All is but feigned, and with oker dy'd

That every shower will wash and wipe away; All things do change that under heaven abide, And after death all friendship doth decay: Therefore, whatever man bear'st worldly sway, Living, on God and on thyself rely;

For, when thou diest, all shall with thee die.

JOHN LYLIE

Was born in the wilds of Kent, about 1553, became a student in Magdalen College, Oxford, 1569, was afterwards a demy, took the degrees of B. A. and M. A. and is supposed to have died about 1600. That he possessed considerable talents for poetry the following specimens will testify; but he is said to have gained the admiration of Queen Elizabeth's court, by the invention of a new English, a model of which he exhibited in two prose works called "Euphues " and his England," &c. London, 1580, and "Euphues: "the Anatomy of Wit," &c. 1581. It is to be supposed that this strange and barbarous jargon, the obscurity of which no human intellect is able to pierce, was adopted by the fashionable beauties of that virgin-court for the purpose of shielding their virtue from the addresses of importunate ignorance.

Lylie wrote nine plays, six of which were republished, with the following songs, by Blount, in 1632, 12mo. under the title of "Sixe Court Comedies, often presented and acted "before Queene Elizabeth by the children of her Majestie's "chappell and the children of Paules: written by the "onely rare poet of that time, the witie, comicall, fa"cetiously-quicke, and unparallel'd John Lylie, Master of Arts."

SONG.

[From "Alexander and Campaspe."]

WHAT bird so sings, yet so does wail? ..
Oh! 'tis the ravish'd nightingale,

Jug, jug, jug, jug,—tereu, she cries,
And still her woes at midnight rise.

Brave prick-song! who is't now we hear?
None but the lark so shrill and clear;
Now at heaven's gates she claps her wings,
The morn not waking till she sings.

Hark, hark! with what a pretty throat
Poor Robin red-breast tunes his note !
Hark how the jolly cuckoos sing
Cuckoo, to welcome in the spring!

SONG.

[From the same.]

Gr. OH for a bowl of fat Canary,

Rich Palermo, sparkling sherry,

Some nectar else from Juno's dairy!

Oh these draughts would make us merry!

Ps. Oh for a wench (I deal in faces

And in other daintier things)!
Tickled am I with her embraces;
Fine dancing in such Fairy rings.

M. Oh for a plump fat leg of mutton,
Veal, lamb, capon, pig, and coney;

None is happy but a glutton,

None an ass but who wants money.

CHORUS.

Wines indeed, and girls are good,
But brave victuals feast the blood.
For wenches, wine, and lusty cheer,
Jove would leap down to surfeit here.

Cupid and Campaspe.

[From the same.]

CUPID and my Campaspe play'd
At cards for kisses: Cupid paid.
He stakes his quiver, bow, and arrows,
His mother's doves, and team of sparrows :
Loses them too: then down he throws
The coral of his lip, the rose

Growing on's cheek (but none knows how);
With these, the chrystal of his brow,
And then, the dimple of his chin:

All these did my Campaspe win.
At last he set her both his eyes:
She won, and Cupid blind did rise.

O Love! has she done this to thee?
What shall, alas! become of me!

SONG.

[From "Gallathea."]

O YES! O yes! if any maid
Whom leering Cupid has betray'd

To frowns of spite, to eyes

of scorn,

And would in madness now see torn
The boy in pieces; let her come
Hither, and lay on him her doom!

O yes! O yes! has any lost

A heart which many a sigh hath cost?

Is

any cozen'd of a tear

Which, as a pearl, Disdain does wear?
Here stands the thief; let her but come
Hither, and lay on him her doom!

Is any one undone by fire,

And turn'd to ashes through desire?

Did ever any lady weep,

Being cheated of her golden sleep,

Stol'n by sick thoughts? the pirate's found, And in her tears he shall be drown'd.

Read his indictment: let him hear

What he's to trust to: boy, give ear!