From whence, so lately, I did burne, That fled his cage, or broke his chaine, SONG OF NIGHT. IN THE MASQUE OF THE VISION OF DELIGHT. BREAK, Phant'sie, from thy cave of cloud, And various shapes of things; Create of airy forms a stream, It must have blood, and nought of phlegm; And though it be a waking dream, Cho. Yet let it like an odour rise To all the senses here, And fall like sleep upon their eyes, SONG FROM THE MASQUE OF BEAUTY. So Beauty on the waters stood, When Love had sever'd earth from flood! RICHARD CORBET. BORN 1582-DIED 1635. THIS jovial and facetious prelate, who might have sat for the portrait of the Clerk of Copmanhurst, was a native of Ewell in Surrey. His talents were of the kind which, in certain circumstances, promote a man's interest independently of principles, or the strict decencies of the sacred office. From being made one of the chaplains of James I., he was successively promoted to the deanery of Christ Church and the bishoprics of Öxford and Norwich. His poems strongly indicate great constitutional gaiety, and a flow of high animal spirits not devoid of a certain warmth and heartiness, which almost resembles the careless ebullition of genius. Whatever were the failings of this convivial prelate, he was no hypocrite. After he was in orders, and, indeed, doctor of divinity, it is related, that a ballad-singer, at Abingdon, came into the house where he was, complaining that nobody would buy his wares. Corbet stripped off his gown, assumed the ballad-singer's leathern jacket, went into the street, and soon drew around him a circle of liberal admirers. When he wished "to make a night of it," he used to shut himself up in his well-filled cellars with his jolly chaplain, first throw off his gown, exclaiming, "There goes the doctor!" and next his episcopal hood," and there the bishop!" It is not to be expected that the Bishop of Norwich was very eminent as a divine. FAREWELL TO THE FAERIES. FAREWELL rewards and Faeries, Good houswives now may say, For now foule slutts in daries And though they sweepe theyre hearths no less Yet who of late for cleanliness, Lament, lament, old abbies, The Faeries lost command; But some have chang'd your land: At morning and at evening both When Tom came home from labour, Then merrily went theyre tabor, And nimbly went theyre toes. Wittness those rings and roundelayes By which we note the Faries Theyre daunces were procession : A tell-tale in theyre company Theyre mirth was punisht sure; H WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE. BORN APRIL 23, 1564-DIED APRIL 23, 1616. By a singular and happy coincidence the BARD OF ENGLAND was born on the festival of St George, the patron saint of England. He died on his birth-day, at the age of fiftytwo. Very little is known of the family or personal history of the "myriad-minded" Shakspeare. In life, as in the drama, he stood nearly alone. It is only known, that the greatest dramatic poet the world ever saw was the son of a wool-comber at Stratford-upon-Avon. He was the eldest of ten children; and his education, such as it was, he received at the free-school of his native town. It is conjectured (for of the history of Shakspeare all is nearly mere conjecture,) that his education did not go beyond reading and writing, and that he spent a few months in the office of some country attorney, or with the senes chal of some manor-court-an office akin to the ancient baron-bailie of Scotland-and that in this situation he picked up those few bald legal phrases which he puts into the mouths of such worthies as Shallow and Dogberry. It is thought by Warton, that when a boy he might have seen the courtly masques and stately pageants represented before Queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth, and there have received the germ of dramatic genius afterwards so wonderfully developed. But none of Shakspeare's numerous and zealous commentators advert to this probability, -nor is it of much importance. At the age of eighteen he married Anne Hathaway, a maiden considerably older than himself, the daughter of a neighbouring yeoman. It is believed that from this time he maintained his family by carrying on the business of woolcombing jointly with his father. But whatever were his |