Lucasta [24]
not by me be owned; But's fled to its physitian's breast; There proudly sits inthroned.
<20.1> Prize. It is not uncommonly used by the early dramatists in this sense; but the verb TO PURCHASE is more usually found than the noun.
"Yet having opportunity, he tries, Gets her goodwill, and with his purchase flies." Wither's ABUSES STRIPT AND WHIPT, 1613.
<20.2> Here I have hazarded an emendation of the text. In original we read, CRUELL STILL ON. Lovelace's poems were evidently printed without the slightest care.
<20.3> Original reads IT'S.
<20.4> Original has BELIEFE.
<<20.5>> Soft, like floss.
ORPHEUS TO WOODS. SONG. SET BY MR. CURTES.
Heark! Oh heark! you guilty trees, In whose gloomy galleries Was the cruell'st murder done, That e're yet eclipst the sunne. Be then henceforth in your twigges Blasted, e're you sprout to sprigges; Feele no season of the yeere, But what shaves off all your haire, Nor carve any from your wombes Ought but coffins and their tombes.
ORPHEUS<21.1> TO BEASTS. SONG. SET BY MR. CURTES.<21.2>
I. Here, here, oh here! EURIDICE, Here was she slaine;
Her soule 'still'd through a veine: The gods knew lesse That time divinitie, Then ev'n, ev'n these Of brutishnesse.
II. Oh! could you view the melodie Of ev'ry grace, And musick of her face,<21.3> You'd drop a teare, Seeing more harmonie In her bright eye, Then now you heare.
<21.1> By Orpheus we may perhaps understand Lovelace himself, and by Euridice, the lady whom he celebrates under the name of Lucasta. Grainger mentions (BIOG. HIST. ii. 74) a portrait of Lovelace by Gaywood, in which he is represented as Orpheus. I have not seen it. The old poets were rather fond of likening themselves to this legendary personage, or of designating themselves his poetical children:--
"We that are ORPHEUS' sons, and can inherit By that great title"-- Davenant's WORKS, 1673, p. 215.
Many other examples might be given. Massinger, in his CITY MADAM, 1658, makes Sir John Frugal introduce a representation of the story of the Thracian bard at an entertainment given to Luke Frugal.
<21.2> A lutenist. Wood says that after the Restoration he became gentleman or singing-man of Christ Church, Oxford. He was one of those musicians who, after the abolition of organs, &c. during the civil war, met at a private house at Oxford for the purpose of taking his part in musical entertainments.
<21.3> "Such was Zuleika; such around her shone The nameless charms unmark'd by her alone; The light of love, the purity of grace, The mind, the music breathing from her face." Byron's BRIDE OF ABYDOS, canto 1. (WORKS, ed. 1825, ii. 299.)
DIALOGUE. LUCASTA, ALEXIS.<22.1> SET BY MR. JOHN GAMBLE.<22.2>
I. Lucasta. TELL me, ALEXIS, what this parting is, That so like dying is, but is not it?
Alexis. It is a swounding for a while from blisse, 'Till kind HOW DOE YOU call's us from the fit.
Chorus. If then the spirits only stray, let mine Fly to thy bosome, and my soule to thine: Thus in our native seate we gladly give Our right for one, where we can better live.
II. Lu. But ah, this ling'ring, murdring farewel! Death quickly wounds, and wounding cures the ill. Alex. It is the glory of a valiant lover, Still to be dying, still for to recover.
Cho. Soldiers suspected of their courage goe, That ensignes and their breasts untorne show: Love nee're his standard, when his hoste he sets, Creates alone fresh-bleeding bannerets.
<20.1> Prize. It is not uncommonly used by the early dramatists in this sense; but the verb TO PURCHASE is more usually found than the noun.
"Yet having opportunity, he tries, Gets her goodwill, and with his purchase flies." Wither's ABUSES STRIPT AND WHIPT, 1613.
<20.2> Here I have hazarded an emendation of the text. In original we read, CRUELL STILL ON. Lovelace's poems were evidently printed without the slightest care.
<20.3> Original reads IT'S.
<20.4> Original has BELIEFE.
<<20.5>> Soft, like floss.
ORPHEUS TO WOODS. SONG. SET BY MR. CURTES.
Heark! Oh heark! you guilty trees, In whose gloomy galleries Was the cruell'st murder done, That e're yet eclipst the sunne. Be then henceforth in your twigges Blasted, e're you sprout to sprigges; Feele no season of the yeere, But what shaves off all your haire, Nor carve any from your wombes Ought but coffins and their tombes.
ORPHEUS<21.1> TO BEASTS. SONG. SET BY MR. CURTES.<21.2>
I. Here, here, oh here! EURIDICE, Here was she slaine;
Her soule 'still'd through a veine: The gods knew lesse That time divinitie, Then ev'n, ev'n these Of brutishnesse.
II. Oh! could you view the melodie Of ev'ry grace, And musick of her face,<21.3> You'd drop a teare, Seeing more harmonie In her bright eye, Then now you heare.
<21.1> By Orpheus we may perhaps understand Lovelace himself, and by Euridice, the lady whom he celebrates under the name of Lucasta. Grainger mentions (BIOG. HIST. ii. 74) a portrait of Lovelace by Gaywood, in which he is represented as Orpheus. I have not seen it. The old poets were rather fond of likening themselves to this legendary personage, or of designating themselves his poetical children:--
"We that are ORPHEUS' sons, and can inherit By that great title"-- Davenant's WORKS, 1673, p. 215.
Many other examples might be given. Massinger, in his CITY MADAM, 1658, makes Sir John Frugal introduce a representation of the story of the Thracian bard at an entertainment given to Luke Frugal.
<21.2> A lutenist. Wood says that after the Restoration he became gentleman or singing-man of Christ Church, Oxford. He was one of those musicians who, after the abolition of organs, &c. during the civil war, met at a private house at Oxford for the purpose of taking his part in musical entertainments.
<21.3> "Such was Zuleika; such around her shone The nameless charms unmark'd by her alone; The light of love, the purity of grace, The mind, the music breathing from her face." Byron's BRIDE OF ABYDOS, canto 1. (WORKS, ed. 1825, ii. 299.)
DIALOGUE. LUCASTA, ALEXIS.<22.1> SET BY MR. JOHN GAMBLE.<22.2>
I. Lucasta. TELL me, ALEXIS, what this parting is, That so like dying is, but is not it?
Alexis. It is a swounding for a while from blisse, 'Till kind HOW DOE YOU call's us from the fit.
Chorus. If then the spirits only stray, let mine Fly to thy bosome, and my soule to thine: Thus in our native seate we gladly give Our right for one, where we can better live.
II. Lu. But ah, this ling'ring, murdring farewel! Death quickly wounds, and wounding cures the ill. Alex. It is the glory of a valiant lover, Still to be dying, still for to recover.
Cho. Soldiers suspected of their courage goe, That ensignes and their breasts untorne show: Love nee're his standard, when his hoste he sets, Creates alone fresh-bleeding bannerets.