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ART. LXXIX. Sonnets to the fairest Calia.

Parve, nec invideo, sine me liber ibis ad illam,
Hei mihi quod domino non licet ire tuo.

TRIST. 1.

London. Printed by Adam Islip for W. P. 1594. 4to.

W. P. for whom these sonnets are said to have been printed, was W. PERCY, according to his preface, but whether any relative to the Percies of Northumberland, and to the venerable Editor of our Poetical Reliques, it may not be very practicable to ascertain. The following is his apologetical address. "To the Reader.

"Courteous reader, whereas I was fullie determined to have concealed my Sonnets, as things privie to my selfe; yet, of courtesie, having lent them to some, they were secretlie committed to the presse, and almost finished, before it came to my knowledge. Wherefore, making (as they say) a vertue of necessitie, I did deeme it most convenient to præpose mine epistle, onely to beseech you to account of them as of toyes and amorous devises, and ere long I will impart unto the world another poeme, which shall be more fruitfull and ponderous. In

* Henry 9th Earl of Northumberland, who was imprisoned on account of the Gunpowder Plot, had a brother William Percy, whom Anth. Wood records to have been a man of learning and genius, and to have died single at Oxford, 1648. Coll. Peer. II. 407. G. Garrard, in a letter to Lord Strafford, 1638, speaks of him as

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❝ living obscurely in Oxford, and drinking nothing but ale." Strafford Letters, II. 168. EDITOR.

the meane while, I commit these as a pledge unto your indifferent censures. London, 1594. W. PERCY."

His promised poem never seems to have been produced, nor will the mere poetical reader regret its non-appearance, from the specimen here given, which derives its almost only value from being considered as an unique copy. The sonnets are twenty in number, and these are terminated by a madrigal "to Parthenophil upon his Laya and Parthenophe," which Parthenophil may possibly be Barnabe Barnes,* whose equally rare collection of Sonnets shall be noticed on a future occasion.

The following are not the most contemptible samples of Percy's Sonnettings.

SON. XVIII,

"I cannot conquer and be conquered;
Then whole my selfe I yeeld unto thy favor;
Behold my thoughts flote in an ocean battered,
To be cast off, or wafted to thine harbor:
If of the same thou wilt then take acceptance,
Stretch out thy fairest hand as flag of peace;
If not no longer keepe us in attendance,
But all at once thy firie shafts release.
If thus I die, an honest cause of love
Will of my fates the rigor mittigate;
Those gratious eyne, which will a Tartar move,
Will prove my case the lesse unfortunate :

* Barnes signs Parthenophil and Parthenope to a couple of sonnets in dispraise of Nash, printed with Pierce's Supererogation by Gab. Harvey, 1593. Oldys, in his MS. notes on Langbaine, says that Barnes published Parthenophil and Parthenope after 1591.

Altho❜ friends my

may rue my

chaunce for ay,

It will be said he dyde for Cælia."

XX.

"Receave these writs, my sweet and dearest frend,
The livelie patterns of my livelesse bodie,
Where thou shalt find, in hebon pictures pen'd,
How I was meeke, but thou extreamlie blodie.
I'le walke forlorne along the willow shades

Alone, complaining of a ruthlesse dame;

Where ere I passe, the rocks, the hilles, the glades,
In pittious yelles, shall sound her cruell name.
There I will waile the lot which fortune sent me,
And make my mones unto the savage eares;
The remnant of the daies which Nature lent me,
Ile spend them all, conceal'd, in ceaselesse teares.
Since unkind fates permit me not t' enjoy her,
No more (burst eyes!) I mean for to annoy her."

T. P.

ART. LXXX. Zepheria. Ogni di viene la sera, &c. At London printed by the Widdowe Orwin for N. L. and John Busbie, 1594. 4to. pp.40.

THIS curious amatory poem is divided into forty canzonets, each occupying a page. The author displays a good deal of mythological learning, but from the thirty-seventh canzonet, I should suspect him to have been a student of the law, from his appearing so well versed in legal expressions.

"When last mine eyes dislodged from thy beautie,

Though served with proces of a parent's writ,

A supersedeas countermanding dutie,

Even then I saw upon thy smiles to sit,

Thine eyes edict the statute of repeale,

Doth other duties wholly abrogate,

Save such as thee endure in heartie zeale :

Then be it farre from me that I should derogate From Nature's law unregistred in thee,

So might my love encur a premunire."

J. H. M.

ART. LXXXI. Robert Southwell.

MR. ELLIS, speaking of this writer, observes, "that his poems, all of which are on moral or religious subjects, are far from deserving the neglect which they have experienced."

In addition to the Specimens brought forwards by that gentleman, I have been induced to select extracts from the following poem, which from its intrinsic merit, and the scarcity of the work in which it is contained, appears to be well worthy of preservation. It is entitled.

"Losse in delayes.

"Shun delayes, they breed remorse,

Take thy time while time doth serve thee,

Creeping snayles have weakest force,

Flie their fault, lest thou repent thee.

Good is best, when soonest wrought,

Lingring labours come to nought.

Hoist up saile while gale doth last,

Tide and wind stay no man's pleasure;
Seeke not time, when time is past,
Sober speed is wisdome's leisure;

After-wits are dearely bought,
Let thy fore-wit guide thy thought.

3

Time weares all his lockes before,
Take thou hold upon his forehead,
When he flies, he turnes no more,
And behinde his scalpe is naked.
Workes adjourn'd have many stayes:
Long demurres breed new delayes.

Seeke thy salve while sore is greene,
Festered wounds aske deeper launcing:
After-cures are seldome seene,

Often sought, scarce ever chancing.
Time and place gives best advice.
Out of season out of price.

Tender twigs are bent with ease,

Aged trees doe breake with bending,
Young desires make little prease,

Growth doth make them past amending:
Happie man that soone doth knocke

Babel's babes against the rocke."

J. H. M.

St. Peter's Complaint newly augmented, with other poems; with Mary Magdalen's funerall Teares, the Triumphs over Death, and Short Rules of Good Life. London: Printed for W. Barret. 1620. 16mo.* [title imperfect.]

* "Saint Peter's Complaint with other poems." Imp. by J Wolfe, Lond. 1595. Idem. Imp. by James Roberts for Gab. Cawood. Lon. 1595. Idem. (says Dodd in Church Hist. of England) Lond. and St. Omer's, 1597.+ Idem. Imp. by J. R. for G. C. Lond. 1599. Idem. "Newly augmented with other poems. London, printed by H. L. for William Leake, and are to be sold at his shop in Paules Churchyard, at the signe of the Holy Ghost." 4to. no date, pp. 77. Idem, newly augmented, &c. Pr. by W. Stainsby for W. Barret.

Wood's Athenæ Oxon. V. I. 334, has the edition Lond. 1597. "Saint Peter's Complaint, with other poems. Edinburgh printed by Robert Walde-grave, printer to the King's Majestie, Cum Privilegio Regis." 4to. no date. pp. 63.

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