CCXLIX. When to the gloomy woods, When to the barren plain, When to the stony rocks and sullen floods Yet these my piercing moans That they to me reply : But cruel she, more senseless than hard stones, No answer gives-unmoved still remains. CCL. If floods of tears could cleanse my follies past, Set also by John Dowland, in his Second Book of Madrigals. * "With smoke of sighs sometime I might behold CCLI. Have I found her? O, rich finding ! Chain me to thee with that hair. Next to the eyes, the hair is considered to possess the greatest power over a lover's heart*, and upon the authority of most poets from Homer downwards, that of a light colour receives the highest admiration. Venus, Helen, Dido, Briseis, &c. were flavicomæ omnes. The golden hair of Jason inflamed the heart of Medea: Paris, Menelaus, Patroclus and Achilles were all yellow-haired. In England she whose hair was like threads of gold, and in Scotland the lassie wi' the lint white locks have been equally celebrated. This Madrigal is also set by Pilkington, A.D. 1612. CCLII. Camilla fair tripp'd o'er the plain, I followed quickly after; Have overtak'n her I would fain, And kiss'd when I had caught her. *"O Helen, fair beyond compare! "I'll make a garland of thy hair See also No. CCLIV. Scotch Ballad, Helen of Kirconnell. But hope being past, her to obtain, She answer'd me with great disdain, CCLIII. Cupid in a bed of roses Sleeping, chanced to be stung reposes: And thus to his mother weeping As he lay securely sleeping. That if so great sorrow spring From a silly bee's weak sting, As can make thee thus dismay'd; What anguish feel they, think'st thou, and what pain, This will at once be recognised as a translation, (and by no means an inelegant one,) of the well-known ode of AnaI have not been able to ascertain the author, nor am I aware of an entire English version of Anacreon, bearing date earlier than that by Stanley, anno 1651. creon. CCLIV. Her hair's a net of golden wire, Wherein my heart led by my wand'ring eyes It can or will again retire; But rather will in that sweet bondage die, The two last lines are neatly turned. Having already commented (vide No. CCLI.) upon the power of Ladies' hair in binding the heart of Man, I shall merely illustrate the present Madrigal by a translation from an old writer. "The hairs are Cupid's nets to catch all comers; a brushy "wood in which he builds his nest, and under whose shadow "all loves a thousand several ways sport themselves." CCLV. Fond love is blind, blind therefore lovers be; I laugh'd at him, but now deserve like blame. Ah, Cupid grant that I may never see Her, who thus thro' mine ear hath wounded me ; Cupid, alas! then I no longer live : But die, poor wretch, shot thro' and thro' the liver*, * Vide No. CXCIV. The poet here seems to have fallen in love from the report of others. RICHARD ALISON Was the author of a Publication entitled "An Hour's Recreation in music, apt for instruments "and voices, framed for the delight of gentlemen and "others which are well affected to that quality. All for the "most part with two trebles, necessary for such as teach "in private families; with a prayer for the long preserva"tion of the King and his posterity, and a thanksgiving for "the deliverance of the whole estate from the late conspiracy*; by Richard Alison, Gentleman, and Practicioner "in the Art. London: printed by John Windet, the assigne "of William Barley, and are to be sold at the Golden An"chor in Paternoster-row, 1606." Dedicated to 66 "The right worthily honoured and most free respecter "of all virtue, my esteemed and singular good Patron, Sir "John Scudamore, Knight. "How noble, how ancient, and how effectual the Art "of Music is, many excellent discourses of theorists, deeply "learned in the science, have already so confirmed and "illustrated, that it might seem as much arrogancy in me "to attempt the praise thereof, as it argues malice or igno66 rance in such as seek to exclude it out of divine or human society. I will only allege one testimony out of an epistle, which that ancient Father Martin Luther did "write to Senfelius the Musician; which is so ample in "commendation of his Art, that it were superfluous to add any other. Music,' saith he, 'to Devils we know is "hateful and intolerable, and I plainly think, neither am 66 66 66 * The Gunpowder Plot. |