king's forces. After the surrender of Oxford (1646) he went abroad, and raised a regiment for the service of the French king. He was wounded at Dunkirk, returned to England in 1648, and was once more imprisoned. In 1649 appeared Lucasta ; Epodes, Odes, Sonnets, Songs, etc. To which is added Aramantha, a Pastoral. He was released in the same year, but having spent a large fortune in the royal cause he fell into great poverty, and died in want.

TO LUCASTA, GOING TO THE WARS
TELL me not, Sweet, I am unkind,

That from the nunnery

Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind
To war and arms I fly.

True, a new mistress now I chase,
The first foe in the field;
And with a stronger faith embrace
A sword, a horse, a shield.

Yet this inconstancy is such

As thou too shalt adore;

I could not love thee, Dear, so much,
Loved I not Honour more.

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ABRAHAM COWLEY (1618-1667) was educated at Westminster and at Trinity College, Cambridge. He became famous as a boy poet. Pyramus and Thisbe was written when he was ten, and Constantius and Philetus at twelve. In 1638 he published Love's Riddle, a pastoral drama. In the same year his Latin comedy, Naufragium Joculare, was acted by the University. The Guardian, afterwards rewritten under the title of The Cutter of Coleman Street, was hurriedly written to entertain Prince Charles when he visited Cambridge (1641). In 1643-4 he left Cambridge for Oxford, and settled in St. John's College, where he became intimate with the Royalist leaders. He was employed on several foreign missions, and for some time conducted a cipher correspondence between the king and queen. In 1647 appeared

The Mistress, and in 1648 two satires, The Four Ages of England, or the Iron Age, and A Satyre against Separatists. The most important of his works, including the Davideis, which he began at Cambridge, and the Pindaric Odes, were collected and published in one volume in 1656. He was much interested in learning and in the scientific movement of his day. In 1661 he published a Proposition for the Advancement of Experimental Philosophy, and this was followed by an Ode to the Royal Society and an Ode to Hobbes. He had spent all his property in the royal service, and after several unsuccessful applications, at last received some acknowledgement from the king, which enabled him to retire to the country, and finally settled at Chertsey, where he died. The first complete collection of his works appeared in 1668, and included Several Discourses by way of Essays in Prose and Verse.

THE SPRING

THOUGH you be absent here, I needs must say
The trees as beauteous are and flowers as gay
As ever they were wont to be;
Nay the birds' rural music too
Is as melodious and free

As if they sung to pleasure you:

I saw a rose-bud ope this morn; I'll swear
The blushing morning opened not so fair.

How could it be so fair, and you away?
How could the trees be beauteous, flowers so gay? 10
Could they remember but last year

How you did them, they you delight,

The sprouting leaves which saw you here,
And called their fellows to the sight,

Would, looking round for the same sight in vain,
Creep back into their silent barks again.

But who can blame them now? for since you're gone
They're here the only Fair, and shine alone.

You did their natural rights invade :
Wherever you did walk or sit

The thickest boughs could make no shade
Although the sun had granted it:

The fairest flowers could please no more, near you,
Than painted flowers set next to them could do.

Whene'er, then, you come hither, that shall be
The time, which this to others is, to me.

The little joys, which here are now,

The name of punishments do bear,
When by their sight they let us know
How we deprived of greater are.

'Tis you the best of seasons with you bring;
This is for beasts, and that for men, the Spring.

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Andrew MARVELL (1621-1678) was noted both as Puritan and Royalist. In his youth he spent some years on the Continent, and among his earliest works are two satires on Richard Flecknoe, the Irish poetaster, whom he met in Rome. About 1650 he became tutor to the daughter of Lord Fairfax, and he spent the next year or two at Nun Appleton, in Yorkshire. To this period belong his poems in praise of country life and retirement. Three years later he applied for a post under the Commonwealth, and, on Milton's recommendation, was made assistant-secretary for foreign tongues, and was also appointed tutor to Cromwell's ward, William Dutton. In 1657 he became Milton's colleague in the Latin secretaryship, and a little later was given official lodgings in Whitehall. He wrote several poems on the Lord Protector, but only one of them was published before the Restoration, and he continued his political life under Charles II. In 1661 he was for the third time elected member for his native city, Hull, and in 1663 he accompanied Lord Carlisle as secretary during his foreign embassy. It is said

that Milton's impunity after the Restoration was largely owing to the influence of Marvell. His letters show considerable political insight and sound judgement. His satires reflecting on the policy of the king were circulated privately, but on the question of religious toleration Marvell openly declared himself on the side of the Nonconformists, and in 1672-3 he published the two parts of The Rehearsal Transprosed, a satire attack upon the Anglican champion, Parker (afterwards Bishop of Oxford). Two other controversial pamphlets followed. In 1677 a great sensation was created by the anonymous publication of An Account of the Growth of Popery and Arbitrary Government in England. £100 was offered for the discovery of the author, but Marvell's death occurred before any steps could be taken.

THOUGHTS IN A GARDEN

How vainly men themselves amaze
To win the palm, the oak, or bays,
And their incessant labours see
Crown'd from some single herb or tree,
Whose short and narrow-vergèd shade
Does prudently their toils upbraid;
While all the flowers and tree do close
To weave the garlands of repose !

Fair Quiet, have I found thee here,
And Innocence thy sister dear?
Mistaken long, I sought you then
In busy companies of men:
Your sacred plants, if here below,
Only among the plants will grow ;
Society is all but rude

To this delicious solitude.

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What wondrous life is this I lead!
Ripe apples drop about my head;

The luscious clusters of the vine
Upon my mouth do crush their wine;
Thy nectarine and curious peach
Into my hands themselves do reach ;
Stumbling on melons, as I pass,
Ensnared with flowers, I fall on grass.

Meanwhile the mind from pleasure less
Withdraws into its happiness;

The mind, that ocean where each kind
Does straight its own resemblance find;
Yet it creates, transcending these,
Far other worlds, and other seas;
Annihilating all that's made

To a green thought in a green shade.

Here at the fountain's sliding foot,
Or at some fruit-tree's mossy root,
Casting the body's vest aside,
My soul into the boughs does glide;
There, like a bird, it sits and sings,
Then whets and combs its silver wings,
And, till prepared for longer flight,
Waves in its plumes the various light.

Such was that happy Garden-state

While man there walk'd without a mate :

After a place so pure and sweet,

What other help could yet be meet!

But 'twas beyond a mortal's share

To wander solitary there:

Two paradises 'twere in one,
To live in Paradise alone.

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How well the skilful gardener drew

Of flowers and herbs this dial new!

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