Opening the text

From Chaucer to Tennyson: With Twenty-Nine Portraits and Selections from Thirty AuthorsBeers, Henry A. (Henry Augustin)

History

From Chaucer to Tennyson: With Twenty-Nine Portraits and Selections from Thirty Authors

Name: From Chaucer to Tennyson: With Twenty-Nine Portraits and Selections from Thirty Authors
Author: Beers, Henry A. (Henry Augustin)

Beers, Henry A. (Henry Augustin)

English literature -- History and criticism

"His hound is to the hunting gane,
  His hawk to fetch the wild fowl hame,
  His lady's ta'en another mate,
  So we may mak our dinner sweet.

  "Ye'll sit on his white hause-bane,[84]
  And I'll pick out his bonny blue een;
  Wi' ae[85] lock o' his gowden hair,
  We'll theck[86] our nest when it grows bare.

  "Mony a one for him makes mane,
  But nane sail ken where he is gane;
  O'er his white banes, when they are bare,
  The wind sail blow for evermair."


BONNIE GEORGE CAMPBELL.

  Hie upon Highlands and low upon Tay,
  Bonnie George Campbell rade out on a day.
  Saddled and bridled and gallant rade he;
  Hame cam' his horse, but never cam' he.

  Out came his auld mother, greeting[87] fu' sair;
  And out cam' his bonnie bride, riving her hair.
  Saddled and bridled and booted rade he;
  Toom[88] hame cam' the saddle, but never cam' he.

  "My meadow lies green and my corn is unshorn;
  My barn is to bigg[89] and my babie's unborn."
  Saddled and bridled and booted rade he;
  Toom cam' the saddle, but never cam' he.


[Footnote 82: The two ravens.]
[Footnote 83: Turf.]
[Footnote 84: Neck-bone.]
[Footnote 85: One.]
[Footnote 86: Thach.]
[Footnote 87: Weeping.]
[Footnote 88: Empty.]
[Footnote 89: Build.]



EDMUND SPENSER.


THE SUITOR'S LIFE.

  Full little knowest thou that hast not tride,
  What hell it is in suing long to bide;
  To lose good days that might be better spent;
  To wast long nights in pensive discontent:
  To speed to-day, to be put back to-morrow;
  To feed on hope, to pine with feare and sorrow;
  To have thy prince's grace, yet want her peere's[90]:
  To have thy asking, yet waite manie yeers,
  To fret thy soule with crosses and with cares;
  To eate thy heart through comfortlesse dispaires:
  To fawne, to crowche, to waite, to ride, to ronne,
  To spend, to give, to want, to be undone!


THE MUSIC OF THE BOWER OF BLISS.


[From the _Faerie Queene_. Book II. Canto XII.]

  Eftsoones they heard a most melodious sound,
  Of all that mote[2] delight a daintie eare,
  Such as attonce[91] might not on living ground,
  Save in this paradise, be heard elsewhere:
  Right hard it was for wight which did it heare,
  To read what manner of music that mote[92] bee;
  For all that pleasing is to living eare
  Was there consorted in one harmonee;
  Birdes, voices, instruments, windes, waters, all agree.

  The joyous birdes, shrouded in chearefull shade,
  Their notes unto the voyce attempred sweet;
  Th' angelicall soft trembling voyces made
  To th' instruments divine respondence meet;
  The silver sounding instruments did meet
  With the base[93] murmure of the waters fall;
  The waters fall with difference discreet,
  Now soft, now loud, unto the wind did call;
  The gentle warbling wind low answered to all....

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

From Chaucer to Tennyson: With Twenty-Nine Portraits and Selections from Thirty AuthorsBeers, Henry A. (Henry Augustin)

History

From Chaucer to Tennyson: With Twenty-Nine Portraits and Selections from Thirty Authors

Beers, Henry A. (Henry Augustin)

English literature -- History and criticism

"His hound is to the hunting gane,
  His hawk to fetch the wild fowl hame,
  His lady's ta'en another mate,
  So we may mak our dinner sweet.

  "Ye'll sit on his white hause-bane,[84]
  And I'll pick out his bonny blue een;
  Wi' ae[85] lock o' his gowden hair,
  We'll theck[86] our nest when it grows bare.

  "Mony a one for him makes mane,
  But nane sail ken where he is gane;
  O'er his white banes, when they are bare,
  The wind sail blow for evermair."


BONNIE GEORGE CAMPBELL.

  Hie upon Highlands and low upon Tay,
  Bonnie George Campbell rade out on a day.
  Saddled and bridled and gallant rade he;
  Hame cam' his horse, but never cam' he.

  Out came his auld mother, greeting[87] fu' sair;
  And out cam' his bonnie bride, riving her hair.
  Saddled and bridled and booted rade he;
  Toom[88] hame cam' the saddle, but never cam' he.

  "My meadow lies green and my corn is unshorn;
  My barn is to bigg[89] and my babie's unborn."
  Saddled and bridled and booted rade he;
  Toom cam' the saddle, but never cam' he.


[Footnote 82: The two ravens.]
[Footnote 83: Turf.]
[Footnote 84: Neck-bone.]
[Footnote 85: One.]
[Footnote 86: Thach.]
[Footnote 87: Weeping.]
[Footnote 88: Empty.]
[Footnote 89: Build.]



EDMUND SPENSER.


THE SUITOR'S LIFE.

  Full little knowest thou that hast not tride,
  What hell it is in suing long to bide;
  To lose good days that might be better spent;
  To wast long nights in pensive discontent:
  To speed to-day, to be put back to-morrow;
  To feed on hope, to pine with feare and sorrow;
  To have thy prince's grace, yet want her peere's[90]:
  To have thy asking, yet waite manie yeers,
  To fret thy soule with crosses and with cares;
  To eate thy heart through comfortlesse dispaires:
  To fawne, to crowche, to waite, to ride, to ronne,
  To spend, to give, to want, to be undone!


THE MUSIC OF THE BOWER OF BLISS.


[From the _Faerie Queene_. Book II. Canto XII.]

  Eftsoones they heard a most melodious sound,
  Of all that mote[2] delight a daintie eare,
  Such as attonce[91] might not on living ground,
  Save in this paradise, be heard elsewhere:
  Right hard it was for wight which did it heare,
  To read what manner of music that mote[92] bee;
  For all that pleasing is to living eare
  Was there consorted in one harmonee;
  Birdes, voices, instruments, windes, waters, all agree.

  The joyous birdes, shrouded in chearefull shade,
  Their notes unto the voyce attempred sweet;
  Th' angelicall soft trembling voyces made
  To th' instruments divine respondence meet;
  The silver sounding instruments did meet
  With the base[93] murmure of the waters fall;
  The waters fall with difference discreet,
  Now soft, now loud, unto the wind did call;
  The gentle warbling wind low answered to all....

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

From Chaucer to Tennyson: With Twenty-Nine Portraits and Selections from Thirty Authors

From Chaucer to Tennyson: With Twenty-Nine Portraits and Selections from Thirty Authors

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