FOOTNOTES:
[985] He was born in 1563, and died in 1631. Biog. Brit.
[986] As also Chaucer's Rhyme of Sir Topas, v. 6.
[987] [Reprinted by Utterson. The Romance of Sir Isumbras was printed from the MS. by Mr. Halliwell in the Thornton Romance (Camden Society, 1844).]
[988] [dwelt.]
[989] [keen.]
[990] [named.]
[991] [she was taught the learning.]
[992] [march-pane, a kind of biscuit.]
[993] [dexterously.]
[994] [gentle or tender.]
[995] Leominster, or Lemster, was long famous for its wool, and Skelton refers to "good Lemster wool" in his Elynour Rummin.
[996] Peakish hill; this may refer to the well-known Derbyshire mountain called the Peak.
[997] herb valerian, or mountain spikenard.
[998] perhaps charlock, or wild rape.
[999] exultingly.
[1000] pastured.
[1001] Alluding to Tamburlaine the great, or the Scythian Shepheard, 1590, 8vo. an old ranting play ascribed to Marlowe.
[1002] Sc. Abel.
[1003] [fleece of wool.]
[1004] [sheepskin gloves with the wool on the inside.]
[1005] [short boots.]
[1006] [leather.]
[1007] [mixed fur.]
[1008] [rosined thread.]
[1009] [Coventry.]
[1010] [parrot.]
[1011] [heed.]
[1012] [undecked.]
[1013] [cot.]
VIII.
THE FAREWELL TO LOVE.
From Beaumont and Fletcher's play, intitled The Lover's Progress. act iii. sc. 1.
Adieu, fond love, farewell you wanton powers;
I am free again.
Thou dull disease of bloud and idle hours,
Bewitching pain,
Fly to fools, that sigh away their time:5
My nobler love to heaven doth climb,
And there behold beauty still young,
That time can ne'er corrupt, nor death destroy,
Immortal sweetness by fair angels sung,
And honoured by eternity and joy:10
There lies my love, thither my hopes aspire,
Fond love declines, this heavenly love grows higher.
IX.
ULYSSES AND THE SYREN,
Affords a pretty poetical contest between Pleasure and Honour. It is found at the end of Hymen's Triumph: a pastoral tragicomedie, written by Daniel, and printed among his works, 4to. 1623.[1014] Daniel, who was a contemporary of Drayton's, and is said to have been poet laureat to Queen Elizabeth, was born in 1562, and died in 1619. Anne, Countess of Dorset, Pembroke, and Montgomery (to whom Daniel had been tutor), has inserted a small portrait of him in a full-length picture of herself, preserved at Appleby Castle, in Cumberland.
This little poem is the rather selected for a specimen of Daniel's poetic powers, as it is omitted in the later edition of his works, 2 vols. 12mo. 1718.
[Samuel Daniel was born in Somersetshire, and educated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford. He left college without a degree, "his geny being," according to Ant. à Wood, "more prone to easier and smoother subjects than in pecking and hewing at logic." He was tutor to Lady Anne Clifford, subsequently Countess of Pembroke, and afterwards groom of the privy chamber to Anne, queen of James I. Browne calls him in Britannia's Pastorals, "Wel-languaged Daniel," and the union of power of thought with sweetness and grace of expression exhibited by him is highly praised by Southey and Coleridge. He was free from indelicacy in his writings, and Fuller says of him that "he carried in his Christian and surname two holy prophets, his monitors, so to qualify his raptures that he abhorred all profaneness.">[
Syren.
Come, worthy Greeke, Ulysses come,
Possesse these shores with me,
The windes and seas are troublesome,
And here we may be free.
Here may we sit and view their toyle,5
That travaile in the deepe,
Enjoy the day in mirth the while,
And spend the night in sleepe.
Ulysses.
Faire nymph, if fame or honour were
To be attain'd with ease,10
Then would I come and rest with thee.
And leave such toiles as these:
But here it dwels, and here must I
With danger seek it forth;
To spend the time luxuriously15
Becomes not men of worth.
Syren.
Ulysses, O be not deceiv'd
With that unreall name:
This honour is a thing conceiv'd,
And rests on others' fame.20
Begotten only to molest
Our peace, and to beguile
(The best thing of our life) our rest,
And give us up to toyle!
Ulysses.
Delicious nymph, suppose there were25
Nor honor, nor report,
Yet manlinesse would scorne to weare
The time in idle sport:
For toyle doth give a better touch
To make us feele our joy;30
And ease findes tediousnes, as much
As labour yeelds annoy.
Syren.
Then pleasure likewise seemes the shore,
Whereto tendes all your toyle;
Which you forego to make it more,35
And perish oft the while.
Who may disport them diversly,
Find never tedious day;
And ease may have variety,
As well as action may.40
Ulysses.
But natures of the noblest frame
These toyles and dangers please;
And they take comfort in the same,
As much as you in ease:
And with the thought of actions past45
Are recreated still:
When pleasure leaves a touch at last
To shew that it was ill.
Syren.
That doth opinion only cause,
That's out of custom bred;50
Which makes us many other laws,
Than ever nature did.
No widdowes waile for our delights,
Our sports are without blood;
The world we see by warlike wights55
Receives more hurt than good.
Ulysses.
But yet the state of things require
These motions of unrest,
And these great spirits of high desire
Seem borne to turne them best:60
To purge the mischiefes, that increase
And all good order mar:
For oft we see a wicked peace,
To be well chang'd for war.
Syren.
Well, well, Ulysses, then I see65
I shall not have thee here;
And therefore I will come to thee,
And take my fortune there.
I must be wonne that cannot win,
Yet lost were I not wonne:70
For beauty hath created bin
T' undoo or be undone.