Great or good, or kind or fair,
I will never more despair;
If she love me, this believe,
I will die ere she shall grieve;
If she slight me when I woo,
I can scorn and let her go;
For if she be not for me,

What care I for whom she be?

George Wither.

8

TRUE BEAUTY

HE that loves a rosy cheek,
Or a coral lip admires,

Or from star-like eyes doth seek
Fuel to maintain his fires;
As old Time makes these decay,
So his flames must waste away.

But a smooth and steadfast mind,
Gentle thoughts and calm desires,
Hearts with equal love combined,
Kindle never dying fires.-
Where these are not, I despise
Lovely cheeks, or lips, or eyes.

Thomas Carew.

9

THE COUNTRY LIFE

SWEET country life, to such unknown,
Whose lives are others', not their own,
But serving courts and cities, be
Less happy, less enjoying thee!
Thou never plough'st the ocean's foam
To seek and bring rough pepper home;

Nor to the Eastern Ind dost rove

To bring from thence the scorched clove;
Nor, with the loss of thy loved rest,
Bring'st home the ingot from the West.
No, thy ambition's master-piece
Flies no thought higher than a fleece ;
Or how to pay thy hinds, and clear
All scores, and so to end the year;
But walk'st about thine own dear bounds,
Not envying others' larger grounds;
For well thou know'st, 'tis not th' extent
Of land makes life, but sweet content.
When now the cock (the ploughman's horn)
Calls forth the lily-wristed morn;

Then to thy corn-fields thou dost go,
Which though well soiled, yet thou dost know
That the best compost for the lands
Is the wise master's feet and hands.
There at the plough thou find'st thy team,
With a hind whistling there to them,
And cheer'st them up, by singing how
The kingdom's portion is the plough.
This done, then to th' enamelled meads
Thou go'st; and as thy foot there treads,
Thou seest a present God-like
power
Imprinted in each herb and flower;

And smell'st the breath of great-eyed kine,
Sweet as the blossoms of the vine.

Here thou behold'st thy large sleek neat

Unto the dew-laps up in meat ;

And, as thou look'st, the wanton steer,
The heifer, cow, and ox draw near,
To make a pleasing pastime there.
These seen, thou go'st to view thy flocks
Of sheep, safe from the wolf and fox,
And find'st their bellies there as full
Of short sweet grass, as backs with wool;
And leav'st them, as they feed and fill,
A shepherd piping on a hill.

For sports, for pageantry, and plays,
Thou hast thy eves, and holydays;
On which the young men and maids meet,
To exercise their dancing feet:

Tripping the comely country Round,
With daffodils and daisies crowned.
Thy wakes, thy quintels, here thou hast,
Thy May-poles too with garlands graced ;
Thy morris-dance; thy Whitsun-ale;
Thy shearing-feast, which never fail ;
Thy harvest home; thy wassail bowl,
That's tossed up after fox-i'-th'-hole :
Thy mummeries; thy Twelve-tide kings
And queens; thy Christmas revellings:
Thy nut-brown mirth, thy russet wit,
And no man pays too dear for it.-
To these, thou hast thy times to go
And trace the hare i'th' treacherous snow;
Thy witty wiles to draw, and get
The lark into the trammel net;
Thou hast thy cockrood, and thy glade
To take the precious pheasant made;
Thy lime-twigs, snares, and pit-falls then
To catch the pilfering birds, not men,

-Oh happy life! if that their good
The husbandmen but understood !
Who all the day themselves do please,
And younglings, with such sports as these;
And lying down, have nought t' affright

Sweet Sleep, that makes more short the night.

Robert Herrick,

ΙΟ

TRUE FRIENDSHIP AND FALSE

As it fell upon a day

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 ;
Everything did banish moan,

Save the nightingale alone.
She, poor bird, as all forlorn,
Leaned her breast up-till a thorn,
And there sung the dolefull'st ditty,
That to hear it was great pity.
Fie, fie, fie,' now would she cry;
'Teru, teru!' by and by ;
That to hear her so complain,
Scarce I could from tears refrain
For her griefs, so lively shown,
Made me think upon mine own.
Ah, thought I, thou mourn'st in vain!
None takes pity on thy pain:

Senseless trees they cannot hear thee;
Ruthless beasts they will not cheer thee;

King Pandion he is dead;

All thy friends are lapped in lead;
All thy fellow birds do sing,

Careless of thy sorrowing.

Even so, poor bird, like thee,
None alive will pity me.

Whilst as fickle Fortune smiled,
Thou and I were both beguiled.
Every one that flatters thee

Is no friend in misery.

Words are easy, like the wind;
Faithful friends are hard to find.
Every man will be thy friend

Whilst thou hast wherewith to spend ;
But if store of crowns be scant,
No man will supply thy want,
If that one be prodigal,
Bountiful they will him call,
And with such-like flattering,
Pity but he were a king ;'-
But if Fortune once do frown,

Then farewell his great renown ;
They that fawned on him before
Use his company no more.
He that is thy friend indeed,
He will help thee in thy need :
If thou sorrow, he will weep;
If thou wake, he cannot sleep;
Thus of every grief in heart
He with thee doth bear a part.
These are certain signs to know
Faithful friend from flattering foe.

Richard Barnfield.

II

ADVICE TO A YOUNG MAN

(Hamlet.)

-THERE, my blessing with thee ! And these few precepts in thy memory

See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportioned thought his act.

Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatched, unfledged comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in,
Bear't that th' opposèd may beware of thee.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice:

Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,

But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy:
For the apparel oft proclaims the man,

And they in France of the best rank and station
Are of a most select and generous sheaf in that.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be;