ht o' th' Sun;<8.1>
But 'tis by pow'r of art, and such a way
As Orpheus us'd, when he made fiends obay.
J. Needler, Hosp. Grayensis.

<8.1> A celebrated romance, very frequently referred to by our
old writers. Sir Thomas Overbury, in his CHARACTERS, represents
a chambermaid as carried away by the perusal of it into the realms
of romance, insomuch that she can barely refrain from forsaking
her occupation, and turning lady-errant. The book is better known
under the title of THE MIRROR OF PRINCELY DEEDES AND KNIGHTHOOD,
wherein is shewed the worthinesse of the Knight of the Sunne, &c.
It consists of nine parts, which appear to have been published
at intervals between 1585 and 1601.

TO HIS NOBLE FRIEND, MR. RICHARD LOVELACE, UPON HIS POEMS.

SIR,
Ovr times are much degenerate from those,
Which your sweet Muse, which your fair fortune chose;
And as complexions alter with the climes,
Our wits have drawne th' infection of our times.
That candid age no other way could tell
To be ingenious, but by speaking well.
Who best could prayse, had then the greatest prayse;
'Twas more esteemd to give then wear the bayes.
Modest ambition studi'd only then
To honour not her selfe, but worthy men.
These vertues now are banisht out of towne,
Our Civill Wars have lost the civicke crowne.
He highest builds, who with most art destroys,
And against others fame his owne employs.
I see the envious caterpillar sit
On the faire blossome of each growing wit.
The ayre's already tainted with the swarms
Of insects, which against you rise in arms.
Word-peckers, paper-rats, book-scorpions,
Of wit corrupted the unfashion'd sons.
The barbed censurers begin to looke
Like the grim Consistory on thy booke;
And on each line cast a reforming eye
Severer then the yong presbytery.
Till, when in vaine they have thee all perus'd,
You shall for being faultlesse be accus'd.
Some reading your LUCASTA will alledge
You wrong'd in her the Houses priviledge;
Some that you under sequestration are,
Because you write when going to the Warre;
And one the book prohibits, because Kent
Their first Petition by the Authour sent.
But when the beauteous ladies came to know,
That their deare Lovelace was endanger'd so:
Lovelace, that thaw'd the most congealed brest,
He who lov'd best, and them defended best,
Whose hand so rudely grasps the steely brand,
Whose hand so gently melts the ladies hand,
They all in mutiny, though yet undre