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IV.

A VISION UPON THIS CONCEIT OF

THE FAIRY QUEEN.'

(1590.)

ETHOUGHT I saw the grave where
Laura lay,

M

Within that temple where the vestal
flame

Was wont to burn: and, passing by that way,
To see that buried dust of living fame,
Whose tomb fair Love and fairer Virtue kept,
All suddenly I saw the Fairy Queen,
At whose approach the soul of Petrarch wept ;
And from thenceforth those graces were not seen,
For they this Queen attended; in whose stead
Oblivion laid him down on Laura's hearse.
Hereat the hardest stones were seen to bleed,
And groans of buried ghosts the heavens did
pierce :

Where Homer's spright did tremble all for grief,
And cursed the access of that celestial thief.

1 Appended to Spenser's "Fairy Queen," books i.-iii., 1590, p. 596.

V.

ANOTHER OF THE SAME.

(1590.)

HE praise of meaner wits this work like
profit brings,

As doth the cuckoo's song delight when
Philumena sings.

If thou hast formed right true virtue's face herein, Virtue herself can best discern, to whom they written bin.

If thou hast beauty praised, let her sole looks

divine

Judge if aught therein be amiss, and mend it by her eine.

If Chastity want aught, or Temperance her due, Behold her princely mind aright, and write thy Queen anew.

Meanwhile she shall perceive how far her virtues

soar

Above the reach of all that live, or such as wrote

of yore:

And thereby will excuse and favour thy good will, Whose virtue cannot be expressed but by an angel's

quill.

Of me no lines are loved nor letters are of price, Of all which speak our English tongue, but those of thy device.

From the same; signed W. R.

1

VI.

REPLY TO MARLOWE.

1. MARLOWE'S SONG.

THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE.1

(Before 1593.)

OME live with me, and be my love;
And we will all the pleasures prove
That hills and valleys, dales and fields,
Woods, or steepy mountain yields.

And we will sit upon the rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

And I will make thee beds of roses,
And a thousand fragrant posies;
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle

Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;

A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair-lined slippers for the cold,

With buckles of the purest gold;

Dyce's "Marlowe," iii. 299. An imperfect copy was printed in the "Passionate Pilgrim" in 1599, and it is quoted in the "Merry Wives of Windsor," iii. 1. It was printed at length with Marlowe's name in "England's Helicon," 1600; and also in Walton's "Complete Angler," 1653, as that smooth song which was made by Kit Marlow, now at least fifty years ago." Marlowe died sixty years before,-in 1593.

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A belt of straw and ivy-buds,
With coral clasps and amber-studs :
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come love with me, and be my love.

The shepherd-swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May-morning;
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me, and be my love.

2. RALEIGH'S REPLY.

(Before 1599.)

F all the world and love were young,
And truth in every shepherd's tongue,
These pretty pleasures might me move
To live with thee and be thy love.

But time drives flocks from field to fold,
When rivers rage and rocks grow cold;
And Philomel becometh dumb;
The rest complains of cares to come.

The flowers do fade, and wanton fields
To wayward winter reckoning yields:
A honey tongue, a heart of gall,
Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall.

1 The first verse was printed in the "Passionate Pilgrim" in 1599, and the whole in " England's Helicon," 1600, where the signature is Ignoto. Also in Walton's " Complete Angler," 1653, as made by Sir Walter Raleigh in his younger days."

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Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses,
Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies,
Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten,-
In folly ripe, in reason rotten.

Thy belt of straw and ivy buds,
Thy coral clasps and amber studs,—
All those in me no means can move
To come to thee and be thy love.

But could youth last, and love still breed;
Had joys no date, nor age no need;
Then those delights my mind might move
To live with thee and be thy love.

VII.

LIKE HERMIT POOR.1

(Before 1593.)

IKE hermit poor in pensive place obscure
I mean to spend my days of endless

doubt,

To wail such woes as time cannot recure, Where nought but love shall ever find me out. And at my gates despair shall linger still, To let in death when love and fortune will.

Ascribed to Raleigh in "To-day a Man, to-morrow none," 1643-4; King's Pamphlets, B. M. vol. 139. It is anonymous in the "Phoenix Nest," 1593, p. 69; in "Tixall Poetry," p. 115; in MS. Rawl. 85, fol. 21, verso; in Harl. MS. 6910, fol. 139, verso, &c.

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