Was descended of an ancient family in Devonshire, which was seated

in that county before the conquest[1], and was fourth son of Walter

Raleigh, esquire, of Fards, in the parish of Cornwood. He was born in

the year 1552 at Hayes, a pleasant farm of his father's in the parish

of Budley, in that part of Devonshire bordering Eastward upon the Sea,

near where the Ottery discharges itself into the British Channel; he

was educated at the university of Oxford, where, according to Dr.

Fuller, he became a commoner of Oriel College, as well as Christ

Church, and displayed in his early years a great vivacity of genius in

his application to his studies. Some have said, that after leaving the

university, he settled himself in the Middle-Temple, and studied the

law, but this opinion must be erroneous, since he declares afterwards

on his trial, that he never read a word of law 'till he was prisoner

in the Tower. In 1569, when he was not above 17 years of age, he was

one of the select troop of a hundred gentlemen voluntiers, whom Queen

Elizabeth permitted Henry Champernon to transport into France, for the

assistance of protestant Princes there[2], but of what service they

were, or what was the consequence of the expedition, we have no

account. So great a scene of action as the whole kingdom of France was

at that period, gave Raleigh an opportunity of acquiring experience,

and reading characters, as well as improving himself in the knowledge

of languages and manners, and his own History of the World contains

some remarks which he then made of the conduct of some great generals

there, of which he had himself been witness. After our author's return

from France, he embarked in an expedition to the northern parts of

America, with Sir Humphry Gilbert, his brother by the mother's side,

that gentleman having obtained the Queen's Patent to plant and inhabit

such parts of it as were unpossessed by any Prince with whom she was

in alliance; but this attempt proved unsuccessful by means of the

division which arose amongst the Voluntiers. The next year, 1580, upon

the descent of the Spanish and Italian forces in Ireland under the

Pope's banner, for the support of the Desmonds in their rebellion in

Munster, he had a captain's commission under the lord Grey of Wilton,

to whom at that time the famous Spenser was secretary; but the chief

services which, captain Raleigh performed, were under Thomas earl of

Ormond, governor of Munster. He surprized the Irish Kerns at Ramile,

and having inclosed them, took every rebel upon the spot, who did not

fall in the conflict. Among the prisoners there was one laden with

Withies, who being asked, what he intended to have done with them?

boldly answered, to have hung up the English Charles; upon which

Raleigh ordered him to be immediately dispatched in that manner, and

the rest of the robbers and murderers to be punished according to

their deserts[3]. The earl of Ormond departing for England in the

spring of the year 1581, his government of Munster was given to

captain Raleigh; in which he behaved with great vigilance and honour,

he fought the Arch rebel Barry at Clove, whom he charged with the

utmost bravery, and after a hard struggle, put to flight. In the month

of August, 1581, captain John Gouch being appointed Governour of

Munster by the Lord Deputy, Raleigh attended him in several journies

to settle and compose that country; but the chief place of their

residence was Cork, and after Gouch had cut off Sir John Desmond,

brother to the earl of Desmond, who was at the head of the rebellion,

he left the government of that city to Raleigh[4], whose company

being not long after disbanded upon the reduction of that earl, the

slaughter of his brother, and the submission of Barry, he returned to

England. The Lord Deputy Grey having resigned the sword in Ireland

towards the end of August, 1582, the dispute between him and Raleigh,

upon reasons which are variously assigned by different writers, was

brought to a hearing before the council table in England, where the

latter supported his cause with such abilities as procured him the

good opinion both of her Majesty, and the Lords of the Council, and

this, added to the patronage of the earl of Leicester, is supposed

to be one considerable occasion of his preferment, though it did not

immediately take place, nor could the hopes of it restrain him from

a second expedition with his brother Sir Humphry Gilbert to

Newfoundland, for which he built a ship of 200 tons called The Bark

Raleigh, and furnished it compleatly for the voyage, in which he

resolved to attend his brother as his Vice-Admiral. That fleet

departed from Plymouth the 11th of June, 1583, but after it had been

two or three days at sea, a contagious distemper having seized the

whole crew of Raleigh's ship, obliged him to return to that port;

however by this accident, he escaped the misfortune of that

expedition; for after Sir Humphry had taken possession of

Newfoundland, in the right of the crown of England, and assigned lands

to every man of his company, and failed three hundred leagues in the

voyage home with full hopes of the Queen's assistance to fit out a

fleet next year, he unfortunately perished; for venturing rashly in a

frigate of but ten tons, he was on the ninth of September that year at

midnight swallowed up in an high sea, another vessel suffered the same

fate, and even the rest returned not without great hazard and loss[5]:

but this ill success could not divert Raleigh from pursuing a scheme

of such importance to his country as those discoveries in North

America. He drew up an account of the advantage of such a design,

and the means of prosecuting it, which he laid before the Queen and

Council, who were so well satisfied with the probability of success,

that on the 25th of March, 1584, her Majesty granted him letters

patent, in favour of his project, containing free liberty to discover

such remote heathen and barbarous lands, as were not actually

possessed by any Christian prince, nor inhabited by Christian people.

Immediately upon this grant, Raleigh chose two able and experienced

captains, and furnished them with two vessels fitted out at his own

expence, with such expedition that on the 27th of April following they

set sail for the West of England, taking their course by the Canary

Islands, where they arrived on the 10th of May, towards the West

Indies; and that being in those days the best and most frequented rout

to America, they passed by the Carribbe Islands in the beginning of

June, and reached the Gulph of Florida on the 2d of July, sailing

along the shore about one hundred and twenty miles before they could

find a convenient harbour. At last they debarked in a very low land,

which proved to be an island called Wohoken; and after taking formal

possession of the country, they carried on a friendly correspondence

with the native Indians, who supplied them with a great variety of

fish and venison, and gave them furs, and deerskins in exchange for

trifles. Thus encouraged by the natives, eight of the company in

a boat, went up the river Occam twenty miles, and next day in the

evening they came to an island called Roanah, which was but seven

leagues from the place where their ships lay. Here they found the

residence of the Indian chief, whose name was Grangamineo, whose house

consisted of nine apartments built of Cedar, fortified round with

sharp pieces of timber: His wife came out to them, and ordered the

people to carry them from the boat on their backs, and shewed them

many other civilities. They continued their intercourse with the

natives for some time, still viewing the situation of the adjacent

country, and after having obtained the best information they could of

the number and strength of the Indian nations in that neighbourhood,

and of their connexions, alliances, or contests with each other, they

returned about the middle of September to England, and made such an

advantageous report of the fertility of the soil, and healthiness of

the climate, that the Queen favoured the design of settling a colony

in that country, to which she was pleased to give the name of

Virginia[6].

About two months after, Raleigh was chosen Knight of the Shire for his

county of Devon, and made a considerable figure in parliament, where a

bill passed in confirmation of his patent for the discovery of foreign

countries. During the course of this sessions, he received the honour

of knighthood from her Majesty, a distinction the more honourable to

him, as the Queen was extreamly cautious in confering titles; and

besides the patent for discoveries, she granted him, about the same

time, a power to license the vending of wines throughout the kingdom,

which was in all probability very lucrative to him; but it engaged him

in a dispute with the university of Cambridge, which had opposed one

Keymer, whom he had licensed to sell wine there, contrary to the

privileges of that university.

The parliament being prorogued, Raleigh, intent upon planting his

new colony in Virginia, set out his own fleet of seven sail for that

country, under the command of his cousin Sir Richard Greenville, who

after having visited the country, left behind him an hundred and seven

persons to settle a colony at Roanah; in his return to England,

he took a Spanish prize worth 50000 l. but this was not the only

circumstance of good fortune which happened to Raleigh this year; for

the rebellion in Ireland being now suppressed, and the forfeited

lands divided into Signiories, among those principally who had been

instrumental in the important service of reducing that country; her

Majesty granted him one of the largest portions, consisting of twelve

thousand acres in the counties of Cork and Waterford, with certain

privileges and immunities, upon condition, of planting and improving

the same, to which the other grantees were obliged.

In the year 1586 we find our author so highly advanced in the Queen's

favour, so extremely popular on account of his patronage of learned

men, ard the active spirit he exerted in business, that her Majesty

made him seneschal in the dutchy of Cornwall. But these distinctions

incurred the usual effects of court preferment, and exposed Sir Walter

to the envy of those who were much inferior to him in merit; and even

the earl of Leicester himself, who had formerly been his great patron,

became jealous of him, and set up in opposition to him, his nephew

the young earl of Essex. The Comedians likewise took the liberty to

reflect upon Raleigh's power, and influence upon the Queen; which her

Majesty resented so highly as to forbid Tarleton, the most celebrated

actor of that age, from approaching her presence.

Raleigh, sollicitous for the prosperity of the plantation in Virginia,

sent out new supplies from time to time, some of whom were obliged to

return home; and the general alarm spread over the nation on account

of the Spanish invasion, threw all things into disorder.

About the beginning of the year 1587 he was raised to the dignity of

captain of her majesty's guard, which he held together with the place

of lord-warden of the Stannaries, and lieutenant-general of the county

of Cornwall. From this time till the year 1594, we find Sir Walter

continually engaged in projecting new expeditions, sending succours

to colonies abroad, or managing affairs in Parliament with consummate

address.

In the year 1593, we find Father Parsons the jesuit charging him with

no less a crime than atheism, and that he had founded a school in

which he taught atheistical principles, and had made a great many

young gentlemen converts to them; the most considerable authority

to countenance the suspicions of Sir Walter's religion, is that of

Archbishop Abbot, who in a letter dated at Lambeth, addressed to Sir

Thomas Roe, then an ambassador at the Mogul's court, expressly charges

Sir Walter with doubting God's being and omnipotence[7]; but it is

highly probable Sir Walter's opinions might be misrepresented by his

enemies, or wrong conclusions drawn from those which he maintained;

and it would be a shocking injustice to the memory of so great a man

to suspect him of irreligion, whose writings contain not the least

trace of it, and whose History of the World in particular breathes a

strong spirit of real and genuine piety.

In the heighth of his favour with the Queen, he fell under her

majesty's displeasure, for being enamoured of Mrs. Elizabeth

Throgmorton, one of the Queen's maids of honour, whom he debauched;

and such it seems was the chastity of these times, that a frailty of

that sort was looked upon as the highest offence Her Majesty was so

exasperated, that she commanded him to be confined several months, and

after his enlargement forbid him the court, whence the poor lady was

likewise dismissed from her attendance about the maiden queen, who

appeared in this case the champion of virginity. Sir Walter soon made

her an honourable reparation by marriage, and they were both examples

of conjugal affection and fidelity. During the time our author

continued under her majesty's displeasure for this offence, he

projected the discovery of the rich and extensive empire of Guiana,

in the south of America, which the Spaniards had then visited, and

to that day had never conquered. For this purpose, having collected

informations relating to it, he sent an old officer to take a view

of the coast, who returned the year following with a very favourable

account of the riches of the country, which he had received from some

of the principal Cassiques upon the borders of it. This determined

Raleigh's resolution, who provided a squadron of ships at a very

great expence, and the lord high admiral Howard, and Sir Robert Cecil

conceived so good an opinion of the design, that both concurred in

it. He personally engaged in the attempt, and with no great number

of ships so far explored the unknown country, that he made greater

progress in a few months than the Spaniards had done for many years,

and having satisfied himself of the certainty of the gold mines of the

country, he returned home with honour and riches the latter end of the

summer 1595, and in the year following published in quarto An Account

of the Voyage and Discoveries, dedicated to lord admiral Howard and

Sir Robert Cecil.

The next year Sir Walter was so far restored to the Queen's favour,

that he was engaged in the important and successful expedition to

Cadiz, in which the earl of Essex and lord admiral Howard were

joint commanders, and Raleigh of the council of war, and one of the

admirals. In this, as in all his other expeditions, he behaved with

equal conduct and courage. After his return from the successful

expedition under the earl of Essex, he promoted a reconciliation

between that nobleman and secretary Cecil, in consequence of which

he was himself fully reinstated in the Queen's favour, and had the

command of captain of the guard restored to him with other marks of

her forgiveness.

In 1597 he was employed in the island voyage as rear admiral, the earl

of Essex having the chief command, and the lord Thomas Howard the post

of vice-admiral. The design of it was to defeat and destroy at Ferol,

as well as in the other ports of the enemy, the Spanish fleet intended

for a new expedition against England and Ireland; and to seize upon

such Indian fleets of treasure, as they should meet with belonging to

the king of Spain, to conquer, restrain, and garrison, most of the

Isles of the Azores, and especially the Terceras. But the success of

this expedition did not answer the greatness of the preparations for

it; the jealousy of the earl of Essex the commander, obstructing the

services which Sir Walter's abilities might otherwise have performed.

In the council of war, which was held before the isle of Flores, it

was resolved that the general and Sir Walter should jointly attack the

island of Fyal; where the latter waited seven days for his lordship,

and hearing nothing of him, called a council of war, in which it was

determined that Raleigh should attempt the town himself, which he did

with astonishing bravery and success. Essex finding himself deprived

of the honour of taking Fyal, was exasperated to such a degree, that

he broke some of the officers who had behaved with great gallantry

under Raleigh, and some of his sycophants alledged that Raleigh

himself deserved to lose his head for breach of articles in landing

without his lordships orders. Upon their return to England the earl

endeavoured to transfer the miscarriages of the expedition upon

Raleigh, and gained to his side the populace, whom Sir Walter never

courted, and whose patronage he scorned; but the Queen herself was not

well pleased with the earl's conduct, since it was judged he might

have done more than he did; and his proceedings against Sir Walter in

calling his actions to public question, were highly disapproved [8].

The next important transaction we find Raleigh engaged in, was in

1601, when the unfortunate earl of Essex, who had calumniated him

to the king of Scotland, and endeavoured all he could to shake his

interest, was so ill advised by his creatures, as to attempt a public

insurrection. Raleigh was active in suppressing it: the earl pretended

that the cause of his taking arms was to defend himself against the

violence of his personal enemies, the lord Cobham and Raleigh having

formed a design of murdering him; tho' on the other hand it is pretty

certain, that Sir Ferdinand Gorges, one of the earl's accomplices,

afterwards accused Sir Christopher Blount, another of them, for

persuading him to kill, or at least apprehend, Sir Walter; which

Gorges refusing, Blount discharged four shots after him in a boat.

Blount acknowledged this, and at the time of his execution asked Sir

Walter forgiveness for it; which he readily granted.----While the earl

garisoned his house, Sir Walter was one of those who invested it,

and when his lordship was brought to his trial, he with forty of the

queen's guard was present upon duty, and was likewise examined with

relation to a conference which he had upon the Thames the morning

of the insurrection with Sir Ferdinando Gorges. At the execution of

Essex, six days after, in the Tower, Raleigh attended, probably in his

character of captain of the guard, and stood near the scaffold that

he might the better answer if Essex should be desirous of speaking

to him, but retired before the earl's execution, because the people

seemed to take his appearance there in a wrong light; tho' he

afterwards repented of it, as the earl expressed an inclination to see

and speak with him before his death, which was in all probability to

have asked Raleigh's forgiveness for having traduced, and calumniated

him in order to colour his own rash designs.

In 1602 our author sold his estate in Ireland, to Mr. Boyle,

afterwards earl of Cork, and about Midsummer he settled his estate of

Sherbone on his son Walter, on account of a challenge which he had

received from Sir Amias Preston, who had been knighted at Cadiz by

the earl of Essex; which challenge Sir Walter intended to accept, and

therefore disposed his affairs in proper order. The cause of their

quarrel does not appear, but they were afterwards reconciled without

proceeding to a duel[9].

The death of Queen Elizabeth on the 24th of March 1602-3 proved

a great misfortune to Raleigh; James her successor having been

prejudiced against him by the earl of Essex, who insinuated that

Raleigh was no friend to his succession, nor had any regard for his

family. And these prejudices were heightened by secretary Cecil in his

private correspondence with that pusilanimous, jealous prince, before

he ascended the Throne of England, or at least immediately upon that

event; for tho' Raleigh and Cecil had united against Essex, yet

after the ruin of that earl and his party, their seeming friendship

terminated in a mutual struggle for a superiority of power. But there

is another important cause of James's disgust to Sir Walter, which is,

that he, lord Cobham, and Sir John Fortescue, would have obliged the

king to articles before he was admitted to the throne, and that the

number of his countrymen should be limitted; which added to the

circumstance of Sir Walter's zeal to take off his mother, inspired his

majesty with a confirmed aversion to him; and indeed the tragical end

of the queen of Scots is, perhaps, the greatest error with which the

annals of that glorious reign is stained. Raleigh in vain endeavoured

to gain the affection of the new king, which he attempted by

transfering on secretary Cecil the blood of the earl of Essex, as well

as that of his royal mother; but this attempt to secure the affections

of a weak prince, ended in his ruin, for it exasperated Cecil the more

against him; and as Sir Walter was of an active martial genius, the

king, who was a lover of peace, and a natural coward, was afraid that

so military a man would involve him in a war, which he hated above all

things in the world. Our author was soon removed from his command as

captain of the guard, which was bestowed upon Sir Thomas Erskin, his

majesty's favourite as well as countryman[10], the predecessor to the

earl of Mar, whose actions, performed in the year 1715, are recent in

every one's memory.

Not long after his majesty's ascending the throne of England, Sir

Walter was charged with a plot against the king and royal family; but

no clear evidence was ever produced that Raleigh had any concern in

it. The plot was to have surprized the king and court, to have created

commotions in Scotland, animated the discontented in England, and

advanced Arabella Stuart, cousin to the king, to the throne. Arabella

was the daughter of lord Charles Stuart, younger brother to Henry lord

Darnly, and son to the duke of Lenox. She was afterwards married to

William Seymour, son to lord Beauchamp, and grandson to the earl of

Hertford; and both were confined for the presumption of marrying

without his majesty's consent, from which they made their escape, but

were again retaken. Lady Arabella died of grief, and Mr. Seymour lived

to be a great favourite with Charles I. Raleigh persisted in avowing

his ignorance of the plot, and when he came to his trial, he behaved

himself so prudently, and defended himself with so much force, that

the minds of the people present, who were at first exasperated against

him, were turned from the severest hatred to the tenderest pity.

Notwithstanding Sir Walter's proof that he was innocent of any such

plot, and that lord Cobham, who had once accused him had recanted, and

signed his recantation, nor was produced against him face to face, a

pack'd jury brought him in guilty of high treason. Sentence of death

being pronounced against him, he humbly requested that the king

might be made acquainted with the proofs upon which he was cast. He

accompanied the Sheriff to prison with wonderful magnanimity, tho'

in a manner suited to his unhappy situation. Raleigh was kept near

a month at Winchester in daily expectation of death, and in a very

pathetic letter wrote his last words to his wife the night before he

expected to suffer[11], in which he hoped his blood would quench

their malice who had murdered him, and prayed God to forgive his

persecutors, and accusers. The king signed the warrant for the

execution of the lords Cobham and Grey, and Sir Griffin Markham, at

Winchester, pretending, says lord Cecil, to forbear Sir Walter for

the present, till lord Cobham's death had given some light how far he

would make good his accusation. Markham was first brought upon the

scaffold, and when he was on his knees, ready to receive the blow

of the ax, the groom of the bedchamber produced to the sheriff his

Majesty's warrant to stop the execution; and Markham was told that he

must withdraw a while into the hall to be confronted by the Lords.

Then Lord Grey was brought forth, and having poured out his prayers

and confession, was likewise called aside, and lastly Lord Cobham was

exposed in the same manner, and performed his devotions, though we do

not find that he said one word of his guilt or innocence, or charged

Raleigh with having instigated him; all which circumstances seem more

than sufficient to wipe off from the memory of Raleigh the least

suspicion of any plot against James's person or government.

He was remanded to the Tower of London with the rest of the prisoners,

of whom Markham afterwards obtained his liberty, and travelled abroad.

Lord Grey of Wilton died in the Tower; Lord Cobham was confined there

many years, during which, it is said, he was examined by the King in

relation to Raleigh, and entirely cleared him; he afterwards died in

the lowest circumstances of distress.

In February following a grant was made by the King of all the goods

and chattels forfeited by Sir Walter's conviction to the trustees of

his appointing for the benefit of his creditors, lady and children.

After 12 years confinement in the Tower, in March 1615 he was released

out of it, by the interposition of the favourite Buckingham; but

before he quitted that place he saw the earl of Somerset committed

there for the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury, and afterwards condemned,

which occasioned Sir Walter to compare his own case with that of the

earl's, and to remark, 'That the whole History of the World had not

the like precedent of a King's prisoner to purchase freedom, and his

bosom favourite 'to have the halter, but in scripture, in the case

of Mordecai and Haman;' on hearing which, the King is said to have

replied, that Raleigh might die in that deceit, which afterwards

proved true, for the King pardoned the infamous Somerset, a murderer,

and executed Raleigh, a brave and an honest man, equally to the

astonishment of the world. Sir Walter being now at large, had the

means of prosecuting his old scheme of settling Guiana, which he

had so much at heart, that even during his imprisonment, he held a

constant correspondence with that country, sending thither every year,

or every second year, a ship, to keep the Indians in hopes of being

relieved from the tyranny of the Spaniards, who had again encroached

upon them, and massacred many, both of the inhabitants and of

Raleigh's men. In these ships were brought several natives of the

country, with whom he conversed in the Tower, and obtained all

possible informations concerning it. Upon such informations he offered

his scheme for prosecuting his discovery to the court before he

undertook it in person: nor were there any doubts either as to the

improbability of the design, or its unlawfulness, notwithstanding the

peace made with Spain, otherwise the King would not have made such

grants, as he did, even at that time, which shews that he was then

convinced, that Sir Walter had in his first voyage discovered and

taken possession of that country for the crown of England, and

consequently that his subjects were justly intitled to any benefits

that might arise from its discovery, without the least respect to the

pretensions of the Spaniards: Besides, when Sir Walter first moved the

court upon this subject, the Spanish match was not thought of, and the

King's necessities being then very pressing, he may be presumed to

have conceived great hopes from that discovery, though he might

afterwards change his opinion, when he grew so unreasonably fond of

that match.

In 1616, he obtained a royal commission to settle Guiana at the

expence of himself and his friends; he was appointed General, and

Commander in Chief of this enterprize, and Governor of the new

country, which he was to settle with ample authority; a power was

granted him too, of exercising martial law in such a manner as the

King's Lieutenant General by sea or land, or any Lieutenants of the

counties of England had. These powers seem to imply a virtual pardon

to Raleigh, and perhaps made, him less solicitous for an actual one.

Meantime Gondemar the Spanish ambassador, by his address, vivacity,

and flattering the humours of James, had gained a great ascendency

over him, and began to make a great clamour about Raleigh's

preparations, and from that moment formed schemes of destroying him.

The whole expence of this expedition was defrayed by Raleigh and his

friends; the fleet consisted of about seven sail. On the 17th of

November, 1617, they came in sight of Guiana, and soon after to

anchor, in five degrees off the river Caliana, where they remained

till the 4th of December. Raleigh was received with great joy by the

Indians, who not only assisted him with provisions, and every thing

else in their power, but offered him the sovereignty of their country

if he would settle amongst them, which he declined to accept.[12] His

extreme sickness for six weeks prevented him from undertaking the

discovery of the mines in person, and was obliged to depute captain

Keymis to that service; and accordingly on the 4th of December,

ordered five small ships to sail into the river Oronoque. When they

landed, they found a Spanish garrison between them and the mine,

which sallying out unexpectedly, put them in confusion, and gave them

battle. In this conflict young Raleigh was killed, and by a fatal

mistake, captain Keymis did not prove the mine, but burnt and

plundered the Spanish garrison, and found amongst the governor's

papers one, which informed him, that Raleigh's expedition had been

betrayed, and that he was to be sacrificed to the Spaniards. Upon

Keymis's unsuccessful attempt, Raleigh sharply rebuked him for his

mistake, and a deviation from his orders, which so much affected that

captain, that he shot himself in his own cabin, and finding the wound

not mortal, he finished his design by a long knife with which he

stabbed himself to the heart. In this distressful situation Raleigh

returned home, and found on his arrival at Plymouth, a declaration

published against him; at which he took the alarm, and contrived to

convey himself out of the kingdom in a vessel hired for that purpose

by an old officer of his; but changing his opinion in that respect, he

proceeded in his journey to London.

Yet thinking it proper to gain time for the appeasing his majesty,

by the assistance of one Maneuric a French quack, he counterfeited

sickness for several days, during which he wrote his apology. However

on the 7th of August he arrived at London, where he was confined in

his own house; but having still good reasons not to trust himself to

the mercy of the court, he formed a design to escape into France,

which Sir Lewis Stackley, who was privy to, and encouraged it,

discovered, and Sir Walter being seized in a boat upon the river below

Woolwich, was a second time, on the 10th of August, committed to the

Tower; but tho' his death seemed absolutely determined, yet it seemed

difficult to find a method of accomplishing it, since his conduct in

the late expedition could not be stretched in law to such a sentence.

It was resolved therefore, to sacrifice him to the resentment of

Spain, in a manner so shameful, that it has justly exposed the

conduct of the court to the indignation of all succeeding ages, and

transmitted the pusillanimous monarch with infamy to posterity. They

called him down to judgment upon his former sentence passed fifteen

years before, which they were not then ashamed to execute. A privy

seal was sent to the judges to order immediate execution, on which

a conference was held Friday the 24th of Oct. 1688, between all the

judges of England, concerning the manner, how prisoners who have

been attainted of treason and set at liberty, should be brought to

execution. In consequence of their revolution, a privy seal came to

the King's-Bench, commanding that court to proceed against Sir Walter

according to law, who next day received notice of the council to

prepare himself for death; and on Wednesday the 28th of that month, at

8 o'clock in the morning, was taken out of bed in the hot fit of an

ague, and carried to the King's-Bench, Westminster, where execution

was awarded against him. The next morning, the 29th of October, the

day of the lord-mayor's inauguration, a solemnity never perhaps

attended before with a public execution, Sir Walter was conducted by

the sheriffs of Middlesex to the Old Palace Yard in Westminster, where

mounting the scaffold, he behaved with the most undaunted spirit, and

seeming cheerfulness. The bishop of Salisbury (Tohon) being surprized

at the hero's contempt of death, and expostulating with him upon it;

he told him plainly that he never feared death, and much less then,

for which he blessed God, and as to the manner of it, tho' to others

it might seem grievous, yet for himself he had rather die so than in a

burning fever. This verifies the noble observation of Shakespear, that

all heroes have a contempt of death; which he puts in the mouth

of Julius Cæsar when his friends dissuaded him from going to the

Senate-House.

Cowards die many a time before their deaths,

The valiant never taste of death but once.

Of all the wonders, I have heard of yet,

It seems to me most strange, that men should fear,

Seeing that death, the necessary end,

Will come, when it will come.----

Sir Walter eat his breakfast that morning, smoaked his pipe, and

made no more of death, than if he had been to take a journey. On the

scaffold he conversed freely with the Earl of Arundel and others of

the nobility, and vindicated himself from two suspicions; the first,

of entering into a confederacy with France; the second, of speaking

disloyally of his Majesty. He cleared himself likewise of the

suspicion of having persecuted the Earl of Essex, or of insulting him

at his death. He concluded with desiring the good people to join with

him in prayer, to that great God of Heaven, "whom (says he) I have

grievously offended, being a man full of vanity, who has lived a

sinful life, in such callings as have been most inducing to it: For I

have been a soldier, a sailor, and a courtier; which are courses of

wickedness and vice." The proclamation being made that all men should

depart the scaffold, he prepared himself for death, gave away his hat

and cap, and money to some attendants that stood near him. When he

took leave of the lords, and other gentlemen that stood near him, he

entreated the Lord Arundel to prevail with the King that no scandalous

writings to defame him, should be published after his death;

concluding, "I have a long journey to go, and therefore will take my

leave." Then having put off his gown and doublet, he called to the

executioner to shew him the axe, which not being presently done; he

said, "I pray thee let me see it; don't thou think I am afraid of it;"

and having it in his hands he felt along the edge of it, and smiling,

said to the sheriff; "This is a sharp medicine, but it is a physician

for all diseases." The executioner kneeling down and asking him

forgiveness, Sir Walter laying his hand upon his shoulder granted

it; and being asked which way he would lay himself on the block, he

answered, "So the heart be right, it is no matter which way the head

lies." His head was struck off at two blows, his body never shrinking

nor moving. His head was shewn on each side of the scaffold, and then

put into a red leather bag, and with his velvet night-gown thrown

over, was afterwards conveyed away in a mourning coach of his lady's.

His body was interred in the chancel of St. Margaret's Church,

Westminster, but his head was long preserved in a case by his widow,

who survived him twenty-years.

Thus fell Sir Walter Raleigh in the 66th year of his age, a sacrifice

to a contemptible administration, and the resentment of a mean prince:

A man of so great abilities, that neither that nor the preceding reign

produced his equal. His character was a combination of almost every

eminent quality; he was the soldier, statesmen, and scholar united,

and had he lived with the heroes of antiquity, he would have made a

just parallel to Cæsar, and Xenophon, like them being equal master of

the sword and the pen. One circumstance must not be omitted, which in

a life so full of action as his, is somewhat extraordinary, viz.

that whether he was on board his ships upon important and arduous

expeditions, busy in court transactions, or pursuing schemes of

pleasure, he never failed to dedicate at least four hours every day

to study, by which he became so much master of all knowledge, and was

enabled, as a poet beautifully expresses it, to enrich the world with

his prison-hours[13]. As the sentence of Raleigh blackens but his

King, so his memory will be ever dear to the lovers of learning, and

of their country: and tho' he makes not a very great figure as a poet,

having business of greater importance continually upon his hands; yet

it would have been an unpardonable negligence to omit him, as he does

honour to the list, and deserves all the encomiums an honest mind can

give, or the most masterly pen bestow; and it were to be wished some

man of eminent talents, whose genius is turned to biography, (of such

at present we are not destitute) would undertake the life of this

hero, and by mixing pleasing and natural reflexions with the

incidents, as they occur, not a little instruct and delight his

countrymen; as Raleigh's life is the amplest field for such an attempt

to succeed in.

His works are,

Orders to be observed by the commanders of the fleets and land

companies, under the conduct of Sir Walter Raleigh, bound for the

South parts of America, given at Plymouth 3d May 1617.

The Dutiful Advice of a Loving Son to his Aged Father.

A Brief Relation of Sir Walter Raleigh's Troubles; with the taking

away the lands and castle of Sherburn from him and his heirs, which

were granted to the Earl of Bristol.

Maxims of State.

The Prerogatives of Parliament.

The Cabinet Council; containing the Arts of Empires and Mysteries of

State.

A Discourse touching a Marriage between Prince Henry of England, and a

Daughter of Savoy.

A Discourse touching a War with Spain, and of the Protesting the

Netherlands.

A Discourse of the original and Fundamental Cause of natural,

arbitrary, necessary, and unnatural War.

A Discourse of the inventions of Ships, Anchors, and Compass,

Observations concerning the Royal Navy, and Sea service. To Prince

Henry.

Observations touching Trade and Commerce with the Hollanders and other

Nations.

A Voyage for the Discovery of Guiana.

An Apology for the Voyage to Guiana.

A Letter to Lord Carew touching Guiana.

An Introduction to a Breviary of the History of England; with the

Reign of William the Conqueror.

The Seat of Government.

Observations on the Causes of the Magnificence and Opulence of Cities.

The Sceptic.

Instructions to his Son.

Letters.

Poems.

I shall give a specimen of Sir Walter's poetry in a piece called the

Vision of the Fairy Queen.

Methought I sawe the grave where Laura lay;

Within that temple, where the vestal flame;

Was wont to burne: and passing by that way,

To see that buried dust of living fame,

Whose tombe fair love, and fairer virtue kept,

All suddenly I sawe the Fairy Queene:

At whose approach the soul of Petrarche wept

And from henceforth, those Graces were not scene;

For they this queen attended; in whose steede

Oblivion laid him down in Laura's hearse:

Hereat the hardest stones were seen to bleed.

And grones of buried ghosts the Heavens did perse;

Where Homer's spright did tremble all for 'griefe,

And curst th' accesse of that celestial thief.

But the most extraordinary work of Sir Walter's is his History of the

World, composed in the Tower; it has never been without its admirers;

and I shall close the account of our author's works, by the

observation of the ingenious author of the Rambler upon this

history, in a paper in which he treats of English Historians, No.

122.--"Raleigh (says he) is deservedly celebrated for the labour of

his researches, and the elegance of his stile; but he has endeavoured

to exert his judgment more than his genius, to select facts, rather

than adorn them. He has produced a historical dissertation, but has

seldom risen to the majesty of history."

[Footnote 1: Prince's Worthies of Devon.]

[Footnote 2: Camdeni Annales Elizabethæ, p. 172. Edit. Batav. 1625.]

[Footnote 3: Hooker, fol. 167.]

[Footnote 4: Case's History of Ireland, fol. 367.]

[Footnote 5: Captain Haynes's Report of Sir Humphry Gilbert's voyage

to Newfoundland, vol. iii. p. 149.]

[Footnote 6: Oldys, fol. 125.]

[Footnote 7: Birch's life of Raleigh.]

[Footnote 8: Letter of Rowland White, Esq; to Sir Robert Sidney,

November 5, 1597.]

[Footnote 9: Oldys, fol. 167.]

[Footnote 10: Oldys, fol. 157.]

[Footnote 11: Raleigh's remains, vol. ii. p. 188.]

[Footnote 12: Letter to his lady from Caliana, November 14, 1617.]

[Footnote 13: Thompson.]

* * * * *

DR. JOHN DONNE

An eminent poet, and divine of the last century, was born in London

in the year 1573. His father was a merchant, descended from a very

ancient family in Wales, and his mother from Sir Thomas More,

Chancellor of England. He was educated in his father's house under a

tutor till the 11th year of his age[1], when he was sent to Oxford; at

which time it was observed of him, as of the famous Pica Mirandula,

that he was rather born wise than made so by study. He was admitted

commoner of Harthall, together with his younger brother, in Michaelmas

term 1584.[2] By advice of his relations, who were Roman Catholics, he

declined taking the oath tendered upon the occasion of taking degrees.

After he had studied three years at the University, he removed to

Cambridge, and from thence three years after to Lincoln's-Inn. About

this time his father died, and left him a portion of 3000£. He became

soon distinguished at Lincoln's-Inn, by his rapid progress in the law.

He was now eighteen years of age, and as yet had attached himself to

no particular denomination of Christians, and as his relations

were bigotted to the Romish faith, he was induced to examine the

controversy, and to embrace publickly that which appeared to him to be

best supported by the authority of the scriptures. He relinquished

the study of the law, and devoted himself entirely to that of the

controverted points between the Protestants and Catholics, which ended

in a thorough conviction of the truths of the reformed religion.

In the years 1596 and 1597 Mr. Donne attended the Earl of Essex in

his expeditions against Cadiz and the Azores Islands, and stayed some

years in Italy and Spain, and soon after his return to England he was

made secretary to lord chancellor Egerton. This probably was intended

by his lordship only as an introduction to a more dignified place; for

he frequently expressed a high opinion of his secretary's abilities;

and when he afterwards, by the sollicitation of his lady, parted with

him, he observed that he was fitter to be a secretary to a Monarch

than to him. When he was in the lord chancellor's family, he married

privately without the consent of her father, the daughter of Sir

George More, chancellor of the Garter, and lord lieutenant of the

Tower, who so much resented his daughter's marriage without

his consent, that he procured our author's dismission from the

chancellor's service, and got him committed to prison. Sir George's

daughter lived in the lord chancellor's family, and was niece to his

lady. Upon Sir George's hearing that his daughter had engaged her

heart to Donne, he removed her to his own house in Surry, and friends

on both sides endeavoured to weaken their affection for each other,

but without success; for having exchanged the most sacred promises,

they found means to consummate a private marriage. Our author was not

long in obtaining his liberty, but was obliged to be at the expence

of a tedious law-suit to recover the possession of his wife, who was

forcibly detained from him. At length our poet's extraordinary merit

and winning behaviour so far subdued Sir George's resentment, that he

used his interest with the Chancellor to have his son-in-law restored

to his place; But this request was refused; his lordship observing,

that he did not chuse to discharge and re-admit servants at the

request of his passionate petitioners. Sir George had been so far

reconciled to his daughter and son, as not to deny his paternal

blessing, but would contribute nothing towards their support, Mr.

Donne's fortune being greatly diminished by the expence of travels,

law-suits, and the generosity of his temper; however his wants were in

a great measure prevented by the seasonable bounty of their kinsman

Sir Francis Wooley, who entertained them several years at his house at

Pilford in Surry, where our author had several children born to

him. During his residence at Pilford he applied himself with great

diligence and success to the study of the civil and canon law, and was

about this time sollicited by Dr. Morton, (afterwards lord bishop of

Durham) to go into holy Orders, and accept of a Benefice the Doctor

would have resigned to him; but he thought proper to refuse this

obliging offer. He lived with Sir Francis till that gentleman's death,

by whose mediation a perfect reconciliation was effected between Mr.

Donne and his father-in-law; who obliged himself to pay our author

800£. at a certain day as his wife's portion, or 20£. quarterly for

their maintenance, till it was all paid.

He was incorporated master of arts in the university of Oxford, having

before taken the same degree at Cambridge 1610.

About two years after the reconciliation with his father, he was

prevailed upon with much difficulty to accompany Sir Robert Drury to

Paris[3] Mrs. Donne, being then big with child and in a languishing

state of health, strongly opposed his departure, telling him, that

her divining soul boaded some ill in his absence; bur Sir Robert's

importunity was not to be resisted, and he at last consented to go

with him. Mr. Walton gives an account of a vision Mr. Donne had seen

after their arrival there, which he says was told him by a person of

honour, who had a great intimacy with Mr. Donne; and as it has in it

something curious enough, I shall here present it to the reader in

that author's own words[4]

"Two days after their arrival there, Mr. Donne was left alone in that

room in which Sir Robert and he and some other friends had dined

together. To this place Sir Robert returned within half an hour; and

as he left so he found Mr. Donne alone, but in such an extasy, and so

altered as to his looks, as amazed Sir Robert to behold him; insomuch

that he earnestly desired Mr. Donne to declare what had befallen him

in the short time of his absence; to which he was not able to make a

present answer, but after a long and perplexed pause did at last say:

I have seen a dreadful vision since I saw you; I have seen my wife

pass twice by me through this room with her hair hanging about her

shoulders, and a dead child in her arms. To which Sir Robert replied,

sure Sir, you have slept since you saw me, and this is the result of

some melancholy dream, which I desire you to forget, for you are now

awake. To which Mr. Donne's reply was, I cannot be surer that I now

live, than that I have not slept since I saw you; and am as sure

that at her second appearing she stopt and looked me in the face and

vanished." Rest and sleep had not altered Mr. Donne's opinion next

day, for then he confirmed his vision with so deliberate a confidence,

that he inclined Sir Robert to a faint belief that the vision was

true. It is an observation, that desire and doubt have no rest, for

he immediately sent a servant to Drury-House, with a charge to hasten

back and bring him word "whether Mrs. Donne was dead or alive, and if

alive in what condition she was as to her health." The twelfth day the

messenger returned with this account; "that he found and left Mrs.

Donne very sad and sick in her bed; and that after a long and

dangerous labour she had been delivered of a dead child, and upon

examination the birth proved, to be on the same day, and about

the very hour Mr. Donne affirmed he saw her pass by him in his

chamber."----After Donne's return from France, many of the nobility

pressed the King to confer some secular employment upon him; but his

Majesty, who considered him as better qualified for the service of

the church than the state, rejected their requests, tho' the Earl of

Somerset, then the great favourite, joined in petitioning for his

preferment. About this time the disputes concerning the oaths of

allegiance and supremacy being agitated, Mr. Donne by his Majesty's

special command, wrote a treatise on that subject, entitled, Pseudo

Martyr, printed in 4to, 1610, with which his Majesty was highly

pleased, and being firmly resolved to promote him in the church,

he pressed him to enter into holy orders, but he being resolved to

qualify himself the better for the sacred office by studying divinity,

and the learned languages deferred his entering upon it three years

longer, during which time he made a vigorous application to these

branches of knowledge, and was then ordained both deacon and priest,

by Dr. John King, then bishop of London. Presently after he was

appointed one of the chaplains in ordinary to his Majesty, and about

the same time attending the King in a progress, he was created Dr.

in divinity, by the university of Cambridge, by the particular

recommendation of that Prince[5] His abilities and industry in his

profession were so eminent, and himself so well beloved, that within

the first year of his entering into holy orders, he had the offer of

fourteen benefices from persons of quality, but as they lay in the

country, his inclination of living in London, made him refuse them

all. Upon his return from Cambridge his wife died, and his grief for

her loss was so great, that for some time he betook himself to a

retired and solitary life: Mrs. Donne died in the year 1617, on the

seventh day after the birth of her twelfth child. She left our author

in a narrow unsettled state with seven children then living, to her he

gave a voluntary assurance, that he would never bring them under the

subjection of a step-mother, and this promise he faithfully kept. Soon

after the death of his wife, he was chosen preacher of Lincoln's-Inn,

and in the year 1619 appointed by King James to attend the earl of

Doncaster, in his embassy to the Princes of Germany, and about 14

months after his return to England, he was advanced to the deanery of

St. Paul's. Upon the vacancy of the deanery, the King sent an order to

Dr. Donne, to attend him the next day at dinner: When his Majesty sat

down, he said, "Dr. Donne, I have invited you to dinner, and though

you sit not down with me, yet I will carve to you of a dish that I

know you love well; for knowing you love London, I do therefore make

you dean of St. Paul's, and when I have dined, then do you take your

beloved dish home to your study, say grace there to your self, and

much good may it do you[6]." Soon after, another vicarage of St.

Dunstan in the West, and another benefice fell to Dr. Donne. 'Till the

59th year of his age he continued in perfect health, when being with

his eldest daughter in Essex, in 1630, he was taken ill of a fever,

which brought on a consumption; notwithstanding which he returned

to London, and preached in his turn at court as usual, on the first

friday in Lent. He died on the 31st day of March 1631, and was buried

in the cathedral church of St. Paul's, where a monument was erected

over him. Walton says that amongst other preparations for death, he

made use of this very remarkable one. He ordered an urn to be cut in

wood, on which was to be placed a board of the exact heighth of his

body: this being done, he caused himself to be tied up in a winding

sheet in the same manner that dead bodies are. Being thus shrouded,

and standing with his eyes shut, and with just so much of the sheet

put aside, as might discover his thin, pale, and death-like face,

he caused a skilful painter to draw his picture. This piece being

finished, was placed near his bed-side, and there remained as his

constant remembrance to the hour of his death.

His character as a preacher and a poet are sufficiently seen in his

incomparable writings. His personal qualifications were as eminent as

those of his mind; he was by nature exceeding passionate, but was apt

to be sorry for the excesses of it, and like most other passionate

men, was humane and benevolent. His monument was composed of white

marble, and carved from the picture just now mentioned of him, by

order of his executor Dr. King, bishop of Chichester, who wrote the

following inscription,

Johannes Donne, S.T.P.

Post varia studia, quibus ab annis tenerimus fideliter,

Neo infeliciter, incubit,

Instinctu et impulsu spiritus sancti, monitu et horatu,

Regis Jacobi, ordines sacros amplexus,

Anno sui Jesu 1614, et fuæ ætatis 42,

Decanatu hujus ecclesiæ indutus 27 Novembris 1621,

Exutus morte ultimo die Martii 1631.

Hic, licet in occiduo cinere, aspicit eum,

Cujus nomen est oriens.

Our author's poems consist of, 1. Songs and Sonnets. 2. Epigrams. 3.

Elegies. 4. Epithalamiums, or Marriage Songs. 5. Satires. 6. Letters

to several Personages. 7. Funeral Elegies. 8. Holy Sonnets. They

are printed together in one volume 12mo. 1719, with the addition

of elegies upon the author by several persons. Mr. Dryden in his

dedication of Juvenal to the earl of Dorset, has given Dr. Donne the

character of the greatest wit, though not the greatest poet of our

nation, and wishes his satires and other works were rendered into

modern language. Part of this wish the world has seen happily executed

by the great hand of Mr. Pope. Besides the Pseudo-Martyr, and volume

of poems now mentioned, there are extant the following works of Dr.

Donne, viz.

Devotions upon emergent Occasions, and several steps in sickness, 4to.

London 16. Paradoxes, Problems, Essays, Characters, &c. to which is

added a Book of Epigrams, written in Latin by the same author, and

translated into English by Dr. Main, as also Ignatius his conclave, a

Satire, translated out of the original copy written in Latin by the

same author, found lately amongst his own papers, 12mo. London 1653.

These pieces are dedicated by the author's son, Dr. John Donne, to

Francis Lord Newport.

Three Volumes of Sermons, in folio; the first printed in 1640, the

second in 1649, and the third in 1660.

Essays on Divinity, being several disquisitions interwoven with

meditations and prayers before he went into holy orders, published

after his death by his son, 1651.

Letters to several persons of honour, published in 4to. 1654. There

are several of Dr. Donne's letters, and others to him from the Queen

of Bohemia, the earl of Carlisle, archbishop Abbot, and Ben Johnson,

printed in a book, entitled A Collection of Letters made by Sir Toby

Mathews Knt. London 1660, 8vo.

The Ancient history of the Septuagint, translated from the Greek

of Aristeus, London 1633, 4to. This translation was revised, and

corrected by another hand, and printed 1685 in 8vo.

Declaration of that Paradox or Thesis, that Self-Homicide is not so

naturally a sin that it may not be otherwise, London, 1644, 1648, &c.

4to. The original under the author's own hand is preserved in the

Bodleian Library. Mr. Walton gives this piece the character of an

exact and laborious treatise, 'wherein all the laws violated by that

act (self murder) are diligently surveyed and judiciously censured.'

The piece from whence I shall take the following quotation, is called

a Hymn to God the Father, was composed in the time of his sickness,

which breathes a spirit of fervent piety, though no great force of

poetry is discoverable in it.

A HYMN to GOD the FATHER.

Wilt thou forgive that sin where I begun,

Which was my sin, tho' it were done before?

Wilt thou forgive that sin through which I run,

And do run still, tho' still I do deplore?

When thou hast done, thou hast not done,

For I have more.

Wilt thou forgive that in which I have won,

Others to sin, and made my sin their door?

Wilt thou forgive that sin, which I did shun,

A year or two, but wallowed in a score?

When thou hast done, thou hast not done,

For I have more.

I have a sin of fear, when I have spun,

My last thread, I shall perish on the shore;

But swear, that at my death, thy son,

Shall shine, as he shines now, and heretofore,

And having done that, thou hast done,

I ask no more.

[Footnote 1: Walton's Life of Donne]

[Footnote 2: Wood vol. v. col. 554.]

[Footnote 3: Walton p. 29].

[Footnote 4: Life ubi supra p. 52].

[Footnote 5: Walton, p. 39, 41.]

[Footnote 6: Walton ut Supra, p. 46]

* * * * *

MICHAEL DRAYTON

A Renowned poet, who lived in the reigns of Elizabeth, James and

Charles I. sprung from an ancient family, originally descended from

the town of Drayton in Leicestershire,[1] but his parents removing

into Warwickshire, he was born there, as he himself declares in his

Poly-olbion, Song 13. A little village called Harsul in that county

claims the honour of his birth, by which accident it is raised from

obscurity; he was born in the year 1573, according to the most

accurate computation that can be made from the dates of his works.

When he was but very young he gave such discoveries of a rising genius

as rendered him a favourite with his tutors, and procured him the

patronage of persons of distinction. In the year 1573, being then but

about ten years of age, he was page to some honourable person, as may

be collected from his own words: In some of his epistles to Henry

Reynold esquire, it appears that even then he could construe his Cato,

and some other little collections of sentences, which made him very

anxious to know, what sort of beings the poets were, and very pressing

upon his tutor to make him, if possible, a poet. In consequence of

this he was put to the reading of Virgil's Eclogues, and 'till even

then, says one of his Biographers, he scorned any thing that looked

like a ballad, though written by Elderton himself. This Elderton was a

famous comedian in those days, and a facetious companion, who having

a great readiness at rhiming, composed many catches on Love and Wine,

which were then in great vogue among the giddy and volatile part of

the town; but he was not more celebrated for drollery than drinking,

so that he obtained the name of the bacchanalian buffoon, the

red-nosed ballad-maker, &c. and at last by the excessive indulgence of

his favourite vice, he fell a martyr to it 1592, and Mr. Camden has

preserved this epitaph on him, which for its humour, I shall here give

a place.

Dead drunk, here Elderton does lie;

Dead as he is, he still is drie.

So of him it may well be said,

Here he, but not his thirst, is laid.

If after this our author did not finish his education at the

university of Cambridge, it is evident from the testimony of Sir Alton

Cohain, his intimate friend, who mentions him in his Choice Poems of

several Sorts, that he was for some time a student at Oxford; however,

he is not taken notice of by Wood, who has commemorated the most part

of the writers who were educated there. In 1588 it appears from his

poem, entitled Moses his Birth and Miracles, that he was a spectator

at Dover of the Spanish invasion, which was arrogantly stiled

Invincible, and it is not improbable that he was engaged in some

military employment there, especially as we find some mention made

of him, as being in esteem with the gentlemen of the army. He early

addicted himself to the amusement of poetry, but all who have written

of him, have been negligent in informing us how soon he favoured the

public with any production of his own. He was distinguished as a poet

about nine or ten years before the death of Queen Elizabeth, but at

what time he began to publish cannot be ascertained. In the year 1593,

when he was but 30 years of age, he published a collection of his

Pastorals; likewise some of the most grave poems, and such as have

transmitted his name to posterity with honour, not long after saw the

light. His Baron's wars, and England's heroical Epistles; his Downfals

of Robert of Normandy; Matilda and Gaveston, for which last he is

called by one of his contemporaries, Tragdiographus, and part of his

Polyolbion were written before the year 1598, for all which joined

with his personal good character; he was highly celebrated at that

time, not only for the elegance and sweetness of his expressions, but

his actions and manners, which were uniformly virtuous and honourable;

he was thus characterised not only by the poet; and florid writers of

those days, but also by divines, historians, and other Scholars of the

most serious turn and extensive learning. In his younger years he

was much beloved and patronized by Sir Walter Aston of Tixhall

in Staffordshire, to whom for his kind protection, he gratefully

dedicates many of his poems, whereof his Barons Wars was the first, in

the spring of his acquaintance, as Drayton himself expresses it;

but however, it may be gathered from his works, that his most early

dependance was upon another patron, namely, Sir Henry Goodere of

Polesworth, in his own county, to whom he has been grateful for a

great part of his education, and by whom he was recommended to the

patronage of the countess of Bedford: it is no less plain from many

of his dedications to Sir Walter Ashton, that he was for many years

supported by him, and accommodated with such supplies as afforded him

leisure to finish some of his most elaborate compositions; and the

author of the Biographia Britannica has told us, 'that it has been

alledged, that he was by the interest of the same gentleman with Sir

Roger Ashton, one of the Bedchamber to King James in his minority,

made in some measure ministerial to an intercourse of correspondence

between the young King of of Scots and Queen Elizabeth:' but as

no authority is produced to prove this, it is probably without

foundation, as poets have seldom inclination, activity or steadiness

to manage any state affairs, particularly a point of so delicate a

nature.

Our author certainly had fair prospects, from his services, or other

testimonies of early attachment to the King's interest, of some

preferment, besides he had written Sonnets, in praise of the King as

a poet. Thus we see Drayton descending to servile flattery to promote

his interest, and praising a man as a poet contrary to his own

judgment, because he was a King who was as devoid of poetry as

courage.

He welcomed his Majesty to his British dominions with a congratulatory

poem printed in 4to, 1603. The same year he was chosen by Sir Walter

Aston one of the esquires who attended him, when he was with others

created knight of the Bath at the coronation of his Majesty. It no

where appears, that ever our author printed those poems in praise of

his Majesty; and the ungrateful reception they met, as well as the

disagreeable experience of the universal degeneracy at court, so

different from that of the Maiden Reign, might extinguish all hope of

raising himself there.

In the year 1613 he published the first part of his Poly-olbion. It

is a chorographical description of the rivers, mountains, forests,

castles; &c. in this Island, intermixed with the remarkable

antiquities, rarities, commodities, &c. This part is addressed to

Prince Henry, the promising son of James I. by whose encouragement it

was written. He had shewed Drayton some singular marks of his favour,

and seems to have admitted him as one of his poetical pensioners,

but dying before the book was finished, he lost the benefit of his

patronage. In this volume there are eighteen songs, illustrated with

the notes of the learned Mr. Selden, and there are maps before

every song, whereby the cities, mountains, forests, rivers, &c. are

represented by the figures of men and women. It is interwoven with

many episodes, such as the conquest of this Island by the Romans, the

arrival of the Saxons, the Danes and Normans, &c. And bishop Nicholson

observes, that Poly-olbion affords a much more accurate account of

this kingdom and the Dominion of Wales than could have been expected

from the pen of a poet. How poetically our author has conducted and

executed his plan, is admirably expressed by the ingenious Dr. James

Kirkpatrick, in a beautiful poem of his called the Sea-Piece. Canto

II. which I cannot here omit transcribing.

Drayton, sweet ancient bard, his Albion sung,

With their own praise, their ecchoing vallies rung;

His bounding muse o'er every mountain rode,

And ev'ry river warbled where he flow'd.

In 1619 came out his first folio-volume of poems. In 1622 the second

part of his Poly-olbion was published, making in all thirty books or

songs. In 1622 we find him stiled Poet Laureat: It is probable this

appellation of Poet Laureat was not confined and restricted as it is

now to his Majesty's Servant known by that title, who at that time it

is presumed was Ben Johnson, because it was bestowed promiscuously as

a mark of any poet's excellency in his profession.

In 1627 was published the second volume of his poems, containing the

battle of Agencourt, in stanzas of eight lines. The mysteries of Queen

Margaret in the like stanzas. Nymphidia, or the Court of Faeries. The

Quest of Cynthia, another beautiful piece, both reprinted in Dryden's

Miscellanies. The Shepherd's Sirena; also the Moon Calf; Satire on the

Masculine Affectations of Women, and the the effeminate disguises of

the Men, in those times. Elegies upon several occasions. These are

introduced by the vision of Ben Johnson on the Muse of his friend

Michael Drayton, wherein he very particularly enumerates and praises

his several compositions. In 1630 he published another volume of poems

in 4to, intitled the Muses Elizium, in ten sundry Nymphals, with three

different poems on Noah's flood; Moses his birth and miracles,

and David and Goliath. The pastoral poems are addressed to Edward

Sackville Earl of Dorset, and Lord Chamberlain, who had now made him

one of his family. His divine poems are written in verse and various

measures, and are dedicated to the Countess of Dorset; and there are

some sublime images in them. At the end of the first divine poem,

there are copies of verses in praise of the author, by Bcal Sapperton,

in Latin; Mr. John Fletcher, and Thomas Andrews in English; the last

of whom is very lavish in displaying the great extent of our poet's

fame.

In 1631 Mr. Drayton died, or as it is expressed in his monumental

inscription, exchanged his laurel for a crown of glory. He was buried

among the poets in Westminster-Abbey, and the handsome table monument

of blue marble which was raised over his grave the same year, is

adorned with his effigies in busto, laureated. On one side is a crest

of Minerva's cap, and Pegasus in a scutcheon on the other. Sir Aston

Cokain composed an elegy upon him: and Ben Johnson is said to have

been the author of his epitaph, which is written in letters of gold

upon his monument, with which I shall here present the reader.

EPITAPH.

Do pious marble let thy readers know

What they, and what their children owe

To Drayton's name, whose sacred dust

We recommend unto thy trust:

Protect his memory, and preserve his story,

Remain a lasting monument of his glory;

And when thy ruins shall disclaim,

To be the treasure of his name;

His name, that cannot fade shall be,

An everlasting monument to thee.

Mr. Drayton enjoyed the friendship and admiration of contemporary

wits, and Ben Johnson who was not much disposed to praise, entertained

a high opinion of him, and in this epitaph has both immortalized

himself and his friend. It is easy for those who are conversant with

our author's works to see how much the moderns and even Mr. Pope

himself copy Mr. Drayton, and refine upon him in those distinctions

which are esteemed the most delicate improvements of our English

versification, such as the turns, the pauses, the elegant tautologies,

&c. It is not difficult to point out some depredations which have been

made on our author by modern writers, however obsolete some of them

may have reckoned him. In one of his heroical epistles, that of King

John to Matilda, he has the following lines.

Th' Arabian bird which never is but one,

Is only chast because she is alone,

But had our mother nature made them two,

They would have done, as Doves and Sparrows do.

These are ascribed to the Earl of Rochester, who was unexceptionably

a great wit. They are not otherwise materially altered, than by the

transposure of the rhimes in the first couplet, and the retrenchment

of the measure in both. As the sphere in which this author moved

was of the middle sort, neither raised to such eminence as to incur

danger, nor so deprest with poverty as to be subject to meanness, his

life seems to have flowed with great tranquility; nor are there any of

those vicissitudes and distresses which have so frequently fallen to

the lot of the inspired tribe. He was honoured with the patronage of

men of worth, tho' not of the highest stations; and that author cannot

be called a mean one, on whom so great a man as Selden (in many

respects the most finished scholar that ever appeared in our nation)

was pleased to animadvert. His genius seems to have been of the second

rate, much beneath Spencer and Sidney, Shakespear and Johnson, but

highly removed above the ordinary run of versifyers. We shall quote a

few lines from his Poly-olbion as a specimen of his poetry.

When he speaks of his native county, Warwickshire, he has the

following lines;

Upon the mid-lands now, th' industrious Muse doth fall,

That shire which we the heart of England well may call,

As she herself extends the midst (which is decreed)

Betwixt St. Michael's Mount, and Berwick bordering Tweed,

Brave Warwick, that abroad so long advanc'd her Bear,

By her illustrious Earls, renowned every where,

Above her neighbr'ing shires which always bore her head.

[Footnote 1: Burton's Description of Leicestershire, p. 16, 22]

* * * * *

Dr. RICHARD CORBET, Bishop of NORWICH,

Was son of Mr. Vincent Corbet, and born at Ewelb in Surry, in the

reign of Queen Elizabeth. He was educated at Westminster school, and

from thence was sent to Oxford, 1597, where he was admitted a student

in Christ-church. In 1605, being then esteemed one of the greatest

wits of the University, he took the degree of Master of Arts, and

afterwards entering into holy orders, he became a popular preacher,

and much admired by people of taste and learning. His shining wit, and

remarkable eloquence recommended him to King James I, who made him one

of his chaplains in ordinary, and in 1620 promoted him to the deanery

of Christ's-church; about which time he was made doctor of divinity,

vicar of Cassington, near Woodstock, in Oxfordshire, and prebendary of

Bedminster-secunda, in the church of Sarum.[1]

While he was dean of Christ's church, he made verses on a play acted

before the King at Woodstock, called Technogamia, or the marriage of

Arts, written by Barten Holiday the poet, who afterwards translated

Juvenal. The ill-success it met with in the representation occasioned

several copies of verses, among which, to use Anthony Wood's words,

"Corbet dean of Christ's-church put in for one, who had that day it

seems preached before the King, with his band starched clean, for

which he was reproved by the graver sort; but those who knew him well

took no notice of it, for they have several times said, that he loved

to the last boy's play very well." He was elected, 1629, Bishop of

Oxford, in the room of Dr. Hewson, translated to the See of Durham.

Upon the promotion of Dr. White to Ely he was elected bishop of

Norwich.

This prelate married Alice, daughter of Dr. Leonard Hutton, vicar of

Flower in Northamptonshire, and he mentions that village in a poem of

his called Iter Boreale, or a Journey Northward. Our author was in

that celebrated class of poets, Ben Johnson, Dr. Donne, Michael

Drayton, and others, who wrote mock commendatory verses on Tom

Coryate's [2] Crudities. He concurred likewise with other poets of the

university in inviting Ben Johnson to Oxford, where he was created

Master of Arts. There is extant in the Musæum Ashmoleanum, a funeral

oration in Latin, by Dr. Corbet, on the death of Prince Henry, Anno

Dom. 1612;[3] This great man died in the year 1635, and was buried the

upper-end of the choir of the cathedral church of Norwich.

He was very hospitable and a generous encourager of all public

designs. When in the year 1634 St. Paul's cathedral was repaired,

he not only contributed himself, but was very diligent in procuring

contributions from others. His works are difficult to be met with, but

from such of his poems as we have had occasion to read, he seems to

have been a witty, delicate writer, and to have had a particular

talent for panegyric. Wood says, a collection of his poems was

published under the title of Poetica Stromata, in 8vo. London 1647.

In his Iter Boreale, or Journey Northward, we meet with a fine moral

reflexion on the burial place of Richard III. and Cardinal Wolsey,

who were both interred at Leicester; with which we shall present the

reader as a specimen of his poetry.

Is not usurping Richard buried here,

That King of hate, and therefore slave of fear?

Dragg'd from the fatal Bosworth field where he,

Lost life, and what he liv'd for,--Cruelty:

Search, find his name, but there is none: O Kings,

Remember whence your power and vastness springs;

If not as Richard now, so may you be,

Who hath no tomb, but scorn and memory.

And tho' from his own store, Wolsey might have

A Palace or a College for his grave,

Yet here he lies interred, as if that all

Of him to be remembered were his fall.

Nothing but Earth on Earth, no pompous weight

Upon him, but a pebble or a quoit.

If thou art thus neglected, what shall we,

Hope after death, that are but shreds of thee!

The author of the Biographia Britanica tells us, that he found in a

blank leaf of his poems, some manuscript verses, in honour of Bishop

Corbet signed J.C. with which, as they are extremely pretty, and make

a just representation of his poetical character, we shall conclude

this life.

In flowing wit, if verses writ with ease,

If learning void of pedantry can please,

If much good humour joined to solid sense,

And mirth accompanied with innocence,

Can give a poet a just right to fame,

Then Corbet may immortal honour claim;

For he these virtues had, and in his lines,

Poetic and heroic spirit shines;

Tho' bright yet solid, pleasant, but not rude,

With wit and wisdom equally endued.

Be silent Muse, thy praises are too faint,

Thou want'st a power this prodigy to paint,

At once a poet, prelate, and a saint.

[Footnote 1: Athen. Oxon. vol. I. col. 600--I.]

[Footnote 2: Winstanley.]

[Footnote 3: Wood. ubi. supra. fol. 509.]

* * * * *

EDWARD FAIRFAX.

All the biographers of the poets have been extremely negligent with

respect to this great genius. Philips so far overlooks him, that he

crowds him into his supplement, and Winstanley, who followed him,

postpones our author till after the Earl of Rochester. Sir Thomas Pope

Blount makes no mention of him; and Mr. Jacob, so justly called the

Blunderbus of Law, informs us he wrote in the time of Charles the

first, tho' he dedicates his translation of Tasso to Queen Elizabeth.

All who mention him, do him the justice to allow he was an

accomplished genius, but then it is in a way so cool and indifferent,

as shews that they had never read his works, or were any way charmed

with the melody of his verses. It was impossible Mr. Dryden could be

so blind to our author's beauties; accordingly we find him introducing

Spencer and Fairfax almost on the level, as the leading authors of

their times; nay tacitly yielding the palm in point of harmony to the

last; by asserting that Waller confessed he owed the music of his

numbers to Fairfax's Godfrey of Bulloign. The truth is, this gentleman

is perhaps the only writer down to Sir William Davenant, who needs no

apology to be made for him, on account of the age in which he lived.

His diction is so pure, elegant, and full of graces, and the turn of

his lines so perfectly melodious, that one cannot read it without

rapture; and we can scarcely imagine the original Italian has greatly

the advantage in either, nor is it very probable that while Fairfax

can be read, any author will attempt a new translation of Tasso with

success. Mr. Fairfax was natural son of Sir Thomas Fairfax of Denton,

and natural brother to Sir Thomas Fairfax, the first who was created

Baron of Cameron. His younger brother was knighted, and slain at the

memorable siege of Ostend, 1601, of which place he was some

time governor[1]. When he married is not on record, or in what

circumstances he lived: But it is very probable, his father took care

to support him in a manner suitable to his own quality, and his son's

extraordinary merit, he being always stiled Edward Fairfax, Esq; of

Newhall in Fuystone, in the forest of Knaresborough. The year in which

he died is likewise uncertain, and the last account we hear of him is,

that he was living in 1631, which shews, that he was then pretty well

advanced in years, and as I suppose gave occasion to the many mistakes

that have been made as to the time of his writing. Besides the

translation of Godfrey of Bulloigne, Mr. Fairfax wrote the history of

Edward the Black Prince, and certain eclogues, which Mrs. Cooper tells

us are yet in manuscript, tho' (says she) "by the indulgence of the

family, from whom I had likewise the honour of these memoirs, I am

permitted to oblige the world with a specimen of their beauties." He

wrote also a book called, Dæmonologie, in which he shews a great

deal of ancient reading and knowledge; it is still in manuscript,

and in the beginning he gives this character of himself[2]. "I am in

religion neither a fantastic Puritan, nor superstitious Papist, but so

settled in conscience, that I have the sure ground of God's word to

warrant all I believe, and the commendable ordinances of our English

Church, to approve all I practise; In which course I live a faithful

Christian, and an obedient, and so teach my family." The eclogues

already mentioned are twelve in number, all of them written after

the accession of King James to the throne of England, on important

subjects, relating to the manners, characters, and incidents of the

times he lived in: they are pointed with many fine strokes of satire,

dignified with noble instructions of morality, and policy, to those

of the highest rank, and some modest hints to Majesty itself. The

learning contained in these eclogues is so various and extensive, lhat

according to the opinion of his son, who has written long annotations

on each, no man's reading besides his own was sufficient to explain

his references effectually. As his translation of Tasso is in every

body's hand, we shall take the specimen from the fourth eclogue,

called Eglon and Alexis, as I find it in Mrs. Cooper's collection.

EGLON and ALEXIS.

Whilst on the rough, and heath-strew'd wilderness

His tender flocks the rasps, and bramble crop,

Poor shepherd Eglon, full of sad distress!

By the small stream, fat on a mole-hill top:

Crowned with a wreath of Heban branches broke:

Whom good Alexis found, and thus bespoke.

ALEXIS.

My friend, what means this silent lamentation?

Why on this field of mirth, this realm of smiles

Doth the fierce war of grief make such invasion?

Witty Timanthes[3] had he seen, e're whiles,

What face of woe thy cheek of sadness bears,

He had not curtained Agamemnon's tears.

The black ox treads not yet upon thy toe,

Nor thy good fortune turns her wheel awaye;

Thy flocks increase, and thou increasest so,

Thy straggling goates now mild, and gentlely;

And that fool love thou whipst away with rods;

Then what sets thee, and joy so far at odds?

[Footnote 1: Muses Library, p. 343.]

[Footnote 2: Muses Library, p. 344.]

[Footnote 3: Timanthes the painter, who designing the sacrifice of

Iphigenia, threw a veil over the face of Agamemnon, not able to

express a father's anguish.]

* * * * *

THOMAS RANDOLPH,

A Poet of no mean genius, was born at Newnham, near Daintry in

Northamptonshire, the 15th of June, 1605; he was son of William

Randolph of Hams, near Lewes in Sussex, was educated at Westminster

school, and went from thence to Trinity College in Cambridge, 1623,

of which he became a fellow; he commenced Master of Arts, and in this

degree was incorporated at Oxon[1], became famous (says Wood) for his

ingenuity, being the adopted son of Ben Johnson, and accounted one

of the most pregnant wits of his age. The quickness of his parts was

discovered early; when he was about nine or ten years old he wrote the

History of the Incarnation of Our Saviour in verse, which is preserved

in manuscript under his own hand writing. Randolph receives from

Langbaine the highest encomium. He tells his readers that they need

expect no discoveries of thefts, for this author had no occasion to

practice plagiary, having so large a fund of wit of his own, that he

needed not to borrow from others. Were a foreigner to form a notion of

the merit of the English poets from reading Langbaine, they would be

in raptures with Randolph and Durfey, and others of their class, while

Dryden, and the first-rate wits, would be quite neglected; Langbaine

is so far generous, that he does all he can to draw obscure men into

light, but then he cannot be acquitted of envy, for endeavouring to

shade the lustre of those whose genius has broke through obscurity

without his means, and he does no service to his country while he

confines his panegyric to mean versifiers, whom no body can read

without a certain degree of contempt.

Our author had done nothing in life it seems worth preserving, or at

least that cotemporary historians thought so, for there is little to

be learned concerning him. Wood says he was like other poets, much

addicted to libertine indulgence, and by being too free with his

constitution in the company of his admirers, and running into

fashionable excesses, he was the means of shortening his own days. He

died at little Haughton in Northamptonshire, and was buried in an isle

adjoining to the church in that place, on the 17th of March, 1634. He

had soon after a monument of white marble, wreathed about with laurel,

erected over his grave at the charge of lord Hatton of Kirby. Perhaps

the greatest merit which this author has to plead, is his attachment

to Ben Johnson, and admiration of him: Silius Italicus performed an

annual visit to Virgil's tomb, and that circumstance reflects more

honour upon him in the eyes of Virgil's admirers, than all the works

of that author. Langbaine has preserved a monument of Randolph's

friendship for Ben Johnson, in an ode he addressed to him, occasioned

by Mr. Feltham's severe attack upon him, which is particularized in

the life of Ben; from this ode we shall quote a stanza or two, before

I give an account of his dramatic compositions.

Ben, do not leave the stage,

'Cause 'tis a loathsome age;

For pride, and impudence will grow too bold,

When they shall hear it told,

They frighted thee; stand high as is thy cause,

Their hiss is thy applause.

Most just were thy disdain,

Had they approved thy vein:

So thou for them, and they for thee were born;

They to incense, and thou too much to scorn.

Wilt thou engross thy store

Of wheat, and pour no more,

Because their bacon brains have such a taste

As more delight in mast?

No! set them forth a board of dainties, full

As thy best muse can cull;

Whilst they the while do pine,

And thirst 'midst all their wine,

What greater plague can hell itself devize,

Than to be willing thus to tantalize?

The reader may observe that the stanzas are reasonably smooth, and

mark him a tolerable versifier. I shall now give some account of his

plays.

1. Amyntas, or the Impossible Dowry, a Pastoral acted before the King

and Queen at Whitehall. 2. Aristippus, or the Jovial Philosopher;

presented in a private shew, to which is added the Conceited Pedlar.

3. Jealous Lovers, a Comedy, presented to their Majesties at

Cambridge, by the students of Trinity College. This play Langbaine

thinks the best of Randolph's, as appears by an epilogue written by

Mrs. Behn, and printed in her collection of poems published in 8vo,

1681; it was revised and printed by the author in his life-time, being

ushered into the world with copies of verses by some of the best wits,

both of Oxford and Cambridge. 4. Muses Looking Glass, a Comedy, which

by the author was first called The Entertainment; as appears from Sir

Aston Cokaine's Works, who writ an encomium on it, and Mr. Richard

West said of it,

Who looks within this clearer glass will say,

At once he writ an ethic tract and play.

All these dramatic pieces and poems were published in 1668; he

translated-likewise the second Epod of Horace, several pieces out of

Claudian, and likewise a dramatic piece from Aristophanes, which he

calls Hey for Honesty, Down with Knavery, a pleasant comedy printed in

4to. London 1651. A gentleman of St. John's College, writes thus in

honour of our author;

Immortal Ben is dead, and as that ball,

On Ida toss'd so in his crown, by all

The infantry of wit. Vain priests! that chair

Is only fit for his true son and heir.

Reach here thy laurel: Randolph, 'tis thy praise:

Thy naked skull shall well become the bays.

See, Daphne courts thy ghost; and spite of fate,

Thy poems shall be Poet Laureate.

[Footnote 1: Athen. Oxon. p. 224.]

* * * * *

GEORGE CHAPMAN

Was born in the year 1557, but of what family he is descended, Mr.

Wood has not been able to determine; he was a man in very high

reputation in his time, and added not a little to dramatic excellence.

In 1574, being well grounded in grammar learning, he was sent to the

university, but it is not clear whether to Oxford or Cambridge; it is

certain that he was sometime in Oxford, and was taken notice of for

his great skill in the Latin and Greek languages, but not in logic and

philosophy, which is the reason it may be presumed, that he took

no degree there. After this he came to London, and contracted an

acquaintance, as Wood says, with Shakespear, Johnson, Sidney, Spenser

and Daniel. He met with a very warm patronage from Sir Thomas

Walsingham, who had always had a constant friendship for him, and

after that gentleman's decease, from his son Thomas Walsingham,

esquire, whom Chapman loved from his birth. He was also respected, and

held in esteem by Prince Henry, and Robert earl of Somerset, but the

first being untimely snatched away, and the other justly disgraced

for an assassination[1], his hopes of preferment were by these means

frustrated; however, he was a servant either to King James I. or Queen

Anne his consort, through whose reign he was highly valued by all his

old friends, only there are some insinuations, that as his reputation

grew, Ben Johnson, naturally haughty and insolent, became jealous of

him, and endeavoured to suppress, as much as possible, his rising

fame[2], as Ben, after the death of Shakespear, was without a rival.

Chapman was a man of a reverend aspect, and graceful manner, religious

and temperate, qualities which seldom meet (says Wood) in a poet, and

was so highly esteemed by the clergy, that some of them have said,

"that as Musæus, who wrote the lives of Hero and Leander, had two

excellent scholars, Thamarus and Hercules, so had he in England in the

latter end of Queen Elizabeth, two excellent imitators in the same

argument and subject, viz. Christopher Marlow, and George Chapman."

Our author has translated the Iliad of Homer, published in folio, and

dedicated to Prince Henry, which is yet looked upon with some respect.

He is said to have had the spirit of a poet in him, and was indeed

no mean genius: Pope somewhere calls him an enthusiast in poetry. He

likewise translated the Odyssey, and the Battle of Frogs and Mice,

which were published in 1614, and dedicated to the earl of Somerset;

to this work is added Hymns and Epigrams, written by Homer, and

translated by our author. He likewise attempted some part of Hesiod,

and continued a translation of Musæus Ærotopegnion de Herone &

Leandro. Prefixed to this work, are some anecdotes of the life of

Musæus, taken by Chapman from the collection of Dr. William Gager,

and a dedication to the most generally ingenious and only learned

architect of his time, Inigo Jones esquire, Surveyor of his Majesty's

Works. At length, says Wood, this reverend and eminent poet, having

lived 77 years in this vain, transitory world, made his last exit in

the parish of St. Giles's in the Fields, near London, on the 12th day

of May, 1655, and was buried in the yard on the South side of the

church in St. Giles's: soon after a monument was erected over his

grave, built after the manner of the old Romans, at the expence, and

under the direction of his much loved worthy friend Inigo Jones,

whereon is this engraven, Georgius Chapmannus, Poeta Homericus,

Philosophus verus (etsi Christianus Poeta) plusquam Celebris, &c.

His dramatic works are,

All Fools, a Comedy, presented at the Black Fryars, and afterwards

before his Majesty King James I. in the beginning of his reign, and

printed in 4to. London 1605. The plot is taken, and the characters

formed upon Terence's Heautontimorumenos. The Prologue and Epilogue

writ in blank verse, shew that in these days persons of quality, and

they that thought themselves good critics, in place of fitting in the

boxes, as they now do, sat on the stage; what influence those people

had on the meanest sort of the audience, may be seen by the following

lines in the Prologue written by Chapman himself.

Great are the gifts given to united heads;

To gifts, attire, to fair attire the stage

Helps much; for if our other audience see,

You on the stage depart before we end,

Our wit goes with you all, and we are fools.

Alphonsus Emperor of Germany, a Tragedy, often acted with applause at

a private house in Black Fryars, by the servants of King Charles I.

printed in 4to. London 1654. This play, though it bears the name of

Alphonsus, was writ, as Langbaine supposes, in honour of the English

nation, in the person of Richard, Earl of Cornwal, son to King John,

and brother to Henry III. He was chosen King of the Romans in 1527.

About this time Alphonsus, the French King was chosen by other

electors. Though this King was accounted by some a pious prince, yet

our author represents him as a bloody tyrant, and, contrary to other

historians, brings him to an unfortunate end, he supposing him to

be killed by Alexander, son to Lorenzo de Cipres his secretary, in

revenge of his father, who was poisoned by him, and to compleat his

revenge, he makes him first deny his Saviour in hopes of life, and

then stabs him, glorying that he had at once destroyed both body and

soul. This passage is related by several authors, as Bolton's Four

last Things, Reynolds of the Passions, Clark's Examples, &c.

Blind Beggar of Alexandria, a Comedy, printed 1598, dedicated to the

earl of Nottingham, Lord High Admiral. Bussy d'Amboise, a Tragedy,

often presented at St. Paul's, in the reign of King James I. and since

the Restoration with great applause; for the plot see Thuanus, Jean de

Serres, and Mezeray, in the reign of King Henry III. of France. This

is the play of which Mr. Dryden speaks, when in his preface to the

Spanish Fryar, he resolves to burn one annually to the memory of Ben

Johnson. Some have differed from Mr. Dryden in their opinion of this

piece, but as the authorities who have applauded, are not so high as

Mr. Dryden's single authority, it is most reasonable to conclude not

much in its favour.

Bussy d'Amboise his Revenge, a Tragedy, printed 1613, and dedicated to

Sir Thomas Howard. This play is generally allowed to fall short of the

former of that name, yet the author, as appears from his dedication,

had a higher opinion of it himself, and rails at those who dared to

censure it; it is founded upon fiction, which Chapman very justly

defends, and says that there is no necessity for any play being

founded on truth.

Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron, Marshal of France,

in two plays, acted at the Black Fryars in the reign of King James I.

printed in 4to. London 1608, dedicated to Sir Thomas Walsingham.

Cæsar and Pompey, a Roman Tragedy, printed 1631, and dedicated to

the Earl of Middlesex.

Gentleman Usher, a Comedy, printed in 4to. London 1606. We are

not certain whether this play was ever acted, and it has but an

indifferent character.

Humourous Day's Mirth, a Comedy; this is a very tolerable play.

Mask of the Two Honourable Houses, or Inns of Court, the

Middle-Temple, and Lincoln's-Inn, performed before the King at

Whitehall, on Shrove Monday at night, being the 15th of February,

1613, at the celebration of the Royal Nuptials of the Palsgrave, and

the Princess Elizabeth, &c. with a description of their whole shew, in

the manner of their march on horseback, from the Master of the Rolls's

house to the court, with all their noble consorts, and shewful

attendants; invented and fashioned, with the ground and special

structure of the whole work by Inigo Jones; this Mask is dedicated to

Sir Edward Philips, then Master of the Rolls. At the end of the Masque

is printed an Epithalamium, called a Hymn for the most happy Nuptials

of the Princess Elizabeth, &c.

May-Day, a witty Comedy, acted at the Black Fryars, and printed in

4to. 1611.

Monsieur d'Olive, a Comedy, acted by her Majesty's children at the

Black Fryars, printed in 4to. 1606.

Revenge for Honour, a Tragedy, printed 1654.

Temple, a Masque.

Two Wise-men, and all the rest Fools, or a Comical Moral, censuring

the follies of that age, printed in London 1619. This play is extended

to seven acts, a circumstance which Langbaine says he never saw in any

other, and which, I believe, has never been practised by any poet,

ancient or modern, but himself.

Widow's Tears, a Comedy, often presented in the Black and White

Fryars, printed in 4to. London 1612; this play is formed upon the

story of the Ephesian Matron. These are all the plays of our author,

of which we have been able to gain any account; he joined with Ben

Johnson and Marston in writing a Comedy called Eastward-Hoe; this play

has been since revived by Tate, under the title of Cuckolds Haven. It

has been said that for some reflections contained in it against the

Scotch nation; Ben Johnson narrowly escaped the pillory. See more of

this, page 237.

[Footnote 1: See the Life of Overbury.]

[Footnote 2: Wood's Athen. Oxon.]

* * * * *

BEN JOHNSON,

One of the best dramatic poets of the 17th century, was descended from

a Scots family, his grandfather, who was a gentleman, being originally

of Annandale in that kingdom, whence he removed to Carlisle, and

afterwards was employed in the service of King Henry VIII. His

father lost his estate under Queen Mary, in whose reign he suffered

imprisonment, and at last entered into holy orders, and died about a

month before our poet's birth[1], who was born at Westminster, says

Wood, in the year 1574. He was first educated at a private school

in the church of St. Martin's in the Fields, afterwards removed to

Westminster school, where the famous Camden was master. His mother,

who married a bricklayer to her second husband, took him from school,

and obliged him to work at his father-in-law's trade, but being

extremely averse to that employment, he went into the low countries,

where he distinguished himself by his bravery, having in the view of

the army killed an enemy, and taken the opima spolia from him.

Upon his return to England, he applied himself again to his former

studies, and Wood says he was admitted into St. John's College in the

university of Cambridge, though his continuance there seems to have

been but short. He had some time after this the misfortune to fight

a duel, and kill his adversary, who only slightly wounded him in the

arm; for this he was imprisoned, and being cast for his life, was near

execution; his antagonist, he said, had a sword ten inches longer than

his own.

While he lay in prison, a popish priest visited him, who found his

inclination quite disengaged as to religion, and therefore took the

opportunity to impress him with a belief of the popish tenets. His

mind then naturally melancholy, clouded with apprehensions, and the

dread of execution, was the more easily imposed upon. However, such

was the force of that impression, that for twelve years after he had

gained his liberty, he continued in the catholic faith, and at last

turned Protestant, whether from conviction or fashion cannot be

determined; but when the character of Ben is considered, probability

will be upon the side of the latter, for he took every occasion to

ridicule religion in his plays, and make it his sport in conversation.

On his leaving the university he entered himself into an obscure

playhouse, called the Green Curtain, somewhere about Shoreditch or

Clerkenwell. He was first an actor, and probably only a strolling one;

for Decker in his Satyromastix, a play published in 1602, and designed

as a reply to Johnson's Poetaster, 'reproaches him with having left

the occupation of a mortar trader to turn actor, and with having put

up a supplication to be a poor journeyman player, in which he would

have continued, but that he could not set a good face upon it, and so

was cashiered. Besides, if we admit that satire to be built on facts,

we learn further, that he performed the part of Zuliman at the Paris

Garden in Southwark, and ambled by a play-waggon on the high-way,

and took mad Jeronymo's part to get service amongst the mimicks[2].'

Shakespear is said to have first introduced him to the world, by

recommending a play of his to the stage, at the time when one of the

players had rejected his performance, and told him it would be of no

service to their company[3]. His first printed dramatic performance

was a Comedy, entitled Every Man in his Humour, acted in the year

1598, which being soon followed by several others, as his Sejanus, his

Volpone, his Silent Woman, and his Alchymist, gained him so high a

reputation, that in October 1619, upon the death of Mr. Samuel Daniel

he was made Poet Laureat to King James I. and on the 19th of July, the

same year, he was created (says Wood) Master of Arts at Oxford, having

resided for some time at Christ Church in that university. He once

incurred his Majesty's displeasure for being concerned with Chapman

and Marston in writing a play called Eastward-Hoe, wherein they were

accused of having reflected upon the Scotch nation. Sir James Murray

represented it to the King, who ordered them immediately to be

imprisoned, and they were in great danger of losing their ears and

noses, as a correction of their wantonness; nor could the most partial

have blamed his Majesty, if the punishment had been inflicted; for

surely to ridicule a country from which their Sovereign had just

come, the place of his nativity, and the kingdom of his illustrious

forefathers, was a most daring insult. Upon their releasement from

prison, our poet gave an entertainment to his friends, among whom were

Camden and Selden; when his aged mother drank to him[4] and shewed

him a paper of poison which she had designed, if the sentence of

punishment had been inflicted, to have mixed with his drink after she

had first taken a potion of it herself.

Upon the accession of Charles I. to the crown, he wrote a petition

to that Prince, craving, that as his royal father had allowed him an

annual pension of a hundred marks, he would make them pounds. In the

year 1629 Ben fell sick, and was then poor, and lodged in an obscure

alley; his Majesty was supplicated in his favour, who sent him ten

guineas. When the messenger delivered the sum, Ben took it in his

hand, and said, "His Majesty has sent me ten guineas because I am

poor and live in an alley, go and tell him that his soul lives in an

alley."

He had a pension from the city of London, from several of the nobility

and gentry, and particularly from Mr. Sutton the founder of the

Charterhouse.[5] In his last sickness he often repented of the

profanation of scripture in his plays. He died the 16th of August

1637, in the 63d year of his age, and was interred three days after in

Westminster Abbey; he had several children who survived him.

Ben Johnson conceived so high an opinion of Mr. Drummond of

Hawthornden by the letters which passed between them, that he

undertook a journey into Scotland, and resided some time at

Mr. Drummond's seat there, who has printed the heads of their

conversation, and as it is a curious circumstance to know the opinion

of so great a man as Johnson of his cotemporary writers, these heads

are here inserted.

"Ben, says Mr. Drummond, was eat up with fancies; he told me, that

about the time the Plague raged in London, being in the country at Sir

Robert Cotton's house with old Camden, he saw in a vision his eldest

son, then a young child, and at London, appear unto him, with the mark

of a bloody cross on his forehead, as if it had been cut with a sword;

at which amazed, he prayed unto God, and in the morning he came to

Mr. Camden's chamber to tell him; who persuaded him, it was but an

apprehension, at which he should not be dejected. In the mean time,

there came letters from his wife of the death of that boy in the

plague. He appeared to him, he said, of a manly shape, and of that

growth he thinks he shall be at the resurrection. He said, he spent

many a night in looking at his great toe, about which he had seen

Tartars, and Turks, Romans and Carthaginians fight in his imagination.

"That he had a design to write an epic poem, and was to call it

Chrologia; or the Worthies of his Country, all in couplets, for he

detested all other rhime. He said he had written a discourse on

poetry, both against Campion and Daniel, especially the last, where

he proves couplets to be the best sort of verses." His censure of the

English poets was as follows: