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; 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 unto a summer shade, But now born, and now they fade. Come, come, gather then the rose, All the sand of Tagus' shore, Is gladly bruis'd to make me wine. 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: Lo, see soon after how more bold and free, "So passeth in the passing of a day, Of mortal life, the leaf, the bud, the flow'r ; That erst was sought to deck both bed and bow'r, For soon comes age that will her pride deflow'r; 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; 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, To th' instruments divine respondence meet ; 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, 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, The trees laugh with their blossoms,-and the sound Forth sprang the ancient Patriarchs, all in haste, Of olive leaves they bore to crown his head, Striking their ivory harps, all strung with chords of gold. Gaze but 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 faith may well believe what truth once says;— But dazzle all the eyes that now in heav'n we praise! Here may the band that now in triumph shines, Their sunny tents, and houses luminous : |