RALEIGH.

1552-1618.

ONE of the minor poets of the Elizabethan age. Raleigh's title to literary fame depends upon his History of the World, composed during his long imprisonment in the Tower.

REASON'S OPPOSITION.

If all the world and love were young,
And truth in every shepherd's tongue,
These pretty pleasures might me move
To live with thee, and be thy love.

Time drives the flocks from field to fold,
When rivers rage and rocks grow cold:
And Philomel becometh dumb,
The rest complain of cares to come.

The flowers do fade, and wanton fields
To wayward winter reckoning yields:
A honey-tongue-a heart of gall,
Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall.

Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses,
Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies,
Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten,
In folly ripe, in reason rotten.

Thy belt of straw and ivy buds,
Thy coral clasps and amber studs;
All these in me no means can move
To come to thee and be thy love.

But could youth last, and love still breed,
Had joys no date, nor age no need,

Then these delights my mind might move
To live with thee and be thy love.

The Nymph's Reply to the Passionate Shepherd.

BARNFIELD.

End of the Sixteenth Century.

AUTHOR of several volumes of miscellaneous poetry published between the years 1594 and 1598. Little or nothing is known of his life. The Address to the Nightingale was long attributed to Shakespeare.

THE TRUE AND THE FALSE FRIENDSHIP.

As it fell upon a day,

In the merry month of May,
Sitting in a pleasant shade

Which a grove of myrtles made;
Beasts did leap, and birds did sing,

Trees did grow, and plants did spring.
Everything did banish moan,

Save the nightingale alone:
She, poor bird, as all forlorn,
Leaned her breast up-till a thorn;
And there sung the dolefull'st ditty,
That to hear it was great pity.
Fie, fie, fie, now would she cry;
Teru, teru, by-and-by:

That, to hear her so complain,
Scarce I could from tears refrain ;
For her griefs, so lively shown,
Made me think upon mine own.
Ah! (thought I) thou mourn'st in vain;
None takes pity on thy pain.

Senseless trees, they cannot hear thee,
Ruthless bears, they will not cheer thee.

H

King Pandion he is dead;

All thy friends are lapped in lead;
All thy fellow-birds do sing,
Careless of thy sorrowing!

Whilst as fickle Fortune smiled,
Thou and I were both beguiled.
Every one that flatters thee
Is no friend in misery.

Words are easy, like the wind;

Faithful friends are hard to find.
Every man will be thy friend
Whilst thou hast wherewith to spend.
But, if store of crowns be scant,
No man will supply thy want.
If that one be prodigal,
Bountiful they will him call;
And with such-like flattering,
'Pity but he were a king.'
If he be addict to vice,
Quickly him they will entice;
But if Fortune once do frown,
Then farewell his great renown.
They that fawned on him before
Use his company no more.
He that is thy friend indeed,
He will help thee in thy need;
If thou sorrow, he will weep;
If thou wake, he cannot sleep:
Thus, of every grief in heart
He with thee doth bear a part.
These are certain signs to know
Faithful friend from flattering foe.

Address to the Nightingale.

BEN JONSON.

1573-1637.

PRINCIPAL WORKS: Every Man in His Humour, 1596; brought out at the famous Globe Theatre, where Shakespeare played one of the parts.-Every Man out of His Humour, 1599, inferior to its predecessor.-Cynthia's Revels.-The Poetaster.-Sjanus, 1603, a Roman tragedy.-Eastward Hoe appeared soon after the succession of James VI. to the English crown. In this comedy were introduced some depreciatory reflections on the Scotch nation, which, provoking the patriotic susceptibilities of the new king, occasioned the author's imprisonment and almost the loss of his ears.-Volpone or the Fox, Epicene or the Silent Woman, and The Alchemist, some of his best comedies, next followed.- Catiline, 1611, a Roman tragedy.-The New Inn (comedy), 1630.-The Sad Shepherd, the most fanciful and Shakespearian of his dramas, is one of his best productions. Altogether his dramatic works are about fifty in number. His comedies show considerable wit and vigour: though the vis comica is not sufficiently restrained within the bounds of nature and probability. His tragedies, correct as copies of the antique models, are too frequently disfigured by pedantry. It is as a comic writer that Jonson has earned his place in English literature. Dryden gives him high praise. 'If,' says he, ‘we look upon him while he was himself (for his last plays were but his dotages) I think him the most learned and judicious writer which any theatre ever had. He was a most severe judge of himself as well as of others. One cannot say that he wanted wit, but rather that he was frugal of it. In his works you find little to retrench or alter. Wit, and language, and humour also in some measure, we had before him ; but something of art was wanting in the drama till he came. He managed his strength to more advantage than any who preceded him. You seldom find him making love in any of his scenes, or endeavouring to move the passions; his genius was too sullen and saturnine to do it gracefully, especially when he knew he came after those who had performed both to such a height. Humour was his proper sphere; and in that he delighted most to represent mechanic people. He was deeply conversant with the ancients, both Greek and Latin, and he borrowed boldly from them; there is scarce a poet or historian among the Roman authors of those times whom he has not translated in