The Whole Works of William Browne of Tavistock ... Now first collected and edited, with a memoir of the poet, and notes, by W. Carew Hazlitt, of the Inner Temple |
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 | The Whole Works of William Browne |  |
—His eyes,
And still attentive eares, doe now discover
Sufficient cause to thincke some haples lover
Inhabited this darke and sullen cell,
Where none but shame or dismall griefe would dwell.
And still attentive eares, doe now discover
Sufficient cause to thincke some haples lover
Inhabited this darke and sullen cell,
Where none but shame or dismall griefe would dwell.
As I have seen a fowler, by the floods
In winter tyme, or by the fleeced woods,
Steale softly, and his stepps full often vary,
As heere and there flutters the wished quarry;
Now with his heele, now with his toe he treads,
Fearing the crackling of the frozen meades;
Avoydes each rotten sticke neere to his foote,
And creepes, and labours thus, to gett a shoote:
Soe Celadyne approaches neere the dore,
Where sighes amaz'd him as the lute before;
Sighes fetchd so deepe, they seemd of powre to carry
A soule fitt for eternitye to marrye.
In winter tyme, or by the fleeced woods,
Steale softly, and his stepps full often vary,
As heere and there flutters the wished quarry;
Now with his heele, now with his toe he treads,
Fearing the crackling of the frozen meades;
Avoydes each rotten sticke neere to his foote,
And creepes, and labours thus, to gett a shoote:
Soe Celadyne approaches neere the dore,
Where sighes amaz'd him as the lute before;
Sighes fetchd so deepe, they seemd of powre to carry
A soule fitt for eternitye to marrye.
Had Dido stood upon her cliffs and seen
Ilium's Æneas stealing from a queen,
And spent her sighes as powrefull as were these,
She had inforc'd the faire Nereides
To answere hers; those had the Nayads wonne,
To drive his winged Pyne rounde with the sun,
And long ere Drake (without a fearfull wrack)
Girdled the world, and brought the wandrer back.
Ilium's Æneas stealing from a queen,
And spent her sighes as powrefull as were these,
She had inforc'd the faire Nereides
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To drive his winged Pyne rounde with the sun,
And long ere Drake (without a fearfull wrack)
Girdled the world, and brought the wandrer back.
Celadyne gently somewhat op'd the dore,
And by a glimmring lampe upon the floore
Descryde a pritty curious rocky cell;
A spoute of water in one corner fell
Out of the rocke upon a little wheele,
Which speedy as it coulde the water feele
Did, by the helpe of other engines lent,
Sett soone on worke a curious instrument,
Whose sounde was like the hollowe, heavy flute,
Joyn'de with a deepe, sadd, sullen, cornemute.
This had the unknowne shepheard sett to playe
Such a soule-thrilling note, that if that day
Celadyne had not seen this uncouth youth
Descend the cave, he would have sworne for truth
That great Apollo, slidd down from his spheare,
Did use to practise all his lessons there.
And by a glimmring lampe upon the floore
Descryde a pritty curious rocky cell;
A spoute of water in one corner fell
Out of the rocke upon a little wheele,
Which speedy as it coulde the water feele
Did, by the helpe of other engines lent,
Sett soone on worke a curious instrument,
Whose sounde was like the hollowe, heavy flute,
Joyn'de with a deepe, sadd, sullen, cornemute.
This had the unknowne shepheard sett to playe
Such a soule-thrilling note, that if that day
Celadyne had not seen this uncouth youth
Descend the cave, he would have sworne for truth
That great Apollo, slidd down from his spheare,
Did use to practise all his lessons there.
Upon a couche the musick's master laye;
And whilst the handlesse instrument did playe
Sadd heavy accents to his woes as deepe,
To wooe him to an everlasting sleepe,
Stretch'd carelesly upon his little bedd,
His eyes fixt on the floore, his carefull head
Leaning upon his palme, his voice but fainte,
Thus to the sullen cave made his complaynte:
And whilst the handlesse instrument did playe
Sadd heavy accents to his woes as deepe,
To wooe him to an everlasting sleepe,
Stretch'd carelesly upon his little bedd,
His eyes fixt on the floore, his carefull head
Leaning upon his palme, his voice but fainte,
Thus to the sullen cave made his complaynte:
| The Whole Works of William Browne | |