It never through my mind had past
The time would e'er be o'er,

And I on thee should look my last,
And thou shouldst smile no more!

And still upon that face I look,

And think 'twill smile again;

And still the thought I will not brook
That I must look in vain !

But when I speak-thou dost not say,
What thou ne'er left'st unsaid;
And now I feel, as well I may,

Sweet Mary! thou art dead!

If thou wouldst stay, e'en as thou art,
All cold and all serene-

I still might press thy silent heart,

And where thy smiles have been!
While e'en thy chill, bleak corse I have,
Thou seemest still mine own;
But there I lay thee in thy grave—
And I am now alone!

I do not think, where'er thou art,
Thou hast forgotten me;

And I, perhaps, may soothe this heart,
In thinking too of thee:

Yet there was round thee such a dawn
Of light ne'er seen before,

As fancy never could have drawn,

And never can restore!

CCCI

C. Wolfe

THE TROSACHS

There's not a nook within this solemn Pass,

But were an apt confessional for One

Taught by his summer spent, his autumn gone,

That Life is but a tale of morning grass

Wither'd at eve. From scenes of art which chase

That thought away, turn, and with watchful eyes
Feed it 'mid Nature's old felicities,

Rocks, rivers, and smooth lakes more clear than glass

Untouch'd, unbreathed-upon :-Thrice happy quest,
If from a golden perch of aspen spray
(October's workmanship to rival May),
The pensive warbler of the ruddy breast
That moral sweeten by a heaven-taught lay,
Lulling the year, with all its cares, to rest!

W. Wordsworth

End of the Golden Treasury

NOTES

(1861-1884)

Summary of Book First

THE Elizabethan Poetry, as it is rather vaguely termed, forms the substance of this Book, which contains pieces from Wyat under Henry VIII to Shakespeare midway through the reign of James I, and Drummond who carried on the early manner to a still later period. There is here a wide range of style ;from simplicity expressed in a language hardly yet broken-in to verse, through the pastoral fancies and Italian conceits of the strictly Elizabethan time,-to the passionate reality of Shakespeare: yet a general uniformity of tone prevails. Few readers can fail to observe the natural sweetness of the verse, the single-hearted straightforwardness of the thoughts:-nor less, the limitation of subject to the many phases of one passion, which then characterized our lyrical poetry,-unless when, as in especial with Shakespeare, the 'purple light of Love is tempered by a spirit of sterner reflection.

Great

It should be observed that this and the following Summaries apply in the main to the Collection here presented, in which (besides its restriction to Lyrical Poetry) a strictly representative or historical Anthology has not been aimed at. Excellence, in human art as in human character, has from the beginning of things been even more uniform than Mediocrity, by virtue of the closeness of its approach to Nature :-and so far as the standard of Excellence kept in view has been attained in this volume, a comparative absence of extreme or temporary phases in style, a similarity of tone and manner, will be found throughout :-something neither modern nor ancient, but true in all ages, and like the works of Creation, perfect as on the first day.

PAGE NO.

1

2

2

11 Rouse Memnon's mother: Awaken the Dawn from the
dark Earth and the clouds where she is resting.
This is one of that limited class of early mythes which
may be reasonably interpreted as representations of
natural phenomena. Aurora in the old mythology is
mother of Memnon (the East), and wife of Tithonus
(the appearances of Earth and Sky during the last hours
of Night). She leaves him every morning in renewed
youth, to prepare the way for Phoebus (the Sun), whilst
Tithonus remains in perpetual old age and grayness.
1. 23 by Peneus' stream: Phoebus loved the Nymph
Daphne whom he met by the river Peneus in the vale of
Tempe.

II 1. 27 Amphion's lyre: He was said to have built the walls of Thebes to the sound of his music.

10 XVI

1. 35 Night like a drunkard reels: Compare Romeo and
Juliet, Act II, Scene 3: The grey-eyed morn smiles'
&c.-It should be added that three lines, which ap-
peared hopelessly misprinted, have been omitted in
this Poem.

Time's chest in which he is figuratively supposed
to lay up past treasures. So in Troilus, Act III,
Scene 3, Time hath a wallet at his back' &c. In the
Arcadia, chest is used to signify tomb.

A fine example of the highwrought and conventional
Elizabethan Pastoralism, which it would be unreason-
able to criticize on the ground of the unshepherdlike
or unreal character of some images suggested. Stanza
6 was perhaps inserted by Izaak Walton.

This Poem, with xxv and XCIV, is taken from
Davison's Rhapsody,' first published in 1602. One
stanza has been here omitted, in accordance with the
principle noticed in the Preface. Similar omissions
occur in XLV, LXXXVII, C, CXXVIII, CLX, CLXV, CCXXVII,
CCXCII, CCXCIV, CCXCV. The more serious abbrevia-
tion by which it has been attempted to bring
Crashaw's Wishes' and Shelley's' Euganean Hills
within the limits of stricter lyrical unity, is com-
mended with much diffidence to the judgment of
readers acquainted with the original pieces.
This charming little poem, truly old and plain, and
dallying with the innocence of love' like that spoken
of in Twelfth Night, is taken, with v, XVII, XX, XXXIV,
and XL, from the most characteristic collection of
Elizabeth's reign, 'England's Helicon,' first published
in 1600.

·

Readers who have visited Italy will be reminded of
more than one picture by this gorgeous Vision of
Beauty, equally sublime and pure in its Paradisaical
naturalness. Lodge wrote it on a voyage to the
Islands of Terceras and the Canaries;' and he seems
to have caught, in those southern seas, no small
portion of the qualities which marked the almost
contemporary Art of Venice, -the glory and the glow
of Veronese, or Titian, or Tintoret, when he most
resembles Titian, and all but surpasses him.
The clear (1. 1) is the crystalline or outermost heaven
of the old cosmography. For a fair there's fairer
none: If you desire a Beauty, there is none more
beautiful than Rosaline.

12 XVIII that fair thou owest: that beauty thou ownest.
15 XXIII the star Whose worth's unknown, although his height
be taken apparently, Whose stellar influence is
uncalculated, although his angular altitude from the
plane of the astrolabe or artificial horizon used by
astrologers has been determined.

XXIV This lovely song appears, as here given, in Puttenham's 'Arte of English Poesie,' 1589. A longer and inferior

*

PAGE NO.

17 XXVII 18 XXIX

19 XXXI

form was published in the 'Arcadia' of 1590: but
Puttenham's prefatory words clearly assign his
version to Sidney's own authorship.
keel skim.
expense: loss.

Nativity once in the main of light: when a star has
risen and entered on the full stream of light;-an-
other of the astrological phrases no longer familiar.
Crooked eclipses: as coming athwart the Sun's
apparent course.

Wordsworth, thinking probably of the 'Venus' and the Lucrece,' said finely of Shakespeare: 'Shakespeare could not have written an Epic; he would have died of plethora of thought.' This prodigality of nature is exemplified equally in his Sonnets. The copious selection here given (which from the wealth of the inaterial, required greater consideration than any other portion of the Editor's task), -contains many that will not be fully felt and understood without some earnestness of thought on the reader's part. But he is not likely to regret the labour.

upon misprision growing: either, granted in error, or, on the growth of contempt.

XXXII With the tone of this Sonnet compare Hamlet's 'Give me that man That is not passion's slave' &c. Shakespeare's writings show the deepest sensitiveness to passion :-hence the attraction he felt in the contrasting effects of apathy.

20 XXXIII grame: sorrow. Renaissance influences long impeded the return of English poets to the charming realism of this and a few other poems by Wyat.

21 XXXIV Pandion in the ancient fable was father to Philomela. 23 XXXVIII ramage: confused noise.

- XXXIX censures: judges.

24 XL

25 XLI 26 XLIV

Judging by its style, this beautiful example of old simplicity and feeling may, perhaps, be referred to the earlier years of Elizabeth. Late forgot: lately. haggards the least tameable hawks.

cypres or cyprus, -used by the old writers for crape; whether from the French crespe or from the Island. Its accidental similarity in spelling to cypress has, here and in Milton's Penseroso, probably confused leaders.

28 XLVI, XLVII'I never saw anything like this funeral dirge,' says Charles Lamb, except the ditty which reminds Ferdinand of his drowned father in the Tempest. As that is of the water, watery; so this is of the earth, earthy. Both have that intenseness of feeling, which seems to resolve itself into the element which it contemplates.'

80 LI 81 LIII

crystal fairness.

This

Spousal Verse' was written in honour of the Ladies Elizabeth and Katherine Somerset. Nowhere

Y