Meantime, we owe thee nothing. Our first debt Lies cancell'd in thy wat'ry cabinet. 40 We have for Her thou sent'st us from the main, Return'd a Venus back to thee again.
[_An Elegy upon Mrs. Kirk, &c._] This and the following were not in Hannah's MS. He, perhaps not quite accurately, regards this as King's _only_ indulgence in what he also regarded as 'the frigid and artificial style popular among his contemporaries'. But he thought it better than the companion piece in Heath's _Clarastella_ (_v. inf._). From this latter we learn that Mrs. Kirk was one of the numerous victims of 'shooting the bridge'. The piece is frigid enough certainly, but rather from want of 'conceit' than because of it. (Mr. Thorn-Drury has reminded me of Glapthorne's two elegies on the same subject. They form the last contents of the 1874 reprint and give more detail in their title, 'On the noble and much to be lamented Mrs. Anne Kirk, wife to Mr. Geo. Kirk, Gent. of the Robes and of his Majesty's Bed Chamber, who was unfortunately drowned passing London Bridge, July 6. 1641'.)]
[Line: 3 fin'd] = '_paid_ fine', as often.]
_An Elegy upon the death of Mr. Edward Holt_.
Whether thy father's, or disease's rage, More mortal prov'd to thy unhappy age, Our sorrow needs not question; since the first Is known for length and sharpness much the worst. Thy fever yet was kind; which the ninth day For thy misfortunes made an easy way. When th' other barbarous and hectic fit, In nineteen winters did not intermit.
I therefore vainly now not ask thee why Thou didst so soon in thy youth's mid-way die: 10 But in my sense the greater wonder make, Thy long oppressed heart no sooner brake. Of force must the neglected blossom fall, When the tough root becomes unnatural, And to his branches doth that sap deny, Which them with life and verdure should supply. For parents' shame, let it forgotten be, And may the sad example die with thee.
It is not now thy grieved friend's intent To render thee dull Pity's argument. 20 Thou hast a bolder title unto fame, And at Edge Hill thou didst make good the claim; When, in thy Royal Master's cause and war, Thy ventur'd life brought off a noble scar. Nor did thy faithful services desist, Till death untimely strook thee from the list.