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The Pembroke Booklets
(First Series)
III
Nicholas Breton
Pastoral Poems
George Wither
Selected Poetry
William Browne
(of Tavistock)
Pastoral Poetry
[Small Ornamental Illustration]
J. R. Tutin
Hull
1906
_Large Paper Edition, limited to 250 copies_
_Turnbull & Spears, Printers, Edinburgh._
Nicholas Breton
(1558-1626)
_Thou that wouldst find the habit of true passion,
And see a mind attired in perfect strains ...
Look here on Breton's work._--BEN JONSON.
George Wither
(1588-1667)
_The praises of poetry have been often sung in ancient and in modern
times; strange powers have been ascribed to it of influence over
animate and inanimate auditors; its force over fascinated crowds has
been acknowledged; but before Wither, no one ever celebrated its
power at home, the wealth and the strength which this divine gift
confers upon its possessor. Fame, and that too after death, was all
which hitherto the poets had promised themselves from this art. It
seems to have been left to Wither to discover that poetry was a
present possession, as well as a rich reversion, and that the Muse
has a promise of both lives,--of this, and of that which was to
come._--CHARLES LAMB.
William Browne
(1591-? 1645)
_I feel an envious touch,
And tell thee Swain: that at thy fame I grutch,
Wishing the Art that makes this Poem shine,
And this thy Work (wert not thou wrongèd) mine._
GEORGE WITHER: _To the Author_
[_of Britannia's Pastorals_].
Contents