One would have thought (so cunningly the rude Art, and that art at nature did repine; And in the midst of all a fountain stood Was overwrought, and shapes of naked boys, To fly about, playing their wanton toys, While others did embaye themselves in liquid joys. And over all, of purest gold was spread A trail of ivy in his native hue: For the rich metal was so coloured, That wight, who did not well advis'd it view, Low his lascivious arms adown did creep, That themselves dipping in the silver dew, Their fleecy flowers they fearfully did steep, Which drops of crystal seem'd for wantonness to weep. Infinite streams continually did well Out of this fountain, sweet and fair to see, The which into an ample laver fell, And shortly grew to be so great quantity, That like a little lake it seem'd to be; Whose depths exceeded not three cubits height, That through the waves one might the bottom see, All pav'd beneath with jasper shining bright, That seem'd the fountain in that sea that did sail upright. And all the margin round about was set Eftsoons they heard a most melodious sound, Birds, voices, instruments, winds, waters, all agree. The joyous birds, shrouded in cheerful shade, Th' angelical soft trembling voices made The while, some one did chant this lovely lay; Lo, see soon after, how she fades and falls away! So presseth, in the passing of a day, Of mortal life, the leaf, the bud, the flower, No more doth flourish after first decay, That erst was sought to deck both bed and bower Of many a lady, and many a paramour; Gather, therefore, the rose, while yet is prime, For soon comes age, that will her pride deflower: Gather the rose of love, while yet is time, While loving thou mayst loved be with equal crime.' To the preceding extracts from the 'Fairy Queen,' which we have given in a modernized spelling, we shall add the following highly poetical description, in the poet's own orthography. DESCRIPTION OF BELPHEBE. In her faire eyes two living lamps did flame, For, with dredd majestie and awfull yre, She broke his wanton darts, and quenched base desyre. Her yvorie forhead, full of bountie brave Like a broad table did itselfe dispred, For Love his loftie triumphes to engrave, And write the battailes of his great godhed: All good and honour might therein be red; For there their dwelling was. And, when she spake, Upon her eyelids many Graces sate, Working belgardes and amorous retrate; How shall frayle pen descrive her heavenly face, For feare, through want of skill, her beauty to disgrace! And in her hand a sharpe bore-speare she held, Stuft with steel-headed dartes, wherewith she queld Knit with a golden bauldricke which forelay Her daintie paps; which, like young fruit in May, Through her thin weed their places only signifide. Her yellow lockes, crisped like golden wyre, As through the flouring forrest rash she fled, In her rude heares sweet flowres themselves did lap, And flourishing fresh leaves and blossomes did enwrap. Besides the important productions that we have noticed, Spenser was the author of some beautiful minor poems, the principal of which are The Tears of the Muses, Daphnaida, Amoretti, and the Elegy of Astrophel, the last of which was occasioned by the death of his lamented friend and early patron, Sir Philip Sidney. Lecture the Eighth. ROBERT SOUTHWELL-SAMUEL DANIEL-MICHAEL DRAYTON-EDWARD FAIRFAX -JOHN HARRINGTON-HENRY WOTTON-JOHN DAVIES-JOHN DONNE-ROBERT CORBET. HE bitter and acrimonious spirit of religious intolerance and oppression fortunately did not cease, even after Protestantism had gained a fixed and permanent ascendency under Elizabeth. The mild and amiable Southwell suffered as unjustly for conscience' sake, in her reign, as either Latimer or Tyndale had in that of her rigorous father, Henry the Eighth. ROBERT SOUTHWELL was of Roman Catholic parentage, and was born at St. Farths, in 1560. His parents being anxious to have him carefully educated, sent him, when very young, to the English College at Douay, in Flanders, where he advanced in his studies with unusual rapidity, and at the early age of sixteen he left Douay for Rome, and immediately entered the society of Jesuits. In 1584, having completed his studies, and taken priest's orders, he returned to England as a missionary of the society to which he belonged, and during eight successive years administered, unostentatiously, but zealously, to the scattered adherents of his creed, without, as far as has ever been ascertained, doing any thing to disturb the peace of society, or the faith of the established church. In 1592, he was apprehended in a gentleman's house at Uxenden in Middlesex, and committed to a dungeon in the Tower, so filthy, that when he was brought out for examination, his clothes, even, were noisomely offensive. When his father, who was a man of good family, beheld his situation, he presented a petition to the queen, requesting that, 'if his son had committed any thing for which, by the laws, he deserved death, he might suffer death; if not, as he was a gentleman, he hoped her majesty would be pleased to order him to be treated as a gentleman.' Southwell was afterward somewhat better lodged, but an imprisonment of three years, with ten inflictions of the rack, at length wore out his patience, and he entreated to be brought to trial. Being found guilty of heresy, on his own confession that he was a Romish priest, he was |