Quaint Gleanings from Ancient Poetry / A Collection of Curious Poetical Compositions of the XVIth, XVIIth, and XVIIIth Centuries

Produced by Beth Constantine, David Starner, Charles Franks
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
Quaint Gleanings From Ancient Poetry:
A COLLECTION OF CURIOUS POETICAL COMPOSITIONS OF THE XVIth, XVIIth, AND XVIIIth CENTURIES.
EDITED From MSS. and Rare Printed Originals BY EDMUND GOLDSMID, F.R.H.S.
The following curious collection I have gathered together during several years' reading in out-of-the-way corners. Manuscripts, in public and private libraries; old books picked up on dusty bookstalls, or carried away as prizes from the battlefield of the auction-room; even pencillings on the inside of tattered bindings,—all have been laid under contribution. I trust this medley, or pot-pourri , of snatches of song, grave and gay, will prove as interesting to my readers as they have been to myself. They claim attention on various grounds: some are the works of well-known men, such as Anthony Munday and Warren Hastings; some are bitter political squibs—such, for instance, as the Satyre against the Scots, page 47; some, again, are exquisitely beautiful, as The Dirge, page 53. A few have appeared in different collections: but none of my readers, I will undertake to say, have seen more than a half-dozen or so.
With these few words I beg to introduce Volume One of the Collectanea Adamantaea.
Edinburgh, March 6th , 1884.
When raging Love, with fierce assault, Strikes at fair Beauties gate, What army hath she to resist And keepe her court and state?
She calleth first on Chastitie To lende her help in time; And Prudence no lesse summons shee To meet her foe so trim.
And female Courage she alwaye Doth bring unto the walle, To blowe the trump in her dismaye, Fearing her fort may falle.
On force of wordes she much relies Her foe without to keepe, And parleyeth with her two bright eyes When they her dyke would leape.