and has the following, among several other pleasing

stanzas.

The busie bees from hollow hive dyd haste,

The lyttell antes came swarmynge from theyre cells,
The hissing snakes on sunny bankes were plaste,
And slothfull snayls gan peepe from out their shells:
But I, whiche myghte not byde the heate of daye,
From mottly meades dyd haste my selfe awaye.

The poet hastens into the midst of a pleasant wood, where he is courteously invited to stay by a fair lady, decked with flowers gay, who calls herself Dame Elonis, and who is a sort of floriferous Enchantress. After some conversation, she places her tyro in a bower, where he might observe whatever passed in a Gardenplot adjoining, and soon appeared "a crewe of courtlyke wyghts,"

Lyke lovynge lordes and ladyes there they seemde,
In humayne shape, whych myghte devyne be deemde.
Some hande in hande, some all alone dyd walke;
And as they went, Dame Fancy wylde them chuse
The flower or leafe, the roote or els the stalke,
Whych lykte them beste theyr plesurs so to use:
Thus Fancye strayghte dyd cause them chuse and take
For vertu, smell, or els for collor's sake.

The poet then passes on to represent the proceedings of the courtly crew, to describe the objects of their choice, to allegorise the meaning thereof, and in a prose l'envoy to comment upon and expound the reasons for such choice.

A seemly sir was the fyrste that pluckt the fyrste,
And suche a flower as grewe not wythe the reste;
Not passynge all, ne yett of all the worste,

Butt even the sweet that lyked fancy beste:

A trewe love trymme thys Prymrose, so hit hight,
Was that he chose as chyfe of hys delyght.

Well may I prayse, and yett not parcyall seeme,
Where truth (quothe he) doth boldely beare me owte,
Yf so I may, then must I beste esteme

Thys galant flower for vertue, out of doubte :

My Prymrose sweet ys, lo! a tru-love rare,

As showes her leaves, so even thyrd* whytt they are.

My Prymrose is the lady of the Sprynge,

The lovely flower that fyrst doth showe her face;
Whose worthy prayse the pretty byrdes do synge,
Whose presence sweet the wynter's colde doth chase :
She drawes frome house the wery wynttred wyghtes,
And gladethe them wyth worldes of newe delyghts.

"Howe well the Prymrose, beynge the fyrst flower of the Spryng whyche representethe Youthe, may well be alluded to a tru-love, I leave for you to consider, who by comparing them together shall fynde theyr buddynge, floreshyng, and fadyng, all alycke. And yett, notwythstandynge the choyse thereof so good, as when the bewty fadethe, there restethe a vertu behynde, whyche the shape of the flower dothe sygnyfie; leavynge a kynde of commendacyon to the chusere: who thoughe he desyre to have it youthefull, yett regardethe (so farre as his age permyttethe) to have yt also frutfull. So that as owtewardly it semethe goodly, it inwardlye may be also thought godly."

* I suspect this was intended to mean as white as thread. The idiom resembles that of the old romances.

In this form and manner the author proceeds through twenty-two pages; after which he seems to have intended to ornament his work with figures and flowers. A few of these are sketched in pencil: but the design is left unfinished. There is much ingenuity in the production, mingled with much obscurity: while the laborious effort to make each flower furnish matter for three six-line stanzas, has sometimes attenuated the verse to unmeaning expletives. It is however not undeserving of a place among the published poesies which so profusely issued from the press during the "golden age of good Queen Bess."

The affectionate Shepheard. Containing the Complaint of Daphnis for the love of Ganymede.

Amor plus mellis, quum fellis, est.

London, printed by John Danter, for T. G. and E. N. &c. 1594.

4to. pp. 56.

THIS was Barnefield's first publication. It is inscribed, in a metrical dedication, "to the right excellent and most beautifull lady, the Ladie Penelope Ritch;" and is signatured "Your Honours most affectionate and perpetually devoted shepheard, Daphnis." The volume contains the following items:

1. The teares of an affectionate Shepheard, sicke for love: or the complaint of Daphnis for the love of

Ganimede.

2. The second daye's Lamentation of the affectionate Shepheard.

3. The Shepheard's Content, or the happiness of a harmles life: written upon occasion of the former subject.

4. The Complaint of Chastitie. Briefely touching the cause of the death of Matilda Fitswalters, an English Ladie, sometime loved of King John; after, poysoned. The storie is at large written by M. Drayton.*

5. Hellen's Rape: or a light Lanthorne for light Ladies. Written in English hexameters.

To the "Shepheard's Content" is subjoined the following Sonnet.

Loe here behold these tributarie teares

Paid to thy faire, but cruell tyrant eyes :

Loe! here the blossome of my youthfull yeares,
Nipt with the fresh of thy wrath's winter, dyes.
Here, on Love's altar, I doo offer up
This burning hart, for my soule's sacrifice;
Here I receave this deadly poysned cup

Of Circe charm'd, wherein deepe magicke lyes:
Then teares, (if you be happie teares indeed)
And hart, (if thou be lodged in his brest)
And cup, (if thou can'st help despaire with speed)
Teares, hart, and cup, conjoine to make me blest.

This ascertains the legendary poem of Drayton to have been written

earlier than what has hitherto been apprehended.

Teares move, hart win, cup cause, ruth, love, desire,
In word, in deed, by moane, by zeale, by fire.

The following stanza may bear transcription.

Pride looks aloft, still staring on the starres,

Humility looks lowly on the ground;
Th' one menaceth the gods with civill warres,
The other toyles, till he have vertue found;
His thoughts are humble, not aspiring hye,
But pride looks haughtily with painfull eye.

That the "Complaint of Daphnis" should have been censured for impropriety, cannot be wondered at, when the following stanza is perused, from the " Affeccionate Shepheard." It is in vain to plead the example of Virgil, in his Eclogue of Alexis: such licenses admit of no defence.

I have a pleasant noted nightingale

That sings as sweetly as the silver swan,
Kept in a cage of bone, as white as whale,
Which I, with singing of Philemon wan:
Her shalt thou have, and all I have beside,
If thou wilt be my boy, or els my bride.

I proceed to notice two other poetic publications by the same writer: both of peculiar rarity.