GEORGE SANDYS,

66

ONE of the most harmonious versifiers of his age, was the youngest son of Edwin Sandys, Archbishop of York, and born at Bishop's-Thorp, 1577. He was entered at St. Mary Hall, Oxford, in 1589, but received his tuition, according to Wood, in Corpus Christi College; and in 1610 began his travels into the East, of which he published an account on his return: a work much esteemed, having passed through many editions since the first in 1615. Wood he was says an accomplished gentleman,”—“ master of several languages, of a fluent and ready discourse, and excellent comportment. He had also naturally a poetical fancy, and a zealous inclination to all human learning." He was gentleman of the privy chamber to Charles I., and intimately acquainted with the celebrated Lucius Lord Falkland, who contributed two copies of verses in honour of his Tragedy and his Psalms. He died in 1643.

His poetical version of Ovid's Metamorphoses, once much admired, was originally published in 1627, with the first book of Virgil's Æneid, and twice afterwards. His Tragedy, called "Christ's Passion," translated from Hugo Grotius, and first printed in 1640, 12mo, is much praised by Langbaine. His "Paraphrase upon the Psalmes of David, and upon the hymnes dispersed throughout the Old and New Testaments," appeared in 1636, 12mo, a book which Wood tells us King Charles "delighted to read in, while prisoner in Carisbroke Castle." This, together with a Paraphrase upon Job, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, &c., was reprinted in 1638, folio, and in 1676, 8vo. The last contains, besides, a paraphrase on Solomon's Song, first published at Oxford in 1641, 4to.

For further particulars the reader may consult Langbaine's and Cibber's [Shiell's] Lives of the Poets.

The two last of the following specimens, besides the harmony of their numbers, have the additional recommendation of exhibiting the order of their Author's publications, and the course of his travels.

PSALM CXLVIII.

You who dwell above the skies,
Free from human miseries;

You whom highest heaven embowers,
Praise the Lord with all your powers!
Angels, your clear voices raise!
Him you heavenly armies praise!
Sun, and moon with borrow'd light,
All you sparkling eyes of night,
Waters hanging in the air,

Heaven of heavens, his praise declare!

His deserved praise record,

His, who made you by his word—

Made you evermore to last,

Set bounds not to be past.

you

Let the earth his praise resound

;

Monstrous whales, and seas profound,

Vapours, lightning, hail, and snow,
Storms, which, when he bids them, blow!
Flowery hills, and mountains high,

Cedars, neighbours to the sky,

Trees, that fruit in season yield,
All the cattle of the field,

Savage beasts, all creeping things,
All that cut the air with wings!
You who awful sceptres sway,
You, inured to obey,

Princes, judges of the earth,
All, of high and humble birth!
Youths, and virgins, flourishing
In the beauty of your spring;
You who bow with age's weight,
You who were but born of late;
Praise his name with one consent:
O how great! how excellent!

Urania to the Queen.

[Prefixed to his "Translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses."]

THE Muses by your favour blest,

Fair

queen, invite you to their feast.

The Graces will rejoice and sue,

Since so excell'd, to wait on you.

Ambrosia taste, which frees from death,
And nectar, fragrant as your breath,
By Hebe fill'd, who states the prime
Of youth, and brails the wings of Time.

Here in Adonis' gardens grow

What neither age or winter know.

The boy with whom Love seem'd to die Bleeds in this pale anemony.

Self-lov'd Narcissus in the mirror

Of your fair eyes now sees his error,
And from the flattering fountain turns ;
The hyacinth no longer mourns.
This Heliotrope, which did pursue
Th' adored sun, converts to you.

Chaste Daphne bends her virgin-boughs,
And twines t' embrace your sacred brows.
Their tops the Paphian myrtles move,
Saluting you their queen of love.

Myrrha, who weeps for her offence,
Presents her tears,—her frankincense
Leucothoe; th' Heliades

Their amber ;-yet you need not these.

These azure-plumed Halcyones,

Whose birth controls the raging seas,
To your sweet union yield the praise
Of nuptial loves, of peaceful days.
Nymph, take this quiver and this bow-
Diana such, in shape and show;

When with her star-like train she crowns
Eurotas' banks, or Cynthus' downs.

There chace the Calydonian boar;

Here see Actæon fly before

His eager hounds ; wild herds will stand
At gaze, nor fear so fair a hand.
There be, who our delights despise
As shadows, and vain fantasies.
Those sons of earth, enthrall'd to sense,
Condemn what is our excellence.
The air, immortal souls, the skies,
The angels in their hierarchies,
Unseen, to all things seen dispense
Breath, life, protection, influence.
Our high conceptions crave a mind
From earth and ignorance refin'd;
Crown Virtue; Fortune's pride control;
Raise objects equal to the soul;
At will create; eternity

Bestow on mortals born to die.

Yet we, who life to others give,

Fair Queen, would by your favour live!

Dedication of his "Paraphrase" to King Charles I. THE Muse who from your influence took her birth, First wander'd through the many-peopled earth; Next sung the change of things: disclos'd th' unknown,

Then to a nobler shape transform'd her own;