it. Yet a
fourth collection of miscellanies differs not much in constitution from the
others, and Drummond's poetical work is completed by some local pieces,
such as _Forth Feasting_, some hymns and divine poems, and an attempt in
Macaronic called _Polemo-Middinia_, which is perhaps not his. He was also a
prose writer, and a tract, entitled _The Cypress Grove_, has been not
unjustly ranked as a kind of anticipation of Sir Thomas Browne, both in
style and substance. Of his verse a sonnet and a madrigal may suffice, the
first of which can be compared with the Sleep sonnet given earlier:--

"Sleep, Silence' child, sweet father of soft rest,
Prince whose approach peace to all mortals brings,
Indifferent host to shepherds and to kings,
Sole comforter of minds which are oppressed;
Lo, by thy charming rod, all breathing things
Lie slumb'ring, with forgetfulness possess'd,
And yet o'er me to spread thy drowsy wings
Thou spar'st, alas! who cannot be thy guest.
Since I am thine, O come, but with that face
To inward light, which thou art wont to show,
With feigned solace ease a true felt woe;
Or if, deaf god, thou do deny that grace,
Come as thou wilt, and what thou wilt bequeath:
I long to kiss the image of my death."

* * * * *

"To the delightful green
Of you, fair radiant een,
Let each black yield, beneath the starry arch.
Eyes, burnish'd Heavens of love,
Sinople[58] lamps of Jove,
Save all those hearts which with your flames you parch
Two burning suns you prove;
All other eyes, compared with you, dear lights
Are Hells, or if not Hells, yet dumpish nights.
The heavens (if we their glass
The sea believe) are green, not perfect blue;
They all make fair, whatever fair yet was,
And they are fair because they look like you."

[58] In heraldry (but not English heraldry) = "green."

Sir William Alexander, a friend and countryman of Drummond (who bewailed
him in more than one mournful rhyme of great beauty), was born in 1580 of a
family which, though it had for some generations borne the quasi-surname
Alexander, is said to have been a branch of the Clan Macdonald. Alexander
early took to a court life, was much concerned in the proposed planting of
Nova Scotia, now chiefly remembered from its connection with the Order of
Baronets, was Secretary of State for Scotland, and was raised to t