Lucasta [46]
veine doth appeare, Part thick Booreinn, part Lady Cleare; Like to the sordid insects sprung From Father Sun and Mother Dung: Yet lose we not the hold we have, But faster graspe the trembling slave; Play at baloon with's heart, and winde The strings like scaines, steale into his minde Ten thousand false<49.13> and feigned joyes Far worse then they; whilst, like whipt boys, After this scourge hee's hush with toys.
This<49.14> heard, Sir, play stil in her eyes, And be a dying, live<49.15> like flyes Caught by their angle-legs, and whom The torch laughs peece-meale to consume.
<49.1> i.e. THAT hath sainted, &c.
<49.2> So the Editor's MS. copy already described; the printed copy has BONDS.
<49.3> So Editor's MS. Printed copy has-- "The Love of Great Ones? 'Tis a Love."
<<49.4>> Subtle--Editor's MS.
<49.5> Semele she--Editor's MS.
<49.6> She--Ibid.
<49.7> Dombe--LUCASTA.
<49.8> BESS is used in the following passage as a phrase for a sort of female TOM-O-BEDLAM--
"We treat mad-Bedlams, TOMS and BESSES, With ceremonies and caresses!" Dixon's CANIDIA, 1683, part i. canto 2.
And the word seems also to have been employed to signify the loose women who, in early times, made Covent Garden and its neighbourhood their special haunt. See Cotgrave's WITS INTERPRETER, 1662, p. 236. But here "naked Besse," means only a woman who, in contradistinction to a lady of rank, has no adventitious qualities to recommend her.
<49.9> Original reads HER.
<49.10> Altars, or--LUCASTA.
<49.11> Borne--LUCASTA.
<49.12> Allay'd--LUCASTA.
<49.13> So Editor's MS. LUCASTA has HELLS.
<49.14> From this word down to LIVES is omitted in the MS. copy.
<49.15> Original has LIVES.
TO ALTHEA. FROM PRISON. SONG. SET BY DR. JOHN WILSON.<50.1>
I. When love with unconfined wings Hovers within my gates; And my divine ALTHEA brings To whisper at the grates; When I lye tangled in her haire,<50.2> And fetterd to her eye,<50.3> The birds,<50.4> that wanton in the aire, Know no such liberty.
II. When flowing cups run swiftly round With no allaying THAMES, Our carelesse heads with roses bound, Our hearts with loyal flames; When thirsty griefe in wine we steepe, When healths and draughts go free, Fishes, that tipple in the deepe, Know no such libertie.
III. When (like committed linnets<50.5>) I With shriller throat shall sing The sweetnes, mercy, majesty, And glories of my King. When I shall voyce aloud, how good He is, how great should be, Inlarged winds, that curle the flood, Know no such liberty.
IV. Stone walls doe not a prison make, Nor iron bars a cage; Mindes innocent and quiet take That for an hermitage; If I have freedome in my love, And in my soule am free, Angels alone that sore above Enjoy such liberty.
<50.1> The first stanza of this famous song is harmonized in CHEERFULL AYRES OR BALLADS: FIRST COMPOSED FOR ONE SINGLE VOICE, AND SINCE SET FOR THREE VOICES. By John Wilson, Dr. in Music, Professor of the same in the University of Oxford. Oxford, 1660 (Sept. 20, 1659), 4to. p. 10. I have sometimes thought that, when Lovelace composed this production, he had in his recollection some of the sentiments in Wither's SHEPHERDS HUNTING, 1615. See, more particularly, the sonnet (at p. 248 of Mr. Gutch's Bristol edition) commencing:--
"I that er'st while the world's sweet air did draw."
<50.2> Peele, in KING DAVID AND FAIR BETHSABE, 1599, has a similar figure, where David says:--
"Now comes my lover tripping like the roe, And brings my longings tangled in her hair."
The "lover" is of course Bethsabe.
<50.3> Thus Middleton, in his MORE DISSEMBLERS BESIDES WOMEN, printed in 1657, but written before 1626, says:--
"But for modesty, I should fall foul in words upon fond man, That can forget his excellence and honour, His serious meditations,
This<49.14> heard, Sir, play stil in her eyes, And be a dying, live<49.15> like flyes Caught by their angle-legs, and whom The torch laughs peece-meale to consume.
<49.1> i.e. THAT hath sainted, &c.
<49.2> So the Editor's MS. copy already described; the printed copy has BONDS.
<49.3> So Editor's MS. Printed copy has-- "The Love of Great Ones? 'Tis a Love."
<<49.4>> Subtle--Editor's MS.
<49.5> Semele she--Editor's MS.
<49.6> She--Ibid.
<49.7> Dombe--LUCASTA.
<49.8> BESS is used in the following passage as a phrase for a sort of female TOM-O-BEDLAM--
"We treat mad-Bedlams, TOMS and BESSES, With ceremonies and caresses!" Dixon's CANIDIA, 1683, part i. canto 2.
And the word seems also to have been employed to signify the loose women who, in early times, made Covent Garden and its neighbourhood their special haunt. See Cotgrave's WITS INTERPRETER, 1662, p. 236. But here "naked Besse," means only a woman who, in contradistinction to a lady of rank, has no adventitious qualities to recommend her.
<49.9> Original reads HER.
<49.10> Altars, or--LUCASTA.
<49.11> Borne--LUCASTA.
<49.12> Allay'd--LUCASTA.
<49.13> So Editor's MS. LUCASTA has HELLS.
<49.14> From this word down to LIVES is omitted in the MS. copy.
<49.15> Original has LIVES.
TO ALTHEA. FROM PRISON. SONG. SET BY DR. JOHN WILSON.<50.1>
I. When love with unconfined wings Hovers within my gates; And my divine ALTHEA brings To whisper at the grates; When I lye tangled in her haire,<50.2> And fetterd to her eye,<50.3> The birds,<50.4> that wanton in the aire, Know no such liberty.
II. When flowing cups run swiftly round With no allaying THAMES, Our carelesse heads with roses bound, Our hearts with loyal flames; When thirsty griefe in wine we steepe, When healths and draughts go free, Fishes, that tipple in the deepe, Know no such libertie.
III. When (like committed linnets<50.5>) I With shriller throat shall sing The sweetnes, mercy, majesty, And glories of my King. When I shall voyce aloud, how good He is, how great should be, Inlarged winds, that curle the flood, Know no such liberty.
IV. Stone walls doe not a prison make, Nor iron bars a cage; Mindes innocent and quiet take That for an hermitage; If I have freedome in my love, And in my soule am free, Angels alone that sore above Enjoy such liberty.
<50.1> The first stanza of this famous song is harmonized in CHEERFULL AYRES OR BALLADS: FIRST COMPOSED FOR ONE SINGLE VOICE, AND SINCE SET FOR THREE VOICES. By John Wilson, Dr. in Music, Professor of the same in the University of Oxford. Oxford, 1660 (Sept. 20, 1659), 4to. p. 10. I have sometimes thought that, when Lovelace composed this production, he had in his recollection some of the sentiments in Wither's SHEPHERDS HUNTING, 1615. See, more particularly, the sonnet (at p. 248 of Mr. Gutch's Bristol edition) commencing:--
"I that er'st while the world's sweet air did draw."
<50.2> Peele, in KING DAVID AND FAIR BETHSABE, 1599, has a similar figure, where David says:--
"Now comes my lover tripping like the roe, And brings my longings tangled in her hair."
The "lover" is of course Bethsabe.
<50.3> Thus Middleton, in his MORE DISSEMBLERS BESIDES WOMEN, printed in 1657, but written before 1626, says:--
"But for modesty, I should fall foul in words upon fond man, That can forget his excellence and honour, His serious meditations,