Circa 1616-1650.

RICHARD CRASHAW.

The conscious water saw its God and blushed.1

Translation of Epigram on John ii.

Whoe'er she be,

That not impossible she,

That shall command my heart and me.

Life that dares send

A challenge to his end,

And when it comes, say, Welcome, friend!

Sydneian showers

Ibid.

Of sweet discourse, whose powers

Can crown old Winter's head with flowers.

Ibid.

A happy soul, that all the way

To heaven hath a summer's day.

In Praise of Lessius's Rule of Health.

The modest front of this small floor,
Believe me, reader, can say more
Than many a braver marble can,
"Here lies a truly honest man!

Epitaph upon Mr. Ashton.

1 Nympha pudica Deum vidit, et erubuit.
Epig. Sacra. Aquæ in vinum versæ, p. 299.

174 Heywood.-Basse.-Davenant.

THOMAS HEYWOOD.

The world's a theatre, the earth a stage
Which God and nature do with actors fill.

1649.

Apology for Actors. 1612. I hold he loves me best that calls me Tom.

Hierarchie of the blessed Angells. Ed. 1635, p. 206. Seven cities warr'd for Homer being dead; Who living had no roofe to shrowd his head.1 Ibid. p. 207.

Her that ruled the rost in the kitchen.2
History of Women. Ed. 1624, p. 286.

WILLIAM BASSE.

1613-1648.

Renowned Spenser, lie a thought more nigh
To learned Chaucer, and rare Beaumont lie
A little nearer Spenser, to make room
For Shakespeare in your threefold, fourfold
tomb.3
On Shakespeare.

SIR WILLIAM DAVENANT. 1605-1668. Th' assembled souls of all that men held wise. Gondibert. Book ii. Canto v. St. 37.

Since knowledge is but sorrow's spy,

It is not safe to know.

4

The Just Italian. Act v. Sc. i. I Seven wealthy towns contend for Homer dead, Through which the living Homer begged his bread. Ascribed to Thomas Seward.

2 See Proverbial Expressions.

3 See Jonson, To the Memory of Shakespeare. 4 Compare Prior, post, p. 258.

SIR JOHN DENHAM. 1615-1668.

Though with those streams he no resemblance hold,

Whose foam is amber and their gravel gold;
His genuine and less guilty wealth t'explore,
Search not his bottom, but survey his shore.
Cooper's Hill, Line 165.

O, could I flow like thee, and make thy stream
My great example, as it is my theme!
Though deep, yet clear; though gentle, yet not

dull;

Strong without rage; without o'erflowing full. Line 189.

Actions of the last age are like almanacs of the last year. The Sophy. A Tragedy.

But whither am I strayed? I need not raise
Trophies to thee from other men's dispraise;
Nor is thy fame on lesser ruins built;
Nor needs thy juster title the foul guilt

Of Eastern kings, who, to secure their reign,
Must have their brothers, sons, and kindred

slain.1

On Mr. John Fletcher's Works.

1 Poets are sultans, if they had their will; For every author would his brother kill.

Orrery, "in one of his Prologues," says Johnson.

Should such a man, too fond to rule alone,

Bear like the Turk, no brother near the throne.

Pope, Prologue to the Satires, Line 197.

That e'er wore earth about him was a sufferer; A soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit. The first true gentleman that ever breathed.1

The Honest Whore. Part i. Acti. Sc. 12.

We are ne'er like angels till our passion dies.

What shall I do to be for ever known,
And make the age to come my own?

The Motto.

Of the offspring of the gentilman Jafeth, come Habraham, Moyses, Aron, and the profettys; and also the Kyng of the right lyne of Mary, of whom that gentilman Jhesus was borne. — Juliana Berners, Heraldic Blazonry.

His time is for ever, everywhere his place.

Friendship in Absence.

We spent them not in toys, in lusts, or wine; But search of deep philosophy,

Wit, eloquence, and poetry;

Arts which I loved, for they, my friend, were thine. On the Death of Mr. William Harvey.

His faith, perhaps, in some nice tenets might Be wrong; his life, I'm sure, was in the right.1 On the Death of Crashaw.

We grieved, we sighed, we wept: we never blushed before.

Discourse concerning the Government of Oliver Cromwell.

The thirsty earth soaks up the rain,
And drinks and gapes for drink again;
The plants suck in the earth, and are
With constant drinking fresh and fair.

From Anacreon. Drinking.

Why

Should every creature drink but I?
Why, man of morals, tell me why?

A mighty pain to love it is,
And 't is a pain that pain to miss ;
But of all pains, the greatest pain
It is to love, but love in vain.

Ibid.

Gold.

1 For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight, He can't be wrong whose life is in the right. Pope, Essay on Man, Ep. iii. Line 306.