Whose bosom stuck with purple violets,
Half-budded lilies, and young musk-rose trees,
About whose waist the amorous woodbine twines,
Whilst they seem maidens in a lover's arms;
There on the curled forehead of a bank,
That swell'd with camomile, over whose beauty
A wanton hyacinth held down his head,
And by the wind's help oft stole many a kiss,
He sate us down, and thus we did arrive."

"Discontent.

1

Th. Dekkar.

"Disquiet thoughts the minutes of her watch,
Full from her cave the fiend full oft doth fly.
To Kings she goes, and troubles them with wars,
Setting those high aspiring bonds on fire,
That flame from earth unto the seat of Jove:
To such as Midas, men that doat on wealth,
And rent the bowels of the middle earth
For coin, who gape as did fair Danae

For showers of gold, there Discontent in black
Throws forth the viols of her restless cares :
To such as sit at Paphos for relief,
And offer Venus many solemn vows,
To such as Hymen in his saffron robe
Hath knit a gordian knot of passions,
To these, to all parting the gloomy air,
Black Discontent doth make her bad repair."

R. Greene.

The Editor has concluded the whole with the following lines, printed on the back of a blank page, after the "Finis."

Fame's windy trump blew up this haughty mind
To do, or wish to do, what here you find :

"Twas ne'er held error yet in errant knights,
Which privilege he claims, to dress their fights
In high hyperboles; for youth's example,

To make their minds, as they grow men, grow ample.
Thus such achievements are essay'd and done,
As pass the common power and sense of man.
Then let high spirits strive to imitate,

Not what he did, but what he doth relate.

ART. XXX.

Bel-vedére, or the Garden of the
Muses.

Quem referent Musæ vivet, dum robora tellus, Dum cœlum stellas, dum vehit amnis aquas.a Imprinted at London, by F. K. for Hugh Astley, dwelling at Saint Magnus Corner. 1600. Small, 8vo. pp. 236, besides the Table of Contents, &c. A second edition of this book, with the omission of "Belvedere," in the title-page, was

Printed at London by E. A. for John Tap, and sold at his shop at Saint Magnus Corner. 1610., THE laudable compiler of this poetical commonplace book, was John Bodenham, who prefixed his

a Beneath this motto was an emblematical device of the sun, (Apollo) shining upon a laurel, planted between the biforked summits of Parnassus; which was thus ridiculed, as well as the Editor, in an old play called The Return from Parnassus. "I wonder this owl dares look on the sun, and I marvel this goose flies not the laurel his device might have been better-a fool going into the market-place to be seen with this motto, Scribimus indocti: or a poor beggar gleaning of ears in the end of harvest, with this word, Sua cuique gloria.

Who blurs fair paper with foul bastard rhymes,
Shall live full many an age in latter times:

arms, and of whom little seems to be known but that he was the editor also of Politeuphia, or Wit's Commonwealth in 1598, of Wit's Theatre of the Little World in 1599, and of England's Helicon in 1600; before which publication a Sonnet was addressed to him by A. B. and has been reprinted in this volume. See ante.

From that sonnet and from a prose address which follows, it appears that A. B. was a fellow-labourer with Bodenham, to whom he inscribed a poetical compliment before the Belvidere.* This is followed by a Sonnet to the Muses' Garden, signed W. Rankins, Gent.: a few lines in praise of the book, by R. Hathway, the kinsman possibly of Ann Hathaway, who married our great dramatic bard, (as Mr. Malone suggests in his Shakspearian Inquiry ;) and two Sonnets directed to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge the latter signed Sua cuique gloria. The following encomium on the work is so gracefully constructed, that it may well authorize transcription.

66 Of this Garden of the Muses.

Thou, which delight'st to view this goodly plot,
Here take such flowers as best shall serve thy use;
Where thou may'st find in every curious knot,
Of special virtue and most precious juice,

Who makes a ballad for an alehouse door
Shall live in future times for evermore :

Then (Bodenham) thy Muse shall live so long,

As drafty ballads to thy praise are sung."

b See Gwillim's Display of Heraldry, p. 321, edit. 1638. viz. Az. a fesse betw. 3 chess-rooks, Or.

* Another Sonnet by A. M. may be ascribed to Anthony Munday.

Set by Apollo in their several places,
And nourished with his celestial beams,
And water'd, by the Muses and the Graces,
With the fresh dew of those Castalian streams.
What scent or colour canst thou but devise,
That is not here, that may delight the sense?
Or what can Art or Industry comprise
That in abundance is not gather'd hence ?
No Garden yet was ever half so sweet,
As where Apollo and the Muses meet!

A. B.

But the most curious portion of this volume appears to be the editor's proemium, which becomes an object of attractive regard from having been omitted in the second impression.

"To the Reader.

"It shall be needlesse (gentle reader) to make any apologie for the defence of this labour; because collected from so many singular men's workes, and the worth of them all having been so especially approved, and past with no mean applause the censure of all in generall, doth both disburden me of that paines, and sets the better approbation on this excellent booke. It shall be sufficient for me then to tell thee, that here thon art brought into the Muses' Garden; a place that may beseeme the presence of the greatest prince in the world. Imagine then, thy height of happinesse, in being admitted to so celestiall a paradise. Let thy behaviour then, while thou art here, answere thy great fortune, and make use of thy time as so rich a treasure requireth.

"The walkes, alleys, and passages in this Garden, are almost infinite; every where a turning; on all

sides such windings in and out; yet all extending both to pleasure and profit, as very rare or seldome shalt thou see the like. Marke then, what varietie of flowres grow all along as thou goest, and trample on none rudely, for all are right precious. If thy conscience be wounded, here are store of hearbes to heale it: if thy doubts be fearefull, here are flowres of comfort: are thy hopes frustrated, here's immediate helpes for them. In briefe, what infirmitie canst thou have, but here it may be cured? What delight or pleasure wouldst thou have, but here it is affoorded?

"Concerning the nature and qualitie of these excellent flowres, thou seest that they are most learned, grave, and wittie sentences; each line being a severall sentence, and none exceeding two lines at the uttermost. All which, being subjected under apt and proper heads, as arguments, what is then dilated and spoken of; even so, each head hath first his definition in a couplet sentence; then the single and double sentences, by variation of letter do follow; and lastly, similies and examples in the same nature likewise, to conclude every head or argument handled. So let this serve to shew thee the whole intent of this worke.

"Now that every one may be fully satisfied concerning this Garden, that no one man doth assume to him-selfe the praise thereof, or can arrogate to his owne deserving those things, which have been derived from so many rare and ingenious spirits; I have set down both how, whence, and where, these flowres had their first springing, till thus they were drawne together into the Muses Garden; that every ground máy challenge his owne, each plant his particular, aud no one be injuried in the justice of his merit.