6.

Each peerelesse nymph that baths her dewy curls
In too too happy Tavyes chrystall waves,
Into the singing ecchoing champion hurles,

And there our Willyes head with flowers embraves,
Robs her own bankes, and decks a coronet
With blushing roses and the violet,

Which on the head of her admired swayne is set.

7.

The merry emulous songsters of the wood
In silence listened to his better song,
And the soft murmurs of the bubbling flood
(Which seemed to laugh as he did ride along)
Presumed to beare the burthen of his lay,
The whilst the jocund satyres all would say
They were not half so blest even on Pan's holyday.

8.

But midst these thankful shouts and signes of joy,
Whilst all expect to see a happy close,

Upon the sudden starts the peevish boy,
And runs away in haste as from his foes:

Nor can our speaking sighs, and begging teares,
Nor all our prayers and plaints he daily heares,
Or melt his stubborn heart, or banish his vain feares.

9.

So, when as Philomel her haplesse fate

Unto the tell-tale eceho doth bemoane,

The whilst some envious bough presents in hate
A dagger to her breast, and there is none

That praises not her musicks heavenly grace,

The bashful bird with leaves doth vaile her face, Or to her shrowd and tombe some thicket, flyes apace.

And

10.

And now he hauntes the woodes and silent groves,
(Poore lad) and teaches silence to the windes,
H' as now forgot our sports and harmlesse loves,
Ah can such deeds agree with heavenly mindes;
Great flakes of moss, bred in some silent cave,
Stop his pipes mouth, and now his spirit leave,
Now a dead soule entombed within a living grave.

11.

But Willy boy, let not eternall sleepe

Captive thy sprightly muse; so shall we all Rejoice at her new life, and henceforth keepe Unto thy name a yearly festivall;

May shee but impe* her wings with thy blest pen, And take her wonted flight, heaven says Amen, The musicke of the spheares shall nere be heard agen.

12.

So may a sun shine day smile on our sports,

So may the pretty lambs live free from harme,

So may the tender lasse that here resorts,

Nere feele the clownish winds cold boisterous arm.
As we do love thee Willy, as we all

Do wistly for thy peereless musick call,
And as we plat for thee a matchlesse coronall.

PERIGOT.

Browne appears to be one of those early poets who have not had sufficient justice rendered to their memory; yet that he was held in high estimation by his cotemporaries, is sufficiently evi

To impe is a term in hawking, signifying to "graff a feather in a hawk's wing into the stump of one before broken."

dent, as well from the verses which I have had it in my power to present to the reader, written, I presume, by his fellow-collegians, as from the complimentary poems prefixed to the first and second editions of his works. Among them we find the names of Michael Drayton, Selden, John Davies, of Hereford, Glanville, Withers, Ben Jonson, and others of distinction.

Considering the time at which he wrote, there is great sweetness and harmony in Browne's versification. Specimens will be found by those who may not possess this poet's works, in Hayward's British Muse, Headley's Compilation, and in the elegant volumes of Mr. Ellis. 1 forbear inserting any other than the following short apostrophe, taken by chance, and subjoined merely in vindication of the merit which I have imputed to Browne.

SING on sweet muse, and whilst I feed mine eyes
Vpon a jewell and unvalued prize,

As bright a starre, a dame as faire, as chaste
As eye beheld, or shall till natures last

Charme her quick senses, and with raptures sweet
Make her affection with your cadence meet,
And if her gracefull tongue admire one straine,
It is the best reward my pipe would gaine :
In lieu whereof in laurell-worthy rýmes,
Her love shall live untill the end of times,
And spite of age the last of dayes shall see
Her name embalmed in sacred poesie.

4

There

There are not many passages even in Pope much more mellifluous.

As I happen to have the first and second editions before me, I notice the following variation:

In the first edition, at the end of the first book, where the shepherds present to their mistresses, the one his dog, the second his pipe, the third a pair of gloves, &c. &c. and the ninth shepherd presents a shepherd's hook, and the tenth a comb. The lines which accompany these presents, are inserted in a shepherd's hook and comb, as are the lines which immediately precede, where a heart is presented inscribed in a circle, on the top of which is also a heart. This singularity does not appear in any of the subsequent editions,

I HAVE made so very limited a progress in my proposed plan, and have already occupied so large a portion of my concluding volume, that I feel myself under the necessity of imposing a restraint upon my inclinations. I must satisfy myself with exhibiting such articles, as appear more immediately to merit attention, and excite interest, from their relative rarity and value.

Whether the following book is in any other hands than those of Mr. Payne, to whom I am indebted for the use of it, I know not; I certainly never heard of any other copy. It must be very uncommon, as in all probability many copies were destroyed, for the godly men of the author's time were so exasperated against him for writing it, that he was imprisoned and tried for his life on account of it.

SONGS AND POEMS OF LOVE AND DROLLERY, by T. W. Printed in the Year 1654. 12mo.

The author of the above was Thomas Weaver, a native of Worcester, and a member of Christ Church, Oxford, in 1633. He was ejected from a minor canonry in Christ Church by the Parliamentary visitors, and, as Wood says, was obliged to shift from place to place, and live upon his