From SAMUEL HARDING'S Sicily and Naples, or the Fatal Union. A Tragedy, 1640.

NOBLEST BODIES ARE BUT GILDED CLAY.

Chorus. NOBLEST bodies are but gilded clay :

But the precious shining rind,

Put away

The inmost rottenness remains behind.
1. Kings, on earth though gods they be,
Yet in death are vile as we;
He, a thousands' king before,
Now is vassal unto more.

2. Vermin now insulting lie,

And dig for diamonds in each eye;
Whilst the sceptre-bearing hand
Cannot their inroads withstand.
3. Here doth one in odours wade
By the regal unction made,
While another dares to gnaw

On that tongue, his people's law.
Chorus. Fools, ah fools, are we, who so contrive,
And do strive,

In each gaudy ornament,

Who shall his corpse in the best dish present.

P

From RICHARD BROME'S Northern Lass, 1632.

HUMILITY.

NOR Love nor Fate dare I accuse

For that my love did me refuse,

But oh! mine own unworthiness
That durst presume so mickle bliss.
It was too much for me to love
A man so like the gods above :
An angel's shape, a saint-like voice,
Are too divine for human choice.

Oh had I wisely given my heart
For to have loved him but in part;
Sought only to enjoy his face,
Or any one peculiar grace

Of foot, of hand, of lip, or eye,—

I might have lived where now I die :

But I, presuming all to choose,
Am now condemned all to lose.

From

RICHARD BROME'S A Jovial Crew, or the Merry Beggars, 1652.

THE MERRY BEGGARS.

OME, come away! the spring,

COME

By every bird that can but sing,
Or chirp a note, doth now invite
Us forth to taste of his delight,
In field, in grove, on hill, in dale;
But above all the nightingale,

Who in her sweetness strives t'outdo

The loudness of the hoarse cuckoo.

"Cuckoo," cries he; "Jug, jug, jug," sings she;

From bush to bush, from tree to tree:

Why in one place then tarry we?

Come away! why do we stay?
We have no debt or rent to pay;
No bargains or accounts to make,
Nor land or lease to let or take:
Or if we had, should that remore us
When all the world's our own before us,
And where we pass and make resort,
It is our kingdom and our court?
"Cuckoo," cries he, &c.

From WILLIAM STRODE's The
Floating Island, 1655.1

ADONIS' GOOD-NIGHT.

ONCE Venus' cheeks, that shamed the morn,

Their hue let fall;

Her lips, that winter had out-borne,
In June looked pale.

Her heat grew cold, her nectar dry;
No juice she had but in her eye
The wonted fire and flames to mortify.
When was this so dismal sight?
When Adonis bade good-night.

From ROBERT

DAVENPORT'S

King John and Matilda, 1655.2

A REQUIEM.

MATILDA, now go take thy bed

In the dark dwellings of the dead;

And rise in the great waking day,

Sweet as incense, fresh as May.

Rest thou, chaste soul, fixed in thy proper sphere, Amongst Heaven's fair ones; all are fair ones there.

Chorus. Rest there, chaste soul, whilst we here troubled

say

"Time gives us griefs, Death takes our joys

away."

1 Acted by the students of Christ Church in 1636.

O'ER THE SMOOTH

Ο

From JOHN MILTON'S Arcades. Part of an Entertainment presented to the Countess Dowager of Derby at Harefield (1634).

ENAMELLED GREEN.

'ER the smooth enamelled green,
Where no print of step hath been,

Follow me, as I sing

And touch the warbled string;

Under the shady roof

Of branching elm star-proof
Follow me.

I will bring you where she sits,
Clad in splendour, as befits
Her deity.

Such a rural queen

All Arcadia hath not seen.

NYMPHS AND SHEPHERDS, DANCE NO MORE.

NYMPHS and shepherds, dance no more

By sandy Ladon's lilied banks;

On old Lycæus or Cyllene hoar,
Trip no more in twilight ranks;
Though Erymanth your loss deplore,

A better soil shall give ye thanks.

From the stony Mænalus

Bring your flocks and live with us;

Here ye

shall have better grace,

To serve the Lady of this place.

Though Syrinx your Pan's mistress were,

Yet Syrinx well might wait on her.

Such a rural queen

All Arcadia hath not seen.