Elizabeth. Ralegh, with Sidney, is believed to have been one of the English circle who associated with Giordano Bruno, during his short residence in England, a few years before Sidney's death; and Bruno also made himself liable to a like charge of atheism. [F. B. Sanborn.]
6. These lines appear in The Fourth Day of the First Week of Sylvester's version of Guillaume Salluste du Bartas's Divine Weeks and Works, pp. 102-3 of the edition of 1613. Sylvester adds, at the end of those quoted, continuing the sentence,—
But shine in vain, and have no charge precise
But to be walking in Heaven's galleries,
And through that Palace up and down to clamber
As Golden Gulls about a Prince's Chamber.
This conceit of the influence of the stars was general in Ralegh's day. His friend Sidney, in his Sonnet XXVI, has the same thought as Ralegh, but turns it to a compliment to Stella,—
Though dusty wits dare scorn Astrology,
And (fools) can think those lamps of purest light
Whose numbers, way, greatness, eternity,
Promising wonders, wonder do invite,
To have for no cause birthright in the sky,
But for to spangle the black weeds of Night;
Or for some brawl, which in that chamber high
They should still dance, to please a gazer's sight.
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