The shepherd wept, and she was woe, and both did silence keep : In troth, quoth he, I am not such as seeming I profess, But then for her, and now for thee, I from myself digress; Her loved I, wretch that I am, a recreant to be, thee. At Kirkland is my father's court, and Curan is my name, In Edel's court sometime in pomp, till love con troll'd the same; But now what now? dear heart, how now, what aileth thou to weep? The damsel wept, and he was woe, and both did silence keep. I grant, quoth she, it was too much, that you did love so much, But whom your former could not move, your second love doth touch; Thy twice beloved Argentile submitteth her to thee, And, for thy double love, presents herself a single fee; In passion, not in person, changed; and I, my lord, am she; Thus sweetly surfeiting in joy, and silent for a space, When as the ecstasy had end, did tenderly embrace. BORN 1561.-DIED 1612. A SPECIMEN of the poetry of Sir John Harrington's father has been already given in this volume, which is so polished and refined, as almost to warrant a suspicion that the editor of the Nugæ Antiquæ got it from a more modern quarter. The elder Harrington was imprisoned in the Tower, under Queen Mary, for holding a correspondence with Elizabeth; on whose accession his fidelity was rewarded by her favour. His son, the translator of Ariosto, was knighted on the field by the Earl of Essex, not much to the satisfaction of Elizabeth, who was sparing of such honours, and chose to confer them herself. He was created a knight of the bath in the reign of James, and distinguished himself, to the violent offence of the high church party, by his zeal against the marriage of bishops. FROM SIR JOHN HARRINGTON'S EPIGRAMS. OF A PRECISE TAILOR. A TAILOR, thought a man of upright dealing- The fiends of hell, mustering in fearful manner, ters, To make Venetians down below the garters. quar FROM HENRY PERROT'S BOOK OF EPIGRAMS, ENTITLED SPRINGES FOR WOODCOCKS. (EDIT. 1613). PERROT, I suspect, was not the author, but only the collector of these trifles, some of which are claimed by other epigrammatists, probably with no better right. It is indeed very difficult to ascertain the real authors of a vast number of little pieces of the 16th and 17th centuries, as the minor poets pilfer from each other with the utmost coolness and apparent impunity. AMBITIO FEMININI GENERIS. MISTRESS Matrossa hopes to be a lady, But from the time almost she was a baby, NEC SUTOR ULTRA. FROM THE SAME. A COBBLER and a curate once disputed, One said 'twere good if they two changed functions: SIR THOMAS OVERBURY Was born in 1581, and perished in the Tower of London, 1613, by a fate that is too well known. The compassion of the public for a man of worth, "whose spirit still walked unrevenged amongst them," together with the contrast of his ideal Wife with the Countess of Essex, who was his murderess, attached an interest and popularity to his poem, and made it pass through sixteen editions before the year 1653. His "Characters, or Witty Descriptions of the Properties of sundry Persons," is a work of considerable merit; but unfortunately his prose, as well as his verse, has a dryness and quaintness that seem to oppress the natural movement of his thoughts. As a poet, he has few imposing attractions: his beauties must be fetched by repeated perusal. They are those of solid reflection, predominating over, but not extinguishing, sensibility; and there is danger of the reader neglecting, under the coldness and ruggedness of his manner, the manly but unostentatious moral feeling that is conveyed in his maxims, which are sterling and liberal, if we can only pardon a few obsolete ideas on female education. |