And next within the entry of this lake But frets within so far forth with the fire When fell Revenge, with bloody foul pretence, His face was lean and some-deal pined away, His food, for most, was wild fruits of the tree; By him lay heavy Sleep, the cousin of Death, The body's rest, the quiet of the heart, Reever of sight, and yet in whom we see 3 fetched. 4 also. 5 companion. 6 bereaver. Things oft that tide,7 and oft that never be; King Croesus' pomp and Irus' poverty. And next in order sad Old Age we found, Crook'd-back'd he was, tooth-shaken, and blear-eyed, And, by and by, a dumb dead corpse we saw, Lastly, stood War, in glittering arms yclad,9 Cities he sack'd, and realms (that whilom flower'd 7 happen. 8 bare. 9 clothed. SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. SIR PHILIP SIDNEY, the glory of Queen Elizabeth's court, presented there the image of a chivalry which belonged rather to that of Edward III. A scholar, a soldier, and a courtier, he was great alike in all the walks of greatness. The estimate in which he was held by the world at large is attested by the foreign throne which was offered to him; while such was the love entertained for him at home, that all England wore mourning at his death. He died on the field of Zutphen. His character is happily illustrated by a well-known trait. A cup of water had been brought to assuage his dying thirst; he waved it away, pointing to a wounded soldier beside him, and saying, "He needs it more than I." The variety of his pursuits prevented Sidney from attaining as high a degree of excellence in literature as would otherwise have been reached by him, even in his brief career; but his poetry, which is replete with beauty, purity, and refined grace, is marked not less by a peculiar and chivalrous nobleness, characteristic of him who was regarded as Europe's first gentleman. At his family seat, Penshurst, many memorials of Sidney are preserved; and amid the groves of Wilton still remains "Sidney's walk." It is a memorial, both of him and of his celebrated sister, the Countess of Pembroke, in concert with whom he wrote his Arcadia. Sidney was born in 1.554, and died in 1586, at the age of thirty-two. SLEEP. With how sad steps, O Moon! thou climb'st the skies, II. Come, Sleep, O Sleep, the certain knot of peace, With shield of proof shield me from out the prease1 And if these things, as being thine by right, MARLOW. CHRISTOPHER MARLOW was born A.D. 1562, and died A.D. 1593. In genius he was a forerunner of Shakespeare. Unfortunately his moral being stood in no proportion to his intellectual; and thus was lost to the world one who would have ranked among her greatest poets. The religious troubles of the age had produced, not only great dissoluteness of morals, but also an incipient spirit of infidelity. Several of the early dramatists were sceptics, and Marlow, whether justly or not, has been branded with the name of atheist. After leaving Cambridge, he betook himself to London, where he became a writer for the stage. He lived a reckless life among his dramatic compeers, and fell, at the age of thirty, in a drunken brawl, stabbed through the head with his own dagger. His most important works are his narrative poem, Hero and Leander, completed after his death by Chapman, and two tragedies, Edward the Second, the first important contribution to England's historical drama, and Faustus, the basis of Goethe's celebrated work. The chief characteristics of Marlow are an impassioned imagination and a masculine vigour, alluded to in the well-known expression, "Marlow's mighty line." His genius was appreciated in his own day. "That elemental wit, Kit Marlowe," is the mode in which he is designated by one of his contemporaries; and Drayton speaks of him as bathed in the Thespian springs." THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE. Come live with me and be my love, And we will sit upon the rocks, By shallow rivers, to whose falls And I will make thee beds of roses, Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle. A gown made of the finest wool, A belt of straw and ivy-buds, The shepherd swains shall dance and sing SOUTHWELL. ROBERT SOUTHWELL was born A.D. 1560, and underwent his martyrdom A.D. 1595. Of all the hundred and twenty-eight Catholic priests put to death in Elizabeth's reign, not one was more worthy of pious commemoration. Descended from an ancient family in Norfolk, he was educated on the Continent, and became a Jesuit at Rome. While on the English mission, he resided chiefly at the house of Anne, Countess of Arundel, who died in the Tower of London. He was thrown into prison in 1592, where he remained three years, during which time he was put on the rack ten several times. Nothing could be proved against him, except what he confessed;-that he was a Catholic priest, and prepared to die for his faith. Such was the condition of the dungeon in which Southwell suffered his long captivity, that his own father petitioned that he might be released from it, although but to die. On the 21st of February 1595, he was hung, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn, being subjected, during a prolonged death, to those horrible tortures commonly undergone by the martyrs of that reign, tortures to which he replied only by repeatedly making the sign of the cross. Besides his poems, which possess a solid energy of diction, as well as a noble spiritual elevation, Southwell left behind |