Upon a bloody errand; you entreated That, when she came into that blessed garden Theoph. Cannot I see this garden? And the most bright-cheek'd child I ever view'd ; Theoph. And guarded. Saw you not Here he enter'd, a young lad; A thousand blessings danc'd upon his eyes; A smooth-fac'd glorious thing, that brought this basket. Geta. No, sir. Theoph. Away! but be in reach, if my voice calls you. -DECKER. LADIES DANCING. A fine sweet earthquake, gently mov'd APRIL AND WOMEN'S TEARS. Trust not a woman when she cries, -DECKER, DEATH. There's a lean fellow beats all conquerors. -Id. PATIENCE. Duke. What comfort do you find in being so calm? Candido. That which green wounds receive from sovereign balm. Patience, my lord! why, 't is the soul of peace; Of all the virtues 't is nearest kin to heaven; It is the greatest enemy to law That can be, for it doth embrace all wrongs, And so chains up lawyers and women's tongues: 'Tis the perpetual prisoner's liberty, His walks and orchards : 't is the bond-slave's freedom, And makes him seem proud of his iron chain, As though he wore it more for state than pain; It is the beggars' music, and thus sings,― -DECKER. I had a doubt whether to put this exquisite passage into the present volume, or to reserve it for one of Contemplative poetry; but the imagination, which few will not think predominant in it, together with a great admiration of the sentiments, of the thoughtful, good-natured alternation of jest and earnest, and of the sweetness of the versification, increased by a certain wild mixture of rhyme and blank verse, determined me to indulge the impulse. Perhaps Decker, who had experienced the worst troubles of poverty, not excepting loss of liberty, drew his patient man from himself, half jesting over the portrait, in order to reconcile his praises of the virtue in the abstract with a modest sense of it in his own person. To the strain in it of a "higher mood," I cannot but append what Mr. Hazlitt has said in his Lectures on the Literature of the Age of Elizabeth (Templeman's edition, p. 21). "There have been persons who, being sceptics as to the divine mission of Christ, have taken an unaccountable prejudice to his doctrines, and have been disposed to deny the merit of his character; but this was not the feeling of the great men in the age of Elizabeth (whatever might be their belief), one of whom says of him, with a boldness equal to its piety, 'The best of men,'" &c. (Here the lecturer quotes the verses alluded to, and adds,)" This was honest old Decker; and the lines ought to embalm his memory to every one who has a sense either of religion, or philosophy, or humanity, or true genius." A WICKED DREAM. Vittoria Corombona. To pass away the time I'll tell your grace A dream I had last night. Brachiano. Most wishedly. Vit. Cor. A foolish idle dream. Methought I walk'd, about the mid of night, As I sat sadly leaning on a grave Under that yew, Checquer'd with cross-sticks, there came stealing in A pickaxe bore, th' other a rusty spade, And in rough terms they 'gan to challenge me Brach. Vit. Cor. That tree? This harmless yew. They told me my intent was to root up That well-known yew, and plant i' th' stead of it : With pickaxe 'gan to dig; and your fell duchess The earth, and scattered bones: Lord, how, methought, I could not pray Flamineo (aside). No; the devil was in your dream. Vit. Cor. When to my rescue there arose, methought, A whirlwind, which let fall a massy arm From that strong plant; And both were struck dead by that sacred yew, In that base shallow grave which was their due. Flamineo (aside). Excellent devil! she hath taught him in a dream To make away his duchess and her husband. -WEBSTER NATURAL DEATH. O thou soft natural death, that art joint twin -Id. FUNERAL DIRGE. (Sung by a Mother over her Son.) Call for the robin redbreast and the wren, The friendless bodies of unburied men. The ant, the field-mouse, and the mole, To raise him hillocks that shall keep him warm; -Id. "I never saw," says Lamb, "anything like this dirge, except the ditty which reminds Ferdinand of his drowned father in the Tempest. That is of the water, watery; so |