ROBERT GOMERSALL, Was born in 1600, and sent to Christ Church, Oxford, 1614, where he was afterwards made a student. Having taken orders, he became a celebrated preacher, and published several sermons. (Vide Wood's Ath. Vol. I. p. 598.) He wrote "the Levite's Revenge, containing Poetical Medita❝tions upon the 19th and 20th chapters of Judges" (a sort of heroic poem), 1628: the "Tragedy of Sforza,” and a few poems, 1633. SONG. [From Sforza.] How I laugh at their fond wish Whose desire Aims no higher Than the baits of Midas' dish! What is gold but yellow dirt? Which th' unkind Heavens refin'd When they made us love our hurt. Would to heaven that I might steep My faint eyes In the wise, In the gentle dew of sleep! Whose effects do pose us so, That we deem It does seem Both death's brother and his foe. This does always with us keep; And, being dead, That's not fled: [Abridged from 60 lines.] How we dally out our days! Never was there morning yet (Sweet as is the violet) Which man's folly did not soon Nay, the young ones in the nest But suppose that he is heard, Sooner shall the wandering star Leave his motion and stand still. Be it joy, or be it sorrow, We refer all to the morrow; That, we think, will ease our pain; That, we do suppose again Will increase our joy and so Events, the which we cannot know, We magnify, and are (in sum) Enamour'd of the time to come. Well, the next day comes, and then And, at last, of life bereav'd, SIR KENELM DIGBY. This celebrated English philosopher, whose life is to be found in all our Biographical Dictionaries, was born in 1603, and died in 1665. His works are carefully enumerated by Wood, (Ath. Vol. II. p. 351) who calls him the "magazine of all arts." The poem from which the following lines are extracted, is attributed to him in a miscellany called "Wit's Interpreter," 1671. FAME, honour, beauty, state, trains, blood and birth, Are but the fading blossoms of the earth. I would be great; but that the sun doth still I would be high; but see the proudest oak |