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 |
 | 1, 2. |
 |
|
|
|
| I. |
| II. |
| III. |
| IV. |
| V. |
|
| VII. |
| VIII. |
| IX. |
| X. |
TO MY HONOR'D FRIEND MR. DRAYTON. |
 | The Whole Works of William Browne |  |
TO MY HONOR'D FRIEND MR. DRAYTON.
Englands
braue Genius, raise thy head, and see,
We haue a Muse in this mortalitie
Of Vertue yet suruiues; All met not Death,
When wee intoomb'd our deare Elizabeth.
Immortall Sydney, honoured Colin Clout,
Presaging what wee feele, went timely out.
Then why liues Drayton, when the Times refuse,
Both Meanes to liue, and Matter sor a Muse?
Onely without Excuse to leaue vs quite,
And tell vs, Durst we act, he durst to write.
We haue a Muse in this mortalitie
Of Vertue yet suruiues; All met not Death,
When wee intoomb'd our deare Elizabeth.
Immortall Sydney, honoured Colin Clout,
Presaging what wee feele, went timely out.
Then why liues Drayton, when the Times refuse,
Both Meanes to liue, and Matter sor a Muse?
Onely without Excuse to leaue vs quite,
And tell vs, Durst we act, he durst to write.
Now, as the people of a famish'd Towne,
Receiuing no Supply, seeke vp and downe
For mouldy Corne, and Bones long cast aside,
Wherewith their hunger may bee satisfide.
(Small store now left) we are inforc'd to prie
And search the darke Leaues of Antiquitie
For some good Name, to raise our Muse againe,
In this her Crisis, whose harmonious straine
Was of such compasse, that no other Nation
Durst euer venture on a sole Translation;
Whilst our full language, Musicall and hie,
Speakes as themselues their best of Poesie.
Receiuing no Supply, seeke vp and downe
For mouldy Corne, and Bones long cast aside,
Wherewith their hunger may bee satisfide.
(Small store now left) we are inforc'd to prie
And search the darke Leaues of Antiquitie
For some good Name, to raise our Muse againe,
In this her Crisis, whose harmonious straine
Was of such compasse, that no other Nation
Durst euer venture on a sole Translation;
Whilst our full language, Musicall and hie,
Speakes as themselues their best of Poesie.
359
Drayton, amongst the worthi'st of all those,
The glorious Laurell, or the Cyprian Rose,
Haue euer crown'd, doth claime in euery Lyne,
An equall honor from the sacred Nyne:
For if old Time could like the restlesse Maine
Rock himselfe backe into his Spring againe,
And on his wings beare this admired Muse,
For Ovid, Virgil, Homer, to peruse,
They would confesse, that neuer happier Pen
Sung of his Loues, the Countrey, and the Men.
The glorious Laurell, or the Cyprian Rose,
Haue euer crown'd, doth claime in euery Lyne,
An equall honor from the sacred Nyne:
For if old Time could like the restlesse Maine
Rock himselfe backe into his Spring againe,
And on his wings beare this admired Muse,
For Ovid, Virgil, Homer, to peruse,
They would confesse, that neuer happier Pen
Sung of his Loues, the Countrey, and the Men.
William Browne.
| The Whole Works of William Browne | |