Why then should lovers (most will say) Love is like youth: he thirsts for age, We know that Hope and Love are twins; Hope gone, fruition now begins: But what is this? unconstant, frail, In nothing sure, but sure to fail, Which, if we lose it, we bewail; And when we have it, still we bear The worst of passions, daily fear! When Love thus in his centre ends, The weakest givers of relief, Stand in his council as the chief. And now he, to his period brought, From Love becomes some other thought. These lines I write not to remove United souls from serious love: The best attempts by mortals made Reflect on things which quickly fade; Yet never will I men persuade To leave affections, where may shine Impressions of the love divine. BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER. John Fletcher, son of the bishop of London, was born in 1576, and Francis Beaumont in 1585; but it is impossible to separate two names so closely united during their lives. It is generally supposed that Fletcher was superior in wit and imagination, Beaumont (though the younger man) in taste and judgment. Their earliest composition was "The "Woman Hater," printed in 1607, 4to. Beaumont died in the twenty-ninth, and Fletcher in the forty-ninth year of his age. They were both educated in the University of Cambridge. SONG. [In "The Knight of the Burning Pestle."] But contented lives for aye: The more he laughs the more he may. SONG. [In "The Nice Valour.”] HENCE all you vain delights, Wherein you spend your folly! But only melancholy, Oh sweetest melancholy! Welcome folded arms, and fixed eyes; A look that's fasten'd to the ground; Fountain-heads and pathless groves, A midnight bell, a parting groan, upon ! Then stretch our bones in a still gloomy valley: Nothing's so dainty sweet as lovely melancholy. SONG. [In "The Masque," &c.] YE should stay longer if we durst- And not a creature nigh them, Could catch his scythe as he doth pass, A sad Song. [In "The Queen of Corinth."] WEEP no more, nor sigh, nor groan! Sorrow calls no time that's gone. Violets pluck'd the sweetest rain |