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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.

proue

And yet some Poets faine would
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.]

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"AS YOU CAME FROM THE HOLY LAND."

[ASCRIBED TO SIR WALTER RALEIGH.]

[I CONCLUDE these fragments of Raleigh's poetry with three of the Miscellaneous pieces which have been ascribed to him; but whether the evidence is sufficient to prove that he wrote them all, must be left for others to determine. It is at any rate more direct in each case than the signature Ig

noto.

If he was really the author of them, we should need no further proof of his singular versatility; for their internal character might have consigned them to three separate centuries. The first might very fairly take its station among the older Ballads. Percy, who spoke of a very modernized edition, thought that it "must have been written, if not before the dissolution of the monasteries, yet while the remembrance of them was fresh in the minds of the people." (ii. 92, ed. 1767.)-It is universally conceded that the second ranks among the finest Minor Poems written in the Elizabethan age. Of the third, Sir Egerton Brydges says, that it "is a most extraordinary poem; terse, harmonious, pointed,

full of ingenious turns, and often admirably expressed. It seems to have anticipated a century in its style." The latter part of this will perhaps be admitted by some, who will think that, for this very reason, the former is too laudatory. It is strange that a person who has written so often and so well in praise of simplicity and nature, should have been so much captivated by that witty and graceful, but most artificial poem.

The evidence on which Raleigh's claim to this first piece is founded, goes into a very narrow compass; for I have heard of none but the initials which are appended to it in the MS. from which it is now taken.* It has been previously printed from the same MS. by Dr. Bliss,† who thought that it had never appeared in print before. In this form, it probably had not; but Percy's Reliques contained an altered version of it, which "was communicated to the Editor by the late Mr. Shenstone, as corrected by him from an ancient MS., and supplied with a concluding stanza." That copy begins and ends as follows:

"As ye came from the holy land

Of blessed' Walsingham,
O met you not with my true love
As by the way ye came?

"Such is the love of womankinde,
Or Loves faire name abusde,
Beneathe which many vaine desires
And follyes are excusde.

• Namely, MS. Rawl. Poet. 85, fol. 124. The same MS. contains another piece beginning, "Fayne woulde I, but I dare not"-(fol. 41, vo.) to which the initials" W. R." are subjoined; but they seem to have been added by a later hand. Dr. Bliss printed the first stanza of it. Neither of these was included in the Lee Priory Collection, which was published before Dr. Bliss called attention to them; but they are both given in the Oxford edition of Raleigh's Works (viii. 732-3), with the titles, "False Love and True Love," and "A Lover's Verses." The commencement of the second reminds ns of the line which Fuller ascribes to Raleigh, Worthies of Devon. p. 261.-I have not thought it necessary to retain the contractions of the MS.

In his additions to Wood's A. O. ii. 248-9.

"But true love is a lasting fire,
Which viewless vestais tend,
That burnes for ever in the soule,

And knowes nor change nor end." "

Percy makes no mention of Raleigh's claim; nor does it appear to have become generally known.† It seems that there was a series of Ballads on the subject of Pilgrimages to the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham; and if Raleigh contributed this portion of the set,—which, I own, appears to me extremely improbable,—he must of course be supposed to have assumed an archaic tone for the occasion.]

S

you came from the holy land

Of Walsinghame,

Mett you not with my true loue,
By the way as you came?§

"Sc. Angels."-PERCY.

+ Mr. Dyce, who has occasion to mention both the Ballad and the tune in his edit, of Beaumont and Fletcher (ii. 172, iii. 439), is content in the one case with Weber's reference to Percy, and in the other with Mr. Chappell's account; but as it is not likely that he would overlook the copy printed by Dr. Bliss, his silence must have arisen from distrust in the validity of Raleigh's title. Mr. Chappell reprints the Ballad at length from Percy, without saying anything of Raleigh. (Nat. Engl. Airs, îi. 158. On the same page, he quotes a reference to the tune from an Epitaph on Secretary Cecil, contained in Osborne's Tradit. Mem.,

"And sweetly sung Walsingham to's Amaryllis,”—

apparently without knowing that Raleigh is generally regarded as its author. See Raleigh's Works, i. 424, viii. 735, 744. Cayley, ii. 191. Tytler, 303, ed. 1840.)

* See Percy, ii. 78, 91,399, ed. 1767, and Mr. Chappell, 1.1. On the subject of these Pilgrimages, see further The Vision of Piers Ploughman, l. 107, ed. Wright (with note), and the same editor's vol. of Letters on the Suppression of Monast. p. 138.

This first stanza is from the margin of the MS. It originally stood thus:

"As you went to Walsingam,

To that holy lande,

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