Some there are, as well I wot,
That the same yet favour not;
Yet I cannot well avow,
They my carols disallow;
But such malice I have 'spi'd,
"Tis as much as if they did.
Willy! what may those men be,
Are so ill to malice thee?
Some are worthy-well esteem'd;
Some without worth are so deem'd ; Others of so base a spirit,
They have nor esteem nor merit.
.A slight offence,
Wherewithal I can dispense;
But hereafter, for their sake,
To myself I'll music make.
What, because some clown offends,
Wilt thou punish all thy friends?
Do not, Phil! mis-understand me: Those that love me may command me; But thou know'st I am but young,
And the pastoral I sung
Is by some suppos'd to be,
By a strain, too high for me:
So they kindly let me gain
Not my labour for my pain.
Trust me, I do wonder why
They should me my own deny.
Though I'm young, I scorn to flit
On the wings of borrowed wit.
I'll make my own feathers rear me,
Whither others cannot bear me.
Yet I'll keep my skill in store,
Till I've seen some winters more.
But in earnest mean'st thou so?
Then thou art not wise, I trow :
Better shall advise thee, Pan,
For thou dost not rightly then:
That's the ready way to blot
All the credit thou hast got.
Rather in thy age's prime
Get another start of Time;
And make those that so fond be,
Spite of their own dullness, see
That the sacred Muses can
Make a child in years a man.*
It is known what thou canst do;
For it is not long ago,
When that Cuddy, thou, and I,
Each the other's skill to try,
At Saint Dunstan's charmed well,†
As some present there can tell,
Sang upon a sudden theme,
Sitting by the crimson stream;
* A good motto for a Life of Chatterton.
↑ Saint Dunstan's charmed well. The Devil Tavern, Fleetstreet, where Child's Place now stands, and where, within the memory of the Editor, about eighteen years ago, a sign hung of the Devil and Saint Dunstan. Ben Jonson made this a famous place of resort for poets, by drawing up a set of Leges Conviviales, which were engraven in marble over the chimney-piece in the room called APOLLO. One of Drayton's poems is called The Sacrifice to Apollo; it is addressed to the Priests or Wits of Apollo, and is a kind of poetical paraphrase upon the Leges Conviviales. This tavern to the very Jast kept up a room of that name.
Where, if thou didst well or no,
Yet remains the song to shew.
Much experience more I've had,
Of thy skill, thou happy lad!
And would make the world to know it,
But that time will further shew it.
Envy makes their tongues now run
More than doubt of what is done;
For that needs must be thy own,
Or to be some other's known;
But how then will't suit unto
What thou shalt hereafter do?
Or I wonder, where is he
Would with that song part to thee.
Nay, were there so mad a swain,
Could such glory sell for gain,
Phoebus would not have combin'd
That gift with so base a mind.
Never did the Nine impart
The sweet secrets of their art
Unto any, that did scorn,
We should see their favours worn.
Therefore unto those that say,
Where they pleas'd to sing a lay,
They could do't and will not tho',
This I speak, for this I know
*None e'er drank the Thespian spring,
And knew how, but he did sing.
For, that once infus'd in man,
Makes him shew't, do what he can;
Nay, those that do only sip,
Or but ev❜n their fingers dip
In that sacred fount, poor elves!
Of that brood will shew themselves.
Yea, in hope to get them fame,
They will speak, though to their shame.
Let those, then, at thee repine,
That by their wits measure thine :
Needs those songs must be thine own,
And that one day will be known.
That poor imputation too,
I myself do undergo;
But it will appear, ere long,
That 'twas Envy sought our wrong;
None e'er drank the Thespian spring.
I know too well, that no more than the man
That travels thro' the burning desarts can,
When he is beaten with the raging sun,
Half smother'd in the dust, have power to run
From a cool river which himself doth find,
Ere he be slak'd; no more can he, whose mind
Joys in the Muses, hold from that delight,
When nature and his full thoughts bid him write.
BEAUMONT'S Commendatory Verses ou
Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess.
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