LOVE VERSES, BY THE MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. Sometimes the jargon of the different governments of the day, and sometimes the technical phrases of warfare, are made strange use of in these verses; yet some of the lines are so noble, and many so original, that we forgive this soldierly mode of wooing in favour of its frankness. It is to be presumed the lady did the same. My dear and only love, I pray This noble world of thee, Which virtuous souls abhor, Like Alexander I will reign, My thoughts shall evermore disdain A rival on my throne. He either fears his fate too much, Or his desert's too small, That puts it not unto the touch To win or lose it all. But I must rule and govern still, And always give the law, And all to stand in awe. But 'gainst my battery if I find Or in the empire of thy heart, And dares to vie with me; But if thou wilt be constant then, I'll serve thee in such noble ways Was never heard before, I'll crown and deck thee all with bays, And love thee evermore. Could it be in woman to resist such promises from such a man? PART SECOND. My dear and only love, take heed Lest thou thyself expose, And let all longing lovers feed Upon such looks as those; A marble wall, then, build about, But, if thou let thy heart fly out, Let not their oaths, like volleys shot, Nor smoothness of their language plot The shrine which I adore, For if such smoke about thee fume, I think thy virtues be too strong Which victuall'd by my love so long, The siege at length must rise, But if by fraud or by consent Nor march by beat of drum; And bitterly will sigh and weep, And never love thee more. I'll do with thee as Nero did But to a hill retire; And scorn to shed a tear to see Yet for the love I bare thee once, My case, and read the reason why I can love thee no more. The golden laws of love shall be A true and constant tongue. My heart shall with the sun be fix'd And thine shall with the moon be mix'd, Delighting still in change. Thy beauty shined at first most bright, That ever I found thy love so light, Verses written by the Marquis of Montrose with the point of a diamond upon the glass window of his prison, after receiving his sentence. Let them bestow on every airth a limb; Lord! since Thou know'st where all those atoms are, And confident Thou'lt raise me with the Just. They who would follow the great Marquis to the last should read the fine ballad called "The Execution of Montrose," in Professor Aytoun's charming volume "The Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers." |