IX.

ULYSSES AND THE SYREN,

Affords a pretty poetical contest between Pleasure and Honour. It is found at the end of _Hymen's Triumph: a pastoral tragicomedie_, written by Daniel, and printed among his works, 4to. 1623.[1014] _Daniel_, who was a contemporary of Drayton's, and is said to have been poet laureat to Queen Elizabeth, was born in 1562, and died in 1619. _Anne_, Countess of Dorset, Pembroke, and Montgomery (to whom Daniel had been tutor), has inserted a small portrait of him in a full-length picture of herself, preserved at Appleby Castle, in Cumberland.

This little poem is the rather selected for a specimen of Daniel's poetic powers, as it is omitted in the later edition of his works, 2 vols. 12mo. 1718.

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[Samuel Daniel was born in Somersetshire, and educated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford. He left college without a degree, "his geny being," according to Ant. à Wood, "more prone to easier and smoother subjects than in pecking and hewing at logic." He was tutor to Lady Anne Clifford, subsequently Countess of Pembroke, and afterwards groom of the privy chamber to Anne, queen of James I. Browne calls him in _Britannia's Pastorals_, "Wel-languaged Daniel," and the union of power of thought with sweetness and grace of expression exhibited by him is highly praised by Southey and Coleridge. He was free from indelicacy in his writings, and Fuller says of him that "he carried in his Christian and surname two holy prophets, his monitors, so to qualify his raptures that he abhorred all profaneness."]

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SYREN.

Come, worthy Greeke, Ulysses come, Possesse these shores with me, The windes and seas are troublesome, And here we may be free. Here may we sit and view their toyle, 5 That travaile in the deepe, Enjoy the day in mirth the while, And spend the night in sleepe.

ULYSSES.

Faire nymph, if fame or honour were To be attain'd with ease, 10 Then would I come and rest with thee. And leave such toiles as these: But here it dwels, and here must I With danger seek it forth; To spend the time luxuriously 15 Becomes not men of worth.

SYREN.

Ulysses, O be not deceiv'd With that unreall name: This honour is a thing conceiv'd, And rests on others' fame. 20 Begotten only to molest Our peace, and to beguile (The best thing of our life) our rest, And give us up to toyle!

ULYSSES.

Delicious nymph, suppose there were 25 Nor honor, nor report, Yet manlinesse would scorne to weare The time in idle sport: For toyle doth give a better touch To make us feele our joy; 30 And ease findes tediousnes, as much As labour yeelds annoy.

SYREN.

Then pleasure likewise seemes the shore, Whereto tendes all your toyle; Which you forego to make it more, 35 And perish oft the while. Who may disport them diversly, Find never tedious day; And ease may have variety, As well as action may. 40

ULYSSES.

But natures of the noblest frame These toyles and dangers please; And they take comfort in the same, As much as you in ease: And with the thought of actions past 45 Are recreated still: When pleasure leaves a touch at last To shew that it was ill.

SYREN.

That doth opinion only cause, That's out of custom bred; 50 Which makes us many other laws, Than ever nature did. No widdowes waile for our delights, Our sports are without blood; The world we see by warlike wights 55 Receives more hurt than good.

ULYSSES.

But yet the state of things require These motions of unrest, And these great spirits of high desire Seem borne to turne them best: 60 To purge the mischiefes, that increase And all good order mar: For oft we see a wicked peace, To be well chang'd for war.

SYREN.

Well, well, Ulysses, then I see 65 I shall not have thee here; And therefore I will come to thee, And take my fortune there. I must be wonne that cannot win, Yet lost were I not wonne: 70 For beauty hath created bin T' undoo or be undone.

FOOTNOTES:

[1014] In this edition it is collated with a copy printed at the end of his "_Tragedie of Cleopatra_. London, 1607, 12mo."