Cold walls! to you I speak; but you are senseless: Celestial Powers! you hear, but have determined, And shall determine, to my greatest happiness.

Then unto whom shall I unfold my wrong, Cast down my tears, or hold up folded hands? To Her, to whom remorse doth most belong;

To Her who is the first, and may alone Be justly called the Empress of the Bretanes. Who should have mercy if a Queen have none?

Save those that would have died for your defence! Save him whose thoughts no treason ever tainted! For lo destruction is no recompense.

If I have sold my duty, sold my faith
To strangers, which was only due to One;
Nothing I should esteem so dear as death.

But if both God and Time shall make you
That I, your humblest vassal, am oppressed,
Then cast your eyes on undeserved woe;

know

That I and mine may never mourn the miss Of Her we had, but praise our living Queen,

Who brings us equal, if not greater, bliss.

XXII.

SIR WALTER RALEIGH'S VERSES,

FOUND IN HIS BIBLE IN THE GATE-HOUSE AT

WESTMINSTER.1

(1618.)

VEN such is time, that takes in trust
Our youth, our joys, our all we have,
And pays us but with earth and dust;
Who, in the dark and silent grave,
When we have wandered all our ways,
Shuts up the story of our days;

But from this earth, this grave, this dust,
My God shall raise me up, I trust!

W. R.

'Printed with Raleigh's "Prerogative of Parliaments," 1628, and probably still earlier; also with "To-day a Man, To-morrow none," 1643-4; in Raleigh's "Remains," 1661, &c., with the title given above; and in "Rel. Wotton." 1651, &c., with the title, "Sir Walter Raleigh the night before his death." Also found with several variations in many old MS. copies.

XXIII.

FRAGMENTS AND EPIGRAMS.

I.

HIS made him write in a glass window, obvious to the Queen's eye

666

"Fain would I climb, yet fear I to fall.'

Her Majesty, either espying or being

shown it, did under-write

"If thy heart fails thee, climb not at all.'" 1

II.

"SIR WA. RAWLEY made this rhyme upon the name of a gallant, one Mr. Noel:

"Noe. L.

"The word of denial and the letter of fifty Makes the gentleman's name that will never be thrifty.'

"And Noel's answer :-
"Raw. Ly.

"The foe to the stomach and the word of disgrace Shews the gentleman's name with the bold face."" 2

Fuller, "Worthies of England," Devonshire, p. 261. 2 Manningham's "Diary," under date Dec. 30, 1602; Camden Society edition, p. 109; and Collier's "Hist. Dram. Poetry," i. 336, note. Somewhat different in MS. Malone 19, p. 42.

III.

In vain mine eyes, in vain you waste your tears;
In vain my sighs, the smokes of my despairs;
In vain you search the earth and heavens above;
In vain ye seek; for Fortune keeps my love.1

IV.

WITH Wisdom's eyes had but blind fortune seen, Then had my love, my love for ever been.2

V.

EPITAPH ON THE EARL OF LEICESTER.3

(Died Sept. 4, 1588.)

HERE lies the noble warrior that never blunted

sword;

Here lies the noble courtier that never kept his

word;

Here lies his excellency that governed all the state; Here lies the L. of Leicester that all the world did

hate.

VI.

WA. RA.

EPITAPH ON THE EARL OF SALISBURY.*
(Died May 24, 1612.)

HERE lies Hobbinol, our pastor whilere,

That once in a quarter our fleeces did sheer.

1 Puttenham's "Art of English Poesie," 1589, p. 165,

66

as this written by Sir Walter Raleigh of his greatest mistress in most excellent verses."

2 Puttenham, ibid., p. 167, as "that of Sir Walter Raleigh's very sweet."

3 Collier's "Bibliographical Catalogue," vol. ii. p. 222, from a Bridgewater MS. It is anonymous in the Hawthornden MSS.; and in a shorter form in MS. Ashm. 38, p. 181. 4 Shirley's "Life of Raleigh," p. 28, folio.

:

To please us his cur he kept under clog,
And was ever after both shepherd and dog.
For oblation to Pan his custom was thus :-
He first gave a trifle, then offered up us.
And through his false worship such power he did.
gain,

As kept him o' th' mountain and us on the plain :
Where many a hornpipe he tuned to his Phyllis,
And sweetly sung Walsingham to 's Amaryllis.
(Two lines omitted.)

VII.

A POEM PUT INTO MY LADY LAITON'S POCKET BY SIR WALTER RALEIGH.1

LADY, farewell, whom I in silence serve!

Would God thou knewest the depth of my desire! Then mought I wish, though nought I can deserve, Some drops of grace to slake my scalding fire; But sith to live alone I have decreed,

I'll spare to speak, that I may spare to speed!

VIII.

SIR W. RALEIGH ON THE SNUFF OF A CANDLE THE NIGHT BEFORE HE DIED.2

COWARDS [may] fear to die; but courage stout, Rather than live in snuff, will be put out.

1 Chetham MS., 8012, p. 85; erased, but still legible. 2 Raleigh's "Remains," p. 258, edition 1661, &c.