Lucasta [76]
not But comes to you to have her self begot? As, when first man was kneaded, from his side Is born to's hand a ready-made-up bride. He husband to his issue then doth play, And for more wives remove the obstructed way: So by your art you spring up in two noons What could not else be form'd by fifteen suns; Thy skill doth an'mate the prolifick flood, And thy red oyl assimilates to blood. Where then, when all the world pays its respect, Lies our transalpine barbarous neglect? When the chast hands of pow'rful Titian Had drawn the scourges of our God and man, And now the top of th' altar did ascend To crown the heav'nly piece with a bright end; Whilst he, who in<88.12> seven languages gave law, And always, like the Sun, his subjects saw, Did, in his robes imperial and gold, The basis of the doubtful ladder hold. O Charls!<88.13> a nobler monument than that, Which thou thine own executor wert at! When to our huffling Henry<88.14> there complain'd A grieved earl, that thought his honor stain'd: Away (frown'd he), for your own safeties, hast! In one cheap hour ten coronets I'l cast; But Holbeen's noble and prodigious worth Onely the pangs of an whole age brings forth.<88.15> Henry! a word so princely saving said, It might new raise the ruines thou hast made. O sacred Peincture! that dost fairly draw, What but in mists deep inward Poets saw; 'Twixt thee and an Intelligence no odds,<88.16> That art of privy council to the gods! By thee unto our eyes they do prefer A stamp of their abstracted character; Thou, that in frames eternity dost bind, And art a written and a body'd mind; To thee is ope the Juncto o' th' abysse, And its conspiracy detected is; Whilest their cabal thou to our sense dost show, And in thy square paint'st what they threat below. Now, my best Lilly, let's walk hand in hand, And smile at this un-understanding land; Let them their own dull counterfeits adore, Their rainbow-cloaths admire, and no more. Within one shade of thine more substance is, Than all their varnish'd idol-mistresses: Whilst great Vasari and Vermander shall Interpret the deep mystery of all, And I unto our modern Picts shall show, What due renown to thy fair art they owe In the delineated lives of those, By whom this everlasting lawrel grows. Then, if they will not gently apprehend, Let one great blot give to their fame an end; Whilst no poetick flower their herse doth dresse, But perish they and their effigies.
<88.1> An allusion is, of course, intended to Pliny's NATURAL HISTORY which, through Holland's translation, became popular in England after 1601.
<88.2> i.e. in our globe.
<88.3> A term borrowed from the medical, or rather surgical, vocabulary. "To couch a cataract" (i.e. in the eye) is to remove it by surgical process.
<88.4> An allusion to Lely's pictures of Venus and Cupid.
<88.5> Falsely portrayed.
<88.6> A glimpse.
<88.7> Some picture by Lely, in which the painter introduced a spring landscape, is meant. The poet feigns the copy of Nature to be so close that one might suppose the Spring had set in before the usual time. The canvass is removed, and the illusion is dispelled. "Praesto, 'tis away," would be a preferable reading.
<88.8> i.e. if my appetite, &c. Lovelace's style is elliptical to an almost unexampled degree.
<88.9> The same story, with variations, has been told over and over again since the time of Zeuxis.
<88.10> Original edition has FILES.
<88.11> HAIR is here used in what has become quite an obsolete sense. The meaning is outward form, nature, or character. The word used to be by no means uncommon; but it is now, as was before remarked, out of fashion; and, indeed, I do not think that it is found even in any old writer used exactly in the way in which Lovelace has employed it.
<88.12> Original reads TO.
<88.13> Charles V.
<88.14> Henry VIII.
<88.15> A story too well known to require repetition. The Earl is not mentioned.--See Walpole's ANECDOTES OF PAINTING, ed. 1862, p.71.
<88.16> i.e. no difference. A compliment to Lely's spirituality.
AN ANNIVERSARY
<88.1> An allusion is, of course, intended to Pliny's NATURAL HISTORY which, through Holland's translation, became popular in England after 1601.
<88.2> i.e. in our globe.
<88.3> A term borrowed from the medical, or rather surgical, vocabulary. "To couch a cataract" (i.e. in the eye) is to remove it by surgical process.
<88.4> An allusion to Lely's pictures of Venus and Cupid.
<88.5> Falsely portrayed.
<88.6> A glimpse.
<88.7> Some picture by Lely, in which the painter introduced a spring landscape, is meant. The poet feigns the copy of Nature to be so close that one might suppose the Spring had set in before the usual time. The canvass is removed, and the illusion is dispelled. "Praesto, 'tis away," would be a preferable reading.
<88.8> i.e. if my appetite, &c. Lovelace's style is elliptical to an almost unexampled degree.
<88.9> The same story, with variations, has been told over and over again since the time of Zeuxis.
<88.10> Original edition has FILES.
<88.11> HAIR is here used in what has become quite an obsolete sense. The meaning is outward form, nature, or character. The word used to be by no means uncommon; but it is now, as was before remarked, out of fashion; and, indeed, I do not think that it is found even in any old writer used exactly in the way in which Lovelace has employed it.
<88.12> Original reads TO.
<88.13> Charles V.
<88.14> Henry VIII.
<88.15> A story too well known to require repetition. The Earl is not mentioned.--See Walpole's ANECDOTES OF PAINTING, ed. 1862, p.71.
<88.16> i.e. no difference. A compliment to Lely's spirituality.
AN ANNIVERSARY