Both by the judgement of the English eyes
And of some sent from that sweet enemy, France,
Horsemen my skill in horsemanship advance;
Townsfolks my strength; a daintier judge applies
His praise to sleight, which from good use doth rise:
Some lucky wits impute it but to chance;

Others, because of both sides I do take
My blood from them who did excel in this,
Think nature me a man of arms did make.
How far they shot awry! The true Cause is
Stella looked on; and from her heavenly face
Sent forth the beams which made so fair my race.

DEATH AN ORDINANCE OF NATURE AND THEREFORE

GOOD

(Shakespearean form)

Since Nature's works be good and death doth serve
As Nature's work, why should we fear to die?
Since fear is vain but where it may preserve,
Why should we fear that which we cannot fly?
Fear is more pain than is the pain it fears,
Disarming native minds of human might,
While each conceit and ugly figure bears,
Which were not evil, viewed in reason's light.
Our owly eyes which dimmed with passions be,
And scarce discern the dawn of coming day,
Let them be cleared, and now begin to see
Our life is but a step in dusty way.

Then let us hold the bliss of peaceful mind;
Since this we feel, great loss we cannot find.

Come Sleep: O Sleep: the certain knot of peace,
The baiting place of wit, the balm of woe,
The poor man's wealth, the prisoner's release,
The indifferent judge between the high and low;

Sir Walter

1552-1618.

With shield of proof shield me from out the prease
Of those fierce darts, Despair at me doth throw:
O make in me those civil wars to cease,

I will good tribute pay, if thou do so.

Take thou of me smooth pillows, sweetest bed
A chamber deaf to noise, and blind to light,
A rosy garland and a weary head;

And if these things as being thine by right,
Move not thy heavy grace, thou shalt, in me
Livelier than elsewhere, Stella's image see.

- Astrophel and Stella, No. XXXIX.

Sir Walter Raleigh may be mentioned with Sir Philip Sidney as a representative man of the period. Of a less refined and chivalric type than Sidney, Raleigh, he illustrates the spirit of the age by his unbounded vigor and energy of life. He is also interesting to us because he made the first attempt to colonize Virginia. He was a man of bold and adventurous spirit, but lacked some of the prudence necessary to the great captain. His connection with literature is but slight. He was a friend of Spenser, who, in a prefatory letter to the "Faerie Queene" addressed to Raleigh, explains his "whole intention in the course of this work." He was imprisoned by James I. for twelve years in the Tower, and wrote in collaboration with others a "History of the World" in which are some fine prose passages, notably the well-known apostrophe to Death. He was finally beheaded by the contemptible king for having exceeded his powers in an unsuccessful expedition to the Orinoco River. He wrote some verse, but his chief claim to the gratitude of posterity is the introduction in England of the use of the potato and of tobacco. Marlowe's pretty little pastoral song is appended, and Raleigh's answer to it shows that the daring adventurer possessed "a pretty wit.'

JOHNSON'S LIT. -8

THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE

(MARLOWE)

Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That valleys, groves, and hills and fields
Woods or steepy mountains yields.

And we will sit upon

the rocks,

Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

And I will make thee beds of roses,
And a thousand fragrant posies;
A cap of flowers and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle.

A gown made of the finest wool,
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold.

A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasp and amber studs;
And if these pleasures may thee move
Come live with me and be my love.

The shepherd swains shall dance and sing,
For thy delight each May morning;

If these delights thy mind may move,

Then live with me and be my love.

THE NYMPH'S REPLY TO THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD

(RALEIGH)

If all the world and love were young,
And truth in every shepherd's tongue,
These pretty pleasures might me move
To live with thee and be thy love.

Time drives the flocks from field to fold,
When rivers rage and rocks grow cold,
And Philomel becometh dumb,
The rest complain of cares to come.

The flowers do fade and wanton fields
To wayward winter reckoning yields;
A honey tongue but heart of gall
Is fancy's spring, but sorrows fall.

Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses,
Thy cap, thy kirtle and thy posies,
Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten
In folly ripe, in reason rotten.

Thy belt of straw and ivy buds,
Thy coral clasp and amber studs;

All these in me no means can move

To come to thee and be thy love.

But could youth last, and love still breed,

Had joys no date, nor age no need,

Then these delights my mind might move
To live with thee and be thy love.

Raleigh's last letter to his wife shows at once the courageous spirit and the warm-hearted, affectionate nature of Elizabethan men. It is almost a profanation to cite such a personal letter in a text-book, yet it will help us not only to form an idea of the familiar prose style of the period, but to see what manner of men our ancestors were.

"You shall receive, my dear wife, my last words in these my last lines; my love I send you that you may keep when I am dead, and my counsel that you may remember it when I am no more. I would not with my will present you sorrows, my dear Bess; let them go to the grave with me, and be buried in the dust. And seeing that it is not the will of God that I shall see you any more, bear my destruction patiently and with a heart like yourself.

"First I send you all the thanks which my heart can conceive or my words express for your many travails and cares for me, which

though they may not have taken effect as you wished, yet my debt to you is not the less; but pay it I never shall in this world.

66

'Secondly, I beseech you, for the love you bear me living, that you do not hide yourself many days, but by your travails seek to help my miserable fortunes and the right of your poor child, your mourning cannot avail me that am but dust. . .

66

...

Paylie oweth me a thousand pounds and Aryan six hundred; in Jersey also I have much owing me. Dear wife I beseech you for my soul's sake pay all poor men. When I am dead, no doubt you shall be much sought for, for the world thinks I was very rich; have a care to the fair pretences of men; for no greater misery can befall you in this life than to become a prey unto the world, and after to be despised. I speak, God knows, not to dissuade you from marriage, for it will be best for you, both in respect of God and of the world. As for me I am no more yours nor you mine; death hath cut us asunder, and God hath divided me from the world and you from me. Remember your poor child for his father's sake, who loved you in his happiest estate. I sued for my life, but God knows it was for you and yours I desired it, for know it my dear wife your child is the child of a true man who in his own respect despiseth death and his mis-shapen and ugly forms. I cannot write much (God knows how hardly I steal this time when all sleep) and it is also time for me to separate my thoughts from the world. Beg my dead body which living was denied you, and either lay it in Sherburn or Exeter Church by my father and mother. I can say no more, time and death calleth me away. The Everlasting God, powerful, infinite, and inscrutable God Almighty, who is goodness itself, the true light and life, keep you and yours, and have mercy upon me, and forgive my persecutors and false accusers, and send us to meet in his glorious kingdom. My dear wife, farewell; bless my boy, pray for me, and let my true God hold you both in his arms."

Philosophical writings contribute markedly to form the mental tone of an age. They are at once cause and effect; that is, they lead men to believe in certain general principles, and they express views of life and of the constitution of things which are held by the ablest and most thoughtful men of the time.

Francis
Bacon,

1561-1626.