Back and side go bare, go bare,

Both foot and hand go cold;
But, belly, God send thee good ale enough,
Whether it be new or old.

Gammer Gurton's Needle, Act č.

THOMAS STERNHOLD. Circa 1549.

The Lord descended from above

And bow'd the heavens high;
And underneath his feet he cast

The darkness of the sky.
On cherubs and on cherubims

Full royally he rode;
And on the wings of all the winds
Came flying all abroad.

A Metrical Version of Psalm cio.

MATHEW ROYDON. Circa 1586.

A sweet attractive kinde of

grace,
A full assurance given by lookes,
Continuall comfort in a face
The lineaments of Gospell bookes.

An Elegie; or Friend's Passion for his Astrophill.1
Was never eie did see that face,

Was never eare did heare that tong,
Was never minde did minde his grace,
That ever thought the travell long;

But eies and eares and ev'ry thought
Were with his sweete perfections caught. Ibid.

1 This piece (ascribed to Spenser) was printed in The Phænir' Nest, 4to, 1593, where it is anonymous. Todd has shown that it was written by Mathew Roydon.

SIR EDWARD COKE. 1549–1634.

The gladsome light of jurisprudence.

First Institute. Reason is the life of the law; nay, the common law itself is nothing else but reason. The law, which is perfection of reason.

Ibid. For a man's house is his castle, et domus sua cuique tutissimum refugium.*

Third Institute. Page 162. The house of every one is to him as his castle and fortress, as well for his defence against injury and violence as for his repose.

Semayne's Case, 5 Rep. 91. They corporations) cannot commit treason, nor be outlawed nor excommunicate, for they have no souls.

Case of Sutton's Hospital, 10 Rep. 32. Magna Charta is such a fellow that he will have no sovereign.

Debate in the Commons, May 17, 1628.
Six hours in sleep, in law's grave study six,
Four spend in prayer, the rest on Nature fix.8

Translation of lines quoted by Coke.

His golden locks time hath to silver turned;

O time too swift! O swiftness never ceasing ! His youth 'gainst time and age hath ever spurned, But spurned in vain; youth waneth by encreasing.

Sonnet. Polyhymnia.

1 Let us consider the reason of the case. For nothing is law that is not reason. Sir John Powell: Coggs vs. Bernard, 2 Ld. Raym. Rep. p. 911. Pandects, lib. ii. tit. iv. De in Jus vocando.

Seven hours to law, to soothing slumber seven ;
Ten to the world allot, and all to heaven.

Sir WILLIAM JONES.

His helmet now shall make a hive for bees,

And lovers' songs be turned to holy psalms;
A man-at-arms must now serve on his knees,
And feed on prayers, which are old age's alms.

Sonnet. Polyhymnia. My merry, merry, merry roundelay

Concludes with Cupid's curse:
They that do change old love for new,
Pray gols, they change for worse!

Cupid's Curse.

SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 1552–1618.

If all the world and love were young,
And truth in every shepherd's tongue,
These pretty pleasures might me move
To live with thee, and be thy love.

The Nymph's Reply to the Passionate Shepherd. Fain would I, but I dare not; I dare, and yet I may not ; I may, although I care not, for pleasure when I play not.

Fain Would I. Passions are likened best to floods and streams : The shallow murmur, but the deep are dumb.

The Silent Lorer.
Silence in love bewrays more woe

Than words, though ne'er so witty :
A beggar that is dumb, you know,
May challenge double pity.

Ibid.
Go, Soul, the body's guest,

Upon a thankless arrant:
Fear not to touch the best,
The truth shall be thy warrant :

Go, since I needs must die,
And give the world the lie.

The Lie.

1 Altissima quæque flumina minimo sono labi (The deepest rivers flow with the least sound). – Q. CURTius, vii. 4. 13.

Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep. SHAKESPEARE : 2 Henry VI. act iii. sc. i.

Methought I saw the grave where Laura lay.

Verses to Edmund Spenser. Cowards (may] fear to die; but courage stout, Rather than live in snuff, will be put out.

On the snufj of a candle the night before he died. - Raleigh's

Remains, p. 258, ed. 1661.
Even such is time, that takes in trust
Our youth, our joys, our all we have,
And pays us but with age and dust;
Who in the dark and silent grave,
When we have wandered all our ways,
Shuts up the story of our days.
But from this earth, this grave, this dust,
My God shall raise me up, I trust !

Written the night before his death. — Found in his

Bible in the Gute-house at Westminster.
Shall I, like an hermit, dwell
On a rock or in a cell ?

Poem.
If she undervalue me,
What care I how fair she be ? 2

Ibid.
If she seem not chaste to me,
What care I how chaste she be ?

Ibid. Fain would I climb, yet fear I to fall.3 [History] hath triumphed over time, which besides it nothing but eternity hath triumphed over.

Historie of the World. Preface. O eloquent, just, and mightie Death! whom none could advise, thou hast perswaded; what none hath dared, thou hast done; and whom all the world hath flattered,

1 Methought I saw my late espoused saint. — Milton: Sonnet xxij. Methought I saw the footsteps of a throne. – WORDSWORTH: Sonnet.

2 If she be not so to me,
What care I how fair she be?

GEORGE WITHER : The Shepherd's Resolution. 8 Written in a glass window obvious to the Queen's eye. “ Her Majesty, either espying or being shown it, did under-write, 'If thy heart fails thee, climb not at all.'" – l'ULLER: Worthies of England, vol. i. p. 419.

thou only hast cast out of the world and despised. Thou hast drawne together all the farre stretched greatnesse, all the pride, crueltie, and ambition of man, and covered it all over with these two narrow words, Hic jacet !

Book v. Part 1.

EDMUND SPENSER. 1553-1599.

song:

St. 9.

Fierce warres and faithful loves shall moralize my

Faerie Queene. Introduction. St. 1. A gentle knight was pricking on the plaine.

Book i. Canto i. St. 1, O happy earth, Whereon thy innocent feet doe ever tread! The noblest mind the best contentment has.

St. 35. A bold bad man.?

St. 37. Her angels face, As the great eye of heaven, shyned bright, And made a sunshine in the shady place. Canto iii. St. 4. Ay me, how many perils doe enfold The righteous man, to make him daily fall : 8

Canto viii. St. 1. As when in Cymbrian plaine An heard of bulles, whom kindly rage doth sting, Doe for the milky mothers want complaine, And fill the fieldes with troublous bellowing. St. 11. Entire affection hateth nicer hands.

St. 40.

1 And moralized his song. - POPE : Epistle to Arbuthnot. Line 340.

? This bold bad man. - SHAKESPEARE: Henry VIIl. act ii. sc. 2. MASSINGER : A New Way to Pay Old Debts, act iv. sc. 2.

8 Ay me! what perils do environ
The man that meddles with cold iron!

BUTLER: Hudibras, part i. canto iii. line 1. 4. "Milky Mothers, - Pope: The Dunciad, book i. line 247. Scott : The Monustery, chap. xxvij.