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HYMN TO DIANA.

QUEEN, and huntress, chaste and fair,

Now the sun is laid to sleep,
Seated in thy silver chair,

State in wonted manner keep:*
Hesperus entreats thy light,
Goddess excellently bright.

Earth, let not thy envious shade
Dare itself to interpose;
Cynthia's shining orb was made

Heaven to clear when day did close:
Bless us then with wishèd sight,
Goddess excellently bright.

Lay thy bow of pearl apart,

And thy crystal shining quiver;

Give unto thy flying hart

Space to breathe, how short soever:
Thou that makest a day of night,
Goddess excellently bright.

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THE LOVER'S IDEAL.

I freely may discover

What would please me in my lover,
I would have her fair and witty,
Savouring more of court than city;
A little proud, but full of pity;
Light and humorous in her toying;
Oft building hopes, and soon destroying;
Long, but sweet in the enjoying;

Neither too easy nor too hard,
All extremes I would have barred.

*Come, but keep thy wonted state,
With even step, and mincing gait.

MILTON.-Il Penseroso.

She should be allowed her passions,
So they were but used as fashions;
Sometimes froward, and then frowning,
Sometimes sickish, and then swooning,
Every fit with change still crowning.
Purely jealous I would have her,
Then only constant when I crave her;
"Tis a virtue should not save her.
Thus, nor her delicates would cloy me,
Nor her peevishness annoy me.*

WANTON CUPID.

LOVE is blind, and a wanton;

In the whole world, there is scant [one]
One such another:

No, not his mother.

He hath plucked her doves and sparrows,
To feather his sharp arrows,
And alone prevaileth,

While sick Venus waileth.
But if Cypris once recover
The wag; it shall behove her
To look better to him,
Or she will undo him.

WAKE! MUSIC AND WINE.

WAKE, our mirth begins to die,

Quicken it with tunes and wines

Raise your notes; you're out: fy, fy!
This drowsiness is an ill sign.

* The germ of this song may be traced to the following epigram of Martial:

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Qualem, Flacce, velim quæris, nolimve puellam,

Nolo nimis facilem, dificilemve nimis :

Illud quod medium est, atque inter utrumque probamus,
Nec volo quod cruciat, nec volo quod satiat.'

Thus rendered by Elphinston :

'What a fair, my dear Flaccus, I like or dislike ?

I approve not the dame, or too kind, or too coy;
The sweet medium be mine: no extremities strike:
I'll have her who knows nor to torture nor cloy.'

We banish him the quire of gods,
That droops again:

Then all are men,

For here's not one, but nods.

THE FEAST OF THE SENSES.

THEN, in a free and lofty strain,
Our broken tunes we thus repair;
And we answer them again,

Running division on the panting air;
To celebrate this feast of sense,

As free from scandal as offence.
Here is beauty for the eye;
For the ear sweet melody;
Ambrosial odours for the smell;
Delicious nectar for the taste;
For the touch a lady's waist;
Which doth all the rest excel!

VOLPONE; OR, THE FOX. 1605.

FOOLS.

FOOLS, they are the only nation

Worth men's envy or admiration;
Free from care or sorrow-taking,
Selves and others merry making:
All they speak or do is sterling.

Your fool he is your great man's darling,
And your ladies' sport and pleasure;

Tongue and babble are his treasure.

Even his face begetteth laughter,

And he speaks truth free from slaughter;*
He's the grace of every feast,

And sometimes the chiefest guest;

* Reason here, observes one of Jonson's commentators, has been made to suffer for the rhyme, slander being the word apparently designed.

Hath his trencher and his stool,
When wit waits upon the fool.
O, who would not be
He, he, he?*

COM

LOVE WHILE WE CAN.

OME, my Celia, let us prove,
While we can the sports of love,
Time will not be ours for ever,
He, at length, our good will sever;
Spend not then his gifts in vain,
Suns that set may rise again:
But if once we lose this light,
"Tis with us perpetual night.
Why should we defer our joys?
Fame and rumour are but toys.
Cannot we delude the eyes
Of a few poor household spies?
Or his easier ears beguile,
Thus removed by our wile?
'Tis no sin love's fruits to steal;
But the sweet thefts to reveal:

To be taken, to be seen,

These have crimes accounted been.t

THE QUEEN'S MASQUE.

1605.

THE BIRTH OF LOVE.

O beauty on the waters stood,

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When love had severed earth from flood;

So when he parted air from fire,

He did with concord all inspire;

There is a Fool's Song in the Bird in a Cage of Shirley (see Shirley's songs in this volume) which seems to be formed upon this song. The leading idea of this song is taken from Catullus. It was a favourite theme with the old dramatists, and will be found treated in a variety of ways amongst their songs.

And there a matter he then taught
That elder than himself was thought;
Which thought was yet the child of earth,
For Love is older than his birth.

CUPIDS SHOOTING AT RANDOM.

IF all these Cupids now were blind,

As is their wanton brother,

Or play should put it in their mind
To shoot at one another,

What pretty battle they would make,
If they their object should mistake,

And each one wound his mother.

EPICENE; OR, THE SILENT WOMAN.

1609.

THE GRACE OF SIMPLICITY.

STILL to be neat, still to be drest,
As you were going to a feast;
Still to be powdered, still perfumed:
Lady, it is to be presumed,

Though art's hid causes are not found,

All is not sweet, all is not sound.

Give me a look, give me a face,
That makes simplicity a grace;
Robes loosely flowing, hair as free:
Such sweet neglect more taketh me,

Than all the adulteries of art;

They strike mine eyes, but not my heart.*

*This is one of the best known of Jonson's songs, and a remarkable illustration of the art with which he constructed these compositions. The first verse is an evident preparation for the skilful flattery and delightful sentiment of the second. Nothing less than the fascinating result to which it leads us could excuse its want of gallantry.

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