A Treasury of Elizabethan Lyrics. Selected and edited ba Miss
Amy Barter. (George G. Harrap land Co. ls.)—This little book is a pleasant and scholarly selection from the Elizabethan miscellanies, of which there were a good many, from the song books of the period, and also from the plays and romances. IV hat the old hand always looks for in a new anthology is new matter. He wants to see whether the selector and editor has been able to provide something unfamiliar, or whether it is only a case of the old ingredients newly dished. Unless we are mistaken, Miss Barter has really dug up a new poem. At any rate, the present writer never remembers to have seen it before. The fact that it is attributed to " Christ Church MS." also seems to show that it has not already been printed. In any case the poem is so this that we need not apologise further for quoting it :—
"YET IF HIS MAJESTY, OUR SOVEREIGN LORD,
" Yet if His Majesty, our sovereign lord. Should of his own accord Friendly himself invite,
And way, ' be your guest to-morrow night,' BOW should we stir ourselves, call and command All bands to work ' Let no man idle stand, "'Set me line Spanish tales in the hall, See they be fitted all ; Let there be room to eat,
And order taken that there want no meat. See every sconce and candlestick made bright, That without tapers they may give a light.
"'Look to the presence ; are the carpets spread, The dazie o'er the head, The cushions on the chairs, And all the candles lighted on the stairs ? Perfume the chambers, and in any case Let each man give attendance in his place "Thos, if the king were coming, would we do, And 'twere good reason too; Fortis a duteous thing
To show all honour to an earthly king, And after all our travail and our cost, So he be pleased, to think no labour lost.
"But at the coming of the King of Heaven All's set at six and seven: We wallow in our sin, Christ cannot find a chamber in the inn. Wo entertain Him always like a stranger, And, as at hist, still lodge Him in a manger."
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