Preliminary Poems to the Author.

VPON THE MOST INGENIOUS PAIR OF TWINS, EUGENIUS PHILALETHES, AND THE AUTHOR OF THESE POEMS.

HAT planet rul'd your birth? what wittie star?

That you so like in souls as bodies are! So like in both, that you seem born to free The starrie art from vulgar calumnie.

My doubts are solv'd, from hence my faith begins, Not only your faces, but your wits are twins.

When this bright Gemini shall from Earth ascend, They will new light to dull ey'd mankind lend, Teach the star-gazers, and delight their eyes, Being fixt a constellation in the skyes.

T. POWELL, OXONIENSIS.1

1 Dr. Thomas Powell, as before. See our Essay in the present Volume. G.

TO MY FRIEND THE AUTHOUR UPON

THESE HIS POEMS.

CALL'd it once my sloth: in such an

age

So

many

volumes deep, I not a page ?

But I recant, and vow 'twas thriftie care

That kept my pen from spending on slight ware, And breath'd it for a prize, whose pow'rfull shine Doth both reward the striver, and refine;

Such are thy poems, friend: for since th' hast writ, I cann't reply to any name, but wit;

And lest amidst the throng that makes us grone,
Mine prove a groundless heresie alone,

Thus I dispute, Hath there not rev'rence bin
Pay'd to the beard at doore, for Lord within?
Who notes the spindle-leg, or hollow eye
Of the thinne usher, the faire lady by?
Thus I sinne freely, neighbour to a hand
Which while I aime to strengthen, gives command
For my protection, and thou art to me

At once my subject and securitie.

I. ROWLANDSON, OXONIENSIS.1

1 One of the names matriculated at Queen's College,

Oxon, 9th December, 1603 : pleb. fil. aged 16. G.

UPON THE FOLLOWING POEMS.

WRITE not here, as if thy last in store Of learned friends; 'tis known that thou hast more;

Who, were they told of this, would find a way To rise a guard of poets without pay,

And bring as many hands to thy edition,

As th' City should unto their May'rs petition:
But thou wouldst none of this, lest it should be
Thy muster rather, than our courtesie;
Thou wouldst not beg as knights do, and appeare
Poet by voice, and suffrage of the Shire;
That were enough to make my Muse advance
Amongst the crutches, nay it might enhance
Our charity, and we should think it fit
The State should build an hospital for wit.

But here needs no reliefe: Thy richer Verse
Creates all poets, that can but reherse,
And they, like tenants better'd by their land,
Should pay thee rent for what they understand :
Thou art not of that lamentable nation,
Who make a blessed alms of approbation,
Whose fardel-notes1 are briefes in ev'ry thing,

1 A 'fardel' is = a little pack or bundle. So in Shakespeare several times. Query supra = trivial notes? G.

But, that they are not licens'd by the king.
Without such scrape-requests thou dost come forth
Arm'd-though I speak it-with thy proper worth,
And needest not this noise of friends, for wee
Write out of love, not thy necessitie;
And though this sullen age posessed be
With some strange desamour' to poetrie,
Yet I suspect-my' fancy so delights-
The Puritans will turn thy proselytes,

And that thy flame when once abroad it shines,
Will bring thee as many friends, as thou hast lines.

1 =

EUGENIUS PHILALETHES.

Oxoniensis.3

something to cause hate. See foot-note in our Phineas Fletcher (iii. 61, 132.) G.

'Thy' but in errata marked to be read 'my'. G. 3 Id est, Thomas Vaughan, as before. G.

Olor Escanus.

HEN Daphne's lover here first wore the

bayes,

Eurotas secret streams heard all his

layes,

And holy Orpheus, Nature's busie child,

By headlong Hebrus his deep hymns compil'd.
Soft Petrarch-thaw'd by Laura's flames-did

weep

On Tyber's banks, when she-prou'd fair!cou'd sleep;

Mosella boasts Ausonius, and the Thames
Doth murmure Sidney's Stella to her streams;
While Severn swoln with joy and sorrow, wears
Castara's smiles mixt with fair Sabrin's tears."

1 Misprinted 'sworn' but marked in the errata. G. 'The allusion is to Habington, whose lady-love and afterwards wife, was Lucy, daughter of William Herbert, first Lord Powis, by Eleanor, daughter of Henry Percy, first earl of Northumberland. Her poetic name was " Castara'. See Essay in present volume for more.