Let me now close this garland of sonnets with two choice flowers from that garden of Elizabeth which no modern botanist and no anthologist of ancient fame can equal in fragrance and amaranthine beauty. Both breathe the sweetness of Love,--the first, from the “Parthenophe and Parthenophil” of Barnaby Barnes, with some flavor of discontent,--but the second, taken from the warm hand of Shakespeare, is full of that noble confidence, which he, of all poets, most naturally inspires. “Ah, sweet Content! where is thy mild abode? Is it with shepherds and light-hearted swains, Which sing upon the downs and pipe abroad, Tending their flocks and cattle on the plains? Ah, sweet Content! where dost thou safely rest? In heaven? with angels which the praises sing Of Him that made and rules at his behest The minds and hearts of every living thing? Ah, sweet Content! where does thy harbor hold? Is it in churches with religious men, Which please the gods with prayers manifold, And in their studies meditate it then? Whether thou dost on heaven or earth appear, Be where thou wilt, thou wilt not harbor here.” And now upon this delicious disconsolate strophe, hear the brave turn and reply of Shakespeare’s antistrophe,--and take it for your consolation, lovers and poets!-- “Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul Of the wide world, dreaming on things to come, Can yet the lease of my true love control, Supposed as forfeit to a cónfined doom. The mortal moon hath her eclipse endured, And the sad augurs mock their own presage; Incertainties now crown themselves assured, And peace proclaims olives of endless age. Now with the drops of this most balmy time My love looks fresh, and Death to me subscribes, Since, spite of him, I’ll live in this poor rhyme, While he insults o’er dull and speechless tribes: And thou in this shalt find thy monument, When tyrants’ crests and tombs of brass are spent.” F. B. S. FEBRUARY 6, 1882. [Illustration] SONNETS AND CANZONETS. “These quiet and green places, these mountains and valleys, were created by Nature on purpose for loving hearts”. MELI’S CANZONETS. * * * * * “_Be it that my unseasonable song Come out of time, that fault is in the time; And I must not do Virtue so much wrong, As love her aught the worse for others’ crime; And yet I find some blessed spirits among That cherish me, and like and grace my rhyme._” DANIEL. PROEM.