The pride of her carnation train,
Pluck'd up by fome unheedy fwain,

Who only thought to crop the flow'r
New shot up from vernal show'r;
But the fair blossom hangs the head
Side-ways, as on a dying bed,
And those pearls of dew she wears,
Prove to be prefaging tears,
Which the fad morn had let fall
On her haft'ning funeral.
Gentle Lady, may thy grave
Peace and quiet ever have ;

After this thy travel fore
Sweet rest seise thee evermore,
That to give the world increase,
Shortned haft thy own life's lease.
Here, befides the forrowing
That thy noble houfe doth bring,

22. a cypress bud] An emblem of a funeral and it is called in Virgil feralis, Æn. VI. 216. and in Horace funebris Epod. V. 18. and in Spenfer the cypress funeral. Faery Queen. B. I. Cant. I. St. 8.

40

45

50

Here

28. Atropos for Lucina came ;] One of the Fates inftead of the Goddess who brings the birth to light.

49. After this thy travel fore] As fhe died in child-bed. 63. The

Whilft thou, bright Saint, high fitft in glory,

Next her much like to thee in story,

That fair Syrian shepherdess,

Who after years of barrenness,

The highly favor'd Jofeph bore

To him that ferv'd for her before,
And at her next birth much like thee,
Through pangs fled to felicity,
Far within the bosom bright

Of blazing Majefty and Light:
There with thee, new welcome Saint,
Like fortunes may her foul acquaint,

63. The fair Syrian fhepherdess, &c] Rachel, the daughter of Laban the Syrian, kept her father's fheep. Gen. XXIX. 9. and after her firft fon, Jofeph, died in child-bed of her fecond fon, Benjamin. XXXV. 18.

65

70

With

*This beautiful little Song has within these few years been fet to mufic by Mr. Feftin, and performed at Ranelagh gardens.

3. who from her green lap throws &c]

With thee there clad in radiant fheen,
No Marchionefs, but now a Queen.

IX.

* SONG. On MAY MORNING.

NOW the bright morning ftar, day's harbinger,

5

Comes dancing from the east, and leads with her The flow'ry May, who from her green lap throws The yellow cowflip, and the pale primrose. Hail bounteous May that dost inspire Mirth and youth and warm defire; Woods and groves are of thy dressing, Hill and dale doth boast thy bleffing. Thus we falute thee with our early fong, And welcome thee, and with thee long.

X.

+ On SHAKESPEAR. 1630.

WHAT needs my Shakespear for his honor'd bones

The labor of an age in piled stones,

This image feems to be borrow'd from Shakefpear. Richard H. A&t 5. Sc. 4.

who are the violets now

Or

+ This copy of verfes on Shakespear being made in 1630, our poet was then in the 22d year of his age: and it was printed with the

That ftrow the green lap of the new-come poems of that author at London in 1640. spring?

5. Dear

Or that his hallow'd reliques fhould be hid
Under a star-ypointing pyramid ?

Dear fon of memory, great heir of fame,

5

What need'ft thou fuch weak witness of thy name? Thou in our wonder and astonishment

Haft built thyself a live-long monument.

For whilft to th' fhame of flow-endevoring art
`Thy eafy numbers flow, and that each heart
Hath from the leaves of thy unvalued book
Those Delphic lines with deep impression took,
Then thou our fancy of itself bereaving,
Doft make us marble with too much conceiving;
And fo fepulcher'd in fuch pomp dost lie,
That kings for such a tomb would wish to die.

5. Dear fon of memory, ] He honors his favorite Shakespear with the fame relation as the Mufes themselves. For the Mufes are called by the old poets the daughters of memory. See Hefiod Theog. ver. 53

15. And so Sepúlcher'd] We have the word with the fame accent in Fairfax Cant. 1. St. 25.

As if his work fhould his fepulcher be. Milton has pronounced it otherwife, as in Samfon ver. 103.

Myfelf, my fepulchre, a moving grave.

ΙΟ

15

XI.

On the University Carrier, who ficken'd in the time of his vacancy, being forbid to go to London, by reason of the plague.

HERE lies old Hobfon; Death hath broke his girt,

And here alas, hath laid him in the dirt,

Or else the ways being foul, twenty to one,
He's here stuck in a flough, and overthrown.
'Twas such a shifter, that if truth were known,
Death was half glad when he had got him down;
For he had any time this ten years full,
Dodg'd with him, betwixt Cambridge and the Bull.
And furely Death could never have prevail'd,
Had not his weekly course of carriage fail'd;

5

ΙΟ

But

arm, with this infcription upon the faid bag, "The fruitful mother of an hundred more."

Mr. Ray in his Collection of English Proverbs fays that he raised himself to a great estate, and did much good in the town, relieving the poor, and building a public conduit in the market-place. The infcription on the conduit is as follows.

"Thomas Hobfon, late carrier "between London and this town, in his life "time was at the fole charge of erecting this " structure A. D. 1614. He departed this "Life January 1, 1630, and gave by will the Z z

"rent