72 
Spring, clustering together, the pm^Dle and the white, hiding 
among their broad heart-shaped leaves, and, timidly unclosing 
their soft petals, filling the air with the sweetest of all 
sweet odours ? 
William Habington, in his poems to Castara, thus prettily 
alludes to the retiring modesty of this oft-praised flower. 
Like the Violet, which alone 
Prospers in some happy shade. 
My Castara lives unknown, 
To no looser eye betraid, 
For she’s to herself untrue 
Who delights i’ the public view. 
Sir Henry Wotton, in his most elegant compliments to 
the Queen of Bohemia, says 
Ye Violets that first appeare. 
By your pure purple mantles known. 
Like the proud virgins of the yeare. 
As if the Spring were all your own; 
What are ye, when the rose is blown? 
To these lines, which, beautiful as they are, seem like a 
depreciation of our gentle friend, we have a most complete and 
flattering contradiction from the melodious lyi'e of Heirick. 
We find him, in the following lines, allowing the Violet pre¬ 
cedence of the rose : — 
Welcome, maids of honour. 
You doe bring 
In the Spring; 
And wait upon her. 
