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And who in Passion sweetly sing the same,
Doe glorifie their owne in Jesus NAME.
Crux Christi clavis Cœli.

London, Printed for N. Butter. 4to, pp. 80.

The title is within an oval in the centre of an elaborate woodcut compartment with figures of Minerva and Diana on each side, and of Diana bathing at the bottom. The work is dedicated in alternate verse "To the Right Honourable, well accomplished Lady, Alice Countesse of Derby, my good Lady and Mistresse: and to her three right Noble Daughters by Birth, Nature, and Education, the Lady Elizabeth, Countesse of Huntington, the Lady Francis Egerton, and the Lady Anne, Wife to the truely Noble Lord Gray, Lord Chandos that now is." The Countess of Derby was at this time married to Lord Ellesmere. The Poem is preceded by commendatory verses by Edw. Herbert, Knight, Michael Drayton and N. Deeble; and by a Sonnet "To all passionate Poets," by the Author. The Poem to which is prefixed "a Sonet," is written in six-line stanzas, and is of a serious and religious nature, descriptive of the crucifixion of our blessed Saviour. It commences from His being brought bound before Annas and Caiaphas; denied by Peter; dismissed by Pilate; taken before Herod; scourged and crowned with thorns; and led forth to be crucified. The description of the crucifixion is painfully minute and tedious, and Mr. Park has well remarked concerning the author, that "the ardour of the poet indeed failed, but that of the Christian triumphed." The Poem further relates the taking down from the cross; the anointing of the body; and the burial. The following stanzas containing the Author's remarks on Peter's denial of his Master, may serve as an example of his style, which is harsh and unmusical:

Wert thou so hardie Peter in thy word

What time, in peace, thou vowd'st with him to die?
And wert thou no less hardie with thy sword
In the first fight? and, from him now wilt flie?
That Man that ouercomes must weare the Crowne;
Thou art no Man, a Wo-man put thee down.

Though all forsake Him, thou wilt neuer faile Him:
These be thy vaunts, and (vaunting) this didst vow;
Yet thou, with griefe, dost with his Foes assaile him,
And to a Maid, more than a Maid, dost show

Thy woman-weaknesse, weaker than a woman,
For, better is a woman farre, than no man.

Saw'st thou that Man was God?—yea God and Man,
In all his workes ?-and did He by his pow'r,
Strengthen thee weakling, (for He all things can)
To march vpon the Seas foot-failing floore?

Saw'st thou by Reuelation, He was Christ?
And yet, for feare of his Crosse, him deni'st?

Fear'st thou that Crosse that is the Tree of Life?
What? loath'st thou Death? and yet do'st feare to liue?
Do'st strife eschew, that is the end of strife?

Wilt thou not take, because thou will not giue?

Is thy Soule rationall? and yet thy Soule
Doth Reasons reason brutishly controule?

Did He in loue (O 'twas a matchlesse fauor!)
Take thee with him (more firme to make thy faith)
To see God, this God glorifie on Thabor?

And, heard'st his voyce, whom Heau'n and Earth obai'th,
Say, 'twas his Sonne, more bright than Sunne thou saw'st
Yet from God, and his Sonne thy selfe with draw'st?

Did'st thou desire (with glorie rauished)

To Tabernacle Tabor there to dwell?

Would'st thou in Heau'n with Christ be glorified?
And not consociate him in his woes hell?

Art thou austere in life? yet sensuall, Thou
Eschew'st the Gall, and wilt but Honie chew?

Could they acknowledge him that were his foes,
When thou deniedst him that wert his friend?
By thy deniall they might well suppose
That he was such as (falsly) they pretend:

Weepe Peter weepe, for fowle is thine offence,

Wash it with Teares springing from Penitence.

At the end of the Poem of the "Holy Roode" are eight Sonnets, which are not remarkable for any beauty or merit, but of which the following one may be taken as a specimen :

Come, follow me, as I doe follow Christ,

Is the persuasiu'st speech the Priest can vse ;
This coniuration Fiends can scarce resist :
For, shame will quite confound them that refuse.

When Pastors shew what should be done in deed,
Their flocke will follow them though nought they say;
Sith they the hungry soules and bodies feed,
And teach the rightest Truth, the readiest way.

Thus, worthy Priests get Reuerence, Loue, and Feare,
While wordy ones scorne, hate, and shame doe finde :
For Winds of Spight their highest sailes doe teare,
Who make themselues nought else but subtill Winde:
For, though a Foote-ball mounts oft by the same,
Yet is it spurn'd and made the Peoples game.

On the last page is the subjoined colophon, containing the printer's name and the date, which are not on the title-page:

"London. Printed by John Windet for Nathaniel Butter, and are to be sold in Pauls Church-yard, by Saint Austins Gate. 1609."

Mr. Park has given a description of this volume in the Restituta, vol. iii. p. 260, and has quoted four of the eight Sonnets at the end. See also an account by Mr. Collier of a presentation copy of it from Davies to his patron, Lord Ellesmere, with an original MS. letter by Davies to the same nobleman, written on the fly leaf, in the Bridgew. Catal., p. 89; Ritson's Bibliog. Poet., p. 183; and Bibl. Ang. Poet., No. 214, where a copy of this work is priced at 157. 15s. It sold in Bright's sale, No. 1631, for 17. 198.; Heber's ditto, pt. iv. No. 548 (damaged), for 27. 28.; Nassau's ditto, pt. i. No. 1075, 37.; Freeling's ditto, No. 1038, 37. 88.; Midgeley's ditto, No. 208, 47.; Bindley's ditto, pt. ii. No. 765, 71. 2s. 6d.; and Perry's ditto, pt. i. No. 1690, 77. 58.

Collation: Sig. A to K 4 in fours.

The Freeling copy. In Calf extra, gilt leaves.

DAVIES, (JOHN.) -Wittes Pilgrimage, (by Poeticall Essaies) Through a World of amorous Sonnets, Soule-passions, and other Passages, Diuine, Philosophicall, Morall, Poeticall, and Politicall. By John Davies.

Incunda vicissitudo rerum.

At London, Printed for John Browne, and are to be sold at his shop in Saint Dunstones Churchyard in Fleetc-streete.

n.d. 4to.

VOL. III. PART I.

N

"Wittes Pilgrimage" is first dedicated in verse "To the Right noble, and Highly honored Lord Phillip Herbert, Earle of Mountgomery, and Baron of Shurland," &c., by "The most free bounden and vnalterable humble louer of your Honor, Name, and Family, John Davies of Hereford;" concluding with two lines, "The Booke to his Patron:"

If I thy Bloud do kindly warme, and moue,

Warme my Sires Bloud with comfort of thy loue.

And again in rhyme "To the same truelie-noble Earle, and his most honorable other halfe, Sir James Haies Knight," &c. Then follow three sets of verses, each in alternate rhyme, entitled, "The Book to Grauitie;" "The Author to his Muse;" and "Of my selfe;" the first of which is given at length in the Brit. Bibliog., vol. ii. p. 253. The amorous Sonnets then succeed, 101 in number, exclusive of two short Poems and a Sonnet on the author's coming to London, apparently during the time of the plague, which would thus fix the date of the volume about 1603. The reader will probably be content with the quotation of three of these as examples of this portion of the volume, the first of them being perhaps one of the most happily expressed of the whole series:

73.

Thy Beauties blush, like fairest Morne in Maie,
(Faire-Honied Sweet) doth so intrance mine Eies,
That while thou dost those Roses rich display

They see Heau'ns hue through thy skins Christal skies,
And did my fault nor thine enforce the same
I stil could wish to see that Heau'nly Blush:
Yea, I would see that glory to my shame,

So that my faces shame would cause that flush.
Then blame me not if (when thy Cheeks I see
Died in a Tincture that is so diuine)
My Cheeks in self same Colour dyed be,
To make thine spread their Dy, by dying mine:
Then, blush thou not, for blushing in this wise,
Sith that Hue from, and for thy grace doth rise.

101.

Thus far may Speculation help a Wit

Vnapt for loue, to write of Loues estate:

Thus far can Art extend hir Benefit

Past Natures Bounds, in shew of Loue, or Hate.
These Loue-tricks are not myne, though mine they be

As they are thus drawne out in louing Lines:

1581.

These Passions are too weak to passion me,
Although my strength from ought to nought declines.
But whist, my Muse, Hypocrisie is sin;

Make me not seem more holy than I am;
My Marrow-bones lie Flesh and Bloud within,
All which, by nature, burnes in Beauties Flame;
But, say I am, sith Grace to me is good,

Free from vnkind desires of Flesh and Bloud.

104.

Now, to this Sea of Cittie-Common-wealth
(Lymittlesse London) am I come obscur'd:
Where two-fold Plagues endanger may the health
Of Soule, and Bodie of the most secur'd:

The Bodies Plagues an Ill which God can do

For, is Ill in the Cittie hee doth not?

But Synne (the Plague which doth the Soule vndo)

He cannot do, though how he well doth wott.

Then, now my Soule stand stiffly on thy guard

Sith many mortall Dangers thee surround

Let Grace, thy guide, thy House still watch, and warde
To Keepe thy Habitation cleane, as sound:

And, if thou canst, with Lott, liue chastlie here,

Angels will fetche thee hence when Plagues are neere.

It appears from the second of these Sonnets, that Davies, like Watson and others, was merely addressing an imaginary mistress, so that we must regard these Sonnets merely in a literary point of view, and not, as might otherwise have been supposed, as expressive of his own passions. It is probable that they were designed in some sort as an imitation of Watson's Ekatompathia or Passionate Centurie of Love, which had appeared about "Other Sonnets upon other Subiects" follow, chiefly of a graver kind, and extending to 48. The remainder of the volume is occupied with a collection of short poems, all printed in a smaller type, of a very miscellaneous kind, and some of them not of the most delicate character, especially the first two entitled "An Amorous Colloqui twixt Dorus and Pamela," in fifty-two verses, and "The picture of Formositie;" a curious poem giving a most minute and disgusting description of the body and limbs of his mistress, succeeded by another showing that "In Love is no Lothsomnes." The remainder consist of "Essaies upon certaine Sentences," and "Other Essayes upon more serious and sacred Subiects;" two of them addressed to Mary, the Countess Dowager of Pembroke, another to William, Earl of

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