SONG.

SOMNUS, the humble god that dwells
In cottages and smoky cells,

Hates gilded roofs, and beds of down;
And, though he fears no prince's frown,
Flies from the circle of a crown.
Come, I say, thou powerful god,
And thy leaden charming rod,
Dipp'd in the Lethean lake,
O'er his wakeful temples shake,

Lest he should sleep, and never wake.

Nature, alas! why art thou so

Obliged to thy greatest foe?
Sleep, that is thy best repast,

Yet of death it bears a taste,
And both are the same thing at last.

JOHN TATHAM

Appears to have been one of the city poets, and was the author of four plays; of" Fancy's Theatre," a volume of poems, printed in 1640; and of "Ostella, or the Faction "of Love and Beauty reconciled," London, 1650, 4to. a very scarce volume, though not otherwise valuable. The following specimen, taken from the latter collection, is very near being elegant.

THE SWALLOW.

MARK, Ostella, when the spring
Hath dissolv'd the frosty king,
And re-seats herself on earth,
Giving flowers and plants a birth;
When the glorious sun doth shine
Full of heat, as do thy eyn;

Then, oh then, to us will come,

To our cottage, to our home,
An amorous guest, who will salute
You from the chimney-top, with flute-
like notes, when you least need the same:
To sing to you 'twill be on flame!

But, when the tedious winter's night Comes on, that wants both heat and light, And that his pretty music may

With pleasure pass the time away,

Which else perhaps might sadness bringYour guest is hoarse, and cannot sing.

Acquaintance so leaves man in misery
Who did adore him in prosperity.

SIR EDWARD SHERBURNE.

This learned translator was born in 1618, and was constant to the royal cause during the reign of Charles I. in whose armies he held the post of commissary-general of artillery. From March 1654, till October 1659, he travelled abroad with his pupil, Sir John Coventry. As a reward for his loyalty he was knighted by Charles II. in 1682: but suffered inconvenience on James II.'s abdication. His "Poems "and Translations, amorous, lusory, moral, and divine," printed in 1651, 12mo. exhibit marks of considerable genius, which, however, is not sufficiently regulated by judgment. He translated three tragedies from Seneca, viz. Medea, Troades, and Phædra and Hippolitus, and the philosophical poem of Manilius, with notes, 1675, folio. The poet Stanley was his friend and kinsman.

ICE AND FIRE.

NAKED love did to thine eye,
Chloris, once, to warm him, fly:
But its subtle flame and light
Scorch'd his wings, and spoil'd his sight.

Forc'd from thence, he went to rest
In the soft couch of thy breast:

But there met a frost so great,
As his torch extinguish'd straight.

When poor Cupid thus (constrain'd His cold bed to leave) complain'd "Alas! what lodging's here for me, "If all ice and fire she be ?"

THE SURPRISE.

THERE'S no dallying with love, Though he be a child, and blind; Then let none the danger prove, Who would to himself be kind: Smile he does when thou dost play, But his smiles to death betray.

Lately with the boy I sported; Love I did not, yet love feign'd; Had no mistress, yet I courted;

Sigh I did, yet was not pain'd: 'Till at last this love in jest Prov'd in earnest my unrest.

When I saw my fair-one first,

In a feigned fire I burn'd;