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Quaint Gleanings From Ancient Poetry:

A COLLECTION OF CURIOUS POETICAL COMPOSITIONS
OF THE XVIth, XVIIth, AND XVIIIth CENTURIES.

EDITED From MSS. and Rare Printed Originals
BY EDMUND GOLDSMID, F.R.H.S.

INTRODUCTION.

The following curious collection I have gathered together duringseveral years' reading in out-of-the-way corners. Manuscripts, inpublic and private libraries; old books picked up on dusty bookstalls,or carried away as prizes from the battlefield of the auction-room;even pencillings on the inside of tattered bindings,—all have beenlaid under contribution. I trust this medley, or pot-pourri, ofsnatches of song, grave and gay, will prove as interesting to myreaders as they have been to myself. They claim attention on variousgrounds: some are the works of well-known men, such as Anthony Mundayand Warren Hastings; some are bitter political squibs—such, forinstance, as the "Satyre against the Scots," page 47; some, again, areexquisitely beautiful, as "The Dirge," page 53. A few have appeared indifferent collections: but none of my readers, I will undertake tosay, have seen more than a half-dozen or so.

With these few words I beg to introduce Volume One of the "Collectanea
Adamantaea."

EDMUND GOLDSMID.

Edinburgh, March 6th, 1884.

CONTENTS.

I. BEAUTIES FORT

II. MY BONNY LASS, THINE EYE

III. ANTHONY MUNDAY'S POEM ON THE CAPTIVITY OF JOHN FOX

IV. CARE FOR THY SOUL

V. MEGLIORA SPERO

VI. A LETTER FROM THE DUKE OF MONMOUTH TO THE KING

VII. THE KING'S ANSWER

VIII. AN EPITAPH ON DUNDEE

IX. THE ROBBER ROBB'D

X. AH! THE SHEPHERD'S MOURNFUL FATE

XI. VERSES TO A FRIEND

XII. A PANYGYRICK UPON OATES

XIII. THE MIRACLE

XIV. THE PATRIOTS

XV. JUSTICE IN MASQUERADE

XVI. THE BRAWNY BISHOP'S LAMENT

XVII. THE POOR BLIND BOY

XVIII. THE INISKILLING REGIMENT

XIX. A BALLAD ON THE FLEET

XX. ON MR. FOX AND MR. HASTINGS

XXI. AN IMITATION OF HORACE, BK. II, ODE 16

XXII. EPITAPH ON DR. JOHNSON

XXIII. VERSES UPON THE ROAD

XXIV. SATYR ON THE SCOTS

XXV. THE MARSEILLAISE

XXVI. A DIRGE

BEAUTIES FORT.

FROM AN ANONYMOUS MS., LATELY IN POSSESSION OFJ. P. COLLIER, ESQ., F.S.A.

When raging Love, with fierce assault,
  Strikes at fair Beauties gate,
What army hath she to resist
  And keepe her court and state?

She calleth first on Chastitie
  To lende her help in time;
And Prudence no lesse summons shee
  To meet her foe so trim.

And female Courage she alwaye
  Doth bring unto the walle,
To blowe the trump in her dismaye,
  Fearing her fort may falle.

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