The crafty boy that sees her sleep, There come, he steals her shafts away, But ere she wakes, hies thence apace. Scarce was he gone when she awakes, Forth flew the shaft and pierc'd his heart, And to the Nymph he ran amain. Amaz'd to see so strange a sight, She shot, and shot, but all in vain ; Her angry eyes are great with tears, She blames her hands, she blames her skiïl ; And try them on herself she will. Take heed, sweet Nymph, try not thy shaft, Yet try she will, and prick some bare, That breast she prick'd, and through that breast At feeling of this new-come guest, Lord, how the gentle Nymph doth start! She runs not now, she shoots no more; Anon., but attributed to 'A. W. A SONNET OF THE MOON. Look how the pale Queen of the silent night Charles Best. SONNET. Were I as base as is the lowly plain, And you, my love, as high as heaven above, Yet should the thoughts of me your humble swain Were I as high as heaven above the plain, Wheresoe'er you were, with you my love should go. Were you the earth, dear love, and I the skies, A HYMN IN PRAISE OF NEPTUNE. Of Neptune's empire let us sing, And every sea-god pays a gem The sea nymphs chant their accents shrill, With their sweet voice, Make every echoing rock reply, OF CORINNA'S SINGING. T. Campion. When to her lute Corinna sings, But when she doth of mourning speak, E'en with her sighs the strings do break. And as her lute doth live and die, E'en from my heart the strings do break. T. Campion. MADRIGAL. (In praise of Two.) Faustina hath the fairest face, MADRIGAL. My Love in her attire doth show her wit, It doth as well become her; For every season she hath dressings fit, For winter, spring, and summer. No beauty she doth miss When all her robes are on; But Beauty's self she is When all her robes are gone. GEORGE CHAPMAN. [BORN, probably, at Hitchin (1557? 1559?). Was sent (1574?) to the University, but whether first to this of Oxon or to that of Cambridge is to me unknown' (Antony Wood). Published The Shadow of Night (1594), Ovid's Banquet of Sense (1595), De Guianâ, Carmen Epicum (1596), Hero and Leander (1598), Seven Books of Homer's Iliad (1598), Achilles' Shield (1598), Euthymiae Raptus, or The Tears of Peace, with Interlocutions (1609), Homer's Tenth Book of his Iliads (1609), Epicedium, or a Funeral Song, in memory of Henry, Prince of Wales (1612), Homer's Iliads in English (1611, 1612), First Twelve Books of the Odyssey (1614), Twenty-four Books of Homer's Odisses (1614, 1615), The Whole Works of Homer (1616), The Crowne of all Homer's Workes, Batrachomyomachia, &c. (1624?). Chapman was also author of many plays. Died May 12, 1634.] In spite of the force and originality of English dramatic poetry in the age of Shakespeare, the poetical character of the time had much in common with the Alexandrian epoch in Greek literary history. At Alexandria, when the creative genius of Greece was almost spent, literature became pedantic and obscure. Poets desired to show their learning, their knowledge of the details of mythology, their acquaintance with the more fantastic theories of contemporary science. The same faults mark the poetry of the Elizabethan age, and few writers were more culpably Alexandrian than George Chapman. The spirit of Callimachus or of Lycophron seems at times to have come upon him, as the lutin was supposed to whisper ideas extraordinarily good or evil, to Corneille. When under the influence of this possession, Chapman displayed the very qualities and unconsciously translated the language of Callimachus. He vowed that he detested popularity, and all that can please 'the commune reader.' He inveighed against the 'invidious detractor' who became a spectre that dogged him in every enterprise. He hid his meaning in a mist of verbiage, within a labyrinth |