For kings bethink them what the state require, If country love such sweet desires gain, He kisseth first, then sits as blithe to eat For kings have often fears when they sup, If country loves such sweet desires gain, Upon his couch of straw he sleeps as sound For cares cause kings full oft their sleep to spill, If country loves such sweet desires gain, Thus with his wife he spends the year as blithe And blither too : For kings have wars and broils to take in hand, If country love such sweet desires gain, [BARNFIELD, who wrote the following piece about the year 1592, was a native of Staffordshire, and is little known in any other way than as its author.] S it fell upon a day, AS In the merry month of May, Sitting in a pleasant shade Which a grove of myrtles made; Beasts did leap, and birds did sing, Trees did grow, and plants did spring; Save the nightingale alone. She, poor bird, as all forlorn, Lean'd her breast up-till a thorn; And there sung the dolefull'st ditty, That to hear it was great pity. That, to hear her so complain, Senseless trees, they cannot hear thee, All thy friends are lapp'd in lead; Whilst as fickle Fortune smil'd, Words are easy, like the wind; Faithful friends are hard to find. Every man will be thy friend Whilst thou hast wherewith to spend: [CHRISTOPHER MARLOW was born in the year 1562. The place of his birth and the circumstances of his family are unknown, though it is recorded that he was educated at Cambridge, and on leaving that university became an actor and dramatic writer. Marlow is considered the most distinguished of Shakspeare's predecessors. The character of his works is well described by Hazlitt:-" There is a lust of power in his writings, a hunger and thirst after unrighteousness, a glow of imagination unhallowed by anything but its own energies. His thoughts burnt within him like a furnace of flickering flame, or throwing out black smoke and mists that hide the dawn of genius, or like a poisonous mineral corrode the heart." The incidents of his death but too well accorded with the licentiousness of his character.] COME live with me, and be my love, And we will all the pleasures prove And we will sit upon the rocks, Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks, And I will make thee beds of roses, THE NYMPH'S REPLY.* BY SIR WALTER RALEIGH.-1555-1618. [SIR WALTER RALEIGH was born at Budleigh in Devonshire, in 1555. After leaving Oxford, where he was educated, he entered the Middle Temple, but soon embraced the profession of arms, in which he became highly distinguished. His introduction to Elizabeth was due, the legend runs, to his gallantry in placing his cloak over a miry place that she might pass over it without inconvenience. He took a very active part in the destruction of the Spanish Armada, but his high character is sullied by the share he took in the ruin of the Earl of Essex. He obtained a grant of 12,000 acres of land, out of the forfeited estate of the Earl of Desmond, in the county of Cork; and during a visit to Spenser at Kilcolman, persuaded that poet to write his "Faerie Queene." After the accession of James he was tried for conspiring with Lord Cobham and others to place Arabella Stewart on the throne, and was condemned; but though respited, he remained twelve years in the Tower, where he wrote his "History of the World." He was then taken from prison and placed in command of a squadron sent against Guiana. While on this expedition, he plundered the town of St. Thomé, and on his * To "The Passionate Shepherd to his Love," by Christopher Marlow. See the ceding. pre |