"May never evet nor the toad
Within thy banks make their abode!
Taking thy journey from the sea,
May'st thou ne'er happen in thy way
On nitre or on brimstone mine,
To spoil thy taste! this spring of thine
Let it of nothing taste but earth,
And salt conceived, in their birth
Be ever fresh! Let no man dare
To spoil thy fish, make lock or ware;
But on thy margent still let dwell
Those flowers which have the sweetest smell.
And let the dust upon thy strand
Become like Tagus' golden sand.
Let as much good betide to thee,
As thou hast favour show'd to me."
G. G.
flames that are ... canicular. Cf. A Dialogue between Sir Henry Wotton and Mr. Donne (Poems of John Donne, Muse's Library, Vol. I., p. 79):
"I'll never dig in quarry of a heart
To have no part,
Nor roast in fiery eyes, which always are
Canicular."
P. [65]. The Charnel-house.
Kelder, a caldron; cf. J. Cleveland, The King's Disguise:
"The sun wears midnight; day is beetle-brow'd,
And lightning is in kelder of a cloud."
A second fiat's care. The allusion is to Genesis i. 3: "And God said, Let there be light (in the Vulgate, Fiat lux), and there was light"; cf. Donne, The Storm (Muses' Library, II. 4):
"Since all forms uniform deformity
Doth cover; so that we, except God say
Another Fiat, shall have no more day."