V.

A VISION VPON THIS CONCEIPT OF THE

FAERY QUEENE.

[BY SIR WALTER RALEIGH.]

["I HAVE been always singularly struck and delighted with
the tone, imagery, and expression of this extraordinary son-
net. The author must at this time have been deeply read in
works of poetical fancy, and highly imbued with their spirit.
Milton had deeply studied this sonnet; for in his composi-
tions of the same class, he has evidently, more than once,*
the very rhythm and construction, as well as cast of thought,
of this noble, though brief, composition."-BRYDGES.

The Sonnet was first printed in 1590, at the head of the
Commendatory Poems appended to the first three books of
Spenser's Faery Queen (p. 596), and immediately after the

*The chief instance is in Milton's Sonnet" On his deceased Wife":-
"Methought I saw my late espoused saint," &c.

Mr. Todd (Spenser, ii. cxcv.) has mentioned an imitation of Raleigh's
Sonnet which was printed as early as 1594. As an account of the inter-
course between Raleigh and Spenser is given at length by the biographers
of both, it is needless in this case to make any particular references.

letter which Spenser addressed to Raleigh in explanation of his plan. It is followed by a second piece, entitled "Another of the same," to which the initials "W.R." are subjoined, and which closes with the following couplet :

"Of me no lines are lou'd, nor letters are of price,

Of all which speak our English tongue, but those of thy deuice."

While it is so difficult to ascertain what Poems Raleigh really wrote, it is fortunate that the noblest of all those ascribed to him can be so well authenticated. The piece from Davison, which is given next, is added for the same reason which induced me to insert this Sonnet,—that the reader may find at least some pieces in this volume, of which Raleigh may be regarded as the undisputed author.]

M

E thought I saw the graue where Laura lay, Within that Temple, where the vestall flame Was wont to burne; and passing by that way, To see that buried dust of liuing fame, Whose tombe faire loue and fairer vertue kept; All suddeinly I saw the Faery Queene : At whose approch the soule of Petrarke wept ; And from thenceforth, those graces were not seene, For they this Queene attended: in whose steed Obliuion laid him downe on Lauras herse: Hereat the hardest stones were seene to bleed, And grones of buried ghostes the heuens did perse, Where Homers spright did tremble all for griefe, And curst th' accesse of that celestiall theife.

VI.

A POESIE TO PROVE AFFECTION IS
NOT LOVE.

[BY SIR WALTER RALEIGH.]

["THE only poem printed in the Rhapsody," says Sir Harris Nicolas, "which was undoubtedly written by Raleigh, is, A Poesy to prove Affection is not Love." Yet while so many pieces are ascribed to him without any evidence at all, this undoubted poem has not hitherto been admitted into any general Collection of his Works. When Sir Egerton Brydges edited his Poems in 1813, he took no notice of Davison,t-probably because he designed to publish a second volume, which was to include a very large portion of the Poeticall Rhapsodie. This intention appears to have been frustrated by the discovery, that Raleigh could not be

* Biogr. Not. prefixed to his edit. of Davison, p. ci. The omission of the initials" W. R." in the fourth edit. of Davison is no argument against his claim; for there is a very general (though not universal) omission of signatures throughout that volume.

+ Except that he inserted in a note the copy of "The Lie" which is found in Davison.

proved to be the author of the Poems signed A. W., which Sir Egerton had at one time wished to ascribe to him; and therefore, instead of the promised second volume of Raleigh, we have only a thin section in the Lee Priory reprint of Davison's Collection, containing eight pieces under the title, "Poems supposed to be written by Sir Walter Raleigh." Of these eight, six are assigned to Raleigh without any certain evidence; for a seventh (“The Lie”), no evidence was produced; and the eighth is the one before us, which bore Raleigh's initials in the earlier editions of Davison. Only two of these pieces found insertion in the Oxford edition of Raleigh's Works; and they did, because they had been included in the former volume of his Poems.-This poem is here reprinted from the fourth edition of Davison, 1621, p. 29.]

ONCEIT, begotten by the eyes,

Is quickly borne, and quickly dies;
For while it seekes our hearts to haue,
Meane while there reason makes his
graue;
For many things the eyes approue,
Which yet the heart doth seldome loue.

For as the seeds, in spring time sowne,
Die in the ground ere they be growne;
Such is conceit, whose rooting failes,
As child that in the cradle quailes;
Or else within the mothers wombe
Hath his beginning, and his tombe.

Affection followes Fortunes wheeles,
And soone is shaken from her heeles ;
For following beauty or estate,
Her liking still is turn'd to hate;

For all affections haue their change,
And fancie onely loues to range.

Desire himselfe runs out of breath,
And getting, doth but gaine his death;
Desire nor reason hath nor rest,

And blinde doth seldome chuse the best :
Desire attain'd is not desire,

But as the cinders of the fire.

As ships in ports desir'd are drownd,—
As fruit, once ripe, then fals to ground,—
As flies that seeke for flames are brought
To cinders by the flames they sought;
So fond desire, when it attaines,
The life expires, the woe remaines.

And yet some Poets faine would proue
Affection to be perfect loue,

And that desire is of that kinde,

No lesse a passion of the minde:
As if wilde beasts and men did seeke
To like, to loue, to chuse alike.

[W. R.]