None might the mother of Achilles be,
But the fair pearl and glory of the sea; 1
The man to whom great Maro gives such fame,2
From the high bed of heavenly Venus came;
And our next Charles, whom all the stars design
Like wonders to accomplish, springs from thine.

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70

THE APOLOGY OF SLEEP,

FOR NOT APPROACHING THE LADY WHO CAN DO
ANYTHING BUT SLEEP WHEN SHE PLEASES.

My charge it is those breaches to repair
Which Nature takes from sorrow, toil, and care;
Rest to the limbs, and quiet I confer

On troubled minds; but nought can add to her

Whom Heaven, and her transcendent thoughts have

placed

Above those ills which wretched mortals taste.

Bright as the deathless gods, and happy, she
From all that may infringe delight is free;
Love at her royal feet his quiver lays,
And not his mother with more haste obeys.
Such real pleasures, such true joys' suspense,
What dream can I present to recompense?

Should I with lightning fill her awful hand,
And make the clouds seem all at her command;
Or place her in Olympus' top, a guest
Among the immortals, who with nectar feast;
That power would seem, that entertainment, short
Of the true splendour of her present Court,

1Sea': Thetis.-2Maro': Eneas.

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Where all the joys, and all the glories, are
Of three great kingdoms, sever'd from the care.
I, that of fumes and humid vapours made,
Ascending, do the seat of sense invade,
No cloud in so serene a mansion find,
To overcast her ever-shining mind,

Which holds resemblance with those spotless skies,
Where flowing Nilus want of rain supplies;
That crystal heaven, where Phoebus never shrouds
His golden beams, nor wraps his face in clouds.
But what so hard which numbers cannot force?
So stoops the moon, and rivers change their course.
The bold Mæonian 1 made me dare to steep
Jove's dreadful temples in the dew of sleep;
And since the Muses do invoke my power,
I shall no more decline that sacred bower
Where Gloriana their great mistress lies;
But, gently taming those victorious eyes,
Charm all her senses, till the joyful sun
Without a rival half his course has run;
Who, while my hand that fairer light confines,
May boast himself the brightest thing that shines.

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40

PUERPERIUM.2

1 You gods that have the power

To trouble and compose

All that's beneath your bower,

Calm silence on the seas, on earth impose.

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'Mæonian': Homer.-2 Puerperium': Fenton conjectures that this poem was written in 1640, when the Queen was delivered of her fourth son, the Duke of Gloucester.

2 Fair Venus! in thy soft arms

The God of Rage confine;

For thy whispers are the charms

Which only can divert his fierce design.

3 What though he frown, and to tumult do incline? Thou the flame

Kindled in his breast canst tame,

With that snow which unmelted lies on thine.

4 Great goddess! give this thy sacred island rest; Make heaven smile,

That no storm disturb us while

Thy chief care, our halcyon, builds her nest.

5 Great Gloriana! fair Gloriana!

Bright as high heaven is, and fertile as earth,
Whose beauty relieves us,

Whose royal bed gives us

Both glory and peace,

Our present joy, and all our hopes' increase.

A LA MALADE.

Ан, lovely Amoret! the care

Of all that know what's good or fair!
Is heaven become our rival too?
Had the rich gifts conferr'd on you
So amply thence, the common end
Of giving lovers-to pretend?

Hence, to this pining sickness (meant
Το
weary thee to a consent

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Of leaving us) no power is given
Thy beauties to impair; for heaven
Solicits thee with such a care,

As roses from their stalks we tear,
When we would still preserve them new
And fresh, as on the bush they grew.

With such a grace you entertain,
And look with such contempt on pain,
That languishing you conquer more,
And wound us deeper than before.
So lightnings which in storms appear,

Scorch more than when the skies are clear.
And as pale sickness does invade
Your frailer part, the breaches made
In that fair lodging, still more clear
Make the bright guest, your soul, appear.
So nymphs o'er pathless mountains borne,
Their light robes by the brambles torn
From their fair limbs, exposing new
And unknown beauties to the view
Of following gods, increase their flame
And haste to catch the flying game.

UPON THE DEATH OF MY LADY RICH.1

MAY those already cursed Essexian plains,
Where hasty death and pining sickness reigns,
Prove all a desert! and none there make stay,

But savage beasts, or men as wild as they!
There the fair light which all our island graced,
Like Hero's taper in the window placed,

''Lady Rich' she was the daughter of the Earl of Devonshire, and married to the heir of the Earl of Warwick.

Such fate from the malignant air did find,
As that exposed to the boist'rous wind.

Ah, cruel Heaven! to snatch so soon away
Her for whose life, had we had time to pray,
With thousand vows and tears we should have sought
That sad decree's suspension to have wrought.
But we, alas! no whisper of her pain

Heard, till 'twas sin to wish her here again.
That horrid word, at once, like lightning spread,
Struck all our ears-The Lady Rich is dead!
Heart-rending news! and dreadful to those few
Who her resemble, and her steps pursue;
That death should license have to rage among
The fair, the wise, the virtuous, and the young!
The Paphian queen from that fierce battle borne,
With gored hand, and veil so rudely torn,
Like terror did among th' immortals breed,
Taught by her wound that goddesses may bleed.

All stand amazed! but beyond the rest

Th' heroic dame whose happy womb she bless'd,'
Moved with just grief, expostulates with Heaven,
Urging the promise to th' obsequious given,
Of longer life; for ne'er was pious soul
More apt t' obey, more worthy to control.
A skilful eye at once might read the race
Of Caledonian monarchs in her face,
And sweet humility; her look and mind
At once were lofty, and at once were kind.
There dwelt the scorn of vice, and pity too,
For those that did what she disdain'd to do;
So gentle and severe, that what was bad,

At once her hatred and her pardon had.

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1 'Womb she blessed': the Countess of Devonshire, a very old woman, the only daughter of Lord Bruce, descended from Robert the Bruce.