Ixvi LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON'. [i6C 



friend, Mr BromCj^ on his various and excellent poems," which 

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

 Poems, printed in the following year : — 



" To MY INGENIOUS FeIEND, Mr BrOME, ON HIS VARIOUS AND EXCELLENT POEMS, 



An humble Eclog, 

 Written on the 29th of May i66a 



DAMON AND DORUS. 



DAMON. 



Hail, hfippy^ay ! Dorlis, sit down : 

 Now let no sigh, nor let a frown 

 Lodge near thy heart, or on thy brow. 

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

 Let's banish all sad thoughts, and sing 

 We have oifi: Laws, and have our King. 



DORVS* 

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

 These wars ^lave shr^ink my heart so low, 

 'Twill not b^ rais'd. 



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, tp invi,te thee, look. 



Here's a collection in this book 



Of all those cheerful ^ongs, that we 



Have sung with mirth and merry glee : ^ 



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 ; 



5 "Alexander Brome, an attorney of the King's Bench, an ingenious poet, died 29 

 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 

 i668:— 



" Have sunij so oft and merrily." 



