ATTRIBUTED VERSES.

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THE PHOENIX AND TURTLE.

FROM THE ADDITIONAL POEMS TO CHESTER'S "LOVE'S MARTYR,

1601.

VOL. I.

LE

ET the bird of loudest lay,
On the sole Arabian tree,

Herald sad and trumpet be,

To whose sound chaste wings obey.

But thou shrieking harbinger,

Foul precurrer of the fiend,

Augur of the fever's end,

To this troop come thou not near.

From this session interdict
Every fowl of tyrant wing,
Save the eagle, feather'd king:
Keep the obsequy so strict.

Let the priest in surplice white,
That defunctive music can,
Be the death-divining swan,
Lest the requiem lack his right.

And thou, treble-dated crow,
That thy sable gender mak'st
With the breath thou giv'st and tak'st,
'Mongst our mourners shalt thou go.

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Whereupon it made this threne
To the phoenix and the dove,
Co-supremes and stars of love;
As chorus to their tragic scene.

THRENOS.

Beauty, truth, and rarity,
Grace in all simplicity,

Here enclos'd in cinders lie.

Death is now the phoenix' nest;

And the turtle's loyal breast
To eternity doth rest,

Leaving no posterity: -
'Twas not their infirmity,
It was married chastity.

Truth may seem, but cannot be;
Beauty brag, but 'tis not she;
Truth and beauty buried be.

To this urn let those repair,

That are either true or fair;

For these dead birds sigh a prayer.

WM. SHAKESPEARE.

ON THE KING.

CROWNS have their compass, length of days their date, Triumphs their tomb, Felicity her fate:

Of naught but earth can Earth make us partaker, But knowledge makes a king most like his Maker.