An heavenly creature, like an angell bright, That in great haste came pacing towards me:Was never mortall eye beheld so faire a shee! "Thou lazie man! (quoth she) what mak'st thou heere, I heere commaund thee now for to appeare In yonder wood." Which, with her finger shee But straite, methought, I saw a rout of heavenlie race. Downe in a dale, hard by a forrest-side, Under the shadow of a loftie pine, Not far from whence a trickling streame did glide, A pleasant arbour of a spreading vine, A fairer ne'er was seene, if any seene so faire. There might one see, and yet not see, indeede, In this same order sat, with ill-beseeming grace. The sonnets are amatorious, and in number twenty. I extract the last of them; not from preeminence, but because it introduces Spenser and Drayton, under the names of Colin and Rowland; and because it has less of that sexual perversion for which the Complaint of Daphnis was condemned, and many even of the sonnets of Shakspeare deserve condemnation. But now, my Muse, toyl'd with continuall care, But since that everie one cannot be wittie, The "Legend of Cassandra" is of considerable length. Appended is an Ode of such lyric excellence, as almost to leave the proprietorship a divided matter of claim between the present poet and our surpassing Shakspeare. [ The Encomion of Lady Pecunia: or the Praise of Money. By Richard Barnfield, Graduate in Oxford. 1598. The Complaint of Poetrie for the Death of Liberalitie. 1598. This has a dedication in verse "To his worshipfull well-willer, Mr. Edw. Leigh of Grayes Inne." The Combat betweene Conscience and Covetousnesse in the Minde of Maản. Dedicated "To his worshipfull good friend, Mr. John Steventon, of Dothill in Salop, Esq." Poems in divers Humors. 1598. Printed with the former, and dedicated "To the learned and accomplisht gentleman, Mr. Nic. Blackleech of Grayes Inne." Before the first of these pieces was printed the following address. "To the Gentlemen Readers. "Gentlemen, being incouraged through your gentle acceptance of my Cynthia [vide supra] I have once more adventured on your curtesies; hoping to finde you (as I have done heretofore) friendly. Being determined to write of somthing, and yet not resolved of any thing, I considered with my selfe, if one should write of Love, they will say-Why, every one writes of Love: if of Vertue,-Why, who regards Vertue? To be short, I could thinke of nothing, but either it 3 s VOL. IV. was common, or not at all in request. At length I bethought my selfe of a subject, both new (as having never beene written upon before) and pleasing (as I thought) because man's nature, commonly, loves to heare that praised, with whose presence hee is most pleased. "Erasmus (the glory of Netherland, and the refiner of the Latin tongue) wrote a whole Booke in The Prayse of Folly. Then, if so excellent a scholler writ in praise of Vanity, why may not I write in praise of that which is profitable? There are no two countreys where gold is esteemed lesse than in India, and more than in England: the reason is, because the Indians are barbarous, and our nation civill. "I have given Pecunia the title of a woman; both for the termination of the word, and because (as women are) shee is lov'd of men. The bravest voyages in the world have beene made for Gold for it, men have venterd (by sea) to the furthest parts of the Earth. In the pursuite wherof, England's Nestor and Neptune (Hawkins and Drake) lost their lives. Upon the deathes of the which two, of the first I writ this: The waters were his winding sheete, The sea was made his toome; Yet for his fame the ocean-sea Of the latter this: England his hart, his corps the waters have: Barnefield's "Poems, in divers humors," include the following Sonnets, &c. SONNET I. To his friend, Maister R. L.* IN PRAISE OF MUSIQUE AND POETRIE. If Musique and sweet Poetrie agree, As they must needes, (the sister and the brother) Dowland to thee is deare; whose heavenly touch Thou lov'st to heare the sweete melodious sound, When as himselfe to singing he betakes. One god is god of both (as poets faigne) One knight loves both, and both in thee remaine. SONNET II. Against the Dispraysers of Poetrie. Chaucer is dead, and Gower lyes in grave; The Earle of Surrey long agoe is gone ; Sir Philip Sidneis soule the heavens have; George Gascoigne him beforne† was tomb'd in stone. * These initials are likely to appertain to the same unrevealed poet, who put forth "Diella: certaine Sonnets adjoyned to the amorous Poeme of Don Diego and Gineura: by R. L. Gentleman." 1596. + Gascoigne departed nine years before Sir P. Sidney, whose death took place in 1586. |