Faith's sister! nurse of fair desire!
Fear's antidote! a wise and well-stay'd fire!
Temper 'twixt chill Despair, and torrid Ioy!
Queen regent in yonge Loue's minority!
Though the vext chymick vainly chases45
His fugitiue gold through all her faces;
Though Loue's more feirce, more fruitlesse, fires assay:
One face more fugitiue then all they;
True Hope's a glorious huntresse, and her chase,
The God of Nature in the feilds of grace.50
NOTES.
Various readings from 1646 edition.
Line 2, 'things' for 'those;' adopted. But in Harleian ms. 6917-18, it is 'those.' As this ms. supplies in poems onward various excellent readings (e.g. 'Wishes'), it may be noted that the Collection came from Lord Somers' Library of mss., and is accordingly authoritative.
Lines 5-6 read
'Faire cloud of fire, both shade and light
Our life in death, our day in night.'
Our text (1652) seems finer and deeper, and to put the thought with more concinnity.
Line 9, 'thinne' for 'lean.'
" 10, 'like' for 'as.'
" 11, 'Rich hope' dropped in all the other editions; but as it is parallel with the 'dear Hope' and 'fair Hope' of the preceding and succeeding stanzas, I have restored the words. The line reads elsewhere,
'Thou art Love's Legacie under lock'
and the next,