And did myself disclose
Unto the lad benighted.
5. I saw he had a bow,
And wings, too, which did shiver;
And looking down below,
I spied he had a quiver.
6. I to my chimney's shine
Brought him, as love professes,
And chafed his hands with mine,
And dried his drooping tresses.
7. But when he felt him warmed,
"Let's try this bow of ours
And string, if they be harmed,”
Said he, "with these late showers."
8. Forthwith his bow he bent,
And wedded string and arrow,
And struck me, that it went
Quite through my heart and marrow.
9. Then laughing loud, he flew
Away, and thus said flying,—
"Adieu, mine host, adieu!
I'll leave thy heart a-dying."
GEORGE WITHER.
Born 1588-Died 1667.
A MAP OF ENGLAND.1
Fair England, in the bosom of the seas,
Amid her two-and-fifty provinces,
Sits like a glorious empress, whose rich throne
Great nymphs of honour come to wait upon.
First in the height of bravery appears
Kent, East and South, and Middle Saxon shires;
1 The author, having to wait in a friend's dining-room, amused himself with a map
of England which he found there.
Next Surrey, Berkshire, and Southampton get,
With Dorset, Wilton, and rich Somerset ;
Then Devon, with the Cornish promontory,
Gloucester and Worcester, fair Sabrina's glory!
Then Salop, Suffolk, Norfolk large and fair;
Oxford and Cambridge, that thrice-learned pair!
Then Lincoln, Derby, Yorkshire, Nottingham,
Northampton, Warwick, Stafford, Buckingham.
Chester and Lancaster, with herds well stored,
Huntingdon, Hertford, Rutland, Hereford;
The princely Durham, Bedford, Leicester, and
Northumber―, Cumber—, and cold Westmoreland.
Brave English shires! with whom, loved equally,
Welsh Monmouth, Radnor, and Montgomery
Add all the glory to her train they can ;
So doth Glamorgan, Brecknock, Cardigan,
Carnarvon, Denbigh, Merionethshire,
With Anglesea, which o'er the sea doth rear
Her lofty head. And the first, though last,
Flint, Pembroke, and Caermarthen might be placed.
For all of these unto their power maintain
Their mistress, England, with a royal train :
Yea, for supporters, at each hand hath she
The Wight and Man, that two brave islands be.
From thee I to the Scottish Nymphs had journeyed,
But that my friend was back again returned,
Who having kindly brought me to his home,
Alone did leave me in his dining-room;
Where I was fain (and glad I had the hap!)
To beg an entertainment of his Map.
Quips, and cranks, and wanton wiles,
Nods, and becks, and wreathed smiles.
Such as hang on Hebe's cheek,
And love to live in dimple sleek;
Sport that wrinkled Care derides,
And Laughter holding both his sides.
Come, and trip it as you go
On the light fantastic toe;
And in thy right hand lead with thee
The mountain-nymph, sweet Liberty:
And, if I give thee honour due,
Mirth, admit me of thy crew,
To live with her, and live with thee,
In unreproved pleasures free:
To hear the lark begin his flight,
And singing startle the dull night,
From his watch-tower in the skies,
Till the dappled dawn doth rise;
Then to come, in spite of sorrow,
And at my window bid good-morrow,
Through the sweet-brier, or the vine,
Or the twisted 'eglantine:
While the cock with lively din
Scatters the rear of darkness thin,
And to the stack, or the barn-door,
Stoutly struts his dames before:
Oft list'ning how the hounds and horn
Cheerly rouse the slumbering morn,
From the side of some hoar hill,
Through the high wood echoing shrill :
Sometimes walking not unseen
By hedgerow elms, on hillocks green,
Right against the eastern gate,
Where the great sun begins his state,
Robed in flames and amber light,
The clouds in thousand liveries 'dight;
While the ploughman near at hand
Whistles o'er the furrowed land,
And the milkmaid singeth blithe,
1 Quips and cranks, witty turns of 2 Hebë, the goddess of youth.
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