"If you had seene his death," saith he,
"As these mine eyes have done,
Ten thousand thousand times would yee
His torments think upon,

And suffer for his sake all paine

Of torments, and all woes:"

These are his wordes, and eke his life,
Whereas he comes or goes.

125

IV.

The Lye,

BY SIR WALTER RALEIGH,

is found in a very scarce miscellany, entitled "Davison's Poems, or a poeticall Rapsodie, divided into sixe books. . . . The 4th impression newly corrected and augmented, and put into a forme more pleasing to the reader. Lond. 1621, 12mo." This poem is reported to have been written by its celebrated author the night before his execution, Oct. 29, 1618. But this must be a mistake, for there were at least two editions of Davison's Poems before that time, one in 1608,' the other in 1611.2 So that unless this poem was an after-insertion in the fourth edit. it must have been written long before the death of Sir Walter: perhaps it was composed soon after his condemnation in 1603.-See Oldys's Life of Sir Walter Raleigh, p. 173, fol.

GOE, Soule, the bodies guest,

Upon a thankelesse arrant;

Feare not to touche the best,

The truth shall be thy warrant ;

Goe, since I needs must dye,

And give the world the lye.

Goe tell the court it glowes
And shines like rotten wood;
Goe tell the church it showes
What's good, and doth no good;

If church and court reply,
Then give them both the lye.

1 Catalogue of T. Rawlinson, 1727.

2 Catalogue of Sion. Coll. Library. This is either lost or mislaid.

5

10

In the first edition of this book were inserted, by way of specimen of His Majesty's poetic talents, some Punning Verses made on the disputations at Stirling; but it having been suggested to the Editor, that

the king only gave the quibbling commendations in prose, and that some obsequious court-rhymer put them into metre,' it was thought proper to exchange them for two sonnets of King James's own composition. James was a great versifier, and therefore out of the multitude of his poems we have here selected two, which (to show our impartiality) are written in his best and his worst manner. The first would not dishonour any writer of that time; the second is a most complete example of the Bathos.

A SONNET ADDRESSED BY KING JAMES TO HIS SON
PRINCE HENRY.

From King James's Works in folio: where is also printed another, called His Majesty's OWN Sonnet: it would perhaps be to cruel to infer from thence that this was NOT His Majesty's OWN Sonnet.

God gives not kings the stile of gods in vaine,
For on his throne his scepter do they swey;
And as their subjects ought them to obey,
So kings should feare and serve their God againe.
If then ye would enjoy a happie reigne,

Observe the statutes of our heavenly King;
And from his law make all your laws to spring;
Since his lieutenant here ye should remaine.
Rewarde the just, be stedfast, true, and plaine;
Represse the proud, maintayning aye the right;
Walke always so as ever in His sight
Who guardes the godly, plaguing the prophane.
And so ye shall in princely vertues shine,
Resembling right your mightie King divine.

5

10

A SONNET OCCASIONED BY THE BAD WEATHER WHICH
HINDERED THE SPORTS AT NEW-MARKET

IN JANUARY, 1616.

This is printed from Drummond of Hawthornden's Works, folio: where also may be seen some verses of Lord Stirling upon this Sonnet, which concludes with the finest anti-climax I remember to have seen.

How cruelly these catives do conspire!

What loathsome love breeds such a baleful band
Betwixt the cankred King of Creta land,2
That melancholy, old and angry sire,

See a folio entitled The Muses Welcome to King James.

2 Saturn.

And him, who wont to quench debate and ire
Among the Romans when his ports were clos'd! 3
But now his double face is still dispos'd,
With Saturn's help, to freeze us at the fire.

The earth ore-covered with a sheet of snow,
Refuses food to fowl, to bird, and beast;
The chilling cold lets every thing to grow,
And surfeits cattle with a starving feast.

4

Curs'd be that love and mought continue short, Which kills all creatures, and doth spoil our sport. 4 i. e. may it

3 Janus.

5

10

VI.

King John and the Abbot of Canterbury.

The common popular ballad of King John and the Abbot seems to have been abridged and modernised about the time of James I. from one much older, entitled King John and the Bishop of Canterbury The Editor's folio MS. contains a copy of this last, but in too corrupt a state to be reprinted; it however afforded many lines worth reviving, which will be found inserted in the ensuing stanzas.

The archness of the following questions and answers hath been much admired by our old ballad-makers; for besides the two copies above mentioned, there is extant another ballad on the same subject (but of no great antiquity or merit), entitled King Olfrey and the Abbot." Lastly, about the time of the civil wars, when the cry ran against the bishops, some Puritan worked up the same story into a very doleful ditty, to a solemn tune, concerning "King Henry and a Bishop;" with this stinging moral:

"Unlearned men hard matters out can find,

When learned bishops princes eyes do blind."

The following is chiefly printed from an ancient black-letter copy, to the tune of " Derry down.'

AN ancient story Ile tell you anon

Of a notable prince, that was called King John;
And he ruled England with maine and with might,
For he did great wrong, and maintein'd little right.

1 See the collection of Historical Ballads, 3 vols., 1727. Mr. Wise supposes Olfrey to be a corruption of Alfred, in his pamphlet concerning the WHITE HORSE in Berkshire, p. 15.