though by no means unpleasing. Whether, had Cartwright lived beyond early manhood, he would have fulfilled or exceeded the promise of his youth, it is useless to enquire. He was more genuinely successful as a writer of occasional lyrics and elegies than as a dramatist. Perhaps the seriousness of the epoch at the opening of which he died might have turned his efforts to religious poetry, in which the Fantastic School of English poetry achieved its noblest results, and to which this academical preacher's and poet's mind must have had a natural bias. What he actually accomplished in this direction was but little, though not altogether unworthy of being associated with the music of Milton's friend and favourite composer. A. W. WARD. ON HIS MAJESTY'S RECOVERY FROM THE SMALL-POX, 1633. I do confess, the over-forward tongue A well-meant spite, or loyal injury. Let then the name be alter'd; let us say To show the ill, not make it; and to tell Let there be new computes, let reckoning be Let not the Kingdom's Acts hereafter run But from His Health, as in a better strain. That plac'd Him on His throne; This makes Him reign. A NEW YEAR'S GIFT TO BRIAN LORD BISHOP OF SARUM UPON THE AUTHOR'S ENTERING INTO HOLY ORders, 1638. Now that the village reverence doth lie hid, As Egypt's Wisdom did, In birds and beasts, and that the tenant's soul So that the cock and hen speak more Truly make love have wings: Though we no flying present have to pay, But, being the Canon bars me wit and wine, Being the bays must yield unto the Cross, So that my raptures are to steal And that my each day's breath Must be a daily death: Without all strain or fury I must than1 Tell you this New-year brings you a new man. New, not as th' year, to run the same course o'er Lest in the man himself there be a round, And that return seem to make good Motion, as in a mill, Is busy standing still; And by such wheeling we but thus prevail, 1 then. 2 moisture, i. e. the blood. Nor new by solemnising looser toys, Taking the flag and trumpet from the sin, As some men silence loud perfumes More wary, not more good. Sins too may be severe, and so, no doubt, But new, by th' using of each part aright, That false direction come not from the eye, That neither that the way aver Is not the right, but rich; That thus the foot being fix'd, thus led the eye, I pitch my walk low, but my prospect high. New too, to teach my opinions not t' submit Nor yet to walk on edges, where they may Nor to search out for new paths, where Knowing that deeps are ways Where no impression stays; Nor servile thus, nor curious, may I then Approve my faith to Heaven, my life to men. But I who thus present myself as new, Am thus made new by you. Had not your rays dwelt on me, one long night Your beams exhale me from among Now gives not, but returns. To others then be this a day of thrift: ON A VIRTUOUS YOUNG GENTLEWOMAN THAT DIED SUDDENLY. When the old flaming Prophet climb'd the sky, That she could die, or that she could live here. |