1. 7. graces spy'd.

and I remember to have

"These syllables drag painfully on the tongue heard the greatest living authority on melodious numbers suggest that Waller must have written graces eyed. The first edition of 1645, however, has, by an obvious misprint, grace spy'd, and I believe that what Waller wrote was grace espy'd."

"Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,

And waste its sweetness on the desert air."

No. 14. THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE. "It would be ludicrous,” says Mr. Palgrave, “to criticize this little poem on the ground of the unshepherdlike or unreal character of some images suggested."

No. 15. THE SHEPHERDESS'S REPLY. There are reasons for doubting that this poem was written by Sir Walter Raleigh. It was first published in England's Helicon, in 1600. "In all known copies of this edition," says Dean Trench, "Ignoto ' has been pasted over W. R., the original signature which the poem bore. This may have arisen from a discovery on the part of the editor that the poem was not Raleigh's; but also may be explained by his unwillingness to have his authorship of it declared; so that there is here nothing decisive one way or the other."

Izaak Walton, writing of these two poems, in 1653, speaks of "that smooth song which was made by Kit Marlowe, now at least fifty years ago. And the milkmaid's mother sang an answer to it which was made by Sir Walter Raleigh in his younger days.”

No. 16. LITTLE BUT LONG. Written about the year 1570. Author unknown.

1. I.

This is a favorite expression among the poets. Marlowe has it, in the Jew of Malta, iv.:

"Love me little, love me long; let music rumble,

Whilst I in thy incony lap do tumble."

It is the subject of a poem by Herrick, and a novel by Charles Reade. It appears also in Heywood's Proverbs (1546), and in Bacon's Formularies.

No. 18. SILENT MUSIC. This beautiful little piece was published in Campion's Observations on the Art of English Poetry, 1602, and was written as illustration of the position taken by the author that rhyme is an unnecessary appendage to English verse. Trench says: "Had he offered to his readers many lyrics like this, he might have done much more than by all his arguments he has done to bring them to his opinion."

No. 21. MY JEAN.

1. 1. airts. Quarters of the heavens.

1. 5. row. Roll.

1. 14. shaw. Copse, grove.

No. 22. MARY MORISON. This is one of Burns's earlier poems.

1. 5. stoure. Dust, labor.

1. 13. braw. Brave.

No. 23. HIGHLAND MARY. This poem was considered by Burns to be one of his happiest efforts. Highland Mary is supposed by some to have been Mary Campbell, the poet's first love. It is more likely, however, that Mary Morison is meant -to whom also the songs Will ye go to the Indies, my Mary? and To Mary in Heaven, were addressed.

braes. Hill-slopes.

birk. Birch.

drumlie. Troubled.

No. 25. THE AUTHOR'S RESOLUTION IN A SONNET. "I have transcribed this song,” says T. H. Ward, “verbatim et literatim (for it is too precious not to be given exactly as it first saw the light) from the original edition of Fidelia, in which it first appeared. Mr. W. C. Hazlitt, in his Handbook to English Literature, assumes the existence of an edition in 1617, before the well-known second edition in the latter part of the same year; but he says: 'This first edition is supposed to have been privately printed. No copy of it is at present known.' There is, however, a copy of this treasure in the Bodleian Library. As I write, the title-page of it is before me: Fidelia, London, Printed by Nicholas Okes, 1615.'”

No. 26. THE SOLDIER GOING TO THE FIELD. "Davenant is scarcely known at all except by his strong-thoughted, but heavy, poem of Gondibert; and very little known, I should suppose, by that. But this poem shows that in another vein, that of graceful half play, half earnest, few have surpassed him."- Trench.

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No. 27. SONG TO CHLORIS. From The Mulberry Garden, a play published in 1668. Sir Charles Sedley, according to Macaulay, was one of the most brilliant and profligate wits of the Restoration.”

No. 29. To ALTHEA FROM PRISON. Althea was Lucy Sacheverell, whom the poet also calls Lucasta. This poem was written in the prison to which he had been consigned by the Long Parliament for presenting a petition from Kent. The two following poems were probably addressed to the same lady. It is said that " Lucasta," on hearing a false report of Colonel Lovelace's death after he had gone to the wars, married another Lovelace died in great poverty, in 1658.

man.

No. 39. PENTHEA'S DYING SONG. From the tragedy of The Broken Heart, printed in 1633, and reckoned one of the finest of Ford's dramatic works.

Sonnets.

Scorn not the Sonnet: Critic you have frowned
Mindless of its just honors; with this key
Shakespeare unlocked his heart; the melody
Of this small lute gave ease to Petrarch's wound:
A thousand times this pipe did Tasso sound;
With it Camoëns soothed an exile's grief;
The sonnet glittered like a gay myrtle leaf
Amid the cypresses with which Dante crowned
His visionary brow; a glow-worm lamp
It cheered mild Spenser, called from Faery-land
To struggle through dark ways; and when a damp
Fell round the path of Milton, in his hand

The thing became a trumpet; whence he blew
Soul-animating strains — alas, too few!

FROM Tuscan' came my lady's worthy race;
Fair Florence was some time their ancient seat;
The western isle, whose pleasant shore doth face
Wild Camber's cliffs, did give her lively heat:
Fostered she was with milk of Irish breast;
Her sire an earl; her dame of princes' blood:

From tender years, in Britain she doth rest

With king's child, where she tasteth costly food. Hunsdon did first present her to my een:

Bright is her hue, and Geraldine she hight: Hampton me taught to wish her first for mine: And Windsor, alas, doth chase me from her sight. Her beauty of kind, her virtues from above; Happy is he that can obtain her love.

- EARL OF SURREY.

2.

HERSELF ALL TREASURE.

YE tradefull Merchants, that, with weary toyle
Do seeke most pretious things to make your gain;
And both the Indias of their treasure spoile;

What needeth you to seeke so farre in vaine ?
For loe, my Love doth in herselfe containe
All this world's riches that may farre be found :
If Saphyres, loe, her eies be Saphyres plaine;

If Rubies, loe, her lips be Rubies sound;

If Pearles, her teeth be Pearles, both pure and round; If Ivorie, her forhead Ivorie weene;

If Gold, her locks are finest Gold on ground:

If Silver, her faire hands are Silver sheene :

But that which fairest is, but few behold-
Her mind adorned with vertues manifold.

3.

A VISION UPON THE FAERIE QUEENE.

METHOUGHT I saw the grave where Laura lay,
Within that temple where the vestal flame
Was wont to burn; and passing by that way
To see that buried dust of living fame,
Whose tomb fair Love and fairer Virtue kept,
All suddenly I saw the Faerie Queene :
At whose approach the soul of Petrarch wept;
And from thenceforth those Graces were not seen,
For they this Queen attended; in whose stead
Oblivion laid him down on Laura's hearse.
Hereat the hardest stones were seen to bleed,

And groans of buried ghosts the heavens did pierce,
Where Homer's spright did tremble all for grief,
And cursed the accèss of that celestial thief.

- SIR WALTER RALEIGH.

4.

ON FIRST LOOKING INTO CHAPMAN'S

HOMER.

MUCH have I travelled in the realms of gold,
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen ;
Round many western islands have I been
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told

That deep-browed Homer ruled as his demesne :
Yet did I never breathe its pure serene

Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold :

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