Page images
PDF
EPUB

But flying proud Iarbas' villainy—

Not moved by furious love or jealousy

I did, with weapon chaste, to save my fame,
Make way for death untimely ere it came.
This was my end. But first I built a town,
Revenged my husband's death, lived with renown.
Why didst thou stir up Virgil, envious Muse,
Falsely my name and honour to abuse?

Readers, believe historians; not those

Which to the world Jove's thefts and vice expose. Poets are liars; and for verses' sake,

Will make the gods of human crimes partake.

LIX. BOOK II. CH. XXIII. § 4.

Horace, Od. III. xxiv. 36-41.

NOR Southern heat nor northern snow,
That freezing to the ground doth grow,
The subject regions can fence,

And keep the greedy merchant thence.
The subtle shipmen way will find,
Storm never so the seas with wind.

LX. BOOK 11. CH. XXIII. § 5.

Horace, Od. IV. ii. 17, 18.

SUCH as like heavenly wights do come

With an Elean garland home.

LXI. BOOK II. CH. XXIV. § 1.

(Compare No. LIV.)

Virgil, Eneid, 1. 530-3.

THERE is a land which Greeks Hesperia name,
Ancient and strong, of much fertility;

Enotrians held it; but we hear by fame,
That, by late ages of posterity,

'Tis from a captain's name called Italy.

LXII. BOOK II. CH. XXIV. § 5.
Juvenal, viii. 272-5.

YET, though thou fetch thy pedigree so far,
Thy first progenitor, whoe'er he were,
Some shepherd was; or else that I'll forbear.

LXIII. BOOK III. CH. VII. § 3.

Horace, Od. III. ii. 31-2.

SELDOM the villain, though much haste he make, Lame-footed vengeance fails to overtake.

LXIV. BOOK IV. CH. I. § 5.

Horace, Od. III. xvi. 13-15.

Br gifts the Macedon clave gates asunder,
The kings envying his estate brought under.

[blocks in formation]

Homer, Od. XVIII. 135-6.

THE minds of men are ever so affected
As by God's will they daily are directed.

LXVI. BOOK IV. CH. II. § 15.

Claudian in Eutrop. I. 321-3.

OVER the Medes and light Sabæans reigns
This female sex; and under arms of Queen
Great part of the Barbarian land remains.

LXVII. BOOK V. CH. II. § 1.

Juvenal, VIII. 121-2.

HAVE special care that valiant poverty
Be not oppressed with too great injury.

LXVIII. BOOK V. CH. VI. § 11.

Pausan. (VII) XII. vol. iii. p. 182, Siebelis.

ONE fire than other burns more forcibly;

One wolf than other wolves does bite more sore; One hawk than other hawks more swift doth fly; So one most mischievous of men before,

Callicrates, false knave as knave might be,
Met with Menalcidas, more false than he.1

LXIX. BOOK V. CH. VI. § 12.

Juvenal, x. 96-7.

EVEN they that have no murderous will
Would have it in their power to kill.

1 "A bye-word, taken up among the Achæans, whenas that mischievous Callicrates, who had been too hard for all worthy and virtuous men, was beaten at his own weapor, by one of his own condition."

XXV.1

NO PLEASURE WITHOUT PAIN.o

(Before 1576.)

WEET were the joys that both might like and last;

Strange were the state exempt from
all distress;

Happy the life that no mishap should taste;
Blessed the chance might never change success.
Were such a life to lead or state to prove,
Who would not wish that such a life were love?

But oh! the soury sauce of sweet unsure,

When pleasures flit, and fly with waste of wind. The trustless trains that hoping hearts allure,

When sweet delights do but allure the mind; When care consumes and wastes the wretched wight, While fancy feeds and draws of her delight.

This and the next five poems are placed last, because I cannot satisfy myself that the evidence is conclusive in Raleigh's favour. But I do not exclude them altogether, because in each case there is some evidence which others have accepted, and no stronger claim has been set up for any other person.

2 "Paradise of Dainty Devices," 1576, signed "W. R." in ed. 1578; see Collier's reprint, p. 20, and " Bibl. Cat.," vol. i. p. 245; signed "W. Hunnis" in editions 1580 and 1596, where it is No. 12; in other editions signed "E. S."

What life were love, if love were free from pain? But oh that pain with pleasure matched should meet!

Why did the course of nature so ordain

That sugared sour must sauce the bitter sweet? Which sour from sweet might any means remove, What hap, what heaven, what life, were like to love!

XXVI.

THE SHEPHERD'S PRAISE OF HIS SACRED DIANA.1

Before 1593.)

RAISED be Diana's fair and harmless light:

Praised be the dews wherewith she moists the ground;

Praised be her beams, the glory of the night; Praised be her power, by which all powers abound.

Praised be her nymphs, with whom she decks the woods;

of

Praised be her knights, in whom true honour lives;

'In "England's Helicon," 1600, Raleigh's initials were first affixed, but were obliterated by pasting over them a slip paper with the word "Ignoto." The piece is marked "W. R." in F. Davison's catalogue of the poems contained in "England's Helicon," Harl. MS. 280, fol. 99. It is anonymous in the "Phonix Nest," 1593, p. 69.

« PreviousContinue »