Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

GILES FLETCHER,

Brother of the preceding, was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took the degree of B. D. and died at Alderton in Suffolk, 1623, " equally beloved," says Wood, "of the Muses and Graces." He published "Christ's "Victorie and Triumph in Heaven and Earth over and after Death," Cambr. 1610, 4to. in four parts, written in stanzas of eight lines. Mr. Headley calls it " a poem "rich and picturesque, and on a happier subject than that "of his brother." See his "Select Beauties of Ancient English Poetry." Another edition appeared in 1632 which in 1640 was furnished with a new title and decorated with engravings. This is reprinted in Dr. Anderson's Poets with a Life.

The latter of the two following extracts, taken from the conclusion of the poem, is an elegant tribute to the talents of his brother, from w ich it appears that in 1610" The Purple Island" was already written: indeed Phineas himself in the dedication prefixed to his volume describes its contents as the raw essays of his very unripe years and almost childhood.

[Panglory's Wooing-song.]

LOVE is the blossom where there blows
Every thing thing that lives or grows;
Love doth make the heavens to move,
And the sun doth burn in love :

Love the strong and weak doth yoke, And makes the ivy climb the oak, Under whose shadows lions wild, Soften'd by Love, grow tame and mild. Love no med'cine can appease;

He burns the fishes in the seas:

Not all the skill his wounds can stanch, Not all the sea his fire can quench.

Love did make the bloody spear

Once a leavy coat to wear,

While in his leaves their shrouded lay

Sweet birds, for Love that sing and play;

And of all Love's joyful flame

I the bud and blossom am.

Only bend thy knee to me,

Thy wooing shall thy winning be!

See, see the flowers that below
Now as fresh as morning blow,

And of all the virgin rose
That as bright Aurora shows,
How they all unleaved die
Losing their virginity:

Like unto a summer shade,

But now born and now they fade.

Every thing doth pass away;

There is danger in delay.

Come, come gather then the rose;
Gather it, or it you lose.

All the sand of Tagus' shore

In my bosom casts his ore:

All the valleys swimming corn house is yearly borne:

To my

Every grape of every vine

Is gladly bruis'd to make me wine;
While ten thousand kings, as proud
To carry up my train, have bow'd,
And a world of ladies send me
In my chambers to attend me :
All the stars in heaven that shine,
And ten thousand more, are mine.
Only bend thy knee to me,
Thy wooing shall thy winning be.

PART IV. ST. XLVIII.

BUT let the Kentish lad that lately taught
His oaten reed the trumpet's silver sound,
Young Thyrsilis, and for his music brought

The willing spheres from heaven to lead a round Of dancing nymphs, and herds that sung and crown'd

Eclecta's hymen with ten thousand flowers
Of choicest praise, and hung her heavenly bowers
With saffron garlands, drest for nuptial paramours,

Let his shrill trumpet, with her silver blast,
Of fair Eclecta and her spousal bed
Be the sweet pipe, and smooth encomiast ;
But my green Muse, hiding her younger head
Under old Chamus' flaggy banks, that spread
Their willow locks abroad, and all the day
With their own watery shadows wanton play,
Dares not those high amours and love-sick songs

assay.

SIR JOHN BEAUMONT,

Descended of an ancient Leicestershire family, son of Francis Beaumont the judge, and brother of Francis Beaumont the poet, was author of "Bosworth Field;" with a variety of other poems, printed in 1629, 12mo. According to Wood, he was entered a gentleman-commoner of Broadgate's Hall, Oxford, in 1596, at the age of 14, consequently born in 1582. Having remained here about three years, he retired to one of the inns of court, and afterwards to his native county, where he married, and was in 1626 made a baronet. "The former part of his life," says Wood, "he "successfully employed in poetry, and the latter he as "happily bestowed on more serious and beneficial studies." He died in 1628. Dr. Kippis commends the harmonious versificaion of Sir John Beaumont, and says it was much above the general cast of the age. See Biog. Brit.Vol. II.88.

A Description of Love.

Love is a region full of fires,

And burning with extreme desires
An object seeks, of which possest,

The wheels are fix'd, the motions rest,
The flames in ashes lie opprest.

This meteor, striving high to rise,

(The fuel spent) falls down and dies.

*

« ZurückWeiter »