Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind True, a new mistress now I chase, Yet this inconstancy is such I could not love thee, dear, so much, RICHARD CRASHAW. DIED ABOUT 1650. CRASHAW, a Catholic priest, is chiefly distinguished as a sacred poet. He is perhaps the most purely poetical of all the devotional lyrists, and the more his writings are perused the more they will be relished. (a) (a) The mere merits of this neglected and beautiful writer will be better appreciated from the specimens given of his poetry in the volume of Specimens of Sacred and Serious Poetry, than from the following extracts. THE TEAR. WHAT bright soft thing is this? Sweet Mary, thy fair eyes' expense? A moist spark it is, A wat'ry diamond; from whence The very term, I think, was found The water of a diamond. Such a pearl as this is, (Slipt from Aurora's dewy breast) The rose-bud's sweet lip kisses: And such the rose itself, when vext With ungentle flames, does shed, Sweating in too warm a bed. Such the maiden gem FROM CATULLUS. COME, and let us live, my dear, Brightest Sol, that dies to-day, Lives again as blithe to-morrow; A thousand and a hundred score, THE WEEPER, ABRIDGED. HAIL, sister springs, Ever bubbling things! Thawing crystal! snowy hills! Still spending, never spent ; I mean Thy fair eyes, sweet Magdalen. Heavens thy fair eyes be, And stars thou sow'st, whose harvest dares Promise the Earth to countershine Whatever makes Heaven's fore-head fine. The dew no more will weep, Much rather would it tremble here, Not the soft gold, which As the drops distill'd from thee. Sorrow's best jewels lie in these Not in the evening's eyes, Sits sorrow with a face so fair; No where but here did ever meet MATTHEW PRIOR. BORN 1664-DIED 1721, THERE are some doubts about the parentage of Prior. At an early age he appears to have lost his father, and it is certain that, while living with his uncle, who kept a tavern near Charing Cross, in which he officiated as clerk or drawer, his classical attainments became known to the Earl of Dorset, who sent him to Cambridge. He obtained a fellowship at St John's College, and became so well known as a man of talent, that, in 1691, he was appointed secretary to the ambassador at the Hague, and in the same capacity was engaged in the negotiations previous to the peace of Ryswick in 1697, and afterwards at the court of Versailles. On returning from France, he was first made under-secretary of state, and soon afterwards commissioner of trade. Prior was employed in the memorable treaty of Utrecht, at the instigation of Queen Anne's Tory ministry. The writings of Prior are remarkable for ease, fluency, and correctness. Of the cold French school he is one of the most successful disciples. His works are embodied in the best editions of the British Poets, and his remains repose in Westminster Abbey. A complete elucidation of his character as a poet may be found in his cold, artificial version of the beautiful old ballad of "The Nutbrown Maid." AN EPITAPH. INTERR'D beneath this marble stone They walk'd, and eat, good folks: what then? |