In eche of her two cristall eyes It would you all in hart fuffice I thinke Nature hath loft the moulde Or els I doubt if Nature coulde So faire a creature make. In life she is Diana chaste, In truth Penelopey; In worde and eke in dede stedfast. If all the worlde were fought so farre, Her rofial colour comes and goes With fuch a comly grace, (More ruddy too than is the rose) Within her lively face. At Bacchus feafte none fhall her mete, Ne at no wanton play, Nor gafing in an open ftrete, Nor gadding as aftray. The modeft mirth that she doth use Is mixt with fhamefaftneffe ; Al vice fhe doth wholy refuse, And hateth ydleneffe. O lord, it is a world to fee How vertue can repaire And decke in her fuch honeftie, Howe might I do to get a graffe Of this unspotted tree? See this thought in Surrey, fupr. citat. p. 16. For For all the rest are plaine but chaffe, Of the fame fort is the following stanza on Beauty. Then BEAUTY ftept before the barre, With haire truft up, and on her head We are to recollect, that these compliments were penned at a time, when the graces of converfation between the fexes were unknown, and the dialogue of courtship was indelicate; when the monarch of England, in a ftyle, which the meaneft gentleman would now be ashamed to ufe, pleaded the warmth of his affection, by drawing a coarse allufion from a prefent of venifon, which he calls flesh, in a love-letter to his future queen, Anne Boleyn, a lady of distinguished breeding, beauty, and modefty'. In lord Vaux's ASSAULT OF CUPIDE, abovementioned, these are the most remarkable stanzas. When Cupide fcaled first the fort, The armes the which that Cupid bare, Were pearced hartes, with teares besprent.— • Fol. 67. • Fol, 84. See Hearne's AVESBURY, APPEND. P. 354. G 2 And And even with the trumpettes fowne Then first DESIRE began to fcale, t Puttenham speaks more highly of the contrivance of the allegory of this piece, than I can allow. "In this figure [counter.. fait action] the lord Nicholas Vaux, a noble gentleman, and "much delighted in vulgar making ", and a man otherwife of no great learning, but having herein a marvelous facilitie, "made a dittie representing the Battayle and Affault of Cupid "fo excellently well, as for the gallant and propre aplication of "his fiction in every part, I cannot choose but fet downe the "greatest part of his ditty, for in truth it cannot be amended: "When Cupid fcaled, &c." And in another And in another part of the fame book. "The lord Vaux his commendation lyeth chiefly in the "facilitie of his meetre, and the aptneffe of his defcriptions, "fuche as he taketh upon him to make, namely in fundry of "his fonges, wherein he fheweth the COUNTERFAIT ACTION very lively and pleasantly *." By counterfait action the critic means fictitious action, the action of imaginary beings expreffive of fact and reality. There is more poetry in fome of the old pageants defcribed by Hollingfhed, than in this allegory of Cupid. Vaux feems to have had his eye on Sir David Lyndfey's GOLDEN TERGE". In the following little ode, much pretty defcription and imagination is built on the circumftance of a lady being named Bayes. So much good poetry could hardly be expected from a pun. • Fol. 71, 72. 請 For Thomas. English poetry. * Pag. zco. * Pag. 51. See fupr. Vol. ii. p. 270. In Bayes I boaft, whofe braunch I beare: That to the death I fhall it weare, To eafe my carefull minde. In heat, in cold, both night and day, When other frutes and flowers decay, Her berries feede the birdes ful oft, Her leaves fwete water make; Her bowes be fet in every loft, For their fwete favour's fake. The birdes do fhrowd them from the cold In her we dayly fee: And men make arbers as they wold, From the fame collection, the following is perhaps the first example in our language now remaining, of the pure and unmixed paftoral: and in the erotic fpecies, for, ease of numbers, elegance of rural allufion, and fimplicity of imagery, excels every thing of the kind in Spenfer, who is erroneously ranked as our earliest English bucolic. I therefore hope to be pardoned for the length of the quotation. But Phyllida was all too coy Who forft her not a pinne ". How often would fhe flowers twine? How often garlandes make Of couflips and of columbine ? And al for Corin's fake. But Corin he had hawkes to lure, And forced more the fielde '; Of lovers lawe he toke no cure, Harpalus prevailed nought, For he was fardest from her thought, And yet he loved her most. Therefore waxt he both pale and leane, And drye as clot of clay; His fleshe it was confumed cleane, His colour gone away. His beard it had not long be shave, His heare hong all unkempt'; A man fit even for the grave, Whom spitefull love had spent. His eyes were red, and all forewatched", His face befprent with teares ; It femde Vnhap had him long hatched In mids of his dispaires. His clothes were blacke and alfo bare, As one forlorne was he: Upon his head alwayes he ware A wreath of wyllow tree. Loved her not in the leaft. • More engaged in field-sports. d Deceived. Had once been in love. Clod. f Uncombed. • Over-watched. That is, her eyes were always awake, never closed by fleep. |