None is happy but a glutton, None an ass but who wants money. CHORUS. Wines indeed, and girls are good, Cupid and Campaspe. [From the same.] CUPID and my Campaspe play'd Growing on's cheek (but none knows how ;) With these, the crystal of his brow, O Love! has she done this to thee? SONG. [From "Gallathea."] O YES! O yes! if any maid O yes! O yes! has any lost A heart which many a sigh hath cost? Which, as a pearl, Disdain does wear? Is any one undone by fire, And turn'd to ashes through desire? Being cheated of her golden sleep, Stol'n by sick thoughts? the pirate's found, And in her tears he shall be drown'd. Read his indictment: let him hear What he's to trust to: Boy, give ear! SONG. [From "Sappho and Phaon.”] O CRUEL Love! on thee I lay My curse, which shall strike blind the day. Charm thine eyes with sacred wand! * Hope, like thy fool, at thy bed's head, Vulcan's Song, in making of the Arrows. [From the same. My shag-hair Cyclops, come, let's ply Our Lemnian hammers lustily: By my wife's sparrows I swear these arrows Shall singing fly, Through many a wanton's eye. These headed are with golden blisses, These silver ones feather'd with kisses, But this of lead Strikes a clown dead, He falls in a trance, To see his black-brow lass not buss him, SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. The anecdotes of the short but brilliant life of this accomplished man, to whose patronage our literature owes so many obligations, are too well known to require any notice in this place. Considered as a poet, he was certainly too much infected with that fondness for conceit and antithesis, which the example of the Italian writers had rendered fashionable; but this fault in him was evidently the effect of imitation, not of character; and is often compensated by real wit, and elegance, and facility. His amatory poems are not whining lamentations about the perfections and cruelty of an ideal paragon, but are lively, dramatic, and descriptive of real passion. The "Arcadia," if considered as a romance, is tiresome and uninteresting: so that few readers have the patience to search for the many curious and animated descriptions, the acute observations, and just sentiments, with which it abounds, and which induced Sir William Temple to describe this author as "the greatest poet and "the noblest genius of any that have left writings in our 66 own or any modern language." The first edition of the " Arcadia" appeared in 1590, and the second in 1593. The" Defence of Poesy," which is valuable as a most judicious and early piece of criticism, was first published in 1595: “ Astrophel and Stella" in 1591. Sir Philip Sidney was born the 29th of Nov. 1554, and died of a wound received before Zutphen, on the 22ḍ of Sept. 1586, |