Yet while we yield unquestioningly the higher rank as Poet to John Milton, we hold the generous nature of his rival, Cowley, in more loving regard. He was not of the massive build in mind, or stern unflinching resolution needed for such times as those wherein his lot was cast. When the weakest goes to the wall, amid universal disturbance and selfish warring for supremacy, his was not the strong arm to beat back encroachment. Gentle, affectionate, and truthful, exceptionally pure and single-minded, although living as Queen Henrietta’s secretary in her French Court, where impurity of thought and lightness of conduct were scarcely visited with censure, the uncongenial scenes and company around him help to enhance the charm of his mild disposition. Heartless wits might lampoon him, stealthy foes defame him, lest he should gain one favour or reward that they were hankering after. To us he remains the lover of the “Old Patrician trees,” the friend of Crashaw and of Evelyn, the writer of the most delightful essays and familiar letters: alas! too few. The “Song” in _Westminster-Drollery_, ii. 89, set by Pelham Humphrey, is the opening verse of Cowley’s “ODE: Sitting and Drinking in the Chair made out of the Reliques of Sir Francis Drake’s Ship.” [The chair was presented to the University Library, Oxford.] Corrections: _dull men_ are those _who_ tarry; and spy _too_. Three verses follow. Of these we add the earliest, leaving uncopied the others, of 21 and 18 lines. They are to be found on p. 9 of Cowley’s “Verses written on Several Occasions,” folio ed., 1668. The idea of the shipwreck “in the wide Sea of Drink” had been early welcomed by him, and treated largely, Feb. 1638-9, in his _Naufragium Joculare_. 2. _What do I mean: What thoughts do me misguide?_ _As well upon a staff may Witches ride_ _Their fancy’d Journies in the Ayr,_ _As I sail round the Ocean in this Chair:_ _’Tis true; but yet this Chair which here you see,_ _For all its quiet now and gravitie,_ _Has wandred, and has travail’d more_ _Than ever Beast, or Fish, or Bird, or ever Tree before._ _In every Ayr, and every Sea ’t has been,_ _’T has compos’d all the Earth, and all the Heavens ’t has seen._ _Let not the Pope’s it self with this compare,_ _This is the only Universal Chair._ It must have been written before 1661, as it appears among the “_Choyce Poems, being Songs, Sonnets, &c._”, printed for Henry Brome, (who ten years afterwards published _Westm. Droll._) at the Gun in Ivie Lane, in that year. It is in the additional opening sheet, p. 13; not found in the 1658 editions of _Choyce Poems_. _Westminster-Drollery_ Appendix, p. liv. “_The Green Gown_,” Pan, _leave piping, &c._