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RICHARD BARNFIELD. (Born circa 1570.)

As it fell upon a day

In the merry month of May,
Sitting in a pleasant shade

Which a grove of myrtles made.
Address to the Nightingale.

DR. JOHN DONNE.

1573-1631.

He was the Word, that spake it ;
He took the bread and brake it ;

And what that Word did make it,

I do believe and take it.2

Divine Poems. On the Sacrament.

We understood

Her by her sight; her pure and eloquent blood Spoke in her cheeks, and so distinctly wrought, That one might almost say her body thought.

Funeral Elegies. On the Death of Mistress Drury. She and comparisons are odious.3

Elegy 8.

The Comparison. Who are a little wise the best fools be.*

The Triple Fool.

1 This song, often attributed to Shakespeare, is now confidently assigned to Barnfield; it is found in his collection of Poems in Divers Humours, published in 1598.-Ellis's Specimens, Vol. ii. p. 316.

Attributed by many writers to the Princess Elizabeth. It is not in the original edition of Donne, but first appears in the edition of 1654, p. 352.

3 See Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, Pt. iii. Sc. 3. Mem. 1. Subs. 2. Herbert, Jacula Prudentum. Granger, Golden Aphroditis.

4 Compare Bacon, Essay xvi. Atheism.

BEN JONSON. 1574-1637.1

Drink to me only with thine eyes,
And I will pledge with mine;
Or leave a kiss but in the cup,
And I'll not look for wine.2

The Forest. To Celia.

Still to be neat, still to be drest,
As you were going to a feast.3

The Silent Woman. Act i. Sc. 1.

Give me a look, give me a face,
That makes simplicity a grace.
Robes loosely flowing, hair as free;
Such sweet neglect more taketh me,
Than all th' adulteries of art;

They strike mine eyes, but not my heart.

Ibid.

In small proportion we just beauties see,
And in short measures life may perfect be.
Good Life, Long Life.

Underneath this stone doth lie
As much beauty as could die ;
Which in life did harbour give
To more virtue than doth live.

1 O rare Ben Jonson.

Epitaph on Elizabeth.

Epitaph by Sir John Young. 2 Ἐμοὶ δὲ μόνοις πρότινε τοῖς όμμασιν. . . . . Εἰ δὲ βούλει, τοῖς χείλεσι προσφέρουσα, πλήρου φιλημάτων τὸ ἔκπωμα, καὶ ourws didov. Philostratus, Letter xxiv.

3 A translation from Bonnefonius.

Underneath this sable hearse
Lies the subject of all verse,
Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother.
Death! ere thou hast slain another,
Learn'd and fair and good as she,
Time shall throw a dart at thee.

Epitaph on the Countess of Pembroke.
Soul of the age!

The applause! delight! the wonder of our stage!
My Shakespeare rise! I will not lodge thee by
Chaucer, or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lie

A little further, to make thee a room.2

To the Memory of Shakespeare.

Small Latin, and less Greek.

Ibid.

He was not of an age, but for all time.

Ibid.

Sweet swan of Avon!

Ibid.

Get money; still get money, boy;

No matter by what means.3

Every Man in his Humour. Act ii. Sc. 3.

1 This epitaph is generally ascribed to Ben Jonson. It appears in the editions of his works; but in a MS. collection of Browne's poems preserved amongst the Lansdowne MS. No. 777, in the British Museum, it is ascribed to Browne, and awarded to him by Sir Egerton Brydges in his edition of Browne's poems.

2 Renowned Spenser, lie a thought more nigh To learned Chaucer, and rare Beaumont lie

A little nearer Spenser, to make room

For Shakespeare in your threefold, fourfold tomb.

Basse, On Shakespeare.

3 Get place and wealth; if possible, with grace;

If not, by any means get wealth and place.

Pope. Horace, Book i. Ep. i. Line 103.

Tourneur.-Hall.-Massinger. 153

CYRIL TOURNEUR.

A drunkard clasp his teeth, and not undo 'em, To suffer wet damnation to run through 'em.1 The Revenger's Tragedy. Act iii. Sc. 1.

BISHOP HALL. 1574-1656. Moderation is the silken string running through the pearl chain of all virtues.

Christian Moderation. Introduc.

Death borders upon our birth, and our cradle stands in the grave.2 Epistles. Dec. iii. Ep. 2.

There is many a rich stone laid up in the bowels of the earth, many a fair pearl laid up in the bosom of the sea, that never was seen, nor never shall be."

Contemplations. Book iv. The Veil of Moses.

PHILIP MASSINGER.

1584-1640.

Some undone widow sits upon mine arm,

And takes away the use of it; and my sword, Glued to my scabbard with wronged orphans' tears, Will not be drawn.

A New Way to pay Old Debts. Act v. Sc. I.

I Distilled damnation. - Robert Hall, see p. 431. 2 Cradles rock us nearer to the tomb:

Our birth is nothing but our death begun.

Young, Night Thoughts, 5, Line 718.

3 Full many a gem of purest ray serene
The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear.

Gray's Elegy, Stanza 4.

154 Massinger.- Overbury. -- Fletcher.

This many-headed monster.1

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In part to blame is she,

Which hath without consent bin only tride: He comes to neere that comes to be denide."

A Wife. St. 36.

JOHN FLETCHER.

1576-1625.

Man is his own star, and the soul that can
Render an honest and a perfect man
Commands all light, all influence, all fate.
Nothing to him falls early, or too late.
Our acts our angels are, or good or ill,
Our fatal shadows that walk by us still.
Upon an "Honest Man's Fortune."

All things that are

Made for our general uses are at war,
Even we among ourselves.

Ibid.

Man is his own star, and that soul that can

Be honest is the only perfect man.*

1 Compare Sidney, ante, p. 14.

2 Grim death, my son and foc.

Ibid.

Milton, Par. Lost, Book ii. Line 804.

See Lady Montague, post, p. 321.

An honest man 's the noblest work of God.

Pope, Essay on Man, Ep. iv. Line 248.

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