— 52 Exquisite in its equably-balanced metrical flow.
[32] 53 Judging by its style, this beautiful example of old simplicity and feeling may, perhaps, be referred to the earlier years of Elizabeth. Late forgot: lately.
[35] 57 Printed in a little Anthology by Nicholas Breton, 1597. It is, however, a stronger and finer piece of work than any known to be his.—St. 1 silly: simple; dole: grief; chief: chiefly. St. 3 If there be ...: obscure: Perhaps, if there be any who speak harshly of thee, thy pain may plead for pity from Fate.
This poem, with 60 and 143, are each graceful variations of a long popular theme.
[36] 58 That busy archer: Cupid. Descries: used actively; points out.—'The last line of this poem is a little obscured by transposition. He means, Do they call ungratefulness there a virtue?' (C. Lamb).
[37] 59 White Iope: suggested, Mr. Bullen notes, by a passage in Propertius (iii, 20) describing Spirits in the lower world:
Vobiscum est Iope, vobiscum candida Tyro.
[38] 62 cypres or cyprus,—used by the old writers for crape: whether from the French crespe or from the Island whence it was imported. Its accidental similarity in spelling to cypress has, here and in Milton's Penseroso, probably confused readers.
[39] 63 ramage: confused noise.
[41] 66 'I never saw anything like this funeral dirge,' says Charles Lamb, 'except the ditty which reminds Ferdinand of his drowned father in the Tempest. As that is of the water, watery; so this is of the earth, earthy. Both have that intenseness of feeling, which seems to resolve itself into the element which it contemplates.'