Lucasta [37]
powerful hand Beckens my thoughts unto a stand Of Titian, Raphael, Georgone Whose art even Nature hath out-done; For if weake Nature only can Intend, not perfect, what is man, These certainely we must prefer, Who mended what she wrought, and her; And sure the shadowes of those rare And kind incomparable fayre Are livelier, nobler company, Then if they could or speake, or see: For these<37.10> I aske without a tush, Can kisse or touch without a blush, And we are taught that substance is, If uninjoy'd, but th'<37.11> shade of blisse. Now every saint cleerly divine, Is clos'd so in her severall shrine; The gems so rarely, richly set, For them wee love the cabinet; So intricately plac't withall, As if th' imbrordered the wall, So that the pictures seem'd to be But one continued tapistrie.<37.12> After this travell of mine eyes We sate, and pitied Dieties; Wee bound our loose hayre with the vine, The poppy, and the eglantine; One swell'd an oriental bowle Full, as a grateful, loyal soule To Chloris! Chloris! Heare, oh, heare! 'Tis pledg'd above in ev'ry sphere. Now streight the Indians richest prize Is kindled in<37.13> glad sacrifice; Cloudes are sent up on wings of thyme, Amber, pomgranates, jessemine, And through our earthen conduicts sore Higher then altars fum'd before. So drencht we our oppressing cares, And choakt the wide jawes of our feares. Whilst ravisht thus we did devise, If this were not a Paradice In all, except these harmlesse sins: Behold! flew in two cherubins, Cleare as the skye from whence they came, And brighter than the sacred flame; The boy adorn'd with modesty, Yet armed so with majesty, That if the Thunderer againe His eagle sends, she stoops in vaine.<37.14> Besides his innocence he tooke A sword and casket, and did looke Like Love in armes; he wrote but five, Yet spake eighteene; each grace did strive, And twenty Cupids thronged forth, Who first should shew his prettier worth. But oh, the Nymph! Did you ere know Carnation mingled with snow?<37.15> Or have you seene the lightning shrowd, And straight breake through th' opposing cloud? So ran her blood; such was its hue; So through her vayle her bright haire flew, And yet its glory did appeare But thinne, because her eyes were neere. Blooming boy, and blossoming mayd, May your faire sprigges be neere betray'd To<37.16> eating worme or fouler storme; No serpent lurke to do them harme; No sharpe frost cut, no North-winde teare, The verdure of that fragrant hayre;
But<37.17> may the sun and gentle weather, When you are both growne ripe together, Load you with fruit, such as your Father From you with all the joyes doth gather: And may you, when one branch is dead, Graft such another in its stead, Lasting thus ever in your prime, 'Till th' sithe is snatcht away from Time.<37.18>
<37.1> In the MS. copy this poem exhibits considerable variations, and is entitled "Gratiana's Eulogy."
<37.2> ARIGO or ARRIGO is the Venetian form of HENRICO. I have no means of identifying CHLORIS or GRATIANA; but AMYNTOR was probably, as I have already suggested, Endymion Porter, and ARIGO was unquestionably no other than Henry Jermyn, or Jarmin, who, though no poet, was, like his friend Porter, a liberal and discerning patron of men of letters.
"Yet when thy noble choice appear'd, that by Their combat first prepar'd thy victory: ENDYMION and ARIGO, who delight In numbers--" Davenant's MADAGASCAR, 1638 (Works, 1673, p. 212).
See also p. 247 of Davenant's Works.
Jermyn's name is associated with that of Porter in the noblest dedication in our language, that to DAVENANT'S POEMS, 1638, 12mo. "If these poems live," &c.
<37.3> This and the five next lines are not in MS. which opens with "Her lips," &c.
<37.4> So original; MS. reads OF.
<37.5> This and the next thirteen lines are not in MS.
<<37.6>> i.e. tribute.
<37.7> FAIRE--MS.
<37.8> HER FAIRE--MS. The story of the phoenix was very popular, and the allusions to it in the early writers are almost innumerable.
"My labour did to greater things aspire,
But<37.17> may the sun and gentle weather, When you are both growne ripe together, Load you with fruit, such as your Father From you with all the joyes doth gather: And may you, when one branch is dead, Graft such another in its stead, Lasting thus ever in your prime, 'Till th' sithe is snatcht away from Time.<37.18>
<37.1> In the MS. copy this poem exhibits considerable variations, and is entitled "Gratiana's Eulogy."
<37.2> ARIGO or ARRIGO is the Venetian form of HENRICO. I have no means of identifying CHLORIS or GRATIANA; but AMYNTOR was probably, as I have already suggested, Endymion Porter, and ARIGO was unquestionably no other than Henry Jermyn, or Jarmin, who, though no poet, was, like his friend Porter, a liberal and discerning patron of men of letters.
"Yet when thy noble choice appear'd, that by Their combat first prepar'd thy victory: ENDYMION and ARIGO, who delight In numbers--" Davenant's MADAGASCAR, 1638 (Works, 1673, p. 212).
See also p. 247 of Davenant's Works.
Jermyn's name is associated with that of Porter in the noblest dedication in our language, that to DAVENANT'S POEMS, 1638, 12mo. "If these poems live," &c.
<37.3> This and the five next lines are not in MS. which opens with "Her lips," &c.
<37.4> So original; MS. reads OF.
<37.5> This and the next thirteen lines are not in MS.
<<37.6>> i.e. tribute.
<37.7> FAIRE--MS.
<37.8> HER FAIRE--MS. The story of the phoenix was very popular, and the allusions to it in the early writers are almost innumerable.
"My labour did to greater things aspire,