Quoth he, So had I done full well,
Had I not seen fayre Dowsabell
Come forth to gather maye.

With that she gan to vaile her head,
Her cheeks were like the roses red,
But not a word she sayd:

With that the shepheard gan to frowne,
He threw his pretie pypes adowne,
And on the ground him layd.

Sayth she, I may not stay till night,
And leave my summer-hall undight,
And all for long of thee.

My coate, sayth he, nor yet my foulde

100

Shall neither sheepe nor shepheard hould,

Except thou favour mee.

With that she bent her snow-white knee,

115

Downe by the shepheard kneeled shee,

And him she sweetely kist:

With that the shepheard whoop'd for joy,

Quoth he, Ther's never shepheards boy

That ever was so blist.

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THE FAREWELL TO LOVE. -ULYSSES AND THE SYREN. 265

VIII.

The Farewell to Love.

From Beaumont and Fletcher's play, entitled The Lover's Progress, act iii. sc. 1.

ADIEU, fond love, farewell you wanton powers;

I am free again.

Thou dull disease of bloud and idle hours,

Bewitching pain,

Fly to fools, that sigh away their time:
My nobler love to heaven doth climb,

And there behold beauty still young,

That time can ne'er corrupt, nor death destroy,

Immortal sweetness by fair angels sung,

And honoured by eternity and joy:

There lies my love, thither my hopes aspire,

Fond love declines, this heavenly love grows higher.

IX.

Wysses and the Syren,

5

10

AFFORDS a pretty poetical contest between Pleasure and Honour. It is found at the end of "Hymen's Triumph: a pastoral tragi-comedie," written by Daniel, and printed among his works, 4to. 16231. Daniel, who was a contemporary of Drayton's, and is said to have been poet-laureate to Queen Elizabeth, was born in 1562, and died in 1619. Anne, Countess of Dorset, Pembroke, and Montgomery, (to whom Daniel had been tutor,) has inserted a small portrait of him in a full length picture of herself, preserved at Appleby Castle, in Cumberland.

This little poem is the rather selected for a specimen of Daniel's poetic powers, as it is omitted in the later edition of his works, 2 vols. 12mo. 1718.

1 In this edition it is collated with a copy printed at the end of his "Tragedie of Cleopatra. Lond. 1607," 12mo.

And ease findes tediousnes, as much
As labour yeelds annoy.

SYREN.

Then pleasure likewise seemes the shore,
Whereto tendes all your toyle;
Which you forego to make it more,

And perish oft the while.

Who may disport them diversly,

Find never tedious day;

And ease may have variety,
As well as action may.

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40

THIS beautiful poem, which possesses a classical elegance hardly to be expected in the age of James I., is printed from the fourth edition of Davison's Poems1, &c. 1621. It is also found in a later miscellany, entitled Le Prince d' Amour, 1660, 8vo. Francis Davison, editor of the poems above referred to, was son of that unfortunate secretary of state, who suffered so much from the affair of Mary Queen of Scots. These poems, he tells us in his preface, were written by himself, by his brother [Walter], who was a soldier in the wars of the Low Countries, and by some dear friends "anonymoi.” Among them are found some pieces by Sir J. Davis, the Countess of Pembroke, Sir Philip Sidney, Spenser, and other wits of those times.

In the fourth volume of Dryden's Miscellanies, this poem is attributed to Sidney Godolphin, Esq., but erroneously, being probably written before he was born. One edition of Davison's book was published in 1608. Godolphin was born in 1610, and died in 1642-3. — Ath. Ox. ii. 23.

1 See the full title in vol. ii. book iii. no. iv (p. 251).