For God, on Earth, she is the royall throne,
The chosen cloth to make His mortall weede ;
The quarry to cutt out our Corner-stone,
Soyle full of fruite, yet free from mortall seede;
For heavenly floure she is the Jesse rodd
The childe of man, the parent of a God.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

St. i. line 1, 'Ave maris stella,' hymn at Vespers of F. of the Holy Rosary, &c.: 'Stella maris,' of hymn 'Alma Redemptoris :' 'Stella matutina,' Litany of B.V. or Litany of Loretto; the 'stella maris' being stella matutina, or the morning-star in the East, with a people who had the sea eastward of them. Line 2, cf.

=

5, 1596 reads 'inclosed' for 'engolfed:' so 1630 also.

6, cf. St. Peter's Complaint, st. i. line 5, and relative note: 1596 and 1630 misprint 'care' for card.'

Line 9, see relative note on the Conception of our Ladie, st. i. lines 3-4.

St. ii. line 3, 1630 and 1634 misprint after 1596 'call'd,' which TURNBULL repeated.

Line 11, cf. St. Peter's Complaint, st. lxxx. line 2.

St. iii. line 2, our мs. reads this;' but as 'His' is better, and is in 1596, I prefer it: 1596 in line 3 reads 'his little.' Line 4, 1634, misreads blunderingly,

'Soile full of, yet free from, all mortall seed ;'

and again TURNBULL perpetuates. Mortal=deadly.

Line 5, in Addl. мss. 10.422 Jesse's' in 1596 and 1630 'Iessa.' Cf. Isaiah xi. It may be noted, that while Auth. Vers. reads here Branch,' the Vulg. has 'flower,' -'et flos de radice ascendet.'

6

In 1596 the poem is not divided into stanzas, and so throughout in this series. The heading is simply 'Her Natiuitie.' G.

OUR LADYE'S SPOUSALLS.

WIFE did she live, yet virgin did she die,
Untowchd of man, yet mother of a sonne;
To save herself and childe from fatall lye,

To end the webb whereof the thredd was spoone, In mariage knottes to Josephe she was tyde, Unwonted workes with wonted veyles to hide.

God lent His paradice to Josephe's care,

Wherein He was to plante the tree of life;
His Sonne, of Joseph's childe the title bare,

Just cause to make the mother Josephe's wife.
O blessed man! betrothd to such a spouse,
More blessd to live with such a childe in house!

Noe carnall love this sacred league procurde,

All vayne delites were farre from their assent; Though both in wedlock bands them selves assurde,

Yet strait by vow they seald their chast entent: Thus had she virgins', wives', and widowes' crowne, And by chast childbirth doubled her renowne.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

St. i. line 2, 1596 misreads 'Vntaught' for 'Untowchd.'
Line 6, 1596 misreads' wiles' for 'veyles,' and so 1630.
St. ii. line 5, 1596 reads badly 'betroth'd too much.'
St. iii. line 1, 1596 reads 'his' for this.'

Line 3, 1596 reads 'Though both themselues,' and so 1630. 4, 1596, 1630 and 1634 read' chaste' for 'strait;' and SO TURNBULL.

Line 5, 1596 and 1630 read 'the' for 'she.'

In 1596 the heading is simply 'Her Spousalls.' G.

OUR LADIE'S SALUTATION.

SPELL Eva backe and Ave shall yowe finde,
The first beganne, the last reversd our harmes ;
An angell's witching wordes did Eva blynde,

An angell's Ave disinchauntes the charmes :
Death first by woeman's weakenes entred in,
In woeman's vertue life doth nowe beginn.

O virgin brest! the heavens to thee inclyne,

In thee their joy and soveraigne they agnize; Too meane their glory is to match with thyne,

Whose chaste receite God more then heaven did prize. Hayle fayrest heaven, that heaven and earth dost blisse, Where vertewes starres, God sonne of justice is ! sun

With hauty mynd to Godhead man aspird,

And was by pride from place of pleasure chasd; With lovinge mind our manhead God desird, And us by love in greater pleasure placd; Man labouring to ascend procurd our fall, God yelding to descend cut off our thrall.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

St. i. line 1, see relative note on Our Ladie's Natiuitie, st. i. line 3, and also Coventry Mysteries, p. 112, line 16 (Shaks. Soc.), 'Here this name Eva is turned Ave,' and Halliwell's note, p. 412. The quotation from Coventry Mysteries is given incorrectly in Collier, Hist. Dram. p. ii. 176. Cf. also Audæni Epigr. iii. 46.

·

St. ii. lines 1-2, our мs. here and elsewhere reads 'the' for 'thee,' and 'to' for too.' Throughout I give the present forms, as in 1596 and other early and later editions.

Line 2, 1596 misreads 'In thee they joy;' and so 1630 in error. 'Agnize'=acknowledge.

Line 5, 1596, 1630 and 1634 read 'did' for 'dost.'

6, our мs. reads 'starres' inadvertently.

St. iii. line 4, TURNBULL misprints 'And as by love' for ' us.' In 1596 the heading is 'The Virgin's Salutation.' This poem bears throughout, as does The Visitation, recollections of the hymn Gaudii,' &c. as elsewhere.

JOSEPHE'S AMAZEMENT.

WHEN Christ, by grouth, disclosèd His descent
Into the pure receite of Marye's breste,
Poore Joseph, straunger yet to God's intent,

With doubtes of jelious thoughtes was sore opprest;
And, wrought with divers fittes of feare and love,
He nether can her free nor faultye prove.

Now Sence, the wakefull spie of jelious mynde,
By stronge conjectures deemeth her defilde;
But Love, in dome of thinges best lovèd, blynde,
Thinkes rather Sence deceiv'd then her with child;

Yet proofes so pregnant were, that no pretence
Could cloake a thinge so cleare and playne to sence.

Then Joseph, daunted with a deadly wounde,
Let loose the reynes to undeservèd greife;
His hart did throbb, his eyes in teares were drounde,
His life a losse, death seem'd his best releife;

The pleasing relis of his former love

In gallish thoughtes to bitter tast doth prove.

relish