XCIII

EPITHALAMION.

HOUGH thou hast past thy summerstanding, stay

Awhile with us, bright sun, and help our light;

Thou canst not meet more glory on
the way,

Between the tropics, to arrest thy sight,
Than thou shalt see to-day :

We woo thee stay;

And see what can be seen,

The bounty of a king, and beauty of his queen.

See the procession! what a holy day,

Bearing the promise of some better fate,
Hath filled, with caroches, all the way,

From Greenwich hither to Rowhampton gate!
When look'd the year, at best,

So like a feast;

Or were affairs in tune,

By all the spheres consent, so in the heart of June?

What beauty of beauties, and bright youths at charge
Of summers liveries, and gladding green,

Do boast their loves and braveries so at large,
As they came all to see, and to be seen!
When look'd the earth so fine,

Or so did shine,

In all her bloom and flower,

To welcome home a pair, and deck the nuptial bower?

It is the kindly season of the time,

The month of youth, which calls all creatures forth To do their offices in nature's chime,

And celebrate, perfection at the worth,
Marriage, the end of life,
That holy strife,

And the allowed war,

Through which not only we, but all our species are.

Hark how the bells upon the waters play

Their sister-tunes from Thames his either side, As they had learn'd new changes for the day, And all did ring the approaches of the bride; The lady Frances drest

Above the rest

Of all the maidens fair;

In graceful ornament of garland, gems, and hair.

See how she paceth forth in virgin-white,
Like what she is, the daughter of a duke,
And sister; darting forth a dazzling light
On all that come her simplesse to rebuke!
Her tresses trim her back,

As she did lack

Nought of a maiden queen,

With modesty so crown'd, and adoration seen.

Stay, thou wilt see what rites the virgins do,
The choicest virgin-troop of all the land!
Porting the ensigns of united two,

Both crowns and kingdoms in their either hand:
Whose majesties appear,

To make more clear

This feast, than can the day,

Although that thou, O sun, at our entreaty stay!

See how with roses, and with lilies shine,
Lilies and roses, flowers of either sex,

The bright bride's paths, embellish'd more than thine,

With light of love this pair doth intertex!
Stay, see the virgins sow,
Where she shall go,

The emblems of their way.—

O, now thou smil'st, fair sun, and shin'st, as thou would'st stay!

With what full hands, and in how plenteous showers Have they bedew'd the earth, where she doth tread,

As if her airy steps did spring the flowers,

And all the ground were garden where she led ! See, at another door,

On the same floor,

The bridegroom meets the bride

With all the pomp of youth, and all our court beside!

Our court, and all the grandees! now, sun, look,
And looking with thy best inquiry, tell,
In all thy age of journals thou hast took,
Saw'st thou that pair became these rites so well,
Save the preceding two??

Who, in all they do,

Search, sun, and thou wilt find

They are the exampled pair, and mirror of their kind.

2 Save the preceding two, &c.] The king and queen. In Love's Welcome at Bolsover, Jonson compliments this illustrious pair on the strictness and purity of their union; if that can be called compliment which is merely truth. In all his domestic relations, Charles I. stood unparalleled; he was an indulgent master, a faithful and affectionate husband, and a tender parent.

This must have been a very splendid ceremony. Both the king and the favourite were to be gratified by assisting at it, and it is probable that few of the young nobility were absent. Charles himself acted as father to the bride, and gave her away.

Force from the Phoenix, then, no rarity

Of sex, to rob the creature; but from man,
The king of creatures, take his parity

With angels, muse, to speak these: nothing can
Illustrate these, but they
Themselves to-day,

Who the whole act express;

All else, we see beside, are shadows, and go less.
It is their grace and favour that makes seen,
And wonder'd at the bounties of this day;
All is a story of the king and queen :
And what of dignity and honour may
Be duly done to those

Whom they have chose,

And set the mark upon,

To give a greater name and title to! their own!
Weston, their treasure, as their treasurer,

That mine of wisdom, and of counsels deep,
Great say-master of state, who cannot err,
But doth his caract, and just standard keep,
In all the prov'd assays,

And legal ways

Of trials, to work down

Men's loves unto the laws, and laws to love the

crown.

And this well mov'd the judgment of the king
To pay with honours to his noble son
To-day, the father's service; who could bring
Him up, to do the same himself had done :
That far all-seeing eye

Could soon espy
What kind of waking man

He had so highly set; and in what Barbican.3

3 He had so highly set; and in what Barbican.] An old word for a beacon, fortress, or watch-tower :

Stand there; for when a noble nature's rais'd,
It brings friends joy, foes grief, posterity fame;
In him the times, no less than prince, are prais'd,
And by his rise, in active men, his name
Doth emulation stir:

To the dull a spur

It is, to the envious meant

A mere upbraiding grief, and torturing punishment.

See now the chapel opens, where the king
And bishop stay to consummate the rites;
The holy prelate prays, then takes the ring,
Asks first, who gives her?-I, Charles-then he
plights

One in the other's hand,
Whilst they both stand

Hearing their charge, and then

The solemn choir cries, Joy! and they return, Amen!

O happy bands! and thou more happy place,

Which to this use wert built and consecrate!
To have thy God to bless, thy king to grace,
And this their chosen bishop celebrate,
And knit the nuptial knot,

Which time shall not,

Or canker'd jealousy,

With all corroding arts, be able to untie!

"Within the Barbican a porter sate,

Day and night, duly keeping watch and ward."

Fairy Queen, b. ii. cant. 9. WHAL.

One of the streets of London takes its name from an edifice of that kind, anciently standing there. Stow thus describes it: "On the north-west side of this city, near unto Red-cross street, there was a tower commonly called Barbican, or Burhkenning, for that the same being placed on a high ground, and also being builded of some good height, was in old time used as a watch-tower for the city." Ed. 4to. 1603, p. 70.