between the 7th of November, 1619, the day of her coronation as Queen of Bohemia, and some time in 1624, when it was printed in "THE SIXT SET OF BOOKES," a musical publication by Michaell Est. I place it in 1620, before the fatal battle of Prague. ON HIS MISTRESS, THE QUEEN OF BOHEMIA. You meaner beauties of the night, That poorly satisfy our eyes, You curious chanters of the wood, That warble forth dame Nature's lays, By your weak accents, what's your praise You violets that first appear, By your pure purple mantles known, As if the spring were all your own, So when my mistress shall be seen, In form, and beauty of her mind, THOMAS RANDOLPH. 1605-1634. ["Poems, with the Muses' Looking Glass." 1638.] TO ONE ADMIRING HERSELF IN A LOOKING GLASS. Fair lady, when you see the grace The thing that men most doat upon. Wise Nature would not let your eye Now you have what to love, you'll say, WILLIAM HABINGTON. 1605-1654. CASTARA. THE Castara of Habington's poetry was Lucia Herbert, the daughter of William Herbert, the first Lord Powis. By her mother's side she was related to the Percys of Northumberland, who traced their descent back to Charlemagne. Habington's family, though a good one, was not equal to hers, which may have been the reason why her father objected to him as a lover. For my Lord Powis did object, we learn, though Lady Eleanor, his wife, sympathized with the poet from the first. In a poetical epistle which he addressed to her ladyship, he compliments her on the clearness of her judgment of him, and proclaims the unselfishness of his love for her daughter : "Would Castara were The daughter of some mountaine cottager, Should set themselves out glorious in her stealth, He also addressed an epistle to Lord Powis, but it was after his marriage with Castara. "The holy lights," he says, The date of Habington's marriage is not mentioned, but from a note to one of his poems in the second part of "CASTARA,” which part, by the way, is christened The Wife, I should say it took place in or before 1630, his twenty-fifth year. Of his married life, indeed of his life generally, nothing is known, except that it was passed in retirement at the family manor in Hendlip. Devoted to his wife and his books, the contentions of the time swept by, and left him unharmed. In the words of Langbaine, "he was a gentleman who lived in the civil wars, and, slighting Bellona, gave himself entirely to the Muses." His poems were published in 1634. TO CASTARA. A SACRIFICE. Let the chaste Phoenix, from the flowery East, From loose infection, bring their zealous prayer, Bring hither their bright flames, which here shall shine As tapers fixed about Castara's shrine. While I, the priest, my untamed heart surprise, And in this temple make 't her sacrifice. TO CASTARA. INTENDING A JOURNEY INTO THE COUNTRY. Why haste you hence, Castara? Can the Earth, In emulation of thy cheeks, a rose, Sweet as thy blush? Upon thyself then set |