VII.

You Meaner Beauties.

This little sonnet was written by Sir Henry Wotton, Knight, on that amiable princess, Elizabeth daughter of James I. and wife of the Elector Palatine, who was chosen King of Bohemia, Sept. 5, 1619. The consequences of this fatal election are well known: Sir Henry Wotton, who in that and the following year was employed in several embassies in Germany on behalf of this unfortunate lady, seems to have had an uncommon attachment to her merit and fortunes, for he gave away a jewel worth a thousand pounds, that was presented to him by the emperor, "because it came from an enemy to his royal mistress the Queen of Bohemia.” See Biog. Britan.

This song is printed from the Reliquiæ Wottoniane, 1651, with some corrections from an old MS. copy.

You meaner beauties of the night,

That poorly satisfie our eies

More by your number, than your light;

You common people of the skies,

What are you when the Moon shall rise?

5

Ye violets that first appeare,

By your pure purple mantles known
Like the proud virgins of the yeare,
As if the Spring were all your own;
What are you when the Rose is blown?

10

That kept a brave old house at a bountiful rate,
And an old porter to relieve the poor at his gate;
Like an old courtier of the queen's,

And the queen's old courtier.

With an old lady, whose anger one word asswages; They every quarter paid their old servants their wages, And never knew what belong'd to coachmen, footmen,

nor pages,

But kept twenty old fellows with blue coats and badges; Like an old courtier, &c.

With an old study fill'd full of learned old books, With an old reverend chaplain, you might know him by his looks.

With an old buttery hatch worn quite off the hooks, And an old kitchen, that maintain'd half a dozen old

cooks:

Like an old courtier, &c.

With an old hall, hung about with pikes, guns, and

bows,

With old swords, and bucklers, that had borne many shrewde blows,

And an old frize coat, to cover his worship's trunk

hose,

And a cup of old sherry, to comfort his copper nose; Like an old courtier, &c.

VOL. II.

With a good old fashion, when Christmasse was

come,

To call in all his old neighbours with bagpipe and

drum,

With good chear enough to furnish every old room, And old liquor able to make a cat speak, and man dumb,

Like an old courtier, &c.

With an old falconer, huntsman, and a kennel of

hounds,

That never hawked, nor hunted, but in his own

grounds,

Who, like a wise man, kept himself within his own

bounds,

And when he dyed gave every child a thousand good pounds;

Like an old courtier, &c.

But to his eldest son his house and land he assign'd, Charging him in his will to keep the old bountifull

mind,

To be good to his old tenants, and to his neighbours be kind:

But in the ensuing ditty you shall hear how he was

inclin'd;

Like a young courtier of the king's,
And the king's young courtier.

Like a flourishing young gallant, newly come to his

land,

Who keeps a brace of painted madams at his command, And takes up a thousand pound upon his father's land, And gets drunk in a tavern, till he can neither go nor stand;

Like a young courtier, &c.

With a new-fangled lady, that is dainty, nice, and

spare,

Who never knew what belong'd to good house-keeping, or care,

Who buyes gaudy-color'd fans to play with wanton air, And seven or eight different dressings of other womens hair;

Like a young courtier, &c.

With a new-fashion'd hall, built where the old one

stood,

Hung round with new pictures, that do the poor no

good,

With a fine marble chimney, wherein burns neither coal nor wood,

And a new smooth shovelboard, whereon no victuals ne'er stood;

Like a young courtier, &c.

With a new study, stuft full of pamphlets, and plays, And a new chaplain, that swears faster than he prays,