Which in this darkened age have clearly shin'd:
I sweare by those, and by my spotless love,
And by my secret, yet most fervent fires,
That I have never nurc'd but chast desires,
And such as modestie might well approve.
Then since I love those vertuous parts in thee,
Shouldst thou not love this vertuous mind in me?"[650:B]
The remaining poems of Stirling consist of four tragedies in alternate rhyme, termed by their author "monarchicke;" namely, Darius, published in 1603; Crœsus, in 1604; and the Alexandrean Tragedy, and Julius Cæsar, in 1607. These pieces are not calculated for the stage; but include some admirable lessons for sovereign power, and several choruses written with no small share of poetic vigour. With the Aurora in 1604, appeared his poem entitled, "A Parænesis to the Prince," a production of great value both in a moral and literary light, and which must have been highly acceptable to a character so truly noble as was that of Henry, to whose memory he paid a pleasing tribute, by printing an "Elegie on his Death," in 1612.
The most elaborate of this nobleman's works was given to the public at Edinburgh, in 1614, in 4to., and entitled, "Domes-day; or the great Day of the Lord's Judgment." It is divided into twelve Houres or Cantos, and has an encomium prefixed by Drummond. Piety and sound morality, expressed often in energetic diction, form the chief merit of this long poem, for it has little pretension to either sublimity or pathos. It had excited, however, the attention of Addison; for when the first two books of Domes-day were re-printed by A. Johnstoun in 1720, their editor tells us, "that Addison had read the author's whole works with the greatest satisfaction; and had remarked, that 'the beauties of our ancient English poets were too slightly passed over by modern writers, who, out of a peculiar singularity, had rather take pains to find fault than endeavour to excel.'"[651:A]
Lord Stirling republished the whole of his poetical works, with the exception of the "Aurora," in 1637, in a folio volume, including a new but unfinished poem, under the title of Jonathan. This impression had undergone a most assiduous revision, and was the last labour of its author, who died on the 12th of February, 1640, in his sixtieth year.