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Essays, Sketches and Illustrations of bygone Sussex

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164
BYGONE SUSSEX.
Whose skirts ('tis said) at first that fiftie furlongs went, Haue lost their ancient bounds, now limited in Kent."
These learned notes are not the only evidence of the friendship between the poet and the scholar. Selden also was a votary of the Muse, and the following sonnet from his pen, prefixed to the " Baron's Wars, Epistles and Sonnets," is addressed "To his worthy Friend Michael Drayton :"—
" I must admire thee (but to praise were vaine. What eu'ry tasting palat so approues) Thy Martiall Pyrrhique, and thy Epique straine Digesting Warres with heart-uniting Loues ; The two first Authors of what is compos'd In this round Systeme All; it's ancient lore (All Arts in Discords and Concents are clos'd. And when vnwinged soules the Fates restore To th' earth for reparation of their flights, The first Musicians, Schollers, Louers make; The next ranke destinate to Mars his Knights; The following rabble meaner titles take) I see thy Temples crown'd with Phoebus rites : Thy Bay's to th' eye, with Lilly mixt and Rose, As to the eare a Diapason close."*
It may perhaps be thought that the notes show the scholar with far more certainty than the verses show the poet.
* According to that in Plato's Phaedrus, where, under the names of Louers of beauty (which comprehends all kind ot faire objects, either in the mind or body), and of Souldiers, all such as are eminent for true worth, are comprehended ; the rest of men being of a farre lower ranke.
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