GEORGE TURBERVILE,

One of the most celebrated sonneteers in this sonnet-making age, was born, probably, about 1540. Being of a respectable family, and having acquired an early reputation for talents, he was employed as secretary by Randolph, during his mission to Russia. Here he wrote to his friends some very amusing poetical epistles, descriptive of the manners and customs of that country. They are to be found in Hakeluyt's Voyages, Vol. I. p. 384, &c. On his return he published a volume of " Epitaphes, Epigrams, Songs, and "Sonets,1567 ;" and in 1576, another of "Tragical Tales." He also composed a translation of Ovid's Epistles, 1567, and of Mantuan's Eclogues, 1594, all of which were printed in duodecimo.

66

-The Lover confesseth himself to be in love, &c.
Ir banish'd sleep, and watchful care,

If mind affright with dreadful dreams,
If torments rife, and pleasure rare,

If face besmear'd with often streams,
If change of cheer from joy to smart,
If alter'd hue from pale to red,
If faltering tongue with trembling heart,
If sobbing sighs with fury fed,

If sudden hope by fear oppress'd,

If fear by hope suppress'd again,
Be proofs, that love within the breast
Hath bound the heart with fancy's chain

Then I, of force, no longer may

In covert keep my piercing flame,
Which ever doth itself bewray,

But yield myself to fancy's frame.

The Lover wisheth to be conjoined and fast linked with his lady, never to sunder.

I READ how Salmacis, sometime, with sight
On sudden lov'd Cyllenus' son, and sought
Forthwith, with all her power, and forced might,
To bring to pass her close-conceived thought:
Whom as by hap she saw in open mead,
She sued unto, in hope to have been sped.

With sugar'd words she woo'd and spar'd no speech, But boarded him with many a pleasant tale; Requesting him, of ruth, to be her leech,'

For whom she had abid such bitter bale:

But he, replete with pride and scornful cheer,
Disdain'd her earnest suit and songs to hear.

Away she went; a woful, wretched wight,

And shrouded her, not far from thence, a space : When that at length the stripling saw in sight

No creature there, but all were out of place,
He shifts his robes, and to the river ran,
And there to bathe him bare the boy began.

I

The nymph in hope as then to have attain'd
Her long-desired love, retir'd to flood,
And in her arms the naked noory 1 strain'd,
Whereat the boy began to strive a-good;2
But struggling nought availed in that plight,
For why the nymph surpass'd the boy in might.

"O gods," quoth tho 3 the girl," this gift I crave, "This boy and I may never part again!

"But so our corpses may conjoined have, "As one we may appear; not bodies twain." The gods agreed; the water so it wrought, As both were one; thy self would so have thought.

1 A boy, probably from nourisson. Fr.

• In earnest.

3 Then.

As from a tree we sundry times espy

A twissell grow by nature's subtle might, And, being two, for-cause they grow so nigh,

For one are ta'en, and so appear in sight: So was the nymph and noory joined y-fere,2 As two no more, but one self thing they were.

O! where is now become that blessed lake
Wherein those two did bathe to both their joy?
How might we do, or such provision make,
To have the hap as had the maiden-boy?
To alter form and shape of either kind,
And yet in proof of both a share to find?

Then should our limbs with lovely link be tied,
And hearts of hate no taste sustain at all:
But both, for aye, in perfect league abide,
And each to other live as friendly thrall:
That th' one might feel the pangs the other had,
And partner be of aught that made him glad.

I would not strive, I would not stir a whit,.. (As did Cyllenus' son, that stately wight),

'Double fruit.

2

⚫ Together.

But, well content to be hermaphrodite,

Would cling as close to thee as e'er I might : And laugh to think my hap so good to be, As in such sort fast to be link'd with thee.

The assured promise of a constant Lover.
WHEN Phoenix shall have many makes,'
And fishes shun the silver lakes;
When wolves and lambs y-fere shall play,
And Phoebus cease to shine by day;
When grass on marble stone shall grow,
And every man embrace his foe;

When moles shall leave to dig the ground,
And hares accord with hateful hound;

When Pan shall pass Apollo's skill,
And fools of fancies have their fill;
When hawks shall dread the silly fowl,
And men esteem the nightish owl;
When pearl shall be of little price,

And golden Virtue friend to Vice;
When Fortune hath no change in store,
Then will I false, and not before.
"Till all these monsters come to pass,
I am Timetes, as I was.

1 Mates,