Tell physic of her boldness, Tell skill it is pretension, So give them still the lie. Tell fortune of the blindness, Tell justice of delay. And if they will reply, Then give them all the lie. Tell arts they have no soundness, Tell schools they want profoundness If arts and schools reply, Give arts and schools the lie. Tell faith it's fled the city, Tell how the country erreth, So then thou hast, as I Commanded thee, done babbling: Deserves no less than stabbing; Yet stab at thee who will No stab the soul can kill. RICHARD BARNFIELD was the author of a volume of poems of very unequal merit, published between 1594 and 1598. Among these poems, however, is found the following Address to the Nightingale, which is of so rare excellence, that it was, for a long time, ascribed to Shakspeare. ADDRESS TO THE NIGHTINGALE. As it fell upon a day, In the merry month of May, Sitting in a pleasant shade Which a grove of myrtles made; Beasts did leap and birds did sing, Trees did grow, and plants did spring; Every thing did banish moan, Save the Nightingale alone. She, poor bird, as all forlorn, Lean'd her breast up-till a thorn; And there sung the dolefull'st ditty, That to hear it was great pity. Fie, fie, fie, now would she cry; That, to hear her so complain, Ah! (thought I,) thou mourn'st in vain; Senseless trees they can not hear thee, Ruthless bears they will not cheer thee: King Pandion he is dead; All thy friends are lapp'd in lead; All thy fellow-birds do sing, Is no friend in misery. Words are easy, like the wind; Faithful friends are hard to find. Every man will be thy friend While thou hast wherewith to spend: It must be remembered, that this was the age when collections of fugitive and miscellaneous poems first became common in England. Several volumes of this kind, published in the reign of Elizabeth, contain poems of high merit without any author's name attached to them; and, therefore, it is not remarkable that the last two poems introduced, should have been so long attributed to Raleigh and Shakspeare. The miscellaneous poets of the reign of Elizabeth thus far noticed, bring us down to Spenser, whose genius is one of the peculiar glories of that romantic age. EDMUND SPENSER was of an ancient though poor family, and was bor in the city of London, in 1553. From the circumstances of his parents it i. difficult to conjecture how he obtained his preparation for admission into the university; but it is certain that in May, 1569, he entered Pembroke College, Cambridge, as a charity student, and there continued until 1576, when he took his master's degree. His design evidently was to remain permanently attached to the university, and with this view, immediately after he was graduated, he made every effort that his limited resources would permit, to obtain a fellowship. But having neither friends nor influential patrons to make interest for him, he was disappointed in this important object, in consequence of which he accepted an invitation from some distant relatives in the north of England, to take up his residence with them until his future prospects should, in some degree, become determined. While residing in the North, Spenser formed an attachment for a young lady whom he designates as Rosalind, and whose attractive beauty and graces first inspired his muse. To win her favor he composed his Shepherd's Calender, a pastoral poem, in twelve eclogues, one for each month, but without strict keeping as to natural description and rustic character, and deformed by a number of obsolete uncouth phrases; yet containing traces of a superior original genius. The fable of the Oak and Brier is finely told; and in verses like the following we see the germ of that tuneful harmony and pensive reflection in which the author afterward so remarkably excelled: You naked buds, whose shady leaves are lost, All so my lustful life is dry and sere, My timely buds with wailing all are wasted; The fair Rosalind, however, preferred a less poetical rival, and Spenser soon after left the country and repaired to London, there to seek his fortune in the midst of the more busy scenes of life. To this step he was induced by Gabriel Harvey, a fellow-student at Cambridge, and by whom he was introduced to Sir Philip Sidney, 'one of the very diamonds of her majesty's court.' Sir Philip being himself a man of wit and polite accomplishments, immediately became sensible of Spenser's merit, and so long as that nobleman remained at court, the poet never wanted a judicious friend, nor a generous patron. In gratitude for Sidney's kindness, Spenser now revised and published the 'Shepherd's Calender,' with an appropriate dedication to him. The 'Shepherd's Calender' appeared in 1579, and such was its popularity that even royalty itself smiled upon its author, and Spenser was raised to the Laureate. This, however, he soon found to be but an empty honor, and he was accordingly left, for some years, to pine over his penury and neglect, though in constant attendance at court. While thus circumstanced he composed and published Mother Hubbard's Tale, which appeared in 1581, and which contains the following picture of the aggravations attending the life of disappointment and mortification which he then led : Full little knowest thou that hast not tried, To lose good days that might be better spent; Spenser was, however, during this period, occasionally employed or inferior state missions, and thus his immediate necessities were supplied; but at length he received an important and lucrative appointment. Lord Grey of Wilton was sent to Ireland as lord-deputy, and Spenser accompanied him in the capacity of secretary. They remained in that country two years, when the deputy was recalled, and the poet also returned to England. In June, 1586, Spenser obtained, from the crown, three thousand and twentyeight acres in the county of Cork, out of the forfeited lands of the Earl of Desmond. One of the conditions of the grant was, that the poet should reside upon his estate, and he accordingly repaired to Ireland, and took up his abode in Kilcolman Castle, near Doneraile, which had been one of the ancient strongholds of the Earl of Desmond. Spenser's castle stood in the midst of a large plain, by the side of a lake; the river Mulla ran through his grounds, and a chain of mountains at a distance seemed to bulwark in the romantic retreat. To this castle he introduced, soon after it was repaired, the 'Elizabeth' of his sonnets, as its future mistress, and welcomed her with that noble strain of pure and fervent passion, which he has styled the Epithalamium, and which forms the most magnificent 'spousal verse' in the language. The following passages from this gem of poetry, show that the poem itself needs no farther comment: Wake now, my love, awake; for it is time; All ready to her silver coach to climb; And Phoebus 'gins to show his glorious head. Hark! now the cheerful birds do chant their lays, The merry lark her matins sings aloft; The thrush replies; the marvis descant plays; The ouzel shrills; the ruddock warbles soft; So goodly all agree, with sweet consent, To this day's merriment. Ah! my dear love, why do you sleep thus long, For they of joy and pleasance to you sing, That all the woods them answer and their echo ring. My love is now awake out of her dream, And her fair eyes, like stars that dimmed were With darksome cloud, now show their goodly beams But first come, ye fair Hours, which were begot, Do make and still repair; And ye three handmaids of the Cyprian Queen, Help to adorn my beautifullest bride: And, as ye her array, still throw between Some graces to be seen; And as ye use to Venus, to her sing, The whiles the woods shall answer, and your echo ring. Open the temple gates unto my love, With trembling steps, and humble reverence, Of her, ye virgins, learn obedience, When so ye come into those holy places, To humble your proud faces: Bring her up to the high altar, that she may, The praises of the Lord in lively notes; The whiles, with hollow throats, The choristers the joyous anthem sing, * That all the woods may answer, and their echo ring. Behold, while she before the altar stands, L |