Had Sir Philip paid an exclusive attention to the poetical art, there

is every reason to suppose that he would have occupied a master's

place in this department; as it is, his poetry, though too often

vitiated by an intermixture of antithesis and false wit, and by an

attempt to introduce the classic metres, is still rich with frequent

proofs of vigour, elegance, and harmony. His "Arcadia," originally

published in 1590, abounds in poetry, among which are some pieces of

distinguished merit. In 1591, was printed his "Astrophel and Stella,"

a collection of one hundred and eight sonnets, and eleven songs, and

of these several may be pronounced beautiful. They were annexed to the

subsequent editions of the Arcadia, together with "Sonets," containing

miscellaneous pieces of lyric poetry, several of which had appeared in

Constable's "Diana," 1594. To these may be added, as completing his

poetical works, fifteen contributions to "England's Helicon," a few

sonnets in "England's Parnassus," three songs in "The Lady of May, a

masque," subjoined to the Arcadia, two pastorals in Davison's poems,

1611, and an English version of the Psalms of David.

That Sydney possessed an exquisite taste for, and a critical knowledge

of poetry, is sufficiently evident from his eloquent "Defence of

Poesy," first published in 1595. This, with his Collected Poetry,

would form a very acceptable reprint, especially if recommended by an

introduction from the elegant and glowing pen of Sir Egerton Brydges,

whose favourite Sydney avowedly is, and to whom he has already paid

some very interesting tributes.[653:A]

The moral character of this great man equalled his intellectual energy;

and the last years of his short life were employed in translating Du

Plessi's excellent treatise on the Truth of Christianity.

33. SYLVESTER, JOSHUA, a poet who has lately attracted a considerable

degree of attention, from the discovery of his having furnished to

Milton the _Prima Stamina_ of his Paradise Lost.[653:B] He was educated

by his uncle, William Plumb, Esq., and died at Middleburgh, in Zealand,

on the 28th of September, 1618, aged fifty-five. His principal work, a

translation of the "Divine Weeks and Works" of Du Bartas, was commenced

in 1590, prosecuted in 1592, 1598, 1599, and completed in 1605, since

which period it has undergone six editions; three in quarto, and three

in folio, the last being dated 1641.

Both the version of Sylvester, and his original poems, published with

it, are remarkable for their inequality, for great beauties, and for

glaring defects. His versification is sometimes exquisitely melodious,

and was recognised as such by his contemporaries, who distinguished him

by the appellation of "silver-tongued Sylvester."[653:C] His diction

also is occasionally highly nervous and energetic, and sometimes

simply elegant; but much more frequently is it disfigured by tumour

and bombast. Of the golden lines which his Du Bartas contains, it may

be necessary to furnish the reader some proof, and the following, we

imagine, cannot fail to excite his surprise:

"O thrice, thrice happy he, who shuns the cares

Of city-troubles, and of state affairs;

And, serving Ceres, tills with his own team

His own free land, left by his friends to him!—

And leading all his life at home in peace,

Always in sight of his own smoke; no seas,

No other seas he knows, nor other torrent,

Than that which waters with his silver current

His native meadows: and that very earth

Shall give him burial, which first gave him birth.

To summon timely sleep, he doth not need

Æthiops cold rush, nor drowsy poppy seed,

The stream's mild murmur, as it gently gushes,

His healthy limbs in quiet slumber hushes;—

——all self-private, serving God, he writes

Fearless, and sings but what his heart indites,

'Till Death, dread Servant of the Eternal Judge,

Comes very late to his sole-seated Lodge.—

Let me, Good Lord! among the Great unkenn'd,

My rest of days in the calm country end:

My company, pure thoughts, to work thy will,

My court, a cottage on a lowly hill."[654:A]

So popular was this version in the early part of the seventeenth

century, that Jonson, no indiscriminate encomiast, exclaims, in an

epigram to the translator,

"Behold! the rev'rend shade of Bartas stands

Before my thought, and in thy right commands,

That to the world I publish for him this,

'Bartas doth wish thy English now were his.'

So well in that are his inventions wrought,

As _his_ will now be the _translation_ thought;

Thine the _original_; and France shall boast

No more the maiden glories she has lost."[655:A]

The greatest compliment, however, which Sylvester has received, is the

imitation of Milton.

The virtues of Sylvester were superior to his talents; he was, in fact,

to adopt the language of one of his intimate friends, a poet

"Whom Envy scarce could hate; whom all admir'd,

Who liv'd beloved, and a Saint expir'd."[655:B]

34. TURBERVILLE, GEORGE, a younger son of Nicholas Turberville, of

Whitechurch, in Dorsetshire, a gentleman of respectable family, was

born about the year 1540. He was educated at Winchester and Oxford,

and in 1562 became a member of one of the Inns of Court. Here the

reputation which he had acquired for talents and the dispatch of

business, obtained for him the appointment of secretary to Thomas

Randolph, Esq., ambassador to the Court of Russia, and, whilst in

this country, he employed his leisure in writing poems descriptive of

its manners and customs, addressed to Spenser, Dancie, and Park, and

afterwards published in Hakluyt's Voyages, 1598, vol. i. pp. 384, 385.

On his return from this tour, he added greatly to his celebrity, as

a scholar and a gentleman, by the publication of his "Epitaphes,

epigrams, songs, and sonets, with a discourse of the friendly

affections of Tymetes to Pyndara his ladie," 8vo. 1567. This year,

indeed, appears to have been fully occupied by him in preparing his

works for the press; for, during its course, independent of the

collection just mentioned, he printed "The Heroycall Epistles of the

learned Poet Publius Ovidius Naso: with Aulus Sabinus aunsweres to

certaine of the same," 8vo., and "The Eclogs of the poet B. Mantuan

Carmelitan, turned into English verse, and set forth with the argument

to every eglogue." 12mo. These productions, with his "Tragical Tales,

translated in time of his troubles, out of Sundrie Italians, with the

argument and L'Envoye to ech tale," printed in 1576, and again in 1587,

with annexed "Epitaphs and Sonets, and some other broken pamphlettes

and Epistles," together with some pieces of poetry in his "Art of

Venerie," and in his "Booke of Faulconrie or Hauking," 1575, and a few

commendatory stanzas addressed to his friends, form the whole of his

poetical works.

Turberville enjoyed, as a writer of songs, sonnets, and minor poems, a

high degree of popularity in his day; it was not, however, calculated

for durability, and he appears to have been forgotten, as a poet,

before the close of the seventeenth century. His muse has experienced

a temporary revival, through the medium of Mr. Chalmers's English

Poets, and to the antiquary, and lover of old English literature, this

reprint will be acceptable; but, for the general reader, he will be

found deficient in many essential points. Fancy, it is true, may be

discovered in his pieces, although forced and quaint; but of nature,

simplicity, and feeling, the portion is unfortunately small. Occasional

felicity of diction, a display of classical allusion, and imagery taken

from the amusements and customs of the age, are not wanting; but the

warmth, the energy, and the enthusiasm of poetry are sought for in vain.

Our author survived the year 1594, though the date of his death is not

known.

35. TUSSER, THOMAS, one of the most popular, and, assuredly, one

of the most useful of our elder poets, was born, according to Dr.

Mavor, about 1515, and died about 1583.[656:A] The work which ushers

him to notice here, and has given him the appellation of the English

Varro, was published in 1557, and entitled "A Hundreth Good Pointes

of Husbandrie," a small quarto of thirteen leaves. It was shortly

followed by "One Hundreth Good Poyntes of Huswiffry;" and in 1573, the

whole was enlarged with the title of "Five Hundreth Points of Good

Husbandry, united to as many of Good Huswifery." The most complete

edition, however, and the last in the author's life-time, was printed

in 1580. So acceptable did this production prove to the lovers of

poetry and agriculture, that it underwent nineteen editions during

its first century, and Dr. Mavor's edition, published in 1812, forms

the last, and twenty-fourth. The mutilated state of the old copies,

indeed, exemplifies, more than any thing else, the practical use to

which they were subjected; "some books," remarks Mr. Haslewood, "became

heir-looms from value, and Tusser's work, for useful information

in every department of agriculture, together with its quaint and

amusing observations, perhaps passed the copies from father to son,

till they crumbled away in the bare shifting of the pages, and the

mouldering relic only lost its value, by the casual mutilation of

time."[657:A] That the estimation in which the poems of Tusser were

held by his contemporaries, might lead to such a result, it may be

allowable to conclude from the assertion of Googe, who, speaking of

our author's works, says, that "in his fancie, they may, without any

presumption, compare with any of the Varros, Columellas, or Palladios

of Rome."[657:B]

The great merit of Tusser's book, independent of the utility of its

agricultural precepts, consists in the faithful picture which it

delineates of the manners, customs, and domestic life of the English

farmer, and in the morality, piety, and benevolent simplicity, which

pervade the whole. In a poetical light its pretensions are not great.

The part relative to Husbandry is divided into months, and written

in quatrains, of eleven syllables in each line, which are frequently

constructed with much terseness, and with a happy epigrammatic brevity.

The abstracts prefixed to each month, are given in short verses of

four and five syllables each; and numerous illustrative pieces, and

nearly the whole of the Huswifery, present us with a vast variety

of metres, among which, as Ritson has observed, "may be traced the

popular stanza which attained so much celebrity in the pastoral ballads

of Shenstone."[658:A] Little that can be termed ornamental, either in

imagery or episode, is to be found in this poem; but the sketches of

character and costume, of rural employment and domestic economy, are

so numerous, and given with such fidelity, raciness, and spirit, as to

render the work in a very uncommon degree interesting and amusing.

36. WARNER, WILLIAM. Of the biography of this fine old poet, little

has descended to posterity. He is supposed to have been born about the

year 1558; and that he died at Amwell in Hertfordshire, and was by

profession an attorney, are two of the principal facts which, by an

appeal to the parish register of Amwell, have been clearly ascertained.

In a note to his poem on this village, Mr. Scott first communicated

this curious document:—"1608-1609. Master William Warner, a man of

good yeares, and of honest reputation: by his profession an atturnye

of the Common Pleas: author of Albion's England, diynge suddenly in

the night in his bedde, without any former complaynt or sicknesse, on

Thursday night, beeinge the 9th day of March: was buried the Saturday

following, and lyeth in the church at the corner, under the stone of

Gwalter Fader."[658:B]

The lines which gave occasion to this extract form a pleasing tribute

to the memory of the bard:

"He, who in verse his Country's story told,

Here dwelt awhile; perchance here sketch'd the scene,

Where his fair Argentile, from crowded courts

For pride self-banish'd, in sequester'd shades

Sojourn'd disguis'd, and met the slighted youth

Who long had sought her love—the gentle bard

Sleeps here, _by Fame forgotten_."

The words in Italics which close this passage, were not at the time

they were written correctly true, for Warner had then been a subject

of great and judicious praise, both to Mrs. Cooper and Dr. Percy; and,

since the era of Scott, he has been imitated, re-edited, and liberally

applauded. He is conjectured to have been a native of Warwickshire,

to have been educated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, and to have left

the University without a degree, for the purpose of cultivating his

poetical genius in the metropolis. His _Albion's England_, on which his

fame is founded, was first printed in 1586, when the poet was probably

about eight and twenty. It underwent six subsequent editions during

the author's life-time, namely, in 1589, 1592, 1596, 1597, 1602, and

1606.[659:A]

This extensive poetic history, which is deduced from the deluge to the

reign of Elizabeth, is distributed into twelve books, and contains

seventy-seven chapters; it is dedicated to Henry Cary, Lord Hunsdon,

under whose patronage and protection Warner appears to have spent

the latter portion of his life. Such was the popularity of "Albion's

England," that it threw into the shade what had formerly been the

favourite collection, the "Mirror for Magistrates;" Warner was ranked

by his contemporaries, says Dr. Percy, on a level with Spenser; they

were called the Homer and Virgil of their age[659:B]; and Meres,

speaking of the English tongue, declares, that by his (Warner's) pen,

it "was much enriched and gorgeously invested in rare ornaments and

resplendent habiliments."[659:C] Less hyperbolical, and, therefore,

more judicious praise, was allotted him by Drayton, who, after noticing

his incorrectnesses, adds with a liberal spirit—

————————— "yet thus let me say

For my old friend, some passages there be

In him, which I protest have taken me

With almost wonder, so fine, so clear, and new,

As yet they have been equalled by few;"[659:D]

a decision which subsequent criticism has confirmed.

One of his most pleasing episodes, "Argentile and Curan," was

inserted by Mrs. Cooper in her "Muses' Library," who justly terms it

"a tale full of beautiful incidents, in the romantic taste, extremely

affecting, rich in ornament, wonderfully various in stile, and, in

short, one of the most beautiful pastorals I ever met with."[660:A]

This was again republished by Percy in his "Reliques[660:B]," and

finally honoured by Mason in the third volume of his Poems, 1796, where

it forms a _Legendary Drama in five acts, written on the old English

model_. Ritson, Headley, and Ellis, have furnished us with additional

extracts, and at length _Albion's England_ has found its place in the

body of our English Poetry through the taste and exertions of Mr.

Chalmers.[660:C]

Ease, simplicity, and pathos, are the leading virtues of Warner's

muse. He eminently excelled in depicting rural and pastoral lite, and

in developing those simple and touching emotions which pervade the

innocent and artless bosom. His vices were those of his age, and may

be included under the heads of indelicacy, inequality, and quaintness;

these expunged, his finer parts strongly interest our affections, and

endear to us the memory of the good old bard.

37. WATSON, THOMAS, a once popular writer of sonnets, was born in

London, and educated at Oxford, whence he returned to the metropolis

for the purpose of practising the law. In 1581, his principal poetical

work was entered on the Stationers' books, and afterwards published

with the following title, though without date:—"The ΕΚΑΤΟΜΠΑΘΙΑ, or

Passionate Centurie of Love, divided into two Parts: whereof the first

expresseth the Author's Sufferance in Love: the latter, his long

Farewell to Love and all his Tyrannie. Composed by Thomas Watson,

Gentleman; and published at the Request of certeine Gentlemen his very

Friends."

Of this Collection, which occupies a thin 4to., black letter, with

a sonnet on each page, an admirable critical analysis has been

given by Sir Egerton Brydges, in the twelfth number of the British

Bibliographer, accompanied by seventeen specimens of the sonnets, and

from this critique, and from the Theatrum Poetarum, edited by the same

elegant scholar, we have drawn our account, for the original is so

scarce, as to be of hopeless acquisition.

It will strike the reader, in the first place, that the poems which

Watson termed Sonnets, have no pretensions, in point of mechanism

and form, to the character of the legitimate sonnet. Instead of the

beautiful though artificial construction of the Petrarcan model, they

consist of eighteen lines, including three quatrains in alternate

rhyme, and a couplet appended to each quatrain; a system of verse

totally destitute of the union and dignity which distinguish this

branch of poetry in the practice of the Italians. It should be

remarked, however, that our poet has occasionally given us a sonnet

in Latin verse, in which he confines himself to fourteen lines, and,

as he observes, in the Introduction to his sixth sonnet, "commeth

somwhat neerer unto the Italian phrase than the English doth."[661:A]

Watson was, indeed, an elegant Latin poet, and in the matter prefixed

to his first and sixth sonnets, informs us that he had written a poem

"De Remedio Amoris," and that he was then "busied in translating

Petrarch his sonnets into Latin,—which one day may perchance come

to light."[661:B] In fact there appears to be more of true poetry in

his Latin than in his English verse; for though to the "Centurie of

Love" must be attributed great purity, correctness, and perspicuity of

diction, and a versification uncommonly polished, harmonious, and well

sustained, yet the soul of poetry, tenderness, simplicity, and energy

of sentiment, will be found wanting. In their place Watson has bestowed

upon us a multitude of metaphysical conceits, an exuberant store of

classical mythology, and an abundance of learned allusion; but, to

adopt the interesting observations of the critic mentioned in the

preceding paragraph, "to meditate upon a subject, till it is broken

into a thousand remote allusions and conceits; to accustom the mind to

a familiarity with metaphysical subtleties and casual similitudes in

contradictory objects, is to cultivate intellectual habits directly

opposite to those from whence real poetry springs; and to produce

effects directly opposite to those which real poetry is intended to

produce.

"The real poet does but pursue, fix, and heighten those day-dreams

which every intellectual being more or less at times indulges; though

the difference of the degree, as well as of the frequency, in which

individuals indulge them, is incalculable; arising from the difference

of mental talent and sensibility, as well as of cultivation. But

who is there in whose fancy some absent image does not occasionally

revive? And who is there so utterly dull and hard, that in him it

arises unassociated with the slightest emotion of pain or pleasure?

Yet in what abundance and richness of colouring such images are

constantly springing up in the mind of the poet? Visions adhere to the

boughs of every tree; and painting what he sees and feels with his

natural enthusiasm, he carries the reader of sensibility along with

him; kindles his fainter ideas into a flame; draws forth the yet weak

impression into body and form; and irradiates his whole brain with his

own light. The chords of the heart are touched; and while thus played

upon produce enchanting music; till, as the spell is silent, the object

of this borrowed inspiration is astonished to find, that all this

brilliant entertainment sprung from the wand of the poetical magician.

"If this be the secret of true poetry, what is he who seeks to convey

images so unnatural, that no one had ever even an imperfect glimpse of

them before, and no one can sympathize with them when expressed? Can he

whose thoughts find no mirror in the minds of others be a poet? Is not

a _metaphysical poet_ a contradiction of terms?

"He who adopts these principles, will think of Watson as I do.—Has he

painted the natural emotions of the mind, or the heart? Has he given

"A local habitation and a name"

to those 'airy nothings' which more or less haunt every fancy? Or has

he not sat down rather to exercise the subtlety of his wit, than to

discharge the fullness of his bosom?"[663:A]

Yet has Watson, with these vital defects, been pronounced by Mr.

Steevens superior as a sonneteer to Shakspeare[663:B]; a preference

which we shall have occasion to consider in the chapter appropriated to

the minor poems of our great dramatist.

Beside the "Hekatompathia," Watson published, in 1581, a Latin

translation of the Antigone of Sophocles; in 1582, "Ad Olandum de

Eulogiis serenissimæ nostræ Elizabethæ post Anglorum prœlia cantatis,

Decastichon;" in 1586, a Paraphrase in Latin verse of the "Raptus

Helenæ," of Coluthus; in 1590, an English Version of Italian

Madrigalls, and "Melibœus, a Latin Eclogue on the Death of Sir Francis

Walsingham," 4to.; in 1592, he printed "Amintæ Gaudia," in hexameter

verses, 4to.; and beside other fugitive pieces, two poems of his are

inserted in the "Phœnix Nest," 1593, and in "England's Helicon," 1600.

Watson has been highly praised by Nash[663:C], by Gabriel

Harvey[663:D], and by Meres; the latter asserting that "as Italy had

Petrarch, so England had Thomas Watson."[663:E] He is supposed to have

died about the year 1595, for Nash, in his "Have with you to Saffron

Walden," printed in 1596, speaks of him as then deceased, adding, that

"for all things he has left few his equals in England."

38. WILLOBIE, HENRY. From the Preface of Hadrian Dorrell, to the first

edition of Willobie's "Avisa" in 1594, in which he terms the author,

"a young man, and a scholar of very good hope," there is foundation

for conjecturing that our poet was born about the year 1565. It

appears also from this prefatory matter that, "being desirous to

see the fashions of other countries for a time, he not long sithence

departed voluntarily to her majestie's service," and that Dorrell, in

his friend's absence, committed his poem to the press.[664:A] He gave

it the following title, "Willobie his Avisa; or the true picture of

a modest Maide and of a chast and constant wife. In hexameter[664:B]

verse. The like argument whereof was never heretofore published:"

4to. A second edition was published by the same editor in 1596, with

an Apology for the work, dated June 30, and concluding with the

information, that the author was "of late gone to God." A fourth

impression "corrected and augmented," consisting of 72 leaves 4to.,

made its appearance in 1609[664:C], with the addition of "the victorie

of English Chastitie never before published," and subscribed "Thomas

Willoby, _frater Henrici Willoby nuper defuncti_."

Mr. Haslewood conjectures from Dorrell's calling Willobie his

_chamber-fellow_, and then dating his Preface from his chamber in

Oxford; and from a passage in the "Avisa" itself, that our author was

educated in that university, and that he was a native of Kent.[665:A]

We are told likewise by Dorrell, in his "Apologie," that his friend had

written a poem entitled "Susanna," which still remained in manuscript.

The "Avisa," which consists of a great number of short cantos, is

written to exemplify and recommend the character of a chaste woman,

under all the temptations to which the various situations incident to

her life, expose her. "In a void paper," says the editor, "rolled up in

this book, I found this very name Avisa, written in great letters, a

pretty distance asunder, and under every letter a word beginning with

the same letter, in this forme:—

A. V. I. S. A.

Amans. Vxor. Inviolata. Semper. Amanda.

"That is, in effect, A loving wife that never violated her faith is

alwayes to be beloved. Which makes me conjecture, that he minding

for his recreation to set out the idea of a constant wife (rather

describing what good wives should do than registring what any hath

done,) devised a woman's name that might fitly expresse this woman's

nature whom he would aime at: desirous in this (as I conjecture) to

imitate a far off, either Plato in his commonwealth, or More in his

Utopia."[665:B] Prefixed are two commendatory copies of verses, of

which the second, signed _Contraria Contrariis_, is remarkable for

an allusion to Shakspeare's "Rape of Lucrece," and will be noticed

hereafter.

Of invention and enthusiasm, the poet's noblest boast, few traits are

discoverable in the Avisa, nor can it display any vivid delineation of

passion; but it occasionally unfolds a pleasing vein of description,

and both the diction and metre are uniformly clear, correct, and

flowing. Indeed, the versification may be pronounced, for the age in

which it appeared, peculiarly sweet and well modulated, and the whole

poem, in language and rhythm, makes a close approximation to modern

usage.

39. WITHER, GEORGE. This very voluminous writer is introduced here, in

consequence of his _Juvenilia_, which constitute the best of his works,

having been all printed or circulated before the death of Shakspeare.

He was born at Bentworth, near Alton in Hampshire, in 1590, and, after

a long life of tumult, vicissitude, and disappointment, died in his

seventy-eighth year in 1667. He continued to wield his pen to the last

month of his existence, and more than one hundred of his pieces, in

prose and verse, have been enumerated by Mr. Park in a very curious and

elaborate catalogue of his works.[666:A] We shall confine ourselves,

however, for the reason already assigned, to that portion of his poetry

which was in circulation previous to 1616.

It appears from Wither's own catalogue of his works[666:B], that four

of his earliest poems, entitled "Iter Hibernicum," "Iter Boreale,"

"Patrick's Purgatory," and "Philarete's Complaint," were lost in

manuscript. The first of his published productions was printed in 1611,

under the title of "_Abuses Stript and Whipt_: or Satyricall Essays.

Divided into two Bookes;" 8vo., to which were annexed "The Scourge,"

a satire, and "Certaine Epigrams." This book, he tells us[666:C],

was written in 1611, and its unsparing severity involved him in

persecution, and condemned him for several months to a prison. It was

nevertheless highly popular, and underwent an eighth impression in 1633.

An elegant writer in the British Bibliographer has subjoined the

following very just and interesting remarks to his notice of these

poignant satires. "The reign of King James," he observes, "was not

propitious to the higher orders of poetry. All those bold features,

which nourished the romantic energies of the age of his predecessor,

had been suppressed by the selfish pusillanimity and pedantic policy

of this inglorious monarch. Loving flattery and a base kind of

luxurious ease, he was insensible to the ambitions of a gallant

spirit, and preferred the cold and barren subtleties of scholastic

learning to the breathing eloquence of those who were really inspired

by the muse. Poetical composition therefore soon assumed a new

character. Its exertions were now overlaid by learning, and the

strange conceits of metaphysical wit took place of the creations of a

pure and unsophisticated fancy. It was thus that Donne wasted in the

production of unprofitable and short-lived fruit the powers of a most

acute and brilliant mind. It was thus that Phineas Fletcher threw away

upon an unmanageable subject the warblings of a copious and pathetic

imagination. The understanding was more exercised in the ingenious

distortion of artificial stores, than the faculties which mark the poet

in pouring forth the visions of natural fiction.

"Such scenes as youthful poets dream,

On summer eve, by haunted stream,

were now deemed insipid. The Fairy Fables of Gorgeous Chivalry were

thought too rude and boisterous, and too unphilosophical for the

erudite ear of the book-learned king!

"As writers of verse now brought their compositions nearer to the

nature of prose, the epoch was favourable to the satyrical class, for

which so much food was furnished by the motley and vicious manners

of the nation. Wither, therefore, bursting with indignation at the

view of society which presented itself to his young mind, took this

opportunity to indulge in a sort of publication, to which the prosaic

taste of the times was well adapted; but he disdained, and, perhaps,

felt himself unqualified, to use that glitter of false ornament, which

was now substituted for the true decorations of the muse. 'I have

arrived,' says he[667:A], 'to be as plain as a pack-saddle.'—'Though

you understand them not, yet because you see this wants some _fine

phrases and flourishes_, as you find other men's writings stuffed

withal, perhaps you will judge me unlearned.'—'Yet I could with ease

have amended it; for it cost me, I protest, more labour to observe this

plainness, than if I had more poetically trimmed it.'"[668:A]

The plainness of which Wither here professes himself to have been

studious, forms one of the noblest characteristics of his best

writings. Dismissing with contempt the puerilities and conceits which

deformed the pages of so many of his contemporaries, he cultivated,

with almost uniform assiduity, a simplicity of style, and an expression

of natural sentiment and feeling, which have occasioned the revival of

his choicest compositions in the nineteenth century[668:B], and will

for ever stamp them with a permanent value.

Returning to his Juvenilia, we find that in 1612 he published in a

thin quarto, "_Prince Henrie's Obsequies_; or mournfull Elegies upon

his Death. With a supposed Interlocution betweene the Ghost of Prince

Henry and Great Britaine;" which was followed the succeeding year

by his "_Epithalamia_: or Nuptiall Poemes," 4to., on the marriage

of Frederick the Fifth, with Elizabeth, only daughter of James the

First. These pieces have been re-printed, by Sir Egerton Brydges, in

his "Restituta:" the _Obsequies_ contain forty-five elegiac sonnets,

succeeded by an _Epitaph_, the _Interlocution_, and a _Sonnet of

Death_, in Latin rhymes, with a paraphrastic translation. Among the

numerous sonnet-writers of the age of Shakspeare, Wither claims a most

respectable place, and many of these little elegies deserve a rescue

from oblivion. We would particularly point out Nos. 14 and 17, from

which an admirable sonnet might be formed by subjoining six lines

of the former to the first two quatorzains of the latter, and this

without the alteration of a syllable; the _octave_ will then consist

of a soliloquy by the poet himself, and the _sestain_ be addressed to

Elizabeth the sister of Prince Henry; a transition which is productive

of a striking and happy effect:—

"Thrice happy had I been, if I had kept

Within the circuit of some little Village,

In ignorance of Courts and Princes slept,

Manuring of an honest halfe-plough tillage:

Or else, I would I were as young agen

As when _Eliza_, our last _Phœnix_ died;

My childish yeares had not conceived then

What 'twas to lose a Prince so dignified:—

Thy brother's well: and would not change estates

With any prince that reigns beneath the skie:

No, not with all the world's great potentates:

His plumes have born him to eternitie!—

He shall escape (for so th' Almighty wills)

The stormy Winter of ensuing ills."[669:A]

In 1614, our author published "A _Satyre_ written to the King's most

excellent Majestie," 8vo.; and "_The Shepherds Pipe_," 8vo.; the

latter, a production of high poetical merit, having being composed in

conjunction with Browne, the author of Britannia's Pastorals.

In 1615, appeared "_The Shepheards Hunting_: Being certaine

Eglogues, written during the time of the Author's imprisonment in

the Marshalsey," 8vo. This was intended as a continuation of the

"Shepheard's Pipe," and is fully equal, if not superior, to the prior

portion: Phillips, indeed, speaking of Wither, says, "the most of

poetical fancy, which I remember to have found in any of his writings,

is in a little piece of pastoral poetry, called _The Shepherd's

Hunting_."[669:B]

The next work with which Wither favoured us, though not published for

_general_ circulation before 1619, yet, as the stationer, George

Norton, tells us, had been "long since imprinted for the use of the

author, to bestow on such as had voluntarily requested it _in way of

adventure_;" words which seem to intimate, that it had been dispersed

for the purpose of _pecuniary_ return, and probably with the intent

of supporting the bard during his imprisonment in the Marshalsea. It

has accordingly a title-page which implies a second impression, and

is termed "_Fidelia_. Newly corrected and augmented." This is a work

which ought to have protected the memory of Wither from the sarcasms

of Butler, Swift, and Pope; for it displays a vein of poetry at once

highly elegant, impassioned, and descriptive. To _Fidelia_ was first

annexed the two exquisite songs, reprinted by Dr. Percy, commencing

"Shall I, wasting in dispaire,"

and

"Hence away, thou Syren, leave me."[670:A]

We shall close the list of those works of Wither that fall within the

era to which we are limited, by noticing his "_Faire Virtue_: the

Mistresse of Phil'arete," 8vo. This beautiful production, glowing

with all the ardours of a poetic fancy, was one of his earliest

compositions, and is alluded to in his "Satire to the King," in

1614, before which period there is reason to suppose it was widely

circulated in manuscript; for in a prefatory epistle to the copy of

1622, published by John Grismand, but which was originally prefixed

to an anonymous edition printed by John Marriot, and not now supposed

to be in existence, Wither tells us, that "the poem was composed many

years agone, and, unknown to the author, got out of his custody by an

acquaintance;" and he adds, "when I first composed it, I well liked

thereof, and it well enough became my years." To high praise of this

work in its poetical capacity, Mr. Dalrymple has annexed the important

remark, that it unfolds a more perfect system of female tuition than is

any where else to be discovered.

The great misfortune of Wither was, that the multitude of his

subsequent publications, many of which were written during the

effervescence of party zeal, and are frequently debased by coarse and

vulgar language, overwhelmed the merits of his earlier productions. Yet

it must be conceded, that his prose, during the whole period of his

authorship, generally exhibits great strength, perspicuity, and freedom

from affectation; and on the best of his poetical effusions we may

cheerfully assent to the following encomium of an able and impartial

judge:—

"If poetry be the power of commanding the imagination, conveyed in

measure and expressive epithets, Wither was truly a poet. Perhaps

there is no where to be found a greater variety of English measure

than in his writings, (Shakspeare excepted,) more energy of thought,

or more frequent developement of the delicate filaments of the human

heart."[671:A]

40. WOTTON, SIR HENRY. This elegant scholar and accomplished gentleman

was forty-eight years of age when Shakspeare died, being born at

Boughton-Hall in Kent, in 1568. His correspondence with Milton on the

subject of Comus in 1638, is on record, and it is highly probable that,

on his return from the continent in 1598, after a long residence of

nine years in Germany and Italy, he would not long remain a stranger

either to the reputation or the person of the great Dramatic Luminary

of his times.

Having mentioned these great poets as contemporaries of Sir Henry

Wotton, it may be a subject of pleasing speculation to conjecture how

far they could be personally known to each other. The possibility

of some intercourse of this kind, though transient, seems to have

forcibly struck the mind of an elegant poet and critic of the present

day; speaking of Comus, presented at Ludlow-Castle in 1634, he

remarks,—"Much it has appeared to me of the _Shaksperean_ diction

and numbers and form of sentiment may be traced in this admirable

and delightful Drama: in which the streams of the _Avon_ mix with

those of the _Arno_, of the _Mincius_, and the _Ilissus_. Part of

MILTON'S affectionate veneration, beside what arises from congenial

mind, may have arisen from _personal_ respect. At the _death_ of

SHAKSPEARE, MILTON was in his _eighth_ year.

——— "Heroum laudes et facta Parentum

Jam legere, et quæ sit poterat cognoscere Virtus."

"It is hardly probable that they never met. SHAKSPEARE, if they did see

each other, could not but be charmed with the countenance and manners

of a boy like MILTON: and MILTON, whose mind was never childish, and

whose countenance at ten has the modest but decisive character of his

high destiny, would feel the interview: his young heart would dilate,

and every recollection would bring SHAKSPEARE, once seen and heard, to

his remembrance and imagination with increasing force."[672:A]

The most powerful circumstance which militates against this interesting

supposition, is, that, if such an interview had taken place, we should,

in all probability, have found it recorded in the minor poems, Latin or

English, of Milton, who has there preserved many of the occurrences of

his youthful days, and would scarcely have failed, we think, to put the

stamp of immortality on such an event.

The poetry of Wotton, though chiefly written for the amusement of his

leisure, and through the excitement of casual circumstances, possesses

the invaluable attractions of energy, simplicity, and the most touching

morality; it comes warm from the heart, and whether employed on an

amatory or didactic subject, makes its appropriate impression with an

air of sincerity which never fails to delight. Of this description are

the pieces entitled, "A Farewell to the Vanities of the World;" the

"Character of a Happy Life," and the Lines on the Queen of Bohemia. One

of his earliest pieces, being "written in his youth," was printed in

Davison's "Poetical Rapsody," 1602, and his Remains were collected and

published by his amiable friend Isaac Walton. Sir Henry died, Provost

of Eton, in December 1639, in the seventy-third year of his age.

In drawing up these Critical Notices of the principal poets who,

independent of the Drama, flourished during the life-time of

Shakspeare, we have been guided chiefly by the consideration of their

positive merit, or great incidental popularity; and few, if any, who,

on these bases, call for admission, have probably been overlooked.

There is one poet, however, whose memory has been preserved by

Phillips, and of whom, from the high character given of him by this

critic, it may be necessary to say a few words; for if the following

eulogium on the compositions of this writer be not the result of a

marked partiality, it should stimulate to an ardent enquiry after

manuscripts so truly valuable.

"JOHN LANE, a fine old Queen Elizabeth's gentleman, who was living

within my remembrance, and whose several Poems, had they not had the

ill fate to remain unpublisht, when much better meriting than many,

that are in print, might possibly have gained him a name not much

inferior, if not equal to Drayton, and others of the next rank to

Spencer; but they are all to be produc't in manuscript, namely his

'_Poetical Vision_,' his '_Alarm to the Poets_,' his '_Twelve Months_,'

his '_Guy of Warwick, a Heroic Poem_' (at least as much as many others

that are so entitled), and lastly his '_Supplement to Chaucer's

Squire's Tale_.'"[673:A]

It has happened unfortunately for Lane, that the only specimen of his

writings which has met the eye of a modern critic, has proved a source

of disappointment. Warton, after recording that a copy of Lane's

supplement to Chaucer existed in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, adds,

"I conceived great expectations of him on reading Phillips's account.

But I was greatly disappointed, for Lane's performance, upon perusal,

proved to be not only an inartificial imitation of Chaucer's manner,

but a weak effort of invention."[674:A] This discovery, however, should

not arrest all future research; for his four preceding poems, of which

the latter two must necessarily, from their titles, be of considerable

length, may yet warrant the decision of Phillips.[674:B]

To this brief summary of Master-Bards we shall now subjoin, in a

tabular and alphabetic form, a catalogue of those numerous minor poets

who were content to follow in the train of more splendid talent. In

carrying this arrangement into execution it will not be necessary,

after the example of Ritson, to dignify with the name of poet every

individual who contributed a single copy of verses, as a tribute to

contemporary merit—a prostitution of the title which appears truly

ridiculous; for though bulk be no proof of excellence, yet were we

to assign the name of poet to every penner of a stanza, the majority

of those who barely read and write, might be included in the list.

To those alone, therefore, who either published themselves, or had

their productions thrown into a collective form by others, will the

appellation be allotted.

With a view to simplicity and brevity, the Table will consist but of

three parts; the first, occupied by the names of the poets; the second,

by abbreviated titles of their works, with their dates; and the third,

in order to prevent the frequent repetition of similar epithets, will

contain arbitrary marks, designative of the general merit of their

writings, and forming a kind of graduated scale. Thus _mediocrity_ will

be designated by a broad black line (|); _excellence_ will be expressed

by eight asterisks before the mark of mediocrity, (* * * * * * * * |),

and absolute _worthlessness_ by eight after it (| * * * * * * * *);

while the intermediate shades of merit will be sufficiently pointed out

by the intervening asterisks. Occasional _notes_, where peculiarity of

any kind may call for them, will be added.

On this plan of _tabular_ construction, the tediousness of a mere

catalogue will, in a great measure, be avoided; and, at the same time,

an adequately accurate view be given of the multiplicity and diffusion

of poetical composition which pervaded this fertile period.

_TABLE of Minor Miscellaneous Poets, during the Age of

SHAKSPEARE._

SCALE.

E M AW

* * * * * * * * | * * * * * * * *

Key: E = _Excellence._

M = _Mediocrity._

AW = _Absolute Worthlessness._

ACHELEY, THOMAS. "_A most lamentable and

tragical Historie._" 12mo. 1576

A translation from a novel of Bandello | *

ANDERSON, JAMES. _Ane godly treatis_, calit

the first and second cumming of Christ,

with the tone of the wintersnycht. 16mo.

Edin. 1595 | *

ANDREWE, THOMAS. _The Unmasking of a feminine

Machiavell._ 4to. 1604 | *

ANNESON, JAMES. _Carolana_, that is to say,

a Poeme in Honour of our King, Charles-James,

Queen Anne, and Prince Charles, &c. 4to. 1614

ARTHINGTON, HENRY. _Principall Points of Holy

Profession._ 4to. 1607 | * *

ASKE, JAMES. _Elizabetha Triumphans._ 4to.

Blank Verse. 1588 | *

AVALE, LEMEKE. _A Commemoration or Dirge_ of

bastarde Edmonde Boner. 8vo. 1659 |

BALNEVIS, HENRY. _Confession of Faith_,

conteining how the troubled man should seeke

refuge at his God. 12mo. Edin. 1584 |

BARNEFIELDE, RICHARD. _Cynthia_ with

certeyne Sonnettes and the Legend of

Cassandra. 1594 |

The _Affectionate Shepherd_. 16mo.[677:A] 1595 * |

_The Encomion of Lady Pecunia._ 4to. 1598 |

BARNES, BARNABE. _Parthenophil and

Parthenope._ Sonnettes, Madrigals, Elegies

and Odes. 1593 * |

_A Divine Centurie of Spirituall

Sonnettes._[677:B] 1595 * |

BASTARD, THOMAS. _Chrestoleros._ Seven

Books of Epigrams. 8vo.[677:C] 1595 * |

BATMAN, STEPHEN. _The Travayled Pylgrime._

4to. 1569 | * * *

BEVERLEY, PETER. _The History of Ariodanto

and Jeneura._ 8vo. 2d edit. From Ariosto. 1600 |

BIESTON, ROGER. _The Bayte and Snare of

Fortune._ Folio. ten leaves. No date.[677:D]

BLENERHASSET, THOMAS. _The Seconde Part of

the Mirrour for Magistrates._ 4to. 1578 | *

BOURCHER, ARTHUR. _A Fable of Æsop_

Versified. 8vo. 1566

BOURMAN, NICHOLAS. _A Friendelie Well

Wishinge_ to such as endure. A Ballad. 1581

BRADSHAW, THOMAS. _The Shepherd's Starre._

4to. 1591

BRATHWAYTE, RICHARD. _The Golden Fleece_,

with other poems. Sm. 8vo. 1611 |

_The Poets Willow_, or the Passionate

Shepherd. 8vo. 1614 |

_A Strappado for the Divell._ Epigrams

and Satyres. 8vo. 1615 |

BRICE, THOMAS. _The Courte of Venus

Moralized._ 1567

_Songes and Sonnettes._ 1567

BROUGHTON, ROWLAND. _A Briefe Discourse_

of the Lyfe and Death of the late Right

High and Hon{ble} Sir Will{m} Pawlet,

Knight. 1572 | * *

BROOKE, THOMAS. _Certayne Verses_ in the

time of his imprisonment, the day before

his deathe. Norwich. 1570

BROOKE, CHRISTOPHER. _Elegy_ on Prince

Henry. 1613

_Eclogues._ Dedicated to W{m}

Browne.[678:A] 1614 |

BRYSKETT, LODOWICK. _The Mourning Muses_

of Lod. Bryskett upon the deathe of the

most noble Sir Philip Sydney knight.[678:B] 1587 * |

BUC, SIR GEORGE. Δαφνις Πολυστεφανος. An

Eclog treating of Crownes, and of

Garlandes, and to whom of right they

appertaine. 4to. 1605 * |

CAREW, RICHARD. "_Godfrey of Bulloigne_,

or the Recoverie of Hierusalem." First

Five Cantos translated from Tasso. First

edition, no date. Second, 4to. 1594 | *

CARPENTER, JOHN. _A Sorrowfull Song_ for

sinfull soules. 8vo. 1586

CHESTER, ROBERT. "_Loves Martyr_, or

Rosalins Complaint." From the Italian of

Torquato Cœliano. "With the true Legend of

famous King Arthur."[679:A] 1601 | *

CHETTLE, HENRY. _The Pope's pitiful

Lamentation_ for the death of his deere

darling Don Joan of Austria. 4to. 1578

"_The Forest of Fancy._" Consisting of

apothegmes, histories, songs, sonnets,

and epigrams. 4to. 1579

_A Dolefull Ditty_ or sorowful sonet of

the Lord Darly, some time King of Scots. 1579 |

CHUTE, ANTHONY. _Beawtie Dishonoured_,

written under the title of Shore's Wife.

4to. 1593

_Procris and Cephalus._[679:B] 1593 | *

CLAPHAM, HENOCH. _A Briefe of the Bible's

History_; Drawne first into English poesy.

8vo. Edin. 1596 | * * *

COPLEY, ANTHONY. _Loves Owle_: an idle

conceited Dialogue betwene Love and an

Olde-man. 4to. 1595

_A Fig for Fortune._ 4to. 1596 | * *

COTTESFORD, THOMAS. _A Prayer to

Dannyell._ 1570

COTTON, ROGER. _An Armor of Proofe_,

brought from the Tower of David. 4to. 1596

_A Spirituall Song._ 4to. 1596

CULROSE, ELIZABETH. _Ane Godly Dream._

4to. Edin. 1603 |

CUTWODE, T. _Caltha-poetarum_, or the

Bumble Bee, 4to. 1599

DAVIDSTONE, JOHNE. _Ane Brief Commendation_

of Uprichtnes, &c. in Inglis Meter. 4to. 1573

_A Memorial of the Life and Death_ of

two worthye Chrittians. In English Meter.

8vo. 1595

DAVIES, JOHN. _The Scourge of Folly._

Consisting of satyricall Epigramms, &c.

8vo. 1611

_Humours Heavn on Earth._ 1605

_Microcosmos._ The Discovery of the

Little World, with the government

thereof. 4to. 1603

_The Muses Sacrifice_; or Divine

Meditations. 12mo. 1612

_Wittes Pilgrimage_, (by Poeticall

Essaies,) Through a World of amorous

Sonnets, &c. 4to.[680:A] 16

_A Select Second Husband_ for Sir Thos.

Overburie's Wife. Small 8vo. 1616

_Mirum in Modum._[680:B] 1602 | * *

DAVISON, FRANCIS. } _Sonnets, Odes,

DAVISON, WALTER. } Elegies, Madrigals,

and Epigrams_, by

Francis and Walter

Davison, brethren.

12mo.[680:C] 1602 * |

DELONE, THOMAS. _Strange Histories_, or

songes and sonnets of kinges, princes,

dukes, lords, ladyes, knights, and

gentlemen: &c. 4to.[681:A] 1612 | *

DERRICKE, JOHN. _The Image of Irelande._

4to. 1581 | *

DOWRICKE, ANN. _The French Historie._

4to. 1589

DRANT, THOMAS. _A Medicinable Morall_,

that is, the two bookes of Horace his

satyres, englyshed, &c. 4to. 1566

_Horace his Arte of Poetrie_, pistles,

and satyres, englished. 4to. 1567

_Greg. Nazianzen_, his epigrammes, and

spirituall sentences. 8vo.[681:B] 1568 | *

EDWARDES, C. The Mansion of Myrthe 1581

ELDERTON, WILLIAM. _Elderton's Solace_ in

tyme of his sickness, contayning sundrie

sonets upon many pithe parables. 1578 | *

_Various Ballads_ from 1560 to[681:C] 1590 | *

ELVIDEN, EDMOND. _The Closet of Counselles._

Translated and collected out of divers

aucthors into English verse. 8vo. 1569

_The History of Pisistratus and Catanea._

12mo.

EVANS, LEWES. _The Fyrste twoo Satars or

Poyses of Orace._ 1564

EVANS, WILLIAM. _Thamesiades_, or Chastities

Triumph. 8vo.[682:A] 1602 | *

FENNER, DUDLEY. _The Song of Songs._

Translated out of the Hebrue into Englishe

Meeter. 8vo. 1587

FENNOR, WILLIAM. _Fennor's Descriptions._

4to.[682:B] 1616 | *

FERRERS, GEORGE. _Legends_ of Dame Eleanor

Cobham and Humfrey Plantagenet—in the

Myrrour for Magistrates, edition[682:C] 1578 | *

FETHERSTONE, CHRISTOPHER. _The Lamentations

of Jeremie_, in prose and meeter, with apt

notes to singe them withall. 8vo. 1587

FLEMING, ABRAHAM. _The Bucolikes of P.

Virgilius Maro_, with alphabeticall

annotations. 1575 | *

_The Georgiks or Ruralls_: conteyning

four books. 4to.[682:D] 1589 | *

FLETCHER, ROBERT. _An Epitaph_ or briefe

Lamentation for the late Queene. 4to. 1603

FRAUNCE, ABRAHAM. _The Lamentations of

Amintas_ for the death of Phillis:

paraphrastically translated out of Latine

into English hexameters. 4to. 1588 | *

"_The Arcadian Rhetoricke._" Verse and

Prose. 8vo. 1588 | *

_The Countess of Pembroke's Emanuel._

Conteining the nativity, passion, burial,

and resurrection of Christ: togeather

with certaine psalmes of David. 4to. 1591 | *

_The Countesse of Pembroke's Ivychurch._

Conteining the affectionate life, and

unfortunate death of Phillis and Amyntas.

4to.[683:A] 1591 | *

_The Third Part of_ the Countesse of

Pembrokes Ivychurch: entitled: Amintas

Dale. 4to. 1592 | *

_Heliodorus's Ethiopics._ 8vo.[683:B] 1591 | *

FREEMAN, THOMAS. _Rub and a Great Cast_: and

Runne, and a Great Cast. The second bowle.

In 200 Epigrams. 4to.[683:C] 1614 |

FULWELL, ULPIAN. _The Flower of Fame._

Containing the bright Renowne, and most

fortunate raigne of King Henry the viij.

4to. 1575 | * *

GALE, DUNSTAN. _Pyramus and Thisbe._[683:D] 1597 * |

GAMAGE, WILLIAM. _Linsi-Woolsie_: or Two

Centuries of Epigrammes. 12mo.[684:A] 1613 | * * * * *

GARTER, BARNARD. _The Tragicall History of

two English Lovers._ 8vo. 1565

GIFFORD, HUMPHREY. _A Posie of Gilloflowers_,

eche differing from other in colour and

odour, yet all sweete. 4to. 1580 * |

GOLDING, ARTHUR. _The XV. Bookes of P.

Ovidius Naso_, entytuled Metamorphosis, a

worke very pleasaunt and delectable. 4to. 1567 * |

GOOGE, BARNABY. _The Zodiake of Life_,

written by the godly and learned poet

Marcellus Pallingenius Stellatus, wherein

are conteyned twelve bookes. Newly

translated into English Verse. 4to. 1565 |

_The Popish Kingdome_, or reigne of

Antichrist. Written in Latine verse

by Thomas Naogeorgus, and Englyshed by

Barnaby Googe. 4to.[684:B] 1570 |

_The overthrow of the Gowte_: written in

Latin verse, by Chr. Balista, translated

by B. G. 8vo.[684:C] 1577 |

GORDON, PATRICK. _The Famous History of the

Valiant Bruce_, in heroic verse. 4to. 1615 * |

GORGES, SIR ARTHUR. _The Olympian

Catastrophe_, dedicated to the memory of

the most heroicall Lord Henry, late

illustrious Prince of Wales, &c. By Sir

Arthur Gorges, Knight.[685:A] 1612

_Lucan's Pharsalia_: containing the Civill

Warres betweene Cæsar and Pompey. Written

in Latine Heroicall Verse by M. Annæus

Lucanus. Translated into English verse by

Sir Arthur Gorges, Knight.[685:B] 1614 * |

GOSSON, STEPHEN. _Speculum Humanum._ In

stanzas of eleven lines.[685:C] 1580 |

GRANGE, JOHN. _His Garden_: pleasant to

the eare and delightful to the reader, if

he abuse not the scent of the floures.

4to.[685:D] 1577 | *

GREENE, THOMAS. _A Poets Vision_ and a

Prince's Glorie. 4to. 1603

GREEPE, THOMAS. _The true and perfect Newes_

of the woorthy and valiaunt exploytes,

performed and doone by that valiant knight

Syr Frauncis Drake. 4to.[686:A] 1587 | *

GREVILE, SIR FULKE. Poems, viz.

_Cælica_, a collection of 109 songs. |

_A Treatise of Human Learning_, in 150

stanzas. |

_Upon Fame and Honour_, in 86 stanzas. |

_A Treatise of Wars_, in 68 stanzas. |

_Remains_, consisting of political and

philosophical poems. |

_Poems in England's Helicon._[686:B] 1600 |

GRIFFIN, B. "_Fidessa, more chaste than

kinde._" A collection of amatory sonnets.

12mo. 1596

GRIFFITH, WILLIAM. The Epitaph of the

worthie Knight Sir Henry Sidney, Lord

President of Wales. Small 8vo. 1591 | *

GROVE, MATTHEW. _The most famous and

tragical historie_ of Pelops and

Hippodamia. Whereunto are adjoyned sundrie

pleasant devises, epigrams, songes, and

sonnettes. 8vo. 1587

GRYMESTON, ELIZABETH. _Miscellanea_—

Meditations—Memoratives.[686:C] 1604 | *

HAKE, EDWARD. _A Commemoration_ of the most

prosperous and peaceable raigne of our

gratious and deere soveraigne lady

Elizabeth. 8vo. 1575 |

_A Touchstone_ for the time present, &c.

12mo. 1574 | *

_Of Gold's Kingdom_ and this unhelping

age, described in sundry poems. 4to. 1604

HALL, ARTHUR. "_Ten Books of Homer's

Iliades._" Translated from the French of

Hugues Salel. 4to.[687:A] 1581 | * *

HALL, JOHN. _The Courte of Vertue_,

contayning many holy or spretuall songes,

sonnettes, psalms, balletts, and shorte

sentences, &c. 16 mo. 1565

HARBERT, SIR WILLIAM. _Sidney, or

Baripenthes_, briefely shadowing out the

rare and never-ending laudes of that most

honorable and praise-worthy gent. Sir

Philip Sidney, knight. 4to. 1586

HARBERT, WILLIAM. _A Prophesie of

Cadwallader_, last King of the Britaines,

&c. 4to.[687:B] 1604 |

HARVEY, GABRIEL. _Four Letters and Certaine

Sonnets._[687:C] 1592 | *

HAWES, EDWARD. _Trayterous Percyes and

Catesbyes Prosopopeia._ 4to. 1606

HEATH, JOHN. _Two Centuries of Epigrammes._

12mo. 1610 |

HERBERT, MARY. _A Dialogue between two

shepheards_, in praise of Astrea, by the

Countesse of Pembroke.[687:D] 1602 |

HEYWOOD, JASPER. _Various Poems and

Devises._[687:E] 1576 |

HEYWOOD, THOMAS. _Troia Britanica_: or,

Great Britaine's Troy. A Poem, devided into

17 severall Cantons, &c.[688:A] 1609 |

HIGGINS, JOHN. _The First Part of the

Mirour of Magistrates_, contayning the

falles of the first infortunate Princes of

this Lande: from the comming of Brute to

the incarnation of our Saviour, &c.

4to.[688:B] 1575 |

HOLLAND, ROBERT. _The Holie Historie_ of our

Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ's nativitie,

life, actes, miracles, doctrine, death,

passion, resurrection and ascension: gathered

into English meeter, &c. 8vo.[688:C] 1594 | *

HOWELL, THOMAS. _The Arbor of Amitie_;

wherein is comprised pleasant poems and

pretie poesies. 12mo.[688:D] 1568 | *

_Thomas Howell's Devises_ for his owne

exercise and his friend's pleasure. 4to. 1581

HUBBARD, WILLIAM. _The Tragicall and

Lamentable Historie_ of two faythfull mates,

Ceyx kynge of Thrachyne, and Alcione his

Wife. 1569

HUDSON, THOMAS. _The Historie of Judith_ in

forme of a Poeme. Translated from Du Bartas.

8vo. 1584 | *

HUME, ALEXANDER. _Hymnes, or Sacred Songes_,

wherein the right Use of Poesie may be

espied. Edin. 4to. 1599

HUNNIS, WILLIAM. _A Hyve full of Hunnye_,

contayning the firste booke of Moses called

Genesis. 4to. 1578 | * *

_A Handfull of Honisuckles._ 1578 | *

_Seven Sobs of a Sorrowfull Soule for

Sinne_, &c. &c. 24to. 1585 | *

JACKSON, RICHARD. _The Battle of Floddon_

in nine fits.[689:A] 1564 |

JENEY, THOMAS. _A Discours of the present

troobles in Fraunce_, and miseries of this

time, compyled by Peter Ronsard, gentilman

of Vandome;—translated by Thomas Jeney,

gentilman. 4to. 1568

JENYNGES, EDWARD. _The Notable Hystory of

Two Faithfull Lovers_, named Alfagus and

Archelaus. Whearin is declared the true

figure of amytie and freyndship. 4to. 1574

JOHNSON, RICHARD. _The Nine Worthies of

London._ 4to. 1592 | *

_Anglorum Lachrymæ_, in a sad passion,

complayning the death of our late Queene

Elizabeth. 4to. 1603 | *

KELLY, EDMUND. _Poems_ on Chemistry, and

on the Philosophers Stone.[689:B] 1591 | * *

KEMPE, WILLIAM. _A Dutifull Invective_

against the moste haynous treasons of

Ballard and Babington, &c. 4to. 1587 | *

KENDALL, TIMOTHY. "_Flowers of Epigrammes_,

out of sundrie the most singular authors,

as well auncient as late writers." To which,

as a second part, are added _Trifles_, by

Timothie Kendal, devised and written (for

the moste part) at sundrie tymes in his yong

and tender age. 16mo.[690:A] 1577 |

KNELL, THOMAS. _An Epitaph_ on the life and

death of D. Boner, sometime unworthy Bishop

of London, &c. 8vo. 1569

_Answere_ to the most heretical and

trayterous papistical bil, cast in the

streets of Northampton, &c. 1570

KYFFIN, MAURICE. _The Blessednes of

Brytaine_, or a celebration of the Queene's

holyday, &c. 4to. 1587 | *

LEIGHTON, SIR WILLIAM. _The Teares or

Lamentations_ of a Sorrowfull Soule. 4to. 1613 | *

LEVER, CHRISTOPHER. _Queene Elizabeth's

Teares_; or Her resolute bearing the

Christian Crosse, &c. 4to. 1607 | *

LINCHE, RICHARD. _The Fountaine of Ancient

Fiction._ Wherein is lively depictured the

Images and Statues of the Gods of the

Ancients, &c. Done out of Italian into

English. Verse and Prose. 4to.[691:A] 1599 * |

LISLE, WILLIAM. _Babilon_, a part of the

seconde weeke of Guillaume de Saluste

Seigneur du Bartas, with the Commentarie,

and marginall notes of S. G. S. 1596 | * *

_The Colonyes of Bartas_, with the

commentarye of S. G. S.[691:B] 1597 | * *

LLOYD, LODOWICK. _The Pilgrimage of

Queenes._[691:C] 1573 | *

_Hilaria_: or the triumphant feast for the

fift of August. 1607 | *

LOK, HENRY. _The Booke of Ecclesiastes_;

and Sundry Christian Passions, contayned in

two hundred Sonnets. 4to.[692:A] 1597 | * * *

LOVELL, THOMAS. _A Dialogue between Custome

and Veritie_, concerning the use and abuse

of dauncing and minstrelsie. 8vo. 1581

MARBECK, JOHN. _The Holie Historie of King

David._ 4to. 1579

MARKHAM, GERVASE. _The Poem of Poems_, or

Sion's Muse, contayning the divine song of

king Saloman, devided into eight eclogues.

8vo. 1595 |

_The Most Honorable Tragedy_ of Sir

Richard Grenvill knight; a heroick poem.

8vo. 1595 |

"_Devoreux._ Vertues Tears for the losse

of the most Christian King Henry, third

of that name, king of Fraunce; and the

untimely death of the most noble and

heroicall gentleman, Walter Devoreux."

From the French of Madam Geneuuesne

Petau Maulette. 4to. 1597 * |

_The Tears of the Beloved_, or the

Lamentation of St. John, containing the

death and passion of Christ. 4to. 1600 |

_Marie Magdalens Lamentations_ for the

losse of her Master Jesus. 4to.[692:B] 1601 |

_Ariosto's Satyres._ 4to.[692:C] 1608

_The Famous Whore, or Noble Curtizan_,

conteining the lamentable complaint of

Paulina, the famous Roman curtezan,

sometimes Mrs. unto the great cardinall

Hypolito, of Est. 4to. 1609 |

MAXWELL, JAMES. _The Laudable Life, and

Deplorable Death_, of our late peerlesse

Prince Henry, &c. 4to. 1612 | *

MIDDLETON, CHRISTOPHER. _The Historie of

Heaven_, containing the poetical fictions

of all the starres in the firmament. 4to. 1596

_The Legend of Humphrey Duke of

Gloucester_, 4to. 1600

MIDDLETON, THOMAS. _The Wisdome of Solomon_

paraphrased, 4to. 1597

MONTGOMERY, ALEXANDER. _The Cherrie and

the Slae_, Edin. 4to.[693:A] 1595 * * |

MUNCASTER, RICHARD. _Nœnia Consolans_, or

a comforting complaint. Latin and English.

4to. 1603 | *

MUNDAY, ANTHONY. _The Mirrour of

Mutabilitie._ Selected out of the sacred

Scriptures. 4to. 1579 | *

_The Pain of Pleasure._ 4to. 1580 | *

_The Fountayne of Fame._ 4to. 1580 | *

_The Sweet Sobbes and Amorous Complaints_

of Sheppardes and Nymphes. 1583 | *

_Munday's Strangest Adventure_ that ever

happened. 4to. 1601 | *

MURRAY, DAVID. "_The Tragicall Death of

Sophonisba_;" in seven line stanzas, to

which is added _Cœlia_: containing certaine

Sonets. 12mo.[694:A] 1611 * |

NEWTON, THOMAS. _Atropoion Delion_: or the

Death of Delia, with the teares of her

funerall. 4to. 1603 |

_A Pleasant New History_: or, a fragrant

posie made of three flowers, rosa,

rosalynd, and rosemary.[694:B] 1604 |

NICHOLSON, SAMUEL. _Acolastus_, his after

witte. 4to. 1600

NIXON, ANTHONY. _The Christian Navy_,

wherein is playnely described the perfect

course to sayle to the haven of happiness.

4to. 1602

NORDEN, JOHN. _The Storehouse of Varieties_,

an elegiacall poeme. 4to. 1601 |

_A Pensive Soules Delight._ 4to. 1603

_The Labyrinth of Mans Life_, or Vertues

Delyght, and Envie's Opposite.[694:C]

4to. 1614 | *

OVERBURY, SIR THOMAS. A Wife: now the

Widdow of Sir Thomas Overburye: being a

most exquisite and singular poem of the

Choise of a Wife. 4to. 4th edition.[694:D] 1614 * |

PARKES, WILLIAM. _The Curtaine-Drawer of

the World_: or, the Chamberlaine of that

great Inne of Iniquity, &c. 4to.[695:A] 1612 * |

PARROT, HENRY. _The Mouse Trap._

Consisting of 100 Epigrams. 4to. 1606 |

_The More the Merrier_: containing

three-score and odde headlesse epigrams,

&c. 4to. 1608 |

"_Epigrams._" Containing 160. 4to. 1608 |

_Laquei Ridiculosi_: or Springes for

Woodcoks. In 2 books. 12mo.[695:B] 1613 |

PARTRIDGE, JOHN. _The Most Famouse and

Worthie Historie_ of the worthy Lady

Pandavola, &c. 8vo. 1566

_The Worthye Historie_ of the most noble

and valiaunt knight Plasidas, &c. 8vo. 1566

_The Notable Historie_ of two famous

princes Astianax and Polixona. 8vo. 1566

PAYNE, CHRISTOPHER. _Christenmas-Carrolles_ 1569

PEACHAM, HENRY. _Minerva Britanna_, or a

Garden of Heroical Devises. 4to. 1612 * |

PEELE, GEORGE. _A Farewell_, entituled to

the famous and fortunate generalls of our

English forces: Sir John Norris and Syr

Francis Drake, knights, &c. Whereunto is

annexed a tale of Troy. 4to. 1589 | *

_Polyhymnia_ describing the honourable

triumphs at tylt, before her Majestie,

&c. 4to. 1590 | *

_The Honour of the Garter_: displaced

in a poeme gratulatorie, &c. 4to.[696:A] 1593 | *

PEEND, THOMAS DE LA. _The Pleasant Fable of

Hermaphroditus and Salmacis._ 8vo. 1565 | *

_The Historie of John Lord Mandozze._

From the Spanish. 12mo.[696:B] 1565 | *

PERCY, WILLIAM. _Sonnets to the fairest

Cælia._ 4to. 1594 | * *

PETOWE, HENRY. The Second Part of the Loves

of Hero and Leander, &c. 4to. 1598 | *

_Philochasander and Elanira_ the faire

Lady of Britaine, &c. 4to.[696:C] 1599 | *

_Elizabetha quasi vivans_, Elizas

funerall, &c. 4to. 1603

_The Whipping of Runawaies._ 1603

PETT, PETER. _Times Journey_ to seek his

Daughter Truth, and Truths letter to Fame,

of England's excellencie. 4to. 1599

PHILLIP, JOHN. _A Rare and Strange

Historicall Novell_ of Cleomenes and

Sophonisba, surnamed Juliet; very pleasant

to reade. 8vo. 1577

_A Commemoration_ of the Right Noble and

Vertuous Ladye Margrit Duglases Good

Grace, Countes of Lennox, &c.[696:D] 1578 | *

PHISTON, WILLIAM. _A Lamentacion of

Englande_, for the Right Reverent Father

in God, John Ivele, Doctor of Divinitie:

and Bisshop of Sarisburie. 8vo.[697:A] 1571 | *

_The Welspring of Wittie Conceights_,

4to.[697:B] 1584 | *

PLAT, HUGH. _The Floures of Philosophie_,

with the Pleasures of Poetrie annexed to

them, &c. 8vo.[697:C] 1572 | *

POWELL, THOMAS. _The Passionate Poet_, with

a description of the Thracian Ismarus, in

verse. 4to. 1601

PRESTON, THOMAS. _A Geliflower_ or swete

marygolde, wherein the frutes of teranny

you may beholde. 1569 | *

PRICKET, ROBERT. _A Souldier's Wish_ unto

his Sovereign Lord, King James. 4to. 1603 | *

PROCTOR, THOMAS. _Pretie Pamphlets._

4to.[697:D] 1578 * |

PUTTENHAM, GEORGE. _Partheniades._[697:E] 1579 | *

RAMSEY, LAURENCE. _Ramsie's Farewell_ to his

late lord and master therle of Leicester 1588

RANKINS, WILLIAM. _Seven Satyres_, &c. 1596

RAYNOLDS, JOHN. _Dolarny's Primerose_; or

the first part of the Passionate Hermit,

&c. Written by a Practitioner in Poesie and

a stranger amongst Poets. 4to.[698:A] 1606 * |

RICE, RICHARD. _An Invective_ against vices

taken for vertue: gathered out of the

Scriptures, &c. 8vo. 1581

ROBINSON, RICHARD. _The Rewarde of

Wickednesse_, discoursing the sundrye

monstrous abuses of wicked and ungodly

Worldelings, &c. 4to. 1574 | * *

_A Dyall of Dayly Contemplacion_, or

divine Exercise of the Mind, &c. Verse

and Prose.[698:B] 1578 | * *

ROLLAND, JOHN. _Ane Treatise callit the

Court of Venus_, devidit into four Buikes.

Edin. 4to. 1575

_The Sevin Seages_, translatit out of

Prois into Scottis meiter. Edin.

4to.[698:C] 1578 |

ROSSE, J. _The Author's Teares_ upon the

death of his honorable freende Sir William

Sackvile knight of the ordre de la Colade

in Fraunce: sonne to the right ho. the

lorde Buckhurst Anno Dni.[699:A] 1592 * |

ROUS, FRANCIS. _Thule, or Vertues Historie._

In two books. The first booke 4to. 1598

ROWLAND, SAMUEL. 1. _The Betraying of

Christ_, &c. 4to. 1598

2. _The Famous History of_ Guy Earle of

Warwicke. 4to.

3. _The Letting of Humours Blood_ in the

head-vaine: &c. 4to.[699:B] 1600

4. _Looke to it for ile stabbe ye._

4to. 1604

5. _Democritus._ 1607

6. _Humors Looking-Glasse._ 8vo. 1608

7. _Hell Broke Loose_, &c. 4to.

8. _Doctor Merrieman_, or nothing but

mirth. 4to. 1609

9. _Martin Markal_, beadle of Bridewell.

4to. 1610

10. _The Knave of Clubs_, or 'tis merrie

when Knaves meet. 4to. 1611

11. _The Knave of Hearts._ 4to.[699:C]

12. _More Knaves Yet_; the Knaves of

Spades and Diamonds. 4to.[699:D] 1613

13. _The Melancholie Knight._ 4to.[699:E] 1615

14. _Tis Merrie when Gossips Meet_; newly

enlarged, with divers songs. 4to.[700:A] * |

SABIE, FRANCIS. _Pan his Pipe_: conteyning

three pastorall Eglogues in Englyshe

hexameter; with other delightfull verses.

4to. 1595 * |

_The Fissher-mans Tale_: of the famous

Actes, Life and love of Cassander a

Grecian Knight. 4to. 1595 |

_Floras Fortune._ The second part and

finishing of the Fisherman's Tale,

&c.[700:B] 1595 |

SAKER, AUG. _The Labirinth of Liberty._ 1579

SAMPSON, THOMAS. _Fortune's Fashion_,

Pourtrayed in the troubles of the Ladie

Elizabeth Gray, wife to Edward the Fourth.

4to. 1613 | *

SANDFORD, JAMES. _Certayne Poems_ dedicated

to the queenes moste excellent majestie.

8vo.[700:C] 1576

SCOLOKER, ANTHONY. _Daiphantus_, or the

Passions of Love, 4to. 1604

SCOT, GREGORY. _A Briefe Treatise_ agaynst

certaine errors of the Romish Church. 12mo. 1570

SCOTT, THOMAS. _Four Paradoxes_: of Arte,

of Lawe, of Warre, of Service. Small

8vo.[700:D] 1602 * * |

SCOTT, THOMAS. _Phylomythie_, or

Philomythologie: wherein Outlandish Birds,

Beasts, and Fishes, are taught to speake

true English plainely.[701:A] 1616 | *

SMITH, JUD. _A Misticall Devise_ of the

spirituall and godly love between Christ the

spouse, and the Church or congregation.

Firste made by the wise prince Salomon, and

now newly set forth in Verse, &c. Small

8vo. 1575 | * *

SMITH, WILLIAM. _Chloris_, or the complaint

of the passionate despised shepheard. 4to. 1596

SOOTHERN, JOHN. _Pandora_, the Musique of

the Beautie of his Mistresse Diana.

4to.[701:B] 1584 | * * * * *

STANYHURST, RICHARD. _The First Four Bookes

of Virgil's Æneis_, translated into English

heroicall verse by Richard Stanyhurst: with

other poeticall devises thereto annexed.

4to.[701:C] 1583 | * * * * * *

STORER, THOMAS. _The Life and Death of

Thomas Wolsey_, cardinall, divided into

three parts: his aspiring, triumph, and

death. 4to.[702:A] 1599 * |

STUBBS, PHILIP. _A View of Vanitie_, and

Allarum to England, or retrait from sinne.

8vo. 1582 | *

STEWART, JAMES THE FIRST, KING OF ENGLAND.

_The Essayes of a Prentise_ in the Divine

Art of Poesie. 4to. Edin.[702:B] 1584 | *

_His Majesties Poeticall Exercises_ at

Vacant Houres. 4to. Edin.[702:C] 1591 | *

TARLTON, RICHARD. _Toyes_: in Verse. 1576

_Tragicall Treatises_, conteyninge sundrie

discourses and pretie conceipts, bothe in

prose and verse. 1577

_Tarlton's Repentance_, or his farewell to

his frendes in his sickness, a little

before his deathe.[702:D] 1589

TAYLOR, JOHN. _Heaven's Blessing and Earth's

Joy_, &c. on the marriage of Frederick Count

Palatine, and the Princess Elizabeth;

including Epithalamia, &c. 1613 | * *

_The Nipping or Snipping of Abuses_, or

the Wool-gathering of Wit.[703:A] 1614 | * *

TOFTE, ROBERTE. _Two Tales_ translated out

of Ariosto, &c. With certaine other Italian

stanzas and proverbes. 4to. 1597 | *

_Laura._ The toyes of a traveller; or the

feast of fancie, divided into 3 parts.

4to. 1597

_Orlando Inamorato._ The three first

bookes, &c. Done into English heroicall

verse. 4to. 1598

_Alba_, the month's minde of a melancholy

lover. 8vo. 1598

_Honours Academy_, or the famous pastorall

of the faire shepherdesse Julietta. Verse

and prose. Folio. 1610 |

_The Fruits of Jealousie._ Contayning the

disastrous Chance of two English Lovers,

overthrowne through meere Conceit of

Jealousie. 4to.[703:B] 1615 | * *

TREEGO, WILLIAM. _A Daintie Nosegay_ of

divers smelles, containing many pretie

ditties to diverse effects. 1577

TUDOR, ELIZABETH, QUEEN OF ENGLAND. _Two

Little Anthemes_, or things in meeter of hir

majestie.[704:A] 1578 | *

TURNER, RICHARD. _Nosce Te_

(_Humors._)[704:B] 1607

TWYNE, THOMAS. _The whole _xij_ Bookes of

the Œneidos of Virgill_. Whereof the first

ix. and part of the tenth, were converted

into English meeter by Thomas Phaër esquier,

and the residue supplied, and the whole

worke together newly set forth, by Thomas

Twyne gentleman. 4to. 1573 | *

TYE, CHRISTOPHER. _A Notable Historye_ of

Nastagio and Traversari, no less pitiefull

than pleasaunt, translated out of Italian

into English. 12mo. 1569

UNDERDOWNE, THOMAS. _Ovid his Invective_

against Ibis. 8vo. 1569 * |

_The Excellent Historye_ of Theseus and

Ariadne, &c. Written in English Meeter.

8vo. 1566 * |

VALLANS, WILLIAM. _A Tale of Two Swannes_,

&c. 4to. 1590

VENNARD, RICHARD. "_The Miracle of Nature_,"

and other poems. 4to.[705:A] 1601

VERSTEGAN, RICHARD. _Odes_: in imitation of

the Seaven Penitential Psalms. With sundry

other poemes and Ditties, tending to

devotion and pietie. 8vo. 1601 | *

WARREN, WILLIAM. _A Pleasant New Fancie_, of

a fondling's device, intituled and cald, The

nurcerie of names, &c. 4to. 1581

WEBBE, WILLIAM. _The First and Second

Eclogues of Virgil._ In English hexameters,

and printed in his "Discourse of English

Poetrie." 1586 | *

WEBSTER, WILLIAM. _The Moste Pleasant and

Delightful Historie_ of Curan, a prince of

Danske, and the fayre princesse Argentill,

&c. 4to.[705:B] | *

WEDDERBURN. _Ane Compendious Booke of Godly

and Spirituall Songs_, collectit out of

sundrie partes of the Scripture, with sundrie

of other Ballates changed out of Prophane

Sanges, for avoyding of Sinne and Harlotrie.

12mo. Edin.[705:C] 1597 | *

WEEVER, JOHN. _A Little Book of Epigrams._

8vo. 1599

_The Mirror of Martyrs_, or the life and

death of that thrice valiant capitaine and

most godly martyre, Sir John Oldcastle

knight, lord Cobham. 18mo. 1601

WENMAN, THOMAS, _The Legend of Mary, Queen

of Scots_, with other Poems.[706:A] 1601 |

WHARTON, JOHN. _Wharton's Dreame_:

conteyninge an invective agaynst certaine

abhominable caterpillars, &c. 4to. 1578

WHETSTONE, GEORGE. _The Rocke of Regard_:

divided into foure parts. The first, the

Castle of Delight, &c. The second, the

Garden of Unthriftinesse, &c. The thirde,

the Arbour of Virtue, &c.; and the fourth,

the Orchard of Repentance, 4to.[706:B] 1576 | *

_A Report of the Vertues_ of the right

valiant and worthy knight S. Frauncis,

Lord Russell, 4to.[706:C] 1585 | *

WHITNEY, GEOFFREY. _A Choice of Emblemes_,

and other devises. 4to. 1586 | *

_Fables or Epigrams._ 4to.[706:D] 1586

WILKINSON, EDWARD. _Isahac's Inheritance_;

dew to ovr high and mightie Prince, James

the sixt of Scotland, &c. 4to. 1603 | *

WILLET, ANDREW. _Sacrorum Emblematum_

centura una, in Latin and English verse.

4to.[706:E]

WILLYMAT, WILLIAM. _A Princes Looking

Glasse_, or a Princes Direction, &c. 4to. 1603 | *

WYRLEY, WILLIAM. _Lord Chandos._ The

glorious life and honourable death of Sir

John Chandos, &c. 4to. 1592 | * *

_Capitall de Buz._ The honourable life and

languishing death of Sir John de Gralhy

Capitall de Buz. 4to.[707:A] 1592 | * *

YATES, JAMES. _The Castell of Courtesie_,

whereunto is adjoyned The Holde of

Humilitie; with the Chariot of Chastitie

thereunto annexed. Also a Dialogue betweene

Age and Youth; and other matters herein

conteined. 4to.[707:B] 1582 | *

YONG, BARTHOLOMEW. _Diana of George of

Montemayer._ Translated out of Spanish into

English. Prose and Verse. Folio.[707:C] 1598 * |

ZOUCHE, RICHARD. _The Dove_, or Passages of

Cosmography, by Richard Zouche, Civilian of

New College, in Oxford.[707:D] 1613 |

Several articles in this table, it will be observed, are without any

mark designating their merit in the scale, a defalcation which has

occurred from our not having been able to procure either the works

themselves, or even specimens of them, a circumstance not exciting

wonder, if we consider the extreme rarity of the greater part of the

pieces which form the catalogue.

Another result which may immediately strike the reader will be, that

of _one hundred and ninety-three_ poets included in this list, so few

should have risen even one degree above mediocrity, and so many should

have fallen below it; but it should be recollected that the nobler

bards, amounting to _forty_, had been previously enumerated, and that

poetic excellence is, at all times, of very rare attainment.

The most legitimate subject of admiration, indeed, arising from

a review of these details, is the extraordinary fecundity of the

Shakspearean era; that in the course of fifty-two years, and

independent of any consideration of dramatic effort, or of the various

contributors to collections of poetry, nearly _two hundred and

thirty-three_ bards in the miscellaneous department should have been

produced: and these, not the writers of scattered or insulated verses,

but the publishers of their own collected works.

A still more heightened conception of the fertility of the period will

accrue from a survey of its numerous POETICAL MISCELLANIES, a species

of publication which constitutes a remarkable feature of the age.

Before the reign of Elizabeth, only one production of the kind had

made its appearance, namely, the Collection, called by Tottel "The

Poems of Uncertaine Auctors," and appended to his edition of Surrey and

Wyat in 1557. But, during the first year after the accession of our

maiden queen, appeared the MIRROUR for MAGISTRATES, a quarto volume

containing nineteen legends or characters drawn from English history.

The plan originated with Sackville, who, not finding leisure to write

more than an Induction and the Legend of Henry Duke of Buckingham,

transferred the completion of the work to _Richard Baldwyne_ and

_George Ferrers_, who were further assisted in its prosecution by

_Churchyard_, _Phayer_, _Skelton_, _Dolman_, _Seagers_, and _Cavyl_. A

second edition, of what may be termed Baldwyne's Mirrour, was printed

in 1563, with the addition of eight legends; a third issued from the

press in 1571, and a fourth in 1575. With the exception of Sackville's

two pieces, on which an eulogium has already been given, mediocrity

may be said to characterise the productions of Baldwyne and his

associates.

In the same year which produced the fourth edition of Baldwyne's

Collection, a new series of Legends was published in 4to. by _John

Higgins_, which, commencing at an earlier period than his predecessor's

work, he entitled "The firste Part of the Mirour for Magistrates."

This portion commences, after an Induction, with the legend of King

Albanact, the youngest son of Brutus, and terminates with that of Lord

Irenglas, "slayne about the yeere before Christ;" including seventeen

histories, the sole composition of Higgins. It was reprinted, with

little or no alteration, in 1578, and occasioned Baldwyne's prior

publication to be called "The Last Part."

The year 1578, however, not only produced this second impression

of Higgins's Mirrour, but witnessed a fifth and separate edition

of Baldwyne's labours, with the addition of two legends, and an

intermediate part written by _Thomas Blener-Hasset_, containing

_twelve_ stories, and entitled "The Seconde part of the Mirrour of

Magistrates, conteining the falles of the infortunate Princes of this

Lande: from the Conquest of Cæsar unto the commyng of Duke William the

Conquerer," 4to.

A much more complete edition of this very curious collection of of

poetic biography at length appeared in 1587, under the care of Higgins,

who, blending Baldwyne's pieces with his own former publications, and

adding greatly to both parts, produced a quarto volume consisting of

seventy-three legends.

Enlarged and improved as this impression must necessarily be deemed,

it was still further augmented, and, in fact, digested anew by

Richard Niccols, who, in 1610, published his copy of the work with

the following title: "_A Mirrour for Magistrates_, being a true

Chronicle-history of the untimely falles of such unfortunate princes

and men of note as have happened since the first entrance of Brute

into this Iland untill this our age. Newly enlarged with a last part

called a _Winter Night's Vision_, being an addition of such Tragedies

especially famous as are exempted, in the former Historie, with a poem

annexed called _England's Eliza_."

Niccols's edition forms a thick quarto of eight hundred and

seventy-five pages, including ninety legends, and embracing, with

the exception of four pieces, all the parts previously published, in

chronological order, and super-adding an induction and ten poems of his

own composition. He has taken the liberty, however, of modernising and

abbreviating some of the earliest stories, with the view of rendering

the series more acceptable to his contemporaries.

Of the _Mirror for Magistrates_, the poetical merit must, of course,

be various and discrepant. Sackville stands pre-eminent and apart,

the author, indeed, of a poem, which, for strength and distinctness

of imagery, is almost unrivalled. Next, but with many a length

between, Niccols claims our attention for sweetness of versification,

perspicuity of diction, and occasional flights of fancy. In his legend

of Richard the Third, he is evidently indebted to Shakspeare, and his

poem assumes, on that account, a higher imaginative tone. The other

writers of this bulky collection are as much inferior to Niccols, as he

is to Sackville. The best production of Higgins is his legend of Queen

Cordelia; and from Baldwyne and Ferrers, a few stanzas, animated by the

breath of poetry, might be quoted; but Blener-Hasset seldom, if ever,

reaches mediocrity.

The popularity of this work, and its influence on our national poetry

throughout the reigns of Elizabeth and James the First, were very

considerable. Even in its earliest and most unfinished state it had

attracted the admiration of Sir Philip Sidney, who says, "I account the

Mirrour of Magistrates, meetely furnished of beautiful partes[710:A];"

and in its last and most perfect form, it seems to have been considered

as a book necessary to the accomplished gentleman; for in Chapman's

Comedy, entitled _May-Day_, and printed in 1611, a character versed

in the elegant literature of the time, is described as "One that

has read Marcus Aurelius, Gesta Romanorum, and the _Mirrour of

Magistrates_."[711:A]

That this Collection contributed to accelerate the progress of

dramatic poetry, and to familiarise the events of our history, there

can be little doubt, if we reflect that, previous to its appearance,

historical plays were scarcely known; that its pages present us with

innumerable specimens of dramatic speeches, incidents, and characters,

and that it has thrown into a metrical form the most interesting

passages of the ancient chroniclers, a medium through which the best

parts of those massive compilations soon descended to the lower orders

of society.

The next work which calls for our attention is THE PARADYSE OF DAYNTY

DEVISES, originally published in 1576 with the following title:—"The

Paradyse of daynty devises, aptly furnished with sundry pithie and

learned inventions: devised and written for the most part by M.

Edwards, sometimes of her Majesties Chappel: the rest by sundry learned

Gentlemen, both of honor, and worshippe: viz.

S. Barnarde. Jasper Heywood.

E. O. F. K.

L. Vaux. M. Bewe.

D. S. R. Hill.

M. Yloop, with others.

Imprinted at London, by Henry Disle, dwellyng in Paules Church-yard,

at the South west doore of Saint Paules Church, and are there to be

solde," 4to.

Though, until the late re-print by Sir Egerton Brydges, this miscellany

had become extremely rare[711:B], yet numerous editions of it were

called for during the first thirty years of its existence. In 1577,

and 1578, Disle again published it in quarto, and it is remarkable for

being the only book of his printing which has reached the present age.

The edition of 1578 differs, in some respects, from the preceding,

and from all, in including a poem by George Whetstone, no where else

discoverable.

A fourth edition, from the press of Disle, appeared in 1580, varying so

greatly from the earlier copies, that it omits eighteen poems contained

in the first impression, and substitutes eighteen others in their place.

In 1585, the public attention was fixed on a fifth edition by Edward

White, who also republished the work in 1596 and 1600 in 4to. The two

latter impressions were printed by Edward Allde for White, and exhibit

some variations from the copy of 1580, omitting four pieces in that

edition, and adding seven new ones. Beside these, there was an edition,

without date, printed by Allde for White, and constituting an _eighth_

impression.

That a Collection which ran through so many editions in so short a

period, must possess a considerable share of merit, will be a natural

inference; nor will the readers of the Reprint lately published be

disappointed in such an expectation. It is true that the _Paradise of

Daintie Devises_ contains no piece of such high poetic character as the

_Induction_ of Sackville; for its contributions are chiefly on subjects

of an ethic and didactic cast; but it displays a vast variety of short

compositions, on love, friendship, and adversity; on the consolations

of a contented mind, on the instability of human pleasures, and on

many of the minor morals and events of life. These are expressed, in

many instances, with simplicity and vigour, and often with a flow of

versification and perspicuity of diction, which, considering the age

of their production, is truly remarkable. If no splendour of imagery,

or sublimity of sentiment, arrest the attention, it cannot be denied

that several of these poems make their way to the heart, by attractions

resulting from a clear perception, that the writers wrote from their

own unadulterated feelings, from the instant pressure of what they

suffered or enjoyed.

Of the contributors to this Miscellany, which, in its most perfect

state, consists of one hundred and twenty-four poems, more than one

half was communicated by six individuals; by Lord Vaux fourteen pieces;

by Richard Edwardes fourteen; by William Hunnis twelve; by Francis

Kinwelmarsh ten; by Jasper Heywood eight; and by the Earl of Oxford

seven.

The compositions of Lord Vaux, are uniformly of a moral and pensive

cast, and breathe a spirit of religion and resignation often truly

touching, and sometimes bordering on the sublime. Of this description

more particularly are the poems entitled "Of the instabilitie of

youth;" "Of a contented mind;" and on "Beying asked the occasion of his

white head," from the last of which a few lines will afford a pleasing

specimen of the pathetic tone and unaffected style of this noble bard:—

"These heeres of age are messingers,

Whiche bidd me fast, repent and praie:

Thei be of death the harbingers,

That doeth prepare and dresse the waie,

Wherefore I joye that you mai see,

Upon my head such heeres to bee.

Thei be the line that lead the length,

How farre my race was for to ronne:

Thei saie my yongth is fledde with strength,

And how old age is well begonne.

The whiche I feele, and you maie see,

Upon my head such lines to bee."[713:A]

Of a character still higher for poetic power are the effusions of

Richard Edwards, who excels alike in descriptive, ethic, and pathetic

strains. Of the first, his two pieces called "May" and "I may not"

are, with the exception of the third stanza of the latter poem, very

striking instances; of the second, he has afforded us several proofs;

and of the last, his lines on the maxim of Terence, _Amantium iræ

amoris redintegratio est_, form one of the most lovely exemplifications

in the language. Of the opening stanza it is scarcely possible to

resist giving a transcription:—

"In going to my naked bed, as one that would have slept,

I heard a wife syng to her child, that long before had wept:

She sighed sore and sang full sore, to bryng the babe to rest,

That would not rest but cried still in suckyng at her brest:

She was full wearie of her watche, and grieved with her child,

She rocked it and rated it, untill on her it smilde:

Then did she saie nowe have I founde the proverbe true to prove,

The fallyng out of faithfull frends renewing is of love."[714:A]

"The happiness of the illustration," remarks Sir Egerton Brydges, "the

facility, elegance, and tenderness of the language, and the exquisite

turn of the whole, are above commendation; and show to what occasional

polish and refinement our literature even then had arrived. Yet has the

treasure which this gem adorned, lain buried and inaccessible, except

to a few curious collectors, for at least a century and an half."[714:B]

Edwards has a song of four stanzas "In commendation of Musick,"[714:C]

of which the first has been quoted by Shakspeare in _Romeo and

Juliet_[714:D], affording a proof, if any were wanted, that the

madrigals of Edwards were very popular in their day.

Of the poetry of _William Hunnis_ the more remarkable features are a

peculiar flow of versification, and a delicate turn upon the words,

which approximate his songs, in an extraordinary degree, to the

standard of the present age. By dividing his lines of sixteen syllables

into two, this similarity becomes more apparent; for instance,—

"When first mine eyes did view and mark

Thy beauty fair for to behold,

And when mine eares gan first to hark

The pleasant words that thou me told;

I would as then I had been free

From ears to hear and eyes to see.

And when in mind I did consent

To follow thus my fancy's will,

And when my heart did first relent

To taste such bait myself to spill,

I would my heart had been as thine,

Or else thy heart as soft as mine.[715:A]

* * * * *

O flatterer false, thou traitor born,

What mischief more might thou devise,

Than thy dear friend to have in scorn,

And him to wound in sundry wise?

Which still a friend pretends to be,

And art not so by proof I see.

Fie, fie, upon such treachery."[715:B]

From the ten contributions by Kinwelmarsh, three may be selected as

pleasing, both from their sentiment and melody, viz. "On learning;"

"All thinges are vain," which is a truly beautiful poem; and "The

complaint of a Sinner."[715:C] Neither the productions of Heywood, nor

of the Earl of Oxford, surmount mediocrity.

Of the remaining writers who assisted in forming this collection, _M.

Bew_ has written five pieces; _Arthur Bourcher_, one; _M. Candish_,

one; _Thos. Churchyard_, one; _G. Gashe_, one; _Richard Hill_, seven;

_Lodowick Lloyd_, one; _T. Marshall_, two; _Barnaby Rich_, one; _D.

Sands_, five; _M. Thorn_, two; _Yloop_, two, and there are five with

the signature of _My lucke is losse_. There are sixteen poems also with

initials only subjoined, and seven anonymous contributions. Most of

these consist of moral precepts versified, and, though little entitled

to the appellation of poetry, from any display either of imagery or

invention, are yet of high value as developing the progress both of

literary and intellectual cultivation.

The popularity of Edwards's Miscellany produced, two years afterward,

another collection of a similar kind, under the title of "A GORGIOUS

GALLERY OF GALLANT INVENTIONS. Garnished and decked with Divers Dayntie

Devises, right delicate and delightfull, to recreate eche modest minde

withall. First framed and fashioned in sundrie formes, by Divers Worthy

Workemen of late dayes: and now joyned together and builded up: By T.

P. Imprinted at London, for Richard Jones. 1578."

Of this work, "one copy only," relates Mr. Park, "is known to have

survived the depredation of time. This was purchased by Dr. Farmer,

with the choice poetical stores of Mr. Wynne, which had been formed

in the seventeenth century by Mr. Narcissus Luttrell. At Dr. Farmer's

book-sale this _unique_ was procured by Mr. Malone; from whose

communicative kindness a transcript was obtained, which furnished the

present reprint. One hiatus, occasioned by the loss of a leaf, occurs

at p. 102, which it will be hopeless to supply, unless some chance copy

should be lurking in the corner of a musty chest, a family-library, or

neglected lumber-closet; though, in consequence of the estimation in

which all antiquated rarities are now held, even such hiding-places

have become very assiduously explored."[716:A]

By the Initials T. P. we are to understand _Thomas Proctor_, the editor

of this "Gorgious Gallery," and who has been noticed in the preceding

table on account of his "Pretie Pamphlets," which commence at p. 125

of Mr. Park's Reprint. His verses following this title are numerous,

and in various metres, and indicate him to have been no mean observer

of life and manners. If he display little of the fancy of the poet, he

is not often deficient in moral weight of sentiment, and though not

remarkable for either the melody or correctness of his versification,

he may be considered as having passed the limits of mediocrity.

Of the other contributors our information is so scanty, that we

can only mention _Anthony Munday_ and _Owen Royden_, and this in

consequence of the first having prefixed a copy of verses "In

commendation of this Gallery," and the second a more elaborate poem,

"To the curious company of Sycophants." It is probable that they were

both coadjutors in the body of the work.

The "Gorgious Gallery of Gallant Inventions" consists of seventy-four

poems, and some, especially the "History of Pyramus and Thisbie," of

considerable length. Too many of them are written in drawling couplets

of fourteen syllables in a line, and with too flagrant a partiality

for the meretricious garb of alliteration.[717:A] There appears to be

also too little variety in the selection of topics, and some of the

pieces are reprinted from "Tottel's Miscellany" and the "Paradyse of

Dayntie Devises." It must be pronounced, indeed, inferior to these its

predecessors in the essential points of invention, harmony of metre,

and versatility of style, though it seems to have shared with them

no small portion of popular favour; for Nashe, in his life of Jacke

Wilton, 1594, alluding to the Gardens of Rome, says, that "to tell you

of their rare pleasures, their baths, their vineyards, their galleries,

were to write a second part of the _Gorgious Gallerie of Gallant

Devices_."[717:B]

In 1584 was published, in 16mo., "A HANDEFULL OF PLEASANT DELITES:

containing Sundrie new Sonets and delectable Histories in divers kindes

of meeter. Newly devised to the newest tunes, that are now in use to

be sung: everie sonet orderly pointed to his proper tune. With new

additions of certain songs, to verie late devised notes, not commonly

knowen, nor used heretofore. By Clement Robinson: and divers others. At

London, printed by Richard Jhones: dwelling at the signe of the Rose

and Crowne, neare Holburne Bridge."

Only one copy of the printed original of this Miscellany, which is in

the Marquis of Blandford's library, is supposed to be in existence.

The editor, Clement Robinson, if all the pieces unappropriated to

others, be of his composition, must be deemed worthy of high praise

for numerous productions of great lyric sweetness in point of

versification, and composed in a vein of much perspicuity with regard

to diction. His associates, as far as we have any authority from the

work itself, amount only to five; and these, with the exception of

_Leonard Gibson_, who claims only one piece, consist of names unknown

elsewhere in the annals of poetry. Two effusions are attributed

to _J. Tomson_; two to _Peter Picks_; one to _Thomas Richardson_,

and one to _George Mannington_. This last production, denominated

"A sorrowfull Sonet," if we make allowance for a commencement too

alliterative, possesses a large share of moral pathos, and unaffected

simplicity.[718:A]

Thirty-two poems occupy the pages of this pleasing little volume, among

which, at p. 23., is _A New Courtly Sonet of the Lady Greensleeves, to

the new tune of Greensleeves_, alluded to by Shakspeare in the _Merry

Wives of Windsor_, Act ii. Sc. 1., and which throws some curious light

on the female dress of the period.

In point of interest, vivacity, and metrical harmony, this compilation

has a decided superiority over the "Gorgious Gallery of Gallant

Inventions." It is, in a great measure, formed of ballads and songs,

adapted to well-known popular tunes, and, though its poets have

been arbitrarily confined in the structure of their verse by the

pre-composed music, yet many of their lyrics have a smoothness and

sweetness in the composition of their stanzas, which may even arrest

the attention of a modern ear.

To the publication of Clement Robinson succeeded, in 1593, "THE PHŒNIX

NEST. Built up with the most rare and refined workes of Noblemen,

worthy Knights, gallant Gentlemen, Masters of Arts, and brave Scholers.

Full of varietie, excellent invention, and singular delight. Never

before published. Set foorth by R. S. of the Inner Temple, Gentleman.

Imprinted at London, by John Jackson, 4to."

The opening of Mr. Park's "Advertisement" to his Reprint of this

Collection includes so much just, and elegantly expressed, criticism

on our elder poetry, and on Shakspeare, that we seize with pleasure

the opportunity of transferring it to our pages.

"Between the Gorgious Gallery of Gallant Inventions," he remarks,

"printed in 1578, and the present miscellany in 1593, an interval of

only fifteen years, there will be traced no inconsiderable advance

towards poetical elegance and sentimental refinement. Watson, Breton,

Peele, and Lodge, contributed very materially to the grace, and melody,

and strength, of our amatory, lyric, and satiric verse; while Spenser,

Daniel, and Drayton enlarged the sphere of the allegoric, and historic,

and descriptive Muse. But the magnitude of the works of the two latter

poets, owing to the subjects they unhappily selected, has conduced to

deaden that reputation which several of their minor effusions were

calculated to keep alive. The very labours which might otherwise have

extended their fame, have fatally contracted it. Their ponderous

productions are incorporated indeed with the late general collections

of British Poets, but where is the poetic amateur who peruses them?

They resemble certain drugs in a family-dispensary, which, though

seldom if ever taken, still eke out the assemblage. From reading the

fair specimens put forth by Mr. Ellis, many may be allured to covet the

entire performances of our elder bards: but should these be obtained,

they will probably be found (as Mr. Steevens said by the Shakspearian

quartos) of little more worth than a squeezed orange. The flowers will

appear to have been culled and distilled by the hand of judgment;

and the essence of early poetry, like most other essences, will be

discovered to lie in a narrow compass. 'Old poets in general,' says Mr.

Southey, 'are only valuable because they are old.' It must be allowed

that few poems of the Elizabethan æra are likely to afford complete

satisfaction to a mere modern reader, from the fastidious delicacy of

modern taste. Some antiquated alloy, either from incongruous metaphor

or infelicitous expression, will commonly jar upon his mind or ear.

The backward footstep of Time will be audible, if not visible. Yet the

songs of our unrivalled Shakspeare combine an almost uniform exception

to this remark. They are exquisite in thought, feeling, language, and

modulation. They blend simplicity with beauty, sentiment with passion,

picture with poesy. They unite symmetry of form with consistency of

ornament, truth of nature with perfection of art, and must ever furnish

models for lyric composition. As a sonnet-writer Shakspeare was not

superior to some of his contemporaries: he was certainly inferior

to himself. In lighter numbers and in blank verse, peculiar and

transcendent was his excellence. His songs never have been surpassed,

his dramas never are likely to be."[720:A]

Of the editor of the Phœnix Nest, intended by the initials R. S., no

certain information has been obtained. The work has been attributed to

_Richard Stanyhurst_, _Richard Stapleton_, and to _Robert Southwell_,

by Coxeter, by Warton, and by Waldron; but their claims, founded merely

on conjecture, are entitled to little confidence. It is perhaps more

interesting to know, that the chief contributors to this miscellany

were among the best lyric poets of their age, that _Thomas Watson_,

_Nicholas Breton_, and, above all, _Thomas Lodge_, assisted the unknown

editor. Not less than sixteen pieces have the initials of this last

bard, and many of them are among the most beautiful productions of

his genius. Beside these, _George Peele_, _William Smith_, _Matthew

Roydon_, Sir _William Herbert_, the _Earl of Oxford_, and several

others, aided in completing this elegant volume.

The "Phœnix Nest," which comprehends not less than seventy-nine

poems, is certainly one of the most attractive of the Elizabethan

miscellanies, whether we regard its style, its versification, or

its choice of subject, and will probably be deemed inferior only to

"England's Helicon," which, indeed, owes a few of its beauties to this

work.

Of the valuable Collection thus mentioned, the first edition made its

appearance in 1600, with the following title-page: "ENGLAND'S HELICON.

Casta placent superis

pura cum veste venite,

Et manibus puris

sumite fontis aquam.

At London. Printed by J. R. for John Flasket, and are to be sold in

Paules Church-yard, at the signe of the Beare." 4to.

The second edition was published in 1614, and entitled, "England's

Helicon, or the Muses Harmony.

The Courts of Kings heare no such straines,

As daily lull the Rusticke Swaines.

London: Printed for Richard More; and are to be sould at his shop in S.

Dunstanes Church-yard." 8vo.

England's Helicon, which, in its first impression, contained one

hundred and fifty poems, and in its second one hundred and fifty-nine,

has the felicity of enrolling among its contributors all the

principal poets of its era. These, enumerated alphabetically, are as

follow:—_Richard Barnefield_ has two pieces; _Thomas Bastard_, one;

_Edmund Bolton_, five; _Nicholas Breton_, eight; _Christopher Brooke_,

one; _William Browne_, one; _Henry Constable_, four; _John Davis_,

one; _Michael Drayton_, five; Sir _Edward Dyer_, six; _John Ford_,

one; _Robert Greene_, seven; _Fulke Grevile_, two; _John Gough_, one;

_Howard, Earle of Surrie_, two; _Howell_, one: _William Hunnis_, two;

_Thomas Lodge_, ten; _Jervis Markham_, two; _Christopher Marlow_, one;

_Earle of Oxenford_, one: _George Peele_, three; Sir _Walter Raleigh_,

fourteen; _William Shakspeare_, two; Sir _Philip Sidney_, fourteen;

_William Smith_, one; _Edmund Spenser_, three; _Shepherd Tonie_, seven;

_Thomas Watson_, five; _John Wootton_, two, and _Bartholomew Yong_,

twenty-five. Of anonymous contributions there are sixteen.

Amid this galaxy of bards we cannot fail to distinguish for their

decided superiority, the productions of _Breton_, _Greene_, _Lodge_,

_Marlow_, and _Raleigh_, which might confer celebrity on any selection.

The principal feature, indeed, of England's Helicon is its _pastoral_

beauty, and in this department how few have surpassed, or even

equalled, the exquisite strains of Lodge or Marlow!

"It cannot be idle or useless," remarks Sir Egerton Brydges, "to

study this early Collection of Pastoral compositions. Here is the

fountain of that diction, which has since been employed and expanded

in the description of rural scenery. Here are the openings of those

reflections on the imagery of nature, in which subsequent poets have so

much dealt. They show us to what occasional excellence, both in turn

of thought and polish of language, the literature of Queen Elizabeth

had arrived; and how little the artificial and incumbered prose of mere

scholars of that time exhibits a just specimen of either the sentiment

or phrase of the court or people! In the best of these productions,

even the accentuation and rhythm scarce differs from that of our

days. Lodge and Breton in particular, who are characterised by their

simplicity, are striking proofs of this!—