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

A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs :
And if these pleasures may thee move,1
Come live with me and be my Love.

Thy silver dishes for thy meat
As precious as the gods do eat,
Shall on an ivory table be
Prepared each day for thee and me.

The shepherd swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Come live with me and be my Love.

Christopher Marlowe: 1564-1593.

The son of a shoemaker at Canterbury, Marlowe received his first schooling in that city, and afterwards went to Bene't (now Corpus Christi) College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1583. By his genius and work as a dramatist he takes rank as the greatest of Shakspere's precursors. His principal dramas are Faustus and King Edward II.

THE SHEPHERD'S HOME.

My banks they are furnished with bees
Whose murmur invites one to sleep;
My grottoes are shaded with trees,

And my hills are white over with sheep.
I seldom have met with a loss,

Such health do my fountains bestow;
My fountains all bordered with moss,
Where the harebells and violets blow.

1 move--persuade. (See page 17.)

Not a pine in the grove is there seen,
But with tendrils of woodbine is bound;
Not a beech's more beautiful green,

But a sweet-briar entwines it around.
Not my fields in the prime of the year,
More charms than my cattle unfold;
Not a brook that is limpid and clear,
But it glitters with fishes of gold.

I have found out a gift for my fair,

I have found where the wood-pigeons breed ;
But let me such plunder forbear,

She will say 'twas a barbarous deed;
For he ne'er could be true, she averred,
Who would rob a poor bird of its young;
And I loved her the more when I heard
Such tenderness fall from her tongue.

William Shenstone: 1714-1763.

Born at Hales-Owen, Shropshire, and educated at Pembroke College, Oxford. On coming into possession of the family estate in 1745, Shenstone began to lay out his grounds afresh and to beautify them, and grew so enthusiastic upon landscape-gardening that he devoted his whole life to it. Leasowes became noted for its charming walks, its arbours, and other embellishments: but Shenstone was much impoverished by his expenditure in these pursuits and obliged to live in strict seclusion. He spent his leisure in desultory literary work.

CONTENTMENT.

HAPPY the man whose wish and care

A few paternal acres bound,

Content to breathe his native air

In his own ground.

Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread,
Whose flocks supply him with attire ;
Whose trees in summer yield him shadę,
In winter fire,

Blest who can unconcern'dly find

Hours, days, and years slide soft away,
In health of body, peace of mind,
Quiet by day,

Sound sleep by night: study and ease
Together mix'd sweet recreation,
And innocence, which most does please
With meditation.

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;
Thus unlamented let me die,
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lie.

Alexander Pope: 1688-1744.

These verses were written by Pope in his twelfth year, and he became known as a poet at a very early age. His chief works are the Rape of the Lock, Essay on Man, and translations of the Iliad and Odyssey. Pope's verse is polished and elegant: he was the poet of society and fashion: his whole work may be briefly described as artificial. Pope lived at Twickenham on the banks of the Thames, and devoted much of his leisure to the embellishment of his grounds, being, like Shenstone (page 125), very fond of landscape-gardening.

A WISH.

MINE be a cot beside the hill;

A beehive's hum shall soothe my ear;
A willowy brook that turns a mill,
With many a fall, shall linger near.

The swallow, oft, beneath my thatch
Shall twitter from her clay-built nest;

Oft shall the pilgrim lift the latch,

And share my meal, a welcome guest.

1

Around my ivied porch shall spring

Each fragrant flower that drinks the dew;
And Lucy, at her wheel, shall sing

In russet gown and apron blue.

The village church among the trees,
Where first our marriage-vows were given,
With merry peal shall swell the breeze

And point with taper spire to Heaven.

Samuel Rogers: 1763-1855.

Mr. Rogers was a London banker-a traveller and a scholar— a lover and liberal patron of literature and art. Delicate taste, careful finish, and love for the good and beautiful, are the characteristics of his writings. His chief works are Pleasures of Memory, Italy, and Human Life.

TO-MORROW.

'IN the downhill of life, when I find I'm declining,
May my lot no less fortunate be

Than a snug elbow-chair can afford for reclining,
And a cot that o'erlooks the wide sea;

With an ambling pad-pony to pace o'er the lawn,
While I carol away idle sorrow,

And, blithe as the lark that each day hails the dawn,
Look forward with hope for to-morrow.

With a porch at my door both for shelter and shade too, As the sunshine or rain may prevail;

And a small spot of ground for the use of the spade too, With a barn for the use of the flail :

A cow for my dairy, a dog for my game,

And a purse when a friend wants to borrow;

I'll envy no nabob his riches or fame,

Nor what honours await him to-morrow.

From the bleak northern blast may my cot be completely Secured by a neighbouring hill;

And at night may repose steal upon me more sweetly By the sound of a murmuring rill:

And while peace and plenty I find at my board,
With a heart free from sickness and sorrow,
With my friends may I share what to-day may afford,
And let them spread the table to-morrow.

And when I at last must throw off this frail covering
Which I've worn for three-score years and ten,
On the brink of the grave I'll not seek to keep hovering,
Nor my thread wish to spin o'er again :

But my face in the glass I'll serenely survey,

And with smiles count each wrinkle and furrow; As this old worn-out stuff, which is threadbare to-day, May become everlasting to-morrow.

John Collins: died, 1808.

There are a few instances in literature of fame established by a solitary achievement in song. Such is the case with regard to Knowles (page 10), -Wolfe, author of The Burial of Sir John Moore, and also with the author of To-morrow, of whom little is known except that he was one of the proprietors of the Birmingham Daily Chronicle.

MY NATIVE VALE.

DEAR is my little native vale,

The ring-dove builds and murmurs there;
Close to my cot she tells her tale,

To ev'ry passing villager.

The squirrel leaps from tree to tree,

And shells his nuts at liberty.

In orange groves and myrtle bowers,

That breathe a gale of fragrance round,

I charm the fairy-footed hours,

With my loved lute's 1 romantic sound;
Or crowns of living laurel weave,
For those that win the race at eve.

1 lute
-a stringed instrument of music, like a guitar.