Upon my head such lines to bee."[713:A]
Of a character still higher for poetic power are the effusions of Richard Edwards, who excels alike in descriptive, ethic, and pathetic strains. Of the first, his two pieces called "May" and "I may not" are, with the exception of the third stanza of the latter poem, very striking instances; of the second, he has afforded us several proofs; and of the last, his lines on the maxim of Terence, Amantium iræ amoris redintegratio est, form one of the most lovely exemplifications
in the language. Of the opening stanza it is scarcely possible to resist giving a transcription:—
"In going to my naked bed, as one that would have slept,
I heard a wife syng to her child, that long before had wept:
She sighed sore and sang full sore, to bryng the babe to rest,
That would not rest but cried still in suckyng at her brest:
She was full wearie of her watche, and grieved with her child,
She rocked it and rated it, untill on her it smilde:
Then did she saie nowe have I founde the proverbe true to prove,