cerning Bursa pastoris, and its power to heal recent wounds, see Lonicerus, Hist. Nat. 1551, p. 139. Gerarde's name for a species of Glidewort or Ironwort is Clown's All-Heal or 'Clown's Wound-Wort;' so called because a countryman healed himself with it of a scythe-cut in the leg, and so 'famoused it to all posterity.' It is one of the vulnerary herbs Siderites, and called by Parkinson Siderites Anglica strumosa radice. G.

THE MOWER TO THE GLOW-WORMS.1

I.

YE living lamps, by whose dear light
The nightingale does sit so late,
And studying all the Summer-night,
Her matchless songs does meditate;

II.

Ye country comets, that portend

No war nor prince's funeral,

Shining unto no higher end

Then to presage the grass's fall;

III.

Ye glo-worms, whose officious flame
To wandring mowers shows the way,
That in the night have lost their aim,
And after foolish fires do stray;

than

1 Appeared originally in the folio of 1681 (pp. 44-5). G.

IV.

Your courteous lights in vain you wast,
Since Juliana here is come;

For she my mind hath so displac'd,

That I shall never find my

home.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

St. ii. line 1, 'comets.' Comets were vulgarly imagined, in the words of Shakespeare anent skyey portents, to 'foretell fearful changes, and the death or fall of princes.'

=

Line 3, higher.' 1726 and after-editions misread 'other.' St. iii. line 1, 'officious' office-doing, or as nearly as may be 'dutiful,' the osus form having been affected by the writers of the time, though rather dropped in its full sense, at least by G.

us.

THE MOWER'S SONG.1

I.

My mind was once the true survey
Of all these medows fresh and gay;
And in the greenness of the grass
Did see its hopes as in a glass;
When Juliana came, and she,

What I do to the grass, does to my thoughts and me.

Appeared originally in the folio of 1681 (pp. 45-6). G.

II.

But these, while I with sorrow pine,
Grew more luxuriant still and fine;
That not one blade of grass you spy'd,

But had a flower on either side;

When Juliana came, and she,

What I do to the grass, does to my thoughts and me.

III.

Unthankful medows, could you so

A fellowship so true forego,

And in your gawdy May-games meet,

While I lay trodden under feet?

When Juliana came, and she,

What I do to the grass, does to my thoughts and me?

IV.

But what you in compassion ought,
Shall now by my revenge be wrought;
And flow'rs, and grass, and I, and all,
Will in one common ruine fall;

For Juliana comes, and she,

What I do to the grass, does to my thoughts and me.

V.

And thus, ye medows, which have been
Companions of my thoughts more green,

Shall now the heraldry become

With which I shall adorn my tomb;

For Juliana comes, and she,

What I do to the grass, does to my thoughts and me.

St. i. line 1, 'survey'

NOTES.

plot or map. That is, used as the result of surveying, and then as a thing, viz. plot or map, the idea of result being cast off.

St. iii. line 3, 'gawdy'=gaudy. A Shakesperean touch, where 'gaudy' combines the two senses, that in which it is at present used, and the other of 'gaudy' or joyful day. G.

THINK'ST thou that this love can stand,

Whilst thou still dost say me nay?

Love unpaid does soon disband:

Love binds love, as hay binds hay.

THESTYLIS.

Think'st thou that this rope would twine,

If we both should turn one way
Where both parties so combine,

Neither love will twist, nor hay.

1 Appeared originally in the folio of 1681 (pp. 46-7). G.

5

Line 14, as you may:' playing on the proverbial saying used by the Fisherman in Pericles (act ii. sc. 1), 'things must be as they may.' G.

ROS.1

CERNIS, ut Eoi descendat gemmula roris,
Inque rosas roseo transfluat orta sinu.
Sollicita flores stant ambitione supini,

Et certant foliis pellicuisse suis.

1 Appeared originally in the folio of 1681 (pp. 6-7), which is our text; and see Notes and Illustrations at its close. Marvell's own interpretation follows.

G.