Beasts creep into their dens, and tremble there; Echo itself dare scarce repeat the sound. THEIR fictions were often violent and unnatural. The fish around her crouded, as they do To the false light that treacherous fisher's shew, As she at first took me i 7 COWLEY. Upon a paper written with the juice of a lemon, and read by the fire: Nothing yet in thee is seen, But when a genial heat warms thee within, A new-born wood of various lines there grows; Here sprouts a V, and there a T, And all the flourishing letters stand in rows. COWLEY. As they sought only for novelty, they did not much enquire whether their allusions were to things high or low, elegant or gross; whether they compared the little to the great, or the great to the little. 1 Physick Physick and Chirurgery for a Lover. Gently, ah gently, Madam, touch The wound, which you yourself have made : Which makes me of your hand afraid. Cordials of pity give me now, For I too weak of purgings grow. The World and a Clock. Mahol, th' inferior world's fantastic face, Thro' all the turns of matter's maze did trace; Made up the whole again of every part. COWLEY. COWLEY. A coal-pit has not often found its poct; but that it may not want its due honour, Cleiveland has paralleled it with the Sun: The moderate value of our guiltless ore Had he our pits, the Persian would admire Then let this truth reciprocally run, The sun's heaven's coalery, and coals our sun. Death, a Voyage: No family E'er rigg'd a soul for heaven's discovery, With whom more venturers might boldly dare DONNE. Their thoughts and expressions were sometimes grosly abused, and such as ne figures or licence can reconcile to the understanding. A Lover A Lover neither dead nor alive: Then down I laid my head Down on cold earth; and for a while was dead, And my freed soul to a strange somewhere fled : When back to its cage again I saw it fly; And row her galley here again. Fool, to that body to return Where it condemn'd and destin'd is to burn! Once dead, how can it be, Death should a thing so pleasant seem to thee, That thou should'st come to live it o'er again in me? Woe to her stubborn heart, if once mine come Into the self-same room, 'Twill tear and b'own up all within, Like a grenado shot into a magazin. Then shall Love keep the ashes, and torn parts, Shall out of both one new one make: From her's th' allay; from mine, the metal take. The poetical Propagation of Light: COWLEY. The Prince's favour is diffus'd o'er all, From which all fortunes, names, and nature's fall; Then from those wombs of stars, the Bride's bright eyes, And sowes the court with stars, and doth prevent In light and power, the all-ey'd firmament: First her eye kindles other ladies' eyes, Then from their beams their jewels lustres rise; DONNE. THEY were in very little care to clothe their notions with elegance of dress, and therefore miss the notice and the praise which are often gained by those, who think less, but are more diligent to adorn their thoughts. That a Mistress beloved is fairer in idea than in reality, is by Cowley thus. expressed: Thou in my fancy dost much higher stand, That prayer And I must needs, I'm sure, a loser be, To change thee, as thou'rt there, for very thee. and labour should co-operate, are thus taught by Donne : In none but us, are such mixt engines found, As hands of double office; for the ground We till with them; and them to heaven we raise; Who prayerless labours, or, without this, prays, Doth but one half, that's one. By the same author, a common topick, the danger of procrastination, is thus illustrated: -That which I should have begun In my youth's morning, now late must be done; And I, as giddy travellers must do, Which stray or sleep all day, and having lost Light and strength, dark and tir'd, must then ride post All that man has to do is to live and die; the sum of humanity is comprehended by Donne in the following lines: Think in how poor a prison thou didst lie; After enabled but to suck and cry. Think, when 'twas grown to most, 'twas a poor inn, A province pack'd up in two yards of skin, And that usurp'd, or threaten'd with a rage Of sicknesses, or their true mother, age. But think that death hath now enfranchis'd thee; Think, that a rusty piece discharg'd is flown In pieces, and the bullet is his own. And freely flies: this to thy soul allow, Think thy shell broke, think thy soul hatch'd but now. THEY were sometimes indelicate and disgusting. Cowley thus apostrophises beauty: -Thou tyrant, which leav'st no man free! Thou subtle thief, from whom nought safe can be! Thou murtherer, which hast kill'd, and devil, which wouldst damn me. Thus he addresses his Mistress: Thou who, in many a propriety, So truly art the sun to me, Add one more likeness, which I'm sure you can, And let me and my sun beget a man. Thus he represents the meditations of a Lover: Though in thy thoughts scarce any tracts have been Such THEIR expressions sometimes raise horror, when they intend perhaps to be pathetic : As men in hell are from diseases free, So from all other ills am I, COWLEY. THEY were not always strictly curious, whether the opinions from which they drew their illustrations were true; it was enough that they were popular. Bacon remarks, that some falsehoods are continued by tradition, because they supply commodious allusions. It gave a piteous groan, and so it broke ; In vain it something would have spoke : Like poison put into a Venice-glass. COWLEY. In forming descriptions, they looked out not for images, but for conceits. 'Night has been a common subject, which poets have contended to adorn. Dryden's Night is well known; Donne's is as follows: Thou seest me here at midnight, now all rest: To-morrow's |