptation of part of CatuUus's Julice et Mania Epithalainium. HENRY PEACHAM 57 Ye piny torches with your light, To golden day convert the night : lo, Hymen, Hymenxus ! See how like the Cyprian queen, Eliza comes ; as when (I ween) On Ida hill the prize she had Allotted by the Phygian lad : lo. Hymen, Hymenaeus ! As Asian myrtle fresh and fair. Which Hamadryads with their care. And duly, tending by the floods. Have taught to over-look the woods : lo, Hymen, Hymenaeus I Behold how Vesper from the sky Consenteth by his twinkling eye; And Cynthia stays her swans to see The state of this solemnity : lo, Hymen, Hymenxus 1 Wedlock, were it not for thee, We could not child nor parent see ; Armies, countries to defend, Or shepherds, hilly herds to tend : lo, Hymen, Hymenaeus 1 But, Hymen, call the nymph away. With torches' light the children stay, Whose sparks (see how 1) ascend on high As if there wanted stars in sky : lo, Hymen, Hymenaeus ! As virgin vine her elm doth wed. His oak the ivy over-spread ; So chaste desires thou join'st in one. That disunited were undone : lo, Hymen, Hymenaeus ! 58 HENRY PEACHAM But see ! her golden foot hath past The doubled threshold, and at last She doth approach her bridal-bed, Of none save Tiber envyed :* lo. Hymen, Hymenxus I Chaste marriage-bed, he sooner tells The stars, the ocean sand, or shells. That thinks to number those delights. Wherewith thou short'nest longest nights : lo. Hymen, Hymenaeus 1 With richest Tyrian purple spread, Where her dear spouse is laid on bed. Like young Ascanius, or the lad Her love the queen of Cyprus had : lo, Hymen, Hymensus I Young Frederick, of royal line, Of Cassimires, -who on the Rhine To none are second said to be For valour, bounty, piety : lo, Hymen, Hymenaeus ! Come bride-maid Venus, and undo Th' Herculean knot with fingers two ; And take the girdle from her waist. That virgins must forego at last : lo. Hymen, Hymenaeus 1 Scatter nuts without the door. The married is a child no more ; For whoso'er a wife hath wed Hath other business in his head : lo. Hymen, Hymenaeus 1 * 0/ none save Tiber, etc.. The allusion is to Rome's disappointment at a Protestant match. HENRY PEACHAM 59 Where, pass ye many an happy night, Until Lucina brings to light An hopeful prince, who may restore. In part, the loss we had before : lo. Hymen, Hymenseus I That one day we may live to see A Frederick Henry on her knee ;* Who mought to Europe give her law. And keep encroaching Hell in awe : lo. Hymen, Hymenseus 1 Upon whose brow may envy read The reconcile of love and dread ; And in whose rosy cheek we see His mother's graceful modesty : lo. Hymen, Hymenaeus I But, Muse of mine, we but molest, I doubt, with ruder song their rest : The doors are shut, and lights about Extinct ; then time thy flame were out : lo. Hymen, Hymenaeus I IV. t Th' Idalian boy no sooner with his fire Had warmed the breast of honoured Casimire, (That now he leaves the nymphs along his Rhine, T' espouse Eliza with Saint Valentine), But, smiling at the news, away he hied To Cyprus where his mother did abide. There is a mount within this sacred isle. Right opposite against seven-headed Nile, Another way affronting Pharos bright. That many a mile the seaman lends her light : *A Frederick Henry, etc. Henry, after the late prince, her brother. t This poem is a close imitation of Claudian. See Introduc- tion, p. xiii. 6o HENRY PEACHAM Here, on a plain to mortal wight unknown, Where never storm or bitter blast had blown. Or candied hoar-frost strewed the crusty earth. But ever May of merriment and mirth. An hedge the same environs all of gold ; Which Mulciber for sweet embracements sold And wanton dalliance, to the Cyprian dame, ('Tis said) and since she hath possest the same : Where still the fields with velvet green are spread. And blossoms paint the woods all white and red. No bird may perch her on the tender bough, But such for voice as Venus shall allow : The trees themselves do fall in love with either, As seems by kissing of their tops together And softly whisp'ring, when some gentle gale Chides from the mountain through the shady vale. Now from a rock within, two fountains fall, One sweet, the other bitter as the gall ; Herein doth Cupid often steep his darts. When h'is disposed to sever loving hearts. A thousand Amorets about do play (Born of the nymphs) : these only wound, they say. The common people ; Venus' darling, he Aims at the Gods, and aweful Majesty. And many a power else in this place is found. As Licence, ever hating to be bound. Wrath, easy to be reconciled, and Tears, Sly Theft, and jocund Pleasure, and pale Fears : And overhead do flutter in the boughs With painted wings. Lies, Perjuries, and Vows. Hence Age is banished. Here is seen, besides. The goddess' court, where alway she resides : This Lemnius built of gold and rarest gems, That like a mount quite hid with diadems It seems ; where art and cost with each contend. For which the eye the frame should most commend. Here Cupid dovm with weary wing did light, And jocund comes into his mother's sight HENRY PEACHAM 6i With statefuU gait : who, from a burnished throne, Embraces with ambrosian arms her son And thus begins : " The news, my lovely boy, And cause of thy arrive Emd this new joy ? Hast thou again turned lo into a cow ? Or wanton Daphne to a laurel bough? What man, or power immortal, by thy dart Is fall'n to ground, that thus revived thou art?" With, many a nectar kiss mild Love replies : " Our bow ne'er bare away a greater prize. Knows not the goddess by the fertile Rhine Young Frederick, born of imperial line. Descended from that brave Rolando slain. And world's great worthy, valiant Charlemain ? This hopeful imp is stricken vyith our bow ; We have his arms and three-fold shield to show : — Franconia's lion, and this of Baveir, A potent heir derived to Casimire. Another, argent only, long they bore Till charged by Charles the last late emperor. That as arch-sewer and elector, this He bears, saVe honour, adding nought of his. What coast or country have not heard their fame ? Or who not loved their ever-honoured name? Yet trembled at from farthest Caspian Sea And Scythian Tanais to the Danubie.* Eliza's name, I knov7, is not unknovim Unto my queen ; the second unto none For beauty, shape of body, every grace. That may in earthly majesty take place : That were not Venus daily seen of me, I would have sworn this princess had been she. Haste, Cytherea! leave thy native land. And join them quickly by the marriage band." *The author has some historical notes on this part of the poem. They are to be found, with others, in Waldron's edition. Literary Museum, 1792, Tract 4. 62 HENRY PEACHAM The queen, her son removing from her lap, Her hair of wiry gold she tresseth up ; Throws on her veil, and takes the girdle chaste. Wherewith she quiets storms and every blas't. Allays the swelling floods and furious sea ; Whereto full speedily she takes her way : And here arrived, sends forth a Cupid fair, Drest like a sea-nymph, with a silver hair. To search the deep, and bring unto the shore Some triton able to convey her o'er : Which if he did perform with nimble speed, A golden bow and shafts should be his meed. No sooner Love had dived into the main, But on the surge appeared a wondrous train Of sea-gods, tritons, nymphs, who equal strove The foremost who should aid the Queen of Love. First Neptune, mounted on a grampus, crowned With roses calmed the ocean all around : Palaemon, on a seal, with hoary locks Begirt with samphire from the neighbour rocks : An ugly whirlpool Nereus bestrides. With trident galling oft his lazy sides. Among the maids sly Glaucus hindmost lags, rushes.] Upon a porpoise brideled with flags. Next Venus comes, with all her beauteous crew. Whom dolphins in a shelly chariot drew. No nymph was there but did some gift bestow That did in Amphitrite's bosom grow. Cymothoe brought a girdle passing fair, Of silver, tvnsted with her chrystal hair : Young Spathale, a pearly carcanet, And Clotho coral good as she could get: Fair Galatea from the Persian shore, Strange gems and flowers, some unknown before : Which to Eliza, as their loves they sent. Herewith adorning Venus as she went ; Whom when they had conducted to our Thame And viewed the spacious channel of the same, HENRY PEACHAM 63 Admired our chalky cliffs, surveyed each pier, Our fertile shores, our ships, and harbours here. They back unto their boundless home do hie : But in a cloud the queen ascends the sky. And takes her way unto the royal hall, Where down she did no sooner softly fall. But clouds were fled that overcast the air. And Phoebus threw about his golden hair : Eke snow-tressed January (seldom seen) Upon his brow had got a wreath of green. Joy was in court, and jocund mirth possest The hearts of all from greatest to the least, (Yet knew they not the cause) : the windows lay Bestrowed with primrose, violets, and bay. "Now children look (quoth she) you banish hence Affairs of state, ambitious difference. Complaints and faction, melancholy fears. All parsimony, sighs, and former tears. Let nights in royal banqueting be spent. Sweet music, masques, and joyous merriment. Now Pleasure take her fill : bring Graces flowers : With torches Hymen plant the lofty towers : Twine, Concord, double garlands : Cupids you, Some gather branches from the myrtle bough. And gild the roof with waxen lights on high ; Tack, others, up rich arras busily ; Some cast about sweet waters ; others cleanse With myrrh and best Sabsean frankincense The curtains ; others sit about her bed. Or for her foot the floor with velvet spread." Which said, into the chamber of the bride. Who lay to rest, she passed unespied, And secretly instructs her how to love, Recounting every pleasure she should prove : And urgeth that each creature's born to be The propagator of posterity. And now and then she casteth in between Their legends that have faithful lovers been. 64 HENRY PEACHAM She tells of Dido, and Lucretia chaste, Camilla, Hero, Thisbe, and the rest ; And many a book she had at fingers' end. Which for her purpose oft she can commend. Now as the air 'gan more and more to clear. The goddess plainly did at last appear. Whose burnished hair the goodly room did gild, And with a sweet ambrosian odour filled ; That seeing now Eliza's goodly grace, Her dainty fingers and her fairest face, She stood amazed, and with a nectar kiss. She bowed herself and boldly uttered this : "All happiness unto the princess be, The pearl and mirror of Great Brittannie, For whose dear sake I this adventure took. And Paphos with my Cyprus sweet forsook ; Drawn by the rumour of thy princely name, And pity of the hopeful Frederick's flame. Though thou wert not a princess by thy birth. This face deserves the greatest king on earth. What hand so fits a sceptre, and what eye Did ever spark with sweeter majesty ? Thy lips the roses, whitest neck excels The mountain snow, and what is whiter else. With equal temper how the white and red (Our colours) are upon thy cheek dispread : The fingers of the morning do not shine More pleasing than those beauteous ones of thine. If Bacchus crowned his love vnth many a star, Why art thou yet uncrowned fairer far? Oh virgin 1 worthy only not of Rhine And that sweet soil, thy County Palatine, (Where Mose, the Moene, the Nah, and Nicer clear,* With nectar run against tiiy coming there). But of a world, due to those pfts of thine, Which in thee more than all thy jewels shine.'' This said, about her ivory neck she hung The Nereids' tokens, which she brought along, * i.e. Moselle, Maine, Nahe, Neckar. FRANCIS BEAUMONT 65 And with a needle curled her lovely hair ; Then gallant pearls bestowed at either ear: And o'er her head she threw her Sindon vail, That far adovm, upborne by nymphs, did trail. By this, without, a thousand virgins staid To lead along to church the princely maid. With heavenly sounds, in fall of plenteous showers Among the crew, of all the sweetest flowers ; That Cytherea leaves the virgin now, And takes her leave vrith this or other vow : "Live, royal pair, in peace and sweetest love. With all abundance blest by Heaven above 1 A thousand kisses bind your hearts together ; Your arms be weary with embracing either : And let me live to see between you twain, A Csesar bom as great as Charlemain." SONGS: Feb.14,1613. [Concluding The Masque of the Gentlemen of Gray's-Inne and the Inner Temple; performed before the King in the Ban- queting-House in White-hall, at the Marriage of the Illus- trious Frederick and Elizabeth, Prince and Princess Palatine of the Rhine, (Title in 1679 folio.)] THE FIRST SONG.* Shake off your heavy trance And leap into a dance, Such as no mortals used to tread ; Fit only for Apollo To play to ; for the moon to lead And all the stars to follow. THE SECOND SONG. On, blessed youths I for Jove doth pause, Laying aside his graver laws * These songs were intersperted with dances, and their mutual relations are indicated by prose description in The Masque, etc. 66 FRANCIS BEAUMONT For this device : And at the wedding such a pair, Each dance is taken for a prayer, Each song a sacrifice. THE THIRD SONG. Single. More pleasing were these sweet delights. If ladies wooed as well as knights : Run, every one of you, and catch A nymph in honour of this match ; And whisper boldly in her ear, "Jove will but laugh if you forswear." All. And this day's sins he doth resolve That we his priests should all absolve. THE FOURTH SONG. You should stay longer if we durst : Away I Alas I that he that first Gave Time wild wings to fly away. Has now no power to make him stay. And though these games must needs be played, I would these pair, when they are laid And not a creature nigh 'em. Might catch his scythe as he doth pass. And clip his wings, and break his glass, And keep him ever by 'em. THE FIFTH SONG. Peace and silence be the guide To the man, and to the bride. If there be a joy yet new In marriage, let it fall on you. That all the world may wonder : If we should stay, we should do worse. And turn our blessings to a curse By keeping you asunder. GEORGE WITHER 67 The mar- riage being on S. Valen- tine's Bay, the Author shows it by beginning with the salutation of a supposed Valentine, EPITHALAMION. Feb.i4,i6i3. [From Epithalamia, or Nuptial! Poems upon the most blessed and happy Marriage between the High and Mighty Prince, Frederick the Fifth, Count Palatine of the Rhine, Duke of Bavier, etc., and the most Vertttous, gracious, and thrice excellent Princesse, Elizabeth, Sole Daughter to our dread smieraigne, Jatnes, etc. (Juvenilia, 1622, but first printed in 1613, dated 1612, old style, 4to.) See Introduction, p. xxxvi.] Valentine, good morrow to thee : Love and service both I owe thee. And would wait upon thy pleasure ; But I cannot be at leisure : For I owe this day as debtor To a thousand times thy better. Hymen now will have effected What hath been so long expected : Thame, thy mistress, now unwedded. Soon must with a prince be bedded. If thou 'It see her virg^in ever, Come and do it now, or never. Where art thou, oh fair Aurora? Call in Ver and Lady Flora: And you daughters of the Morning, In yoiu: neat'st and feat'st adorning : Clear your foreheads, and be spriteful, That this day may seem delightful. All you nymphs that use the moimtains, Or delight in groves and fountains ; Shepherdesses, you that dally Either upon hill or valley ; And you daughters of the bower That acknowledge Vesta's power: Oh you sleep too long : awake ye I See how Time doth overtake ye. Hark I the lark is up and singeth. And the house with echoes ringeth. 68 GEORGE WITHER Precious hours why neglect ye, Whilst alTairs thus expect ye? Come away, upon my blessing I The bride-chamber lies to dressing : Strow the ways with leaves of roses ; Some make garlands, some make posies : 'Tis a favour, and 't may joy you That your mistress will employ you. Severn. Where's Sabrina, with her daughters That do sport about her waters : Those that with their locks of amber, H^alei. Haunt the fruitful hills of Camber ? We must have to fill the number, All the nymphs of Trent and Humber. Fie ! your haste is scarce sufficing. For the bride's awake and rising. Enter, beauties, and attend her ; All your helps and service lend her : With your quaint'st and new'st devices. Trim your lady, fair Thamisis. See, she 's ready : with joys greet her : Lads go bid the bridegroom meet her ; But from rash approach advise him. Lest a too much joy surprise him. None I e'er knew yet that dared Meet an angel unprepared. Now unto the church she hies her ; Envy bursts, if she espies her : In her gestures as she paces. Are united all the graces : Which who sees and hath his senses. Loves in spite of all defences. O most true majestic creature I Nobles, did you note her feature? GEORGE WITHER 69 Felt you not an inward motion, Tempting love to yield devotion ; And as you were even desiring, Something check you for aspiring? That's her virtue, which still tameth Loose desires, and bad thoughts blameth : For, whil'st others were unruly, She observed Diana truly ; And hath by that means obtained Gifts of her that none have gained. Yon 's the bridegroom : d' ye not spy him ? See how all the ladies eye him. Venus his perfection findeth, And no more Adonis mindeth. Much of him my heart divineth, On whose brow all virtue shineth. Two such creatures Nature would not Let one place long keep : she should not : One she'll have (she cares not whether), But our loves can spare her neither. Therefore ere we'll so be spited. They in one shall be united. Nature's self is well contented. By that means to be prevented. And behold 1 they are retired. So conjoined as we desired ; Hand in hand not only fixed, But their hearts are intermixed. Happy they, and we that see it ; For the good of Europe be it. And hear Heaven my devotion ; Make this Rhine and Thame an ocean : Tiber is the That it may virith might and wonder, Rimr which Whelm the pride of Tiber under. Rome. 70 GEORGE WITHER wkitehaii. Now yon hall their persons shroudeth, Whither all this people crowdeth : There they feasted are with plenty ; Sweet ambrosia is no dainty. Grooms quaff nectar ; for there 's meeter, Yea, more costly wines and sweeter. Young men all, for joy go ring ye, And your merriest carols sing ye I Here 's of damsels many choices : Let them tune their sweetest voices. Fet the Muses too, to cheer them : They can ravish all that hear them. Ladies, 'tis their Highness' pleasures. To behold you foot the measures : Lovely gestures addeth graces To your bright and angel faces. Give your active minds the bridle : Nothing worse than to be idle. Semel in anno ridet Apol. Worthies, your affairs forbear ye. For the state a while may spare ye : Time was, that you loved sporting ; Have you quite forgot your courting ? Joy the heart of cares beguileth : Once a year Apollo smileth. Fellow shepherds, how, I pray you. Can your flocks at this time stay you ? Let us also hie us thither ; Let 's lay all our wits together ; And some pastoral invent them. That may show the love we meant them. I myself though meanest stated, And in Court now almost hated. GEORGE WITHER 71 Will knit up my Scourge,* and venter In the midst of them to enter ; For I know there's no disclaiming, Where I look for entertaining. See, methinks, the very season. As if capable of reason, Hath lain by her native rigour : The fair sun-beams have more vigour. They are Eol's most endeared. For the air's stilled and cleared. Favims, and Iambs, and kids do play In the honour of this day : The shrill blackbird, and the thrush Hops about in every bush ; And among the tender twigs, Chant their sweet harmonious jigs. Yea, and moved by this example. They do make each grove a temple ; Where their time the best way using. They their summer loves are choosing. And unless some churl do wrong them. There's not an odd bird among them. Yet I heard as I was walking, Groves and hills by echoes talking : Reeds unto the small brooks whistling, Whil'st they danced vnth pretty rushling. Then for us to sleep 'twere pity, Since dumb creatures are so witty. But Oh Titan, thou dost dally : Hie thee to thy western valley : Abuses stript and He itoteth the mildness of the ■winter^ whichj ex- cepting that the beginn- ing was very ■windy, was as temperate as the spring. Most men are of opinion that this day every bird doth choose her mate for that year. *I myself, etc. Wither's Satires 1613 (title in margin), procured his imprisonment in the Marshalsea. He is anxious to show throughout this poem that he can praise virtue in great ones, as well as scourge their vices. 72 GEORGE WITHER By these he means the two Masques^ one o;f them ieinff pre- sented by the Lords, the other by the Gentry. Let this night one hour borrow : She shall pay 't again to-morrow : And if thou 'It that favour do them, Send thy sister Phcebe to them. But she 's come herself unasked, And brings gods and heroes masked. None yet saw, or heard in story. Such immortal mortal glory. View not without preparation, Lest you faint in admiration. Say, my lords, and speak truth barely. Moved they not exceeding rarely 7 Did they not such praises merit, As if flesh had all been spirit 7 True, indeed, yet I must tell them. There was one did far excel them. But, alas 1 this is ill dealing ; Night unawares away is stealing : Their delay the poor bed wrongeth. That for bride with bridegroom longeth, And above all other places. Must be blest with their embraces. Revellers, then now forbear ye. And imto your rests prepare ye : Let's avrhile your absence borrow; Sleep to-night and dance to-morrow. We could well allow your courting. But 'twill hinder better sporting. They are gone, and night all lonely. Leaves the bride with bridegroom only. Muse now tell (for thou hast power To fly thorough wall or tower :) What contentments their hearts cheareth, And how lovely she appeareth. GEORGE WITHER 73 And yet do not : tell it no man : Rare conceits may so grow common. Do not to the vulgar show them ; ('Tis enough that thou dost know them.) Their ill hearts are but the centre, Where all misconceivings enter. But thou, Luna, that dost lightly Haunt our downs and forests nightly : Thou that favour'st generation, And art help to procreation : See their issue thou so cherish, I may live to see it flourish. And you planets, in whose power Doth consist these lives of our ; You that teach us divinations, Help, with all your constellations. How to frame in her a creature. Blest in fortime, wit, and feature. Lastly, Oh you angels ward them ; Set your sacred spells to guard them ; Chase away such fears or terrors. As, not being, seem through errors : Yea, let not a dream's molesting Make them start when they are resting. But Thou chiefly, most adored. That should'st only be implored : Thou to whom my meaning tendeth. Whither e'er in show it bendeth : Let them rest to-night from sorrow. And awake with joy to-morrow. Oh, to my request be heedful. Grant them that, and all things needful. Let not these my strains of folly Make true prayer be unholy : But if I have here offended. Help, forgfive, and see it mended. 74 JOHN DONNE Deign me this. And if my Muse's Hcisty issue she peruses, Make it unto her seem grateful, Though to all the world else hateful. But howe'er, yet, soul, persever Thus to wish her good for e7er. ♦ EPITHALAMION MADE AT LINCOLN'S INN.* fo^'- , The sunbeams in the East are spread : humously _,.,, ,. printed in Leave, leave, fair bnde, your solitary bed 1 b/rS*'' ^° '°°''® ®''*'' y°" return to it alone, &c. 1633.' It nurseth sadness ; and your body's print Like to a grave the yielding down doth dint. You and your other you meet there anon : Put forth, put forth that warm balm-breathing thigh. Which, when next time you in these sheets will smother. There it must meet another. Which never was, but must be oft more nigh. Come glad from thence, go gladder than you came : To-day put on perfection, and a woman's name. Daughters of London, you which be Our golden mines and furnished treasury : You which are angels, yet still bring with you Thousands of angels t on your marriage days ; Help with your presence, and devise to praise These rites, which also unto you grow due. Conceitedly dress her ; and be assigned By you fit place for every flower and jewel ; Make her for love fit fuel, As gay as Flora and as rich as Inde : So may she fair and rich, in nothing lame, To-day put on perfection and a woman's name. * Donne was a student at Lincoln's Inn 1592-6, and reader there 1616-22. If Mr Chambers, in his edition of Donne {Muses' Library, Vol. I. note) is correct in conjecturally assigning this poem to the prior period, its proper place is very early in this series. t Angels. Alluding to the old coin so called, value los. JOHN DONNE 75 And you, frolic patricians, Sons of those senators, wealth's deep oceans ; Ye painted courtiers, barrels of others' wits ; Ye countrymen, -who but your besists love none ; Ye of those Fellowships— whereof he 's one— Of study and play make strange Heraaphrodits ; Here shine I this bridegroom to the Temple bring. Lo I in yon path, which store of strowed flowers graceth. The sober virg^in paceth ; Except my sight fail, 'tis no other thing. Weep not, nor blush ; here is no grief nor shame : To-day put on perfection, and a woman's name. Thy two-leaved gates, fair Temple unfold. And these two in thy sacred bosom hold. Till, mystically joined, but one they be. Then may thy lean and hunger-starved wojnb Long time expect their bodies, and thei;^ton)]!) ! Long after their own parents fatten thee. All elder claims, and all cold barrenness. All yielding to new loves be far for ever, ^Ahlich might these two dissever 1 Always all th' other may each one possess I For the best bride, best worthy of praise and fame. To-day puts on perfection, and a woman's name. Winter days bring much delight Not for themselves, but for they soon bring night. Other sweets wait thee than these divers meats ; Other disports than dancing jollities ; Other love tricks than glancing with the eyes. But that the sun still in our half sphere sweats. He flies in winter, but he now stands still ; Yet shadows turn ; noon point he hath attained ; His steeds will be restrained. But gallop lively dovTn the western hill : Thou shalt, when he hath run the Heavens' half frame. To-night put on perfection, and a woman's name. 76 JOHN DONNE The amorous evening star is rose : Why, then, should not our amorous star enclose Herself in her wished bed ? Release your strings, Musicians : and dancers, take some truce With these your pleasing labours ; for great use As much weariness as perfection brings. You, and not only you, but all toiled beasts Rest duly at night ; all liieir toils are dispenced : But in their beds commenced Are other labours, and more dainty feasts. She goes a maid, 'who, lest she turn the same. To-night puts on perfection, and a woman's name. Thy virgin's girdle now untie, And in thy nuptial bed (Love's altar), lie A pleasing sacrifice : now dispossess Thee of these chains and robes, which were put on T' adorn the day, not thee ; for thou alone Like virtue and truth art best in nakedness. This bed is only to virg^inity A grave, but to a better state a cradle : Till now thou wast but able To be what now thou art ; then, that by thee No more be said, I may be, but, / avi. To-night put on perfection, and a woman's name. Ev'n like a faithful man, content That this life for a better should be spent ; So she a mother's rich stile doth prefer ; And, at the bridegroom's wished approach, doth lie, Like an appointed lamb, when tenderly The priest comes on his knees t' embowel her. Now sleep, or watch vnth more joy ; and oh light Of heaven I to-morrow rise thou hot and early : This sun will love so dearly Her rest, that long, long we shall want her sight Wonders are wrought, for she which had no maim,* To-night puts on perfection, and a woman's name. * Maim. In later editions, name. JOHN DONNE 77 NUPTIAL SONG: Dec.26,1613. From an " Eclogue, December 26, 1613," [relating to the humously marriage of the Earl of Somerset and the Countess of printed in Essex. See Introduction, p. xxx.] hvTlD'' I. The Time of the Marriage. ^''' '*"■ Thou art reprieved, old year, thou shalt not die, Though thou upon thy death-bed lie. And should'st within five days expire ; Yet thou art rescued from a mightier fire Than thy old soul, the sun, When he doth in his largest circle run. The passage of the West or East would thaw, And open wide their easy liquid jaw To all our ships, could a Promethean art Either unto the Northern Pole impart The fire of these inflaming eyes, or of this loving heart. II. Equality of Persons. , But, undisceming Muse, which heart, which eyes In this new couple dost thou prize, When his eye as inflaming is As her's, and her heart loves as well as his? Be tried by beauty, and then The bridegroom is a maid and not a man : If by that manly courage they be tried Which scorns unjust opinion, then the bride Becomes a man. Should chance or envy's art Divide these two, whom Nature scarce did part, Since both have the inflaming eye, and both the loving heart? III. Raising of the Bridegroom. Though it be some divorce to think of you Single, so much one are you two. Let me here contemplate thee First, cheerful bridegroom ; and first let me see How thou prevent'st the sun, And his red foaming horses dost outrun : 78 JOHN DONNE How, having laid down in thy sovereign's breast All businesses, from thence to re-invest Them when these triumphs cease, thou forward art To shew to her who doth the like impart, The fire of thy inflaming eyes, and of thy loving heart. IV. Raising of the Bride. But now to thee, fair bride, it is some wrong To think thou wert in bed so long : Since soon thou liest down first, 'tis fit Thou in first rising should allow for it. Powder thy radiant hair. Which, if without such ashes thou would'st wear, Thou, who to all which come to look upon, Wert meant for Phcebus, would'st be Phaeton. *: For our ease give thine eyes th' unusual part Of joy, a tear ; so quencht, thou may'st impart To us that come thy inflaming eyes, to him thy loving heart. V. Her Apparelling. Thus thou descend'st to our infirmity. Who can the sun in water see : So dost thou, when in silk and gold Thou cloud'st thyself. Since we which do behold Are dust and worms, 'tis just Our objects be the fruits of worms and dust. Let every jewel be a glorious star I Yet stars are not so pure as their spheres are ; And though thou stoop t' appear to us in part. Still in that picture thou entirely art, Which thy inflaming eyes have made within his loving heart VI. Going to the Chapel. Now from your East you issue forth, and we — As men which through a cypress see The rising sun, do think it two — So as you go to church do think of you. JOHN DONNE 79 But that veil being gone By the Church rites, you are from thenceforth one. The Church Triumphant made this match before, And now the Militant doth strive no more. Then, reverend priest, who God's recorder art, Do from his dictates to these two impart All blessings which are seen or thought by angel's eye or heart I VII. The Benediction. Blest pair of swans, Oh may you inter-bring Daily new joys, and never sing ! * Live till all g^rounds of wishes fail, Till honour, yea till wisdom grow so stale That new great heights to try. It must serve your ambition to die. Raise heirs : and may here, to the world's end, live Heirs from this king to take thanks, you to give. Nature and grace do all, and nothing Art ; May never age or error overthwart With any West these radiant eyes, vwth any North this heart I VIII. Feasts and Revels. But you are over-blest. Plenty this day Injures ; it causeth time to stay. The tables groan, as though this feast Would as the flood destroy all fowl and beast : And were the doctrine new That &e Earth moved, this day would make it true ; For every part to dance and revel goes. They tread the air, and fall not where they rose. Though six hours since the sun to bed did part, The masques and banquets will not yet impart A sunset to these weary eyes, a centre to this heart. * Daily new joys, and never sing. Alluding to the old fancy that swans sing at their death, and then only. 8o JOHN DONNE IX. The Bride's Going to Bed. What mean'st thou, bride, this company to keep. To sit up till thou fain wouldst sleep f Thou may'st not, when thou 'rt laid, do so : Thyself must to him a new banquet grow, And you must entertain And do all this day's dances o'er again. Know that if sun and moon together do Rise in one point, they do not set so too : Therefore thou may'st, fair bride, to bed depart ; Thou art not gone, being gone ; where'er thou art. Thou leav'st in him thy watchful eyes, in him thy loving heart. X. The Bridegroom's Coming. * As he that sees a star fall runs apace. And finds a jelly in the place ; So doth the bridegroom haste as much, Being told this star is fal'n, and finds her such. And as friends may look strange By a new fashion or apparel's change. Their souls, though long acquainted they had been, These clothes, their bodies, never yet had seen. Therefore, at first she modestly might start. But must forthvTith surrender every part As freely as each to each before gave either hand or heart. XI. The Good-night. Now, as in TuUia's tomb one lamp burnt clear. Unchanged for fifteen hundred year. May these love-lamps we here enshrine. In warmth, light, lasting, equal the divine ! Fire ever doth aspire. And makes all like itself, turns all to fire. But ends in ashes ; which these cannot do, For none of these is fuel, but fire too. This is joy's bonfire, then, when love's strong arts Make of so noble individual parts One fire of four inflaming eyes, and of two loving hearts. GEORGE CHAPMAN 8l PARCARUM EPITHALAMION. The Mar- [From Andromeda Liberata, or the Nuptials of Perseus and 26, 1613. Andromeda, dedicated to The Right Worthily Honoured The Poem, Robert, Earl of Somerset, etc., and his most noble Lady, the '*'■•• Lady Frances. "[* O you, this kingdom's glory, that shall be Parents to so renowned a progeny As Earth shall envy and Heaven glory in. Accept of their lives' threads vyhich Fate shall spin, Their true-spoke oracle, and live to see Your sons' sons enter such a progeny. As to the last times of the world shall last. Haste you that guide the web, haste, spindles, haste. See Hesperus, with nuptial wishes crowned ; Take and enjoy : in all ye wish, abound. Abound, for who should wish crown with her store, But you that slew what barren made the shore? You that in winter make your spring to come. Your summer needs must be Elysium : A race of mere souls springing, that shall cast Their bodies off in cares, and all joys taste. Haste then that sacred web, haste, spindles, haste. Jove loves not many : therefore let those few Tliat his gifts grace, affect still to renew. For none can last the same ; that proper is To only more than semi-deities. To last yet by renewing, all that have More merit than to make this birth their grave, As in themselves life, Ufe in others save ; First to be great, seek ; then loved, then to last. Haste you that g^de the web, haste, spindles, haste. *See Introduction, p. xxxi. To understand this poem, one must remember Chapman's standpoint — viz. , that the divorce and re-marriage made perpetuation of self in children possible. 82 GEORGE CHAPMAN She comes, O bridegroom, show thyself inflamed, And of what tender tinder Love is flamed : Catch with each spark, her beauties hurl about, Nay, with each thought of her be rapt throughout : Melt let thy liver, pant thy startled heart, Mount Love on earthquakes in thy every part : A thousand hues on thine let her looks cast, Dissolve thyself to be by her embraced. Haste ye that g^ide the web, haste, spindles, haste. As in each body there is ebb and flood. Of blood in every vein, of spirits in blood ; Of joys in spirits, of the soul in joys, And nature through your lives this change employs To make her constant ; so each mind retains Manners and customs where vicissitude reigns, Opinions, pleasures, which such change enchains. And in this interchange all man doth last. Haste then who guide the web, haste, spindles, haste. Who body loves best, feeds on daintiest meats. Who fairest seed seeks, fairest woman gets ; Who loves the mind, with loveliest disciplines Loves to inform her, in which verity shines. Her beauty yet we see not, since not her ; But bodies, being her forms, who fair forms bear We view, and chiefly seek her beauties there : The fairest, then, for fair birth see embraced. Haste ye that guide the web, haste, spindles, haste. Stars ye are now and overshine the earth ; Stars shall ye be hereafter, and your birth In bodies rule here, as yourselves in Heaven : What here detraction steals shall there be given. The bond that here you freed shall triumph there. The chain that touched her wrist shall be a star. Your beauties far can view, so bright they are : CHRISTOPHER BROOKE 83 Like you shall be your birth, which grace disgraced. Haste ye that rule the web, hsiste, spindles, haste.* ¥ AN EPITHALAMIUM, Or a Nuptial Song, applied to the Ceremonies of Marriage. Aurora's blush, the ensign of the day, Hath waked the god of light from Tithon's bower. Who on our bride and bridegroom doth display His golden beams, auspicious to this hour. Now busy maidens strew sweet flowers. Much like our bride in virgin state ; Now fresh, then pressed, soon dying. The death is sweet, and must be yours. Time goes on crutches till that date. Birds fledged must needs be flying. Lead on I while Phoebus' lights and Hymen's fires Inflame each heart with zeal to Love's desires. Chorus — lo to Hymen 1 Psans sing To Hymen and my Muses' king I Forth, honoured groom ! behold, not far behind. Your willing bride led by two strengthless boys 1 For Venus' doves, or thread but single twined, May draw a virgin, light in marriage joys. Vesta grows pale; her flame expires, As ye come under Juno's fane To ofier at Jove's shrine The sympathy of hearts' desires. From "England's Helicon." Printed first in 1614 edition. Sunrising. Strewing of Jlmvers. Goin^ to church. Bridc'hoys. * Chapman is well-nigh the obscurest of poets. I paraphrase : Illustrious as ye are now, ye shall be stars in heaven hereafter, when your children ("your birth ") shallrule here. Any scandal you suffer new will be compensated by glory there, where the bride's sufferance of a cruel tie, from which you freed her, shall be a glory to her. Yoti are like stars in your beauty now ; like them its light penetrates far. Your children will be like you ; upon whose birth you must yet be prepared to find dishonourable imputa- tions cast, though that birth is due to the noble course ye have taken. 84 CHRISTOPHER BROOKE Knitting the knot that doth contain Two souls in Gordian twine. The rites are done ; and now, as 'tis the guise, Love's fast by day a feast must solemnize. Chorus — lo to Hymen I Paeans sing To Hymen, and my Muses' king I / Dinner. The board being spread, furnished with various plenties. The bride's fair object in the middle placed, While she drinks nectar, eats ambrosial dainties. And like a goddess is admired and graced. Bacchus and Ceres fill their veins ; Each heart begins to ope a vent, And now the healths go round : Their bloods are warmed, cheered are their brains. All do applaud their love's consent ; So Love with cheer is crowned. Let sensual souls joy in full bowls, sweet dishes ; True hearts and tongues accord in joyful wishes. Chorus — lo to Hymen ! Peeans sing To Hymen, and my Muses' king I A/iernoon. Music, Supper. Sunset. Now whiles slow hours do feed the time's delay. Confused discourse, vrith music mixed among. Fills up the semi-circle of the day : Now draws the date our lovers wished so long. A bounteous hand the board hath spread ; Lysus stirs their bloods anew, All jovial, full of cheer ; But Phoebus, see, is gone to bed ! Lo, Hesperus appears in view. And twinkles in his sphere! Now ne plus ultra ; end as you beg^in ; Ye waste good hours ; time lost in love is sin. Chorus — lo to Hymen! Paeans sing To Hymen, and my Muses' king I CHRISTOPHER BROOKE 85 Break oif your compliment : music, be dumb ; And pull your cases o'er your fiddles' ears. Cry not " A hall, a hall 1 " but chamber-room ; Dancing is lame ; youth 's old at twenty years. Matrons, ye know what follows next; Going tohed. Conduct the shame-faced bride to bed, Though to her little rest. Ye well can comment on the text. And, in Love's learning deeply read, Advise and teach the best. Forward 's the word 1 y' are also in this arrant ; Wives g^ive the word, their husbands give the warrant. Chorus— lo to Hymen ! Pseans sing To Hymen, and my Muses' king ! Now droops our bride, and in her virgin state Modesty in Seems like Electra mongst the Pleiades ; e n e. So shrinks a maid when her Herculean mate Must pluck the fruit in her Hesperides. As she's a bride, she glorious shines. Like Cynthia, from the sun's bright sphere Attracting all men's eyes ; But as she's virgin, wanes and pines. As to the man she approacheth near ; So maiden gloty dies. But virgin beams no real brightness render. If they do shine, in dark to show their splendour. Cliorus — lo to Hymen ! Paeans sing To Hymen, and my Muses' king ! Then let the dark foil of the genial bed Extend her brightness to his inward sight ; And by his sense he will be eas'ly led To know her virtue by the absent light. Youths, take his points, your wonted right ; f"nts. And maidens, take your due, her garters ; GarUn. 86 RICHARD BRAITHWAITE Take hence the lights, begone ! Love calls to arms, duel his fight ; Then all remove out of his quarters. And leave them both alone ; That vTith substantial heat they may embrace. And know Love's essence, with his outward grace. Chorus— \o to Hymen 1 Paeans sing To Hymen, and my Muses' king! Hence Jealousy, rival to Love's delight ; Sow not thy seed of strife in these two hearts ; May never cold affect, or spleenful spite Confound this music of agreeing parts ; But time, that steals the virtual heat Where nature keeps the vital fire, (My heart speaks in my tongue,) Supply with fuel life's chief seat Through the strong fervour of desire : Love living, and live long 1 And ev'n as thunder riseth 'gainst the wind. So may ye fight vinth age and conquer kind. Chorus — lo to Hymen I Paeans sing To Hymen, and my Muses' king ! [EPITHALAMIUM.]* Strappado All hail to Hymen and this marriage day I gr '';*„ Strew rushes, [maids,] and quickly come away. i6i5. ' Bring in your flowers, and give of each of them To such as loved and are forsaken men : For well I know so loving is the bride, So courteous and so liberal beside Of her discreet affection, I dare say None must depart unsatisfied away. * This example is the conclusion of a poem, apparently satirical, addressed to " his much admired (though unacquainted) friend, Don Moriano Dell Castello." RICHARD BRAITHWAITE 87 Strew rushes, maids, and even as you strew, Think one day, maids, like will be done for you : Strew you, I '11 sing ; or if you like not choice. Sing you, I '11 strew : you have the better voice. Crowned be thou Queen of Love By those glorious powers above : Love and Beauty joined together May they col and kiss each other, And, in midst of their delight. Show thee pleasure in the night ; For where acts of love resort. Longest nights seem too too short. May thou sleeping dream of that, Which thou waking dost partake. That both sleep and watching may Make the darkest night seem day I As a fort besieged, rest, Yielding most when seeming lest : [least. Or in pleasures may thy smile Burnish like the camomile. Which in verdure is increst [increast. Most when it is most deprest 1 * Vertues as they do attend thee. So may sovereign thoughts defend thee! Acting in thy love VTith him. Wedlock's actions are no sin ; Who in Hymen's bands is joined, And in sacred love combined. To remain [for] ever thine : He thy picture, thou his shrine. Thou the metal, he the mint, Thou the wax, he the print. He the lanthorn, thou the lamp, Thou the bullion, he the stamp, Thou the figure, he the feature, He thy former, thou his creature. Cf. Falstafi's Eiiphuistic simile, Henry IV. p'- i. Act 2, so. iv. 88 ROBERT HERRICK He the image, leg, and limb. Thou the mould to cast him in : He the plummet, thou the centre. Thou to shelter, he to enter. Thou the park or shady vale, " He the dog that freth's the pale" : [iic Hammer he to strike alone. Anvil thou to beat upon. More I could, but more I vrill not, Since to speak more much it skills not ; Only I vsill here extend Th' period of my speech as friend. And express what I protest Comes from th' centre of my breast, Tliat my protestations may Bear record another day. lo Hymen I crown the night Of these nuptials with delight I No more, no more : much honour ay betide The lofty bridegroom and the lovely bride ; That their succeeding days smd years may say, Each day appears like to a marriage day. But now retire, dark shades have lodged the sun : Put up thy pipes, for now thy lays are done. at Finis Epithalami. i AN EPITHALAMIE TO SIR THOMAS SOUTH- Probabb not mud 'fe',""'"' WELL AND HIS LADY.^ f"'"" ",p'^" Now, now 's the time so oft by truth 1648. ' Promised should come to crown your youth. Then, fair ones, do not wrong Your joys by staying long : Or let Love's fire go out, By ling'ring thus in doubt : * Dr Grosart {Herrick, ed. 1876, i. 90) refers this Epitha- lamium to a Sir Thomas Southwell who was knighted 21st July 1615, and died in 1642, then of Hangleton, near Brighton. His widow, Mary, died in January of the following year. ROBERT HERRICK 89 But learn that time once lost Is ne'er redeemed by cost. Then away I come Hymen, guide To the bed the bashful bride I Is it (sweet maid) your fault, these holy Bridal rites go on so slowly? Dear, is it this you dread, The loss of maidenhead ? Believe me ; you will most Esteem it when 'tis lost : Then it no longer keep. Lest issue lie cisleep. Then away 1 come Hymen, guide To the bed the bashful bride 1 These precious-pearly-purling tears But spring from ceremonious fears, And 'tis but native shame That hides the loving flame : And may a while controul The soft and amorous soul ; But yet. Love's fire will waste Such bashfulness at last Then away I come Hymen, guide To the bed the bashful bride I Night now hath watched herself half blind ; Yet not a maidenhead resigned 1 'Tis strange ye will not fly To Love's sv/eet mystery. Might yon full moon the sweets Have, promised to your sheets ; She soon would leave her sphere, To be admitted there. Then away I come Hymen, guide To the bed the bashful bride! On, on devoutly, make no stay; While Domiduca leads the way : 90 ROBERT HERRICK And Genius who attends The bed for lucky ends : With Juno goes the Hours, And Graces strewing flowers : And the boys with sweet tunes sing, Hymen, O Hymen bring Home the turtles ; Hymen guide To the bed the bashful bride ! Behold I how Hymen's taper-light Shews you how much is spent of night. See, see the bridegroom's torch Half wasted in the porch. And now those tapel-s five, That shew the womb shall thrive : Their silvery flames advance. To tell all prosperous chance Still shall crown the happy life Of the goodman and the wife. Move forward then your rosy feet. And make whate'er they touch turn sweet. May all, like flowery meads Smell, where your soft foot treads ; And every thing assume To it, the like perfume As Zephirus, when he 'spires Through woodbine and sweet-briars. Then away ! come Hymen, guide To the bed the bashful bride ! And now the yellow veil, at last, Over her fragrant cheek is cast. Now seems she to express A bashful willingness, Shewing a heart consenting, As with a will repenting. Then gently lead her on With vrise suspicion ; ROBERT HERRICK 91 For that matrons say, a measure Of that passion sweetens pleasure. You, you that be of her nearest kin, Now o'er the threshold force her in. But to avert the worst, Let her, her fillets first Knit to the posts : this point Rememb'ring, to anoint The sides : for 'tis a charm Strong against future harm : And the evil deads, the which There was hidden by the witch." O Venus ! thou to whom is known The best way how to loose the zone Of virgins ; tell the maid ' She need not be afraid : And bid the youth apply Close kisses, if she cry : And charge, he not forbears Her, though she woo with tears. Tell them, now they must adventer. Since that Love and Night bid enter. No fatal owl the bedstead keeps. With direful notes to fright your sleeps : No Furies, here about, To put the tapers out. Watch, or did make the bed : 'Tis omen full of dread : But all fair signs appear Within the chamber here. Juno here, far off, doth stand Cooling sleep with charming wand. * And the evil deads, etc. Deads is a verb, and not = deeds. Witches were supposed to bury sorcerous drugs under the thresh- old "to the destroying of marriage amity or the power of generation." See Jonson's notes to The Masque of Hymen. revels. 92 ROBERT HERRICK Virgptas, weep not ; 'twill come, when, As she, so you'll be ripe for men. Then grieve her not with saying. She must no more a-maying : Or by rose-buds divine, Who'll be her Valentine. pranks,"! Nor name those wanton reaks Y'ave had at barley-breaks.* But now kiss her, and thus say, Take time lady while ye may. Now bar the doors ; the bridegroom puts The eager boys to gather nuts. And now, both Love and Time To their full height do clime : O g^ive them active heat And moisture, both complete : Fit organs for increase. To keep and to release That, which may the honoured stem Circle with a diadem I And now, behold ! the bed or couch That ne'er knew bride's or bridegroom's touch. Feels in itself a fire ; And tickled vrith desire. Pants with a downy breast, As vTith a heart possest : Shrugging as it did move, Ev'n with the soul of love. And, oh I had it but a tongue. Doves, 'twould say, ye bill too long. O enter, then I but see ye shun A sleep, until the act be done. * Barley-breaks. A game resembling that still common at schools, in which a couple stationed in the middle have to inter- cept players rushing from goals at either end of the space chosen. See Dyce's Glossary to Shakespeare's Works for a full account. JOHN FLETCHER 93 Let kisses, in their close, Breathe as the damask rose: Or sweet, as is that gum Doth from Panchaia come. Teach Nature now to know, Lips can make cherries grow Sooner, than she, ever yet In her wisdom could beget. On your minutes, hours, days, months, years. Drop the fat blessing of the spheres. That good, which Heaven can give To make you bravely live. Fall like a spangling dew. By day and night on you. May Fortune's lily hand Open at your command ; With all lucky birds to side With the bridegroom, and the bride ! Let bounteous Fate your spindles full Fill, and wind up, with whitest wool. Let them not cut the thread Of life, until ye bid. May death yet come at last ; And not with desperate haste: But when ye both can say. Come, let us now away. Be ye to the barn then borne, Two, like two ripe shocks of corn. AN EPITHALAMION SONG AT THE From "The WEDDING. Little French Come away, bring on the bride, ^"^""i And place her by her lover's side : 1620 (?) °"' You, fair troop of maids, attend her ; 'e'" n-'" Pure and holy thoughts befriend her. ' ■" Blush, and wish, you virgins all. Many such fair nights may fall. 94 SIR JOHN BEAUMONT Chorus, Hymen, fill the house with joy, All thy sacred fires employ : Bless the bed with holy love ; Now fair orb of beauty move. Mayi6,i62o AN EPITHALAMIUM TO MY LORD MARQUESS OF BUCKINGHAM, AND TO HIS FAIR AND VIRTUOUS LADY.* Severe and serious Muse, Whose quill the name of love declines. Be not too nice, nor this dear work refuse : Here Venus stirs no flame, nor Cupid guides thy lines, But modest Hymen shakes his torch, and chaste Lucina shines. The bridegroom's stars arise I Maids, turn your sight, your faces hide, Lest ye be shipwrecked in those sparkling eyes, Fit to be seen by none, but by his lovely bride : If him Narcissus should behold, he would forget his pride. And thou, fair nymph, appear With blushes like the purple morn : If now thine ears vnll be content to hear The title of a vwfe, we shortly will adorn Thee vrith a joyful mother's name, when some sweet child is bom. * Lady Catherine Manners, daughter of the Earl of Rutland, and the greatest match in the kingdom. This poem, without reference to its publication as Sir John Beaumont's by his son, in Bosworth Field, etc., 1629, was claimed as Sir Henry Goodere's by Mr G. F. Warner (note in Poems from Sir Kenelm Digby's Papers, etc., Roxburghe Club, 1877). Refer- ence to the MS., of which the text shows no variations of importance, has revealed no reason to question Beaumont's authorship. SIR JOHN BEAUMONT 95 We wish a son, whose smile, Whose beauty may proclaim him thine ; Who may be worthy of his father's style, May answer to our hopes, and strictly may combine The happy height of Villier's race with noble Rutland's line. Let both their heads be crowned With choicest flowers, which shall presage That love shall flourish and deUghts abound ; Time, add thou many days, nay ages to their age ; Yet never must thy freezing arm their holy fires assuage. Now, when they join their hands. Behold, how fair that knot appears I O may the firmness of these nuptial bands Resemble that bright line, the measure of the years. Which makes a league between the poles, and joins the hemispheres 1 ¥ AN EPITHALAMIUM UPON THE HAPPY May i, 1625, MARRIAGE OF OUR SOVEREIGN LORD, cUr&d KING CHARLES, AND OUR GRACIOUS Henrietta LADY, QUEEN MARY. clnte'bury, The ocean long contended — but in vain — ■'""^ '3- To part our shore from France. Let Neptune shake his mace, and swelling waves advance : The former union now returns again. This isle shall once more kiss the main, [=ni.iinland. Joined with a flowery bridge of love, on which the Graces dance. Leander here no dang'rous journey takes. To reach his Hero's hand : Our Hellespont virith ships becomes as firm as land. When this sweet nymph her place of birth forsakes ; And England signs of welcome makes. As many as our gladsome coasts have little grains of sand. 96 SIR JOHN BEAUMONT That voice, in which the Continent was blest, Now to this island calls The living woods and rocks, to frame new rising walls : The moving hills salute this happy guest. The rivers to her service prest, Seine vrith Thames, Garonne to Trent, and Loire to Severn falls. The royal pair, the bridegroom and the bride. With equal glory shine : Both full of sparkling light, both sprung from race divine. Their princely fathers, Europe's highest pride, The western world did sweetly guide : To them as fathers of their realms, we golden crowns assign. Great Henry, never vanquished in the field,* Rebellious foes could tame. The wisdom of our James bred terror in his name : So that his proudest adversaries yield. Glad to be guarded with his shield. Where Peace with drops of heavenly dew supprest Dissention's flame. Our Charles and Maty now their course prepare. Like those two greater lights. Which God in midst of Heaven exalted to our sights To guide our footsteps with perpetuEd care ; Time's happy changes to declare : The one affords us healthful days, the other quiet nights. See how the planets and each lesser fire Along the Zodiac glide, And in his stately train their offices divide ! No star remains exempted from this quire. But all are joined in one desire. To move, as these their wheels shall turn, and rest where they abide. * Henri Quatre. JOSHUA SYLVESTER 9^ What can these shouts and glittering shows portend, But never-fading joys ? The lords in rich attire, the people with their noise. Express to what a. height their hopes ascend, Which like a circle have no end : Their strength no furious tempests shake, nor creeping age destroys. On this foundation we expect to build The towers of earthly bliss. Mirth shall attend on Health, and Peace shall Plenty kiss : The trees vnth fruit, with flowers our gardens filled. Sweet honey from the leaves distilled ; For now Astrsea's reign appears to be a type of this. O may our children with our ravished eyes A race of sons behold, Whose birth shall change our ir'n to silver, brass to gold I Proceed, white hours, that from this stock may rise Victorious kings, whom Fame shall prize More dearly than all other names within her book enrolled. EPITHALAMION.* O you that on the double mountain dwell. Printed And daily drink of the Castalian well; among oiher If any Muse among your sacred number po'lil!l%ith Have power to waken, from a dying slumber, S.'strans- A dull conceit, drowned in a gulf of grief, DuBartas. In hapless ruin, hopeless of relief : j'™'" '°''°' Vouchsafe, sweet sisters, to assist me so That for a time I may forget my woe. Or, at the least, my sad thoughts so beguile That sighs may sing and tears themselves may smile. While I, in honour of a happy choice, To cheerful lays tune my lamenting voice; Making the mountains and the vallies ring. And all the young men and the maidens sing : * For Martha Nicolson : see the acrostics, pp. 98-9. G 98 JOSHUA SYLVESTER All earthly joys and all Heaven's bliss betide Our joyful bridegroom and his gentle bride. Then, peace ! complaint, and pack thee hence proud sorrow, I must go bid my merry Greeks good-morrow. Good-morrow, gallants : thus beg^s our game : What 1 fast asleep I fie, sluggards, fie for shame I For shame shake off this humour from your eyes ; You have o'erslept : 'tis more than time to rise. Behold, already in the ruddy East Bright Erycina with the beaming crest Calls up Aurora : and she, rose-like blushing. From aged Tithon's cold arms quickly rushing. Opens the wide gates of the welcome day. And with a beck summons the sun away: Who, quickly moving on his glistering chair, Courseth his nimble coursers through the air With swifter pace than when he did pursue The laurel-changed nymph that from him flew ; Fearing, perhaps, (as well he might) to miss A rarer object than those loves of his : Such, as at sight, (but for the kind respect Of loyal friendship to a dear elect Child of the Muses,) had with hotter fire Inflamed the wanton Delphian God's desire. Altars adorned with bliss-presaging lights. In saffron robes, and all his solemn rites. Thrice sacred Hymen shall with smiling cheer Unite in one two turtles loving dear ; And chain with holy charms their willing hands. Whose hearts are linked in love's eternal bands. M ild virtue's mirror, beauty's monument, A domed with Heaven's praise, and Earth's perfection : R eceive, I pray you, with a brow unbent, T his petty pledge of my poor pure affection. H ad I the Indian's golden heaps and hoards, A richer present would I then present you : JOSHUA SYLVESTER 99 N ow, such poor fruits as my bare field affords, I nstead of those, here have I rudely sent you. C ount not the gift's worth, but the giver's will : O ft, mighty princes have accepted small things. L ike as the air all empty parte doth fill, S o perfect friendship doth supply for all things. be it ever so I so never smart N or teen shall trouble the soon calm in heart.* M ind first your maker in your days of youth : A sk grace of him to govern well your ways : R everence your husband with unspotted truth : T ake heed of pride, the poison of our days : H aunt not with those that are of Ught report : A void the vile charms of unchaste temptation : N ever lend look to the lascivious sort : 1 mpeach not any's honest reputation : C omfort the poor, but not beyond your power : O ver your household have a needful care : L ay hold on Time's lock : lose not any hour : S pend, but in season ; and in season spare : O ffspring, if any Heaven vouchsafe to send you, N urture them godly ; and good end attend you ! So shall your life in blessings still abound ; So from all harm th' almighty hand shall shend you ; f So vTith clear honour shall your head be crowned ; So for your virtue shall the wise commend you ; So shall you shun vile Slander's blasting voice ; So shall you long enjoy your loving fere ; So shall you both be blessed in your choice ; So to each other be you ever dear. O be it ever so in every part, That nought may trouble the soon calm in heart! [mate. * Soon calTn in h{e)art is an anagram of Martha NicoUon. + Shend you. An unusual use of shend : generally = put to shame, scold, make to suffer. 100 ANONYMOUS Circa ,625. ON DR CORBET'S MARRIAGE.* From " Wit Restored." Come all ye Muses and rejoice At your Apollo's happy choice! Phoebus has conquered Cupid's charm ; Fair Daphne flies into his arm. If Daphne be a tree, then mark, Apollo is become the bark : If Daphne be a branch of bay, He wears her for a crown to-day. O happy bridegroom ! which dost wed Thyself unto a virg^in's bed : Let thy love burn with hot desire, She lacks no oil to feed the fire. You know not poor Pigmalion's lot, Nor have you a mere idol got: You, no Ixion, you, no proud Juno makes embrace a cloud. Look how pure Diana's skin Appears as it is shadowed in A chrystal stream; or look what grace Shines in fair Venus' lovely face, Whilst she Adonis courts and woos ; Such beauties, yea, and more than those Sparkle in her; see but her soul. And you will judge those beauties foul. Her rarest beauty is within, She 's fairest where she is not seen ; Now her perfection's character You have approved, and chosen her. O precious 1 she at this wedding The jewel wears — the marriage ring. Her understanding 's deep : like the Venetian Duke, you wed the sea ; * Richard Corbet, Bishop of Norwich, whose poems were re- printed by Gilchrist in 1807. His bride was Alice, daughter of his fellow collegian Dr Leonard Hutton, a notabledivineandantiquary. The chief contributor to fVit Restored was Dr James Smith. ANONYMOUS lOi A sea deep, bottomless, profound. And which none but yourself may sound. Blind Cupid shot not this love-dart ; Your reason chose, and not your heart : You knew her little, and when her Apron was but a muckender ; When that same coral which doth deck Her lips, she wore about her neck : You courted her, you wooed her, not Out of a window ; she was got And bom your wife : it may be said Her cradle was her marriage-bed. The ring, too, was laid up for it Until her finger was grown fit. You once gave her to play withal A baby, cuid I hope you shall This day your ancient gift renew. So she will do the same for you. In virgin wax imprint upon Her breast your own impression ; You may (there is no treason in't) Coin sterling, now you have a mint. You are now stronger than before. Your side hath in it one rib more. Before, she was akin to me Only in soul and amity ; But no'w we are, since she's your bride. In soul and body both allied.* 'Tis this has made me less to do. And I in one can honour two. This match a riddle may be styled. Two mothers now have but one child ; Yet need we not a Solomon, Each mother here enjoys her own. * In soul and body both allied. Was the poet, then, a relation of Corbet's, or is this merely an expression relating to friendship? 102 ANONYMOUS Many there are I know have tried To make her their own lovely bride ; But it is Alexander's lot To cut in twain the Gordian knot. Claudia, to prove that she was chaste, Tied but a girdle to her waist, And drew a ship to Rome by land : But now the world may understand Here is a Claudia too ; fair bride. Thy spotless innocence is tried ; None but thy girdle could have led Our Corbet to a marriage-bed. Come, all ye Muses, and rejoice At this your nurseling's happy choice! Come, Flora, straw the bride-maid's bed. And vtrith a garland crown her head ; Or, if thy flowers be to seek. Come, gather roses at her cheek. Come, Hymen, light thy torches, let Thy bed vinth tapers be beset. And if there be no fire by, Come light thy taper at her eye ; In that bright eye there dwells a ^tar. And wise men by it guided are. In those delicious eyes there be Two little balls of ivory : How happy is he then that may With these two dainty balls go play. Let not a tear drop from that eye. Unless for very joy to cry. O let your joy continue I may A whole age be your wedding-day 1 O happy virgin I is it true That your dear spouse embraceth you? Then you from Heaven are not far. But sure in Abraham's bosom are. Come, all ye Muses, and rejoice At your Apollo's happy choice I ROBERT HERRICK 103 A NUPTIAL SONG, OR EPITHALAMIE, ON 1625. SIR CLIPSEBY CREW AND HIS LADY.* pSe.'""" 1648. ' What 's that we see from far ? the springy of day Bloomed from the East, or fair injewelled May Blown out of April ; or some new Star filled with glory to our view, Reaching at Heaven, To add a nobler planet to the seven ? Say, or do we not descry Some Goddess, in a cloud of tiffany To move, or rather the Emergent Venus from the sea ? 'Tis she I 'tis she I or else some more divine Enlightened substance ; mark how from the shrine Of holy saints she paces on. Treading upon vermilion And amber ; spice- ing the chafed air with fumes of Paradise. Then come on, come on, and yield A savour like unto a blessed field. When the bedabled morn Washes the golden ears of corn. See where she comes ; and smell how all the street Breathes vineyards and pomegranates : O how sweet, As a fired altar, is each stone Perspiring powdered cinnamon. The Phoenix nest, Built up of odours, burneth in her breast. * Sir Clipseby was son of Sir Ranulph Crew, Chief Justice of the King's Bench, and married, in 1625, Jane, daughter of Sir John Pulteney of Misterton, Leicestershire. She was then 36 years old, and died Dec. 2, 1639. Both she and her husband, who died Feb. 3, 1649, are buried in Westminster Abbey. (See Herrick, ed. Grosart, 1876, ii. 12.) On pp. 107-10 are additional stanzas of this poem. 104 ROBERT HERRICK Who therein would not consume His soul to ash-heaps in that rich perfume ? Bestroking Fate the while He burns to embers on the pile. Hymen, O Hymen ! tread the sacred ground ; Shew thy white feet, and head with marjoram crowned : Mount up thy flames, and let thy torch Display the bridegroom in the porch, In his desires More towering, more disparkling than thy fires : Shew her how his eyes do turn And roll about, and in their motions burn Their balls to cinders : haste. Or else to ashes he will waste ! Glide by the banks of virgins then, and pass The showers of roses, lucky four-leaved grass : The while the crowd of younglings sing. And drown ye with a flowery Spring : While some repeat Your praise, and bless you, sprinkling you with wheat : While that others do divine : Blest is the bride on whom the sun doth shine ; And thousands gladly wish You multiply as doth a fish. And beauteous bride we do confess y' are wise. In dealing forth these bashful jealousies : In Love's name do so ; and a price Set on your self, by being nice : But yet take heed ; What now you seem, be not the same indeed, And turn apostata : Love will Part of the way be met, or sit stone-still. On then, and though you slow- ly go, yet, howsoever, go. parboiled.] And HOW y' are entered ; see the codled cook Runs from his torrid zone to pry, and look. ROBERT HERRICK 105 And bless his dainty mistress : see The aged point out, This is she, Who now must sway The house (Love shield her 1 ) with her yea and nay : And the smirk butler thinks it ' Sin, in 's nap'ry not to express his wit ; Each striving to devise Some gin, wherewith to catch your eyes. To bed, to bed, kind turtles, now, and write This the short'st day, and this the longest night 1 But yet too short for you : 'tis we Who count this night as long as three. Lying alone. Telling the clock strike ten, eleven, twelve, one. Quickly, quickly, then prepare. And let the young men and the bride-maids share Your garters ; and their joints Encircle with the bridegroom's points. By the bride's eyes, and by the teeming life Of her green hopes, we charge ye, that no strife (Farther than gentleness tends) gets place Among ye, striving for her lace : O do not fall Foul in these noble pastimes, lest ye call Discord in, and so divide The youthful bridegroom and the fragrant bride : Which Love fore-fend ; but spoken Be't to your praise, no peace was broken. Strip her of Spring-time, tender-whimpering-maids ; Now Autumn 's come, when all those flowery aids Of her delays must end : dispose That lady-smock, that pansy, and that rose Neatly apart ; But for prick-madam, and for gentle-heart, io6 ROBERT HERRICK And soft maiden's-blush, the bride Makes holy these ; all others lay aside : Then strip her, or unto her Let him come, who dares undo her. And to enchant ye more, see every where About the roof a siren in a sphere, (As we think) singling to the din Of many a warbling cherubin : O mark ye how The soul of Natiu-e melts in numbers : now See, a thousand Cupids fly To light their tapers at the bride's bright eye 1 To bed ; or her they '11 tire, Were she an element of fire. And to your more bewitching, see, the proud Plump bed bear up, and swelling like a cloud. Tempting the two too modest ; can You see it brusle like a swan. And you be cold To meet it, when it woos and seems to fold Tlie arms to hug it? throw, throw Yourselves into the mighty over-flow Of that white pride, and drown The night, with you, in floods of down I The bed is ready, and the maze of Love Looks for the treaders ; everywhere is wove Wit and new mystery ; read, and Put in practise, to understand And know each wile. Each hieroglyphic of a kiss or smile ; And do it to the full ; reach High in your own conceit, and some way teach Nature and Art, one more Play than they ever knew before. If needs we must, for ceremony's sake. Bless a sack-posset ; luck go with it ; take ROBERT HERRICK 107 The night-charm quickly ; you have spells, And, magics for to end, and hells To pass ; but such And of such torture as no one would grutch To live therein for ever ; frie And consume, and grow again to die. And live, and in that case. Love the confusion of the place. But since it must be done, despatch, and sew Up in a sheet your bride ; and what if so It be virith rock or walls of brass Ye tower her up, as Danae was ; Think you that this. Or Hell itself a powerful bulwark is ? I tell ye no ; but like a Bold bolt of thunder he will make his way, And rend the cloud, and throw The sheet about, like flakes of snow. All nov? is husht in silence ; Midwife-Moon, With all her owl-eyed issue begs a boon Which you must grant ; that 's entrance ; with Which extract all we can call pith And quintessence Of planetary bodies ; so commence. All fair constellations Looking upon ye, that two nations, Spring^g from two such fires. May blaze the virtue of their sires. Additional Stanzas from an early version of the preceding : printed in Dr Grosart's Herrick (Memorial-Introduction) from Harleian MS. 6917, fol. 10. After the second stanza. Lead on, fair paranymphs, the while her eyes. Guilty of somewhat, ripe the strawberries And cherries in her cheeks ; there 's cream Already spilt, her rays must gleam io8 ROBERT HERRICK Gently thereon, And so beget lust and temptation To surfeit and to hunger : Help on her pace, and though she lag, yet stir Her homeward; well she knows Her heart 's at home howe'er she goes. After the fourth stanza. See how he waves his hand, and through his eyes Shoots forth his jealous soul, for to surprize And ravish you his bride : do you Not now perceive the soul of Clipseby Crew Your maiden knight With kisses to inspire You with his just and holy ire. After the fifth stanza. Why then, go forward sweet auspicious bride. And come upon your bridegroom like a tide, Bearing down time before you ; hie. Swell, mix, and loose your sails ; imply Like streams which flow Encurled together, and no difference show In their silver waters ; run Into yourselves like wool together spun ; Or blend so as the sight Of two makes one hemaphrodite. After the sixth stanza. How long, soft bride, shall your dear [brides'-maids] make Love to your welcome with the mystic cake ; How long, Oh pardon, shall the house And the smooth handmaids pay their vows With oil and wine For your approach, yet see their altars pine? * This stanza is imperfect in the MS. ROBERT HERRICK 109 How long shall the page, to please You, stand for to surrender up the keys Of the glad house ? coi^e, come I Or Lar will freeze to death at home. Welcome at last unto the threshold ; Time Throned in a saffron evening, seems to chime All in : kiss, and so enter ; if A prayer must be said, be brief; The easy gods For such neglect have only myrtle rods To stroke not strike ; fear you Not more, mild nymph, than they would have you do ; But dread that you do more offend In that you do begin, than end. After the seventh stanza. What though your laden altar now has won The credit from the table of the sun For earth and sea ; this cost On you is altogether lost, Because you feed Not on the flesh of beasts, but on the seed Of contemplation ; your Your eyes are they, wherevwth you draw the pure Elixir to the mind, Which sees the body fed yet pined. Here follows, with slight variations, stanza fourteen of the preceding. After the thirteenth stanza. And now y' have wept enough, depart 1 yon stars Begin to pink, as weary that the wars [twinkle. Know so long treaties ; beat the drum Aloft, and like two armies, come And gild the field ; Fight bravely for the flame of mankind ; yield no FRANCIS QUARLES Not to this or that assault, For that would prove more heresy than fault, In combatants to fly. Fore this or that hath got the victory.* From POEMS FROM ARGALUS AND PARTHENIA. Argalus P^Aenu," ■• NUPTIAL CAROL. 1639. [At the first coming of the bride and bridegroom into the temple.] Thus in pomp and priestly pride, To glorious Juno's altar go we ; Thus to Juno's altar show we The noble bridegroom and his bride. Let Juno's hourly blessing send ye As much joy as can attend ye I May these lovers never want True joys, nor ever beg in vain Their choice desires ; but obtain What they can wish, or she can grant. Let Juno's hourly blessing send ye As much joy as can attend ye 1 From satiety, from strife. From jealousy, domestic jars. From those blows that leave no scars, Juno protect your marriage life. Let Juno's hourly blessing send ye As much joy as can attend ye ! Thus, to Hymen's sacred bands We commend your chaste deserts, That as Juno linked your hearts, So he would please to join your hands ; And let both their blessings send ye As much joy as can attend ye I * There are numerous variant readings in the other stanzas, all of which are noted by Dr Grosart in his Memorial-Intro- duction. FRANCIS QUARLES ixi 2. [HYMEN'S BLESSING.] Noble youth and lovely maid, Heaven accepts your pleasing fires And hath granted your desires : By the mystery of our power, First, we consecrate this hour To Juno's name, that she may bless Our prosperous actions with success. With this oil (which we appoint For holy uses) we anoint Your temples, and with nuptial bands Thus we firmly join your hands : Be joined for ever] and let none Presume t' undo what we have done : Be joined till lawless Death shall sever Both hands and hecurts : be joined for ever ! Eternal curses we allot To those till then shall loose this knot. 3. SONG. [At the Marriage Feast.] Ceres. Welcome, fairest virgin bride. Welcome to our jolly feast I Taste what Ceres did provide For so fair, so fair a guest. Bacchus. Taste what Bacchus did provide For so fair, so fair a guest : Welcome, fairest virgin bride, Welcome to our jolly feast ! Chorus. Otu: conjoined bounties do Make Mars smile, and Venus too. Ceres. Welcome, noble bridegroom, hither ; Worlds of bliss and joy attend ye : Freely welcome both together. See what Ceres' bounty sends ye ! 112 FRANCIS QUARLES Bacchus. Freely welcome both tog-ether, See what Bacchus' bounty sends ye I Welcome, noble bridegroom, hither ; Worlds of bliss and joys attend ye ! Chorus. Our conjoined bounties do Make Mars smile, and Venus too. Ceres. Here is that -whose sweet variety Gives you pleasure and delight ; Makes you full -without satiety. Wastes the day, and hastes tiie night. Bacchus. This -will rouse the man of war. When the drum shall beat in vain ; When his spirits drooping are. This will make them rise again. Chorus. You that jointly do inherit Venus' beauty. Mars his spirit. Freely taste our bounty, so Mars shall smile, and Venus too. 4. [THE SONG OF TIME.] Mortals, 'tis out ; my glass is run. And -with it the day is done : Dark shadows have expelled the light, And my glasses turned for night. The Queen of Darkness bids me say, Mirth is fitter for the day ; Upon the day such joys attend. With the day such joys must end. Think not Darkness goes about, Like Death, to puff your pleasures out ; No, no, she'll lend you new delights. She hath pleasures for the nights : Whenas her shadow shall benight ye, She hath what shall still delight ye ; Aged Time shall make it known, She hath dainties of her own. 'Tis very late : away ! away I Let day-sports expire with day. FRANCIS QUARLES 113 For this time we adjourn your feast ; The bridegroom fain would be at rest : And if the night-pastimes displease ye, Day will quickly come and ease ye. S. EPITHAL'MION SONG. Man of war, march bravely on ; The field 's not easy to be won : There's no danger in that war, Where lips both swords and bucklers are. Here's no cold to chill thee, A bed of down 's thy field ; Here's no sword to kill thee. Unless thou please to yield. Here is nothing will encumber. Here will be no fears to number. These be wars of Cupid's making. These be wars will keep ye waking Till the early breaking day Calls your forces hence away. These be wars that make no spoil; Death here shoots his shafts in vain: Though the soldier get a foil. He will rouse and fight again. These be wars that never cease. But conclude a mutual peace. Let benign and prosperous stars Breathe success upon these wars, And when thrice three months be run, Be thou father of a son ; A son that may derive from thee The honour of true merit, And may to ages yet to be Convey thy blood, thy spirit : Making the glory of his fame Perpetuate and crown thy name. And give it life in spite of Deatii, When Fame shall want both trump and breath. H 114 MICHAEL DRAYTON 1630. PROTHALAMION. From the eighth Nymphall of The Muses Elizium, lately discovered by a new way over Pernassus, ^c. 1630. Thus far we handsomely have gone. Now for our Prothalamion Or Marriage song, of all the rest A thing that much must grace our feast. Let us practice then to sing it Ere vie before th' assembly bring it : We in dialogues must do it. Then my dainty girls set to it. Claia. This day must Tita married be : Come, Nymphs, this nuptial let us see. Mertilla. But is it certain, that you say? Will she wed the noble fay? Cloris. Sprinkle the dainty flowers with dews, Such as the Gods at banquets use : Let herbs and weeds turn all to roses, And make proud the posts with posies : Shoot your sweets into the air : Charge the morning to be fair. Claia. \ For our Tita is this day Mertilla. / To be married to a fay. Claia. By whom then shall our bride be led To the temple to be wed? Mertilla. Only by your self and I : Who that room should else supply ? Cloris. Come, bright girls, come all together And bring all your offerings hither ; Ye most brave and buxom bevy. All your goodly graces levy ; Come in majesty and state. Our bridal here to celebrate. MICHAEL DRAYTON 115 Mertilla. 1 For our Tita is this day Claia. / Married to a noble fay. Claia. Whose lot wilt be the way to strow, On which to church our bride must go f Mertilla. That I think as fit'st of all, To lively Lelipa will fall. Cloris. Summon all the sweets that are, To this nuptial to repair ; Till with their throng themselves they smother, Strongly stifling one another ; And at last they all consume. And vanish in one rich perfume. Mertilla. \ For our Tita is this day Claia. J Married to a noble fay. Mertilla. By whom must Tita married be? 'Tis fit we all to that should see. Claia. The priest he purposely doth come, Th' Arch Flamen of Elizium. Cloris. With tapers let the temples shine ; Sing to Hymen hymns divine ; Load the altars till there rise Clouds from the burnt sacrifice ; With your censers fling aloof Their smells till they ascend the roof. Claia. / Married to a noble fay. Mertilla. But coming back when she is wed, Who breaks the cake above her head 7 Claia. That shall Mertilla, for she's tallest. And our Tita is the smallest. ii6 MICHAEL DRAYTON Cloris. Violins, strike up aloud ; fiddle.] Ply the gittern, scour the crowd : Let the nimble hand belabour The whistling pipe and drumling tabor : To the full the bagpipe rack, Till the swelling leather crack. Mertilla. \ For our Tita is this day Claia. / Married to a noble fay. Claia. But when to dine she takes her seat, What shall be our Tita's meat? Mertilla. The Gods this feast, as to begin. Have sent of their ambrosia in. Cloris. Then serve we up the straw's rich berry, raspberry.] The respas, and Elizian cherry ; The virgin honey from the flowers In Hybla, wrought in Flora's bowers ; Full bowls of nectar, and no girl Carouse but in dissolved pearl. Mertilla. \ For our Tita is this day Claia. / Married to a noble fay. Claia. But when night comes, and she must go To bed, dear nymphs, what must we do? Mertilla. In the posset must be brought. And points be from the bridegroom caught. Cloris. In masques, in dances, and delight. And rear banquets spend the night : Then about the room we ramble. Scatter nuts and for them scamble : Over stools and tables tumble. Never think of noise nor rumble. Mertilla. \ For our Tita is this day Claia. / Married to a noble fay. =addi- -1 tional and I later. J JOHN FORD— BEN JONSON 117 BRIDAL SONG. From "The Broken Comforts lasting, loves increasing, Heart : a ^ Like soft hours never ceasing ; Primld ' Plenty's pleasure, peace complying, >633- Without jars or tongues envying j Hearts by holy union wedded, More than theirs by custom bedded ; Fruitful issues ; life so graced. Not by age to be defaced ; Budding, as the year ensu'th, Every Spring another youth : All what thought can add beside. Crown this brideg^room and this bride I EPITHALAMION, ''«33, xcii. of'Under- Or a Song, celebrating the Nuptials of that noble Gentle- ^9°<'\" '" man, Mr Hierome Weston, son and heir of the Lord jonson, Weston, Lord High Treasurer of England, with the 1816; and Lady Frances Stewart, daughter of Esme, Duke of cunning- Lennox, deceased, and sister of the surviving Duke ^'^'^- ''•°- of the same name.* Though thou hast past thy summer-standing, stay Awhile with us, bright sun, and help our light ; Thou canst not meet more glory on the way. Between thy tropics, to arrest thy sight, Than thou shalt see to-day : We woo thee stay, And see what can be seen, The bounty of a king, and beauty of his queen. See the procession ! what a holy day, Bearing the promise of some better fate. Hath filled with caroches all the way From Greenwich hither to Rowhamptom gate I *A noble and amiable couple, whose only son was killed in the sea-fight with the Dutch under Admiral Opdam, in 1665. Ii8 BEN JONSON When looked the year, at best, So like a feast ; Or were affairs in tune, By all the spheres' consent, so in the heart of June ? What beauty of beauties, and bright youths at charge Of summer's liveries and gladding green, Do boast their loves and braveries so at large. As they came all to see and to be seen ! When looked the earth so fine. Or so did shine In all her bloom and ilovirer, To welcome home a pair, and deck the nuptial bower ? It is the kindly season of the time. The month of youth, which calls all creatures forth To do their offices in nature's chime. And celebrate perfection at the worth; Marriage, the end of life. That holy strife And the allowed war, Through which not only we, but all our species are. Hark 1 how the bells upon the waters play Their sister tunes from Thames his either side, As they had learned new changes for the day, And all did ring the approaches of the bride ; The Lady Frances drest Above the rest Of all the maidens fair. In graceful ornament of garland, gems, and hair. See how she paceth forth in virgin-white. Like what she is, the daughter of a duke, And sister; darting forth a dazzling light On all that come her simplesse to rebuke 1 Her tresses trim her back, As she did Icick BEN JONSON ii9 Nought of a maiden queen, With modesty so crowned, and adoration seen. Stay I thou wilt see what rites the virgins do, The choicest virgin-troop of all the land ! Porting the ensigns of united two. Both crowns and kingdoms in their either hand : Whose majesties appear. To make more clear This feast than can the day, Although that thou, O sun, at our entreaty stay 1 See how with roses, and with lilies shine, Lilies and roses, flowers of either sex, The bright bride's paths, embellished more than thine. With light of love this pair doth intertex 1 timerweave. Stay I see the virgins sow, Where she shall go. The emblems of their way. O, now thou smil'st, fair sun, and shin'st, as thou would'st stay! With what full hands, and in how plenteous showers Have they bedewed the earth where she doth tread, As if her airy steps did spring the flowers. And all the ground were garden where she led 1 See, at another door On the same floor. The bridegroom meets the bride With all the pomp of youth, and all our Court beside 1 Our Court, and all the grandees ! now, sun, look I And looking with thy best enquiry, tell. In all thy age of journals thou hast took, Saw'st thou that pair became these rites so well. Save the preceding two? Who, in all they do. Search, sun, and thou wilt find They are the exampled pair, and mirror of their kind. 120 BEN JONSON Force from the Phcenix, then, no rarity Of sex, to rob the creature ; but from man. The king of creatures, take his parity With angels, Muse, to speak these : nothing can Illustrate these, but they Themselves to-day. Who the whole act express ; All else we see beside are shadows and go less. It is their grace and favour that makes seen And wondered at, the bounties of this day ; All is a story of the king and queen : And what of dig^nity and honour may Be duly done to those Whom they have chose. And set their mark upon, To give a greater name and title to, their own! Weston, their treasure, as their treasurer. That mine of vTisdom and of counsels deep. Great say-master of state, who cannot err. But doth his caract and just standard keep In all the proved assays. And legal ways Of trials, to work down Men's loves unto the laws, and laws to love the crown. And this well moved the judgment of the king To pay with honours to his noble son To-day, the father's service ; who could bring Him up to do the same himself had done : That far all-seeing eye Could soon espy What kind of waking man He had so highly set ; and in what Barbican. Stand there ; for when a noble nature's raised, It brings friends joy, foes grief, posterity fame ; In him the times, no less than prince, are praised, And by his rise, in active men his name BEN JONSON 121 Doth emulation stir ; To the dull a spur It is ; to the envious meant A mere upbraiding grief and torturing punishment. See, now the chapel opens, where the king And bishop stay to consummate the rites ; The holy prelate prays, then takes the ring, Asks first, who gives her?— 'I, Charles'— then he plights One in the other's hand. Whilst they both stand Hearing their charge, and then The solemn quire cries ' joy 1 ' and they return • Amen I ' O happy bands I and thou more happy place, Which to this use wert built and consecrate 1 To have thy God to bless, thy king to grace, And this their chosen bishop celebrate. And knit the nuptial knot ; Which time shall not. Or cankered jealousy, With all corroding arts be able to untie. The chapel empties, and thou may'st be gone No^ sun, and post away the rest of day : These two, now holy church hath made them one. Do long to make themselves so another way : There is a feast behind, To them of kind. Which their glad parents taught One to the other, long ere these to light were brought Haste 1 haste 1 officious sun, and send them night Some hours before it should, that these may know All that their fathers and their mothers might Of nuptial sweets, at such a season, owe. To propagate their names. And keep their fames Alive, which else would die ; For fame keeps virtue up, and it posterity. 122 BEN JONSON The ignoble never lived ; they were awhile Like swine, or other cattle here on earth : Their names are not recorded on the file Of life, that fall so ; Christians know their birth Alone, and such a race. We pray may grace Your fruitful spreading vine ; But dare not ask our wish in language Fescennine. Yet as we may, we will, — with chaste desires, The holy perfumes of the marriage-bed. Be kept alive those sweet and sacred fires Of love between you and your lovely-head 1 That when you both are old, You find no cold There ; but renewed, say After the last child born, "This is our wedding-day." Till you behold a race to fill your hall, A Richard, and a Hierome, by their names Upon a Thomas, or a Francis call ; A Kate, a Frank, to honour their grand-dames, And 'tween their grandsires' thighs. Like pretty spies. Peep forth a gem ; to see How each one plays his part o^ the large pedigree 1 And never may there want one of the stem. To be a watchful servant for this state ; But like an arm of eminence 'mongst them, Extend a reaching virtue early and late 1 Whilst the main tree still found Upright and sound. By this sun's noonsted's made So great ; his body now alone projects the shade. They both are slipped to bed ; shut fast the door. And let him freely gather love's first-fruits. He's master of the office ; yet no more Exacts than she is pleased to pay : no suits. PHINEAS FLETCHER 123 Strifes, murmurs, or delay. Will last till day ; Night and the sheets will show The longing couple all that elder lovers know. ¥ AN HYMEN At the Marriage of my most dear cousins, Mr W[alter Sp^ti^^]! Robarts] and M[argaret] R[obarts]. Miscel- Camus, that with thy yellow sanded stream p^rinted with Slid'st softly down where thousand Muses dwell, j"?'K^,'"'p'= Gracing their bowers, but thou more graced by them ; ,633. ' '^'' Hark, Camus, from thy low-built greeny cell ; Hark, how our Kentish woods with Hymen ring, While all the nymphs and all the shepherds sing, Hymen, oh Hymen 1 here thy saffron garment bring. With him a shoal of goodly shepherd swains ; Yet he more goodly than the goodliest swain : With her a troop of fairest wood-nymph trains ; Yet she more fair than fairest of the train ; And all in course their voice attempering, While the woods back their bounding echo fling. Hymen, come holy Hymen 1 Hymen 1 loud they sing. His high-built forehead, almost maiden fair. Hath made an hundred nymphs her chance envying : Her more than silver skin and golden hair, Cause of a thousand shepherds' forced dying. Where better could her love than here have nested? Or he his thoughts more daintily have feasted F Hymen, come Hymen ! here thy saffron coat is rested. His looks resembling humble majesty. Rightly his fairest mother's grace befitteth : In her face, blushing, fearful Modesty, The queen of chastity and beauty, sitteth : There cheerfulness all sadness far exileth : Here Love with bow unbent all gently smileth. Hymen come I Hymen come I no spot thy garment 'fileth. 124 PHINEAS FLETCHER Love's bow in his bent eyebrows bended lies, And in his eyes a thousand darts of loving : Her shining stars, which— fools — we oft call eyes. As quick as heaven itself in speedy moving ; And this in both the only difference being. Other stars blind, these stars indued with seeing. Hymen I come Hymen I all is for thy rites agreeing. His breast a shelf of purest alabaster, Where Love's self sailing, often shipwrecked sitteth : Hers a twin-rock, unknown but to th' ship-master ; Which though him safe receives, all other splitteth : Both, Love's high-way, yet by Love's self unbeaten. Most like the milky path which crosses heaven. Hymen 1 come Hymen I all their marriage joys are even. And yet all these but as gilt covers be ; Within, a book more fair we written find : For Nature, framing th' All's epitome. Set in the face the index of the mind. Their bodies are but temples, built for state. To shrine the Graces in their silver plate : Come Hymen 1 Hymen come I these temples consecrate. Hymen 1 the tier of hearts already tied ; Hymen I the end of lovers never ending ; Hymen 1 the cause of joys, joys never tried ; Joys never to be spent, yet ever spending : Hymen 1 that sow'st with men the desert sands ; Come, bring with thee, come bring thy sacred bands : Hymen I come Hymen I th' hearts are joined, join thou the hands. Warrant of lovers, the true seal of loving, Sigfned with the face of joy ; the holy knot That binds two hearts and holds from slippery moving : A gainful loss, a stain without a blot ; That mak'st one soul as. two, and two as one ; Yoke, lightning burdens ; Love's foundation : Hymen 1 come Hymen I now untie the maiden zone. PHINEAS FLETCHER 125 Thou that mad'st man a brief of all Thou mad'st ; A little living^ world, and mad'st him twain, Dividing him whom first Thou one creat'st, And by this bond mad'st one of two again. Bidding her cleave to him, and him to her, And leave their parents, when no parents were : Hymen, send Hymen from thy sacred bosom, here! See where he goes, how all the troop he cheereth. Clad with a saffron coat, in 's hand a light ; In all his brow not one sad cloud appeareth : His coat all pure, his torch all burning bright. Now chant we Hymen, shepherds ; Hymen sing : See where he goes, as fresh as is the Spring. Hymen I oh Hymen I Hymen 1 all the vallies ring. Oh happy pair, where nothing wants to either. Both having to content and be contented ; Fortune and Nature being spare to neither ! Ne'er may this bond of holy love be rented : But like two parallels, rim a level race, In just proportion, and in even space. Hymen, thus Hymen will their spotless marriage grace. Live each of other firmly loved and loving ; As far from hate as self-ill, jealousy : Moving like Heaven still in the selfsame moving ; In motion ne'er forgetting constancy. Be all your days as this ; no cause to plain. Free from satiety, or (but lover's) pain. Hymen, so Hymen, still their present joys maintain ! 126 WILLIAM CARTWRIGHT From " The A Ordinary, a Comedy," 1651, ? written 1634. SONG AT A WINDOW, CONGRATULATING (AS THEY THINK) MR MEANWELL'S MARRIAGE. 1. Whiles early light springs from the skies, A fairer from your bride doth rise ; A brighter day doth thence appear. And makes a second morning there. Her blush doth shed All o'er the bed Clean shamefaced beams, That spread in streams, And purple round the modest air. 2. I will not tell what shrieks and cries. What angry pishes, and what lies, What pretty oaths then newly born. The listening taper heard there sworn ; Whiles froward she. Most peevishly, Did yielding fight To keep, o'er night. What she'd have proffered you ere morn. 3. Fair, we know maids do refuse To grant what they do come to lose. Intend a conquest, you that wed ; They would be chastely ravished. Not any kiss From Mistress Pris, If that you do Persuade and woo : Know pleasure's by extorting fed. 4. O may her arms wax black and blue. Only by hard encircling you! May she round about you twine. Like the easy-twisting vine ; And whiles you sip From her full lip Pleasures as new As morning dew, Let those soft ties your hearts combine ! THOMAS RANDOLPH 127 AN EPITHALAMIUM. Written Muse, be a bridesmaid ; dost not hear before 1635. How honoured Hunt and his fair Dear ,e:,g. - This day prepare their wedding cheer ? The swiftest of thy pinions take, And hence a sudden journey make. To help 'em break their bridal cake. Haste 'em to church ; tell 'em Love says, Religion breeds but fond delays To leng^en out the tedious days. Chide the slow priest, that so goes on. As if he feared he should have done His sermon ere the glass be run. Bid him post o'er his words as fast As if himself were now to taste The pleasure of so fair a waist. Now lead the blessed couple home, And serve a dinner up for some ; Their banquet is as yet to come. Maids, dance as nimbly as your blood, Which I see swell a purple flood In emulation of that good The bride possesseth ; for I deem What she enjoys will be the theme. This night, of every virgin's dream. But envy not their blest content ; The hasty night is almost spent, And they of Cupid will be shent. [scolded. The sun is now ready to ride. Sure 'twas the morning I espied, Or 'twas the blushing of the bride I 128 THOMAS RANDOLPH See how the lusty brideg^room's veins Swell, till the active torrent strains To break those o'erstretched azure chains. And the fair bride, ready to cry To see her pleasant loss so nigh, Pants like tiie sealed pigeon's eye. Put out the torch ; love loves no lights. Those that perform his mystic rites Must pay their orisons by nights. Nor can that sacrifice be done By any priest or nun alone, But when they both are met in one. Now you that taste of Hymen's cheer, See that your Ups do meet so near That cockles might be tutored there : And let the whisperings of your love Such short and gentle murmurs prove, As they were lectures to the dove : And in such strict embraces tvTine, As if you read unto the vine, The ivy, and the columbine. Then let your mutual bosoms beat. Till they create by virtual heat Myrrh, balm, and spikenard in a sweat. Thence may there spring many a pair Of sons and daughters, strong and fair : How soon the Gods have heard my prayer ! Methinks already I espy The cradles rock, the babies cry. And drowsy nurses lullaby. THOMAS RANDOLPH 129 AN EPITHALAMIUM TO MR F. H.* Writteti Frank, when this morn (the harbinger of day) Printed Blushed from her eastern pillow, where she lay '*38. Clasped in her Tithon's arms, red with those kisses Which, being; enjoyed by night, by day she misses ; I walked the fields to see the teeming earth, Whose womb now swells to g^ve the flowers a birth : Where, while ray thoughts with every object ta'en. In several contemplations rapt my brain, A sudden lustre like the sun did rise. And with too great a light eclipsed mine eyes. At last I spied a beauty — such another As I have sometimes heard call thee her brother. But by the chariot and her team of doves, I guessed her to be Venus, Queen of Loves. With her a pretty boy I there did see. But for his vtrings I 'd thought it had been thee. At Icist, when I beheld his quiver of darts, I knew 'twas Cupid, Emperor of our hearts. Thus I accosted them : Goddess divine. Great Queen of Paphos and Cytherian shrine. Whose altars no man sees that can depart. Till in those flames he sacrifice his heart ; That conquerest gods and men, and heaven divine. Yea, and hell too, — bear witness Proserpine. And Cupid, thou that canst thy trophies show Over all these, and o'er thy mother too ; Witness the night which, when with Mars she lay, Did all her sports to all the gods betray. Tell me, great powers, what makes such glorious beams Visit the lowly banks of Ninus' streams ? Then Venus smiled, and smiling bid me know Cupid and she must both to Weston go. I guessed the cause : for Hymen came behind In saffron robes, his nuptial knots to bind. * The initials appear to have got wrong, as the poem calls the bridegroom IVarii and the bride Haruey. 130 THOMAS RANDOLPH Then thus I prayed : Great Venus, by the love Of thy Adonis ; as thou hop'st to move Thy Mars to second kisses, and obtain Beauty's reward, the golden fruit again, Bov7 thy fair ears to my chaste prayer, and take Such orisons as purest love can make. Thou and thy boy, I know, are posting thither To tie pure hearts in purest bonds together. Cupid, thou know'st the maid : I have seen thee lie. With all thy arrows, lurking in her eye. Venus, thou know'st her love ; for I have seen The time thou wouldst have fain her rival been. bless them both ! Let their affections meet With happy omens in the genial sheet Both comely, beauteous both, both equal fair ; Thou canst not glory in a fitter pair. 1 would not thus have prayed, if I had seen Fourscore and ten wed to a young fifteen. Death in such nuptials seems vrith Love to play. And January seems to match with May ; Autumn to wed the spring ; frost to desire To kiss the sun ; ice to embrace the fire. Both these are young, both spriteful, both complete. Of equal moisture, and of equal heat ; And their desires are one : were all loves such. Who would love solitary sheets so much? Virginity (whereof chaste fools do boast — A thing not known what 'tis till it be lost,) Let others praise for me ; I cannot tell What virtue 'tis to lead baboons in hell.* Woman is one vnth man when she is brided; The same in kind, only in sex divided. Had all died maids, we had been nothing then ; Adam had been the first and last of men. How none, O Venus, then thy power had seen 1 How then in vain had Cupid's arrows been ! The supposed fate of unmarried women. THOMAS RANDOLPH 131 Myself, whose cool thoughts feel no hot desires, That serve not Venus' flames, but Vesta's fires, Had I not vowed the cloisters, to confine Myself to no more wives than only nine, Parnassus' brood, those that hear Phcebus sing, Bathing their naked limbs in Thespian spring, I 'd rather be an owl of birds than one That is the Phoenix, if she live alone. Two 's the first of numbers : one nought can do : One then is good, when one is made of two. Which mystery is thine, great Venus, thine ; Thy union can two souls in one combine. Now, by that power, I charge thee bless the sheets With happy issue, where this couple meets. The maid's a Harvey, one that may compare With fruit Hesperian or the dragon's care. Her love a Ward, not he that awed the seas,* Fighting the fearful Hamadryades, That ocean terror, he that durst outbrave Dread Neptune's trident, Amphitrite's wave. This Ward a milder pirate (sure) will prove. And only sails the Hellespont of love. As once Leander did : his theft is best. That nothing steals but what's within the breast. Yet let that other Ward his thefts compare And ransack all his treasures ; let him bare The wealth of worlds, the bowels of the West, And all the richest treasures of the East ; The sands of Tagus, all Pactolus' ore. With both the Indies ; yet this one gets more At once by love than he by force could get. Or ravish from the merchants. Let him set His ores together : let him vainly boast Of spices snatched from the Canary coast. * Not he that, etc. Alluding to the famous pirate, Ward, who flourished in the reign of James I. 132 THOMAS RANDOLPH The gums of Egypt, or the Tyrian fleece Dyed in his native purple, with what Greece, Colchos, Arabia, or proud China yields, With all the metals in Guiana fields. When this has set all forth to boast his pride In various pomp, this other brings his bride ; And I '11 be judged by all judicious eyes, If she alone prove not the richer prize. O let not Death have power their love to sever Let them both love, and live, and die together. O let their beds be chaste, and banish thence As well all jealousies, as all offence ! For some men I have known, whose wives have beei As chaste as ice : such as were never seen In wanton dalliance : such as until death Never smelt any but their husbands' breath : Yet the goodman still dreamed of horns, still fearing His forehead would grow harder : still appearing \ To his own fancy, bull, or stag, or more. An ox at least, that was an ass before. If she would have new clothes, he straight vrill fear She loves a tailor ; if she sad appear, He guesses soon it is 'cause he 's at home ; If jocund, sure she has some friend to come ; If she is sick, he thinks no grief she felt. But wishes all physicians had been gelt. But ask her how she does, sets him a-swearing ; Feeling her pulse is love-tricks past the bearing. Poor wretched wife 1 she cannot look awry, But without doubt 'tis flat adultery. And jealous wives there be, that are afraid To entertain a handsome chambermaid. Far, far from them be all such thoughts, I pray, Let their loves prove eternal, and no day Add date to their afiections : grant, O Queen, Their loves like nuptial bays be always green. And also grant— but here she bid me stay. For well she knew what I had else to say. ., THOMAS RANDOLPH 133 I asked no more, wished her hold on her race, To join their hands and send them night apace. She smiled to hear what I in sport did say. So whipped her doves, and smiling rid away. f> THE MILKMAID'S EPITHALAMIUM. Joy to the bridegroom and the bride. That lie by one another's side ! fie upon the virgin-beds. No loss is gain but maidenheads. Love, quickly send the time may be. When I shall deal my rosemary ! * 1 long to simper at a feast. To dance and kiss, and do the rest. When I shall wed, and bedded be, then the qualm comes over me. And tells the sweetness of a theme That I ne'er knew but in a dream. You ladies have the blessed nights, 1 pine in hope of such delights ; And (silly damsel) only can Milk the cow's teats and think on man, And sigh and wish to taste and prove The wholesome sillabub of love. Make haste at once : twin brothers bear ; And leave new matter for a star. Women and ships are never shown So fair as when their sails are blown. Then when the midwife hears your moan, I '11 sigh for grief that I have none. And you, dear knight, whose every kiss Reaps the full crop of Cupid's bliss ; Now you have found, confess and tell That single sheets do make up hell. And then so charitable be To get a man to pity me. Written before 1635. Printed 1638. * Cf. The Brides Good-morrow, last stanza, p. 26. 134 JOSEPH RUTTER From "The Shepherd's Haly-day," 1635. (See Hazlict's " Dodsley," Vol. xii.) SONG " In the honour of your nuptials." Hymen, god of marriage-bed, Be thou ever honoured ! Thou, whose torches purer light. Death's sad tapers did affright;* And instead of funeral fires Kindled lovers' chaste desires : May their love Ever prove True and constant; let not age Know their youthful heat t' assuage ! Maids, prepare the genial bed : Then, come, night, and hide that red. Which from her cheeks his heart does bum ; Till the envious day return. And the lusty bridegroom say, I have chased her fears away ; And instead Of virgin-head, Given her a greater good, Perfection and womanhood. * Death's sad tapers, etc. Alluding to the preceding scene, in which the bride's brother is converted from murderous intent against the shepherd lover to accomplishment of his desires, by discovery of his royal birth. THOMAS CAREW I35 ON THE MARRIAGE OF T[HOMAS] K[ILLE- June =9, GREW] AND C[ECILIA] C[ROFTS]: pXedi64o. THE MORNING STORMY.* Such should this day be, so the sun should hide His bashful face, and let the conquering bride Without a rival shine, whilst he forbears To mingle his unequal beams with hers : Or if sometimes he glance his squinting eye Between the parting clouds, 'tis but to spy Not emulate her glories ; so comes drest In veils, but as a masquer to the fejist. Thus heaven should lour, such stormy gusts should blow, Not to denounce ungentle fates, but show The cheerful bridegroom to the clouds and wind Hath all his tears and all his sighs assigned. Let tempests struggle in the air, but rest Eternal calms within thy peaceful breast, Thrice happy youth ; but ever sacrifice To that fair hand that dried thy blubbered eyes, That crowned thy head with roses, and turned all The plagues of love into a cordial, When first it joined her virgin snow to thine : Which, when to-day the priest shall recombine. From the mysterious holy touch such charms Will flow, as shall unlock her wreathed arms And open a free passage to that fruit. Which thou hast toiled for with a long pursuit. But ere thou feed, that thou may'st better taste Thy present joys, think on thy torments past : Think on the mercy freed thee ; think upon Her virtues, graces, beauties, one by one ; * Thomas Killigrew, the wit, dramatist, and favourite of Charles II., who, in 1660, authorised him and D'Avenant "to erect two companies of players." His bride was daughter of Sir John Crofts of Saxham, Norfolk. She died January I, 1638. There was, according to the Diet. Nat. Biog. (see under T. Killigrew), an anonymous Epithalamium for this marriage in Sir T. Phillipps' MSS. 4001. 136 THOMAS CAREW So shalt thou relish all, enjoy the whole Delights of her fair body and pure soul. Then boldly to the fight of love proceed : 'Tis mercy not to pity, though she bleed ; We '11 strew no nuts, but change that ancient form, For till to-morrow, we'll prorogue this storm, Which shall confound, with its loud whistling noise. Her pleasing shrieks, and fan thy panting joys. In or before AN HYMENEAL SONG ON THE NUPTIALS OF p??nted^642 THE LADY ANN WENTWORTH AND THE LORD LOVELACE.* Break not the slumbers of the bride, But let the sun in triumph ride, Scattering his beamy light ; When she awakes, he shall resign His rays : and she alone shall shine In glory all the night. For she, till day return, must keep An amorous vigil, and not steep Her fair eyes in the dew of sleep. Yet gently whisper as she lies, And say her lord waits her uprise. The priests at the altar stay ; With flowery wreaths the virgin crew Attend, while some with roses strew And myrtles trim the way. Now to the temple and the priest See her conveyed ; thence to the feast ; Then back to bed, though not to rest. * The bride was daughter of Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Cleveland, a devoted royalist like her husband, whose kinsman, Richard Lovelace the poet, dedicated his Lucasta to her, as "The Right Hon. My Lady Anne Lovelace." THOMAS NABBES 137 For now, to crown his faith and truth, We must admit the noble youth To revel in Love's sphere ; To rule, as chief Intelligence, That orb, and happy time dispense To wretched lovers here. For they 're exalted far above All hope, fear, change, nor try to m6ve The wheel that spins the fates of love. They know no night, nor glaring noon, Measure no hours of sun or moon, Nor mark Time's restless glass ; Their kisses measure as they flow. Minutes, and their embraces shew The hours as they pass. Their motions the year's circle make, And we from their conjunctions take Rules to make Love an almanack. ♦ THE SONG. Descend thou fairest of all creatures. Graced with all thy heavenly features, In whom all perfections shine ; For thou art In every part Little less than divine. Take thy bride and enjoy her. But not with foul desires annoy her : For she is white. And hath no true delight But what is given From the desire of heaven. Chorus. No'w join, and each to other happy prove : That neither may Be led astray To seek a stranger love. From "Micro- cosmus, a Morall Maske," 1637- (Works of Nabbes, ed. BuUen : "Old Plays,' new series, 1887.) 138 THOMAS NABBES Dec. 1637. AN EPITHALAMIUM ON THE HOPEFUL SprSg'/'"' HAPPY MARRIAGE OF MASTER BUR- Masfc.V LACE AND MISTRESS ALICE BANKS, iund^'^'"' MARRIED IN DECEMBER 1637. Epigrams, Up, grey-eyed morning, comb thy golden hair, i'^ifhllk?""^ And with thy blushes stain the freckled air ! miums," Rouse the forgetful sun from Thetis' bed, T639. {Hid.) Auj bid him shake the tresses on his head, That flames of light may usher in his way. And give beginning to a glorious day. Upon the God of Union's altars, see What piles are kindled of rich spicery. As when the Phcenix in her pregnant death Expires her soul with her Panchaian breath I Methinks th' art lazy, Phoebus. If thou please To dwell so long with our Antipodes, Remain there still : thy radiance we '11 supply With brighter beams shot from the bride's fair eye, That shall create a day where thy light fails. In darkest bottom of Cimmerian vales ; And through all seasons their effects dispense Above the power of thy weak influence. December shall translate himself to May, And VTith the Summer's sweets chequer her way; And 'tis his hope her lasting course will bring A change in time for him to lead the Spring. The northern air that moved with waving ice Melted, as if 'twould quench the sacrifice, And cloud the day's pomp ; but from those cold showers Shall grow new issues of most fragrant flovrers. Warmed into life and taking perfect birth Where her soft steps do fructify the earth. As she doth pass, the birds shall strain their throats And beat the air with artificial notes. Forgetting wildness. Yea, sad Philomel Shall cease the story of her fate to tell. HENRY GLAPTHORNE 139 And tune delightful airs, such as are song To Victory by a triumphing throng. Now, Sir, to meet your joys your self address, Clothed in the glory of a happiness Which beauty, chastity, and constant love Make absolute, and is confirmed above. Take to your soft embraces a pure frame Where all the virtues dwell that have a name : When every sense is filled, in them you'll find Endless delights to feast th' immortal mind. Being possessed of all that chaste desire Can warm your active souls to with his fire. Enjoy them without change : to such as you The repetition will present them new; Whilst all men's zealous wishes are to see Those pleasures blest in a posterity. EPITHALAMIUM. S'^™„„ . The joys of youth, and what the Spring Of health, strength, happiness, can bring. Wait upon this noble pair I Lady, may you still be fair As earliest light, and still enjoy Beauty which age cannot destroy ! May you be fruitful as the day ; Never sigh but when you pray ; Know no grief but what may be To temper your felicity ! And you, my lord, may truest fame Still attend on your great name : Live both of you espoused to peace. And with your years let love increase : Go late to Heaven, but coming thither. Shine there two glorious stars together I 1639. 140 H. GLAPTHORNE— R. HERRICK From __ EPITHALAMIUM. 1639. ' The holy priest had joined their hands, and now Night grew propitious to their bridal vow ; Majestic Juno, and young Hymen, flies To light their pines at the fair virgin's eyes ; The little Graces amorously did skip With the small Cupids from each lip to lip ; Venus herself was present, and untied Her virgin zone : when, lo ! on either side Stood as her hand-maids. Chastity and Truth, With that immaculate guider of her youth. Rose-coloured Modesty; these did undress The beauteous maid, who now in readiness, The nuptial tapers waving 'bout her head, Made poor her garments and enriched her bed. While the fresh bridegroom, like the lusty Spring, Did to the holy bride-bed with him bring Attending masculine vertues ; down he laid His snovTy limbs by a far whiter maid. There, kisses linked their minds ; as they embrace, A quire of angels flew about the place. Singing : All bliss unto this pair for ever ; May they in love and union still persever ! Sept. 5, 1639. THE ENTERTAINMENT: OR, PORCH-VERSE "H?spe. AT THE MARRIAGE OF MR HEN. NORTHLY, rides.'^i648. AND THE MOST WITTY MRS LETTICE YARD.* Welcome ! but yet no entrance, till we bless First you, then you, and both for white success. Profane no Porch, young man and maid, for fear Ye wrong the Threshold-God that keeps peace here : * Dr Grosart (Herrick, 1876, ii. 33) ascertained the date of this marriage from the register of Herrick's parish (Dean Prior, near Totnes) : and says the bride was daughter of Edward Yard of Churchton Ferrers, Devon, by Elizabeth, daughter and heir of Walter Northcott, a lady who afterwards re-married Barnabas Potter, Bishop of Carlisle. ROBERT HERRICK 141 Please him, and then all good luck will betide You, the brisk bridegroom, you, the dainty bride. Do all things sweetly, and in comely wise ; Put on your garlands first, then sacrifice : That done ; ■when both of you have seemly fed, We '11 call on Night to bring ye both to bed : Where, being laid, all fair signs looking on. Fish-like increase then to a million : And millions of spring-times may ye have. Which spent, one death bring to ye both one grave. The Good-Night or Blessing. Blessings in abundance come To the bride and to her groom ; May the bed and this short night Know the fulness of delight 1 Pleasures many here attend ye. And, ere long, a boy Love send ye Curled and comely, and so trim. Maids in time may ravish him. Thus a dew of graces fall On ye both : good-night to all I NUPTIAL VERSE TO MISTRESS ELIZABETH From LEE NOW LADY TRACY.* ".""P'i . rides, 1648. Spring with the lark, most comely bride, and meet Your eager bridegroom with auspicious feet. The morn 's far spent ; and the immortal sun Corals his cheeks to see those rites not done. Fie, lovely maid I Indeed you are too slow, When to the temple Love should run, not go. Despatch your dressing then, and quickly wed : Then feast and coy 't a little ; then to bed. * Daughter of Thomas, first Lord Leigh of Stoneleigh, County Warwick, married John, third Viscount Tracy, who died in 1686, she in 1688. (Herrick, ed. Grosart, 1876, ii. 191.) From 142 ROBERT HERRICK This day is Love's day ; and this busy night Is yours, in which you challenged are to fight With such an armed, but such an easy foe, As will if you yield, lie down conquered too. The field is pitched ; but such must be your wars. As that your kisses must outvie the stars. Fall down together vanquished both, and lie Drowned in the blood of rubies there, not die. CONNUBII FLORES, OR THE WELL-WISHES ■H=sp=- AT WEDDINGS. ndcs, 1648. Chorus Sacerdotum. From the temple to your home May a thousand blessings come ! And a sweet concurring stream Of all joys, to join with them. Chorus Juvenum. Happy day. Make no longer stay Here In thy sphere ; But give thy place to night. That she. As thee. May be Partaker of this sight. And since it was thy care To see the younglings wed ; 'Tis fit that Night, the pair, Should see safe brought to bed. Chorus Senum. Go to your banquet then, but use delight. So as to rise still with an appetite. Love is a thing most nice ; and must be fed To such a height, but never surfeited. ROBERT HERRICK 143 What is beyond the mean is ever ill : 'Tis best to feed Love, but not over-fill : Go then discreetly to the bed of pleasure ; And this remember : Virtue keeps the measure. Chorus Virginum. Lucky signs we have descried To encourage on the bride ; And to these we have espied, Not a kissing Cupid flies Here about, but has his eyes. To imply your love is wise. Chorus Pastorum. Here we present a fleece To make a piece Of cloth ; Nor, fair, must you be loth Your finger to apply To housewifery. Then, then begin To spin : And (sweetling) mark you, what a web will come Into your chests, drawn by your painful thumb. Chorus Matronarum. Set you to your wheel, and wax Rich by the ductile wool and flax. Yam is an income ; and the huswife's thread The larder fills with meat, the bin with bread. Chorus Senum. Let wealth come in by comely thrift, And not by any sordid shift : 'Tis haste Makes waste; Extremes have still their fault ; The softest fire makes the sweetest malt. 144 WILLIAM CARTWRIGHT Who gripes too hard the dry and slippery sand, Holds none at all, or little, in his hand. Chorus Virginum. Goddess of pleasure, youth, and peace. Give them the blessing of increase : And thou Lucina, that dost hear The vows of those that children bear : Whenas her April hour draws near. Be thou then propitious there ! Chorus Juvenum. Far hence be all speech that may anger move : Sweet words must nourish soft and gentle love. Chorus Omnium, Live in the love of doves, and, having told The raven's years, go hence more ripe than old. May 2,1641. ON THE MARRIAGE OF THE LADY MARY TO "Comedies,- THE PRINCE OF ORANGE HIS SON, 1641.* etc., " with other Amids such heat of business, such state throng, fg"™^' Disputing right and wrong, And the fierce justle of unclosed affairs ; What mean those glorious pairs? That youth, that virgin, those all drest. The whole, and every face a feast? Great omen ! O ye Powers, May this your knot be ours! Thus, where cold things with hot did jar, And dry vrith moist made mutual war. * Mary, eldest daughter of Charles I. , married William, son of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, when she was ten years old and the bridegroom sixteen. This explains the poem. She was to remain in England till her t>Yelfth year, but was taken to Holland by the queen when she left England in 1642. In February 1644, the union was allowed to take effect. William was elected to succeed his father as Stadtholder when the latter died in 1647. WILLIAM CARTWRIGHT 145 Love from that mass did leap ; And what was but an heap, Rude and ungathered, swift as thought was hurled Into the beauty of an ordered world. Go, then, into his arms, new as the morn. Tender as blades of corn. Soft as the wool that nuptial posts did crown, Or the hallowed quince's down ; That ritual quince which brides did eat, When with their bridegrooms they would treat. Though you are young as th' Hours, Or this fresh month's first flowers. Yet, if Love's priests can aught discern, Fairest, you are not now to learn What hopes, what sighs, what tears, What joys are, or what fears : Ere time to lower souls doth motion bring. The great break out, and of themselves take vnng. And you, great Sir, 'mongst spears and bucklers born, And by your father sworn To work the web of his designs complete ; Yield to this milder heat : Upon the same rich stock, we know, Valour and Love doth planted grow ; But Love doth first inspire The soul virith his soft fire, Chafing the breast for noble deeds ; Then, in that seat true valour breeds. So rocks first yield a tear, Then gems that will not wear ; So, oft the Grecian swords did first divide The bridal cake, then pierce the enemy's side. D'you see, or am I false? Yond tender vine, Methinks, on every twine, Tiaras, sceptres, crowns, spoils, trophies, wears, And such rich burdens bears ; K 146 JAMES SHIRLEY Which, hanging in their beauteous shapes, Adorn her boughs like swelling grapes. But Time forbids the rites* Of gathering these delights, And only sighs allows till he Hath better knit and spread your tree. Where Union would last long. She fixeth in the young, And so grows up : great spirits with more love Defer their joys than others do them prove. But when her zone shall come to be untied, And she be twice your bride ; When she shall blush, and straight wax pale, and then By turns do both again ; When her own bashfulness shall prove The second nonage to her love : Then you will know what bliss Angels both have and miss ; How souls do mix and take fresh g;rowth, In neither whole, and whole in both ; Pleasures that none can know But such as have staid so. We from long loves at last to Hymen send, But princes' fires begin where subjects' end. t From ^ EPITHALAMIUM. 1646. ' !• Oh, look anon, if in the seeded sky ("Works," You njigg no stars : here I did spy ed. Dyce, ' " 1833.) Two glidmg by. 2. Did not thy trembling sense mistake the shine. Which from the flaming marriage pine Shot like divine ? * But Time, etc. See note p. 144. + But prince^ fires, etc. Cp. Gray's Latin verses alluded to in Introduction, p. xlv, note : Scilicet ignorant lacrimas, ssevosque dolores. Dura rudimenta, et violentioe exordia flammae. JAMES SHIRLEY 147 1. No, no, oh no, within his stock of light Hymen was never half so bright. 2. Behold, the nuptial train Come smiling back again I Hymen, hold up thy torch. 1. Now, now I see The virgin bride, fair Willoughby, From whose fair eyes This day did rise, 2. Whilst her chaste blushings strows Fresh roses on the morning as she goes. 1. What music have they ? 2. None, But vrhat 's the bridegroom's own : See, where he follows to supply All that a well tuned ear Can wish to hear. Being himself a walking harmony. Chorus. Heaven on this pair drop all the joys Of love, health, fortune, pleasure, boys ! %> EPITHALAMIUM. To his noble friend, Mr I. W. ^"""^^ same, 1040, Adorn the altar ; many come to-day etc. To sacrifice ; But first upon 't let me presume to lay My grain of spice ; 'Tis all I have, though others bring Rich gifts, mine is the offering. Live one in heart so long, till Time forget You have been two ; Upon your bosoms, joys more frequent sit Than pearls of dew On the green cheek of Earth, but may No sun kiss one of these away. 148 J. SHIRLEY— R. BARON Plenty your tables, chaste desires still meet To crown your beds ; And may the bridegroom the first night beget New maidenheads ! I could say more, but verse is tied ; Wild joys in prose are best supplied. From Rawlin* son MS. Poet. 88. ("Works of Shirley," ed. Dyce, 1833.) PARANYMPHI.* Come away, Hymen doth stay, All his tapers bum away. Time it is to change the life Of barren maid to fruitful wife. Come avvay, away, away I And upon his altars lay Nuptial vows ; these are the myrrh With which his fanes perfumed are. You shall need no fire but this ; All is kindled with a kiss. Joined hands, united hearts. Music is of many parts. Wear no garlands on your head, But of roses, white and red. To Hymen, Venus, and her son. Haste, and let the rites be done ! From "The Cyprian Academy,*' 1647. EPITHALAMIUM.t Mirth and nuptial joys betide The happy bridegroom, and fair bride ! Sol hath quenched his glowing beam In the cool Atlantic stream : Now there shines no tell-tale sun ; Hymen's rites are to be done : Now Love's revels 'g^in to keep ; What have you to do with sleep? *This was apparently to be sung by bridesmen — i.e. para- nymphi. t In this poem,Baron's plagiarism from Milton's Comusis patent. HENRY VAUGHAN 149 You have sweeter sweets to prove ; Lovely Venus wakes, and Love. Goddess of nocturnal sport, Always keep thy jocund court In this loving couple's arms I (O that my prayers might prove charms 1) Goddess of the marriage feast, Here approach at our request, Saturnia 1 whose car I saw A harnessed team of peacocks draw Fiercely through the fleeting sky, Wherein sat thy majesty. On thee did an host attend Of bright goddesses. — Descend From that chariot, and bless Julia's vromb with fruitfulness I Make her, when nine months be run. Mother of a lovely son I Let every year the Queen of Love Her nev7-filled cradle rock and move ! Mirth and nuptial joys betide The happy bridegroom and fair bride 1 l» TO THE BEST AND MOST ACCOMPLISHED From"01or COUPLE . \^rh.,i. Blessings as rich and fragrant crown your heads cation dated As the mild heaven on roses sheds, When at their cheeks, like pearls, they wear The clouds that court them in a tear; And may they be fed from above By him which first ordained your love 1 Fresh as the hours may all your pleasures be. And healthful as eternity 1 Sweet as the flowers' first breath, and close As th' unseen spreadings of the rose, When he unfolds his curtained head. And makes his bosom the sun's bed. 1647. ISO- THOMAS JORDAN Soft as yourselves, run your whole lives, and clear As your own glass, or what shines there ; Smooth as Heaven's face, and bright as he, When, without mask or tiffany : In all your time not one jar meet, But peace as silent as his feet ! Like the day's warmth may all your comforts be, Untoiled for, and serene as he ; Yet free and full as is that sheaf Of sunbeams gilding every leaf, When now the tyrant heat expires. And his cooled looks breathe milder fires. And as those parcelled glories he doth shed Are the fair issues of his head. Which, ne'er so distant, are soon known By th' heat and lustre for his own ; So may each branch of yours we see Your copies and our wonders be 1 And when no more on earth you must remain, Invited hence to Heaven again. Then may your virtuous virgin-flames Shine on those heirs of your fair names. And teach the world that mystery. Yourselves in your posterity! So you to both worlds shall rich presents bring. And gathered up to Heaven, leave here a Spring. %> In or before AN EPITHALAMIUM ON THE MUCH HON- "cLinda'" OURED PAIR, T. S[TANLEY], ESQ., AND ^Su-'Td '*'"'*^ D[OROTHY] E[NYON].* So at the first the soul and body met, When the Creator did in council sit. To make a little world command the great. * Thomas Stanley the poet, and historian of Philosophy, was descended from the Earls of Derby. He was son of Sir Thomas Stanley of Leytonstone in Essex, and married SIR EDWARD SHERBURNE 151 Nor are your flames less innocent than they, Before the grand imposter did display Their fatal freedoms, to the world's decay. Therefore, let all that Heaven can dispense To royal mankind, in the soul and sense, Possess ye with seraphic influence I May all the promised blessings on each nation, From Genesis to John's high revelation. Contribute to your cordial coronation ! May lovers light their torches at your flame ; And may the power of Stanley's single name Prove the sublimest epithet of fame I May your hearts fix above the force of fate ; May neither prince's frown nor people's hate Your fair affections dis-unanimate ! May ye have all ye can desire ! and when Your wishes have outvied the thoughts of men. Some Power direct you how to wish again ! AN EPITHALAMIUM TO THE NUPTIALS OF From "The JASON AND CREUSA. L AnnSus"' [Being the chorus concluding Act. i. of The Medea of Seneca]* f ™,';'^ xrans' Ye Gods, whose empire in the skies, '"M"d°*^" Or in the tumid ocean lies, first printed These princely nuptials bless, we pray ; '*■♦'• Whil'st holy honours for the day The duly-favouring people pay. Dorothy, daughter and co-heir of Sir James Enyon, of Flower, in Co. Northampton, Bart. See postcript to Preface in the 1814 reprint of his poems. There is An Anniversary on the Hymeneals of My Noble Kinsman, Tho. Stanley, Esquire, among Lovelace's poems. See Hazlitt's edition, 1864, p. 227, for this and further information. * Sherburne has copious notes on this poem, edition 1701, pp. 8-19, q.v. 152 SIR EDWARD SHERBURNE Athenian.] Sparta.] Jason, son! ofiEson. J Apollo.] First, to those powers that thunder fling And sceptres bear, for offering-, A bull, white without spot, shall die : A heifer that did never try The servile yoke, than snow more white. Thee, O Lucina I does delight. To her, who Mars his bloody hands Does manacle in peaceful bands, Who strifes of nations does compose. Whose horn with growing plenty flows. Shall fall a gentler sacrifice. And thou, who these solemnities* And rites legitimate dost grace. And the night's sullen darkness chase With thy auspicious hand, come drowned In wine, thy head with roses crowned. And thou, bright star, with silver ray. Fore-runner of the night and day. That slow to those dost still return. Who with love's mutual flames do burn : Mothers that long, daughters new wed. Wish thee thy early beams to spread. 'Mong the Cecropian dames, the pride For beauty veil unto the bride. The virgins of the wall-less town. Who, on Taygetus his crown. Themselves, as is their country's guise. In manly pastimes exercise : And those their limbs in Dirce lave. Or in Alpheus' sacred wave.t To the JEsonian youth, for grace And form shall Bacchus' self give place. Who to the yoke fierce tigers chains ; Or he who o'er the tripod reigns, * And thou who, etc. Hymen. t And those, etc. Theban and Arcadian virgins, from the situation of the waters named. SIR EDWARD SHERBURNE 153 Mild brother to the sterner maid. The swan-got twins fair Leda laid, Castor with Pollux, who for blow Of weighty cestus all outgo. Yield to ^sonides the day. So, to celestial powers we pray, All wives excel the beauteous bride, The bridegroom pass all men beside I When with the virgin choir she joins, Her look 'bove all with lustre shines. So, when the sun his beams displays. The splendour of the stars decays ; So fade the Pleiades, scarce seen, When, with her borrowed shine, night's queen Inorbs her crescent ; so, to th' eye. White blushes vnth Phoenician dye ; So, when day dawns, Sol's ruddy light Shews to the dew-wet shepherds' sight. From Phasis' horrid bed releast,* Wont, vrith unwilling hand, the breast To touch of such a barbarous bride ; With parents' wills first ratified, Now happy wed a Grecian dame. Now youths, with taunts permissive, game And in loose rhymes chant sportive words : Rare is this licence 'gainst your lords. Fair issue of the God of wine, 'Tis time to light thy carved pine : With wine-wet fingers then put out The solemn flame ; whilst all the rout With mirthful jollity does ring, And the Fescennine youths do sing Their festive flouts. She want these rites. And grace of Hymeneal lights. Who as a fugitive shall wed Her self unto a foreign bed 1 * Phasis was a river of Colchos, the kingdom of Medea's father : hence she is so named. 154 SAMUEL SHEPPARD* From "The Loves of Amandtis and Sophronia,'' 1650. (See BuUen's " Poems from Elizn. Romances.") The Pirn. EPITHALAMIUM. Heavenly fair Urania's son, Thou that dwell'st on Helicon, Hymen, O' thy brows impale. To the bride the bridegroom hale. Take thy saffron robe and come With sweet-flowered marjoram ; Yellow socks of woollen wear. With a smiling look appear ; Shrill Epithalamiums sing, Let this day with pleasure spring ; Nimble dance ; the flaming tree Take in that fair hand of thine. Let good auguries combine For the pair that now are wed ; Let their joys be nourished, Like a myrtle, ever green. Owned by the Cyprian queen. Who fosters it with rosy dew, Where her nymphs their sport pursue. Leave th' Aonian cave behind (Come, O come with willing mind !) And the Thespian rocks, whence drill Aganippe waters still. Chastest virgins, you that are Either for to make or mar, Make the air with Hymen ring. Hymen, Hymensus sing 1 * Mr Bullen thinks that Sheppard, "a notorious plagiarist," must have stolen this poem. See his note in the above- mentioned collection. JAMES HOWELL 155 AN EPITHALAMIUM UPON THE NUPTIALS OF THE PRINCELY PAIR, HENRY, LORD MARQUIS OF DORCHESTER, AND THE LADY KATHERINE, DAUGHTER TO THE LATE HEROIC EARL OF DERBY, IN A DIALOGUE 'TWIXT PHILEMON AND SYLVIUS.* Philemon. What object's that which I behold, Dazzling ray eyes with gems and gold? Her face, methinks, darts such a ray That adds more brightness to the day ; Her breath perfumes the place ; her curls and hair. Like Indian spice, aromatize the air. A sparkling white and black breaks from her sight, Like to the diamond's redoubling light : As she doth walk, the very ground and stone Turn to field argent, which she treads upon: A mortal sure she cannot be, But some transcending deity. My dearest Sylvius, pray unfold Who 's that rare creature I behold ? Sylvius. She is a princess and a bride Goes to the temple to be tied In nuptial bonds ; her stars will not permit That at the vestal fires she longer sit ; She's Derby's royal blood, Derby le Gran, And now she travels to the Isle of Man.f 1652. In April or May? From "Poems on Several Choice and Various Subjects," etc., 1663, but printed, 1653, '" "Ah! Ha! Tumulus, Thalamus : Two Counter- Poems : the first an Elegy upon Edward, late Earl of Dorset. The second an Epithal- amium to," etc. * Cromwell's judges found that noble servant of King Charles, the Earl of Derby, guilty of high treason, and he was beheaded October 15, 1651. For the bride's mother, see note further on. The Marquis of Dorchester was at this time a widower, aged 44, with ;^i4,ooo a year. See Mme. Guizot de Witt's Zarfy of Latham (1869) for a letter of Lady Derby's announcing the match, under date 2Sth March 1652, on page 210. + A wretched pun, due to the connection of the Derby family with the Isle of Man. 156 JAMES HOWELL She of the princely Orange is a branch, grafted.] Imped on the high Tremouillan stem of France : * Two of the fairest kingdoms strove and tried Their utmost to complete this lovely bride. 'Tis she which makes, 'twixt gems and gold. That constellation you behold. Philemon. But who's that comely sanguine peer. Which on her heart-side walks so near? He Ukewise makes all argent as he goes : Look, at his feet how thick the cinqfoil grows ! Sylvius. 'Tis wise and wealthy Pierrepoint, who renowns With titles three of England's chiefest tovras ; A precious, pond'rous lord, whose sole estate A jury of new barons might create : Patron of virtue, chivalry, and arts, 'Cause he himself excels in all these parts : 'Tis he who. by the hand doth hold That demi-goddess you behold. Philemon. Is 't so ? then my Autumnal Muse shall sing An Hymenxum and fetch back her Spring : This subject a fresh vigour doth inspire, And heats my brain vnth an unusual fire. An HYMENiEUM OR BRIDAL SoNNET Consisting of four stanzas and to be sung by three voices according to a choice air set thereupon by Mr Will. Webb. First May all felicity betide chorus. This princely bridegroom and his bride : May those delights this morn shall bring. Be endless as their nuptial ring : * Her mother was Charlotte de la Tremoille (famous for her successful defence of Latham House against the Parliamentary JAMES HOWELL 157 May they be constant, and exceed Each other's wishes, hopes, and creed : May the three regions of the air Pour showers of blessings on this pair : May Sol and Cynthia, with their rays. Silver their nights and gild their days I All joys attend, and best of fate, Suond This noble marquis and his mate I Ye gentle nymphs of Trent and Dee, Make haste to this solemnity : Your streams and beds now meet in one By this high-sprung conjunction. Ye wood-nymphs, who green garlands wear In Sherwood launds and Delamer ; Ye dames of Helicon attend, And Graces your sweet presence lend. Lucina come, and pray there be Employment in due time for thee. May all felicity betide This noble bridegroom and his bride I May they such gallant males produce. Both to the rose and flower-de-luce. That England's chivalry and French May multiply and bourgeon hence I Whose branches, shooting o'er the main. May knit and blossom here again, That Pierrepoint's lion and cinqfoil May ramp and root in every soil : Nor may their noble race wear out Till Plato's great year wheel about I * forces), whose parents were Claude de la Tr^moille, Duke of Thouars, a brave comrade of Henri IV., and the daughter of William the Silent, Prince of Orange. * Till Platds, etc. A period of some thousand years, defined by the revolution of the stellar circles. See Plato's Timaus, y-adual oil. 158 ANDREW MARVELL May all felicity betide This noble bridegroom and his bride ! losing with May all the elements conspire serious Xo make them blessed in their desire : May all the stars on them reflect Their mildest looks in trine aspect : May all the angels them defend From everything doth ill portend : May angels, stars, and elements, Afford them such complete contents, That they have nothing else to wish But a perseverance of bliss ! All joys attend, and best of fate, This noble marquis and his mate ! [ov. ,9, TWO SONGS At the Marriage of the Lord Fauconberg and the Lady Mary Cromwell.* FIRST SONG. Chorus, Endymion, Luna. Chorus; The astrologer's own eyes are set, And even wolves the sheep forget : Only this shepherd late and soon Upon this hill outwakes the moon. Hark how he sings with sad delight Thorough the clear and silent night ! Endymion. Cynthia, O Cynthia, turn thine ear Nor scorn Endymion's plaints to hear : As we our flocks, so you command The fleecy clouds with silver wand. 557. * Mary (1637-1712) was the Protector's third daughter, and second wife of Thomas Belasyse, Viscount Fauconberg, one of his Council. Her husband died in 1700, after taking part in a second revolution, being one of those who invited William of Orange over. By William he was made Earl of Fauconberg in 1689. ANDREW MARVELL 159 Cynthia. If thou a mortal, rather sleep ; Or if a shepherd, watch thy sheep. Endymion. The shepherd, since he saw thine eyes, And sheep, are both thy sacrifice ; Nor merits he a mortal's name. That burns with an immortal flame. Cynthia. I have enough for me to do, Ruling the waves that ebb and flow. Endymion. Since thou disdain'st not then to share On sublunary things thy care. Rather restrain these double seas. Mine eyes, incessant deluges. Cynthia. My wakeful lamp all night must move, Securing their repose above. Endymion. If therefore thy resplendent ray Can make a night more bright than day. Shine thorough this obscurer breast. With shades of deep despair oppressed. Chorus. Courage, Endymion, boldly woo ! Anchises was a shepherd too : Yet is her younger sister laid Sporting with him in Ida's shade ; And Cynthia, though the strongest. Seeks but the honour to have held out longest. Endymion. Here unto Latmos' top I climb. How far below thine orb sublime! O why, as well as eyes to see Have I not arms that reach to thee ! Cynthia. 'Tis needless then that I refuse. Would you but your own reason use. Endymion. Though I so high may not pretend, It is the same, so you descend. i6o ANDREW MARVELL Cynthia. These stars would say I do them wrong, Rivals, each one, for thee too strong. Endymion. The stars are fixed unto their sphere, And cannot, though they would, come near : Less loves set off each other's praise, While stars eclipse by mixing rays. Cynthia. That cave is dark. Endymion. Then none can spy : Or shine thou there, and 'tis the sky. Chorus. Joy to Endymion I For he has Cynthia's favour won, And Jove himself approves With his serenest influence their loves. For he did never love to pair His progeny above the air ; But to be honest, valiant, wise. Makes mortals matches fit for deities. SECOND SONG. Hobbinol, Phillis, Thomalin. Hobbinol. Phillis, Tomalin, away I Never such a merry day. For the northern shepherd's son Has Menalcas' daughter won. Phillis. Stay till I some flowers have tied In a garland for the bride. Tomalin. If thou wouldst a garland bring, Phillis, you may wait the Spring : They have chosen such an hour When she is the only flower. Phillis. Let's not then, at least, be seen Without each a sprig of g^reen. ANDREW MARVELL i6i Hobbinol. Fear not : at Menalcas' hall There are bays enough for cill. He, when young as we, did graze, But when old he planted bays. Tomalin. Here she comes ; but with a look Far more catching than my hook ; 'Twas those eyes, I now dare swear, Led our lambs we know not where. Hobbinol. Not our lambs' own fleeces are Curled so lovely as her hair. Nor our sheep new-washed can be Half so white or sweet as she. Phillis. He so looks as fit to keep Somewhat else than silly sheep. Hobbinol. Come, let's in some carol new Pay to love and them their due. All. Joy to that happy pair I Whose hopes united banish our despair. What shepherd could for love pretend. Whilst all the nymphs on Damon's choice attend ? What shepherdess could hope to wed Before Marina's turn were sped? Now lesser beauties may take place, And meaner virtues come in play ; While they, Looking from high, Shall grace Our flocks and us with a propitious eye. But what is most, the gentle swain No more shall need of love complain ; But virtue shall be beauty's hire. And those be equal that have equal fire. Marina yields. Who dares be coy? Or who despair, now Damon does enjoy? Joy to that happy pair, Whose hopes united banish our despair 1 i62 SIR WILLIAM D'AVENANT 1656. EPITHALAMIUM WoAs," etc! The morning after the Marriage of the Earl of Barrymore Folio, 1673. with Mrs Martha Lawrence.* A lover is a high and mighty thing! Or else we hear wild notes when poets sing, Love's pleasant priests who teach the world to woo : Nor can they want discretion's light To follow Love's most secret flight, For they are grave, and of his Council too. But if a lover so important be That half his dreams may fill a history ; Then must a brideg^room's title higher sound ; Who first a feathered lover is, And then flies upward to the bliss Of being a victorious lover crowned. But if a bridegroom be so crowned a thing, (For more than lover is not less than king,) How glorious is the bride V7hq gives that crown 1 For though she cannot well depose The sovereign prince whom she has chose. Yet she awhile can kill him vTith a frown. A bridegroom and a bride. Love's King and Queen, Fame says, are now at Court, and to be seen ; And other prosperous lovers, though but few ; And poets, but they bear no sway : And this, O costly opera ! Thou, fatally, canst witness to be true. I vTill to Court, and Fame shall be my g^de: But thou, fantastic Fame, canst nothing hide ; And I aloof in shade would follow thee : Fame, therefore, leave thy trumpet here. To which all listen vnth some fear. For it does praise but few, and cannot me. * Richard Barry, second earl, married, for second wife, Martha, daughter of Henry Lawrence, Esq. In 1656, the Court was Cromwell's, and in this year the poet's Entertainment at Rutland House, which he termed an Opera, was permitted. Can this concern the allusion in stanza 4? SIR WILLIAM D'AVENANT 163 Vain g^ide I she whispers every fool she meets; And makes her stops and turnings in the streets, Which are the people's dirty galleries. Hence I lest we reach the Court too late, For little sleep does serve the State, And Power, the public scout, needs watchful eyes. At last to Hymen's chamber we are come, After our heedful walks through every room, Where many cast and cancelled lovers stay ; Who envied this triumphant night, And therefore came, ere it was light. In haste to tell the bridegroom it was day. Awake, fair bride I and be your bridegroom's dawn : Break through your curtains, clouds, and mists of lawn : Like opening buds your early sweets disclose. Though froward Winter now grows old. And coughs aloud with taking cold. Be thou calm June, and our unfolded rose. But being now displayed, vrhat guilt is thine. That, like the morn, thou dost in blushes shine ! Roses, the mom, and you, are innocent : And, as in blushes you agree. So are you the undoubted three That have alike no reason to repent. Thou, bridegroom, noble in thy mind as blood, Hast Honour's flame to light thee soon to good, But Honour waits as page behind thy bride. Thou must, to match her virtue, be Humble and harmless, too, as she. And from grieved lovers all her beauties hide. Draw not her curtains yet ; nor rise to boast What blessings thou hast gained, and they have lost : But, free from mischief, sleep awhile, and dream How kind and loyal she will be ; Whilst faster she imagines thee The lover's pattern and the poet's theme. i64 SIR WILLIAM D'AVENANT Arise I arise 1 you must not undertake To think in sleep all I should speak awake, Or Hymen's priests in blessings can express. The world you know not yet ; nor see What will with it and you agree : I am his priest, and thus have learnt to bless. First may those inter-wishes you did make In dream, (though you sublimed them when awake ;) And may those strange perfections which the bride (Lifting her snowy hands) did crave To glorify what both would have, Be all by Hymen's policy denied ! For Hymen's common-weal can not dispense In private with monarchic excellence:* When singfularly good you strive to be, Then will tiie married populace Cry, Liberty 1 and soon deface Your virtue to preserve their vices free. And, though the ermine's whiteness be his grace, Yet it provokes the hunter to the chase ; So an excessive purity of love Unarms you to invite offence. And for a prey keeps excellence. You must acquaint the serpent with the dove. Next, may your love's sweet pledges prove but few ; For how can many grow so good as you? Or rather, Hjmien kindly grant that none. Though of your own wished progeny, May to yourselves so equal be In virtue as to second your renown. * For Symen's common-weal, etc. The sense of dispense ■with in this passage is evidently not the modern one, but rather just the reverse. SIR WILLIAM D'AVENANT 165 For who can such a cautious envy blame As grieves that any one, though of your name, Should wholly equal you in future days; And so a theme to poets be, By which they soon might equal me, And get a flourishing estate of bays ? But how, sweet bride, can envy ere suppose A rose-tree budding should not bear a rose? Or that thy virtuous mother bore not thee? Or that thy noble father could To any others trust his blood. But such as thy excelling brothers be ? Here, then, let my fantastic blessings cease : I give you liberty yourselves to bless. Whilst Hymen's busy priesthood I lay down. A poet has not power to add To that perfection which you made. When both your wishes joined to make you one. Fame, shake thy wings I and strait prepare to fly : I came not here to write a history. Nor can I stay, though thou art loth to move. This Court is thy most proper sphere ; For thou may'st sound the triumphs here Of mighty warriors, and of mighty Love. Those are the songs that keep the world awake. Stay, then, and I will send thy trumpet back. Which civilly I made thee leave behind : Tliy courted looks, if seen with me. Would wither, and thy music be But wandering blasts of the unheeded wind.* * But, etc. A beautiful line concluding an interesting poem. The ninth stanza is charming. i66 JOHN DRYDEN From "Amboj'na, a tragedy/ acted and printed in i673- Froin"Tlie Second Miscellany," 1685. EPITHALAMIUM. The day is come, I see it rise Betwixt the bride and bridegroom's eyes ; That golden day they wished so long, Love picked it out amidst the throng ; He destined to himself this sun, And took the reins, and drove him on : In his own beams he drest him bright, Yet bid him bring a better night. The day you wished arrived at last. You wish as much that it were past ; One minute more, and night will hide The bridegroom and the blushing bride. The virg^ now to bed does go : Take care, O youth, she rise not so : She pants and trembles at her doom. And fears and wishes thou would'st come. The bridegroom comes, he comes apace, With love and fury in his face ; She shrinks away ; he close pursues. And prayers and threats at once does use. She, softly sighing, begs delay And, with her hand, puts his away ; Now out aloud for help she cries, And now despairing shuts her eyes. THE EPITHALAMIUM OF HELEN AND MENELAUS. [From the Eighteenth Idyllium of Theocritus.] Twelve Spartan virgins, noble, young, and fair. With violet wreaths adorned their flowing hair ; And to the pompous palace did resort, Where Menelaus kept his roysil court. There, hand in hand, a comely choir they led. To sing a blessing to his nuptial bed. JOHN DRYDEN 167 With curious needles wroug^ht, and painted flowers be- spread. Jove's beauteous daughter now his bride must be, And Jove himself was less a god than he ; For this their artful hands instruct the lute to sound, Their feet assist their hands, and justly beat the ground. This was their song :— Why, happy bridegroom, why. Ere yet the stars are kindled in the sky. Ere twilight shades, or evening dews are shed. Why dost thou steal so soon away to bed ? Has Somnus brushed thy eyelids with his rod. Or do thy legs refuse to bear their load, With flowing bowls of a more generous god ? If gentle slumber on thy temples creep, (But, naughty man, thou dost not mean to sleep,) Betake thee to thy bed, thou drowsy drone. Sleep by thyself, and leave thy bride alone : Go, leave her with her maiden mates to play At sports more harmless till the break of day ; Give us this evening ; thou hast morn and night. And all the year before thee, for delight. O happy youth I to thee, among the crowd Of rival princes, Cu^id sneezed aloud ; And every lucky omen sent before, To meet thee landing on the Spartan shore. Of all our heroes, thou canst boast alone. That Jove, whene'er he thunders, calls thee son. Betwixt two sheets thou shalt enjoy her bare. With whom no Grecian virgin can compare ; So soft, so sweet, so balmy, and so fair. A boy, like thee, would make a kingly line ; But oh 1 a girl like her must be divine. Her equals we in years, but not in face, Twelve score viragos of the Spartan race, While naked to Eurotas' banks we bend, And there in manly exercise contend. When she appears are all eclipsed and lost, And hide the beauties that we made our boast. l68 JOHN DRYDEN So, when the night and winter disappear. The purple morning, rising with the year, Salutes the spring, as her celestial eyes Adorn the world and brighten all the skies ; So beauteous Helen shines among the rest. Tall, slender, straight, with all the Graces blest As pines the mountains, or as fields the com. Or as Thessalian steeds the race adorn ; So rosy coloured Helen is the pride Of Lacedsmon, and of Greece beside. Like her no nymph can willing osiers bend In basket-works, which painted streaks commend ; With Pallas in the loom she may contend. But none, ah ! none can animate the lyre. And the mute strings with vocal souls inspire ; Whether the learned Minerva be her theme, Or chaste Diana bathing in the stream. None can record their heavenly praise so well As Helen, in whose eyes ten thousand Cupids dwell. O fair, O graceful 1 yet with maids enrolled, But whom to-morrow's sun a matron shall behold 1 Yet ere to-morrow's sun shall show his head. The dewy paths of meadows we will tread. For crowns and chaplets to adorn thy head. Where all shall weep, and VTish for thy return. As bleating lambs their absent mother mourn. Our noblest maids shall to thy name bequeath The boughs of Lotos, formed into a wreath. This monument, thy maiden beauty's due. High on a plane-tree shall be hung to view ; On the smooth rind the passenger shall see Thy name engraved, and worship Helen's tree ; Balm, from a silver box, distilled around. Shall all bedew the roots, and scent the sacred ground. The balm, 'tis true, can aged plants prolong. But Helen's name shall keep it ever young. Hail bride, hail bridegroom, son-in-law to Jove 1 With fruitful joys Latona bless your love I ANONYMOUS 169 Let Venus furnish you with full desires, Add vigour to your wills, and fuel to your fires ! Almighty Jove augment your wealthy store, Give much to you, and to his grandsons more ! From generous loins a generous race will spring. Each g^rl, like you, a queen; each boy, like you, a king. Now sleep, if sleep you can ; but while you rest. Sleep close, with folded arms, and breast to breast. Rise in the mom ; but oh ! before you rise, Forget not to perform your morning sacrifice. We will be with you ere the crowing cock Salutes the light, and struts before his feathered flock. Hymen, Oh Hymen, to thy triumphs run, And view the mighty spoils thou hast in battle won ! ¥ AN EPITHALAMIUM FROM CATULLUS. From "A Collection Youths. Poems, viz. Rise, youths, the evening's come, and her bright star of Death," With long expected light flames from afar : 'Tis time to rise, 'tis time the feast to leave, To sing the nuptials, and the bride receive. Come, Hymen, God of marriage come, and shed Tliy sacred influence on the nuptial bed ! Virgins. See, see, they 'dvance, and Hesperus above On CEta's top now lights the lamp of love : What life, what vigour in their mien appears ! And sprightly joy assures the triumph theirs. Come, Hymen, God of marriage come, and shed Thy sacred influence on the nuptial bed ! Youths. For us, no light, no easy task's prepared. Doubtful 's the strife, and to subdue is hard. See vrith what studious care the virgin train Employ their thoughts, nor will employ in vain ; 'Tis care and labour must the victory gain. etc. 1702. 170 ANONYMOUS Whilst we ignobly by our sloth betrayed Shall fall, iand be an easy conquest made. Let this a vig'rous emulation raise, And, as they sing, let us return their lays. Come, Hymen, God of marriage come, and shed Thy sacred influence on the nuptial bed 1 Virgins. O Hesperus 1 what more malignant light - Glares in the dusky forehead of the night ? Thou, cruel thou, dost from the bosom tear Of her fond mother the unwilling fair ; And giv'st her up with all her virgin charms. Exposed to th' fury of a lover's arms. What greater cruelty than this is shown By lawless conquerors in a taken town? Come, Hymen, God of marriage come, and shed Thy sacred influence on the nuptial bed I Youths. No star, like thee, with such a cheerful light. Smiles on the sober face of silent night You, kindly you, when your glad beams arise. Ripen the parents' hopes, and lovers' joys ; V^ich, both with strong desire inflamed, delay Till thy bright star has closed the tedious day. What g^reater bliss can be bestowed by Jove Than the soft minute of transporting love ? Come, Hymen, God of marriage come, and shed Thy sacred iniSuence on the nuptial bed I Virgins. Thou, under cover of the treach'rous night. Hast snatched our dear companion from our sight : At thy approach the watchful guards are set, And night led on by thee affords retreat ANONYMOUS 171 To thieves and robbers ; till again you rise With kindlier beams, to gild the Eastern skies, And whom the evening hid, thy morning rays surprise. Come, Hymen, God of marriage come, and shed Thy sacred influence on the nuptial bed ! Youths. Let the chaste virgins modestly complain. With well-dissembled rage, and false disdain : They at the joys thou giv'st will ne'er repine, And nature softly pleads thy cause within. Come, Hymen, God of marriage come, and shed Thy sacred influence on the nuptial bed 1 Virgins. As some fair plant that's in a garden reared. Safe from the piercing plough and trampling herd, Whil'st yet the sun's mild rays, and gentle showers. With fanning winds refresh its opening flowers. The eyes of every youth and every maid allures. Tom from the stalk, the tender blossoms fade, Despised by every youth and every maid. So while her virgin bloom adorns the fair. By all she 's courted, and to all is dear ; But when her faded chastity is gone. By none she 's courted, is beloved by none. Come, Hymen, God of marriage come, Emd shed Thy sacred influence on the nuptial bed ! Youths. As the wild vine, that in the desert grows, And bears no fruitful blossoms on its boughs, (Which, by their weight bent dovirawards, and unbound. Spread their neglected tendrils on the ground,) Despised and scorned, can no assistance find Or from the peasant or the labouring hind : But if the elm be wedded to the vine. And round his waist her clasping branches twine. 172 ANONYMOUS Her loaded arms, which a full vintage bear, Tempt and reward the hinds' and peasants' care. So the unmarried virgin's drooping charms Receive fresh vigour from a lover's arms ; Dear to her husband still new joys she gives. And in her aged sire past youth revives. Be not, fair virgin, with reluctance led To the chaste transports of the nuptial bed : Let thee the vinll of thy kind parents move, And be not deaf to duty as to love. Your self's not wholly yours, one third is due To either parent, and one third to you ; And since both these to him their right convey. If love persuades not, reason bids obey. Come, Hymen, God of marriage come, and shed Thy sacred influence on the nuptial bed 1 ¥ From PART OF THE CENTO OF AUSONIUS, j^D^den's IMITATED IN ENGLISH VERSE, lanies," Vol. Descriptio egredientis sponsce. "'■ ''°°' Ta^ldem progrediiur Veneris, etc. The bride at length, the care of Love, appears Mature for man, and in her blooming years. In wanton folds her modest garments flow, And blushes in her cheeks, or wishes, glow. The youth vrith greedy eyes her charms devour. The lover's forttme curse, and coming hour. The reverend fathers and the matrons stand In decent order ranked on either hand ; They gaze, and every glance she darts inspires Forgotten hopes and impotent desires. In vain, alas, their youthful fever bums. For oft the wish, but ne'er the joy returns. Still on she moves, and as she passes by, A thousand little Loves around her fly ; A thousand Zephyrs crowd the balmy air To curl the golden tresses of her hair : ANONYMOUS 173 And where she treads, the springing flowers appear, Forget the season and begin the year. Thus Argive Helen looked, by Cupid led In nuptial triumph to the Spartan's bed. Thus the sweet image of approaching joys Played in her breast and sparkled in her eyes ; And thus, at some celestial feast above. The Goddesses proceed to visit Jove ; Their beauties like so many suns, display. And make where 'er they move a milky way. The same full lustre in her looks appears. Her beauties brightened by her hopes and fears. Her virgin hopes produce the blushing rose ; Her virgin fears, the spotless lily shews. By nature free, by custom only coy. She will not for her fears renounce the joy. Willing she goes, and strives in vain to hide The silent raptures of a wishing bride. Descriptio egredientis sponsi. Next, from another quarter, we behold A youth in Tyrian purple clad, and gold. His hairs to shed their vernal dovm beg^n. Nor ever had the razor touched his chin. The mantle which his tender mother wove Hangs loosely on, for all his care is love. A shining garment, for the day designed. And round its edge the gold meanders twined ; With various figures wrought, and rich in art : He scorns it all ; the bride has all his heart. His lofty look, and his majestic mien Are such as in dissembled gods are seen. Thus nervous are his limbs, his shoulders spread ; Thus firm his step, and thus erect his head. From ocean rises thus the morning star, Bright with new rays, ere Phoebus mounts his car. So shines the bridegroom, and with eager eyes. Surveys the scene of joy and thither flies : 174 ANONYMOUS There meets the bride, and round her slender waist, He folds his manly arm ; and thus embraced They kiss, and have of future joys a taste. Obligatio munerum. To these the bidden youth advance in pairs, And each an Hymeneal offering bears. Their parents smiling view the goodly train, And hope the like for them, nor hope in vain. The first presents a robe of orient die. Where beasts are seen to walk and birds to fly. Some caskets bring, which Indian diamonds hold. Some polished ivory, and some burnished gold. With talents some enrich the happy pair : This gives a goblet, that a gilded chair. The g^ifts in order on the table set, It bends, unable to sustain the weight. A chaplet round the bridegroom's temple 's bound. And the fair bride is with a garland crowned. The priests with myrrh their fragrant altars load. And the sweet fumes regale the nuptial God. Four youths their service to the bridegroom lend. And four officious maids the bride attend ; All shorn alike, and all, with chains of gold. So custom bids, their necks alike enfold. A teeming wife before the bride appears. And on her breast two sucking babes she bears ; A living type, to make the maid reflect On what she's to enjoy, and what expect. Epithalamium utrique. The matrons in their turn, with equal care. To close and crown the solemn rites prepare. The lovers to the nuptial bed they bring. And thus the virgin quires their spousals sing : Be blest, ye happy pair 1 be ever blest. Of every joy, of every wish possest. ANONYMOUS 175 Let Venus and her son profusely spread The genial pleasures on the bridal bed : Fair as the field, so fruitful be the soil, And answer yearly to the tiller's toil. When the nine moons their destined course shall end, Thee, Goddess of the night, thy succour lend ; And, as the mother's labour stronger grows. Assist, Latona, and relieve her throes. Around her like the ivy let him twine, And be she pregnant as the branching vine. The jolly god, that o'er the vintage reigns, Restore with generous juice his ebbing veins. Be all your future days and nights like this. And plenty sweeten and support your bliss. Your blessings may your sons and daughters share ; Be those as worthy, and be these as fair. With the same joy may you your children view, As your glad parents ever looked on you. They sung : and all around the joyful throng Applauded, and the Fates approved the song. Ingressus in cubiculum. The guests attending still ; the beauteous bride Sits on the bed, the bridegroom by her side. But when alone, their every glance imparts The sweet confusion of their meeting hearts. They talk, they toy ; and as with weeping eyes She turns aside, and half repenting sighs. He seizes on her lily hand and cries. With kisses intermixt : My love, my life, And every tender name in one, my wife. Is it then given me, in my longing arms, To fold thee, guiltless, thus, and taste thy charms ? And canst thou now, my only virish, my spouse. Refuse me the reward of all my vows ? Look up, and turn thy humid eyes on mine ; They flame, and with their fires will kindle thine. 176 ROBERT GOULD From "The Works of Robert Gould," 1709. He said, and could no more his heat command, But she resists his rage and checks his hand. Downward she looks, and when the bed she spies, She shuts, so modest maids affect, her eyes, And softly sinking in his arms, replies : Oh lovely youth I if ever to thy ear, A father and a mother's names were dear : By them let me conjure thee to forbear. And but this night a suppliant virgin spare. One night again she begs, but begs in vain ; His hand she can no more, nor he his heat restrain. Nor words their way, nor broken accents find. More violent he grows, and she more kind. The rising raptures break her swelling sighs. And breathless in the bridegroom's arms she lies. Her fears are flovm ; she clasps the furious boy, Gives all her beauties up, and meets the joy. ¥ MIRTILLO AND AMYNTA: A Hymeneal Pindaric Poem, on the Marriage of James Hunt, Esq., with Madam Jane Cary. I. Wake, sluggish Muse, from thy lethargic sleep, Thy downy nest no longer keep ; The lark is up and on extended wings Still as she rises sweetlier sings ; Let her aspiring melody O slugg^h Muse 1 thy great example be. Follow her through the trackless air ; Her song does but the way to thine prepare : And when y'ave overtook her do not stay, But higher wing your wondering way Above the clouds, above The second Heaven, up to the third of Love : There see what flame 'tis does inspire The amorous warmth of soft desire, A lambent but eternal fire, ROBERT GOULD 177 Where the first seeds of inclination lie That come at last to grow so high, Or in the fancy, beauty, or the eye. Then thou may'st tell how fair Amynta struck Mirtillo with a look, Mirtillo ! lovely swain ! And how he smiled at the delightful pain, (For oh ! what youth at such a wound wou'd grieve Tho' sure he should but one short moment live?) He smiled, and at that very interview, His eye returned the shaft, and wounded her that threw. O pleasing war I O equal doom ! Where both did conquer, both were overcome. It will not so at all times be ; Anon she will sole victor prove, And make him yield who now exults and triumphs in her love. II. Two hearts more equal. Fate did never pair ; Heaven in their forming had unusual care. Its finest and celestial mould it took, And with a gracious look. Mingled the shining ore and thus benignly spoke : These two we make for one ; They must be each the other's, or they both are none. Let coarser stuff from Heaven drop down. Of our stherial dust the allay, Scjurce fit to sinimate their clay ; There let 'em make their own precarious fate. In scorning soon, or loving late ; We these for their own selves create. In vain the nymph all other swains shall see ; As much in vain shall he All other nymphs behold, Though fair as those of old That quarrelled for the shining ball of gold. 178 ROBERT GOULD Love shall not shoot into their breasts his fires, His pleasing fears, emotions, and desires, Till they each other chance to view ; Then sympathy at once the work shall do. " Like two fair tapers that (at the same instant) come " At several doors into the room, " Their amorous lights one light does grow ; " And they, as closely joined, shall so " To an inseparable union go;"* One from tiie first ev'n to the end ; And one at last, though late, they hither shall ascend. III. From thy vast height, O Muse, though not descried so far. Dart like a shooting star : But not like that, let all that's in thee bright Be wasted in the glaring flight. But hold out still a lasting globe of light. Thou now art here, and now thou'rt there, And now tak'st circles in the air. And now strait on dost fly Beyond the narrow limits of the sky ; Nor space, nor place can bound thy vast career. Whate'er thy dull detractors may decree That have no .taste of poesie, Thou hast the gift of prophecy ; Divine and future things you see, And all is visible to thee. Into the seeds of time you look and show Which grain will perish, which will grow. The heart, which from itself is hid. Cannot thy piercing search forbid ; From thought to thought thou on dost pass, And see'st 'em all as in a glass. * Cp. Donne, p. 49, supra. ROBERT GOULD 179 Nor bolts nor locks thy passage caa impede; Through all thou go'st with angel's speed, As easy and as free As in wide air the wanton swallows flee. IV. 'Tis not the curtains, then, where fair Amynta lies Can veil her from thy eyes — They're drawn! — and seel O seel an object that would turn Old age to youth, and make the icy hermit burn. Her head upon her hand she leans. Hands whiter than the Paphian queen's ; Her figure would more ardour move And sooner give the law to love. Sleep has not yet unloosed his golden bands. Loth to let go his sacred hold ; For, to his sorrow, soon, he understands Another must enfold The beauty in his arms. And from her lovely eyes expel his powerful charms. Sleep must not then approach too nigh ; Before, he might, indulgent to their ease. Study new arts to please. Let him not, then, upon their senses seize, And rudely lock up all ; Then let him come not till the lovers call : Nor let him, when he's come, so churlish be As to deny the mind its liberty ; That fancy may repeat the pleasure past, Husband it well, and make it longer last ; For waking joy, alas ! does flit away too fast. V. Here, roving Muse, awhile thy wonder fix : And, while this brightest of her sex Lies bathing in seraphic dreams. Think, in what rapture, what extremes i8o ROBERT GOULD The youth would plunge, were he now here, Unseen like thee and gazing on the fair. The colour in his cheeks would come and go. Doubt with desire, and fear with joy contend : His pulse would swifter beat, his blood would higher flow ; And he would speak much more than I dare apprehend. Suspend, dear youth, those thoughts till soon. Till twelve at night, the bridegroom's noon ; By that you'll to your bright meridian climb, By that be lifted to your prime : O don't from thence retire While there is fuel to maintain the fire ! O roll not down Too soon The western hill of soft desire 1 * Hold the reins hard, nor quit the skies ; At least don't set till Heaven's bright lamp does rise. VI. But see 1 she wakes 1 and the sun's powerful ray. But now so lovely and so gay. Shrinks back and dies away ; Her brighter eyes his beams deface And fill with fresher glories all the place. But decency, the lover's law. Does bid us here withdraw. And leaves the damsels to adorn The radiant nymph that so outshines the morn. Let meaner shapes and meaner faces Practise in the glass their graces. And with such baits and trifling arts Ignobly angle for their lovers' hearts : Amynta is above such trivial things And moves the lover by sublimer springs. Cp. Donne, p. 75. ROBERT GOULD i8i Angels and she are much the same, Alike in form, in purity, and fame, And will hereafter be in name. That dress vyhich does a cherub's sweetness grace Can only add a greater lustre to Amynta's face. VII. Where is Mirtillo? where? The nymph has done him wrong To let him wait so long ; But soon a sure revenge he '11 take, Whate'er resistance she can make, And rifle the rich cabinet, though :barred up ne'er so strong. But see 1 he comes ! and in good time he 's here. For now the chaste Amynta does appear. And on her eyelid hangs a tear ; What does it now do there ? But joy as well as g^ief can bring That moisture from its briny spring. Two fountains from that spring there go, One for pleasure, one for woe ; Delight, like pain, does oft unruly grow And in the rapid course its banks o'erflow. But now the drop is fall'n, and in its place A blush does mount the face, And adds to it one more resistless grace ; Though he that saw her just before Would swear that Heaven could add no more. Mirtillo sees her pleasing care, And his instinctive heart In the transporting anguish has its part : Such perfect bliss mortality has scarce the power to bear : Infirmity will enter there. And in disorder'd bounds of joy appear : Souls only can, sedate, receive Th' impression such a vast delight does give ; It is almost too bright to look upon and live. I82 ROBERT GOULD So pure a love does oft o'erpower the sense, And though we fetch desire and vigour thence, Makes us sometimes resign to very impotence. Fixed on her eyes he could for ever gaze. But Time reproves these vain delays. And his own Genius whispers him. Be gone 1 Suggesting something nobler coming on In the dear contemplation of Anon — Anon I Anon I VIII. And now the auspicious path they trace That leads to a more near embrace ; Where gracious Hymen smiling stands, As they their hearts, to join their hands ; Attended by a shining train Of many a lovely nymph, and many a faithful swain : Each lovely nymph the nymph would be ; Each faithful swain wou'd fain be he ; But so confirmed a happiness they ne'er must hope to see. Heaven's favourites on Earth are few, (For three that triumph thousands rue :) And they, on this account, almost the first we knew. Have you e'er seen a night When Cynthia put on all her Ught ? The stars themselves are then not bright, But seem eclipsed while she does fly Her glorious progress through the obsequious sky. As much above the rest does fair Amynta shew. Nay, above Cynthia too ; Amynta does not for her lustre owe : No brighter light does make her shine ; Her glory's all her ovm. And, like the sun's, flows from itself alone, A source as great, as lasting, and divine. ROBERT GOULD 183 IX. But while the priest his duty does attend, What better work can be our care Than begging blessings to descend Upon the heads and hearts of the new joining pair ? May wealth on their left hand, And health upon their right, Through a long series smiling stand ; And still before their sight May nothing come but prospects of delight I And that their peace of mind may never be Betrayed by infidelity. By frailty, or by flattery. To their defence their virtues stand prepared, And Innocence be captain of the guard 1 Innocence I a safer shield Than famed Achilles e'er in battle held, Though still he came tritunphant from the field : — Nay, stop not, let us still bless on — But see I the ceremony 's done ; The dear, the mystic knot is tied : Hail, happy bridegroom ! Hail, O beauteous bride 1 Joy to you both, joys thick upon you pour Like drops in a prolific April shower 1 Now let the bells and let the Spheres, too, ring 1 Let all above and all around, To Nature's utmost bound. The joyful tidings sound. That all at once may hear, at once may lo Paean sing I The boards are furnished now in ev'ty room. And back the joyful company are come. Whate'er the elements produce, (For blessings are no blessings without use,) Their choicest stores are now purveyed. And tribute to Montano's board is paid. i84 ROBERT GOULD Well does he fill his sacred place, As well perform the father's part ; For no man could the occasion grace With a more generous heart. Montano 1 whom the virtuous joy to name, The churches darling, and the theme of fame ; Wise, nobly-born, religious, and benign ; His nature, like his office, all divine : And, which is now no barren praise In these degenerate days. But will his charity and truth commend,— Kind to the poor, and constant to his friend. He does redeem our crimes, and show What man was long ago. Ere pride and fraud, together joined, Usurped the empire of his mind. And turning it about, and fixing there, Had made us the reverse of what we were. Upon this copious theme I should dwell long. Did not the sprightly business of the day To sports and revels hurry me away ; But he shall elsewhere be our subject for Pindaric song. XI. Now let the nimble goblets move, A health to Beauty, and a health to Love 1 That 's to the bridegroom and the bride ; for he Is all o'er love, and all o'er beauty she. But let it not go once about and stay. Or end vyith the revolving day. But rather last till time is rolled away. O for Anacreon's tuneful lyre. That on this subject I might sing. And drink to keep like him on wing, (The soft incentive to desire,) Till I in ev'ry soul did love and joy inspire 1 But hark I the music to the dance does play. And all the nymphs are danced from hence away : ROBERT GOULD 185 Come on then, boys ; and while their feet In smooth harmonious measures meet, Whatever graver noddles think, Let us keep time, too, in our drink ; And shew who can the nimblest prove. Or we to wine, or they to move. Away 1 w 'ave got the start : ne'er mind What they can do ; nor look behind : Run on 1 that is, drink on : nor fear to fall ; Ah boys 1 w'ave got before 'em to the goal ; And see I the bard that set out last has reached it first of all. XII. How music, wine, and love beg:uile the hours ! For the bright sun is fled Long since into his watery bed : I hear the bridegroom cry, "'Tis time we were in ours." Nor to the virgins is the hint in vain. They '11 now no longer be denied, For women know when women feign ; So kindly force away the lingering bride. And now the officious hands are all employed, As if she were in haste to be enjoyed. Ah! busy, busy, hasty crew. There's time enough till morn for all that man can do. But trembling, joyful, yet afraid. Thanks to Mirtillo's stars, at last she's laid. The happy news he quickly hears. And lively as the day appears To solve her scruples and remove her fears. T' undress him no observance now be shovyn ; He needs no hands at this time but his own : For see he's with her in his arms. He has her fast, as she her charms, That sanctuary now from all her future harms. Good night ! good night 1 accept our prayers For a long race of prosperous years : W 'ave done our duty : let 'em now do theirs. i86 ANONYMOUS From D'Urfey's "Wit and Mirth; or, Pills to Purge Melan* choly," Vol. i. 1719. From the same. Vol. i. 1719. AN EPITHALAMIUM ON THE MARRIAGE OF THE HONOURABLE CHARLES LEIGH. Draw, draw the curtain I fye, make haste 1 The panting lovers long to be alone : The precious time no more in talking waste ; There's better business going on. Our absence will their wishes crown : The next swift moment 's not too soon : Our artful song sounds like a drone, For now all music but their own Is harsh and out of tune. Now Love inflames the brideg^room's heart, How weak, how poor a charmer is the flute! And when the bride's fair eyes her wishes dart, How dully sounds the warbling lute! If this divine harmonious bliss Attends each happy marriage day. Who such a blessed fate would miss. And such a charming tune as this. Who would not learn to play? Oh, joy too fierce to be exprest ! Thou sweet atoner of Ufe's greatest pain. By thee are men with love's dear treasure blest. And women still by losing gain. Smile, then, divine propitious powers. Upon this pair let blessings flow ; Let care mix with their sweets not sours, But may succeeding days and hours Be charming all as now I ¥ A SONG. Joy to the bridegroom ! fill the sky With pleasing sounds of welcome joy : Joy to the bride 1 may lasting bliss And every day still prove like this. Joy to the, etc. ANONYMOUS 187 Never were marriage joys divine, But V7here two constant hearts combine : He that proves false himself does cheat, Like sick men tastes, but cannot eat. He that, etc. What is a maidenhead ? ah, what ? Of which weak fools so often prate ? 'Tis the young virgin's pride and boast. Yet never was found but when 'twas lost. 'Tis the, etc. Fill me a glass, then, to the brink, And its confusion here I '11 drink ; And he that baulks the health I named, May he die young and then be d: . And he that, etc. EPITHALAMY ON THE MARRIAGE OF From the le, V 1719, THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE """"■ ^°'- LADY ESSEX ROBERTS. Run lovers, run before her. Kneel once more and adore her 1 The hour is posting on. When all our joy Below the sky Will be for ever gone. Though sighs inflame the air And a thousand eyes are raining. No art nor no complaining Can now retrieve the fair. She 's gone, alas 1 she 's gone ; Then welcome, sad despair. See Hymen there attending ; The God of Love descending In Sylvia's fetters lies : Not all his art Could guard his heart From her victorious eyes. i88 ANONYMOUS Whose fair but cruel breast Refused each shepherd's passion, A torment like damnation, To make Philander blest ; Whilst he, the happy he, Of Heaven is sole possest. Hail, then, beloved Philander, Thou blest, thou glad commander Of all the World holds rare. Ennobled blood. The wise, the good. The virtuous and the fair ! The choice of Heaven's store Is thrown to thy embraces ; Such beauty, wit, and graces Ne'er decked our plains before, Nor could Fate study how To bless a mortal more. THE HEALTH. Second Movement Adieu to virginity. That silly strange nothing that maids are so fond of. Room 1 room for the bridegroom, he All Beauty's dear trophies has now the command of. Banish all thoughts of resty Diana : CrovTn the full bowl I a health to Lucina ! Who, ere the year be run. Gives the fair bride a son Able, able to pledge his own. * From the A SONG. Set by Mr Frank. tr% J.°'' The night is come that will allow No longer any coyness now. But every freedom must to love be g^ven : What tho' the shadows of the night Withdraw her beauty from his sight, GEORGE OGLE 189 The youth another way, another way, Another way will find his heaven. See, see the charming nymph is laid. Never again to rise a maid : The vigorous bridegroom, now impatient grown, Throws himself by her side. With eager joy and amorous pride, Ready to seize the prey that's now his own. And now that all have left the place. Transporting joys crowd on apace ; The nymph contends like one that would not win : Entrained with pleasure now she lies, The youth has gained the noble prize. And now her fears are past and joys beg^in. * EPITHALAMIUM ^rcm^. [From the Latin of Joannes Secundus.] The Kisses/" The hour is come, with pleasure crowned, '"'' Borne in eternal order round I Hour, of endearing looks and smiles. Hour, of voluptuous sports and wiles. Hour, fraught with fondly-murmuring sighs, Hour, blest with softly dying eyes. Hour, with commingling kisses sweet, Hour, of transporting bliss replete. Hour, worthy ev'n of gods above, Hour, worthy all-commanding Jove ! For not a fairer-omened hour Could promise the kind Cnidian power ; Not tender Cupid could bestow, The boy with silver-splendid bow And golden wing, delicious boy. That sorrow still allays with joy ; Nor, wont at nuptials to preside. She that of Jove is sister-bride ; Nor he, on tuneful summit born, The God whom flowery wreaths adorn. 190 GEORGE OGLE Who blooming beauty tears away, Bears off by force the charming prey ; From the reluctant mother tears, To the rapacious lover bears. Hour long desired I hour long delayed I Thrice happy youth I thrice happy maid I Thrice happy youth, supremely blest, Of every vrish in one possest ! To thee, the maid of form divine Comes seeming loth, but inly thine : Such form as Juno's self might choose. Nor yet the martial maid refuse ; Though that th' stherial sceptre sways. And this the shining shield displays : Nor yet the Cyprian queen disdain, But, to re-seek the Phrygian swain And cause of beauty re-decide In shady vale of flowering Ide, How sure to gain the golden prize, — Though judged by less discerning eyes, — She, in that matchless form arrayed : Thrice happy youth I thrice happy maid 1 Thrice happy maid, supremely blest. Of every wish in one possest I To thee, on wings of love and truth. Comes, all devote, the raptured youth, Thy bending neck with eager hold. Thy waist impatient to enfold ; While, for that hair of easy flow. While, for that breast of virgin snow. While, for that lip of rosy dye. While, for that sweetly-speaking eye, With silent passion he expires And bums with still-consuming fires. Now Phoebus, slow to quit the skies. Now loitering Phoebus, slow to rise. Persists alternate to upbraid 1 Thrice happy youth 1 thrice happy maid 1 GEORGE OGLE 191 Spare, youth, your vows, vain offerings spare : Forbear your needless sighs, forbear : Lo I Time, in ever-varying race, Brings on at last the wished-for space. Mild Venus, with propitious ears. The sorrows of her votaries hears ; ' While Cynthius, down the western steeps. Low plunges in Iberian deeps, And quits the ample fields of air To his night-wandering sister's care : Than whom no light more grateful shines * To souls which mutual love conjoins ; Not he that leads the stars along. Brightest of all the glittering throng, Hesper, with golden torch displayed : Thrice happy youth ! thrice happy maid ! See where the maid all panting lies. Ah I never more a maid to rise, And longs, yet trembles at thy tread. Her cheeks perfused with decent red, Expressing-half her inward flame, Half-springing from ingenuous shame : Tears from her eyes perhaps may steal. Her joys the better to conceal ; Then sighs, with grief unreal fraught. Then follow plaints of wrongs un-thought. But cease not thou, vrith idle fears. For all her plaints, or sighs, or tears : Than whom, et seq. The translator is careless here : Et quo gratior hand relucet ignis Conjunctis animis amore dulci, Producit caput, emicatque calo Doctor Hesperus aurea catervce. And than whom no star can shed Kindlier light on lover's longing, Guide of golden clusters thronging, Hesperus puts forth his head. 192 GEORGE OGLE Kissed be the tears from off her eyes ; With tender murmurs stopped, her sighs ; With soothiflgs soft her plaints allayed : Thrice happy youth I thrice happy maid I The maid, in decent order placed. With every bridal honour graced. Through all her limbs begin to spread T^e glowings of the genial bed And languid sleep dispose to take. Did not the youth, more watchful, wake ; And the mild Queen of fierce desire With warmth not disproportioned fire. Taught hence, nor purpled kings to prize, Nor sceptred Jove tiiat rules the skies, Soon for soft combats he prepares. And gentle toils of amorous wars : Declared, but with no loud alarms. Begun, but with no dreaded arms : Kisses, which, wanton as he strays, He darts a thousand wanton ways At mouth, or neck, at eyes, or cheeks; Him humbly she full oft bespeaks, Entreats, an helpless maid to spare, And begs with trembling voice, "forbear"; Full oft his rudeness loudly blames ; His boundless insolence proclaims ; His lips with Ups averse withstands ; With hands restrains his roving hands: Resistance sweet, delicious fight : O night I O doubly happy night ! Contention obstinate succeeds ; The tender Loves contention feeds. By that, redoubled ardour burns ; By that, redoubled strength returns. Now o'er her neck take nimble flight, Her breast, as spotless ivory white. Her waist of gradual rising charms. Soft-moulded legs, smooth-polished arms ; GEORGE OGLE 193 Search all the tracts, in curious sport, Conductive to the Cyprian court ; Through all the dark recesses go. And all the shady coverts know: To this, unnumbered kisses join, Unnumbered as the stars that shine. Commingling rays of blended light : O night 1 O doubly happy night I Then, spare no blandishments of love : Sounds that with softening flattery move : Sighs that with soothing murmur plesise: The injured virgin to appease: Such, as when Zephyr fans Hie grove. Or coos the amorous billing dove. Or sings the swan with tuneful breath. Conscious of near-approaching death : * Till, pierced by Cupid's powerful dart. As by degrees relents her heart. The virgin, less and less severe, Quits by degrees her stubborn fear ; Now, on your arms her neck reclines, Now, with your arms her neck entwines, As love's resistless flames incite : O night 1 O doubly happy night 1 Sweet kisses shall reward your pains, Kisses which no rude rapine stains, From lips on swelling lips that swell. From lips on dwelling lips that dwell. That play return with equal play, That bliss with equal bliss repay, That vital stores from either heart, Imbibing, soul for soul impart ; Till now the maid, adventurous grown. Attempts new frolics of her own ; *See Note p. 79. 194 GEORGE OGLE Now suffers, strangers to the way, Her far more daring hands to stray ; Now sports far more salacious seeks ; Now words far more licentious speaks. Words that past sufferings well requite: O night I O doubly happy night 1 To arms ! to arms 1 now Cupid sounds ; Now is the time for grateful wounds : Here Venus waves the nimble spear, Venus is warlike goddess here. Here, not thy sister, Mars, presides; Thy mistress in those conflicts prides. While close engage the struggling foes. And restless, breast to breast oppose ; While eager this disputes the field. And that alike disdains to yield. Till lo I in breathless transports tost, Till, in resistless raptures lost, Their limbs with liquid dews distil, Their hearts with pleasing horrors thrill, And faint away in wild delight : O night 1 O doubly happy night 1 O may you oft these sports renew. And through long days and nights pursue ; With many an early moon begun, Prolonged to many a setting sun. May a fair offspring crown your joys, Of prattling girls and smiling boys ; And yet another offspring rise. Sweet objects to parental eyes. The cares assiduous to assuage That still solicit querulous age ; Careful your trembling limbs to stay, That fail with unperceived decay ; Pious, when summoned hence you go, The last kind ofSce to bestow, OfBce, with unfeigfned sorrow paid : Thrice happy youth 1 thrice happy maid ! APPENDIX THE MANER OF REJOYSINGS AT MARRIAGES AND WEDDINGS. Trom "The tArte of Englijfi 'Foefie" 1589, lib. 1, chap, xxvi., see " Englifli Reprints," ed. Arber, 1869. As the confolation of children well begotten is great, no lefs but rather greater ought to be that which is occafion of children, that is honourable matrimonie, a loue by al lawes allowed, not mutable nor encombred with fuch vaine cares and paflions, as that other loue, whereof there is no affurance but loofe and fickle affection occafioned for the mofl part by fodaine sights and acquaintance of no long trial] or experience, nor vpon any other good ground wherein any furetie may be conceived :' wherefore the Ciuill Poet could do no lefTe in confcience and credit, then as he had before done to the ballade of birth : now with much better deuotion to celebrate by his poeme the chearefuU day of manages as well Princely as others, for that hath alwayes been accompted with euery country and nation of neuer fo barbarous people, the highefl and holiefl of any ceremonie apperteining to man : a match forfooth made for euer and not for a day, a folace prouided for youth, a comfort for age, a knot of alliance and amitie indilfoluble : great rejoyfing was. therefore due to fuch a matter and to fo gladfome a time. This was done in ballad wife as the natall fong, and was fong very fweetely by Mufitians at the chamber dore of the Bride- I9S 196 APPENDIX groome and Bride at fuch times as ftialbe hereafter declared, and they were called Epithalamies, as much to fay as ballades at the bedding of the bride : for fuch as were fong at the borde at dinner or fupper were other Mufickes and not properly Epithalamies.' Here if I /hall fay that which apper- teineth to th' arte, and difclofe the mifterie of the whole matter, I muft and doe with all humble reuerence befpeake pardon of the chafte and honourable eares, leaft I Ihould either offend them with licentious fpeach, or leaue them ignorant of the ancient guife in old times and at weddings (in my limple opinion) nothing reproueable. This Epithal- amie was deuided by breaches into three partes to ferue for three feuerall fits or times to be fong. The firft breach was fong at the firft parte of the nightj when the fpoufe and her huHiand were brought to their bed, and at the very chamber dore, where, in a large vtter room, vfed to be (befides the mufitiens) good ftore of ladies or gjsutlewomen of their kinfefolkes, and others who came to honor the mariage, and the tunes of the fongs vere very loude and ftiriU, to the intent there might no noife be hard out of the bed-chamber by the Ikreeking and outcry of the young damofell feeling the firft forces of her ftiffe and rigorous young man, ftie being, as all virgins, tender and weake, and vnexpert in thofe m?iner of affaires. For which purpofe alfa they vfed by old nurfes (appointed to that ferviee) to fuppieffe the noife by cafting of pottes full of nuttes round about the chamber vpon the hard floore or pauement, for they vfed no mattes nor rufhes as we doe now. So as the Ladles and gentlewomen fhould have their eares fo occupied, what with Muficke, and what with their handes wantonly fcambling and catching; after the nuttes, that they could not intend to harken after any other thing. This was,. as I faid, to diminiflLthe.noife of the laughing lamenting fpoufe. The tenour of that part of the fong was to congratulate the firft acquaintance and meeting of t^ young couple, allowing of their parents good difcietians 6 APPENDIX 197 in making the mateh, then afterward to faund cherfully to the onfet and firft encounters of that amorous battaile, to declare the comfort of children, and encreafe of loue by that meane cheifly caufed : the bride (hewing her felf euery waies well difpofed, and ftill fupplying oceafions of new luftes and loue to her hufband by her obedience and amorous embrac- ing and all other allurementes. About midnight or one of the clocke, the Muficians came again to the chamber dore (all the Ladies and other women as they were of degree, hauing taken their leaue, and being gone to their reft). This part of the ballade was to refreih the faint and wearied bodies and fpirits, and to animate new appetites with cherefuU wordes, encoraging them to the recontinuance of the fame entertainments, praifing and commending (by fuppolall) the good comtbimities of them both, and their defire one to vanquilh the other by such friendly conflictes : alledging that the firft embracementes neuer bred barnes, by reafon of their overmuch affection and heate, but only made paftage for children and enforced greater liking to the late made match. That the fecond aflaultes vere leffe rigorous, but more vigorous and apt to auance the purpofe of procreation, that therefore they Ihould perfift in all good appetite with an inuincible courage to the end. This was the fecond part of the EpitAalamie. In the morning when it was feire broad day, and that by likelyhood all tournes were fufticiently serued, the laft actes of the enterlude being ended, and that the bride muft within few hours arife and apparell her felfe, no more as a virgine, but as a wife, and about dinner time muft by order come forth Sicui sponfa de thalcano very demurely and ftately to be fene and acknowledged of her parents and kinsfolkes, whether (he were the fame woman or a changeling, or dead or aliue, or maimed by any accident nocturnall. The fame Muficians came againe with this laft part, and greeted them both with a Pfalme of new applaufions, for that they had either of them fo well 198 APPENDIX behaued them felues that night, the huAand to rob his fpoufe of her maidenhead and faue her life, the bride fo luftely to fatisfie her husbandes loue and fcape with fo litle daunger of her perfon, for which good chaunce that they fhould make a louely truce and abftinence of that warre till next night, fealing the placard of that louely league, with twentie maner of fweet kifles, then by good ladmoni- tions enformed them to the frugall and thriftie life all the reft of their dayes. The good man getting and bringing home, the wife fauing that which her huft)and fhould get, therewith to be the better able to keepe good hofpitalitie, according to their eftates, and to bring vp their children (if God fent any) vertuoufly, and the better by their own good example. Finally to perfeuer all the reft of their life in true and inuiolable wedlocke. This ceremony was omitted when men marled widowes or fuch as had tafted the frutes of loue before, (we call them well experienced young women), in whom there was no feare of daunger to their perfons, or of any outcry at all, at the time of thofe terrible approches. Thus much touching the vfage of Epithalamie or bedding ballad of the ancient times, in which if there were any wanton or lafciuious matter more then ordinarie, which they called Ficenina licentia, it was borne withal for that time becaufe of the matter no lesse requiring. Catullus hath made of them one or two very artiiiciall and ciuil : but none more excellent then of late yeares a young nobleman of Germanie, as I take it, Johannes Secundus, who in that and in his poeme De bafis pafleth any of the ancient or moderne Poetes in my judgment. PRINTED BY W. n. WHITE AND CO. LTD. EDINBURGH RIVERSIDE PRESS.