No doubt some mouldy tale, Like Pericles, and stale As the shrieve's crusts, and nasty as his fish- Thrown forth, and raked into the common tub, As the best-ordered meal; For who the relish of these guests will fit, And much good do't you then: Brave plush-and-velvet-men Can feed on orts; and, safe in your stage-clothes, The stagers and the stage-wrights too, your peers, Of larding your large ears With their foul comic socks, Wrought upon twenty blocks; Which if they are torn, and turned, and patched enough, The gamesters share your gilt, and you their stuff. Leave things so prostitute, And take the Alcaic lute; Or thine own Horace, or Anacreon's lyre; Warm thee by Pindar's fire : And though thy nerves be shrunk, and blood be cold, Ere years have made thee old, Strike that disdainful heat Throughout, to their defeat, As curious fools, and envious of thy strain, But when they hear thee sing The glories of thy king, His zeal to God, and his just awe o'er men : Feel such a flesh-quake to possess their powers, In sound of peace or wars, No harp e'er hit the stars, In tuning forth the acts of his sweet reign, SONG. TO CELIA'. [From The Forest.] Drink to me only with thine eyes, And I will pledge with mine; The thirst that from the soul doth rise, But might I of Jove's nectar sup, I sent thee late a rosy wreath, But thou thereon didst only breathe, Since when it grows, and smells, I swear, EPIGRAMS. TO MY MERE ENGLISH CENSURER. To thee, my way in Epigrams seems new, From the (prose) love-letters of Philostratus the younger (about 25ʊ .B.) If thou 'dst but use thy faith as thou didst then, ON COURT-WORM. All men are worms, but this2 no man. In silk Which was a caterpillar. So 'twill die. TO FOOL, OR Knave. Thy praise or dispraise is to me alike: 'ON LUCY, COUNTESS OF BEDFORD". This morning, timely rapt with holy fire, To honour, serve, and love, as Poets use. Nor lend like influence from his lucent seat. Only a learned, and a manly soul I purposed her that should, with even powers, ' Censure = criticise 2 This this is. = 3 Compare Pope's 'Sporus.' • Wife of Edward, third Earl of Bedford. She was also sung by Donne and Daniel. AN EPITAPH ON SALATHIEL PAVY, A CHILD OF Weep with me, all you that read And know, for whom a tear you shed 'Twas a child that so did thrive In grace and feature, As Heaven and Nature seemed to strive Years he numbered scarce thirteen Yet three filled zodiacs had he been And did act, what now we moan, As, sooth, the Parcæ thought him one, He played so truly. So, by error to his fate They all consented; But viewing him since, alas, too late They have repented ; And have sought to give new birth But being so much too good for earth, EPITAPH ON ELIZABETH L. H. Wouldst thou hear what man can say Underneath this stone doth lie To more virtue than doth live. 1 These children (called in the next reign Children of Her Majesty' Revels) were trained up to act before the Queen. Salathiel had acted in two of Jonson's plays, in 1600, and in 1601, when he is supposed to have died. If at all she had a fault, Leave it buried in this vault. The other, let it sleep in death, Than that it lived at all. Farewell! AN ODE TO HIMSELF. [From Underwoods.] Where dost thou careless lie Buried in ease and sloth? Knowledge that sleeps, doth die; And this security, It is the common moth That eats on wits and arts, and [that]1 destroys them both. Are all the Aonian springs Dried up? lies Thespia waste? Doth Clarius' harp want strings, That not a nymph now sings; Or droop they as disgraced, To see their seats and bowers by chattering pies defaced? If hence thy silence be, As 'tis too just a cause, Let this thought quicken thee: Minds that are great and free Should not on fortune pause; 'Tis crown enough to virtue still, her own applause What though the greedy fry Be taken with false baits Of worded balladry, And think it poësy? They die with their conceits, And only piteous scorn upon their folly waits. 1. That' conj. C |