The knoppes greatly liked mee,
For fairer may there no man see:
Who so might have one of all,
It ought him been full lefe withall:
Might I garlande of hem getten,
For no richesse I would it letten.*

Amongs the knoppes I chese one
So faire, that of the remnaunt none
Ne preise I half so well as it,
When I avise it in my wit,
For it so well was enlumined
With colour red, as well fined
As nature couth it make faire,
And it had leaves well foure paire,
That kind hath set through his knowing
About the red Roses springing,

The stalk was as a rishe right,

And thereon stood the knoppe upright;
That it ne bowed upon no side,
The swote smell sprung so wide,
That it died all the place about.
When I had smelled the savour swote,
No will had I fro thence yet go,
But somedele nere it went I tho,
To take it, but mine honde for drede
Ne durst I to the Rose bede,
For thistles sharpe of many manners,
Nettles, thornes, and hooked briers,
For muche they distourbled me,
For sore I drad to harmed be."

* Leave.
H3

"Venus's son, Dan Cupido," now wounds him with five different arrows, which he calls Beauty, Simplesse, Courtesie, Company, and Fair Semblaunt. The effects of these different attributes upon the lover, in his attempts to obtain the favourite "bothun," are forcibly depicted; the fable then becomes very diffuse, exhibiting the character given in the prefatory note. The foregoing extract will furnish you with an idea of the style and subject of "The Romaunt of the Rose;" a poem, which from its allusion to this flower, no less than a reverence for its antiquity, I have great pleasure in thus introducing to your acquaintance.

I remain,

Yours, &c.

LETTER XI.

Emil. Of all flowers,
Methinks the ROSE is best.

Serv. Why, gentle madam?

Emil. It is the very emblem of a maid:

For when the west wind courts her gently,

How modestly she blows and paints the sun

With her chaste blushes! When the north comes near her,
Rude and impatient, then, like Chastity,

She locks her beauties in her bud again,

And leaves him to base briars.

MY DEAR ANNE,

I AM not sufficiently acquainted with the writings of the earlier dramatists, any more than with their successors, to be able to say how far they may have made honourable mention of this regal flower. The motto, at the head of this letter, is from the works of Beaumont and Fletcher, which contain much powerful dramatic writing. With Shakspeare's plays I am better acquainted, and from pages I shall transplant a few Roses into this letter.

his

The following is from the collection of sonnets, generally attributed to him:

"O how much more doth beauty beauteous seem
By that sweet ornament which truth doth give!
The Rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem
For that sweet odour which doth in it live.
The canker-blooms have full as deep a dye,
As the perfumed tincture of the Roses,

Hang on such thorns and play as wantonly,
When summers breath their masked buds discloses;
But, for their virtue only is their show,
They live unwoo'd, and unrespected fade;

Die to themselves. Sweet Roses do not so;
Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odours made:
And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth,
When that shall fade, my verse distils your truth."

The thought at the conclusion of this sonnet is akin to one in the "Midsummer Night's Dream;" where Theseus intimates to Hermia, that they may be "thrice blessed," in some respects, who can so master themselves, as

-" to endure the livery of a nun;

For

aye to be in shady cloister mewed.-
To undergo such maiden pilgrimage:
But earthlier happy is the Rose distill'd,

Than that, which withering on the virgin thorn,
Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness.”

In another part of the same play, Titania dispatches her train of fairies, after a dance and a song,

"Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds."

Roses at Christmas were uncommon in Shakspeare's time; he therefore compares them to an absurd expectation :

66

Why should I joy in an abortive birth?
At Christmas I no more desire a Rose,

Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled shows."

Love's Labour Lost.

In the same play, Boyet exhorts the Princess to change her countenance, and to

"Blow like sweet ROSES in this summer air.

Princess. How blow? how blow? speak to be understood.

Boyet. Fair ladies mask'd, are ROSES in their bud:
Damask'd, their damask sweet commixture shown,
Are angels vailing clouds, or Roses blown.".

In "All's Well that Ends Well," he makes Bertram say to Diana—

"But I love thee

By love's own sweet constraint, and will for ever
Do thee all rights of service.

Diana.-Ay, so you serve us,

Till we serve you: but when you have our ROSES,
You barely leave our thorns to prick ourselves,
And mock us with our bareness."

And in the "Taming of the Shrew," he makes Petruchio say, that should any one, of Katharina