A MADRIGAL. [From The Passionate Pilgrim.] Crabbed Age and Youth Youth like summer morn, Youth is full of sport, O! my Love, my Love is young! O sweet shepherd, hie thee, For methinks thou stay'st too long. SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 1552-1618. [BORN, 1552; executed, 1618. No early collected edition of his poems exists; such as wer printed at all appeared for the most part in the Miscellanies of the time.] GEORGE WITHER. 1588-1667. [GEORGE WITHER was born at Brentworth in Hampshire, June 11, 1588, and died in the year 1667; his literary achievement, both in verse and prose, being proportioned to his length of years. The dates of his chief works are as follows: 1612, the Elegy on Prince Henry; 1613, Epithalamia; 1613, Abuses Stript and Whipt; 1615, Fidelia and Shepherd's Hunting. To the same year must also be ascribed his share in Browne's Shepherd's Pipe; 1618, the Motto; 1622, the Mistress of Philarete; 1623, the Hymns and Songs of the Church; 1628, Britain's Remembrancer; 1634, Emblems; 1641, Hallelujah. The above list is very far indeed from exhausting the complete catalogue of Wither's voluminous works. He was an ardent politician, and in the stirring times of the Civil War was perpetually pouring forth songs and broadsheets in justification of the cause he had taken up. Probably no library in England possesses an absolutely complete collection of Wither's works. Certainly the British Museum and the Bodleian do not. The Rev. T. Corser, of Stand, near Manchester, is said to have had the fullest collection in existence, but that has been since dispersed. The poems have been collected by the Spenser Society, but it is a matter for regret that they are not to be had in a more generally accessible form. It is one of the most striking blemishes of Chalmers' collection that Wither is absolutely ignored in it. Of modern editors of portions of his works the chief is Sir Egerton Brydges, who republished the Shepherd's Hunting and the Fidelia at the beginning of this century, and also gave long extracts from Wither's other poems in his Censura Literaria. The Hymns and Songs of the Church, and the Hallelujah were republished for Russell Smith in 1856 and 1857.] The King of kings, when He was born, Sweet baby, then forbear to weep; Within a manger lodged thy Lord, An easy cradle or a bed. Sweet baby, then forbear to weep; Be still, my babe; sweet baby, sleep. The wants that He did then sustain Have purchased wealth, my babe, for thee; And by His torments and His pain Thou hast, yet more, to perfect this, A promise and an earnest got Of gaining everlasting bliss, Though thou, my babe, perceiv'st it Sweet baby, then forbear to weep; SHALL I, WASTING IN DESPAIR. SHALL I, wasting in despair, Should my heart be griev'd or pin'd If she be not so to me, What care I how kind she be? Shall a woman's virtues move What care I how good she be? Great, or good, or kind, or fair, For if she be not for me, WHEN WE ARE UPON THE [From Hallelujah.] Should wonders there behold. A stirring courser now I sit, A headstrong steed I ride, The softest whistling of the winds And as their breath increased he finds Take Thou, oh Lord! the reins in hand, Assume our Master's room; |