III. UPON THE DEATH OF KING CHARLES I.1 REAT, good, and just! could I but rate I'd weep the world to such a strain, As it should deluge once again. But since thy loud-tongued blood demands supplies IV.2 ET them bestow on every airt a limb; Then open all my veins, that I may swim To Thee, my Maker, in that crimson lake; Then place my par-boiled head upon a stake; Scatter my ashes; strew them in the air: Lord! since Thou know'st where all these atoms are, I'm hopeful Thou'lt recover once my dust, And confident Thou'lt raise me with the just! 1 In "Monumentum Regale," 1649, p. 45, as "written with the point of his sword." In "The History of the King's Majesty's affairs in Scotland," &c., 1649, at the end of the Preface, with the same note. So also in Lloyd's "Memoirs," 1668, p. 223, cf. p. 641; and in Winstanley's "England's Worthies," 1684, p. 533. For the true account see Napier's" Memoirs of Montrose," 1856, Appendix, pp. xxvii-ix.; cf. p. 693. 2 Napier's "Memoirs of Montrose," 1856, p. 796, and App., p. xxx. NOTES ON PART I. RALEIGH'S POEMS. HOUGH the striking vicissitudes of Raleigh's life have made it a favourite theme for biographers, no research has been expended on his poems since the days of Oldys (1736), unless I may venture to claim an exception for a little volume published by myself in 1845. Oldys mentioned about seventeen different pieces; but his references long remained neglected and unverified. In Birch's edition of "Raleigh's Minor Works (1751), only nine of his poems were included; and when Sir E. Brydges published, in 1813-4, the thin quarto volume which he called, "The Poems of Sir Walter Raleigh, now first collected," he made no attempt to exhaust the materials which Oldys had gathered; but swelled out Birch's nine to twenty-eight, by accepting two questionable pieces from Cayley, and appropriating seventeen poems-thirteen from "England's Helicon," and four from "Reliquiæ Wottonianæ," -on the worthless evidence of the signature Namely, in this volume, Part I., Nos. I. IV. V. VI. XIV. XVI. XVII. XXII. and xxIII. 8. |