Fond painters, love is not a lad With bow, and shafts, and feathers clad, Of some loose loving idle swain. And love with love doth love impart. Every creature is thy debtor; None but loves, some worse, some better. Only in love they happy prove Who love what most deserves their love. WILLIAM HABINGTON. 1605-1654. [WILLIAM HABINGTON is not generally known as a dramatist. His poetical reputation rests on a volume of verses called Castara, divided into three parts, the first and second addressed to his wife before and after marriage, and the third to religious subjects. The play from which this song is taken is his only dramatic work, and the song itself, which has something of the nonchalance and freedom of Suckling, without his airiness, is the happiest passage it contains.] THE QUEEN OF ARRAGON. INDIFFERENCE. FINE young folly, though you were That fair beauty I did swear, Yet you ne'er could reach my heart: You are not worth the serious part. When I sigh and kiss your hand, Then dilate on my desires, Swear the sun ne'er shot such fires- When I eye your curl or lace, Gentle soul, you think your face Straight some murder doth commit; And your virtue doth begin To grow scrupulous of my sin, When I talk to shew my wit. Therefore, madam, wear no cloud, Yet though truth has this confessed, When I next begin to court, BARTEN HOLIDAY. 1661. [BARTEN HOLIDAY was born in the latter end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, became at an early age a student of Christ Church College, Oxford, entered orders in 1615, and was appointed archdeacon of the diocese of Oxford. He died in 1661. Langbaine says that he was 'a general scholar, a good preacher, a skilful philosopher, and an excellent poet.' He translated Juvenal and Persius, and published numerous sermons. The singular drama which supplies the following lively song is allegorical, the characters forming a sort of commonwealth of the arts and sciences. In order to give the true relish to this vagrant ditty it should be observed that it is sung by a humorous serving-man, dressed, according to the stage directions, 'in a pale russet suit, on the back whereof is expressed one filling a pipe of tobacco, his hat set round with tobacco-pipes, with a can of drink hanging at his girdle."] TEXNOTAMIA; OR, THE MARRIAGE OF THE ARTS. TOBACCO. TOBACCO OBACCO'S a Musician, And in a pipe delighteth; It descends in a close, Through the organs of the nose, This makes me sing So ho, ho; So ho, ho, boys, Earth ne'er did breed Whereof to boast so proudly. Tobacco is a Lawyer, His pipes do love long cases, When our brains it enters, While we seal with stamping paces. This makes me sing, &c. Tobacco's a Physician, Good both for sound and sickly; "Tis a hot perfume That expels cold rheum, And makes it flow down quickly. This makes me sing, &c. Tobacco is a Traveller, Come from the Indies hither; It passed sea and land, Ere it came to my hand, And 'scaped the wind and weather. This makes me sing, &c. Tobacco is a Critic, That still old paper turneth, Whose labour and care That ascends from a rag when it burneth. This makes me sing, &c. 1630. [WITH Shirley terminates the roll of the great writers whose works form a distinct era in our dramatic literature. He was the last of a race of giants. Born in the reign of Elizabeth, he lived to witness the Restoration, and carried down to the time of Charles I. the moral and poetical elements of the age of Shakespeare. New modes and a new language set in with the Restoration; and the line that separates Shirley from his immediate successors is as clearly defined and as broadly marked as if a century had elapsed between them. Shirley was educated at Merchant-Tailors' School, and from thence removed to St. John's College, Oxford, which he afterwards left to complete his collegiate course at Cambridge. Having entered holy orders, he was appointed to a living at or near St. Albans, in Hertfordshire; but subsequently renounced his ministry, in consequence of having embraced the doctrines of the Church of Rome. For a short time he found occupation as a teacher in a grammar-school, a life of drudgery which he soon relinquished to become a writer for the stage. He produced altogether thirty-three plays; and not the least THE DRAMATISTS. 15 |