A silver wand the sorceress did sway,

And for a crown of gold her hair she wore ; Only a garland of rose-buds did play

About her locks; and in her hand she bore

A hollow globe of glass, which long before With her own hand she wholely emptied; And all the world therein had pictured;

Whose colours, like the rainbow, ever vanished.

To enchant her sacred visitor, Panglory is made to sing the following lines :

'Tis love that makes the heav'ns to move;

And the sun doth burn in love!

Love the strong and weak doth yoke,

And makes the ivy climb the oak;
Under whose shadow, lions wild,
Soften'd by love, grow tame and mild.
Love no med'cine can appease ;

He burns the fishes in the seas;

Not the most skill'd his wounds can stench;

Not all the sea his fire can quench!

Love did make the bloody spear,

Once a leafy coat to wear;

Whilst in his leaves there shrouded lay

Sweet birds, for love that sing and play:

And of all love's joyful flame,

I the bud and blossom am.

Only bend thy knee to me;

Thy wooing shall thy winning be!

See, see the flowers that below,

Now as fresh as morning blow ;

And of all, the virgin rose
Like to bright Aurora shows;
How they all do leafless die,
Losing their virginity:

Like unto a summer shade,

But now born, and now they fade.
Every thing doth pass away,
There is danger in delay.

Come, come, gather then the rose,
Gather it, or it you lose!

All the sand of Tagus' shore,
Into my bosom casts his ore.
All the valley's ripen'd corn,
To my house is yearly borne.
Every grape of every vine,

Is gladly bruis'd to make me wine.
Whilst ten thousand kings, as proud
To carry up my train have bow'd:
And the stars in heav'n that shine,
With ten thousand more, are mine!
Only bend thy knee to me;

Thy wooing shall thy winning be!

In this passage our poet has fairly drawn the bow of Spenser, and it will afford us a good opportunity to exhibit a comparison between them.

Lay, in the Bower of Bliss.

The whiles, some one did chant this lovely lay:
"Ah, see-whoso doth fain fair thing to see,—
In springing flow'r the image of thy day!
Ah see the virgin rose, how sweetly she
Doth first peep forth with bashful modesty,
That fairer seems the less ye see her may;

Lo, see soon after how more bold and free,
Her bared bosom she doth broad display;
Lo, see soon after, how she fades and falls away!

"So passeth in the passing of a day,

Of mortal life, the leaf, the bud, the flow'r ;
Nor more doth flourish after first decay,

That erst was sought to deck both bed and bow'r,
Of many a lady, many a paramour:-
Gather therefore the rose while yet is time,

For soon comes age that will her pride deflow'r;
Gather the rose of love, whilst yet is prime,

Whilst loving, thou may'st loved be, with equal crime !"

(Faery Queen, Book 2, Canto 12.)

This part ends with the ministration of the angels, and the following stanza :—

The birds' sweet notes, to sonnet out their joys,

Attemper'd to the lay angelical;

And to the birds the winds attune their noise;
And to the winds the waters softly call,
And echo back again returned all,

That the whole valley rung with victory:

But now our Lord to rest doth homeward fly;

For lo, the night comes hast'ning from the mountains

nigh!

This passage

is also copied from Spenser:

"The joyous birds, shrouded in cheerful shades,
Their notes unto the voice attemper'd sweet;
Th' angelical soft trembling voices made

To th' instruments divine respondence meet ;
The silver sounding instruments did meet
With the base murmurs of the waterfall ;
The waterfall with difference discreet,
Now soft, now loud, unto the winds did call;
The gently warbling winds, low answered to all!"

The third part of Fletcher's poem is called "Christ's Triumph over Death." From this part we have before selected some very fine stanzas, and it does not afford any detached passage of length,

The fourth and concluding part has the title of "Christ's Triumph after Death," and is throughout beautiful, and in parts sublime. The triumphal entry of Christ into his kingdom is thus celebrated

"Lift up your heads ye everlasting gates,
And let the Prince of Glory enter in!
At whose high pæan 'mongst siderial states,
The sun did blush, the stars all dim were seen ;
When springing first from earth he did begin
To soar on angel's wings :-then open hang
Your chrystal doors :"-so all the chorus sang

Of heavenly birds, as to the skies they nimbly sprang!

Hark! how the floods clap their applauding hands; The pleasant vallies singing for delight;

And lofty mountains dance about the lands;

The while the fields, struck with the heav'nly light,
Set all their flowers a smiling at the sight;

The trees laugh with their blossoms,-and the sound
Of the triumphant shout of praise that crown'd
The Lamb of God rising to heav'n, hath passage found.

Forth sprang the ancient Patriarchs, all in haste,
To see the powers of hell in triumph led,
And with small stars a garland interlac'd

Of olive leaves they bore to crown his head,
That was before with thorns so injured.
After them flew the Prophets, brightly stol'd
In shining lawn with foldings manifold,

Striking their ivory harps, all strung with chords of

gold.

Gaze but
upon the house where man doth live,
With flow'rs and verdure to adorn his way;
Where all the creatures due obedience give;
The winds to sweep his chambers every day,
And clouds that wash his rooms; the cieling gay
With glitt❜ring stars that night's dark empire brave:-
If such a house God to another gave,

How shine those splendid courts, he for himself will have!

And if a heavy cloud opaque as night,

In which the sun may seem embodied, Depur'd of all his dregs, we see so white, Burning in liquid gold his wat'ry head, Or round with ivory edges silvered :— What lustre supereminent will he

Lighten on those who shall his sunshine see,

In that all glorious court, in which all glories be!

If but one sun with his diffusive fires,

Can fill the stars, and the whole world with light, And joy, and life, into each heart inspires ;

And every saint shall shine in heav'n as bright,
As doth the sun in his transcendent might,

As faith may well believe what truth once says;—
What shall so many suns' united rays,

But dazzle all the eyes that now in heav'n we praise!

Here may the band that now in triumph shines,
And who before they were invested thus,
In earthly bodies carried heav'nly minds;
Pitch round about in order glorious,

Their sunny tents, and houses luminous :