Specimens with Memoirs of the Less-known British Poets Part 69

34 The thirtieth caract it had doubled twice; Not taken from the Attic silver mine, Nor from the bra.s.s, though such, of n.o.bler price, Did on the necks of Parthian ladies shine:

35 Nor yet of those which make the Ethiop proud; Nor taken from those rocks where Bactrians climb: But from the Scythian, and without a cloud; Not sick at fire, nor languishing with time.

36 Then thus he spake: 'This, Birtha, from my male Progenitors, was to the loyal she On whose kind heart they did in love prevail, The nuptial pledge, and this I give to thee:

37 'Seven centuries have pa.s.sed, since it from bride To bride did first succeed; and though 'tis known From ancient lore, that gems much virtue hide, And that the emerald is the bridal stone:

38 'Though much renowned because it chastens loves, And will, when worn by the neglected wife, Show when her absent lord disloyal proves, By faintness, and a pale decay of life.

39 'Though emeralds serve as spies to jealous brides, Yet each compared to this does counsel keep; Like a false stone, the husband's falsehood hides, Or seems born blind, or feigns a dying sleep.

40 'With this take Orgo, as a better spy, Who may in all your kinder fears be sent To watch at court, if I deserve to die By making this to fade, and you lament.'

41 Had now an artful pencil Birtha drawn, With grief all dark, then straight with joy all light, He must have fancied first, in early dawn, A sudden break of beauty out of night.

42 Or first he must have marked what paleness fear, Like nipping frost, did to her visage bring; Then think he sees, in a cold backward year, A rosy morn begin a sudden spring.

43 Her joys, too vast to be contained in speech, Thus she a little spake: 'Why stoop you down, My plighted lord, to lowly Birtha's reach, Since Rhodalind would lift you to a crown?

44 'Or why do I, when I this plight embrace, Boldly aspire to take what you have given?

But that your virtue has with angels place, And 'tis a virtue to aspire to heaven.

45 'And as towards heaven all travel on their knees, So I towards you, though love aspire, will move: And were you crowned, what could you better please Then awed obedience led by bolder love?

46 'If I forget the depth from whence I rise, Far from your bosom banished be my heart; Or claim a right by beauty to your eyes; Or proudly think my chast.i.ty desert.

47 'But thus ascending from your humble maid To be your plighted bride, and then your wife, Will be a debt that shall be hourly paid, Till time my duty cancel with my life.

48 'And fruitfully, if heaven e'er make me bring Your image to the world, you then my pride No more shall blame than you can tax the spring For boasting of those flowers she cannot hide.

49 'Orgo I so receive as I am taught By duty to esteem whate'er you love; And hope the joy he in this jewel brought Will luckier than his former triumphs prove.

50 'For though but twice he has approached my sight, He twice made haste to drown me in my tears: But now I am above his planet's spite, And as for sin beg pardon for my fears.'

51 Thus spake she: and with fixed, continued sight The Duke did all her bashful beauties view; Then they with kisses sealed their sacred plight, Like flowers, still sweeter as they thicker grew.

52 Yet must these pleasures feel, though innocent, The sickness of extremes, and cannot last; For power, love's shunned impediment, has sent To tell the Duke his monarch is in haste:

53 And calls him to that triumph which he fears So as a saint forgiven, whose breast does all Heaven's joys contain, wisely loved pomp forbears, Lest tempted nature should from blessings fall.

54 He often takes his leave, with love's delay, And bids her hope he with the King shall find, By now appearing forward to obey, A means to serve him less in Rhodalind.

55 She weeping to her closet window hies, Where she with tears doth Rhodalind survey; As dying men, who grieve that they have eyes, When they through curtains spy the rising day.

DR HENRY KING.

Of this poetical divine we know nothing, except that he was born in 1591, and died in 1669,--that he was chaplain to James I., and Bishop of Chichester,--and that he indited some poetry as pious in design as it is pretty in execution.

SIC VITA.

Like to the falling of a star, Or as the flights of eagles are; Or like the fresh spring's gaudy hue, Or silver drops of morning dew; Or like a wind that chafes the flood, Or bubbles which on water stood: Even such is man, whose borrowed light Is straight called in, and paid to-night.

The wind blows out, the bubble dies; The spring entombed in autumn lies; The dew dries up, the star is shot: The flight is past--and man forgot.

SONG.

1 Dry those fair, those crystal eyes, Which like growing fountains rise To drown their banks! Grief's sullen brooks Would better flow in furrowed looks: Thy lovely face was never meant To be the sh.o.r.e of discontent.

2 Then clear those waterish stars again, Which else portend a lasting rain; Lest the clouds which settle there Prolong my winter all the year, And thy example others make In love with sorrow, for thy sake.

LIFE.

1 What is the existence of man's life But open war or slumbered strife?

Where sickness to his sense presents The combat of the elements, And never feels a perfect peace Till death's cold hand signs his release.

2 It is a storm--where the hot blood Outvies in rage the boiling flood: And each loud pa.s.sion of the mind Is like a furious gust of wind, Which beats the bark with many a wave, Till he casts anchor in the grave.

3 It is a flower--which buds, and grows, And withers as the leaves disclose; Whose spring and fall faint seasons keep, Like fits of waking before sleep, Then shrinks into that fatal mould Where its first being was enrolled.

4 It is a dream--whose seeming truth Is moralised in age and youth; Where all the comforts he can share As wandering as his fancies are, Till in a mist of dark decay The dreamer vanish quite away.

5 It is a dial--which points out The sunset as it moves about; And shadows out in lines of night The subtle stages of Time's flight, Till all-obscuring earth hath laid His body in perpetual shade.

6 It is a weary interlude-- Which doth short joys, long woes, include: The world the stage, the prologue tears; The acts vain hopes and varied fears; The scene shuts up with loss of breath, And leaves no epilogue but Death!

JOHN CHALKHILL.

This author was of the age of Spenser, and is said to have been an acquaintance and friend of that poet. It was not, however, till 1683 that good old Izaak Walton published 'Thealma and Clearchus,' a pas- toral romance, which, he stated, had been written long since by John Chalkhill, Esq. He says of the author, 'that he was in his time a man generally known, and as well beloved; for he was humble and obliging in his behaviour--a gentleman, a scholar, very innocent and prudent, and indeed his whole life was useful, quiet, and virtuous.' Some have suspected that this production proceeded from the pen of Walton himself.

This, however, is rendered extremely unlikely--first, by the fact that Walton, when he printed 'Thealma,' was ninety years of age; and, secondly, by the difference in style and purpose between that poem and Walton's avowed productions. The mind of Walton was quietly ingenious; that of the author of 'Thealma' is adventurous and fantastic. Walton loved 'the green pastures and the still waters' of the Present; the other, the golden groves and ideal wildernesses of the Golden Age in the Past.

'Thealma and Clearchus' may be called an 'Arcadia' in rhyme. It resembles that work of Sir Philip Sidney, not only in subject, but in execution. Its plot is dark and puzzling, its descriptions are rich to luxuriance, its narrative is tedious, and its characters are mere shadows. But although a dream, it is a dream of genius, and brings beautifully before our imagination that early period in the world's history, in which poets and painters have taught us to believe, when the heavens were nearer, the skies clearer, the fat of the earth richer, the foam of the sea brighter, than in our degenerate days;--when shepherds, reposing under broad, umbrageous oaks, saw, or thought they saw, in the groves the shadow of angels, and on the mountain-summits the descending footsteps of G.o.d. Chalkhill resembles, of all our modern poets, perhaps Sh.e.l.ley most, in the ideality of his conception, the enthusiasm of his spirit, and the unmitigated gorgeousness of his imagination.

ARCADIA.

Arcadia, was of old, a state, Subject to none but their own laws and fate; Superior there was none, but what old age And h.o.a.ry hairs had raised; the wise and sage, Whose gravity, when they are rich in years, Begat a civil reverence more than fears In the well-mannered people; at that day, All was in common, every man bare sway O'er his own family; the jars that rose Were soon appeased by such grave men as those: This mine and thine, that we so cavil for, Was then not heard of; he that was most poor Was rich in his content, and lived as free As they whose flocks were greatest; nor did he Envy his great abundance, nor the other Disdain the low condition of his brother, But lent him from his store to mend his state, And with his love he quits him, thanks his fate; And, taught by his example, seeks out such As want his help, that they may do as much.

Their laws, e'en from their childhood, rich and poor Had written in their hearts, by conning o'er The legacies of good old men, whose memories Outlive their monuments, the grave advice They left behind in writing;--this was that That made Arcadia then so blest a state; Their wholesome laws had linked them so in one, They lived in peace and sweet communion.