[From “Tethys’ Festival,” by Samuel Daniel, 1610.]
Song at a Court Masque.
Are they shadows that we see
And can shadows pleasure give?—
Pleasures only shadows be,
Cast by bodies we conceive;
And are made the things we deem
In those figures which they seem.—
But these pleasures vanish fast,
Which by shadows are exprest:—
Pleasures are not, if they last;
In their passing is their best.
Glory is most bright and gay
In a flash, and so away.
Feed apace then, greedy eyes,
On the wonder you behold;
Take it sudden as it flies,
Tho’ you take it not to hold:
When your eyes have done their part,
Thought must lengthen it in the heart.
C. L.
[186] Jove, for Jehovah.
Scylla and Charybdis.
Ancient and Present State.
Incidit in Scyllam, cupiens vitare Charybdis.