St. Peter's Complaint reminds one of Lucrece also in the minuteness of its narration, and in the unfailing abundance of thought and fancy with which every detail is treated. It is undoubtedly the work of a mind of no ordinary copiousness and force, often embarrassed by its own riches, and so expending them with a prodigal carelessness. Thus Southwell's defects spring not from poverty, but from imperfectly managed wealth; or, to use a different image, the flowers are overcrowded in his garden, and the blaze of colour is excessive. Still, flowers they are. Like many another Elizabethan, he was wanting in art; his genius ran riot.

VOL. I.

11

JOHN W. HALES.

TIMES GO BY TURNS.

The lopped tree in time may grow again;
Most naked plants renew both fruit and flower;
The sorest wight may find release of pain,
The driest soil suck in some moist'ning shower ;
Times go by turns and chances change by course,
From foul to fair, from better hap to worse.

The sea of Fortune doth not ever flow,

She draws her favours to the lowest ebb;

Her time hath equal times to come and go,

Her loom doth weave the fine and coarsest web;
No joy so great but runneth to an end,
No hap so hard but may in fine amend

Not always fall of leaf nor ever spring,
No endless night yet not eternal day;
The saddest birds a season find to sing,
The roughest storm a calm may soon allay;
Thus with succeeding turns God tempereth all,
That man may hope to rise yet fear to fall.

A chance may win that by mischance was lost;
The well that holds no great, takes little fish;
In some things all, in all things none are cross'd,
Few all they need, but none have all they wish;
Unmeddled joys here to no man befall,
Who least hath some, who most hath never all.

LOSS IN DELAY.

Shun delays, they breed remorse;

Take thy time while time is lent thee;

Creeping snails have weakest force,

Fly their fault lest thou repent thee.
Good is best when soonest wrought,
Linger'd labours come to nought.

Hoist up sail while gale doth last,

Tide and wind stay no man's pleasure; Seek not time when time is past,

Sober speed is wisdom's leisure.
After-wits are dearly bought,
Let thy forewit guide thy thought.
Time wears all his locks before,

Take thy hold on his forehead;
When he flies he turns no more,
And behind his scalp's naked.
Works adjourn'd have many stays,
Long demurs breed new delays.
Seek thy salve while sore is green,
Fester'd wounds ask deeper lancing;
After-cures are seldom seen,

Often sought, scarce ever chancing.
Time and place give best advice,
Out of season, out of price.

Crush the serpent in the head,

Break ill eggs ere they be hatch'd;

Kill bad chickens in the tread,

Fledged, they hardly can be catch'd.

In the rising stifle ill,

Lest it grow against thy will.

Drops do pierce the stubborn flint,

Not by force but often falling;

Custom kills with feeble dint,

More by use than strength and vailing.

Single sands have little weight,

Many make a drawing freight.

Tender twigs are bent with ease,

Aged trees do break with bending; Young desires make little prease ',

Growth doth make them past amending Happy man, that soon doth knock

Babel's babes against the rock!

press, crowd.

THE BURNING BABE.

As I in hoary winter's night stood shivering in the snow, Surprised I was with sudden heat which made my heart to glow; And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near,

A pretty babe all burning bright did in the air appear,

Who scorched with exceeding heat such floods of tears did shed, As though His floods should quench His flames with what His tears were fed;

Alas! quoth He, but newly born in fiery heats of fry,

Yet none approach to warm their hearts or feel my fire but I!
My faultless breast the furnace is, the fuel wounding thorns ;
Love is the fire and sighs the smoke, the ashes shame and scorns;
The fuel Justice layeth on, and Mercy blows the coals;
The metal in this furnace wrought are men's defiled souls;
For which, as now on fire I am, to work them to their good,
So will I melt into a bath, to wash them in my blood:
With this He vanish'd out of sight, and swiftly shrunk away,
And straight I called unto mind that it was Christmas-day.

FROM ST. PETER'S COMPLAINT.'

Like solest swan, that swims in silent deep,
And never sings but obsequies of death,
Sigh out thy plaints, and sole in secret weep,
In suing pardon spend thy perjur'd breath;
Attire thy soul in sorrow's mourning weed,
And at thine eyes let guilty conscience bleed.

Still in the 'lembic of thy doleful breast

Those bitter fruits that from thy sins do grow;

For fuel, self-accusing thoughts be best;

Use fear as fire, the coals let penance bl w;
And seek none other quintessence but tears,
That eyes may shed what enter'd at thine ears.

Come sorrowing tears, the offspring of my grief,
Scant not your parent of a needful aid;
In you I rest the hope of wish'd relief,

By you my sinful debts must be defray'd:
Your power prevails, your sacrifice is grateful,
By love obtaining life to men most hateful.

Come good effect of ill-deserving cause,

Ill gotten imps, yet virtuously brought forth; Self-blaming probates of infringed laws,

Yet blamed faults redeeming with your worth; The signs of shame in you each eye may read, Yet, while you guilty prove, you pity plead.

O beams of mercy! beat on sorrow's cloud,

Pour suppling showers upon my parched ground; Bring forth the fruit to your due service vow'd, Let good desires with like deserts be crown'd: Water young blooming virtue's tender flow'r, Sin did all grace of riper growth devour.

Weep balm and myrrh, you sweet Arabian trees, With purest gums perfume and pearl your rine; Shed on your honey-drops, you busy bees,

I, barren plant, must weep unpleasant brine:
Hornets I hive, salt drops their labour plies,
Suck'd out of sin, and shed by showering eyes.

If David, night by night, did bathe his bed,
Esteeming longest days too short to moan;
Tears inconsolable if Anna shed,

Who in her son her solace had foregone;
Then I to days and weeks, to months and years,
Do owe the hourly rent of stintless tears.

If love, if loss, if fault, if spotted fame,

If danger, death, if wrath, or wreck of weal, Entitle eyes true heirs to earned blame,

That due remorse in such events conceal : That want of tears might well enrol my name, As chiefest saint in kalendar of shame.