The night discharged of all care, Where wine the wit may not oppress. The faithful wife, without debate; Such sleeps as may beguile the night; Contented with thine own estate, Ne wish for death, ne fear his might. GIVE PLACE, YE LOVERS. GIVE place, ye lovers, here before That spent your boasts and brags in vain; My lady's beauty passeth more The best of yours, I dare well sayen, Than doth the sun the candlelight, Or brightest day the darkest night; And thereto hath a troth as just As had Penelope the fair; I could rehearse, if that I would, The whole effect of Nature's plaint, When she had lost the perfect mould, The like to whom she could not paint. With wringing hands, how did she cry! And what she said, I know aye. I know she swore, with raging mind, That could have gone so near her And this was chiefly all her pain, — Sith Nature thus gave her the praise On your behalf might well be sought, HOW NO AGE IS CONTENT WITH ITS OWN ESTATE. LAYD in my quiet bed in study as I were, I saw within my troubled head, a heap of thoughts appear, And every thought did shew so lyvely in myne eyes, That now I sight, and then I smilde, as cause of thoughts did ryse. I saw the little boy, in thought how oft that he Did wishe of God, to scape the rod, a tall young man to be, The young man eake that feles his bones with paines opprest How he would be a riche old man, to live and lye at rest; The riche olde man that sees his end draw on so sore, How he would be a boy againe to live so much the more. Whereat full oft I smylde, to see how all those three From boy to man, from man to boy, would chop and change degree. And musing thus, I think, the case is very strange, That man from wealth, to live in wo, doth ever seke to change. Thus thoughtfull as I lay, I sawe my withered skyn, How it doth shew my dented chewes, the flesh was worn so thin, And eke my tootheless chaps, the gates of my right way, That opes and shuttes, as I do speak, do thus unto me say: The white and horish heres, the messengers of age, That shew like lines of true belief, that this life doth assuage, Biddes thee lay hand, and feele them hanging on thy chin. The whiche doth write to ages past, the third now coming in; Hang up therefore the bitte, of thy yong wanton tyme, And thou that therein beaten art, the happiest life defyne. Whereat I sighed, and sayde, farewell my wonted toye, Trusse up thy packe, and trudge from me, to every little boy, And tell them thus from me, their time most happy is, If to theyr time they reason had, to know the truth of this. SIR THOMAS WYATT. 1503-1542. [THOMAS WYATT, the eldest son of Sir Henry Wyatt, a baronet of ancient family, was born at Allington Castle, in Kent, in 1503. In the Court of Henry VIII. he soon became a conspicuous figure, famous for his wit, his learning, his poetical talents, his linguistic attainments, his skill in athletic exercises, his fascinating manners and his handsome person. From a courtier he developed into a statesman and a diplomatist, and in the duties incident to statesmanship and diplomacy most of his life was passed. He died at Sherborne, while on his road to Falmouth, and was buried there October 11, 1542. His poems were first printed in Tottel's Miscellany in 1557.] Some pleasant houres thy wo may wrap, and thee defend and cover. Thus in this trust, as yet it hath my life sustained, But now (alas) I see it faint, and I by trust am trayned. The tyme doth flete, and I see how the hours do bende, So fast that I have scant the space to marke my coming end. Westward the sunn from out the east scant shewd his lite, When in the west he hies him straite within the dark of night And comes as fast, where he began his path awry, From east to west, from west to east, so doth his journey lye. Thy lyfe so short, so frayle, that mortall men lyve here, Soe great a weight, so heavy charge the bodyes that we bere, That when I think upon the distance and the space, That doth so farre divide me from thy dere desired face, I know not how t'attaine the winges that I require, To lyft me up that I might fly to follow my desyre. Thus of that hope that doth my lyfe somethyng susteyne, Alas I fear, and partly feel full little doth remaine. Eche place doth bring me griefe where I doe not behold, Those lively eyes which of my thoughts, were wont the keys to hold. Those thoughts were pleasant sweet whilst I enjoy'd that grace, Or who can tell thy loss if thou mayst My pleasure past, my present pain, when once recover, I might well embrace. And for because my want should more my woe increase, In watch and sleep both day and night my will doth never cease. That thing to wishe whereof synce I did lose the sight, Was never thing that mought in ought my wofull hart delight. Th' uneasy life I lead doth teach me for to mete, And with my teares t' assy to charge myne eyes twayne, Like as my hart above the brink is fraughted full of payne. And for because thereto, that these fair eyes do treate, Do me provoke, I will returne, my plaint thus to repeate; For there is nothing els, so toucheth me within, The floods, the seas, the land, the hills, Where they rule all, and I alone, nought that doth them intermete, Twene me and those shene lights that wonted for to clere, My darked pangs of cloudy thoughts as bright as Phebus sphere; It teacheth me also, what was my pleasant state, The more to feele by such record how that my welth doth bate. If such record (alas) provoke the inflamed mynde, Which sprung that day that I dyd leave the best of me behynde, If love forgeat himselfe by length of absence let, Who doth me guid (O wofull wretch) unto this baited net: Where doth encrease my care, much better were for me, As dumm as stone all things forgott, still absent for to be. Alas the clear christall, the bright tran splendant glasse, Doth not bewray the colours hid which underneath it hase. As doth the accumbred sprite the thoughtfull throwes discover, Of teares delyte of fervent love that in our hartes we cover, Out by these eyes, it sheweth that evermore delight; In plaint and teares to seek redress, and eke both day and night. Those kindes of pleasures most wherein men soe rejoice, To me they do redouble still of stormy sighes the voice. For, I am one of them, whom plaint doth well content, It fits me well my absent wealth me semes for to lament, THE AGED LOVER RENOUNCETH I LOTHE that I dyd love, My lustes they do me leave, For age with stealing steppes My muse doth not delight Me as she dyd before, My hand and pen are not in plight, As they have been of yore. For reason me denyes The wrinkles in my browe, Say lymping age will lodge hym now, Where youth must geve him place. The harbinger of death, To me I see him ride, The cough, the cold, the gasping breath A pickax and a spade Methinkes I hear the clarke My kepers knit the knot, Thus must I youth geve up, Lo, here the bare hed skull, For beauty with her band And ye that byde behinde, THE LONGER LIFE THE MORE THE longer life the more offence, The shorter life, less count I finde, Come gentle death, the ebbe of care, BEN JONSON. 1573-1637. [Born 1573; educated at Westminster School and (according to Fuller) at St. John's College, Cambridge. After a brief connection with the trade of his step-father, a master brick-layer, he served as a volunteer in the Low Countries, and settled in London as a playwright not later than 1597. His first important comedy, Every Man in his Humour, was acted 1598; his first tragedy, Sejanus, 1603. His masques chiefly belong to the reign of James I., more especially to its earlier part. He wrote nothing for the stage from 1616 to 1625. After this he produced a few more plays, without permanently securing the favor of the public. Of these plays the last but two was Th New Inn, the complete failure of which on the stage provoked Jonson's longer Ode to Himself. He enjoyed, however, in his later years, besides a fluctuating court patronage, the general homage of the English world of letters as its veteran chief. He died in London, August 6, 1637. The First Folio edition of his Works, published in 1616, included the Book of Epigrams, and the lyrics and epistles gathered under the heading The Forest in the same Folio; the Second Folio, published posthumously in 1641, contained the larger and (as its name implies) supplementary collection, called Underwoods by its author.] THE SWEET NEGLECT. Give me a looke, give me a face, |