And, Cælia, you can neither altars have,

Nor I, a Diety:

They are aspects divine,

That still or smile, or shine,
Or, like th' offended sky,
Frowne death immediately.

THE FAIRE BEGGER.

I.

OMANDING asker, if it be

Pity that you faine would have,
Then I turne begger unto thee,

And aske the thing that thou dost crave.

I will suffice thy hungry need,

So thou wilt but my fancy feed.

II.

In all ill yeares, was1 ever knowne
On so much beauty such a dearth?

"Give me more Love, or more Disdain,
The Torrid, or the Frozen Zone,
Bring equall ease unto my paine;
The Temperate affords me none:
Either extreme, of Love, or Hate,
Is sweeter than a calme estate."

CAREW's Poems, ed. 1651, p. 14.

And so also Stanley (Ayres and Dialogues, set by J. Gamble,

1656, p. 20):

"So much of absence and delay,

That thus afflicts my memorie.

Why dost thou kill me every day,
Yet will not give me leave to die?"

Original reads wa’st.

Which, in that thrice-bequeathed gowne,
Lookes like the Sun eclipst with Earth,
Like gold in canvas, or with dirt

Unsoyled Ermins close begirt.

III.

Yet happy he, that can but tast
This whiter skin, who thirsty is!
Fooles dote on sattin1 motions lac'd:

The gods go naked in their blisse.
At th' barrell's head there shines the vine,
There only relishes the wine.

IV.

There quench my heat, and thou shalt sup
Worthy the lips that it must touch,
Nectar from out the starry cup:

I beg thy breath not halfe so much.
So both our wants supplied shall be,
You'l give for love, I, charity.

V.

Cheape then are pearle-imbroderies,
That not adorne, but cloud3 thy wast;
Thou shalt be cloath'd above all prise,
If thou wilt promise me imbrac't.*

Satin seems to have been much in vogue about this time as

a material for female dress.

"Their glory springs from sattin,

Their vanity from feather."

A description of woman in Wits Interpreter, 1662, p. 115.

2 Original has and. 4i.e. to be embraced.

3 Original reads clouds.

Wee'l ransack neither chest or shelfe
Ill cover thee with mine owne selfe.

VI.

But, cruel, if thou dost deny

This necessary almes to me,

What soft-soul'd man but with his

eye

And hand will hence be shut to thee?
Since all must judge you more unkinde :
I starve your body, you, my minde.

[A DIALOGUE BETWIXT CORDANUS AND AMORET, ON A LOST HEART.

Amor. I shall but say, kind swain, what doth become

Cord.

Of a lost heart, ere to Elysium

It wounded walks?

First, it does freely flye
Into the pleasures of a lover's eye;

But, once condemn'd to scorn, it fetter'd lies,
An ever-bowing slave to tyrannies.

1

Amor. I pity its sad fate, since its offence

Was but for love. Can 1 tears recall it thence?

Cord. O no, such tears, as do for pity call,

She proudly scorns, and glories at their fall.

Amor. Since neither sighs nor tears, kind shepherd, tell,

A sacred violence to make her love?

Cord. O no! 'tis only Destiny or2 Fate

Fashions our wills either to love or hate.

Amor. Then, captive heart, since that no humane spell thee his, farewell.

Hath power to graspe

Cord.3 Farewell.

Cho. Lost hearts, like lambs drove from their folds

by fears,

4

May back return by chance, but not by tears.]5

So Cotgrave. Lawes, and after him Singer, read can't.

2 So Cotgrave. Lawes and Singer read and.

3 Omitted by Lawes and Singer; I follow Cotgrave.

4 So Cotgrave. Lawes printed ne'er.

5 This is taken from Ayres and Dialogues for One, Two, and Three Voyces, By Henry Lawes, 1653-5-8, where it is set to music for two trebles by H. L. It was not included in the posthumous collection of Lovelace's poems. This dialogue is also found in Wits Interpreter, by J. Cotgrave, 1662, 8vo, page 203 (first printed in 1655), and a few improved readings have been adopted from that text.

COMMENDATORY AND OTHER VERSES, PREFIXED TO VARIOUS PUBLICATIONS

BETWEEN 1638 AND 1647.

AN ELEGIE.

1

PRINCESSE KATHERINE BORNE, CHRISTENED,

BURIED, IN ONE DAY.

OU, that can haply mixe your joyes with cries, And weave white Iös with black Elegies, Can caroll out a dirge, and in one breath Sing to the tune either of life, or death; You, that can weepe the gladnesse of the spheres, And pen a hymne, in stead of inke, with teares; Here, here your unproportion'd wit let fall, To celebrate this new-borne funerall,

And greete that little greatnesse, which from th' wombe Dropt both a load to th' cradle and the tombe.

All historical and genealogical works are deficient in minute information relative to the family of Charles I. Even in Anderson's Royal Genealogies, 1732, and in the folio editions of Rapin and Tindal, these details are overlooked. At page 36 of his Descendants of the Stuarts, 1858, Mr. Townend observes that two of the children of Charles I. died in infancy, and of these the Princesse Katherine, commemorated by Lovelace, was perhaps one. The present verses were originally printed in Musarum Oxoniensium Charisteria, Oxon. 1638, 4to, from which a few better readings have been obtained. With the exceptions mentioned in the notes, the variations of the earlier text from that found here are merely literal.

2 This reading from Charisteria, 1638, seems preferable to aptly, as it stands in the Lucasta.