Why so?

More we enjoy it, more it dies;

If not enjoy'd, it sighing cries,
Hey, ho!-

Love is a torment of the mind,
A tempest everlasting;

And Jove hath made it of a kind

Not well, nor full, nor fasting:
Why so?-

More we enjoy it, more it dies;
If not enjoy'd, it sighing cries,
Hey, ho!

CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE,

Contemporary with Shakspeare, and one of the most distinguished tragic poets of his age. He translated, in 1587, Coluthus's Rape of Helen, into English rhyme. He also translated several of the Elegies of Ovid. This book was printed at Middleburgh, without date, and was ordered to be burnt at Stationers' Hall, in 1599, by command of the archbishop of Canterbury and bishop of London. He began a translation of the Loves of Hero and Leander, vulgularly attributed to Musæus, but the work was interrupted by his death. Marlowe finished only the first and second Sestiads; Chapman did the remainder. His plays were, 1. "Tamerlane, the great Scythian Emperor, two parts." 2. "The rich Jew of Malta." 3. "The tragical History of the Life and Death of Dr. John Faustus." 4. "Lust's Dominion." 5. "The Tragedy of King Edward the Second." 6. "The Tragedy of Dido, Queen of Carthage." It is to be lamented that these plays have not been collected and published, because the writings of Shakspeare's distinguished contemporaries would prove the best comment on his works.

Marlowe was killed during an affray in a brothel, rather before 1593. His birth, therefore, may be placed, with some probability, about 1562; for it is unlikely that he could have acquired a great reputation as an author and actor much before the age of thirty; and it is to be hoped that he did not meet with such a death at a more advanced age. Of the two following specimens, the first exhibits the most striking beauties, and the second the characteristic defects of his style.

The Passionate Shepherd to his Love.

[From "England's Helicon."]

COME live with me, and be my love, And we will all the pleasures prove That vallies, groves, and hills and fields, Woods or steepy mountains yields.

And we will sit upon the rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

And I will make thee beds of roses,
And a thousand fragrant posies;

A

cap of flowers and a kirtle,

Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle:

A

gown made of the finest wool, Which from our pretty lambs we pull; Fair lined slippers for the cold, With buckles of the purest gold :

A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs;
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me, and be my love.

The shepherd swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight, each May morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me, and be my love.

Description of Waters, &c.

[A fragment, from " England's Parnassus," 1600.] I WALK'D along a stream, for pureness rare, Brighter than suushine; for it did acquaint The dullest sight with all the glorious prey That in the pebble-paved channel lay.

No molten chrystal, but a richer mine;
E'en Nature's rarest alchemy ran there,
Diamonds resolv'd, and substance more divine,
Through whose bright gliding current might
appear

A thousand naked Nymphs, whose ivory shine
Enamelling the banks, made them more dear
Than ever was that glorious palace-gate,
Where the day-shining Sun in triumph sate.

Upon this brim, the eglantine and rose,
The tamarisk, olive, and the almond-tree
As kind companions, in one union grows,

Folding their twining arms; as oft we se

Turtle-taught lovers either other close,
Lending to dulness feeling sympathy:
And as a costly vallance o'er a bed,

So did their garland tops the brook o'erspread.

Their leaves that differ'd both in shape and show, Though all were green, yet difference such in

green,

Like to the chequer'd bent of Iris' bow,

Prided, the running main as it had been--