Ho. Dearest treasure of my thought, Wo. With my life thou wert not dear: But be so, and so appear. Ho. Give me love for love again; Heaven is fairest, when 'tis clearest : Wo. Lest in clouds and in differing, Farthest off when we are nearest. Wo. And if Hoskins chance to say, H. W. III. THE CHARACTER OF A HAPPY LIFE.1 (Circ. 1614.) OW happy is he born and taught And simple truth his utmost skill; "Rel. Wotton." Said to have been printed in 1614, with Overbury's "Wife," &c.; traced at Dulwich with the date Whose passions not his masters are; Of public fame or private breath; Who envies none that chance doth raise, Who God doth late and early pray This man is freed from servile bands And, having nothing, yet hath all. 1616; and quoted as Wotton's to Drummond by Ben Jonson in 1619. Mr. Collier has printed a copy from Ben Jonson's nandwriting, "Life of Alleyn," p. 53. Also as Wotton's in MS. Malone, 13, fol. 11; in MS. Malone, 19, p. 138; and in Clark's" Aurea Legenda," 1682, p. 96. There are many other old copies. Said to be almost identical with a German poem of the same age; "Notes and Queries," vol. ix., p. 420. IV. THIS HYMN WAS MADE BY SIR H. WOTTON, WHEN HE WAS AN AMBASSADOR AT VENICE, IN THE TIME OF A GREAT SICK NESS THERE.1 TERNAL mover, whose diffused glory, Unfolds itself in clouds of nature's story, For what are we but lumps of walking clay? Are not brute beasts as strong, and birds as gay,- Thou then, our strength, Father of life and death, 1 "Rel. Wotton." Erroneously ascribed to Sir Walter Raleigh, as written "in the unquiet rest of his last sickness," in "Topographer," vol. i. p. 425, on the authority of a Brit. Mus. MS. From me, Thy tenant of this fading breath, Accept those lines which from Thy goodness flow, And Thou, that wert Thy regal Prophet's muse, Do not Thy praise in weaker strains refuse! Let these poor notes ascend unto Thy throne, Where majesty doth sit with mercy crowned, Where my Redeemer lives, in whom alone The errors of my wandering life are drowned: Where all the choir of Heaven resound the same, That only Thine, Thine is the saving name! Well, then, my soul, joy in the midst of pain; And conquer His own justice with His love; Future in hope, but present in belief: Thy words are true, Thy promises are just, V. UPON THE SUDDEN RESTRAINT OF THE EARL OF SOMERSET (Oct. 18, 1615.) AZZLED thus with height of place, Then, since Fortune's favours fade, But if greatness be so blind As to trust in towers of air, That at least the fall be fair. Then, though darkened, you shall say, Virtue is the roughest way, But proves at night a bed of down. H. W. "Rel. Wotton." ." Also as Wotton's in Sancroft's MS., Tann. 465, fol. 61 verso; in MS. Rawl. Poet. 147, p. 97, with the erased title, (6 Sr H. W. on ye Duke of Somer. ;" and in Clark's "Aurea Legenda," 1682, p. 97. In some less authorized copies it is represented as addressed "to the Lord Bacon, when falling from favour." See Park's Walpole, "R. and N. A.," vol. ii. p. 208, note; and "Notes and Queries," vol. i. p. 302. |