The conception of the tale is admirable, and the narrative itself full of taste and beauty. Premising that the same device is employed by Whitney as by Alciat, we will first give almost a literal version from the 154th and 155th Emblems of the latter author (edition 1581),

"Wandering about was Death along with Cupid as companion,

With himself Death was bearing quivers; little Love his weapons; Together at an inn they lodged; one night together one bed they shared; Love was blind, and on this occasion Death also was blind. Unforeseeing the evil, one took the darts of the other,

Death the golden weapons,-those of bone the boy rashly seizes.
Hence an old man who ought now to be near upon Acheron,
Behold him loving,-and for his brow flower-fillets preparing.
But I, since Love smote me with the dart that was changed,
I am fainting, and their hand the fates upon me are laying.
Spare, O boy; spare, O Death, holding the ensigns victorious,-
Make me the lover, the old man make him sink beneath Acheron."
And carrying on the idea into the next Emblem (155),—
"Why, O Death, with thy wiles darest thou deceive Love the boy,
That thy weapons he should hurl, while he thinks them his own?"

Whitney's sportive tale, concerning death and love," possesses sufficient merit to be given in full (p. 132),—

"WHILE furious Mors, from place, to place did flie,

And here, and there, her fatall dartes did throwe:
At lengthe shee mette, with Cupid passing by,
Who likewise had, bene busie with his bowe:
Within one Inne, they bothe togeather stay'd,
And for one nighte, awaie theire shooting lay'd.

The morrowe next, they bothe awaie doe haste,
And eache by chaunce, the others quiuer takes :
The frozen dartes, on Cupiddes backe weare plac'd,
The fierie dartes, the leane virago shakes:

Whereby ensued, suche alteration straunge,

As all the worlde, did wonder at the chaunge.

For gallant youthes, whome Cupid thoughte to wounde,
Of loue, and life, did make an ende at once.
And aged men, whome deathe woulde bringe to grounde :
Beganne againe to loue, with sighes, and grones;

Thus natures lawes, this chaunce infringed soe:
That age did loue, and youthe to graue did goe.

Till at the laste, as Cupid drewe his bowe,
Before he shotte: a younglinge thus did crye,
Oh Venus sonne, thy dartes thou doste not knowe,
They pierce too deepe: for all thou hittes, doe die :
Oh spare our age, who honored thee of oulde,
Theise dartes are bone, take thou the dartes of goulde.

Which beinge saide, a while did Cupid staye,
And sawe, how youthe was almoste cleane extinct :
And age did doate, with garlandes freshe, and gaye,
And heades all balde, weare newe in wedlocke linckt :
Wherefore he shewed, this error vnto Mors,
Who miscontent, did chaunge againe perforce.

Yet so, as bothe some dartes awaie conuay'd,
Which weare not theirs: yet vnto neither knowne,
Some bonie dartes, in Cupiddes quiuer stay'd,
Some goulden dartes, had Mors amongst her owne.
Then, when wee see, vntimelie deathe appeare:

Or wanton age; it was this chaunce you heare."

For an interlude to our remarks on the "golden," we must mention that the pretty tale Concerning Death and Cupid was

attributed to Whitney by one of Shakespeare's contemporaries; and, if known to other literary men of the age, very reasonably may be supposed not unknown to the dramatist. Henry Peacham, in 1612, p. 172 of his Emblems, acknowledges that it was from Whitney that he derived his own tale,

"De Morte, et Cupidine."

EATH meeting once, with CVPID in an Inne,

"DE

Where roome was scant, togeither both they lay.
Both weariè, (for they roving both had beene,)
Now on the morrow when they should away,

CVPID Death's quiver at his back had throwne,
And DEATH tooke CVPIDS, thinking it his owne.

By this o're-sight, it shortly came to passe,
That young men died, who readie were to wed:

And age did revell with his bonny-lasse,
Composing girlonds for his hoarie head :

Invert not Nature, oh ye Powers twaine,

Giue CVPID'S dartes, and DEATH take thine againe.”

Whitney luxuriates in this epithet "golden;"-golden fleece, golden hour, golden pen, golden sentence, golden book, golden palm are found recorded in his pages. At p. 214 we have the lines,

"A Leaden sworde, within a goulden sheathe,

Is like a foole of natures finest moulde,
To whome, shee did her rarest giftes bequethe,
Or like a sheepe, within a fleece of goulde."

We may indeed regard Whitney as the prototype of Hood's world-famous "Miss Kilmansegg, with her golden leg,"

"And a pair of Golden Crutches."

(vol. i. p. 189.)

Shakespeare is scarcely more sparing in this respect than the Cheshire Emblematist; he mentions for us "golden tresses of the dead," "golden oars and a silver stream," "the glory, that in gold clasps locks in the golden story," "a golden casket," "a

golden bed," and "a golden mind." Merchant of Venice (act ii.

sc. 7, lines 20 and 58, vol. ii. p. 312),—

And applied direct to Cupid's artillery in Midsummer Night's Dream (act i. sc. 1, l. 168, vol. ii. p. 204), Hermia makes fine use of the epithet golden,

"My good Lysander !

I swear to thee by Cupid's strongest bow,

By his best arrow with the golden head."

So in Twelfth Night (act i. sc. 1, l. 33, vol. iii. p. 224), Orsino,
Duke of Milan, speaks of Olivia,--

"O, she that hath a heart of that fine frame
To pay the debt of love but to a brother,
How will she love, when the rich golden shaft
Hath kill'd the flock of all affections else

That live in her; when liver, brain and heart

These sovereign thrones, are all supplied, and fill'd

Her sweet perfections with one self king!"

And when Helen praised the complexion or comeliness of Troilus above that of Paris, Cressida avers (Troilus and Cressida, act i. sc. 2, l. 100, vol. vi. p. 134),—

"I had as lief Helen's golden tongue had commended Troilus for a copper nose."

As Whitney's pictorial illustration represents them, Death and Cupid are flying in mid-air, and discharging their arrows from the clouds. Confining the description to Cupid, this is exactly the action in one of the scenes of the Midsummer Night's Dream (act ii. sc. 1, 1. 155, vol. ii. p. 216). The passage was intended to flatter Queen Elizabeth; it is Oberon who speaks,

"That very time I saw, but thou couldst not,

Flying between the cold moon and the earth,

Theatrum vita humana,

THEATR VM V I

TA HV MAN E.

CAPVT I.

VITA HVMANA EST TANQUAM Theatrum omnium miferiarum.

Hoc lafciva caro peccatum,morfque,Satanque
Trift hominem vexant, exagitantque modo..

Life as a Theatre, from Boussards Theatrum 1596.