Till at the laste, as Cupid drewe his bowe, Before he shotte: a younglinge thus did crye, Oh Venus sonne, thy dartes thou doste not knowe, They pierce too deepe: for all thou hittes, doe die: Oh spare our age, who honored thee of oulde, Theise dartes are bone, take thou the dartes of goulde. Which beinge saide, a while did Cupid staye, And sawe, how youthe was almoste cleane extinct: And age did doate, with garlandes freshe, and gaye, And heades all balde, weare newe in wedlocke linckt: Wherefore he shewed, this error vnto Mors, Who miscontent, did chaunge againe perforce. Yet so, as bothe some dartes awaie conuay’d, Which weare not theirs: yet vnto neither knowne, Some bonie dartes, in Cupiddes quiver stay’d, Some goulden dartes, had Mors amongst her owne. Then, when wee see, vntimelie deathe appeare: Or wanton age: it was this chaunce you heare.” For an interlude to our remarks on the “golden,” we must mention that the pretty tale _Concerning Death and Cupid_ was attributed to Whitney by one of Shakespeare’s contemporaries; and, if known to other literary men of the age, very reasonably may be supposed not unknown to the dramatist. Henry Peacham, in 1612, p. 172 of his _Emblems_, acknowledges that it was from Whitney that he derived his own tale,— “_De Morte, et Cupidine._” “DEATH meeting once, with _CVPID_ in an Inne, Where roome was scant, togeither both they lay. Both weariè, (for they roving both had beene,) Now on the morrow when they should away, _CVPID_ Death’s quiver at his back had throwne, And _DEATH_ tooke _CVPIDS_, thinking it his owne. By this o’re-sight, it shortly came to passe, That young men died, who readie were to wed: And age did revell with his bonny-lasse, Composing girlonds for his hoarie head: Invert not Nature, oh ye Powers twaine, Giue _CVPID’S_ dartes, and _Death_ take thine againe.” Whitney luxuriates in this epithet “golden;”—golden fleece, golden hour, golden pen, golden sentence, golden book, golden palm are found recorded in his pages. At p. 214 we have the lines,— “A Leaden sworde, within a goulden sheathe, Is like a foole of natures finest moulde, To whome, shee did her rarest giftes bequethe, Or like a sheepe, within a fleece of goulde.” We may indeed regard Whitney as the prototype of Hood’s world-famous “Miss Kilmansegg, with her golden leg,”— “And a pair of Golden Crutches.” (vol. i. p. 189.)