Passeth fair Venus in her bravest hue, Pallas in wit, all three, if you will view, THOMAS NASH. 1564-1601. [THOMAS NASH was born at Lowestoff, in Suffolk, and educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he took his degrees of A.B. and A.M. in 1585 and 1587. The date of his birth is not known, but it has been computed, from circumstances, to have been 1564, the same year in which Shakespeare was born. His London life is sufficiently indicated in the notice already given of Peele and Greene. If he did not transcend the latter in profligacy, he underwent greater vicissitudes of distress and suffering, arising in part from the impetuosity of his temperament, which committed him to the most reckless excesses, and partly from his satirical propensities, which made him many enemies. On one occasion he was imprisoned for having written a play called the Isle of Dogs, and was several times confined in gaol in London. The principal incidents in his literary career are his famous paper-war with Gabriel Harvey, conducted on both sides with savage scurrility; and his controversy with Martin Marprelate, in which he espoused the cause of the church. He obtained an unenviable notoriety by the licentiousness and fierceness of his invectives; and the tract in which he scourges his opponent, Have with you to Saffron Walden (the name of Harvey's residence), ran through no less than six editions. Notwithstanding the coarseness and violence of his controversial pamphlets, and the scoffing bitterness of his Pierce Penniless, he had the power of writing with grace and energy when he left the region of polemics to breathe the purer air of literature. He wrote three plays: the tragedy of Dido (in conjunction with Marlowe), and two comedies, Summer's Last Will and Testament, and the Isle of Dogs, the last never printed, and now lost. Towards the close of his life he recanted his errors in a pamphlet called Christ's Tears over Jerusalem. He died about 1601.] SUMMER'S LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT. 1600. SPRING. SPRING, the sweet Spring, is the year's pleasant king; Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing, The palm and may make country houses gay, The fields breathe sweet, the daisies kiss our feet, Spring, the sweet Spring. FAIR THE DECAY OF SUMMER. AIR summer droops, droop men and beasts therefore, All good things vanish less than in a day, Peace, plenty, pleasure, suddenly decay. Go not yet away, bright soul of the sad year, The earth is hell when thou leavest to appear. What, shall those flowers that decked thy garland erst, Upon thy grave be wastefully dispersed? O trees consume your sap in sorrow's source, Go not yet hence, bright soul of the sad year, THE COMING OF WINTER. AUTUMN hath all the summer's fruitful treasure; From winter, plague and pestilence, good lord, deliver us! London doth mourn, Lambeth is quite forlorn! APPROACHING DEATH. ADIEU; farewell earth's bliss, This world uncertain is: Fond are life's lustful joys, I am sick, I must die. Lord have mercy on us! Rich men trust not in wealth; * This line fixes the date of the acting of the play in the Michaelmas Term of 1598, when, in consequence of the plague, Michaelmas Term was held at St. Alban's instead of in London. The date throws a light on the allusions in the song. Physic himself must fade; Lord have mercy on us! Beauty is but a flower, Which wrinkles will devour: Lord have mercy on us! Strength stoops unto the grave: Lord have mercy on us! Wit with his wantonness, Hath no ears for to hear Lord have mercy on us! Haste therefore each degree Lord have mercy on us! [SAMUEL DANIEL, the son of a music master, was born near Taunton, in Somersetshire, in 1562, and educated at Magdalen College, Oxford. Leaving the University at the end of three years without taking a degree, he continued to prosecute his studies under the patronage of the Countess of Pembroke, sister of the accomplished Sidney, whose friendship procured for him the appointment of tutor to the Lady Anne Clifford, daughter of the Earl of Cumberland. His diligent application to literary pursuits enabled him to improve these favourable circumstances, and the reputation he acquired by the publication of some of his early poems, especially the Complaint of Rosamond (in which Mr. Malone imagines he has discovered the inspiration of Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis) recommended him to the favour of royalty. Thus encouraged, he became one of the volunteer laureates of Queen Elizabeth, and under King James obtained a place at court as gentleman extraordinary, and subsequently as one of the grooms of the privy chamber to the Queen Consort, who is said to have entertained a high opinion of his conversation and his writings. Few poets have been more fortunate in their associations. Daniel enjoyed the friendship and respect of his most distinguished contemporaries, and amongst those with whom he maintained an intimate intercourse were Camden, Drayton, Shakespeare, Jonson, Fulke Greville, Harrington and Spelman; even Gabriel Harvey paid tribute to his merits, and Spenser transmitted his character to after times in his Colin Clout's come home again. While he held his office at court (which imposed merely nominal duties upon him) he lived in a handsome garden-house in Old-street, St. Luke's; but towards the latter part of his life, feeling that a race of |