In eche of her two cristall Smileth a naked boye: eyes It would you all in hart fuffice To se that lampe of joye. I thinke Nature hath loft the moulde⚫ Where she her shape did take; 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 ftedfast. What would you more we sey? If all the worlde were fought fo farre, Her beuty twinkleth like a starre Her rofial colour comes and With fuch a comly grace, goes (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 astray. The modeft mirth that she doth use Is mixt with fhamefaftneffe ; Al vice she doth wholy refuse, And hateth ydleneffe. O lord, it is a world to fee How vertue can repaire And decke in her fuch honeftie, Whom nature made fo faire ! 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 thefe compliments were penned at a time, when the graces of conversation between the sexes were unknown, and the dialogue of courtship was indelicate; when the monarch of England, in a style, which the meanest gentleman would now be ashamed to ufe, pleaded the warmth of his affection, by drawing a coarse allufion from a present of venison, which he calls flesh, in a love-letter to his future queen, Anne Boleyn, a lady of distinguished breeding, beauty, and modesty '. In lord Vaux's ASSAULT OF CUPIDE, abovementioned, these are the most remarkable ftanzas. When Cupide scaled first the fort, The armes the which that Cupid bare, Fol. 67. 9 Fol. 84. See Hearne's AVESBURY, APPEND. P. 354. G 2 And And even with the trumpettes fowne And BEAUTY walked up and downe, Then first DESIRE began to scale, Puttenham fpeaks 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 otherwise 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 part of the same book. "The lord Vaux his commendation lyeth chiefly in the "facilitie of his meetre, and the aptneffe of his descriptions, "fuche as he taketh upon him to make, namely in fundry of "his fonges, wherein he fheweth the COUNTERFAIT ACTION 66 very lively and pleafantly *." 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 Lyndsey'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 In Bayes I boast, whofe braunch I beare: That to the death I fhall it weare, To ease 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, Under the pleasant tree. From the fame collection, the following is perhaps the first example in our language now remaining, of the pure and unmixed pastoral: and in the erotic fpecies, for ease of numbers, elegance of rural allufion, and fimplicity of imagery, excels every thing of the kind in Spenser, 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 For Harpalus to winne; For Corin was her only joy Who forst her not a pinne. How often would the 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, His labour all was loft; For he was fardeft 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 difpaires. His clothes were blacke and also bare, Upon his head alwayes he ware A wreath of wyllow tree. b 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. |