Ixvi LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1661, 



friend, Mr Brome, 5 on his various and excellent poems," which is 

 prefixed to the first edition of Alexander Brome's Songs and other 

 Poems, printed in the following year : 



" To MY INGENIOUS FRIEND, MR BROME, ON HIS VARIOUS AND EXCELLENT POEMS. 

 AN HUMBLE ECLOG, 



Written on the agth of May 1660. 

 DAMON AND DORUS. 



DAMON. 



Hail, happy day ! Dorus, sit down : 

 Now let no sigh, nor let a frown 

 Lodge near thy heart, or on thy brow. 

 The King ! the King's return'd ! and now 

 Let's banish all sad thoughts, and sing 

 We have our Laws, and have our King. 



DORUS. 



'Tis true, and I would sing, but oh ! 

 These wars have shrunk my heart so low, 

 'Twill not be rais'd. 



DAMON. 



What, not this day ? 

 Why, 'tis the twenty-ninth of May : 

 Let Rebels' spirits sink : let those 

 That, like the Goths and Vandals, rose 

 To ruin families, and bring 

 Contempt upon our Church, our King, 

 And all that's dear to us, be sad ; 

 But be not thou ; let us be glad. 

 And, Dorus, to invite thee, look, 

 Here's a collection in this book 

 Of all those cheerful songs, that we 

 Have sung with mirth and merry glee : 6 

 As we have march'd to fight the cause 

 Of God's anointed, and our laws : 

 Such songs as make not the least odds 

 Betwixt us mortals and the Gods : 

 Such songs as Virgins need not fear 

 To sing, or a grave matron hear. 

 Here's love drest neat, and chaste, and gay, 

 As gardens in the month of May ; 

 Here's harmony, and wit, and art, 

 To raise thy thoughts, and cheer thy heart. 



DORUS. 



Written by whom ? 



DAMON. 



A Friend of mine, 

 And one that's worthy to be thine : 

 A civil swain, that knows his times 

 For businesses, and that done, makes rhymes, 

 But not till then : my Friend's a man 

 Lov'd by the Muses ; dear to Pan ; 



* " Alexander Brome, an attorney of the King's Bench, an ingenious poet, died 2gth 

 June 1666." Smith's Obituary, Additional MS. 886, in the British Museum. 



6 The following variation occurs in the next edition of Brome's Poems, printed in 

 1668: 



" Have sung so oft and merrily." 



