IX. Ulysses and the Syren. .........................................................................................
This 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.[1] 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.
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,
That travaile in the deepe,
Enjoy the day in mirth the while,
And spende the night in sleepe."
ULYSSES"Faire nymph, if fame or honour were
To be attain'd with ease,
Then I would 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
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.
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
Nor honor, nor report,
Yet manlinesse would scorne to weare
The time in idle sport:
For toyle doth give a better touch