That poorly satisfy our eyes

More by your number than your light,
You common people of the skies;
What are you when the moon' shall rise?

To his Mistress, the Queen of Bohemia.

I am but a gatherer and disposer of other men's stuff.

Preface to the Elements of Architecture.

Hanging was the worst use man could be put to.

141

The Disparity between Buckingham and Essex.

"sun" in Reliquiæ Wottonianæ, Eds. 1651, 1672, 1685.

84

HARRINGTON.-DANIEL.-DRAYTON.—BARNFIELD.

An ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the commonwealth.1

The itch of disputing will prove the scab of churches."

A Panegyric to King Charles.

SIR JOHN HARRINGTON. 1561-1612.
Treason doth never prosper, what 's the reason?

Why if it prosper, none dare call it treason.3

Epigrams. Book iv. Ep. 5.

SAMUEL DANIEL. 1562-1619.

Unless above himself he can

Erect himself, how poor a thing is man!

To the Countess of Cumberland. Stanza 12.

MICHAEL DRAYTON. 1563-1631.

For that fine madness still he did retain,

Which rightly should possess a poet's brain.

(Of Marlowe.) To Henry Reynolds, of Poets and Poesy.

RICHARD BARNFIELD. (Born circa 1570.)

As it fell upon a day

In the merry month of May,

Sitting in a pleasant shade

Which a grove of myrtles made.

Address to the Nightingales

In a letter to Velserus, 1612, Wotton says, "This merry definition of an Ambassador I had chanced to set down at my friend's Mr. Christopher Fleckamore, in his Album."

2 In his will, he directed the stone over his grave to be thus inscribed :Hic jacet hujus sententiæ primus author: DISPUTANDI PRURITUS ECCLESIARUM SCABIES.

Nomen alias quære.

Walton's Life of Wotton.

Prosperum ac felix scelus

Virtus vocatur.

Seneca, Herc. Furens, 2, 250.

This song, often attributed to Shakespeare, is now confidently assigned to Barnfield; it is found in his collection of Poems in Divers Humours, published in 1598.

DR. JOHN DONNE. 1573-1631.

He was the Word, that spake it;
He took the bread and brake it;

And what that Word did make it,

I do believe and take it.

Divine Poems. On the Sacrament.

We understood

Her by her sight; her pure and eloquent blood
Spoke in her cheeks, and so distinctly wrought,
That one might almost say her body thought.
Funeral Elegies. On the Death of Mistress Drury.

She and comparisons are odious.'

Elegy 8.

The Comparison.

BEN JONSON. 1574-1637.
Drink to me only with thine eyes,

And I will pledge with mine;
Or leave a kiss but in the cup,
And I'll not look for wine.2
Still to be neat, still to be drest
As you were going to a feast."

The Forest. To Celia.

The Silent Woman. Act i. Sc. 1.

Give me a look, give me a face,
That makes simplicity a grace.
Robes loosely flowing, hair as free;
Such sweet neglect more taketh me,
Than all th' adulteries of art;
They strike mine eyes, but not my heart.
In small proportion we just beauties see,
And in short measures life may perfect be.

Underneath this stone doth lie
As much beauty as could die;
Which in life did harbour give
To more virtue than doth live.

Ibid.

Good Life, Long Life.

Epitaph on Elizabeth.

1 Cf. Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, Pt. iii. Sc. 3. Mem. 1. Subs. 2. Herbert, Facula Prudentum.

2 Ἐμοὶ δὲ μόνοις πρέπινε τοῖς ὄμμασιν.

Εἰ δὲ βούλει, τοῖς χείλεσι

προσφέρουσα, πλή, ου φιλημάτων τὸ ἔκπωμα, καὶ ο τις δίδου. Philostratus, Letter XXIV.

3 A true translation from Bonnefonius.

Underneath this sable hearse
Lies the subject of all verse,
Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother.
Death! ere thou hast slain another,
Learn'd and fair and good as she,
Time shall throw a dart at thee.

Epitaph on the Countess of Pembroke.

Soul of the age!

The applause! delight! the wonder of our stage!
My Shakespeare rise! I will not lodge thee by
Chaucer, or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lie

CYRIL TOURNEUR.

A drunkard clasp his teeth, and not undo 'em,
To suffer wet damnation to run through 'em.

The Revenger's Tragedy. Act iii. Sc. 1.

BISHOP HALL. 1574-1656.

Moderation is the silken string running through the pearl chain of all virtues. Christian Moderation. Introduc.

Death borders upon our birth, and our cradle stands in the grave.◄

Epistles. Dec. iii. Ep. 2.

1 In a manuscript collection of Browne's poems preserved amongst the Lansdowne MSS., in the British Museum, this epitaph is ascribed to Browne (1590-1645).

2 Cf. Basse, p. 125.

a Cf. Pope, Horace, Book i. Ep. 1, Line 103.
4 Cf. Young, Night Thoughts, N. 5, Line 719.

MASSINGER.-OVERBURY.-FLETCHER.

87

PHILIP MASSINGER.

1584-1640.

Some undone widow sits upon mine arm,

And takes away the use of it; and my sword,
Glued to my scabbard with wronged orphans' tears,
Will not be drawn.

A New Way to pay Old Debts. Act v. Sc. 1.

1 Cf. Pope, Satires, Book ii. Ep. 1, Line 304.

2 Cf. Milton, Par. Lost, Book ii. Line 804.

3 Cf. Montague, fost..

The following well-known catch, or glee, is formed on this song:

He who goes to bed, and goes to bed sober,

Falls as the leaves do, and dies in October;

But he who goes to bed, and goes to bed mellow,

Lives as he ought to do, and dies an honest fellow.