XI. TO LUCASTA, ON GOING TO THE WARS. By Colonel Richard Lovelace, from the volume of his poems, entitled Lucasta, Lond. 1649, 12mo. TELL me not, sweet, I am unkinde, That from the nunnerie Of thy chaste breast and quiet minde, True, a new mistresse now I chase, And with a stronger faith imbrace Yet this inconstancy is such, I could not love thee, deare, so much, XII. VALENTINE AND URSINE. THE old story-book of Valentine and Orson (which suggested the plan of this tale, but it is not strictly followed in it) was originally a translation from the French, being one of their earliest attempts at romance. See Le Bibliothèque de Romans, etc. The circumstance of the bridge of bells is taken from the old metrical legend of Sir Bevis, and has also been copied in the Seven Champions. The original lines are, "Over the dyke a bridge there lay, That man and beest might passe away: Under the brydge were sixty belles; That there might no man passe in, But all they rang with a gyn." In the Editor's folio MS. was an old poem on this subject, in a wretched corrupt state, unworthy the press, from which were taken such particulars as could be adopted.* PART THE FIRST. WHEN Flora 'gins to decke the fields With colours fresh and fine, The king of France that morning fair To grace his sports a courtly train And with their loud and cheerful cryes Through the deep forest swift they pass, Through woods and thickets wild; All in a scarlet kercher lay'd *The title given to it there is, The Emperour and Childe, |