II.
Oh! could you view the melodie
Of ev'ry grace,
And musick of her face,<21.3>
You'd drop a teare,
Seeing more harmonie
In her bright eye,
Then now you heare.
<21.1> By Orpheus we may perhaps understand Lovelace himself,
and by Euridice, the lady whom he celebrates under the name
of Lucasta. Grainger mentions (BIOG. HIST. ii. 74) a portrait
of Lovelace by Gaywood, in which he is represented as Orpheus.
I have not seen it. The old poets were rather fond of likening
themselves to this legendary personage, or of designating
themselves his poetical children:--
"We that are ORPHEUS' sons, and can inherit
By that great title"--
Davenant's WORKS, 1673, p. 215.
Many other examples might be given. Massinger, in his CITY MADAM,
1658, makes Sir John Frugal introduce a representation of the story
of the Thracian bard at an entertainment given to Luke Frugal.
<21.2> A lutenist. Wood says that after the Restoration he became
gentleman or singing-man of Christ Church, Oxford. He was one of
those musicians who, after the abolition of organs, &c. during the
civil war, met at a private house at Oxford for the purpose of
taking his part in musical entertainments.
<21.3> "Such was Zuleika; such around her shone
The nameless charms unmark'd by her alone;
The light of love, the purity of grace,
The mind, the music breathing from her face.
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