OF THIS GARDEN OF THE MUSES

THOU which delight'st to view this goodly plot,
Here take such flowres as best shal serve thy use,
Where thou maist find in every curious knot,
Of speciall vertue, and most precious juyce,
Set by Apollo in their severall places,

And nourished with his celestiall Beames,
And watered by the Muses and the Graces,

With the fresh dew of those Castalian streames.

What sente or colour canst thou but devise

That is not here, that may delight the sense?

Or what can Art or Industry comprize,

That in aboundance is not gather'd hence?
No Garden yet was ever halfe so sweet
As where Apollo and the Muses meet.

Belvedére; or, The Garden
of the Muses, 1600.

'UPON A DAY APOLLO MET THE MUSES AND THE GRACES IN SWEET SPORT MIXED WITH EARNEST. MEMORY, THE GRAVE AND NOBLE MOTHER OF THE MUSES, WAS PRESENT LIKEWISE. EACH OF THE FOURTEEN SPOKE A LINE OF VERSE. APOLLO BEGAN; THEN EACH OF THE NINE MUSES 6 SANG HER PART; THEN THE THREE GRACES WARBLED EACH " IN TURN; AND FINALLY, A LOW, SWEET STRAIN FROM MEMORY MADE A HARMONIOUS CLOSE. THIS WAS THE FIRST 'SONNET; AND, MINDFUL OF ITS ORIGIN, ALL TRUE POETS TAKE CARE TO BID APOLLO STRIKE THE KEYNOTE FOR THEM WHEN THEY COMPOSE ONE, AND TO LET MEMORY COMPRESS THE PITH AND MARROW OF THE SONNET INTO ITS LAST 6 LINE.'-A Talk about Sonnets.