Full text of "The history of English poetry, from the close of the eleventh century to the commencement of the eighteenth century. To which are prefixed, three dissertations: 1. Of the origin of romantic fiction in Europe. 2. On the introduction of learning into England. 3. On the Gesta Romanorum"

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TORONTO. 1901.

THE HISTORY

ENGLISH POETRY,

FROM THE

CLOSE OF THE ELEVENTH CENTURY

TO THE

COMMENCEMENT OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

TO WHICH ARE PREFIXED,

THREE DISSERTATIONS:

1. OF THE ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION IN EUROPE.

2. ON THE INTRODUCTION OF LEARNING INTO ENGLAND.

3. ON THE GESTA ROMANORUM.

THOMAS WARTON, B.D.

FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, OXFORD, AND OF THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES, AND
PROFESSOR OF POETRY' IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD.

FROM THE EDITION OF 1824

SUPERINTENDED BY THE LATE

RICHARD PRICE, ESQ.

INCLUDING THE NOTES OF MR. RITSON, DR. ASHBY, MR. DOUCE, AND
MR. PARK.

NOW FURTHER IMPROVED BY THE CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS
OF SEVERAL EMINENT ANTIQUARIES.

IN THREE VOLUMES. . H

VOL. III. ij "

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR THOMAS TEGG, 73 CHEAPSIDE.

1840,

W3
1
V,3

PRINTED BY RICHARD AND JOHN E. TAYLOR,
RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.

CONTENTS.

VOL. III.

SECTION XXXVI. Page

View of the Revival of Learning in England, continued. Reformation of
Religion. Its effects on Literature in England. Application of this di-
gression to the main subject I

SECTION XXXVII.

Petrarch's sonnets. Lord Surrey. His education, travels, mistress, life,
and poetry. He is the first writer of blank-verse. Italian blank-verse.
Surrey the first English classic poet 21

SECTION XXXVIII.

Sir Thomas Wyat. Inferior to Surrey as a writer of Sonnets. His Life.
His Genius characterised. Excels in Moral Poetry 41

SECTION XXXIX.

The first printed Miscellany of English Poetry. Its Contributors. Sir
Francis Bryan, Lord Rochford, and Lord Vaulx. The First True Pas-
toral in English. Sonnet- writing cultivated by the Nobility. Sonnets
by King Henry the Eighth. Literary character of that king 51

SECTION XL.

The Second Writer of Blank-verse in English. Specimens of early Blank-
verse 65

SECTION XLI.

Andrew Borde. Bale. Ansley. Chertsey. Fabyll's Ghost, a poem.
The Merry Devil of Edmonton. Other minor Poets of the Reign of
Henry the Eighth 72

SECTION XLII.

John Hey wood the Epigrammatist. His Works examined. Ancient un-
published burlesque Poem of Sir Penny 84

IV CONTENTS.

SECTION XLIII. Page

Sir Thomas More's English Poetry. Tournament of Tottenham. Its age
and scope. Laurence Minot. Alliteration. Digression illustrating
comparatively the language of the fifteenth century, by a specimen of
the Metrical Armoric Romance of Ywayn and Gawayn 94

SECTION XLIV.

The Notbrowne Mayde. Not older than the sixteenth century. Artful
contrivance of the story. Misrepresented by Prior. Metrical Romances,
Guy, syr Bevys, arid Kynge Apolyn, printed in the reign of Henry.
The Scole howse, a Satire. Christmas Carols. Religious Libels in
rhyme. Merlin's Prophecies. Laurence Minot. Occasional disqui-
sition on the late continuance of the use of waxen tablets. Pageantries
of Henry's Court. Dawn of Taste 123

SECTION XLV.

Effects of the Reformation on our poetry. Clement Marot's Psalms. Why
adopted by Calvin. Version of the Psalms by Sternhold and Hopkins.
Defects of this version, which is patronised by the Puritans in opposition
to the Choral Service 142

SECTION XLVI.

Metrical versions of Scripture. Archbishop Parker's Psalms in metre.
Robert Crowley's puritanical poetry 157

SECTION XLVII.

Tye's Acts of the Apostles in rhyme. His merit as a Musician. Early
piety of king Edward the Sixth. Controversial Ballads and Plays.
Translation of the Bible. Its effects on our Language. Arthur Kel-
ton's Chronicle of the Brutes. First Drinking-song. Gammer Gurton's
Needle 167

SECTION XLVIII.

Reign of queen Mary. Mirrour for Magistrates. Its inventor, Sackville
lord Buckhurst. His life. Mirrour for Magistrates continued by Bald-
wyn and Ferrers. Its plan and stories 181

SECTION XLIX.

Sackville's Induction to the Mirrour for Magistrates. Examined. A pre-
lude to the Fairy Queen. Comparative View of Dante's Inferno 190

SECTION L.

Sackville's Legend of Buckingham in the Mirrour for Magistrates. Ad-
ditions by Higgins. Account of him. View of the early editions of
this Collection. Specimen of Higgins's Legend of Cordelia, which is
copied by Spenser 215

SECTION LI.

View of Niccols's edition of the Mirrour for Magistrates. High estima-
tion of this Collection, Historical Plays, whence , ,, 224

CONTENTS. V

SECTION LII. Page

Richard Edwards. Principal poet, player, musician, and buffoon, to the
courts of Mary and Elizabeth. Anecdotes of his life. Cotemporary
testimonies of his merit. A contributor to the Paradise of Daintie De-
vises. His book of comic histories, supposed to have suggested Shak-
speare's Induction of the Tinker. Qccasional anecdotes of Antony

Ed wards's songs .............................. 237

SECTION LIII.

Tusser. Remarkable circumstances of his life. His Husbandrie, one of
our earliest didactic poems, examined ........ . .............................. 248

SECTION LIV.

William Forrest's poems. His Queen Catharine, an elegant manuscript,
contains anecdotes of Henry's divorce. He collects and preserves an-
cient music. Puritans oppose the study of the classics. Lucas Shep-
herd. John Pullayne. Numerous metrical versions of Solomon's Song.
Censured by Hall the satirist. Religious rhymers. Edward More.
Boy-bishop, and miracle-plays, revived by queen Mary. Minute par-
ticulars of an ancient miracle-play ............................................ . 257

SECTION LV.

English Language begins to be cultivated. Earliest book of Criticism in
English. Examined. Soon followed by others. Early critical systems
of the French and Italians. New and superb editions of Gower and
Lydgate. Chaucer's monument erected in Westminster Abbey. Chaucer
esteemed by the Reformers ..................... .' ................................ 271

SECTION LVI.

Sackville's Gorboduc. Our first regular tragedy. Its fable, conduct, cha-
racters, and style. Its defects. Dumb-show. Sackville not assisted
by Norton ........................................................................... 289

SECTION LVII.

Classical drama revived and studied. The Phcenissae of Euripides trans-
lated by Gascoigne. Seneca's Tragedies translated. Account of the
translators, and of their respective versions. Queen Elizabeth translates
apart of the Hercules Oetaeus ................................................ 302

SECTION LVIII.

Most of the classic poets translated before the end of the sixteenth century.
Phaier's Eneid. Completed by Twyne. Their other works. Phaier's
Ballad of Gad's-hill. Stanihurst's Eneid in English hexameters. His
other works. Fleming's Virgil's Bucolics and Georgics. His other
works. Webbe and Fraunce translate some of the Bucolics. Fraunce's
other works. Spenser's Culex. The original not genuine. The Ceiris
proved to be genuine. Nicholas Whyte's story of Jason, supposed to be

VI CONTENTS.

Page

a version of Valerius Flaccus. Golding's Ovid's Metamorphoses. His
other works. Ascham's censure of rhyme. A translation of the Fasti
revives and circulates the story of Lucrece. Euryalus and Lucretia.
Detached fables of the Metamorphoses translated. Moralisations in
fashion. Underdowne's Ovid's Ibis. Ovid's Elegies translated by Mar-
lowe. Remedy of Love, by F. L. Epistles by Turberville. Lord Es-
sex a translator of Ovid. His literary character. Churchyard's Ovid's
Tristia. Other detached versions from Ovid. Ancient meaning and
use of the word Ballad. Drant's Horace. Incidental criticism on
Tully's Oration pro Archia 319

SECTION LIX.

Kendal's Martial. Marlowe's versions of Coluthus and Museus. Gene-
ral character of his Tragedies. Testimonies of his cotemporaries. Spe-
cimens and estimate of his poetry. His death. First Translation of
the Iliad by Arthur Hall. Chapman's Homer. His other works. Ver-
sion of Clitophoii and Leucippe. Origin of the Greek erotic romance.
Palingenius translated by Googe. Criticism on the original. Speci-
men and merits of the translation. Googe's other works. Incidental
stricture on the philosophy of the Greeks 349

SECTION LX.

Translation of Italian Novels. Of Boccace. Paynter's Palace of Plea-
sure. Other versions of the same sort. Early metrical versions of Boc-
cace's Theodore and Honoria, and Cymon and Iphigenia. Romeus and
Juliet. Bandello translated. Romances from Bretagne. Plot of Shak-
speare's Tempest. Miscellaneous Collections of translated novels before
the year 1600. Pantheon. Novels arbitrarily licensed or suppressed.
Reformation of the English press 372

SECTION LXI.
General view and character of the poetry of queen Elizabeth's age 395

SECTION LXII.

Reign of Elizabeth. Satire. Bishop Hall. His Virgidemiarum. MS.
poems of a Norfolk gentleman. Examination of Hall's Satires 403

SECTION LXIII.
Hall's Satires continued 420

SECTION LXIV.

Hall's Satires continued. His Mundus alter et idem. His Epistles. As-
cham's Letters. Howell's Letters 433

SECTION LXV.
Marston's Satires. Hall and Marston compared 441

SECTION LXVI.
Epigrams and Satires. Skialetheia. A Scourge of Truth. Scourge of

CONTENTS. vil

Page

Truth by John Davies of Hereford. Chrestoloros by Thomas Bastard.
Microcynicon by T. M. Gent. William Goddard's Mastiff Whelp. Pas-
quill's Mad-Cap, Message, Foole-Cap. Various collections of Epigrams.
Rowland's Letting of Humours blood in the head vaine. Lodge, Greene
and Decker's Pamphlets. Catalogue of Epigrammatic Miscellanies.
Satires by G. Walter. Donne's Satires 451

Index .. 469

THE HISTORY

ENGLISH POETRY.

SECTION XXXVI.

View of the Revival of Learning in England, continued. Reformation*
of Religion. Its effects on Literature in England. Application of
this digression to the main subject.

oOON after the year 1500, Lillye, the famous grammarian, who had
learned Greek at Rhodes, and had afterwards acquired a polished La-
tinity at Rome under Johannes Sulpicius and Pomponius Sabinus, be-
came the first teacher of Greek at any public school in England. This
was at saint Paul's school in London, then newly established by dean
Colet, and celebrated by Erasmus ; and of which Lillye, as one of the
most exact and accomplished scholars of his age, was appointed the first
master*. And that antient prejudices were now gradually wearing off,
and a national taste for critical studies and the graces of composition
began to be diffused, appears from this circumstance alone : that from
the year one thousand five hundred and three to the reformation, there
were more grammar schools, most of which at present are perhaps of little
use and importance, founded and endowed in England, than had been for
three hundred years before. The practice of educating our youth in
the monasteries growing into disuse, near twenty new grammar schools
were established within this period : and among these, Wolsey's school
at Ipswich, which soon fell a sacrifice to the resentment or the avarice
of Henry the Eighth, deserves particular notice, as it rivalled those of
Winchester and Eton. To give splendor to the institution, beside the

* Knight, Life of Colet, p. 19. Pace, eruditio, ut extrusa barbaric, in qua nostri

above' mentioned, in the Epistle dedica- adolescentes solebant fere aetatem consu-

tory to Colet, before his Treatise Defructu mere," &c. Erasmus says, in 1514, that

qui ex Doctrina percipitur, thus compli- he had taught a youth, in three years,

ments Lillye, edit. Basil, ut supr. 1517. more Latin than he could have acquired

p. 13. " Utpolitiorem Latinitatem, et ip- in any school in England, ne Liliana qui-

sam Romanam linguam, in Britanniam dem excepta, not even Lillye's excepted.

nostramintroduxissevideatur. Tanta[ei] Epistol. 165. p. 140. torn. in.

VOL. III. B

2 SURVEY OF LITERATURE IN ENGLAND [SECT.

scholars, it consisted of a dean, twelve canons, and a numerous choir 1 .
So attached was Wolsey to the new modes of instruction, that he did
not think it inconsistent with his high office and rank, to publish a ge-
neral address to the schoolmasters of England, in which he orders them
to institute their youth in the most elegant literature 11 . It is to be
wished that all his edicts had been employed to so liberal and useful a
purpose. There is an anecdote on record, which strongly marks Wol-
sey's character in this point of view. Notwithstanding his habits of
pomp, he once condescended to be a spectator of a Latin tragedy of
DIDO, from Virgil, acted by the scholars of saint Paul's school, and
written by John Rightwise, the master, an eminent grammarian 1 . But
Wolsey might have pleaded the authority of pope Leo the Tenth, who
more than once had been present at one of these classical spectacles.

It does not however appear, that the cardinal's liberal sentiments
were in general adopted by his brother prelates. At the foundation of
saint Paul's school above mentioned, one of the bishops, eminent for his
wisdom and gravity, at a public assembly, severely censured Colet the
founder for suffering the Latin poets to be taught in the new structure,
which he therefore styled a house of pagan idolatry 111 .

In the year 1517, Fox, bishop of Winchester, founded a college at
Oxford, in which he constituted, with competent stipends, two professors
for the Greek and Latin languages". Although some slight idea of a
classical lecture had already appeared at Cambridge in the system of
collegiate discipline , this philological establishment may justly be
looked upon, as the first conspicuous instance of an attempt to depart
from the narrow plan of education, which had hitherto been held sacred
in the universities of England. The course of the Latin professor, who
is expressly directed to extirpate BARBARISM from the new society P,
is not confined to the private limits of the college, but open to the stu-
dents of Oxford in general. The Greek lecturer is ordered to explain
the best Greek classics ; and the poets, historians, and orators, in that
language, which the judicious founder, who seems to have consulted
the most intelligent scholars of the times, recommends by name on this

* Tanner, Notit. Mon. p. 520. where, in the statutes given in 1506, a

k " Elegantissima literatura." Fiddes's lecturer is established; who, together with

Wolsey. Coll. p. 105. logic and philosophy, is ordered to read,

1 Wood, Ath. Oxon. i. 15. See what is " vel ex poetarum, vel ex oratorum operi-

said of this practice, vol. ii. Sect, xxxiv. bus." Cap. xxxvii. In the statutes of

111 " Episcopum quendam, et eum qui King's at Cambridge, and New college at

habetura SAPIENTIORIBUS, inmagnoho- Oxford, both much more antient, an in-

minum conventu, nostram scholam bias- structor is appointed with the general

phemasse, dixisseque, me erexisse rem name of INFORMATOR only, who taught

inutilem, imo malarn, imo etiam, ut illius all the learning then in vogue. Rotul.

verbis utar, Domum Idololatriee," &c. Comput. vet. Coll. Nov. Oxon. " Solut.

[Coletus Erasmo. Lond. 1517.] Knight's Informatoribus sociorum et scolarium,

Life of Colet, p. 319. iv 1. xiis. iid."

n Statut. C.C.C. Oxon. dTat. Jun. .20. p " Lector seu professor artium huma-

1517. cap. xx. fol. 51. Bibl. Bodl. MSS. niorum . . . BARBARIEM a nostro alveario

Laud. 1. 56. extirpet." Statut. ut supr.

At Christ's college in Cambridge,

XXXVI.] DURING THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 3

occasion, are the purest, and such as are most esteemed even in the
present improved state of antient learning. And it is at the same time
worthy of remark, that this liberal prelate, in forming his plan of stirdy,
does not appoint a philosophy-lecturer in his college, as had been the
constant practice in most of the previous foundations : perhaps sus-
pecting, that such an endowment would not have coincided with his
new course of erudition, and would have only served to encourage that
species of doctrine, which had so long choaked the paths of science,
and obstructed the progress of useful knowledge.

These happy beginnings in favour of a new and rational system of
academical education, were seconded by the auspicious munificence of
cardinal Wolsey. About the year 1519, he founded a public chair at
Oxford, for rhetoric and humanity, and soon afterwards another for
teaching the Greek language ; endowing both with ample salaries^.
About the year 1 524-, king Henry the Eighth, who destroyed or" ad-
vanced literary institutions from caprice, called Robert Wakefield, ori-
ginally a student of Cambridge, but now a professor of humanity at
Tubingen in Germany, into England, that one of his own subjects, a
linguist of so much celebrity, might no longer teach the Greek and
oriental languages abroad : and when Wakefield appeared before the
king, his majesty lamented, in the strongest expressions of concern, the
total ignorance of his clergy and the universities in the learned tongues ;
and immediately assigned him a competent stipend for opening a lec-
ture at Cambridge, in this necessary and neglected department of let-
ters r . Wakefield was afterwards a preserver of many copies of the
Greek classics, in the havoc of the religious houses. It is recorded by
Fox, the martyrologist, as a memorable occurrence s , and very deser-
vedly, that about the same time, Robert Barnes, prior of the Augustines
at Cambridge, and educated at Louvain, with the assistance of his
scholar Thomas Parnell, explained within the walls of his own mona-
stery, Plautus, Terence, and Cicero, to those academics who saw the
utility of philology, and were desirous of deserting the Gothic philo-
sophy. It may seem at first surprising, that Fox, a weak and preju-
diced writer, should allow any merit to a catholic : but Barnes after-
wards appears to have been one of Fox's martyrs, and was executed at
the stake in Smithfield for a defence of Lutheranism.

But these innovations in the system of study were greatly discouraged
and opposed by the friends of the old scholastic circle of sciences, and
the bigoted partisans of the catholic communion, who stigmatised the
Greek language by the name of heresy. Even bishop Fox, when he
founded the Greek lecture above mentioned, that he might not appear
to countenance a dangerous novelty, was obliged to cover his excellent

q Wood, Hist. Univ. Oxon. i. 245. 246. 1524. Printed for W. de Worde, 4to.

But see Fiddes's Wolsey, p. 197. Signal. C. ii. See also Fast. Acad. Lovan.

r Wakefield's Oratio de Laudibus trium by Val. Andreas, p. 284. edit. 1650.

Linguarum, &c. Dated at Cambridge, s Act. Mon. fol. 1192. edit. 1583.

4 SURVEY OF LITERATURE IN ENGLAND [SECT.

institution under the venerable mantle of the authority of the church.
For as a seeming apology for what he had done, he refers to a canonical
decree of pope Clement the Fifth, promulged in the year 1311, at
Vienne in Dauphine, which enjoined, that professors of Greek, Hebrew,
and Arabic, should be instituted in the universities of Oxford, Paris,
Bononia, Salamanca, and in the court of Rome 1 . It was under the force
of this ecclesiastical constitution, that Gregory Typhernas, one of the
learned Greek exiles, had the address to claim a stipend for teaching
Greek in the university of Paris u . We cannot but wonder at the
strange disagreement in human affairs between cause and effect, when
we consider, that this edict of pope Clement, which originated from a
superstitious reverence annexed to two of these languages, because they
composed part of the superscription on the cross of Christ, should have
so strongly counteracted its own principles, and proved an instrument
in the reformation of religion.

The university of Oxford was rent into factions on account of these
bold attempts ; and the advocates of the recent improvements, when
the gentler weapons of persuasion could not prevail, often proceeded to
blows with the rigid champions of the schools. But the facetious dis-
position of sir Thomas More had no small share in deciding this sin-
gular controversy, which he treated with much ingenious ridicule w .
Erasmus, about the same time, was engaged in attempting these re-
formations at Cambridge : in which, notwithstanding the mildness of his
temper and conduct, and the general lustre of his literary character, he
met with the most obstinate opposition. He expounded the Greek
grammar of Chrysoloras in the public schools without an audience x :
and having, with a view to present the Grecian literature in the most
specious and agreeable form by a piece of pleasantry, translated Lucian's
lively dialogue called ICAROMENIPPUS, he could find no student in the
university capable of transcribing the Greek with the Latin v . His edi-
tion of the Greek Testament, the most commodious that had yet ap-
peared, was absolutely proscribed at Cambridge ; and a programma was

* " Quern praeterea in nostro Alveario ing a Greek lecture, would be understood,

collocavimus, quod SACROSANCTI CANO- that he does not mean to absolve ,or ex-

NES commodissime pro bonis literis, et cuse the other prelates of England from

imprimis christianis, instituerunt ac jus- doing their proper duty in this necessary

serunt, eum in hac universitate Oxoniensi, business. At the same time a charge on

perinde ac panels aliis celeberrimis gym- their negligence seems to be implied,

nasiis, nunquam desiderari." Statut. u Naud. i. 3. p. 234. This was in 1472.

C.C.C. Oxon. ut supn The words of this w See, among other proofs, his Epistola

statute which immediately follow, deserve Scholasticis quibusdam Trojanos se appel-

notice here, and require explanation. lantibus, published by Hearne, 1716, 8vo.

" Nee tamen Eos hac ratione excusatos * Erasrrri Epist. Ammonio, dat. 1512.

volumus,qui Gra2cam lectjonem in eo suis Ep. 123. Op. torn. iii. p. 110.

IMPENSIS sustentare debent." By Eos, y Ibid. Epist. 139. dat. 1512. p. 120.

he means the bishops and abbots of Eng- Henry Bullock, called Bovillus, one of

land, who are the persons particularly Erasmus's friends, and much patronised

ordered in pope Clement's injunction to by Wolsey, printed a Latin translation of

sustain these lectures in the university uf Lucian, irepi Ai\//awj', at Cambridge,

Oxford. Bishop Fox, therefore, in found- 1521, quarto.

XXXVI.] DURING THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 5

issued in one of the most ample colleges, threatening a severe fine to
any member of the society, who should be detected in having so fan-
tastic and impious a book in his possession 2 . One Henry Standish, a
doctor in divinity and a mendicant friar, afterwards bishop of Saint
Asaph, was a vehement adversary of Erasmus in the promotion of this
heretical literature ; whom he called in a declamation, by way of re-
proach, Grceculus iste, which soon became a synonymous appellation
for an heretic 3 . Yet it should be remembered, that many English pre-
lates patronised Erasmus ; and that one of our archbishops was at this
time ambitious of learning Greek b .

Even the public diversions of the court took a tincture from this
growing attention to the languages, and assumed a classical air. We
have before seen, that a comedy of Plautus was acted at the royal pa-
lace of Greenwich in the year 1520. And when the French ambassa-
dors with a most splendid suite of the French nobility were in England
for the ratification of peace in the year 1514, amid the most magnifi-
cent banquets, tournaments, and masques, exhibited at the same palace,
they were entertained with a Latin interlude ; or, to use the words of
a cotemporary writer, with such an " excellent Interlude made in
Latin, that I never heard the like ; the actors apparel being so gor-
gious, and of such strange devices, that it passes my capacitie to relate
them c ."

Nor was the protection of king Henry the Eighth, who notwithstand-
ing he had attacked the opinions of Luther, 'yet, from his natural live-
liness of temper and a love of novelty, thought favourably of the new
improvements, of inconsiderable influence in supporting the restoration
of the Greek language. In 1519, a preacher at the public church of
the university of Oxford, harangued with much violence, and in the
true spirit of the antient orthodoxy, against the doctrines inculcated by
the new professors : and his arguments were canvassed among the stu-
dents with the greatest animosity. But Henry, being resident at the
neighbouring royal manor of Woodstock, and having received a just
detail of the merits of this dispute from Pace and More, interposed his
uncontrovertible authority ; and transmitting a royal mandate to the
university, commanded that the study of the scriptures in their original
languages should not only be permitted for the future, but received as
a branch of the academical institution d . Soon afterwards, one of the
king's chaplains preaching at court, took an opportunity to censure the
genuine interpretations of the scriptures, which the Grecian learning
had introduced. The king, when the sermon was ended, to which he
had listened w,ith a smile of contempt, ordered a solemn disputation to

z Ibid. Epist. 148. dat. 1513. p. 126. b Erasm. Epist. 301.

a See Erasmi Opera, torn. ix. p. 1440. c Cavendish, Mem. Card. Wolsey, p. 94.

Even the priests, in their confessions of edit. 1708. 8vo.
young scholars, cautioned against this d Erasm. Epist. 380. torn. iii.

growing evil. " Cave a Greeds ne fias
hareticus." Erasm. Adag. Op. ii. 993.

6 SURVEY OF LITERATURE IN ENGLAND [SECT.

be held, in his own presence : at which the unfortunate preacher op-
posed, and sir Thomas More, with his usual dexterity, defended, the
utility and excellence of the Greek language. The divine, who at least
was a good courtier, instead of vindicating his opinion, instantly fell on
his knees, and begged pardon for having given any offence in the pulpit
before his majesty. However, after some slight altercation, the preacher,
by way of making some sort of concession in form, ingenuously declared,
that he was now better reconciled to the Greek tongue, because it was
derived from the Hebrew. The king, astonished at his ridiculous ig-
norance, dismissed the chaplain, with a charge, that he should never
again presume to preach at court 6 . In the grammatical schools esta-
blished in all the new cathedral foundations of this king, a master is
appointed, with the uncommon qualification of a competent skill in both
the learned languages f . In the year 1523, Ludovicus Vives, having
dedicated his commentary on Austin's DE CIVITATE DEI to Henry
the Eighth, was invited into England, and read lectures at Oxford in
jurisprudence and humanity; which were countenanced by the presence,
not only of Henry, but of queen Catharine and some of the principal
nobility s. At length antient absurdities universally gave way to these
encouragements. Even the vernacular language began to be cultivated
by the more ingenious clergy. Colet, dean of saint Paul's, a divine of
profound learning, with a view to adorn and improve the style of his
discourses, and to acquire the graces of an elegant preacher, employed
much time in reading Gower, Chaucer, and Lydgate, and other En-
glish poets, whose compositions had embellished the popular diction h .
The practice of frequenting Italy, for the purpose of acquiring the last
polish to a Latin style both in eloquence and poetry, still continued in
vogue; and was greatly promoted by the connections, authority, and
good taste, of cardinal Pole, who constantly resided at the court of
Rome in a high character. At Oxford, in particular, these united en-
deavours for establishing a new course of liberal and manly science,
were finally consummated in the magnificent foundation of Wolsey's
college, to which all the accomplished scholars of every country in Eu-
rope were invited; and for who^e library, transcripts of all the valuable
manuscripts which now fill the Vatican, were designed 1 .

But the progress of these prosperous beginnings was soon obstructed.
The first obstacle I shall mention, was, indeed, but of short duration.
It was however an unfavourable circumstance, that in the midst of this

e Erasm. Epist. p. 408. Greek to be taught in his school at Ips-

{ Statuimus praeterea, ut per Decanum, wich, founded 1528. See Strype, Eccl.

etc. unus [Archididascalus] " eligatur, Mem. i. Append, xxxv. p. 94. seq.

Latine et Greece doctus, bonse famae," &c. e Twyne, Apol. lib. ii. 210. seq. Pro-

Statut. Eccles. Roffens. cap. xxv. They bably he was patronised by Catharine as

were given Jun. 30, 1545. In the same a Spaniard.

statute the second master is required to h Erasm. Epistol. Jodoco Jonae. Ibid.

be only Latine doctus. All the statutes Jun. 1521.

of the new cathedrals are alike. It is re- Wood, Hist. Univ. Oxon. i. 249.

markable, that Wolsey does not order

XXXVI.] DURING THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 7

career of science, Henry, who had ever been accustomed to gratify his
passions at any rate, sued for a divorce against his queen Catharine.
The legality of this violent measure being agitated with much delibe-
ration and solemnity, wholly engrossed the attention of many able
philologists, whose genius and acquisitions were destined to a much
nobler employment ; and tended to revive for a time the frivolous sub-
tleties of casuistry and theology.

But another cause which suspended the progression of these letters,
of much more importance and extent, ultimately most happy in its
consequences, remains to be mentioned. The enlarged conceptions ac-
quired by the study of the Greek and Roman writers seem to have re-
stored to the human mind a free exertion of its native operations, and
to have communicated a certain spirit of enterprise in examining every
subject: and at length to have released the intellectual capacity of
mankind from that habitual subjection, and that servility to system,
which had hitherto prevented it from advancing any new principle, or
adopting any new opinion. Hence, under the concurrent assistance of
a preparation of circumstances, all centring in the same period, arose
the reformation of religion. But this defection from the catholic com-
munion alienated the thoughts of the learned from those pursuits by
which it was produced, and diverted the studies of the most accom-
plished scholars to inquiries into the practices and maxims of the pri-
mitive ages, the nature of civil and ecclesiastical jurisdiction, the au-
thority of scripture and tradition, of popes, councils, and schoolmen :
topics, which men were not yet qualified to treat with any degree of
penetration, and on which the ideas of the times, unenlightened by
philosophy, or warped by prejudice and passion, were not calculated to
throw just and rational illustrations. When the bonds of spiritual unity
were once broken, this separation from an established faith ended in a
variety of subordinate sects, each of which called forth its respective
champions into the field of religious contention. The several princes
of Christendom were politically concerned in these disputes ; and the
courts in which poets and orators had been recently caressed and re-
warded, were now filled with that most deplorable species of philoso-
phers, polemical metaphysicians. The public entry of Luther into
Worms, when he had been summoned before the diet of that city, was
equally splendid with that of the emperor Charles the Fifth k . Rome
in return, roused from her deep repose of ten centuries, was compelled
to vindicate her insulted doctrines with reasoning and argument. The
profound investigations of Aquinas once more triumphed over the
graces of the Ciceronian urbanity ; and endless volumes were written
on the expediency of auricular confession, and the existence of purga-
tory. Thus the cause of polite literature was for awhile abandoned ;
while the noblest abilities of Europe were wasted in theological specu-

k Luther, Op. ii. 412. 414.

8 SURVEY OF LITERATURE IN ENGLAND [SECT.

lalion, and absorbed in the abyss of controversy. Yet it must not be
forgotten, that wit and raillery, drawn from the sources of elegant eru-
dition, were sometimes applied, and with the greatest success, in this
important dispute. The lively colloquies of Erasmus, which exposed
the superstitious practices of the papists, with much humour, and in
pure Latinity, made more protestants than the ten tomes of John Calvin.
A work of ridicule was now a new attempt : and it should be here ob-
served, to the honour of Erasmus, that he was the first of the literary
reformers who tried that species of composition, at least with any de-
gree of popularity. The polite scholars of Italy had no notion that the
German theologists were capable of making their readers laugh: they
were now convinced of their mistake, and soon found that the German
pleasantry prepared the way for a revolution, which proved of the most
serious consequences to Italy.

Another great temporary check given to the general state of letters
in England at this period, was the dissolution of the monasteries.
Many of the abuses in civil society are attended with some advantages.
In the beginnings of reformation, the loss of these advantages is always
felt very sensibly : while the benefit arising from the change is the slow
effect of time, and not immediately perceived or enjoyed. Scarce any
institution can be imagined less favourable to the interests of mankind
than the monastic. Yet these seminaries, although they were in a ge-
neral view the nurseries of illiterate indolence, and undoubtedly de-
served to be suppressed under proper restrictions, contained invitations
and opportunities to studious leisure and literary pursuits. On this
event, therefore, a visible revolution and decline in the national state
of learning succeeded. Most of the youth of the kingdom betook them-
selves to mechanical or other illiberal employments, the profession of
letters being now supposed to be without support and reward. By the
abolition of the religious houses, many towns and their adjacent villages
were utterly deprived of their only means of instruction. At the be-
ginning of the reign of queen Elizabeth, Williams, speaker of the house
of commons, complained to her majesty, that more than a hundred
flourishing schools were destroyed in the demolition of the monasteries,
and that ignorance had prevailed ever since 1 . Provincial ignorance, at
least, became universal, in consequence of this hasty measure of a ra-
pacious and arbitrary prince. What was taught in the monasteries, was

1 Strype, Ann. Ref, p. 212. sub arm. pensione xl. solidorum." MS. Cotton.

1562. The greater abbies appear to have Tiber. B. ix. 2. This John Somerset was

had the direction of other schools in their tutor and physician to king Henry the

neighbourhood. In an abbatial Register Sixth, and a man of eminent learning,

of Bury abbey there is this entry : " Me- He was instrumental in procuring duke

morand. quod A.D. 1418. 28 Jul. Guliel- Humphrey's books to be conveyed to Ox-

mus abbas contulit regimen et magisterium ford. Registr. Acad. Oxon. Epist. F. 179.

scholarum grammaticalium in villa de 202. 218. 220. And in the foundation of

Bury S. Edmundi magistro Johanni So- King's college at Cambridge. MSS. Cott.

merset, artium et grammaticse professori, Julius, F. vii. 43.
et baccalaureo in medicina, cum annua

XXXVI.] DURING THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 9

not always perhaps of the greatest importance, but still it served to
keep up a certain degree of necessary knowledge 01 . Nor should it be
forgot, that many of the abbots were learned, and patrons of literature ;
men of public spirit, and liberal views. By their connections with parlia-
ment, and the frequent embassies to foreign courts in which they were
employed, they became acquainted with the world, and the improve-
ments of life : and, knowing where to choose proper objects, and having
no other use for the superfluities of their vast revenues, encouraged
in their respective circles many learned young men. It appears to have
been customary for the governors of the most considerable convents,
especially those that were honoured with the mitre, to receive into their
own private lodgings the sons of the principal families of the neigh-
bourhood for education. About the year 14-50, Thomas Bromele,
abbot of the mitred monastery of Hyde near Winchester, entertained
in his own abbatial house within that monastery, eight young gentle-
men, or gentiles pueri, who were placed there for the purpose of literary
instruction, and constantly dined at the abbot's table. I will not scruple
to give the original words, which are more particular and expressive,
of the obscure record which preserves this curious anecdote of mona-
stic life. " Pro octo gentilibus pueris apud dominum abbatem studii
causa perhendinantibus, et ad mensam domini victitantibus, cum gar-
cionibus suis ipsos comitantibus, hoc anno, xvii 1. ix s. Capiendopro... n "
This, by the way, was more extraordinary, as William of Wykeham's
celebrated seminary was so near. And this seems to have been an
established practice of the abbot of Glastonbury ; " whose, apartment
in the abbey was a kind of well-disciplined court, where the sons of
noblemen and young gentlemen were wont to be sent for virtuous edu-
cation, who returned thence home excellently accomplished ." Richard
Whiting, the last abbot of Glastonbury, who was cruelly executed by
the king, during the course of his government, educated near three
hundred ingenuous youths, who constituted a part of his family; beside
many others whom he liberally supported at the universities P. Whit-
gift, the most excellent and learned archbishop of Canterbury in the
reign of queen Elizabeth, was educated under Robert Whitgift his
uncle, abbot of the Augustine monastery of black canons at Wellhow
in Lincolnshire; "who," says Strype, "had several other young gentle-

m I do not, however, lay great stress dicants, in each of these are held, every

on the following passage, which yet de- week by turns, proper exercises of scho-

serves attention, in Rosse of Warwick- lars in disputation." Hist. Reg. Angl.

shire, who wrote about the year 1480: edit. Hearne, p. 74. [See vol. ii. note 01 ,

" To this day, in the cathedrals and some near the commencement of Sect, xxxiii.]
of the greater collegiate churches, or mo- n From a fragment of the Computus Ca-

nasteries, [quibusdam nobilibus collegiis,] merarii Abbat. Hidens. ki Archiv.Wulves.

and in the houses of the four mendicant apud Winton. ut supr.
orders, useful lectures and disputations Hist, and Antiq. of Glastonbiiry,

are kept up; and such of their members Oxon. 1722. 8vo. p. 98.
as are thought capable of degrees, are sent p Reyner, Apostolat. Benedict. Tract,

to the universities. And in towns where i. sect. ii. p. 224. Sanders de Schism,

there are two or more fraternities of men- pag. 176.

10 SURVEY OF LITERATURE IN ENGLAND [SECT.

men under his care for education 1." That, at the restoration of lite-
rature, many of these dignitaries were eminently learned, and even
zealous promoters of the new improvements, I could bring various in-
stances. Hugh Farringdon, the last abbot of Reading, was a polite
scholar, as his Latin epistles addressed to the university of Oxford
abundantly testify 1 ". Nor was he less a patron of critical studies. Leo-
nard Coxe, a popular philological writer in the reign of Henry the
Eighth, both in Latin and English, and a great traveller, highly cele-
brated by the judicious Leland for his elegant accomplishments in
letters, and honoured with the affectionate correspondence of Erasmus,
dedicates to this abbot, his ARTE OR CRAFTE OF RHETORICKE, printed
in the year 1524, at that time a work of an unusual nature 8 . Wake-
field above mentioned, a very capital Greek and oriental scholar, in his
DISCOURSE ON THE EXCELLENCY AND UTILITY OF THE THREE LAN-
GUAGES,* written in the year 1 524, celebrates William Fryssell, prior of
the cathedral Benedictine convent at Rochester, as a distinguished
judge and encourager of critical literature. Robert Shirwoode, an
Englishman, but a professor of Greek and Hebrew at Louvaine, pub-
lished a new Latin translation of ECCLESIASTES, with critical annota-
tions on the Hebrew text, printed at Antwerp in 1523 U . This, in an
elegant Latin epistle, he dedicates to John Webbe, prior of the Bene-
dictine cathedral convent at Coventry; whom he styles, for his singular
learning, and attention to the general cause of letters, MONACHORUM
DECUS. John Batmanson, prior of the Carthusians in London, con-
troverted Erasmus's commentary on the New Testament with a degree
of spirit and erudition, which was unhappily misapplied, and would have
done honour to the cause of his antagonist w . He wrote many other
pieces ; and was patronised by Lee, a learned archbishop of York, who
opposed Erasmus, but allowed Ascham a pension x . Kederminster,
abbot of Winchcombe in Gloucestershire, a traveller to Rome, and a
celebrated preacher before king Henry the Eighth, established regular
lectures in his monastery, for explaining both scriptures in their original
languages; which were so generally frequented, that his little cloister
acquired the name and reputation of a new university ?. He was master

q Strype's Whitgift, b. i. ch. i. p. 3. of the archbishop's Greek books : one of

r Registr. Univ. Oxon. F. F. fol. 101. these he wishes may be Aldus's Decem

125. Rhetores Grseci, a book which he could

s See Leland, Collectan. vol. v. p. 118. not purchase or procure at Cambridge,
vol. vi. p. 187. And Encom. p. 50. edit. y " Non aliter quam si fuisset altera

1589. Erasm. Epistol. p. 886. NOVA UNIVERSITAS, tametsiexigua, clau-

1 cited above, vol. ii. note s , near the strum Wynchelcombense tune temporis se

end of Sect. xxiv. haberet." From his own Historia, as

" quarto. below. Wood, Hist. Univ. Oxon. i. p. 248.

* Theodor. Petreus, Bibl. Carthus. There is an Epistle from Colet, the learned
edit. Col. 1609. p. 157. dean of St. Paul's, to this abbot, concern-

* Ascham, Epistol. lib. ii. p. 77. a. ing a passage in St. Paul's Epistles, first
edit. 1581. [See also iii. p. 86. a.] On printed by Knight, from the original
the death of the archbishop, in 1544, manuscript at Cambridge. Knight's Life,
Ascham desires, that a part of his pen- p. 311.

sion then due might be paid out of some

XXXVI.]

DURING THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII.

of a terse and perspicuous Latin style, as appears from a fragment of
the HISTORY OF WYNCHOMB ABBEY, written by himself 2 . His eru-
dition is attested in an epistle from the university to king Henry the
Eighth a . Longland, bishop of Lincoln, the most elegant preacher of
his time, in the dedication to Kederminster, of five quadragesimal
sermons, delivered at court, and printed by Pinson in the year 1517,
insists largely on his SINGULARIS ERUDITIO, and other shining qualifi-
cations.

Before we quit the reign of Henry the Eighth, in this review of the
rise of modern letters, let us turn our eyes once more on the universi-
ties; which yet do not always give the tone to the learning of a nation 13 .
In the year 1531, the learned Simon Grynaeus visited Oxford. By the
interest of Claymund, president of Corpus Christi college, an admirable
scholar, a critical writer, and the general friend and correspondent of
the literary reformers, he was admitted to all the libraries of the univer-

z Printed by Dugdale, before the whole
of the original was destroyed in the fire
of London. Monast. i. 188. But a tran-
script of a part remains in Dodsworth,
MSS. Bibl. Bodl. Ixv. 1. Compare A.
Wood, ut supr. and Athen. Oxon. i. 28.

a Registr. Univ. Oxon. F. F. fol. 46.

b It ought not here to be unnoticed, that
the royal library of the kings of England,
originally subsisting in the old palace at
Westminster, and lately transferred to the
British Museum, received great improve-
ments under the reign of Henry the Eighth ;
who constituted that elegant and judicious
scholar, John Leland, his librarian, about
the year 1530. Tanner, Bibl. pag. 475.
Leland, at the dissolution of the mona-
steries, removed to this royal repository a
great number of valuable manuscripts ;
particularly from St. Austin's abbey at
Canterbury. Script. Brit. p. 299. One
of these was a manuscript given by Athel-
stan to that convent, a Harmony of the
Four Gospels. Bibl. Reg. MSS. i. A.
xviii. See the hexasthic of Leland pre-
fixed. See also Script. Brit, ut supra,
V. ATHELSTANUS. Leland says, that he
placed in the Palatine library of Henry
the Eighth the Commentarii in Mat-
thseum of Claudius, Bede's disciple. Ibid.
V. CLAUDIUS. Many of the manuscripts
of this library appear to have belonged to
Henry's predecessors ; and if we may judge
from the splendour of the decorations, were
presents. Some of them bear the name of
Humphrey duke of Gloucester. Others
were written at the command of Edward
the Fourth. I have already mentioned
the librarian of Henry the Seventh. Bar-
tholomew Traheron, a learned divine, was
appointed the keeper of this library by
Edward the Sixth, with a salary of twenty-

marcs, in the year 1549. See Rymer's
Fred. xv. p. 351. Under the reign of
Elizabeth, Hentzner, a German traveller,
who saw this library at Whitehall in 1598,
says, that it was well furnished with Greek,
Latin, Italian, and French books, all bound
in velvet of different colours, yet chiefly
red, with clasps of gold and silver; and
that the covers of some were adorned
with pearls and precious stones. Itinerar.
Germanise, Anglise, &c. Noringb. 1629.
8vo. p. 188. It is a great mistake, that
James the First was the first of our kings
who founded a library in any of the royal
palaces; and that this establishment com-
menced at St. James's palace, under the
patronage of that monarch. This notion
was first propagated by Smith in his life
of Patrick Junius, Vit. Quorund. etc. Lond.
1707. 4to. pp. 12. 13. 34. 35. Great part
of the royal library, which indeed migrated
to St. James's under James the First, was
partly sold and dispersed, at Cromwell's
accession; together with another inesti-
mable part of its furniture, 12000 medals,
rings, and gems, the entire collection of
Gorlaeus's Dactyliotheca, purchased by
prince Henry and Charles the First. It
must be allowed, that James the First
greatly enriched this library with the
books of lord Lumley and Casaubon, and
sir Thomas Roe's manuscripts brought
from Constantinople. Lord Lumley's
chiefly consisted of lord Arundel's, his
father-in-law, a great collector at the dis-
solution of monasteries. James had pre-
viously granted a warrant to sir Thomas
Bodley, in 1613, to choose any books
from the royal library at Whitehall, over
the Queen's Chamber. [Reliq. Bodl. p.
Hearne, p. 205. 286. 320.]

12 SURVEY OF LITERATURE IN ENGLAND [SECT.

sity; which, he says, were about twenty in number, and amply furnished
with the books of antiquity. Among these he found numerous manu-
scripts of Proclus on Plato, many of which he was easily permitted to
carry abroad by the governors of the colleges, who did not know the
value of these treasures . In the year 1535, the king ordered lectures
in humanity, institutions which have their use for a time, and while the
novelty lasts, to be founded in those colleges of the university, where
they were yet wanting : and these injunctions were so warmly approved
by the scholars in the largest societies, that they seized on the vene-
rable volumes of Duns Scotus and other irrefragable logicians, in which
they had so long toiled without the attainment of knowledge, and tear-
ing them in pieces, dispersed them in great triumph about their qua-
drangles, or gave them away as useless lumber d . The king himself
also established some public lectures with large endowments 6 . Not-
withstanding, the number of students at Oxford daily decreased ; inso-
much, that in 1546, not because a general cultivation of the new spe-
cies of literature was increased, there were only ten inceptors in arts,
and three in theology and jurisprudence f .

As all novelties are pursued to excess, and the most beneficial im-
provements often introduce new inconveniencies, so this universal
attention to polite literature destroyed philosophy. The old philo-
sophy was abolished, but a new one was not adopted in its stead. At
Cambridge we now however find the antient scientific learning in some
degree reformed, by the admission of better systems.

In the injunctions given by Henry to that university in the year 1535,
for the reformation of study, the dialectics of Rodolphus Agricola, the
great favourite of Erasmus, and the genuine logic of Aristotle, are pre-
scribed to be taught, instead of the barren problems of Scotus and
Burlaeuss. By the same edict, theology and casuistry were freed from
many of their old incumbrances and perplexities : degrees in the canon
law were forbidden; and heavy penalties were imposed on those acade-
mics, who relinquished the sacred text, to explain the tedious and un-
edifying commentaries on Peter Lombard's scholastic cyclopede of di-
vinity, called the SENTENCES, which alone were sufficient to constitute
a moderate library. Classical lectures were also directed, the study of
words was enforced, and the books of Melancthon, and other solid and
elegant writers of the reformed party, recommended. The politer
studies, soon afterwards, seem to have risen into a flourishing state at
Cambridge. Bishop Latimer complains, that there were now but few

c During his abode in England, ha- catory to sir Thomas More. He there

ving largely experienced the bounty and mentions other pieces of Proclus, which

advice of sir Thomas More, he returned he saw at Oxford.

home, fraught with materials which he d See Dr. Layton's letter to Cromwell,

had long sought in vain, and published Strype's Eccl. Mem. i. 210.
his Plato, viz. "Platonis Opera, cum com- e Wood, Hist. Univ. Oxon. i. 26. ii. 36.

mentariis Procli in Timaeum et Politica, f Wood, ibid, sub anno.

Basil. 1534." fol. See' the Epistle Dedi- E Collier, Eccles; Hist. vol. ii. p. 110.

XXXVI.] DURING THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 13

who studied divinity in that university b . But this is no proof of a de-
cline of learning in that seminary. Other pursuits were now gaining
ground there ; and such as in fact were subservient to theological truth,
and to the propagation of the reformed religion. Latimer himself,
whose discourses from the royal pulpit appear to be barbarous beyond
their age, in style, manner, and argument, is an example of the neces-
sity of the ornamental studies to a writer in divinity. The Greek lan-
guage was now making considerable advances at Cambridge, under the
instruction of Cheke and Smith'; notwithstanding the interruptions and
opposition of bishop Gardiner, the chancellor of the. university, who
loved learning but hated novelties, about the -proprieties of pronun-
ciation. But the controversy which was agitated on both sides with
much erudition, and produced letters between Cheke and Gardiner
equal to large treatises, had the good effect of more fully illustrating
the point in debate, and of drawing the general attention to the subject
of the Greek literature 1 . Perhaps bishop Gardiner's intolerance in this
respect was like his persecuting spirit in religion, which only made more
heretics, Ascham observes, with no small degree of triumph, that in-
stead of Plautus, Cicero, Terence, and Livy, almost the only classics
hitherto known at Cambridge, a more extensive field was opened ; and
that Homer, Sophocles, Euripides, Herodotus, Thucydides, Demosthe-
nes, Xenophon, and Isocrates, were universally and critically studied k .
But Cheke being soon called away to the court, his auditors relapsed
into dissertations on the doctrines of original sin and predestination ;
and it was debated with great obstinacy and acrimony, whether those
topics had been most successfully handled by some modern German di-
vines or saint Austin 1 . Ascham observes, that at Oxford, a decline of
taste in both languages was indicated, by a preference of Lucian, Plu-
tarch, and Herodian, in Greek, and of Seneca, Gellius, and Apuleius,
in Latin, to the more pure, antient and original writers of Greece and
Rome m . At length, both universities seem to have been reduced to
the same deplorable condition of indigence and illiteracy.

It is generally believed, that the reformation of religion in England,
the most happy and important event of our annals, was immediately
succeeded by a flourishing state of letters. But this was by no means
the case. For a long time afterwards an effect quite contrary was pro-
duced. The reformation in England was completed under the reign of

h Sermons, &c. p. 63. Lond. 1584. 4to. sidiis ornatissimus, absque hacunare esset

Sermon before Edward the Sixth, in the literarum et academiae nostrae patronus

year 1550. His words are, " It would amplissimus." But he says, that Gardi-

pitty a man's heart to hear that I hear of ner took this measure, " quorundam in-

the state of Cambridge: what it is in Ox- vidorum hominum precibus victus." ibid,

ford I cannot tell. There be few that p. 64 b.

study divinity but so many as of necessitie k Strype's Cranmer, p. 170. Ascham.

must furnish the colledges." Epistol. L. ii. p. 64 b. 1581.

1 Ascham. Epistol. ut modo infr. p. 65 a. l Ascham. Epist. lib. ii.

Ascham calls Gardiner, "omnibus litera- m Epistol. lib. i. p. 18 b. Dat. 1550.

rum, prudentioe, consilii, authoritatis, prae- edit. 1581.

14 SURVEY OF LITERATURE IN ENGLAND [SECT.

Edward the Sixth. The rapacious courtiers of this young prince were
perpetually grasping at the rewards of literature ; which, being dis-
couraged or despised by the rich, was neglected by those of moderate
fortunes. Avarice and zeal were at once gratified in robbing the clergy
of their revenues, arid in reducing the church to its primitive aposto-
lical state of purity and poverty". The opulent see of Winchester was
lowered to a bare title : its amplest estates were portioned out to the
laity ; and the bishop, a creature of the protector Somerset, was con-
tented to receive an inconsiderable annual stipend from the exchequer.
The bishoprick of Durham, almost equally rich, was entirely dissolved.
A favourite nobleman of the court occupied the deanery and treasurer-
ship of a cathedral with some of its best canonries . The ministers
of this abused monarch, by these arbitrary, dishonest, and imprudent
measures, only provided instruments, and furnished arguments, for re-
storing in the succeeding reign that superstitious religion, which they
professed to destroy. By thus impoverishing the ecclesiastical digni-
ties, they countenanced the clamours of the catholics ; who declared,
that the reformation was apparently founded on temporal views, and
that the protestants pretended to oppose the doctrines of the church,
solely with a view that they might share in the plunder of its revenues.
In every one of these sacrilegious robberies the interest of learning also
suffered. Exhibitions and pensions were, in the mean time, subtracted
from the students in the universities P. Ascham, in a letter to the mar-
quis of Northampton, dated 1550, laments the ruin of grammar schools
throughout England ; and predicts the speedy extinction of the uni-
versities from this growing calamity ^. At Oxford the public schools
were neglected by the professors and pupils, and allotted to the lowest
purposes 1 ". AcademicaKdegrees were abrogated as antichristian 8 . Re-
formation was soon turned into fanaticism. Absurd refinements, con-
cerning the inutility of human learning, were superadded to the just
and rational purgation of Christianity from the papal corruptions. The
spiritual reformers of these enlightened days, at a visitation of the last-
mentioned university, proceeded so far in their ideas of a superior rec-
titude, as totally to strip the public library, established by that munifi-
cent patron Humphrey duke of Gloucester, of all its books and manu-
scripts*.

I must not, however, forget, as a remarkable symptom of an attempt
now circulating to give a more general and unreserved diffusion of sci-
ence, that in this reign, Thomas Wilson, originally a fellow of King's

n See Collier's Eccl. Hist. Records, licarum scholarum," &c. "Quam gravis

Ixvii. p. 80. hsec universa scholarum calraiiitas," &c.

Burnet, Rep. P. ii. 8. See p. 62 b. p. 210 a.

p Wood, sub arm. 1550. See also Strype's r Wood, ut supr. p. 12.

Cranmer, Append. N. xciii. p. 220. viz. A s Catal. MSS. Angl. fol. edit. 1697. in

letter to secretary Cecil, dat. 1552. Hist. Bibl. Bodl. Praefat.

q Epistol. lib. un. Commendat. p. 194 a. t See vol. ii. Sect. xx.
Lond. 1581. "Ruinavn et interitum pub-

XXXVI.] DURING THE REIGN OF MARY. 15

college in Cambridge, preceptor to Charles and Henry Brandon dukes
of Suffolk, dean of Durham, and chief secretary to the king, published
a system of rhetoric and of logic, in English". This display of the
venerable mysteries of the latter of these arts in a vernacular language,
which had hitherto been confined within the sacred pale of the learned
tongues, was esteemed an innovation almost equally daring with that of
permitting the service of the church to be celebrated in English : and
accordingly the author, soon afterwards happening to visit Rome, was
incarcerated by the inquisitors of the holy see, as a presumptuous and
dangerous heretic.

It is with reluctance I enter on the bloody reign of the relentless and
unamiable Mary ; whose many dreadful martyrdoms of men eminent
for learning and piety, shock our sensibility with a double degree of
horror, in the present softened state of manners, at a period of society
when no potentate would inflict executions of so severe a nature, and
when it would be difficult to find devotees hardy enough to die for
difference of opinion. We must, however, acknowledge, that she en-
riched both universities with some considerable benefactions : yet these
donations seem to have been made, not from any general or liberal
principle of advancing knowledge, but to repair the breaches of refor-
mation, and to strengthen the return of superstition. It is certain, that
her restoration of popery, together with the monastic institution, its
proper appendage, must have been highly pernicious to the growth of
polite erudition. Yet although the elegant studies were now beginning
to suffer a new relapse, in the midst of this reign, under the discourage-
ment of all these inauspicious and unfriendly circumstances, a college
was established at Oxford, in the constitution of which, the founder
principally inculcates the use and necessity of classical literature ; and
recommends it as the most important and leading object in that system
of academical study, which he prescribes to the youth of the new so-
ciety w . For, beside a lecturer in philosophy appointed for the ordinary
purpose of teaching the scholastic sciences, he establishes in this semi-
nary a teacher of humanity. The business of this preceptor is de-
scribed with a particularity not usual in the constitutions given to col-
legiate bodies of this kind, and he is directed to exert his utmost dili-
gence in tincturing his auditors with a just relish for the graces and
purity of the Latin language x ; and to explain critically, in the public
hall, for the space of two hours every day, the Offices, De Oratore, and
rhetorical treatises of Cicero, the institutes of Quintilian, Aulus Gel-
lius, Plautus, Terence, Virgil, Horace, Livy, and Lucan ; together with

u First printed in the reign of Edward * " Latini sermonis ornatu et elegantia
the Sixth. See Preface to the second cdi- imbuendos diligenter curabit," &c. Sta-
tion of the Rhetoric, in 1560. He trans- tut. Coll. Trin. Oxon. cap. iv. Again,
lated the three Olynthiacs, and the four "Cupiens et ego Collegii mei juventutem
Philippics, of Demosthenes, from the Greek in primis Latini sermonis puritate ac in-
into English. Lond. 1570. 4to. genuarum artiumrudimentis, convenienter

w In the year 1554. erudiri," &c. Ibid. cap. xv.

1(5 SURVEY OF LITERATURE IN ENGLAND [SECT.

the most excellent modern philological treatises then in vogue, such as
the ELEGANCIES of Laurentius Valla, and the MISCELLANIES of Po-
litian, or any other approved critical tract on oratory or versification *.
In the mean time, the founder permits it to the discretion of the lec-
turer, occasionally to substitute Greek authors in the place of these 2 .
He moreover requires, that the candidates for admission into the col-
lege be completely skilled in Latin poetry ; and in writing Epistles, then
a favourite mode of composition 8 , and on which Erasmus 5 , and Con-
radus Celtes the restorer of letters in Germany , had each recently
published a distinct systematical work. He injoins, that the students
shall be exercised every day, in the intervals of vacation, in composing
declamations, and Latin verses both lyric and heroic d : and in his pre-
fatory statute, where he describes the nature and design of his founda-
tion, he declares, that he destines the younger part of his establish-
ment, not only to dialectics and philosophy, but to the more polite
literature 6 . The statutes of this college were submitted to the inspec-
tion of cardinal Pole, one of the chief protectors of the revival of polite
letters in England, as appears from a curious passage in a letter written
by the founder, now remaining; which not only displays the cardinal's
ideas of the new erudition, but shows the state of the Greek language
at this period. " My lord Cardinalls grace has had the overseeinge of
my statutes. He muche lykes well, that I have therein ordered the
Latin tonge [Latin classics] to be redde to my schollers. But he ad-
vyses me to order the Greeke to be more taught there than I have pro-
vyded. This purpose I well lyke : but I fear the tymes will not bear
it now. I remember when I was a young scholler at Eton f , the Greeke
tonge was growing apace ; the studie of which is now alate much de-
caid ." Queen Mary was herself eminently learned. But her accom-
plishments in letters were darkened or impeded by religious prejudices.
At the desire of queen Catharine Parr, she translated in her youth
Erasmus's paraphrase on saint John. The preface is written by Udall,
master of Eton school : in which he much extols her distinguished pro-

y Statut. Coll. Trin. Oxon. cap. xv. A inde nulla, aut admodum exigua, audito-

modern writer in dialectics, Rodolphus ribus accedat utilitas," &c. Ibid. cap. xv.
Agricola, is also recommended to be ex- a Ibid. cap. vii.

plained by the reader in philosophy, to- b De Ratione conscribendi Epistolas.

gether with Aristotle. c About the year 1500. At Basil, 1522.

* Ibid. cap. xv. It may be also ob- It was reprinted at Cambridge by Siberch,
served here, that the* philosophy reader is and dedicated to bishop Fisher, 1521. 4to.
not only ordered to explain Aristotle, but d Ibid. cap. xv. Every day after din-
Plato. Ibid. cap. xv. It appears by im- ner " Aliquis scholarium, a Prsesidente aut
plication in the close of this statute, that Lectore Rhetorico jussus, de themate quo-
the public lectures of the university were dam proposito, ad edendum ingenii ac pro-
now growing useless, and dwindling into fectus sui specimen, diligenter, ornate, ac
mere matters of form, viz. "Ad hunc mo- breviter dicat," &c. Ibid, cap, x.
dura Domi meos LECTIONIBUS erudiri * "Caeteri autem, scholares nuncupati,
cupiens, eos a publicis in Academia lecti- POLITIORIBUS Literis," &c. Ibid. cap. i.
onibus avocare nolui. Verum, si tempo- f About the year 1520.
ris tractu, et magistratuum incuria, adeo g Dated 1556. See Life of Sir Thomas
a primario instituto degenerent Magistro- Pope, p. 226.
rum regentium Lectiones ordinarise, ut

XXXVI.] DURING THE RETGN OF ELIZABETH. 17

ficience in literature 11 . It would have been fortunate, if Mary's atten-
tion to this work had softened her temper, and enlightened her under-
standing. She frequently spoke in public with propriety, and always
with prudence and dignity.

In the beginning of the reign of queen Elizabeth, which soon fol-
lowed, when the return of protestantism might have been expected to
produce a speedy change for the better, puritanism began to prevail ;
and, as the first fervours of a new sect are always violent, retarded for
some time the progress of ingenuous and useful knowledge. The
scriptures being translated into English, and every man assuming a
right to dictate in matters of faith, and to choose his own principles,
weak heads drew false conclusions, and erected an infinite variety of
petty religions. Such is the abuse which attends the best designs, that
the meanest reader of the New Testament thought he had a full com-
prehension of the most mysterious metaphysical doctrines in the chri-
stian faith ; and scorned to acquiesce in the sober and rational expo-
sitions of such difficult subjects, which he might have received from a
competent and intelligent teacher, whom it was his duty to follow.
The bulk of the people, who now possessed the means of discussing all
theological topics, from their situation and circumstances in life, were
naturally averse to the splendor, the dominion, and the opulence of an
hierarchy, and disclaimed the yoke of episcopal jurisdiction. The new
deliverance from the numerous and burthensome superstitions of the
papal communion drove many pious reformers into the contrary ex-
treme, and the rage of opposition ended in a devotion entirely spiritual
and abstracted. External forms were abolished, as impediments to the
visionary reveries of a mental intercourse with heaven ; and because
the church of Rome had carried ceremonies to an absurd excess, the
use of any ceremonies was deemed unlawful. The love of new doc-
trines and a new worship, the triumph of gaining proselytes, and the
persecutions which accompanied these licentious zealots, all contributed
to fan the flame of enthusiasm. The genius of this refined and false
species of religion, which defied the salutary checks of all human au-
thority, when operating in its full force, was attended with consequences
not less pernicious to society, although less likely to last, than those
which flowed from the establishment of the antient superstitions.
During this unsettled state of things, the English reformed clergy who
had fled into Germany from the menaces of queen Mary, returned
home in great numbers : and in consideration of their sufferings and
learning, and their abilities to vindicate the principles of a national
church erected in opposition to that of Rome, many of them were pre-
ferred to bishopricks, and other eminent ecclesiastical stations Thes e
divines brought back with them into England those narrow principles
concerning church-government and ceremonies, which they had imbi-
bed in the petty states and republics abroad, where the Calvinistic dis-

h Loncl. 1.148. fol.
VOL. III. C

18 SURVEY OF LITERATURE IN ENGLAND [SECT.

cipline was adopted, and where they had lived like a society of philo-
sophers ; but which were totally inconsistent with the nature of a more
extended church, established in a great and magnificent nation, and re-
quiring an uniform system of policy, a regular subordination of officers,
a solemnity of public worship, and an observance of exterior institutions,
They were, however, in the present circumstances, thought to be the
most proper instruments to be employed at the head of ecclesiastical
affairs ; not only for the purpose of vindicating the new establishment
by argument and authority, but of eradicating every trace of the papal
corruptions by their practice and example, and of effectually fixing the
reformation embraced by the church of England on a durable basis.
But, unfortunately, this measure, specious and expedient as it appeared
at first, tended to destroy that constitution which it was designed to
support, and to counteract those principles which had been implanted
by Cranmer in the reformed system of our religion. Their reluctance
or refusal to conform, in a variety of instances, to the established cere-
monies, and their refinements in theological discipline, filled the church
with the most violent divisions ; and introduced endless intricate dis-
putations, not on fundamental doctrines of solid importance to the real
interests of Christianity, but on positive points of idle and empty spe-
culation, which admitting no elegance of composition, and calling forth
no vigour of abilities, exercised the learning of the clergy in the most
barbarous and barren field of controversial divinity, and obstructed
every pursuit of polite or manly erudition. Even the conforming clergy,
from their want of penetration, and from their attachment to authori-
ties, contributed to protract these frivolous and unbecoming contro-
versies : for if, in their vindication of the sacerdotal vestments, and of
the cross of baptism, instead of arguing from the jews, the primitive
Christians, the fathers, councils, and customs, they had only appealed to
common sense and the nature of things, the propriety and expediency
of those formalities would have been much more easily and more clearly
demonstrated. To these inconveniencies we must add, that the com-
mon ecclesiastical preferments were so much diminished by the seizure
and alienation of impropriations, in the late depredations of the church,
and which continued to be carried on with the same spirit of rapacity
in the reign of Elizabeth, that few persons were regularly bred to the
church, or, in other words, received a learned education. Hence, almost
any that offered themselves were, without distinction or examination,
admitted to the sacred function. Insomuch that in the year 1 560, an in-
junction was directed to the bishop of London from his metropolitan,
requiring him to forbear ordaining any more artificers and other illite-
rate persons who exercised secular occupations 1 . But as the evil was
unavoidable, this caution took but little effect k . About the year 1563,

Strype's Grindal, B. i. ch. iv. h. 40. reformed religion. The first mechanic who

k Numerous illuminated artificers began left his lawful calling to vindicate the cause

early to preach and write in defence of the of the catholics, was one Miles Hoggard,

XXXVI.] DURING THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 19

there were only two divines, and those of higher rank, the president of
Magdalen college 1 , and the dean of Christ Church, who were capable
of preaching the public sermons before the university of Oxford 1 ". I
will mention one instance of the extreme ignorance of our inferior
clergy about the middle of the sixteenth century. In the year 1570,
Home, bishop of Winchester, enjoined the minor canons of his cathe-
dral to get by memory, every week, one chapter of saint Paul's epistles
in Latin : and this formidable task, almost beneath the abilities of an
ordinary school-boy, was actually repeated by some of them, before the
bishop, dean, and prebendaries, at a public episcopal visitation of that
church". It is well known that a set of homilies was published to sup-
ply their incapacity in composing sermons; but it should be remem-
bered that one reason for prescribing this authorized system of doctrine,
was to prevent preachers from disturbing the peace of the church by
disseminating their own novel and indigested opinions.

The taste for Latin composition in the reign of Elizabeth, notwith-
standing it was fashionable both to write and speak in that language,
was much worse than in the reign of Henry the Eighth, when juster
models were studied, and when the novelty of classical literature excited
a general emulation to imitate the Roman authors. The Latinity of
Ascham's prose has little elegance. The versification and phraseology
of Buchanan's Latin poetry are 'splendid and sonorous, but not marked
with the chaste graces and simple ornaments of the Augustan age. One
is surprised to find the learned archbishop Grindal, in the statutes of a
school which he founded, and amply endowed, recommending such bar-
barous and degenerate classics as Palingenius, Sedulius, and Pruden-
tius, to be taught in his new foundation . These, indeed, were the
classics of a reforming bishop : but the well-meaning prelate would
have contributed much more to the success of his intended reformation,
by directing books of better taste and less piety. That classical litera-
ture, and the public instruction of youth, were now in the lowest state,
we may collect from a provision in archbishop Parker's foundation of
three scholarships at Cambridge, in the year 1567. He orders that the
scholars, who are appointed to be elected from three the most consider-

a shoe-maker or hosier, of London ; who, the Pathway to the Towre of Perfection,

in the reign of queen Mary, wrote a pam- Lond. 1556. 4to. with some other pieces,

phlet entitled, The Displaying of protest- l Doctor Lawrence Humphrey, men-

anls, and sundry tlteir practices, &c. tioned in the last note. Of whom it will

Lond. 1556. 12mo. This piece soon ac- not be improper to observe further in this

quired importance by being answered by place, that about the year 1553, he wrote

Lawrence Humphrey, and other eminent an Epislola de Grecis literis et Homeri

reformers. He printed other pieces of the lectione et imitatione ad prtesidem et socios

same tendency. He was likewise an En- collegii Magdalence, Oxon. In the Cornu- '

glish poet; and I am glad of this oppor- copia of Hadrian Junius, Basil. 1558. fol.

tunity of mentioning him in that character, m Wood, ut supr. i. 285.

as I could not have ventured to give him n llegistr. Home, Episc. Winton. fol.

a place in the scries of our poetry. He 80. b.

wrote the Mirrour of Love, Lond. 1555. Strype's Grindal, B.ii. ch. xvii. p. 312.

4to. Dedicated to queen Mary. Also This was in 1583,

20 ELIZABETHAN PERIOD OF LITERATURE. [SECT.

able schools in Kent and Norfolk, hall be "the best and aptest schol-
lers, well instructed in the grammar, and, if it may be, such as can make
a verse?" Jt became fashionable in this reign to study Greek at court.
The maids of honour indulged their ideas of sentimental affection in
the sublime contemplation of Plato's Phaedo : and the queen, who
understood Greek better than the canons of Windsor, and was certainly
a much greater pedant than her successor James the First, translated
Isocrates**. But this passion for the Greek language soon ended where
t began : nor do we find that it improved the national taste, or influ-
enced the writings, of the age of Elizabeth.

All changes of rooted establishments, especially of a national religion,
are attended with shocks and convulsions, unpropitious to the repose
of science and study. But these unavoidable inconveniencies last not
long. When the liberal genius of protestantism had perfected its work,
and the first fanaticisms of well-meaning but misguided zealots had sub-
sided, every species of useful and elegant knowledge recovered its
strength, and arose with new vigour. Acquisitions, whether in theo-
logy or humanity, were no longer exclusively confined to the clergy :
the laity eagerly embraced those pursuits from which they had long
been unjustly restrained : and, soon after the reign of Elizabeth, men
attained that state of general improvement, and those situations with
respect to literature and life, in which they have ever since persevered.

But it remains to bring home, and to apply, this change in the sen-
timents of mankind, to our main subject. The customs, institutions,
traditions, and religion of the middle ages, were favorable to poetry.
Their pageants, processions, spectacles, and ceremonies, were friendly
to imagery, to personification and allegory. Ignorance and superstition,
so opposite to the real interests of human society, are the parents of
imagination. The very devotion of the Gothic times was romantic.
The catholic worship, besides that its numerous exterior appendages
were of a picturesque and even of a poetical nature, disposed the mind
to a state of deception, and encouraged, or rather authorised, every
species of credulity : its visions, miracles, and legends, propagated a
general propensity to the Marvellous, and strengthened the belief of
spectres, demons, witches, and incantations. These illusions were
heightened by churches of a wonderful mechanism, and constructed on
such principles of inexplicable architecture as had a tendency to im-
press the soul with every false sensation of religious fear. The savage
pomp and the capricious heroism of the baronial manners, were replete
with incident, adventure, and enterprise : and the intractable genius of
the feudal policy, held forth those irregularities of conduct, discordan-
cies of interest, and dissimilarities of situation, that framed rich mate-
rials for the minstrel-muse. The tacit compact of fashion, which pro-

P Blomefield's Norfolk, ii. 224. edit. 1589. And Epistql. lib. i. p. 19. ut

q Ascham's Scholemaster, p. 19. b. supr.

xxxvii.] PETRARCH'S SONNETS. 21

motes civility by diffusing habits of uniformity, and therefore destroys
peculiarities of character and situation, had not yet operated upon life :
nor had domestic convenience abolished unwieldy magnificence. Lite-
rature, and a better sense of things, not only banished these barbarities,
but superseded the mode of composition which was formed upon them.
Romantic poetry gave way to the force of reason and inquiry ; as its
own inchanted palaces and gardens instantaneously vanished, when the
Christian champion displayed the shield of truth, and baffled the charm
of the necromancer. The study of the classics, together with a colder
magic and a tamer mythology, introduced method into composition:
and the universal ambition of rivalling those new patterns of excellence,
the faultless models of Greece and Rome, produced that bane of in-
vention, IMITATION. Erudition was made to act upon genius. Fancy
was weakened by reflection and philosophy. The fashion of treating
every thing scientifically, applied speculation and theory to the arts of
writing. Judgment was advanced above imagination, and rules of cri-
ticism were established. The brave eccentricities of original genius,
and the daring hardiness of native thought, were intimidated by meta-
physical sentiments of perfection and refinement. Setting aside the
consideration of the more solid advantages, which are obvious, and are
not the distinct object of our contemplation at present, the lover of true
poetry will ask, what have we gained by this revolution ? It may be
answered, much good sense, good taste, and good criticism. But, in the
mean time, we have lost a set of manners, and a system of machinery,
more suitable to the purposes of poetry, than those which have been
adopted in their place. We have parted with extravagancies that are
above propriety, with incredibilities that are more acceptable than truth,
and with fictions that are more valuable than reality.

SECTION XXXVII.

Petrarch's sonnets. Lord Surrey. His education, travels, mistress, life,
and poetry. He is the first writer of blank-verse. Italian blank-verse.
Surrey the first English classic poet.

OUR communications and intercourse with Italy, which began to pre-
vail about the beginning of the sixteenth century, not only introduced
the studies of classical literature into England, but gave a new turn to
our vernacular poetry. At this period, Petrarch still continued the
most favorite poet of the Italians; and had established a manner, which
was universally adopted and imitated by his ingenious countrymen. In

22 LORD SURREY. -[SECT.

the mean time, the courts both of France and England were distinguished
for their elegance. Francis the First had changed the state of letters
in France, by mixing gallantry with learning, and by admitting the la-
dies to his court in company with the ecclesiastics 11 . His carousals were
celebrated with a brilliancy and a festivity unknown to the ceremonious
shows of former princes. Henry the Eighth vied with Francis in these
gaieties. His ambition, which could not bear a rival even in diversions,
was seconded by liberality of disposition and a love of ostentation. For
Henry, with many boisterous qualities, was magnificent and affable. Had
he never murdered his wives, his politeness to the fair sex would re-
main unimpeached. His martial sports were unincumbered by the bar-
baric pomp of the antient chivalry, and softened by the growing habits
of more rational manners. He was attached to those spectacles and
public amusements, in which beauty assumed a principal share ; and
his frequent masques and tournaments encouraged a high spirit of ro-
mantic courtesy. Poetry was the natural accompaniment of these re-
finements. Henry himself was a leader and a chief character in these
pageantries, and at the same time a reader and a writer of verses. The
language and the manners of Italy were esteemed and studied. The
sonnets of Petrarch were the great models of composition. They en-
tered into the genius of the fashionable manners : and in a court of such
a complexion, Petrarch of course became the popular poet. Henry
Howard earl Surrey, with a mistress perhaps as beautiful as Laura, and
at least with Petrarch's passion if not his taste, led the way to great im-
provements in English poetry, by a happy imitation of Petrarch, and
other Italian poets, who had been most successful in painting the anx-
ieties of love with pathos and propriety.

Lord Surrey's life throws so much light on the character and sub-
jects of his poetry, that it is almost impossible to consider the one, with-
out exhibiting a few anecdotes of the other. He was the son and grand-
son of two lords treasurers dukes of Norfolk ; and in his early childhood
discovered the most promising marks of lively parts and an active
mind.

While a boy, he was habituated to the modes of a court at Windsor-
castle ; where he resided, yet under the care of proper instructors, in
the quality of a companion to Henry Fitzroy, duke of Richmond, a na-
tural son of king Henry the Eighth, and of the highest expectations.

This young nobleman, who also bore other titles arid honours, was
the child of Henry's affection ; not so much on account of his hopeful
abilities, as for a reason insinuated by lord Herbert, and at which those
who know Henry's history and character will not be surprised, because
he equally and strongly resembled both his father and mother.

A friendship of the closest kind commencing between these two il-
lustrious youths, about the year 1530, they were both removed to Car-
dinal Wolscy's college at Oxford, then universally frequented, as well
E Sec supra, vol. ii. Sect. xxxv.

XXXVil.] LORD SURREY. 23

for the excellence as the novelty of its institution ; for it was one of the
first seminaries of an English university, that professed to explode the
pedantries of the old barbarous philosophy, and to cultivate the graces
of polite literature. Two years afterwards, for the purpose of acquiring
every accomplishment of an elegant education, the earl accompanied his
noble friend and fellow-pupil into France, where they received king
Henry, on his arrival at Calais to visit Francis the First, with a most
magnificent retinue. The friendship of these two young noblemen was
soon strengthened by a new tie ; for Richmond married the lady Mary
Howard, Surrey's sister. Richmond, however, appears to have died in
the year 1536, about the age of seventeen, having never cohabited with
his wife 6 . It was long, before Surrey forgot the untimely loss of this
amiable youth, the friend and associate of his childhood, and who nearly
resembled himself in genius, refinement of manners, and liberal acqui-
sitions.

The FAIR GERALDINE, the general object of lord Surrey's passion-
ate sonnets, is commonly said to have lived at Florence, and to have
been of the family of the Geraldi of that city. This is a mistake, yet
not entirely without grounds, propagated by an easy misapprehension
of an expression in one of our poet's odes, and a passage in Dray ton's
heroic epistles. She was undoubtedly one of the daughters of Gerald
Fitzgerald, earl of Kildare. But it will be necessary to transcribe what
our author himself has said of this celebrated lady. The history of one
who caused so memorable and so poetical a passion naturally excites
curiosity, and will justify an investigation, which, on many a similar
occasion, would properly be censured as frivolous and impertinent.

From Tuskane came my ladies worthy race ;
Faire Florence was sometyme her c auncient seate :
The westerne yle, whose pleasant shore doth face
Wild Camber's cliffs, furst gave her lively heate:
Fostred she was with milke of Irishe brest ;
Her sire an earle : her dame of princes blood :
From tender yeres in Britain did she rest
With a kinges child, who tasteth ghostly food.
Honsdon did first present her to mine eyen:
Bright is her hewe, and Geraldine she hight.
Hampton me taught to wish her first for mine,
And Windsor, alas ! doth chase me from her sight d .

These notices, it must be confessed, are obscure and indirect. But
a late elegant biographer* has, with the most happy sagacity, solved

'' Wood, Ath. Oxon. i. 68. that of Alnaschar by the awakening force

c i. e. their. d Fol. 5. edit. 1557. of fact. See Life of Lord Surrey i the

* [Horace Walpole, afterwards earl of edit, of English Poets hy Mr. Alex. Chal-

Orford, whose ingenious fabric of hypo- mers, and Dr. Nott's Memoirs before the

thelical illustration has been levelled like works of Surrey and Wyatt. PARK.]

24 LORD SURREY. [SECT.

the difficulties of this little enigmatical ode, which had been before
either neglected and unatteinpted as inexplicable, or rendered more un-
intelligible by false conjectures. I readily adopt Mr. Walpole's key
to the genealogy of the matchless Geraldine 6 .

Her poetical appellation is almost her real name. Gerald Fitzgerald,
above mentioned, earl of Kildare in the reign of Henry the Eighth,
married a second wife, Margaret daughter of Thomas Gray, marquis
of Dorset: by whom he had three daughters, Margaret, Elisabeth, and
Cicely. Margaret was born deaf and dumb ; arid a lady who could
neither hear nor answer her lover, and who wanted the means of contri-
buting to the most endearing reciprocations, can hardly be supposed to
have been the cause of any vehement effusions of amorous panegyric.
We may therefore safely pronounce Elisabeth or Cicely to have been
Surrey's favorite. It was probably Elisabeth, as she seems always to
have lived in England.

Every circumstance of the sonnet evidently coincides with this state
of the case. But, to begin with the first line, it will naturally be asked,
what was lady Elisabeth Gerald's connection with Tuscany ? The be-
ginnings of noble families, like those of nations, often owe somewhat
to fictitious embellishment: and our genealogists uniformly assert, that
the family of Fitzgerald derives its origin from Otho, a descendant of
the dukes of Tuscany: that they migrated into England under the reign
of king Alfred, whose annals are luckily too scanty to contradict such
an account; and were from England speedily transplanted into Ireland.
Her father was an Irish earl, resident at his earldom of Kildare ; and
she was consequently born and nursed in Ireland. Her mother, adds
the sonnet, was of princely parentage. Here is a no less exact corre-
spondence with the line of the lady's pedigree : for Thomas, marquis of
Dorset, was son of queen Elizabeth Gray, daughter of the duchess of
Bedford, descended from the royal house of Luxemburgh. The poet
acquaints us, that he first saw her at Hunsdon. This notice, which
seems of an indifferent nature and quite extraneous to the question,
abundantly corroborates our conjecture. Hundsdon-house in Hertford-
shire was a new palace built by Henry the Eighth, and chiefly for the
purpose of educating his children. The lady Elizabeth Fitzgerald was
second cousin to Henry's daughters the princesses Mary and Elisabeth,
who were both educated at Hunsdon f . At this royal nursery she there-
fore tasted of costly foode with hinges childe, that is, lived while a girl
with the young princesses her relations, as a companion in their educa-
tion. At the same time, and on the same plan, our earl of Surrey re-
sided at Windsor-castle, as I have already remarked, with the young
duke of Richmond. It is natural to suppose, that he sometimes visited
the princesses at Hunsdon, in company with the young duke their
brother, where he must have also seen the fair Geraldine : yet by the

e Catal. Roy. and Noble Authors, vol. i. f Strype, Eccl. Mem. vol. i. Append,

p. 105. edit. 1759. Numb, 71,

XXXVII.] LORD SURREY. 25

nature of his situation at Windsor, which implied a degree of confine-
ment, he was hindered from visiting her at Hunsdon so often as he
wished. He therefore pathetically laments.

Windsor, alas, doth chase me from her sight !

But although the eail first beheld this lady at the palace of Hunsdon,
yet, as we further learn from the sonnet, he was first struck with her
incomparable beauty, and his passion commenced, at Hampton-court.

Hampton me taught to wish her first for mine !

That is, and perhaps on occasion of some splendid masque or carousal,
when the lady Elisabeth Fitzgerald, with the princesses Mary and Elisa-
beth, and their brother Richmond, with the young lord Surrey, were
invited by the king to Hampton-court.

In the mean time we must remember, that the lord Leonard Gray,
uncle to lord Gerald Fitzgerald, was deputy of Ireland for the young duke
of Richmond : a connection, exclusive of all that has been said, which
would alone account for Surrey's acquaintance at least with this lady.
It is also a reason, to say no more, why the earl should have regarded
her from the first with a particular attention, which afterwards grew
into the most passionate attachment. She is supposed to have been
maid of honour to queen Catharine. But there are three of Henry's
queens of that name. For obvious reasons, however, we may venture
to say, that queen Catharine Howard was Geraldine's queen.

It is not precisely known at what period the earl of Surrey began his
travels. They have the air of a romance. He made the tour of Europe
in the true spirit of chivalry, and with the ideas of an Amadis ; pro-
claiming the unparalleled charms of his mistress, and prepared to de-
fend the cause of her beauty with the weapons of knight-errantry.
Nor was this adventurous journey performed without the intervention
of an enchanter. The first city in Italy which he proposed to visit
was Florence, the capital of Tuscany, and the original seat of the an-
cestors of his Geraldine. In his way thither, he passed a few days at
the emperor's court ; where be became acquainted with Cornelius
Agrippa, a celebrated adept in natural magic. This visionary philoso-
pher showed our hero, in a mirror of glass, a living image of Geral-
dine, reclining on a couch, sick, and reading one of his most tender
sonnets by a waxen taper?. His imagination, which wanted not the

E Drayton, Her. Epist. Howard to ard, earl of Surrey, as his page. On pro-

Geraldine, v. 57. ceeding to the Emperor's court it was

[Mr. Warton certainly seems to speak agreed between them to change names

as though this visionary display of the fair and characters, that the earl might take

Geraldine had been an actuil exhibition; more liberty of behaviour; and beco-

whereas it was the romantic invention of ming familiarly acquainted with Cornelius

Tom Nash in his fanciful Life of Jacke Agrippa, " I, (says Nash,) because I was

Wilton, printed in 1594. Nash under the his suborned Lorde and Master, desired

character of his hero professes to have tra- him to see the lively image of Geraldine,

veiled in company with Lord Henry How- his love, in the glasse, and what at that

26 LORD SURREY. [sECT.

flattering representations and artificial incentives of illusion, \vas heated
anew bv this interesting and affecting spectacle. Inflamed with every
enthusiasm of the most romantic passion, he hastened to Florence : and,
on his arrival, immediately published a defiance against any person who
could handle a lance and was in love, whether Christian, Jew, Turk,
Saracen, or Canibal, who should presume to dispute the superiority of
Geraldine's beauty*. As the lady was pretended to be of Tuscan ex-
traction, the pride of the Florentines was flattered on this occasion : and
the grand duke of Tuscany permitted a general and unmolested ingress
into his dominions of the combatants of all countries, till this important
trial should be decided. The challenge was accepted, and the earl vic-
torious 11 . The shield which he presented to the duke before the tour-
nament began, is exhibited in Vertue's valuable plate of the Arundel
family, and was actually in the possession of the late duke of Norfolk 1 .

These heroic vanities did not, however, so totally engross the time
which Surrey spent in Italy, as to alienate his mind from letters : he
studied with the greatest success a critical knowledge of the Italian
tongue, and that he might give new lustre to the name of Geraldine,
attained a just taste for the peculiar graces of the Italian poetry.

He was recalled to England for some idle reason by the king, much
sooner than he expected : and he returned home, the most elegant tra-
veller, the most polite lover, the most learned nobleman, and the most
accomplished gentleman, of his age. Dexterity in tilting, and graceful-
ness in managing a horse under arms, were excellencies now viewed
with a critical eye, and practised with a high degree of emulation. In
1540, at a tournament held in the presence of the court at Westminster,
and in which the principal of the nobility were engaged, Surrey was
distinguished above the rest for his address in the use and exercise of
arms. But his martial skill was not solely displayed in the parade and
ostentation of these domestic combats. In 154-2, he marched into Scot-
land, as a chief commander in his father's army : and was conspicuous

instant she did and with whom she was If on the guilt tree in the list he set

talking. He showed her us without more Thy pretty, lovely, pretty counterfeit 1 ;

ado, sicke, weeping on her bedde, and re- All planet-struck with those two stars,

solved all into devoute religion for the thy eyne,

absence of her lonle. At the sight thereof (Out-shining farre his heav'nly Geral-

he could in no wise refrayne, though he dine}

had tooke upon him the condition of a There w d no staffe be shiver'd none w d

servant, but he must forthwith frame an dare

extemporal dittee." This ditty Nash pro- A beautie with Amanda's to compare.

vided: it begins : p. 73. PARK.]

All soule, no earthly flesh, why dost thou h Wood, ubi supr.

fade? PARK.] i Walpole, Anecd. Paint, i. 7(5. [The

shield is still preserved at Norfolk House.

* [Hooker thus alludes to tins challenge Dr N who rejecto the story of the tour-
in his Amanda, &c. 1653. nament ^ an ." dle feble> J ncdves the

Were Surrey travel'd now to Tuskanie shield to have been a Inter acquisition of

OfTring to reach his gauntlet out for thce ; the Norfolk family. PRICE.]

J i. c, picture.

XXXVII.] LORD SURREY, 27

for his conduct and bravery at the memorable battle of Flodden-field,
where James the Fourth of Scotland was killed *. The next year, we
find the career of his victories impeded by an obstacle which no valour
could resist. The censures of the church have humiliated the greatest
heroes : and he was imprisoned in Windsor-castle for eating flesh in
Lent. The prohibition had been renewed or strengthened by a recent
proclamation of the king. I mention this circumstance, not only as it
marks his character, impatient of any controul, and careless of very se-
rious consequences which often arise from a contempt of petty formal-
ities, but as it gave occasion to one of his most sentimental and pathetic
sonnets k . In 1544, he was field-marshal of the English army in the ex-
pedition to Bologne, which he took. In that age, love and arms con-
stantly went together : and it was amid the fatigues of this protracted
campaign, that he composed his last sonnet called the FANSIE of a
wearied Lover 1 .

But as Surrey's popularity increased, his interest declined with the
king ; whose caprices and jealousies grew more violent with his years
and infirmities. The brilliancy of Surrey's character, his celebrity in
the military science, his general abilities, his wit, learning, and affabi-
lity, were viewed by Henry with disgust and suspicion. It was in vain
that he possessed every advantageous qualification, which could adorn
the scholar, the courtier, and the soldier. In proportion as he was amiable
in the eyes of the people, he became formidable to the king. His rising
reputation was misconstrued into a dangerous ambition, and gave
birth to accusations equally groundless and frivolous. He was suspected
of a design to marry the princess Mary ; and, by that alliance, of ap-
proaching to a possibility of wearing the crown. It was insinuated,
that he conversed with foreigners, and held a correspondence with car-
dinal Pole.

The addition of the escocheon of Edward the Confessor to his own,
although used by the family of Norfolk for many years, and justified by
the authority of the heralds, was a sufficient foundation for an impeach-
ment of high treason. These motives were privately aggravated by those
prejudices, with which Henry remembered the misbehaviour of Catha-
rine Howard, and which were extended to all that lady's relations. At
length, the earl of Surrey fell a sacrifice to the peevish injustice of a
merciless and ungrateful master. Notwithstanding his eloquent and
masculine defence, which even in the cause of guilt itself would have
proved a powerful persuasive, he was condemned by the prepared suf-
frage of a servile and obsequious jury, and beheaded on Tower-hill in
the year 1547 m In the mean time we should remember, that Surrey's

* [The battle of Flodden-field was fought [The earl's body was conveyed to

in 1513. PRICE.] k Fol. 6. 7. Framlingham in Suffolk, and a Latin epi-

1 Fol. 18. SeeDugd. Baron, ii. p.275. tapli placed on his tomb, which dates his

m See Stowe, Chron. p. 592. dial- immature decease in 154G. See Hist.

loner, dc Republ. Angl. instaurand. lib. ii. Anecd. of the Howards, p. -28. PARK.]

28 LORD SURREY. [SECT.

public conduct was not on all occasions quite unexceptionable. In the
affair of Bologne he had made a false step. This had offended the king.
But Henry, when once offended, could never forgive. And when Hert-
ford was sent into France to take the command, he could not refrain
from dropping some reproachful expressions against a measure which
seemed to impeach his personal courage. Conscious of his high birth
and capacity, he was above the little attentions of caution and reserve;
and he too frequently neglected to consult his own situation, and the
king's temper. It was his misfortune to serve a monarch, whose re-
sentments, which were easily provoked, could only be satisfied by the
most severe revenge. Henry brought those men to the block, which
other monarchs would have only disgraced.

Among these anecdotes of Surrey's life, I had almost forgot to men-
tion what became of his amour with the fair Geraldine. We lament to
find that Surrey's devotion to this lady did not end. in a wedding, and
that all his gallantries and verses availed so little ! No memoirs of that
incurious age have informed us whether her beauty was equalled by
her cruelty ; or whether her ambition prevailed so far over her grati-
tude, as to tempt her to prefer the solid glories of a more splendid title
and ample fortune, to the challenges and the compliments of so magna-
nimous, so faithful, and so eloquent a lover. She appears, however, to
have been afterwards the third wife of Edward Clinton, earl of Lincoln.
Such also is the power of time and accident over amorous vows, that
even Surrey himself outlived the violence of his passion. He married
Frances, daughter of John earl of Oxford, by whom he left several
children. One of his daughters, Jane countess of Westmoreland, was
among the learned ladies of that age, and became famous for her know-
ledge of the Greek and Latin languages".

Surrey's poems were in high reputation with his cotemporarit s, and
for many years afterwards. He is thus characterised by the author of
the old ARTE OF ENGLISH POESIE, whose opinion remained long as a
rule of criticism. "In the latter end of the same kinges [Henry] raigne,
spronge up a new company of courtly makers, of whom sir Thomas Wyat
the elder and Henry earle of Surrey were the two CHIEFTAINES, who
having travailed into Italic, and there tasted the sweete and stately -
measures and stile of the Italian poesie, as novices newly crept out of
the schooles of Dante, Ariosto, and Petrarch, they greatly polished our
rude and homely manner of vulgar poesie from that it had bene before,
and for that cause may justly be sayd the first reformers of our English
meeter and stile ." And again, towards the close of the same chapter.
" Henry earle of Surrey, and sir Thomas Wyat, between whom I finde
very little difference, I repute them (as before) for the two chief lan-
ternes of light to all others that have since employed their penncs upon
English poesie : their conceits were loftie, their stiles stately, their con-

n Dugd. Baron, i. 533. ii. 275. " Lib. i. ch. xxxi. p. 48. edit. 1589.

XXXVII.] LORD SURREY. 29

veyance cleanly, their termes proper, their meetre sweete and well-pro-
portioned, in all imitating very naturally and studiously their maister
Francis Petrarcha?." I forbear to recite the testimonies of Leland, Syd-
ney, Turberville, Churchyard, and Drayton*. Nor have these pieces,
although scarcely known at present, been without the panegyric of more
recent times. Surrey is praised by Waller and Fenton ; and he seems
to have been a favourite with Pope. Pope, in WINDSOR-FOREST, ha-
ving compared his patron lord Granville with Surrey, he was imme-
diately reprinted, but without attracting many readers^. It was vainly
imagined, that all the world would eagerly wish to purchase the works
of a neglected antient English poet, whom Pope had called the GRAN-
VILLE of a former age. So rapid are the revolutions of our language,
and such the uncertainty of literary fame, that Philips, Milton's nephew,
who wrote about the year 1674, has remarked, that in his time Surrey's
poetry was antiquated and totally forgotten 1 ".

Our author's SONGES AND SONNETTES, as they have been stiled,
were first collected and printed at London by Tottell, in 1557 s . As it
happens in collections of this kind, they are of various merit. Surrey
is said, by the ingenious author [editor] of the MUSES LIBRARY, to
have been the first who broke through the fashion of stanzas, and wrote
in the heroic couplet. But all Surrey's poems are in the alternate
rhyme; nor, had this been true, is the other position to be granted.
Chaucer's Prologues and most of the Canterbury Tales are written in
long verse : nor was the use of the couplet resumed, till late in the
reign of Elisabeth -j-.

p Ibid. p. 50. Others, in 1574. 1585. 1587. Others

* [Other early testimonials were offer- appeared afterwards.

ed by Tusser, Harvey, Whitney, Googe, [Dr. Nott has ascertained that there

Peacham and R. Fletcher. I cite the first were two editions in 1557. Others not in-

and last of these on account of the rarity eluded by Mr. Warton appeared in 15G7

of the books in which they occur. and 1569. The reprint by Meares, pub-

What lookest thou here for to have ? lished with Sewell's biography of Surrey,

Trim verses, thy fansie to please? is one of the most slovenly and defective

Of SURRY, so famous, that crave ; books that has appeared. PARK.]

Looke nothing but rudeness in these. t [ A passing tribute both to Chaucer

and Surrey may here be noticed from a

Preface to A hundreth good Pomtes of v rare misce ll any published in 1578,

and entitled "A Gorgeous Gallery of gal-

Had your (P. Henry's) praise been limn'd lant Inventions."

with learned pen . ~

Of princely SURREY, once a poet sweet, * f CH ' VU( 1 ER ? et dld ^ e

Sir Thomas Wyat, or like gentlemen, * En *" S . h f "^ 16 dld P asse

They on this theame discoursers had beene A ^ 7 S ", ? dr> '. Parnassus 8 P

meet- And dranke the juice there was :

If Surrey had not scalde

R.FletchersNineEngli S hWorthies,lG06. The he ighf of Jove his throne

' e ii t JiV T> Unto whose head a pillow softe

BySewell 1717. Reprinted by Curl, lb . Became Mount Htf ^

Theatr.Poetar. P .67.edit.l674.12mo. Th with theh . Mus ^ s CQuld

In quarto It is extraordinary, that Not have pronounct the fame

A. Wood should not have known this edi- O f D. fuire dame, &C.-!>ARK.]

tion. Another edition appeared in 1565.

IORD SURREY.

[SECT.

In the sonnets of Surrey, we are surprised to find nothing of that
metaphysical cast which marks the Italian poets, his supposed masters,
especially Petrarch. Surrey's sentiments are for the most part natural
and unaffected ; arising from his own feelings, and dictated by the
present circumstances*. His poetry is alike unembarrassed by learned
allusions, or elaborate conceits. If our author copies Petrarch, it is
Petrarch's better manner : when he descends from his Platonic abstrac-
tions, his refinements of passion, his exaggerated compliments, and his
play upon opposite sentiments, into a track of tenderness, simplicity, and
nature. Petrarch would have been a better poet had he been a worse
scholar. Our author's mind was not too much overlaid by learning.

The following is the poem above mentioned, in which he laments
his imprisonment in Windsor Castle. But it is rather an elegy than a
sonnet.

So cruell prison, how could betyde, alas,
As proude Windsor 1 ! where I, in lust and joy u ,
Wyth a kynges sonne w my childyshe years did passe,
In greater feastes than Priam's sonnes of Troye.

Where eche swete place returnes a taste full sower :
The large grene courtes where we were wont to hove x ,
Wyth eyes cast up into the mayden's tower y,
And easy siglies, such as folke drawe in love :

* [Dr. Henry observes that English po-
etry, till refined by Surrey, degenerated
into metrical chronicles or tasteless alle-
gories. Hist, of Eng. xii. 292. Dr. An-
derson deems his love verses equal to the
best in our language ; while in harmony
of numbers, perspicuity of expression, and
facility of phraseology, they approach so
near the productions of the present age,
as hardly to be believed they could have
been produced in the reign of Henry VIII.
Brit. Poets, i. 593. PARK.]

* How could the stately castle of Windsor
become so miserable a prison ? [Rather :
what prison could be so miserable as the
stately castle of Windsor, &c. PRICE.]

"In unrestrained gaiety and pleasure.
w With the young duke of Richmond.
x To hover, to loiter in expectation. So
Chaucer, Troil. and Cress. B. 5. ver. 33.

T5ut at the yate there she should outride
With certain folk he hovid her t' abide.

y Swift's joke about the Maids of ho-
nour being lodged at Windsor in the round
tower, in queen Anne's time, is too well
known and too indelicate to be repeated
here. But in the present instance, Surrey
speaks loosely and poetically in making

the MAIDEN-TOWER, the true reading, the
residence of the women. The maiden-
tower was common in other castles, and
means the principal tower, of the greatest
strength and defence. MAIDEN is a cor-
ruption of the old French Magnu, or Maijue,
great. Thus Maidenhead (properly May-
denhithe) in Berkshire, signifies the great
port or wharf on the river Thames. So
also, May den- Bradley in Wiltshire is the
great Bradley. The old Roman camp near
Dorchester in Dorsetshire, a noble work, is
called Maiden castle, the capital fortress in
those parts. We have Maiden-down in
Somersetshire with the same signification.
A thousand other instances might be given.
Hearne, not attending to this etymology,
absurdly supposes, in one of his Prefaces,
that a strong bastion in the old walls of
the city of Oxford, called the MAIDEN-
TOWER, was a prison for confining the
prostitutes of the town. [Mai Dun are
two ancient British words signifying a
great hill. Thus the Maiden Castle (Edin-
burgh) is notCastraPuellarum, but a castle
upon a high hill. Bradley (though Saxon)
is comparatively a modern adjunct. See
Baxter's Glossary, 109-163. RITSON.]

XXXVII,]

LORD SURREY.

The stately seates, the ladies bright of hewe,
The daunces shorte, long tales of great delight,
With wordes and lookes that tygers could but rewe z ;
Where ech of us dyd pleade the others right.

The palme-play a , where, dispoyled for the game b ,
\Vith dazed eyes c oft we by gleames of love,
Have myst the ball, and got sight of our dame,
To bayte d her eyes whych kept the leads above 6 .

The gravell grounde f , wyth sieves tied on the helmed
On fomyng horse, with swordes and frendly hartes ;
Wyth chere h as though one should another whelme 1 ,
Where we have fought and chased oft with dartes.

The secret groves, which ofte we made resounde
Of pleasaunt playnt, and of our ladies prayse,
Recordyng ofte what grace k eche one had found,
What hope of speede 1 , what dreade of long delayes.

The wylde forest, the clothed holtes with grene*,
With ray nes avayled, and swift y breathed horse,
With crye of houndes, and merry Wastes betwene
Where we did chase the fearful harte of force.

z pity. a at ball.

b rendered unfit, or unable, to play.
[Despoiled, is the spoglialo of the Italian:
stripped for the game. NOTT.]

c dazzled eyes.

d to tempt, to catch.

e The ladies were ranged on the leads,
or battlements, of the castle to see the
play.

f The ground, or area, was strown with
gravel, where they were trained in chi-
valry.

B At tournaments they fixed the sleeves
of their mistresses on some part of their
armour.

h looks. * destroy.

k favour with his mistress.

1 or, success.

* the holtes, or thick woods, clothed in
green. So in another place he says, fol. 3.

My specled cheeks with Cupid's hue.

That is, "Cheeks speckled with," &c.

m With loosened reins. So, in his fourth
Aeneid, the fleet is " ready to avale." That
is, to loosen from shore. So again, in Spen-
ser's Februarie :

They wont in the wind wagge their wrig-
gle tayles
Pearke as a peacocke, but now it AVAYLES.

"Avayle their tayles," to drop or lower.
So also in his December :

By that the welked Phebus gan AVAYLE
His wearie waine.

And in the Faerie Queene, with the true
spelling, i. 1. 21. OfNilus:

But when his latter ebbe gins to AVALE.

To VALE, or avale, the bonnet, was a phrase
for lowering the bonnet, or pulling off the
hat. The word occurs in Chaucer, Troil.
and Cress. Hi. 627.

That such araine from heaven gan AVAILE.

And in the fourth book of his Boethius,
" The light fire ariseth into height, and the
hevie yerthes AVAILEN by their weightes."
pag. 394. col. 2. edit. Urr. From the French
verb AVALER, which is from their adverb
AVAL, downward. See also Hearne's Gloss.
Rob. Br. p. 524. Drayton uses this word,
where perhaps it is not properly under-
stood. Eel. iv. p. 1404. edit. 1753.

With that, she gan to VALE her head,
Her cheeks were like the roses red,
But not a word she said, &c.

That is, she did not veil, or cover, but
valed, held down her head for shame.

32 LORD SURREY. [SECT.

The void vales" eke, that harbourd us ech nyght,
Wherewith, alas, reviveth in my brest
The sweete accord ! Such slepes as yet delyght :
The pleasant dreames, the quiet bed of rest.

The secret thoughtes imparted with such trust;
The wanton talke, the dy vers change of playe ;
The friendship sworne, eche promise kept so just,
Wherewith we past the winter nightes away.

And wyth this thought the bloud forsakes the face ;
The teares beraine my chekes of deadly hewe,
The whych as soone as sobbyng sighes, alas,
Upsupped* have, thus I my plaint renewe!

" O place of blisse, renewer of my woes!
Give me accompt, where is my noble fere ,
Whom in thy walles thou doest p eche night enclose,
To other leefe q , but unto me most dere!"

Eccho, alas, that doth my sorrow rewe r ,
Returns therto a hollow sounde of playnt.
Thus I alone, where all my freedom grewe,
In pryson pine, with bondage and restraint.
And with remembrance of the greater greefe
To banish th' lesse, I finde my chief releefe. 3

In the poet's situation, nothing can be more natural and striking than
the reflection with which he opens his complaint. There is also much
beauty in the abruptness of his exordial exclamation. The superb pa-
lace, where he had passed the most pleasing days of his youth with the
son of a king, was now converted into a tedious and solitary prison ! This
unexpected vicissitude of fortune awakens a new and interesting train
of thought. The comparison of his past and present circumstances re-
cals their juvenile sports and amusements; which were more to be re-
gretted, as young Richmond was now dead. Having described some
of these with great elegance, he recurs to his first idea by a beautiful

n Probably the true reading is wales or "Whom in thy walles thou doest eche

walls. That is, lodgings, apartments, &c. night enclose." PRICE.]

These poems were very corruptly printed - rTT . ,

by Tottel. [The printed copy reads "wide * t How can I'S 1 " SU P U P tear f ? Tca '
vales." Dr. Nott has obtained the read- r rhl 'J are sometimes represented as scald-
ing of the text from the Harrington MS., '" *t, **&< dry, though not sup up.
and illustrates it by observing: In Surrey's ASHBY.J
time, not only in noblemen's houses, but p com P anlon -

in royal palaces when the court was not /, * hou ! d read ***' ^ T1 !?, ed l t !T

resident, it was usual to take down all the jf ! * 74 reads " eche stone .alas! which

tapestry and hangings. But why is vales Dr> Nott, with great probability, conceives

suffered to stand when the same poem to j e . the S enuine text. PRICE.]

supplies us with the genuine orthography t dear to olbers ' to aIL

-FoL'6.7.

XXXVII ] LORD SURREY. 33

apostrophe. He appeals to the place of his confinement, once the source
of his highest pleasures : " O place of bliss, renewer of my woes ! And
where is now my noble friend, my companion in these delights, \vho
was once your inhabitant? Echo alone either pities or answers my
question, and returns a plaintive hollow sound !" He closes his com-
plaint with an affecting and pathetic sentiment, much in the style of
Petrarch : " To banish the miseries of my present distress, I am forced
on the wretched expedient of remembering a greater !" This is the
consolation of a warm fancy. It is the philosophy of poetry.

Some of the following stanzas, on a lover who presumed to compare
his lady with the divine Geraldine, have almost the ease and gallantry
of Waller. The leading compliment, which has been used by later
writers, is in the spirit of an Italian fiction. It is very ingenious, and
handled with a high degree of elegance.

Give place, ye Lovers, here before

That spent your bostes and bragges in vaine :

My Ladie's beauty passeth more

The best of yours, I dare wel sayne,

Than doth the sunne the candle lyght,

Or bryghtest day the darkest nyght.

And therto hath a troth as just
As had Penelope the faire :
For what she sayth, ye may it trust,
As it by wryting sealed were :
And vertues hath she many moe
Than I with pen have skill to showe.

I could reherse, if that I would,
The whole effect of NATURE'S plaint,
When she had lost the perfite mould,
The lyke to whom she could not paint.
With wringyng handes how she did cry !
And what she said, I know it, I.

I knowe, she swore with raging mynde,
Her kingdome only set apart,
There was no losse, by law of kynde,
That could have gone so nere her hart :
And this was chiefely all her payne
She could not make the like agayne.*

The versification of these stanzas is correct, the language polished,
and the modulation musical. The following stanza, of another ode
will hardly be believed to have been produced in the reign of Henry
the Eighth.

1 Fol. 10.

VOL. III. D

34 LORD SURREY. [sECT.

. Spite drave me into Boreas' raigne u ,
Where hory frostes the frutes do bite ;
When hilles were spred and every plaine
With stormy winter's mantle white. w

In an Elegy on the elder sir Thomas Wyat's death, his character is
delineated in the following nervous and manly quatraines.

A visage, sterne and milde ; where both did growe,

Vice to contemne, in vertue to rejoyce ;

Amid great stormes, whom grace assured so,

To live upright, and smile at fortune's choyce.

A toung that serv'd in forein realmes his king,

Whose courteous talke to vertue did enflame

Eche noble harte ; a worthy guide to bring

Our English youth by travail unto fame.

An eye, whose judgment none affect* could blind,

Frendes to allure, and foes to reconcyle :

Whose persingy looke did represent a mynde

With vertue fraught, reposed, voyde of gile.

A hart, where dreade was never so imprest

To hide the thought that might the troth avance ;

In neither fortune lost, nor yet represt,

To swell in welth, or yeld unto mischance. 2

The following lines on the same subject are remarkable.

Divers thy death do diversly bemone :
Some that in presence of thy livelyhede
Lurked, whose brestes envy with hate had swolne,
Yeld Cesar's teares upon Pompeius' head. a

There is great dignity and propriety in the following Sonnet on
Wyat's PSALMS.

The great Macedon, that out of Persie chased

Darius, of whose huge power all Asia rong,

In the riche ark b Dan Homer's rimes he placed,

Who fained gestes of heathen princes song.

What holy grave, what worthy sepulchre ,

To Wiattes Psalmes should Christians then purchase ?

Where he doth paint the ly vely faith and pure ;

The stedfast hope, the sweete returne to grace

Of just David by perfite penitence.

Where rulers may see in a mirrour clere

The bitter frute of false concupiscence :

How Jewry bought Uria's deth ful dere.

u Her anger drove me into a colder y piercing. a Fol. 17.

climate. * Fol. 16. b chest.

w Fol. 13. * passion. c repository.

XXXVII.] LORD SURREY. 35

In princes hartes God's scourge imprinted depe
Ought them a\vake out of their sinful slepe. d

Probably the last lines may contain an oblique allusion to some of the
king's amours.

Some passages in his Description of the restlesse state of a Lover, are
pictures of the heart, and touched with delicacy.

I wish for night, more covertly to plaine,
And me withdraw from every haunted place ;
Lest by my chere e my chaunce appeare too plaine.
And in my minde I measure, pace by pace,

To seke the place where I myself had lost,
That day, when I was tangled in the lace,
In seming slack that knitteth ever most.

Lo, if I seke, how I do finde my sore!
And if I flee, I carry with me still
The venom'd shaft, which doth its force restore
By haste of flight. And I may plaine my fill

Unto myself, unlesse this carefull song
Print in your hart some parcel of my tene f .
For I, alas, in silence all too long,
Of mine old hurt yet fele the wound but grene. 5

Surrey's talents, which are commonly supposed to have been confined
to sentiment and amorous lamentation, were adapted to descriptive
poetry and the representations of rural imagery. A writer only that
viewed the beauties of nature with poetic eyes, could have selected the
vernal objects which compose the following exquisite ode. h

The soote season, that bud and blome forth brings,
With grene hath clad the hill, and eke the vale ;
The nightingale with fethers new she sings ;
The turtle to her mate hath tolde her tale :
Somer is come, for every spray now springs.
The hart hath hong his old hed on the pale* :
The buck in brake his winter coate he flings:
The fishes flete with new repayred scale ;
The adder all her slough away she slings :
The swift swallow pursueth the flies smale:
The busy bee her hony now she mings.
Winter is worne that was the flowers bale*.

d Fol. 16. e behaviour, looks. Since frisking fishes lose their finnes

f sorrow. e Fol. 2. h Fol. 2. And glide with new repaired scale ;

* [The following lines from Turberville's Then I offeree, with greedie eie

poems, 1567, denote a close attention to Must hope to finde to ease my smart,

Surrey. Since eche annoy in spring doth die,

Since snakes do cast their shrivelled And cares to comfort doe convart.

skinnes f. 110.-PARK.]

And bucks hange up their headron pale;

D 2

36 LORD SURREY. [SECT.

I do not recollect a more faithful and finished version of Martial's
HAPPY LIFE than the following.

MARTIAL, the thinges that do attain
The happy life, be these I finde.
The riehesse left, not got with pain,
The frutefull ground, the quiet minde.
The eqall frend, no grudge, no strife,
No charge of rule, nor governance ;
Without disease, the healthful life :
The houshold of continuance.
The meane k diet, no delicate fare,
Trewe wisedom joynde with simplenesse :
The night discharged of all care,
Where wine the wit may not oppresse.
The faithful wife without debate,
Such slepes as may begile the night :
Contented with thine own estate,
Ne wish for death, ne feare his might. 1

But Surrey was not merely the poet of idleness and gallantry. He
was fitted, both from nature and study, for the more solid and laborious
parts of literature. He translated the second and fourth books of Virgil
into blank verse: and it seems probable, that his active situations of
life prevented him from completing a design of translating the whole
Eneid.

This is the first composition in blank verse, extant in the English
language. Nor has it merely the relative and accidental merit of being
a curiosity. It is executed with great fidelity, yet not with a prosaic
servility. The diction is often poetical, and the versification varied with
proper pauses. This is the description of Dido and Eneas going to the
field, in the fourth book.

At the. threshold of her chaumber-dore,

The Carthage lords did on the Quene attend :
The trampling steede, with gold and purple trapt,
Chawing the fome bit there fercely stood.
Then issued she, awayted with great train,
Clad in a cloke of Tyre embradred riche.
Her quyver hung behinde her back, her tresse
Knotted in gold, her purple vesture eke
Butned with gold. The Troyans of her train
Before her go, with gladsom lulus.
Aeneas eke, the goodliest of the route,
Makes one of them, andjoyneth close the throng.

k moderate. m They were first printed [by Tottel]

i Pol. 16. in 1557. 4to.

XXXVII.] LORD SURREY. 37

Like when Apollo leaveth Lycia,

His wintring place, and Xanthus' flood likewise,

To viset Delos, his mother's mansion,

Repairing eft and furnishing her quire :

The Candians, and folkes of Driopes,

With painted Agathyrsies, shoute and crye,

Environing the altars round about ;

When that he walks upon mount Cynthus' top,

His sparkled tresse represt with garlandes soft

Of tender leaves, and trussed up in gold:

His quivering 11 dartes clattering behind his back.

So fresh and lustie did Aeneas seme.

But to the hils and wilde holies when they came,

From the rocks top the driven savage rose.

Loe from the hill above, on thother side,

Through the wyde lawnds they gan to take their course.

The harts likewise, in troupes taking their flight,

Raysing the dust, the mountain-fast forsake.

The childe lulus, blithe of his swift steede?

Amids the plain, now pricks by them, now these ;

And to encounter, wisheth oft in minde,

The foming bore, in steede of ferefull beasts,

Or lion brown, might from the hill descend.

The first stages of Dido's passion, with its effects on the rising city,
are thus rendered.

And when they were al gone,

And the dimme moone doth eft withold the light ;
And sliding 'i starres provoked unto sleepe ;
Alone she mournes within her palace voide,
And sits her down on her forsaken bed :
And absent him she heares, when he is gone,
And seeth eke. Oft in her lappe she hojdes
Ascanius, trapt by his father's forme.
So to begile the love cannot be told r !
The turrettes now arise not, erst begonne :
Neither the youth weldes armes, nor they avaunce
The portes, nor other mete defence for warn
Broken there hang the workes, and mighty frames
Of walles high raised, threatening the skie.

The introduction of the wooden horse into Troy, in the same book,
is thus described.

n Perhaps the true reading is, instead Frolick of his full-grown age.

of quivering, " quiver and darts." q falling.

p So Milton in Comus, v. 59. r which cannot, &c.

38 LORD SURREY. [SECT

We cleft the walles, and closures of the towne,

Whereto all helper and underset the feet

With sliding rolles, and bound his neck with ropes.

This fatall gin thus overclambe our walles,

Stuft with armd men : about the which there ran

Children and maides 8 , that holy carolles sang.

And well were they whoes hands might touch the cordes !

With thretning chere, thus slided through our town

The subtil tree, to Pallas temple-ward.

O native land, Dion, and of the goddes

The mansion place ! O warlik walles of Troy !

Fowr times it stopt in thentrie of our gate,

Fowr times the harnesse* clattred in the womb,

The shade of Hector, in the same book, thus appears,

Ah me I What one ? That Hector how unlike,
Which erst returnd, clad with Achilles spoiles !
Or when he threw into the Grekish shippes
The Trojan flame ! So was his beard defiled,
His crisped lockes al clustred with his blood :
With all such wounds as many he received,
About the walls of that his native town I
W T home franckly thus, methought, I spake unto,
With bitter teres, and dolefull deadly voice.
" O Troyan light ! O only hope of thine !
What lettes so long thee staid? Or from what costes,
Our most desired Hector, doest thou come?
Whom, after slaughter of thy many frends,
And travail of the people, and thy towne,
Alweried, (lord !) how gladly we behold I
What sory chaunce hath stain d thy lively face?
Or why see I these woundes, alas so wide?"
He answeard nought, nor in my vain demaundes
Abode : but from the bottom of his brest
Sighing he sayd : " Flee, flee, O goddesse son !
And save thee from the furie of this flame ! "

This was a noble attempt to break the bondage of rhyme. But blank
verse was now growing fashionable in the Italian poetry, the school of
Surrey. Felice Figlinei, a Sanese*, and Surrey's cotemporary, in his

* That is, Boys and girls, pueri innup- Boys of the Scullery. In the western coun-
tcpque puellee. Antiently Child (or Chil- ties, to this day, Maid simply and distinct-
ion) was restrained to the young of the ly means Girl: as, "I have got a Boy and
male sex. Thus, above, we have, "the a Maid." " My wife is brought to bed of
Child lulus," in the original Puer Asca- a Maid," &c. &c.
nius. So the Children of the chapel sig- * arms, armour.

nifies the Boys of the king's chapel. And * [Or Sianese; a native of Sienna in

in the royal kitchen, the Children, i. e. the Tuscany. ASHBY.]

XXXY1I.] LORD SURREY. 39

admirable Italian commentary on the ETHICS of Aristotle, entitled
FILOSOFIA MORALE SOPRA IL LIBRI D'ETHICA D'ARISTOTILE, de-
claims against the barbarity of rhyme, and strongly recommends a total
rejection of this Gothic ornament to his countrymen. He enforces
his precept by his own example ; and translates all Aristotle's quota-
tions from Homer and Euripides into verse without rhyme. Gonsalvo
Perez, the learned secretary to Philip of Spain, had also recently trans-
lated Homer's Odyssey into Spanish blank-verse. How much the ex-
cellent Roger Ascham approved of Surrey's disuse of rhyme in this
translation from Virgil, appears from the following passage in his
SCHOLEMASTER, written about the year 1564? u . "The noble lord
Thomas earle of Surrey, FIRST OF ALL ENGLISHMEN, in translating
the fourth [and second] booke of Virgill; and Gonsalvo Perez, that
excellent learned man, and secretarie to king Philip of Spayne w , in
translating the ULYSSES of Homer out of Greeke into Spanish, have
both by good judgement avoyded the FAULT OF RYMING. The spying
of this fault now is not the curiositie of English eyes, but even the
good judgement also of the best that write in these dayes in Italic.
And you, that be able to understand no more than ye find in the Italian
tong; and never went further than the schoole of PETRARCH and
ARIOSTO abroade, or else of CHAUCER at home, though you have plea-
sure to wander blindlie still in your foule wronge way, envie not others,
that seeke, as wise men have done before them, the FAYREST and
RYGHTEST way. And therefore, even as Virgill and Horace deserve
most worthie prayse, that they, spying the unperfitness in Ennius and
Plautus, by trewe imitation of Homer and Euripides, brought poetrie
to the same perfectnes in Latin as it was in Greeke, even so those, that
by the same way would BENEFIT THEIR TONG and country, deserve
rather thankes than disprayse V

The revival of the Greek and Roman poets in Italy, excited all the
learned men of that country to copy the Roman versification, and con-
sequently banished the old Leonine Latin verse. The same classical
idea operated in some degree on the vernacular poetry of Italy. In

u I know of no English critic besides, Lucan, Juvenal, Martial and Catullus ; in

who has mentioned Surrey's Virgil, ex- the Earl of Surry, Daniel, Jonson, Spen-

cept Bolton, a great reader of old English cer, Don, Shakespear, and the glory of

books. Hypercrit. p. 237. Oxon. 1772. the rest, Sandys and Sydney." Vindex

[Meres had spoken of it with commen- Anglicus. PARK.]

elation before Bolton; but his words are w Among Ascham's Epistles, there is

nearly a repetition of those uttered by one to Perez, inscribed Clarissimo viro

Ascham. See Wits Treasury, 1598. An D. Gonsalvo Perisio Regis Catholici Se-

anonymous writer, in 1644, thus intro- cretario primario et Consiliario intimo,

duced Surrey with several of his sue- Amico meo carissimo. In which Ascham

cessors in vindication of the English as a recommends the embassador sir William

poetic language. " There is no sort of Cecil to his acquaintance and friendship,

verse, either ancient or modern, which Epistol. Lib. Un. p. 228. b. edit. Lond.

we are not able to equal by imitation. We 1581.

have our English. Virgil, Ovid, Seneca, x B. ii. p. 54. b. 55. a edit. 1589. 4t< .

40 LORD SURREY. [SECT.

the year 1528*, Trissino published his ITALIA LIBERATA DI GOTI, or
ITALY DELIVERED FROM THE GOTHS, an heroic poem, professedly
written in imitation of the Iliad, without either rhyme, or the usual
machineries of the Gothic romance. Trissino's design was to destroy
the TERZA RIMA of Dante. We do not, however, find, whether it be
from the facility with which the Italian tongue falls into rhyme, or that
the best and established Italian poets wrote in the stanza, that these
efforts to restore blank-verse produced any lasting effects in the pro-
gress of the Italian poetry. It is very probable, that this specimen of
the Eneid in blank-verse by Surrey, led the way to Abraham Fleming's
blank-verse translation of Virgil's Bucolics and Georgics, although done
in Alexandrines, published in the year 1589 y .

Lord Surrey wrote many other English poems which were never
published, and are now perhaps entirely lost. He translated the Ec-
CLESIASTES of Solomon into English verse. This piece is cited in the
Preface to the Translation of the Psalms f, printed at London in [about}
1567. He also translated a few of the Psalms into metre. These ver-
sions of Scripture show that he was a friend to the reformation. Among
his works are also recited, a Poem on his friend the young duke of Rich-
mond, an Exhortation to the citizens of London, a Translation of Boc-
cace's Epistle to Pin us, and a sett of Latin epistles J. Aubrey has pre-
served a poetical Epitaph, written by Surrey on sir Thomas Clere, his
faithful retainer and constant attendant, which was once in Lambeth-
church 2 ; and which, for its affection and elegance, deserves to be
printed among the earl's poems. I will quote a few lines.

Shelton for love, Surrey for lord thee chase 3 :
(Aye me, while life did last that league was tender!)
Tracing whose steps, thou sawest Kelsall blase,
Laundersey burnt, and batterd Bulleyn's render b :
At Mortrell gates c , hopeless of all recure,
Thine earle halfe dead gave in thy hand his Will ;
Which cause did thee this pining death procure,
Ere summers foure tymes seven thou couldst fulfill.
Ah, Clere ! if love had booted care or cost,
Heaven had not wonne, nor earth so timely lost d !

John Clere, who travelled into Italy with Pace, an eminent linguist
of those times, and secretary to Thomas duke of Norfolk, father of lord

* [Dr. Nott conceives Surrey could not * See Aubrey's Surrey, V. 247.

have seen this poem, as it was not printed a chose. b surrender,

till after his death. PRICE.] c Towns taken by lord Surrey in the

y London, 4to. Bologne expedition, [except Kelsal, which

f [Ascribed hereafter to archbishop Par- was burnt during the incursion into Scot-

ker. PARK.] land. NOTT.]

J [The book of Epistles and the transla- d He died in 1 545. See Stowe's Chron.

tion of Boccace's Epistle to Pinus haye not . p. 586. 588. edit. 1615.
hitherto been discovered. Du. NOTT.]

XXXVIII.] SIR THOMAS VVVAT. 41

Surrey, in a dedication to the latter, prefixed to his TRETISE OF No-
BILITIE, printed at London in 154-3 6 , has mentioned, with the highest
commendations, many translations done by Surrey, from the Latin,
Italian, French, and Spanish languages. But these it is probable were
nothing more than juvenile exercises.

Surrey, for his justness of thought, correctness of style, and purity of
expression, may justly be pronounced the first English classical poet.
He unquestionably is the first polite writer of love-verses in our lan-
guage. It must, however, be allowed, that there is a striking native
beauty in some of our love-verses written much earlier than Sur-
rey's. But in the most savage ages and countries, rude nature has
taught elegance to the lover.

SECTION XXXVIII.

Sir Thomas Wyat. Inferior to Surrey as a writer of Sonnets. His
Life. His Genius characterised. Excels in Moral Poetry.

WITH Surrey's Poems, Tottel has joined, in his editions of 1557 and
1565, the SONGES and SONNETTES of sir Thomas Wyat the elder a , and
of Uncertain Auctours.

Wyat was of Allington-castle in Kent, which he magnificently re-
paired, and educated in both our universities. But his chief and most
splendid accomplishments were derived from his travels into various
parts of Europe, which he frequently visited in the quality/, of an en-
voy. He was endeared to king Henry the Eighth, who did not always
act from caprice, for his fidelity and success in the execution of public
business, his skill in arms, literature, familiarity with languages, and
lively conversation. W T ood, who degrades every thing by poverty of
style and improper representation, says, that " the king was in a high
manner delighted with his witty jests^." It is not perhaps improbable,
that Henry was as much pleased with his repartees as his politics. He
is reported to have occasioned the reformation by a joke, and to have
planned the fall of cardinal Wolsey by a seasonable story c . But he
had almost lost his popularity, either from an intimacy with queen Anne

* Lond. 12mo. A translation from the knight of England of worthy memorie for

French. wit, learnyng and experience, old syr Tho-

3 Wyat's begin at fol. 19. mas Wiat, wrote to his sonne that the great-

b Ath. Oxon. i. 51. est mischief amongst men, and least pu-

[In Sloane MS. 1523, some maxims and nished, is unkyndnes." PARK.]

sayings of sir T. Wyat are preserved. A c See Miscellaneous Antiquities, Numb,

letter occurs in the HarleianMSS. Ascham ii. pag. 1C. Printed at Strawberry-hill,

in his "discourse of the state of Germanic," 1772. 4to.
has the following tiibutary remark. "A

42 SIR THOMAS WYAT. [SECT.

Boleyn, which was called a connection, or the gloomy cabals of bishop
Bonner, who could not bear his political superiority. Yet his prudence
and integrity, no less than the powers of his oratory, justified his inno-
cence. He laments his severe and unjust imprisonment on that trying
occasion, in a sonnet addressed to sir Francis Bryan ; insinuating his
solicitude, that although the wound would be healed, the scar would
remain, and that to be acquitted of the accusation would avail but
little, while the thoughts of having been accused were still fresh in re-
membrance* 1 . It is a common mistake, that he died abroad of the
plague in an embassy to Charles the Fifth. Being sent to conduct that
emperor's embassador from Falmouth to London, from too eager and a
needless desire of executing his commission with dispatch and punctu-
ality, he caught a fever by riding in a hot day, and in his return died
on the road at Shirburn, where he was buried in the great conventual
church, in the year 1541. The next year, Leland published a book of
Latin verses on his death, with a wooden print of his head prefixed, pro-
bably done by Holbein 6 . It will be superfluous to transcribe the pane-
gyrics of his coternporaries, after the encomium of lord Surrey, in which
his amiable character owes more to truth than to the graces of poetry,
or to the flattery of friendship *.

We must agree with a critic above quoted, that Wyat cooperated
with Surrey, in having corrected the roughness of our poetic style. But
Wyat, although sufficiently distinguished from the common versifiers
of his age, is confessedly inferior to Surrey in harmony of numbers,
perspicuity of expression, and facility of phraseology f. Nor is he
equal to Surrey in elegance of sentiment, in nature and sensibility. His
feelings are disguised by affectation, and obscured by conceit. His de-
clarations of passion are embarrassed by wit and fancy ; and his style is
not intelligible, in proportion as it is careless and unadorned. His
compliments, like the modes of behaviour in that age, are ceremonious
and strained. He has too much art as a lover, and too little as a poet.
His gallantries are laboured, and his versification negligent. The truth
is, his genius was of the moral and didactic species : and his poems
abound more in good sense, satire, and observations on life, than in
pathos or imagination. Yet there is a degree of lyric sweetness in the
following lines to his lutej, in which, The lover complaineth the un-
kindness of his love.

* Fol. 44. f [Mr. Headley, a very able critic, was
e N.SNI-S in Mortem T. Viati, Lond. of opinion that sir T.Wyat deserves equally

1542. 4to. See also Leland's Encom. of posterity with Surrey, for the diligence

p. 358. with which he cultivated polite letters, al-

* [The following epitaph from Leland, though in his verses he seems to have
as it is short and the book very scarce, wanted the judgement of his friend, who
may here be appended : in imitating Petrarch resisted the conta-
Urna tenet cineres ter magni parvaHa^; gion of W sweets.-PARK ]

Fama per immensas sed volat alta P la- . t ^ harmonious and elegant poem,
^ s PARK 1 ln one ^^ ie Harrington MSS. dated 1564,

is ascribed to viscount Rochford, for an ac-

XXXVIII.] SIR THOMAS WYAT. 43

My Lute awake, performe the last
Labour, that thou and I shall wast ;
And end that I have now begonne :
And when this song is sung and past,
My lute be still, for I have done.

As to be heard where care is none,
As leade to grave in marble stone ;
My song may pearse her hart as sone.
Should we then sigh, or sing, or mone ?
No, no, my lute, for I have done.

The rockes do not so cruelly
Repulse the waves continually,
As she my sute and affection :
So that I am past remedy.
Wherby f my lute and I have done.

Proude of the spoile that thou has gotte
Of simple hartes, through Loves shot,
By whom unkind ! thou hast them wonne ;
Thinke not he hath his bow forgot,
Although my lute and I have done.

Vengeance shall fall on thy disdaine,
That makest but game on earnest paine :
Thinke not alone under the sunne
Unquit* to cause thy lovers plaine :
Although my lute and I have done.

May chaunce thee h lie withered and olde
In winter nightes that are so colde,
Plaining in vaine unto the mone 1 :
Thy wishes then dare not be tolde :
Care then who list, for I have done.

And then may chaunce thee to repent
The time that thou hast lost and spent,
To cause thy lovers sigh and swowne ;
Then shalt thou know beautie but lent,
And wish and want as I have done.

Now cease my lute, this is the last
Labour, that thou and I shall wast ;
And ended is that that we begonne.
Now is this song both sung and past,
My lute be still, for I have done. k

count of whom, see the following section. f wherefore.

Mr. Ashby remarks that it is almost a g unacquitted, free.

translation from Horace. Dr. Nott con- h It may chance you may, &c.

ceives it does not belong to lord Rochford, j moon.

but to sir Thomas Wyatt. See his edition k Fol. 33.

of Surrey, &c. PARK.]

44 SIR THOMAS WYAT. [SECT.

Our author has more imitations, and even translations, from the
Italian poets than Surrey ; and he seems to have been more fond of
their conceits*. Petrarch has described the perplexities of a lover's
mind, and his struggles betwixt hope and despair, a subject most fer-
tile of sentimental complaint, by a combination of contrarieties, a spe-
cies of wit highly relished by the Italians. I am, says he, neither at
peace nor war. I burn, and I freeze. I soar to heaven, and yet grovel
on the earth. I can hold nothing, and yet grasp every thing. My prison
is neither shut, nor is it opened. I see without eyes, and I complain
without a voice. I laugh, and I weep. I live, and am dead. Laura,
to what a condition am I reduced, by your cruelty !

Pace non trovo, e non ho da far guerra ;

E temo, e spero, ed ardo, e son en un ghiaccio :

E volo sopra '1 cielo, e giaccio in terra :

E nulla stringo, e tutto '1 mondo abraiccio.
Tal m' ha in prigion, che non m' apre ne serra ' ;

Ne per suo mi rittien, ne scioglie il laccio ;

E non m' uccide Amor, e non mi sferra ;

Ni mi vuol vivo, ni mi trae d' impaccio.
Veggio senz' occhi, e non ho lingua, e grido ;

E bramo di perir, e cheggio aita ;

Ed ho in odio me stesso, ed amo altrui :
Pascomi di dolor, piangendo rido.

Egualmente mi spiace morte, e vita :

In questo stato son, Donna, per vui. m

* [These conceits found a later imita- him." Mr. Russell further observed, that

tor in Cowley. ASHBY.] Beuter in his Chronicle was the first who

1 This passage is taken from Messen asserted that Jordi lived as early as the

Jordi, a Provencial poet of Valencia. year 1250, and that he was imitated by

[Mossen, not Messen, Jorge de Sant Petrarch in the passage cited in the text:
Jorde (not a Provencial but a Limosin while the marquis de Santillana, who died
poet, whether of Valencia or Catalonia in 1458, countenanced a different hypo-
does not appear), was posterior to Pe- thesis, by making Jorden contemporary
trarch by almost a couple of centuries. with himself, according to Sarmiento in
See Sarmiento, 865. 503. RITSON. MS. his "Memorias para la Poesia :" and if this
note. I am pretty well satisfied, he adds, authority be allowed, Jordi must have
that no such person as Messe Jordi ever imitated Petrarch instead of being copied
existed, Obs. p. 30. By the late masterly by him. But in either case the existence
poet and elegant scholar, Thomas Russell, of Mossen Jordi is equally proved ; as
fellow of New Coll. Oxon. the self-satis- also the resemblance of the passages,
faction here expressed by Ricson was left whichever of the two we suppose to have
on a shallow basis. That Mossen (An- been the original. Camoens also took the
glice m ?) Jordi had more than a poetical hint of a similar epigrammatic sonnet,
existence, is fully ascertained by Velasquez which is appended to Mr. Russell's able
in his " Origines de la Poesia Castellana," vindication of our poetical historian in the
1754: the German translator of which Gent. Mag. for Dec. 1782. PARK.]
work, in 1769, tells us, that "Jordi signi- m Sonn. ciii. There is a Sonnet in imi-
fies George, his family name not being tation of this, among those of the Uncer-
known :" but Gaspar Escolano, in Historia tain Auctours at the end of Surrey's Poems,
de Valencia, identifies him by saying, "that fol. 107. And in Davison's Poems, B. ii.
he composed sonnets, &c. in the Valencian Canzon. viii. p. 108. 4th edit. Lond. 1621.
Lemosine language with great applause, 12mo.
and that Petrarch had taken much from

XXXVIII.] SIR THOMAS WYAT. 45

Wyat has thus copied this sonnet of epigrams.

I finde no peace, and all my warre is done :

I feare and hope, I burne and frese likewyse :

I flye aloft, yet can I not aryse ;

And nought I have, yet all the world I season ;

That lockes n nor loseth, [nor] holdeth me in prison.

And holdes me not, yet can I scape no wise ;

Nor lettes me live, nor dye, at my devise,

And yet of death it giveth me occasion.

Without eye I se, without tong I playne :

I wish to perish, yet I aske for helth ;

I love another, and I hate myselfe ;

I fede me in sorow, and laugh in all my pairie.

Lo thus displeaseth me both death and life,

And my delight is causer of this strife.

It was from the capricious and over-strained invention of the Italian
poets, that Wyat was taught to torture the passion of love by prolix and
intricate comparisons, and unnatural allusions. At one time his love
is a galley steered by cruelty through stormy seas and dangerous rocks ;
the sails torn by the blast of tempestuous sighs, and the cordage con-
sumed by incessant showers of tears : a cloud of grief envelops the stars,
reason is drowned, and the haven is at a distance P. At another % it is
a spring trickling from the summit of the Alps, which gathering force
in its fall, at length overflows all the plain beneath 1 ". Sometimes it is a
gun, which being overcharged, expands the flame within itself, and
bursts in pieces 8 . Sometimes it is like a prodigious mountain, which is
perpetually weeping in copious fountains, and sending forth sighs from
its forests ; which bears more leaves than fruits ; which breeds wild-
beasts, the proper emblems of rage, and harbours birds that are always
singing*. In another of his sonnets, he says, that all nature sympa-

n That which locks, i. e. a key. I want both eyes and tongue, yet ere I cry,

Fol. 21, 22. I wish for death, yet after helpe I gape.

[This Sonnet will be found with some I hate myself, yet love another wight,

variations in Nugae Antiquae, vol. i. edit. And feed on greefe, in lieu of sweete de-

1 769. Davison at a little later period thus light.

turned the same sonnet in his Poetical At the selfe time I both lament and joy,

Rhapsody, first printed in 1602. edit. 1621. I stil am pleas'd and yet displeased still ;

p. 108. Love sometimes seemes a god, sometimes

I joy not peace, where yet no war is found, * OV) _ . .

I fear and hope, 1 burn yet freeze withall, Sometimes I smke, sometimes I swim at

I mount to heaven, yet lye I stil on the , . W1 j ' ^

und Twixt death and life small difference I

I nothing hold, yet I compasse all. , , m . ak f \

I live he? bond/which neither is my foe. A11 th " ( deere dame ) endure l for

Nor friend, nor holds me fast, nor lets me

goe. P Fol. 22. q Fol. 25.

Love will not let me live, nor let me dye, r Fol. 25. * Fol. 29.

Nor locks me fast, nor suffers me to scape, * Fol. 36.

46 SIR THOMAS WYAT. [SECT.

thises with his passion* The woods resound his elegies, the rivers
stop their course to hear him complain, and the grass weeps in dew.
These thoughts are common and fantastic. But he adds an image
which is new, and has much nature and sentiment, although not well
expressed.

The hugy okes have rored in the winde,

Eche thing, methought, complayning in theyr kinde.

This is a touch of the pensive. And the aposfrophe which follows is
natural and simple.

O stony hart, who hath thus framed thee
So cruel, that art cloked with beauty ! t

And there is much strength in these lines of the lover to his bed.

The place of slepe, wherein I do but wake,
Besprent with teares, my bed, I thee forsake ! u

But such passages as these are not the general characteristics of Wyat's
poetry. They strike us but seldom, amidst an impracticable mass of
forced reflections, hyperbolical metaphors, and complaints that move
no compassion.

But Wyat appears a much more pleasing writer, when he moralises
on the felicities of retirement, and attacks the vanities and vices of a
court, with the honest indignation of an independent philosopher, and
the freedom and pleasantry of Horace. Three of his poetical epistles
are professedly written in this strain, two to John Poines v , and the
other to sir Francis Bryan : and we must regret, that he has not left
more pieces in a style of composition for which he seems to have been
eminently qualified. In one of the epistles to Poines on the life of a
courtier, are these spirited and manly reflections.

Myne owne John Poins, since ye delite to know

The causes why that homeward I me draw,

And flee the prease w of courtes, where so they go*;

Rather than to live thrall under the awe

Of lordly lokes, wrapped within my cloke ;

To will and lust learning to set a law :

It is not that, because I scorne or mocke

The power of them, whom Fortune here hath lent

Charge over us, of Right 7 to strike the stroke :

But true it is, that I have always ment

* Fol. 24. w press, crowd.

tt Fol. 25. * The court was perpetually moving

v He seems to have been a person about from one palace to another.

the court. See Life Of Sir Thomas Pope, y justice.

p. 46.

XXXVIII.] SIR THOMAS WYAT. 4?

Lesse to esteme them, (than the common sort)
Of outward thinges that judge, in their entent,
Without regarde what inward doth resort.
I graunt sometime of glory that the fire
Doth touch my heart. Me list not to report 1
Blame by honour, nor honour to desire.
But how may I this honour now attaine,
That cannot dye the colour blacke a liar?
My Poins, I cannot frame my tune a to fain,
To cloke the truth, &c.

In pursuit of this argument, he declares his indisposition and inabi-
lity to disguise the truth, and to flatter, by a variety of instances. Among
others, he protests he cannot prefer Chaucer's TALE of SIR THOPAS to
his PALAMON AND ARCITE.

Praise SIR TOPAS for a noble tale,
And scorne the STORY that the KNIGHT tolde;
Praise him for counsell that is dronke of ale :
Grinne when he laughes, that beareth all the sway ;
Frowne when he frownes, and grone when he is pale.:
On others lust to hang both night and day, &c.

I mention this circumstance about Chaucer, to show the esteem in
which the KNIGHT'S TALE, that noble epic poem of the dark ages, was
held in the reign of Henry the Eighth, by men of taste.

The poet's execration of flatterers and courtiers is contrasted with
the following entertaining picture of his own private life and rural en-
joyments at Allingham- castle in Kent.

This is the cause that I could never yet

Hang on their sleeves, that weigh, as thou maist se,

A chippe of chance more than a pounde of wit :

This maketh me at home to hunt and hawke,

And in foule wether at my booke to sit ;

In frost and snow then with my bow to stalke ;

No man doth marke whereso I ride or go :

In lusty leas b at libertie I walke :

And of these newes I fele nor weale nor woe :

r to speak favourably of what is bad. Thy rich leas

* perhaps the reading is tongue. Of wheat, rye, barley, vetches, oats and

b In large fields, over fruitful grounds. pease ;

[Rather "in pleasant meads," says Ritson. Thy turfy mountains, where live nibbling

But this emendation is disputed by a sheep,

writer in the Gent. Mag. for Dec. 1782, And flat meads thatch'd with stover,

p. 574, who cites the following passage &c.

from Shakspeare, to evince that leas and Tempest, Act 4. PARK.]

meads were distinct.

48 SIR THOMAS WYAT. [SECT.

Save that a clogge doth hang yet at my heele ' ;
No force for that, for it is ordred so,
That I may leape both hedge and dyke ful wele.
I am not now in Fraunce, to judge the wyne, &c.
But I am here in Kent and Christendome,
Among the Muses, where I reade and ryme ;
Where if thou list, mine owne John Poins, to come,
Thou shalt be judge how do I spende my time. d

In another epistle to John Poines, on the security and happiness of a
moderate fortune, he versifies the fable of the City and Country Mouse
with much humour.

My mother's maides, when they do sowe and spinne,
They sing a song made of the feldishe mouse, &c.

This fable appositely suggests a train of sensible and pointed obser-
vations on the weakness of human conduct, and the delusive plans of
life.

Alas, my Poins, how men do seke the best,

And finde the worse by errour as they stray :

And no marvell, when sight is so opprest,

And blindes the guyde : anone out of the way

Goeth guyde and all, in seking quiet lyfe.

O wretched mindes I There is no golde that may

Graunt that you seke : no warre, no peace, no strife :

No, no, although thy head were hoopt with golde :

Sergeaunt with mace*, with hawbart 6 , sword, nor knife,

Cannot repulse the care that folow should.

Ech kinde of lyfe hath with him his disease :

Live in delites, even as thy lust would,

And thou shalt finde, when lust doth most thee please,

It irketh straght, and by itselfe doth fade.

A small thing is it, that may thy minde appease ?

None of you al there is that is so madde,

To seke for grapes on brambles or on breeres*;

Nor none, I trow, that hath a witte so badde,

To set his haye for coneyes over riveres.

Nor ye set not a dragge net for a hare :

And yet the thing that most is your desire

You do misseke, with more travell and care.

c Probably he alludes to some office * [From Horace ; Submovet lictor.

which he still held at court; and which ASHBY.]

sometimes recalled him, but not too fre- e halbert. A parade of guards, &c. The

quently, from the country. classical allusion is obvious.

d Fol. 47. e So read, instead of bryars.

XXXVIII.] SIR THOMAS WYAT. 49

Make plaine thine hart, that it be not knotted
With hope or dreade : and see thy will be bare h
From all affectes*, whom vyce hath never spotted.
Thyselfe content with that is thee assinde k ;
And use it wel that is to the alotted.
Then seke no more out of thyself to fynde*,
The thing that thou hast sought so long before,
For thou shalt feele it sticking in thy mynde.

These Platonic doctrines are closed with a beautiful application of
Virtue personified, and introduced in her irresistible charms of visible
beauty. For those who deviate into vain and vicious pursuits,

None other payne pray I for them to be,
But when the rage doth leade them from the right,
That, loking backward, VERTUE they may sef
Even as she is, so goodly fayre and bright ! l

With these disinterested strains we may join the following single
stanza, called THE COURTIER'S LIFE.

In court to serve, decked with freshe aray,

Of sugred m meates feeling the swete repaste;

The life in bankets, and sundry kindes of play,

Amid the presse of worldly lookes to waste :

Hath with it joynde oft times such bitter taste,
That whoso joy es such kind of life to hold,
In prison joy es. fettred with chaines of gold".

Wyat may justly be deemed the first polished English satirist. I am
of opinion, that he mistook his talents when, in compliance with the
mode, he became a sonnetteer ; and, if we may judge from a few in-
stances, that he was likely to have treated any other subject with more
success than that of love. His abilities were seduced and misapplied
in fabricating fine speeches to an obdurate mistress. In the following
little ode, or rather epigram, on a very different occasion, there is great
simplicity and propriety, together with a strain of poetic allusion. It
is on his return from Spain into England.

Tagus, farewell, that westward with thy stremes
Turnes up the graines of gold already triede !
For I with spurre and sayle go seke the TemesP,
Gaineward the sunne that shewes her welthy pride :

h free. ' passions. ' Fol. 45, 46.

k assigned. m delicious.

* [Nee te quaesiveris extra. ASHBY.] n Fol. 44.

f [Virtutem videant, intabescantque pure gold,

relicta, Pers. Sat. 3. If Surrey copies but p the Thames
little,' Wyat doth plentifully. ASHBY.]

~ VOL. III. E

50 SIR THOMAS WYAT. [SECT. XXXVIII.

And to the town that Brutus sought by dreames^
Like bended moone r that leanes her lusty 8 side ;
My king, my countrey I seke, for whom I live :
O mighty Jove, the wyndes for this me give!* ,

Among Wyat's poems is an unfinished translation, in Alexandrine
verse, of the Song of lopas in the first book of Virgil's Eneid u . Wyat's
and Surrey's versions from Virgil are the first regular translations in
English of an ancient classic poet ; and they are symptoms of the re-
storation of the study of the Roman writers, and of the revival of ele-
gant literature. A version of David's Pslams by Wyat is highly ex-
tolled by lord Surrey and Leland. But Wyat's version of the PENI-
TENTIAL PSALMS seems to be a separate work from his translation of
the whole Psaltery, and probably that which is praised by Surrey, in
an ode above quoted, and entitled, Praise of certain Psalmes of David,
translated by Sir T. Wyat the elder w . They were printed with this
title, in 1549. "Certayne Psalmes chosen out of the Psalter of David
commonly called the vij penytentiall Psalmes, drawen into Englyshe
meter by Sir Thomas Wyat knyght, whereunto is added a prologe of
the auctore before every Psalme very pleasant and profettable to the
godly reader. Imprinted at London in Paules Churchyarde at the
sygne of thee starre by Thomas Raynald and John Harryngton, cum
previlegio ad hnprimendum solum, MDXLIX." Leland seems to speak
of the larger version.

Transtulit in nostram Davidis carmina linguam,

Et numeros magna reddidit arte pares.
Non morietur OPUS tersum, SPECTABILE, sacrum x .

But this version, with that of Surrey mentioned above, is now lost?;
and the pious Thomas Sternhold and John Hopkins are the only im-
mortal translators of David's Psalms.

A similarity, or rather sameness of studies, as it is a proof, so perhaps
it was the chief cement, of that inviolable friendship which is said to
have subsisted between Wyat and Surrey. The principal subject of
their poetry was the same : and they both treated the passion of love
in the spirit of the Italian poets, and as professed disciples of Petrarch.

q a tradition in Geoffrey of Monmouth. determined to print th'em, "that the noble

r The old city from the river appeared fame of so worthy a knight as was the

in the shape of a crescent. author hereof, Sir Thomas Wyat, should

* strong, flourishing, populous, &c. not perish, but remayne." Before each

1 Fol. 44. u Fol. 49. psalm is inserted an explanatory " Prologe

w Fol. 16. (See supr. p. 34.) [These of the Auctor," in eight-line stanzas: the

Psalms were reprinted by bishop Percy translation is throughout in alternate

with his ill-fated impression of lord Sur- verse. PARK.]

rey's poems, which perished in the ware- * Naen. ut supr.

house of Mr. JohnNicholls, 1808. ToWil- * See Hollinsh.Chron. iii. p. 978. col. 2.

Ham Marquis of Northampton, &c. &c. [Dr. Nott is of opinion that Wyat trans-

they were inscribed by John Harrington lated no more of the Psalter than the Pe-

(the father probably of Sir John H.), who nitential Psalms. PRICE.]

SECT. XXXIX.] FIRST MISCELLANY OF ENGLISH POETRY. 51

They were alike devoted to the melioration of their native tongue, and
an attainment of the elegancies of composition. They were both en-
gaged in translating Virgil*, and in rendering select portions of Scrip-
ture into English metre.

SECTION XXXIX.

The first printed Miscellany of English Poetry. Its Contributors.
Sir Francis Bryan, Lord Rochford, and Lord Vaulx. The First
True Pastoral in English. Sonnet-writing cultivated by the Nobility.
Sonnets by King Henry the Eighth. Literary Character of that
king.

To the poems of Surrey and Wyat are annexed, as I have before
hinted, in Tottell's editions, those of " Uncertain Authors a ." This
latter collection forms the first printed poetical miscellany in the En-
glish language ; although very early manuscript miscellanies of that
kind are not uncommon. Many of these pieces are much in the man-
ner of Surrey and Wyat, which was the fashion of the times. They are
all anonymous ; but probably, sir Francis Bryan, George Boleyn earl
of Rochford, and lord Vaulx, all professed rhymers and sonnet-writers,
were large contributors f.

Dray ton, in his elegy [epistle] To his dearly loved friend HENRY
REYNOLDS OF POETS AND POESIE, seems to have blended all the se-
veral collections of which Tottell's volume consists. After Chaucer
he says,

They with the Muses who conversed, were
That princely SURREY, early in the time
Of the eighth Henry, who was then the prime
Of England's noble youth. With him there came
WYAT, with reverence whom we still do name
Amongst our poets : BRYAN had a share
With the two former, which accounted are
That time's best Makers, and the authors were
Of those small poems which the title bear

* [There seems no reason for inferring of Songs and Sonets printed then (in queen

with Dr. Nott, that Warton intended by Mary's time) were of my making." See

this expression a larger portion of Virgil notices of , his works prefixed to his " Chal-

than the Song of lopas mentioned above. lenge, 1593." Hey wood and Harrington

PRICE.] likewise have dormant claims to the ho-

a They begin at fol. 50. nourable distinction of coadjutorship. Vid.

f [Churchyard must also be added to infra, p. 56. and Nugse Antiquae, vol. i.

this list of contributors on the following p. 95. and ii. 256. ed. 1775. PARK.]
averment : " Many things in the booke

52 FIRST MISCELLANY OF ENGLISH POETRY. [SECT. XXXIX,

Of Songes and Sonnetts, wherein oft they hit
On many dainty passages of wit b .

Sir Francis Bryan was the friend of Wyat, as we have seen ; and
served as a commander under Thomas earl of Surrey in an expedition
into Brittany ; by whom he was knighted for his bravery c . Hence he
probably became connected with lord Surrey the poet. But Bryan was
one of the brilliant ornaments of the court of king Henry the Eighth,
which at least affected to be polite : and from his popular accomplish-
ments as a wit and a poet, he was made a gentleman of the privy-
chamber to that monarch, who loved to be entertained by his domestics d .
Yet he enjoyed much more important appointments in that reign, and
in the first year of Edward the Sixth ; and died chief justiciary of Ire-
land, at Waterford, in the year 1548 e . On the principle of an unbiassed
attachment to the king, he wrote epistles on Henry's divorce, never
published ; and translated into English from the French, Antonio de
Guevara's Spanish Dissertation on the life of a courtier, printed at Lon-
don in the year last mentioned f . He was nephew to John Bourchier,
lord Berners, the translator of Froissart ; who, at his desire, translated at
Calais from French into English, the GOLDEN BOKE, or Life of Marcus
Aurelius, about 1533 g . Which are Bryan's pieces I cannot ascertain.

George Boleyn, viscount Rochford, was son of Sir Thomas Boleyn,
afterwards earl of Wiltshire and Ormond ; and at Oxford discovered an
early propensity to polite letters and poetry. He was appointed to se-
veral dignities and offices by king Henry the Eighth, and subscribed
the famous declaration sent to Pope Clement the Seventh. He was
brother to queen Anne Boleyn, with whom he was suspected of a cri-
minal familiarity. The chief accusation against him seems to have been,
that he was seen to whisper with the queen one morning while she was
in bed. As he had been raised by the exaltation, he was involved in
the misfortunes of that injured princess, who had no other fault but an
unguarded and indiscreet frankness of nature ; and whose character has
been blackened by the bigoted historians of the catholic cause, merely
because she was the mother of queen Elizabeth. To gratify the os-
tensible jealousy of the king, who had conceived a violent passion for
a new object, this amiable nobleman was beheaded on the first of May,
in 1536 h . His elegance of person, and spritely conversation, captivated
all the ladies of Henry's court. Wood says, that at the " royal court
he was much adored, especially by the female sex f for his admirable dis-
course, and symmetry of body 1 ." From these irresistible allurements his

b Works, vol. iv. p. 1255. edit. Lond. Oxon. [Printed again in 1575, small 8vo.

1759. 8vo. PARK.]

c Dugd. Bar. ii. 273 a. * See the Colophon. It was printed by
d Rymer, Feed. xiv. 380. Thomas Berthelett, in 1536, quarto. Often
e Hollinsh. Chron. i. 61. And ibid. afterwards. Lord Berners was deputy-
Hooker's Contin. torn. ii. P. ii. pag. 110. general of Calais, and its marches.
See also Fox, Martyr, p. 991. h See Dugd. Baron, iii. p. 306 a.
f Cod. Impress. A. Wood, Mus. Ashmol. * Ath. Oxon. i. 44.

SECT. XXXIX.] FIRST MISCELLANY OF ENGLISH POETRY. 53

enemies endeavoured to give a plausibility to their infamous charge of
an incestuous connection. After his commitment to the Tower, his
sister the queen, on being sent to the same place, asked the lieutenant,
with a degree of eagerness, " Oh ! where is my sweet brother k ?" Here
was a specious confirmation of his imagined guilt : this stroke of natural
tenderness was too readily interpreted into a licentious attachment. Bale
mentions his RHYTHMI ELEGANTISSIMI', which Wood calls " Songs
and Sonnets, with other things of the like nature 01 ." These are now
lost, unless some, as I have now insinuated, are contained in the pre-
sent collection ; a garland, in which it appears to have been the fashion
for every FLOWERY COURTIER to leave some of his blossoms. But
Boleyn's poems cannot now be distinguished*.

The lord Vaulx, whom I have supposed, and on surer proof, to be
another contributor to this miscellany, could not be the Nicholas lord
Vaux, whose, gown of purple velvet, plated with gold, eclipsed all the
company present at the marriage of prince Arthur ; who shines as a
statesman and a soldier with uncommon lustre in the history of Henry
the Seventh, and continued to adorn the earlier annals of his successor,
and who died in the year 1523. Lord Vaux the poet was probably
Thomas lord Vaux, the son of Nicholas, and who was summoned to
parliament in 1531, and seems to have lived till the latter end of
the reign of queen Mary". All our old writers mention the poetical
lord Vaux, as rather posterior to Wyat and Surrey ; neither of whom
was known as a writer till many years after the death of lord Nicho-
las. George Gascoyne [Thomas Churchyard], who wrote in 1575
1568], in his panegyric on the ENGLISH POETS, places Vaux after
Surrey.

Piers Plowman was full plaine,

And Chauser's spreet was great ;
Earle Surrey had a goodly vayne,

LORD VAUX the marke did beatf .

Puttenham, author of the ARTE OF ENGLISH POESIE, having spoken
of Surrey and Wyat, immediately adds, " In the SAME TIME, or NOT
LONG AFTER, was the lord Nicholas Vaux, a man of much facilitie in

k Strype, Mem. i. p. 280. See Richard Smith's verses, in commen-
1 ii. 103. m Ubi supr. dation of Gascoigne's Posies. PARK.]
[One of these has been pointed out n gee what j haye gaid of hig g(m ^
at p. 42. and his name was thus united William, in the Life of Sir Thomas Pope,
with other known contributors in 1575. p . 2 21. In 1558, sir Thomas Pope leaves
Chaucer by writing purchast fame, him a legacy of one hundred pounds, by
And Gower got a woorthie name : tne nam e of lord Vaulx. [Warton's con-
Sweet Surrey suckt Pernassus springs, jecture is now generally admitted to be
And Wiat wrote of wondrous things : correct. PRICE.]

Old ROCHFORT clombe the statelie throne f [Prefixed to Skelton's Poems, print-

Which Muses hold in Helicone. ed by Marsh, 1568. PARK.]
Then thither let good Gascoigne go, The Christian name is a mistake, into

For sure his verse deserveth so. which it was easy to fall,

54 FIRST MISCELLANY OF ENGLISH POETRY. [SECT. XXXIX.

vulgar makings P." Webbe, in his DISCOURSE OF ENGLISH POETRIE,
published in 1 586, has a similar arrangement. Great numbers of Vaux's
poems are extant in the PARADISE OF DAINTY DEVISES ; and, instead
of the rudeness of Skelton, they have a smoothness and facility of man-
ner, which does not belong to poetry written before the year 1523, in
which lord Nicholas Vaux died an old man '. The PARADISE OF
DAINTY DEVISES was published in 1576, and he is there simply styled
Lord Vaulx the elder : this was to distinguish him from his son lord
William, then living. If lord Nicholas was a writer of poetry, I will
venture to assert, that none of his performances now remain ; notwith-
standing the testimony of Wood, who says that Nicholas " in his ju-
venile years was sent to Oxon, where by reading humane and romantic,
rather than philosophical authors, he advanced his genius very much
in poetry and history 1 "." This may be true of his son Thomas, whom
I suppose to be the poet. But such was the celebrity of lord Nicholas's
public and political character, that he has been made to monopolise
every merit which was the property of his successors. All these diffi-
culties, however, are at once adjusted by a manuscript in the British
Museum, in which we have a copy of Vaux's poem, beginning 1 lothe
that I did love, with this title : " A dyttye or sonet made by the lord
Vaus, in the time of the noble quene Marye, representing the image of
death 8 ." This sonnet, or rather ode, entitled, The aged lover renounceth
love, which was more remembered for its morality than its poetry, and
which is idly conjectured* to have been written on his death-bed*,
makes a part of the collection which I am now examining 11 . From this
ditty are taken three of the stanzas, yet greatly disguised and corrupted,
of the Grave-digger's Song in Shakspeare's HAMLET vv . Another of
lord Vaux's poems in the volume before us, is the ASSAULT OF CUPIDE

UPON THE FORT IN WHICH THE LOVER'S HEART LAY WOUNDED x .

These two are the only pieces in our collection, of which there is un-
doubted evidence, although no name is prefixed to either, that they
were written by lord Vaux. From palpable coincidences of style, sub-
ject, and other circumstances, a slender share of critical sagacity is suf-
ficient to point out many others.

These three writers were cotemporaries with Surrey and Wyat ; but
the subjects of some of the pieces will go far in ascertaining the date
of the collection in general. There is one on the death of sir Thomas
Wyat the elder, who died, as I have remarked, in 1541 y . Another on
the death of lord chancellor Audley, who died in 1544 Z . Another on

p Fol. 48. [" vulgar makings" seem to l G. Gascoyne says, " The L. Vaux his

imply vernacular poems. PARK.] dittie, beginning thus, 1 loath, was thought

q See Percy's Ball. ii. 49. edit. 1775. by some to be made upon his death-bed,"

r Ath. Oxon. i. 19. &c. Epistle to the Young Gentlemen.

3 MSS. Harl. 1703. [fol. 100.] prefixed to his Poems.

* [Yet Mr. Warton does not regard a u Fol. 72. w Act v.

similar supposition as idle when applied x Fol. 71.

to the Soul-knell of Edwards. Vid. post- y Fol. 89.

ea, Sect. LII. PARK.] z Fol. 69.

SECT. XXXIX.] FIRST MISCELLANY OF ENGLISH POETRY. 55

the death of master Devereux, a son of lord Ferrers, who is said to have
been a Goto for his counsel* ; and who is probably Richard Devereux,
buried in Berkyng church b , the son of Walter lord Ferrers, a distin-
guished statesman and general under Henry the Eighth . Another on
the death of a lady Wentworth d . Another on the death of sir Antony
Denny, the only person of the court who dared to inform king Henry
the Eighth of his approaching dissolution, and who died in 1551 e .
Another on the death of Phillips, an eminent musician, and without his
rival on the lute f . Another on the death of a countess of Pembroke,
who is celebrated for her learning, and her perfect virtues linked as in
a chaine^ : probably Anne, who was buried magnificently at saint Paul's,
in 1551,' the first lady of sir William Herbert the first earl of Pembroke,
and sister to Catharine Parr, the sixth queen of Henry the Eighth 11 .
Another on master Henry Williams, son of sir John Williams, after-
wards lord Thame, and a great favourite of Henry the Eighth 1 . On
the death of sir James Wilford, an officer in Henry's wars, we have here
an elegy k , with some verses on his picture 1 . Here is also a poem on a
treasonable conspiracy, which is compared to the stratagem of Sinon,
and which threatened immediate extermination to the British consti-
tution, but was speedily discovered 10 . I have not the courage to ex-
plore the formidable columns of the circumstantial Hollinshed for this
occult piece of history, which I leave to the curiosity and conjectures
of some more laborious investigator. It is certain that none of these
pieces are later than the year 1557, as they were published in that year
by Richard Tottell the printer. We may venture to say, that almost all
of them were written between the years 1530 and 1550"; most of
them perhaps within the first part of that period.

* Fol. 51. choir of Windsor chapel, O Redemptrix et

b Stowe, Survey of London, p. 131. Salvatrix, he was answered by one Test-

fol. ed. wood a singer on the other side, Non Re-

c Who died in 1558. See Dugd. Bar. demptrix nee Salvatrix. For this irreve-

ii. 177. rence, and a few other slight heresies,

d Fol. 73. Margaret. See Dugd. Bar. Testwood was burnt at Windsor. Acts

ii. 310. and Monum. vol. ii. p. 543, 544. I must

Fol. 78. There is Sir John Cheek's add, thatsirThomas Phelyppis,or Philips,

EPITAPIIWM in Anton. Denneium. Lond. is mentioned as a musician before the

1551. 4to. reformation. Hawkins, Hist. Mus. ii. 533.

( Fol. 71. One Phillips is mentioned B Fol. 85.

among the famous English musicians, in h Strype, Mem. ii. p. 317.

Meres's Wit's Tresurie, 1598. fol. 288. I l Fol. 99. See Life of Sir Thomas Pope,

cannot ascertain who this Phillips a mu- p. 232.

sician was. But one Robert Phillips, or k Fol. 36. * Fol. 62.

Phelipp, occurs among the gentlemen of m Fol. 94, 95.

the royal chapel under Edward the Sixth n There is an epitaph by W. G. made

and queen Mary. He was also one of the on himself, with an answer, fol. 98, 99.

singing-men of saint George's chapel at I cannot explain those initials. At fol.

Windsor: and Fox says, " he was so no- 111. a lady, called Arundel, is highly ce-

table a singing-man, wherein he gloried, lebrated for her incomparable beauty and

that wheresoever he came, the longest accomplishments ; perhaps of lord Arun-

song with most counterverses in it should del's family.

be set up against him." Fox adds, that Thus ARUNDELL sits throned still with

while he was singing on one side of the Fame, &c.

56 FIRST MISCELLANY OF ENGLISH POETRY. [SECT. XXXIX.

The following nameless stanzas* have that elegance which results
from simplicity. The compliments are such as would not disgrace the
gallantry or the poetry of a polished age. The thoughts support them-
selves, without the aid of expression and the affectations of language.
This is a negligence, but it is a negligence produced by art. Here is
an effect obtained, which it would be vain to seek from the studied or-
naments of style.

Give place, ye ladies, and be gone,
Boast not yourselves at all :
For here at hand approcheth one
Whose face will staine you alL

The vertue of her lively lokes
Excels the precious stone :
I wish to have none other bokes
To reade or loke upon.

In eche of her two christall eyes
Smyleth a naked boye :
It would you all in hart suffise
To see that lampe of joy e.

I thinke Nature hath lost the moulde
Where she her shape did take ;
Or els I doubt if Nature could
So faire a creature make.

In life she is Diana chaste,
In truth Penelopey ;
In word and eke in dede stedfast.
What will you more we sey ?

If all the world were sought so farre,
Who could finde such a wight ?
Her beuty twinkleth like a starre
Within the frosty night.

Her rosial colour comes and goes
With such a comly grace,
(More redier too than is the rose)
Within her lively face.

At Bacchus feaste none shall her mete,
Ne at no wanton play,
Nor gasing in an open strete,
Nor gadding as a stray.

The modest mirth that she doth use
Is mixt with shamefastnesse ;

* [These stanzas may now be assigned Orford's Royal and Noble Authors, vol. i.

to John Hey wood, the epigrammatist, on p. 83. ed. 1806. PARK.]
the potent authority of Harl. MS. 1703. See this thought in Surrey, supr. chat

where the writer's own name is introduced p. 303.
with some additional stanzas. See Lord

SECT. XXXIX.] FIRST MISCELLANY OF ENGLISH POETRY. 5?

All vice she doth wholly refuse,
And hateth ydlenesse.

O Lord, it is a world to see
How vertue can repaire
And decke in her such honestie,
Whom nature made so faire I

How might I do to get a graffe
Of this unspotted tree ?
For all the rest are plairie but chaffe,
Which seme good corn to be.P

Of the same sort is the following stanza on Beauty.

Then BEAUTY stept before the barre,
Whose brest and neck was bare ;
With haire trust up, and on her head
A caule of golde she ware.i

We are to recollect, that these compliments were penned at a time
when the graces of conversation between the sexes were unknown, and
the dialogue of courtship was indelicate ; when the monarch of England,
in a style which the meanest gentleman would now be ashamed to use,
pleaded the warmth of his affection, by drawing a coarse allusion from
a present of venison, which he calls flesh, in a love-letter to his future
queen Anne Boleyn, a lady of distinguished breeding, beauty, and mo-
desty 1 -.

In lord Vaux's ASSAULT OF CUPIDE, above-mentioned, these are the
most remarkable stanzas.

When Cupide scaled first the fort,
Wherein my hart lay wounded sore ;
The battry was of such a sort,
That I must yelde, or die therfore.

There sawe I Love upon the wall
How he his baner did display ;
Alarme, Alarme, he gan to call,
And bad his souldiours kepe aray.

The armes the which that Cupid bare,
Were pearced hartes, with teares besprent.

And even with the trumpettes sowne
The scaling ladders were up set ;
And BEAUTY walked up and downe,
With bow in hand, and arrowes whet.

Then first DESIRE began to scale,
And shrouded him under his targe, &c. s

p Fol. 67. T SeeHearne'sAvesbury, App. p. 354.

"Fol. 81. s Fol. 71, 72.

58 FIRST MISCELLANY OP ENGLISH POETRY. [SECT. XXXIX.

Puttenham speaks more highly of the contrivance of the allegory of
this piece than I can allow. " In this figure [counterfait action] the
lord Nicholas 1 Vaux, a noble gentleman, and much delighted in vulgar
making 11 , and a man otherwise of no great learning, but having herein
a marvelous facillitie, made a dittie representing the Battayle and As-
sault of Cupide so excellently well, as for the gallant and propre apli-
cation of his fiction in every part, I cannot choose but set downe the
greatest part of his ditty, for in truth it cannot be amended ; When
Cupid scaled, <^c. vv " And in another part of the same book : " The
lord Vaux his commendation lyeth chiefly in the facilitie of his meetre,
and the aptnesse of his descriptions, such as he taketh upon him to
make, namely in sundry of his songes, wherein he sheweth the COUN-
TERFAIT ACTION very lively and pleasantly x ." By counterfait action
the critic means fictitious action, the action of imaginary beings ex-
pressive of fact and reality. There is more poetry in some of the old
pageants described by Hollinshed, than in this allegory of Cupid.
Vaux seems to have had his eye on Dunbar's GOLDEN TEHCE?.

In the following little ode, much pretty description and imagination
is built on the circumstance of a lady being named Bayes. So much
good poetry could hardly be expected from a pun.

In Bayes I boast, whose braunch I beare :
Such joye therin I finde,
That to the death I shall it weare,
To ease my carefull minde.

In heat, in cold, both night and day,
Her vertue may be sene ;
When other frutes and flowers decay,
The Bay yet growes full grene.

Her berries feede the birdes ful oft,
Her leves swete water make ;
Her bowes be set in every loft,
For their swete savour's sake.

The birdes do shrowd them from the cold
In her we dayly see :
And men make arbers as they wold,
Under the pleasant tree.*

From the same collection, the following is perhaps the first example
in our language now remaining, of the pure and unmixed pastoral : and
in the erotic species, for ease of numbers, elegance of rural allusion,
and simplicity of imagery, excels every thing of the kind in Spenser,

1 for Thomas. x Pag. 51.

u English poetry. y See vol. ii. p. 441.

w Pag. 200. z Fol. 109.

SECT. XXXIX.] EARLIEST ENGLISH PASTORAL. 59

who is erroneously ranked as our earliest English bucolic. I therefore
hope to be pardoned for the length of the quotation.

Phyllida was a faire mayde,
As fresh as any flowre ;
Whom Harpalus the herdman prayde
To be her paramour.

Harpalus and eke Corin
Were herdmen both yfere a :
And Phyllida could twist and spinne,
And therto sing full clere.

But Phyllida was all too coy
For Harpalus to winne ;
For Corin was her onely joy
Who forst her not a pirme b .

How often wold she flowres twine ?
How often garlandes make
Of couslips and of columbine ?
And all for Corin's sake.

But Corin he had haukes to lure,
And forced more the fielde c ;
Of lovers lawe he toke no cure,
For once he was begilde d .

Harpalus prevayled nought,
His labour all was lost ;
For he was fardest from her thought,
And yet he loved her most.

Therefore waxt he both pale and leane,
And drye as clot 6 of clay ;
His flesh it was consumed cleane,
His colour gone away.

His beard it had not long be shave,
His heare hong all unkempt f ;
A man fit even for the grave,
Whom spitefull love had spent.

His eyes were red, and all forewatcheds,
His face besprent with teares ;
It seemed Unhap had him long hatched
In mids of his dispaires.

His clothes were blacke and also bare,
As one forlorne was he :
Upon his head alwayes he ware
A wreath of wyllow tree.

a together. e clod.

b loved her not in the least. ' uncombed.

c more engaged in field-sports. g over-watched, that is, his eyes were

A deceived, had once been in love. always awake, never closed by sleep.

60 EARLIEST ENGLISH PASTORAL. [SECT. XXXIX.

His beastes he kept upon the hyll
And he sate in the dale ;
And thus with sighes and sorowes shryll
He gan to tell his tale *.

" O Harpalus, thus would he say,
Unhappiest under sunne !
The cause of thine unhappy day
By love was first begunne.

For thou wentst first by sute to seke
A tigre to make tame,
That settes not by thy love a leeke,
But makes thy grief her game.

As easy it were to convert
The frost into the flame,
As for to turne a froward hert
Whom thou so faine wouldst frame.

Corin he liveth carelesse,
He leapes among the leaves ;
He eates the frutes of thy redresse b ;
Thou reapes, he takes the sheaves.

My beastes, awhile your foode refraine,
And harke your herdmans sounde ;
Whom spitefull love, alas ! hath slaine
Through-girt 1 with many a wounde.

O happy be ye, beastes wilde,
That here your pasture takes !
I se that ye be not begilde
Of these your faithfull makes k .

The hart he fedeth by the hinde,
The buck harde by the do :
The turtle dove is not unkinde
To him that loves her so.

But, welaway, that nature wrought
Thee, Phyllida, so faire ;
For I may say, that I have bought
Thy beauty all too deare I" &c. 1

The illustrations, in the two following stanzas, of the restlessness of
a lover's mind, deserve to be cited for their simple beauty, and native
force of expression.

* [In the scarce poems of David Murray, h labour, pains.

printed at London in 1611, we find " the j pierced through. So fol. 113. infr.

Complaint of the shepherd Harpalus " T T . . ., . , ,

written much on this model. It begins : Hw **jj^!* * lanCG **********

Poore Harpalus opprest with love

Sate by a'christale brooke ; * mates -

Thinking his sorrows to remove, **' **

Oft times therein did looke. PARK.]

SECT. XXXIX.] FIRST MISCELLANY OF ENGLISH POETRY. 61

The owle with feble sight
Lyes lurking in the leaves ;
The sparrow in the frosty night
May shroud her in the eaves.

But wo to me, alas !
In sunne, nor yet in shade,
I cannot finde a resting place
My burden to unlade.

Nor can I omit to notice the sentimental and expressive metaphor con-
tained in a single line.

Walking the path of pensive thought."

Perhaps there is more pathos and feeling in the Ode, in which The
Lover in despaire lamenteth his Case, than in any other piece of the
whole collection.

Adieu desert, how art thou spent !
Ah dropping tears, how do ye waste !
Ah scalding sighes, how ye be spent,
To pricke them forth that will not haste !
Ah ! pained hart, thou gapst for grace ,
Even there, where pitie hath no place.

As easy it is the stony rocke
From place to place for to remove,
As by thy plaint for to provoke
A frosen hart from hate to love.
What should I say ? Such is thy lot
To fawne on them that force P thee not !

Thus mayst thou safely say and sweare,
That rigour raigneth and ruth** doth faile,
In thanklesse thoughts thy thoughts do weare :
Thy truth, thy faith, may nought availe
For thy good will : why should thou so
Still graft, where grace it will not grow ?

Alas ! pore hart, thus hast thou spent
Thy flowryng time, thy pleasant yeres ?
With sighing voice wepe and lament,
For of thy hope no frute apperes !
Thy true meanyng is paide with scorne,
That ever soweth and repeth no come.

ra Fol. 71. [The turn and texture of n Fol. 87.

these stanzas would appear to be derived favour,

from the Gospels of St. Matthew, viii. 20. p love,

and St. Luke, ix. 58. PARK.] q pity.

62 FIRST MISCELLANY OF ENGLISH POETRY. [SECT. XXXIX.

And where thou sekes a quiet port,
Thou dost but weigh against the winde :
For where thou gladdest woldst resort,
There is no place for thee assinde 1 ".
The desteny hath set it so,
That thy true hart should cause thy wo. s

These reflections, resulting from a retrospect of the vigorous and
active part of life, destined for nobler pursuits, and unworthily wasted
in the tedious and fruitless anxieties of unsuccessful love, are highly
natural, and are painted from the heart : but their force is weakened
by the poet's allusions.

This miscellany affords the first pointed English epigram that I re-
member ; and which deserves to be admitted into the modern collections
of that popular species of poetry. Sir Thomas More was one of the best
jokers of that age ; and there is some probability, that this might have
fallen from his pen. It is on a scholar, who was pursuing his studies
successfully, but in the midst of his literary career, married unfor-
tunately.

A student, at his boke so plast*,

That welth he might have wonne,
From boke to wife did flete in hast,

From welth to wo to run.

Now, who hath plaid a feater cast,

Since jugling first begonne ?
In knitting of himself so fast,

Himselfe he hath undonne.

But the humour does not arise from the circumstances of the character.
It is a general joke on an unhappy match.

These two lines are said to have been written by Mary queen of
Scots with a diamond on a window in Fotheringay castle, during her
imprisonment there, and to have been of her composition :

From the toppe of all my trust
Mishap hath thro wen me in the dust w .

But they belong to an elegant little ode of ten stanzas in the collection
before us, in which a lover complains that he is caught by the snare
which he once defied. x The unfortunate queen only quoted a distich
applicable to her situation, which she remembered in a fashionable set
of poems, perhaps the amusement of her youth.

r assigned. 8 Fol. 109. u Fol. 64.

4 so pursuing his studies. Plast, so w See Ballard's Learn. Lad. p. 161.

spelled for the rhyme, is placed. * Fol. 53.

SECT. XXXIX.] FIRST MISCELLANY OF ENGLISH POETRY. 63

The ode, which is the comparison of the author's faithful and painful
passion with that of Troilus^, is founded on Chaucer's poem, or Boc-
cace's, on the same subject. This was the most favorite love-story of
our old poetry, and from its popularity was wrought into a drama by
Shakspeare. Troilus's sufferings for Cressida were a common topic
for a lover's fidelity and assiduity. Shakspeare, in his MERCHANT OF
VENICE, compares a night favorable to the stratagems or the meditation
of a lover, to such a night as Troilus might have chosen, for stealing a
view of the Grecian camp from the ramparts of Troy.

And sigh'd his soul towards the Grecian tents
Where Cressid lay that night 2 .

Among these poems is a short fragment of a translation into Alex-
andrines of Ovid's epistle from Penelope to Ulysses a . This is the first
attempt at a metrical translation of any part of Ovid into English, for
Caxton's Ovid is a loose paraphrase in prose. Nor were the heroic
epistles of Ovid translated into verse till the year 1582*, by George
Turberville. It is a proof that the classics were studied, when they
began to be translated.

It would be tedious and intricate to trace the particular imitations of
the Italian poets, with which these anonymous poems abound. Two of
the sonnets b are panegyrics on Petrarch and Laura, names at that time
familiar to every polite reader, and the patterns of poetry and beauty.
The sonnet on The diverse and contrarie passions of the lover c , is formed
on one of Petrarch's sonnets, and which, as I have remarked before,
was translated by sir Thomas Wyat d . So many of the nobility, and
principal persons about the court, writing sonnets in the Italian style,
is a circumstance which must have greatly contributed to circulate this
mode of composition, and to encourage the study of the Italian poets.
Beside lord Surrey, sir Thomas Wyat, lord Boleyn, lord Vaux, and sir
Francis Bryan, already mentioned, Edmund lord Sheffield, created a
baron by king Edward the Sixth, and killed by a butcher in the Nor-
folk insurrection, is said by Bale to have written sonnets in the Italian
manner 6 .

I have been informed, that Henry lord Berners translated some of
Petrarch's sonnets f . But this nobleman otherwise deserved notice
here, for his prose works, which co-operated with the romantic genius
and the gallantry of the age. He translated, and by the king's com-
mand, Froissart's Chronicle, which was printed by Pinson in 1523. Some
of his other translations are professed romances. He translated from

y Fol. 81. z Act v. sc. 1. b Fol. 74. c Fol. 107.

a Fol. 89. d Supr.p.44.

* [This is an oversight; since Mr. War- e See Tanner, Bibl. p. 668. Dugd.

ton has recorded the appearance of Tur- Bar. iii. 386. [And Noble Authors, i. 277.

berville's Ovid in the year 1567, (see Sect. edit. 1806. also Nevyll's Letters of Lord

xi.) and it was then printed by Henry Sheffield, p. 61. 1582. PARK.]

Denham in 12mo. PARK.] { MSS. Oldys.

64 SONNETS BY HENRY VIII. [SECT. XXXIX.

the Spanish, by desire of the lady of sir Nicholas Carew, THE CASTLE
OF LOVE. From the French he translated, at the request of the earl of
Huntingdon, SIR HUGH OF BOURDEAUX, which became exceedingly
popular ; and from the same language, THE HISTORY OF ARTHUR, an
Armorican knight. Bale says^, that he wrote a comedy called Ite in
vineam, or the PARABLE OF THE VINEYARD, which was frequently
acted at Calais, where lord Berners resided, after vespers 11 . He died
in 1532.

I have also been told, that the late lord Eglintoun had a genuine book
of manuscript sonnets, written by king Henry the Eighth. There is an
old madrigal, set to music by William Bird, supposed to be written by
Henry, when he first fell in love with Anne Boleyn 1 . It begins,

The eagles force subdues eche byrde that flyes;
What metal can resyste the flamyng fyre ?
Doth not the sunne dazle the cleareste eyes,
And melt the yce, and make the froste retyre?

It appears in Bird's PSALMES, SONGS, AND SONNETS, printed with
musical notes, in 161 l k . Poetry and music are congenial; and it is
certain, that Henry was skilled in musical composition. Erasmus attests,
that he composed some church services 1 : and one of his anthems still
continues to be performed in the choir of Christ-church at Oxford, of
his foundation. It is in an admirable style, and is for four voices.
Henry, although a scholar, had little taste for the classical elegancies
which now began to be known in England. His education seems to
have been altogether theological ; and, whether it best suited his taste
or his interest, polemical divinity seems to have been his favorite
science. He was a patron of learned men, when they humoured his
vanities ; and were wise enough, not to interrupt his pleasures, his con-
venience, or his ambition.

g Cent. ix. p. 706. ' I must not forget that a song is

h Ath. Oxon. i. 33. It is not known, ascribed to Anne Boleyn, but with little

whether it was in Latin or English. Stowe probability, called her COMPLAINT. See

says, that in 1528, at Greenwich, after a Hawkins, Hist. Mus. iii. 32. v. 480.

grand tournament and banquet, there was k See also Nugae Antiq. ii. 248. [And

the " most goodliest Disguising or Inter- it makes part of a stanza in Churchyard's

lude in Latine," &c. Chron. p. 539. edit. legend of Jane Shore. PARK.]

fol. 1615. But possibly this may be ' See Hawkins, Hist. Mus. ii. 533.
Stowe's way of naming and describing a
comedy of Plautus. See vol. ii. p. 511.

SECT. XL.] NICHOLAS GR1MOALD. 65

SECTION XL.

The Second Writer of Blank-verse in English. Specimens of early

Blank-verse.

To these SONGES and SONNETTES of UNCERTAIN AUCTOURS, in Tot-
tell's edition are annexed SONGES WRITTEN BY N. G. a By the initials
N. G. we are to understand Nicholas Grimoald*, a name which never
appeared yet in the poetical biography of England : but I have before
mentioned him incidentally b . He was a native of Huntingdonshire, and
received the first part of his academical institution at Christ's college in
Cambridge. Removing to Oxford in the year 1542, he was elected
fellow of Merton College : but, about 154-7, having opened a rhetorical
lecture in the refectory of Christ-church, then newly founded, he was
transplanted to that society f, which gave the greatest encouragement
to such students as were distinguished for their proficiency in criticism
and philology. The same year he wrote a Latin tragedy, which pro-
bably was acted in the college, entitled, ARCHIPROPHETA, sive JO-
HANNES BAPTISTA, TRAGGEDIA, that is, The Arch-prophet, or Saint
John Baptist, a tragedy, and dedicated to the dean Richard Cox c . In
the year 154<8 d , he explained all the four books of Virgil's GeorgicsJ
in a regular prose Latin paraphrase, in the public hall of his college e .
He wrote also explanatory commentaries or lectures on the Andria of
Terence, the Epistles of Horace, and many pieces of Cicero, perhaps
for the same auditory. He translated Tully's Offices into English.
This translation, which is dedicated to the learned Thirlby bishop of
Ely, was printed at London, 1553 f . He also familiarised some of the
purest Greek classics -by English versions, which I believe were never
printed. Among others was the CYROPJEDIA. Bale the biographer,
and bishop of Ossory, says, that he turned Chaucer's TROILUS into a
play; but whether this piece was in Latin or English, we are still to
seek : and the word Comedia, which Bale uses on this occasion, is with-
out precision or distinction. The same may be said of what Bale calls

a They begin with fol. 113. They might perhaps be written earlier.

* [or Grimaold, according to Barnaby PARK.]

Googe ; but Nicolas Grimalde is the poet's c Printed, Colon. 1 548. 8vo. (See vol. ii.

own orthography. PARK.] p. 525.) [A MS. copy occurs in the Bri-

b See vol. ii. p. 493. [At this place the tish Museum, Bibl. Reg. 12. A. xlvi.

initials E. G. not N. G. are incidentally PARK.]

mentioned : an error which, with many of d 2 Edw. VI.

our laureat's minor hallucinations, escaped J [And the Bucolics also, added Her-

the Argus eyes of Ritson. PARK.] bert in a MS. note. PARK.]

f [And yet in 1551, Turner's Preset- e Printed at London in 1591. 8vo.

vative or Triacle against the Poyson of ' In octavo. Again, 1556. 1558,

Pelagius, had a copy of verses prefixed by 1574. 1583. 1596.
Nicholas Grimoald of Merton college.

VOL. III. F

66 NICHOLAS GRIMOALD. [SECT. XL.

his FAME, a comedy. Bale also recites his System of Rhetoric for the use
of Englishmen &, which seems to be the course of the rhetorical lectures
I have mentioned. It is to be wished, that Bale, who appears to have
been his friend h , and therefore possessed the opportunities of informa-
tion, had given us a more exact and full detail, at least of such of Gri-
moald's works as are now lost, or, if remaining, are unprinted 1 . Un-
doubtedly this is the same person, called by Strype, one Grimbold, who
was chaplain to bishop Ridley, and who was employed by that prelate,
while in prison, to translate into English, Laurentio Valla's book against
the fiction of Constantine's DONATION, with some other popular Latin
pieces against the papists k . In the ecclesiastical history of Mary's reign,
he appears to have been imprisoned for heresy, and to have saved his
life, if not his credit, by a recantation. But theology does not seem to
have been his talent, nor the glories of martyrdom to have made any
part of his ambition. One of his plans, but which never took effect,
was to print a new edition of Josephus Iscanus's poem on the TROJAN
WAR, with emendations from the most correct manuscripts 1 *.

I have taken more pains to introduce this Nicholas Grimoald to the
reader's acquaintance, because he is the second English poet after lord
Surrey, who wrote in blank-verse. Nor is it his only praise, that he
was the first who followed in this new path of versification. To the
style of blank- verse exhibited by Surrey, he added new strength, ele-
gance, and modulation. In the disposition and conduct of his caden-
cies, he often approaches to the legitimate structure of the improved
blank-verse : but we cannot suppose, that he is entirely free from those
dissonancies and asperities, which still adhered to the general character
and state of our diction f.

g Rhetorica in usum Britannorum. Ne had the Muses loste so fyne a floure,

h Bale cites his comment, or paraphrase Nor had Minerva wept to leave thee so:

on the first Eclogue of Virgil, addressed If wysdome myght have fled the fatall
ad Amicum Joannem Baleum, viii. 99. howre,

1 Titles of many others of his pieces Thou hadste not yet ben suffred for to go.

may be seen in Bale, ubi supr. A thousande doltysh geese we myght have

k See Strype's Cranmer, B. in. c. 11. sparde

p. 343. And Grindal, 8. Fox, edit. i. A thousand ' e wytles hea ds death might

1047. And Wood, Ath. Oxon. i. 178. have found)

1 Bale ubi su P r - And taken them for whom no man had

* [An epitaph on the death of Nicolas carde

Grimaold appeared in the > very scarce And la de ' them lowe in d obH-

poems of Barn. Googe, 1563, and has vious grounde.

been reprinted by Mr Steevens in his But Fortune favours fooleSj as old men

Account of Ancient .translations from save

Classic Authors. (Reed's Shaksp. ii. 114.) And lets th ; m , and takes the

The following extract relates more parti- awaye." -PARK,
cularly to the person commemorated.

" Yf that wyt or worthy eloquens t C 1 * w uld seem from the following

Or learnyng deape could move him lines in Barnabe Googe's poems, that Gri-

[ Death] to forbeare ; moald had after lord Surrey, translated

O GRIMAOLD, then thou hadste not yet P ortion of Virgil; which the bishop of

gon hence, Dunkeld afterwards completed.

But here hadst sene full many an aged The noble H[enry] Hawarde once

yeare. That raught eternal fame,

SECT. XL.] NICHOLAS GRIMOALD. 67

In his poem on the DEATH OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO are these
lines. The assassins of Cicero are said to relent,

When

They his bare neck beheld, and his hore heyres,

Scant could they hold the teares that forth gan burst,

And almost fell from bloody handes the swoords ;

Only the stern Herennius, with grym looke,

Dastards, why stand you still ? he sayth : and straight

Swaps off the head with his presumptuous yron.

Ne with that slaughter yet is he not filld :

Fowl shame on shame to hepe, is his delite.

Wherefore the handes also doth he off-smyte,

Which durst Antonius' life so lifely paint.

Him, yelding strayned ghost m , from welkin hye

With lothly chere lord Phebus gan behold ;

And in black clowde, they say, long hid his hed.

The Latine Muses, and the Grayes", they wept,

And for his fall eternally shall wepe.

And lo ! hart-persing PITHO, strange to tell,

Who had to him suffisde both sense and wordes,

When so he spake, and drest with nectar soote

That flowyng toung, when his windpipe disclosde,

Fled with her fleeyng friend : and, out, alas !

Hath left the earth, ne will no more returneP.

Nor is this passage unsupported by a warmth of imagination, and the
spirit of pathetic poetry. The general cast of the whole poem shows,
that our author was not ill qualified for dramatic composition.

Another of Grimoald's blank-verse poems is on the death of Zoroas
an Egyptian astronomer, who was killed in Alexander's first battle with
the Persians *. It is opened with this nervous and animated exordium.

Now clattering armes, now raging broyls of warre,

Gan passe the noyes of dredfull trompetts clang ' ;

Shrowded with shafts the heaven, with cloud of darts

Covered the ayre. Against full-fatted bulles

As forceth kindled yre the lyons keen,

Whose greedy gutts the gnawing honger pricks,

So Macedons against the Persians fare 1 ".

With mighty style did bryng a pece * And is a translation from part of the

Of Virgil's worke in frame. Latin Alexandreis of Philip Gualtier de

And GRIMAOLD gave the lyke attempt, Chatillon, bishop of Megala, who flourish-

And Douglas won the ball, ed in the thirteenth century. See Stee-

Whose famouse wyt in Scottysh ryme vens's Shaksp. vii. 337. ed. 1803. PARK.]

Had made an ende of all." PARK.] q The reader must recollect Shak-

m His constrained spirit. speare's

n Graiee. Greek. Loud larums, neighing steeds, and TRUM-

Peitho, the goddess of persuasion. FRETS' CLANG.

p Fol. 117. r Fol. 115.

F 2

68 NICHOLAS GRIMOALD. [SECT. XL.

In the midst of the tumult and hurry of the battle, appears the sage
philosopher Zoroas ; a classical and elegant description of whose skill in
natural science, forms a pleasing constrast amidst images of death and
destruction ; and is inserted with great propriety, as it is necessary to
introduce the history of his catastrophe.

Shakyng her bloudy hands Bellone, among

The Perses, soweth all kynde of cruel death.

Him smites the club ; him wounds far-striking bow ;

And him the sling, and him the shinyng swoord.

Right over stood, in snow-white armour brave 8 ,

The Memphite Zoroas, a cunning clarke,

To whom the heaven lay open as his boke :

And in celestiall bodies he could tell

The movyng, metyng, light, aspect, eclips,

And influence, and constellacions all.

What earthly chances would betide : what yere

Of plenty * stord : what signe forwarned derth :

How winter gendreth snow: what temperature

In the prime tide" doth season well the soyl.

Why sommer burns : why autumne hath ripe grapes :

Whether the circle quadrate may become :

Whether our tunes heavens harmony can yeld w :

What starre doth let x the hurtfull sire? to rage,

Or him more milde what opposition makes :

What fire doth qualify Mavorses 2 fire, &c. a

Our astronomer, finding by the stars that he is destined to die
speedily, chooses to be killed by the hand of Alexander, whom he en-
deavours to irritate to an attack, first by throwing darts, and then by
reproachful speeches.

Shameful stain

Of mothers bed I Why losest thou thy strokes
Cowards among ? Turne thee to me, in case
Manhode there be so much left in thy hart :
Come, fight with me, that on my helmet weare
Apolloes laurel, both for learnings laude,
And eke for martial praise : that in my shielde
The sevenfold sophie of Minerve contain.
A match more meet, sir king, than any here.

Alexander is for a while unwilling to revenge this insult on a man
eminent for wisdom.

5 brave, is richly decked. x hinder.

1 with plenty. u spring, prtntemps. y Saturn. [SirSus. RITSON.]

w Whether any music made by man z of Mavors, or the planet Mars,

can resemble that of the spheres. a Fol. 115.

SECT. XL.] WILLIAM VALLANS. 69

The noble prince amoved, takes ruthe upon
The wilful wight ; and with soft wordes, ayen :

monstrous man, quod he, What so thou art !

1 pray thee live, ne do not with thy death
This lodge of lore b , the Muses mansion marr,
That treasure-house this hand shall never spoyl.
My sword shall never bruse that skilfull braine,
Long-gathered heapes of Science sone to spill.
O how faire frutes may you to mortal men
From WISDOMES garden geve I How many may,
By you, the wiser and the better prove !

What error, what mad moode, what frenzy, thee
Perswades, to be downe sent to depe Averne,
Where no arts florish, nor no knowledge 'vailes
For all these sawes c ? When thus the soverain sayd,
Alighted Zoroas, &c. d

I have a suspicion, that these two pieces in blank-verse, if not frag-
ments of larger works, were finished in their present state, as prolusions,
or illustrative practical specimens, for our author's course of lectures in
rhetoric. In that case, they were written so early as the year 154?7.
There is positive proof, that they appeared not later than 1557, when
they were first printed by Tottell.

I have already mentioned lord Surrey's Virgil ; and for the sake of
juxtaposition, will here produce a third specimen* of early blank- verse,
little known. In the year 1590, William Vallans published a blank-
verse poem, entitled, A TALE OF TWO SWANNES, which, under a poetic
fiction, describes the situation and antiquities of several towns in Hert-
fordshire. The author, a native or inhabitant of Hertfordshire, seems
to have been connected with Camden and other ingenious antiquaries
of his age. I cite the exordium.

When Nature, nurse of every living thing,
Had clad her charge in brave and new array ;
The hils rejoyst to see themselves so fine :
The fields and woods grew proud therof also :
The medowes with their partie-colour'd coates,
Like to the rainebow in the azurd skie,
Gave just occasion to the cheerfull birdes
With sweetest note to singe their nurse's praise.
Among the which, the merrie nightingale
With swete and swete, her breast again a thorne,
Ringes out all night, &c. e

b his head. Aske's Elizabetha Triumphans, 1588.

lessons of wisdom. PARK.]

d Fol. 115. 116. e London, Printed by Roger Ward for

* [The intervening specimens appear- John Sheldrake, MDXC. 4to. 3 sheets. He

ed in Gascoigne's Steele Glass, 1576, and mentions most of the seats in Hertford-

70 NICHOLAS GRIMOALD. [SECT. XL.

Vallans is probably the author of a piece much better known, a histo-
ry, by many held to be a romance, but which proves the writer a dili-
gent searcher into antient records, entitled, "The HONOURABLE PREN-
TICE, shewed in the Life and Death of Sir JOHN HAWKEWOOD some-
time Prentice of London, interlaced with the famous History of the
noble FITZWALTER Lord of Woodham in Essex f , and of the poisoning
of his faire daughter. Also of the merry Customes of DUNMOWE, &c.
Whereunto is annexed the most lamentable murther of Robert Hall at
the High Altar in Westminster Abbey g ."

The reader will observe, that what has been here said about early
specimens of blank-verse, is to be restrained to poems not written for
the stage. Long before Vallans's Two SWANNES, many theatrical pieces
in blank- verse had appeared ; the first of which is, The TRAGEDY OF
GORBODUC, written in 1561. The second is George Gascoigne's JO-
CAST A, a tragedy, acted at Gray's-inn, in 1566. George Peele had
also published his tragedy in blank-verse of DAVID AND BETHSABE,
about the year 1579 h . HIERONYMO, a tragedy also without rhyme,
was acted before 1590. But this point, which is here only transiently
mentioned, will be more fully considered hereafter, in its proper place.
We will now return to our author Grimoald.

Grimoald, as a writer of verses in rhyme, yields to none of his co-
temporaries, for a masterly choice of cfiaste expression, and the concise
elegancies of didactic versification. Some of the couplets, in his poem
IN PRAISE OF MODERATION, have all the smartness which marks the
modern style of sententious poetry, and would have done honour to
Pope's ethic epistles.

The auncient Time commended not for nought

The Mean. What better thyng can there be sought?

In meane is vertue placed : on either side,

Both right and left, amisse a man shall slide.

Icar, with sire 1 hadst thou the midway flown,

Icarian beck k by name no man [had] known.

If middle path kept had proud Phaeton,

No burning brand this earth had fallne upon.

Ne cruel power, ne none so soft can raign :

That kepes 1 a mean, the same shal stil remain.

Thee, Julie m , once did too much mercy spill:

Thee, Nero stern, rigor extreem did kill.

shire then existing, belonging to the queen author's initials W. V. See Hearne, ut

and the nobility. See Hearne's Lei. Itin. modo supr. iii. p. v. ii. p. xvi.

V. Pr. p. iv. seq. ed. 2. h Shakspeare did not begin writing for

f The founder of Dunmow priory, after- the stage till 1591 ; Jonson about 1598.

wards mentioned, in the reign of Henry Icarus, with thy father,

the Third. * strait, sea.

B There are two old editions, at Lon- l that which,

don, in 1615, and 1616, both for Henry m Julius Caesar.
Gosson, in 5 sh. 4to. They have only the

SECT. XL.] NICHOLAS GRIMOALD. Jl

How could August" so many yeres well passe ?
Nor overmeek, nor overferse, he was.
Worship not Jove with curious fansies vain,
Nor him despise : hold right atween these twain.
No wastefull wight, no greedy goom is prayzd :
Stands Largesse just in egall ballance payzd .
So Catoes meat surmountes Antonius chere,
And better fame his sober fare hath here.
Too slender building bad, as bad too grosseP;
One an eye sore, the other falls to losse.
As medcines help in measure, so, god wot,
By overmuch the sick their bane have got.
Unmete, meesemes, to utter this mo wayes ;
Measure forbids unmeasurable prayse.i

The maxim is enforced with great quickness and variety of illustra-
tion : nor is the collision of opposite thoughts, which the subject so
naturally affords, extravagantly pursued, or indulged beyond the bounds
of good sense and propriety. The following stanzas on the NINE MUSES
are more poetical, and not less correct/

Imps 8 of king JOVE and quene REMEMBRANCE, lo,
The sisters nyne, the poets pleasant feres*,
Calliope doth stately stile bestow,
And worthy praises paintes of princely peres.

Clio in solem songes reneweth all day,
With present yeres conjoyning age bypast.
Delighteful talke loves comicall Thaley;
In fresh grene youth who doth like laurel! last.

With voyces tragicall sowndes Melpomen,
And, as with cheins, thallured eare she bindes.
Her stringes when Terpsichor doth touche, even then
She toucheth hartes, and raigneth in mens mindes.

Fine Erato, whose looke a lively chere
Presents, in dancing keepes a comely grace.
With semely gesture doth Polymnie stere,
Whose wordes whole routes of rankes do rule in place.

Uranie, her globes to view all bent,
The ninefold heaven observes with fixed face.
The blastes Euterpe tunes of instrument,
With solace sweete, hence my heavie dumps to chase.

Lord Phebus in the mids (whose heauenly sprite
These ladies doth enspire) embraceth all.
The Graces in the Muses weed, delite
To lead them forth, that men in maze they fall.

n Augustus Caesar. poised. r Fol. 113. * daughter

p thick, massy. q Fol. 113. * companions.

72 POETS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. [SECT. XLI.

It would be unpardonable to dismiss this valuable miscellany, with-
out acknowledging our obligations to its original editor Richard Tot-
tell, who deserves highly of English literature, for having collected at
a critical period, and preserved in a printed volume, so many admi-
rable specimens of antient genius, which would have mouldered in
manuscript, or perhaps from their detached and fugitive state of ex-
istence, their want of length, the capriciousness of taste, the general
depredations of time, inattention, and other accidents, would never
have reached the present age. It seems to have given birth to two
favorite and celebrated collections* of the same kind, THE PARADISE
OF DAINTY DEVISES, and ENGLAND'S HELICON, which appeared in
the reign of queen Elisabeth u .

SECTION XLI.

Andrew Borde. Bah. Ansley. Chertsey. FabylTs Ghost, a poem.
The Merry Devil of Edmonton. Other minor Poets of the Reign of
Henry the Eighth.

IT will not be supposed, that air the poets of the reign of Henry the
Eighth were educated in the school of Petrarch. The graces of the
Italian muse, which had been taught by Surrey and Wyat, were con-
fined to a few. Nor were the beauties of the classics yet become gene-
ral objects of imitation. There are many writers of this period who
still rhymed on, in the old prosaic track of their immediate predeces-
sors, and never ventured to deviate into the modern improvements.
The strain of romantic fiction was lost ; in the place of which, they
did not substitute the elegancies newly introduced.

I shall consider together, yet without an exact observation of chro-
nological order, the poets of the reign of Henry the Eighth who form
this subordinate class, and who do not bear any mark of the character
of the poetry which distinguishes this period. Yet some of these have

* [Quere whether these collections were who appears to have fought under Henry

not more immediately derived from " A the Eighth in the wars of France and

gorgeous Gallery of gallant Inventions," Scotland. This edition of 1557, is not in

&c. and the " Phcenix Nest," both reprint- quarto, as I have called it by an oversight,

ed in Heliconia, vol. i. PARK.] but in small duodecimo, and only with

u The reader will observe, that I have signatures. It is not mentioned by Ames,
followed the paging and arrangement of and I have seen it only among Tanner's
Tottell's second edition in 1565. 12mo. printed books at Oxford. It has this co-
in his edition of 1557, there is much con- lophon : " Imprinted at London in Flete
fusion. A poem is there given to Grimoald, Strete within Temple barre, at the sygne
on the death of lady Margaret Lee, in of the hand and starre by Richard Tot-
1555. Also among Grimoald's is a poem tel, the fifte day of June. An. 1557. Cum
on sir James Wilford, mentioned above, privilegio ad imprimendum solum."

SECT. XLI.] ANDREW BORDE. 73

their degree of merit ; and, if they had not necessarily claimed a place
in our series, deserve examination.

Andrew Borde, who writes himself ANDREAS PERFORATUS, with
about as much propriety and as little pedantry as Buchanan calls one
Wisehart SOPHOCARDIUS, was educated at Winchester and Oxford*;
and is said, I believe on very slender proof, to have been physician to
king Henry the Eighth. His BREVIARY OF HEALTH, first printed in
1547 b , is dedicated to the college of physicians, into which he had
been incorporated. The first book of this treatise is said to have been
examined and approved by the University of Oxford in 1546 C . He
chiefly practised in Hampshire ; and being popishly affected, was cen-
sured by Poynet, a Calvinistic bishop of Winchester, for keeping three
prostitutes in his house, which he proved to be his patients d . He ap-
pears to have been a man of great superstition, and of a weak and
whimsical head: and having been once a Carthusian, continued ever
afterwards to profess celibacy, to drink water, and to wear a shirt of
hair. His thirst of knowledge, dislike of the reformation, or rather his
unsettled disposition, led him abroad into various parts of Europe,
which he visited in the medical character*. Wood says, that he was
" esteemed a noted poet, a witty and ingenious person, and an excellent
physician." Hearne, who has plainly discovered the origin of Tom
Thumb, is of opinion, that this facetious practitioner in physic gave
rise to the name of MERRY ANDREW, the Fool on the mountebank's
stage. The reader will not perhaps be displeased to see that anti-
quary's reasons for this conjecture ; which are at the same time a vin-
dication of Borde's character, afford some new anecdotes of his life,
and show that a Merry Andrew may be a scholar and an ingenious
man. "It is observable, that the author [Borde] was as fond of the
word DOLENTYD, as of many other hard and uncooth words, as any
Quack can be. He begins his BREVIARY OF HEALTH, Egregious doc-
tours and Maysters of the eximious and archane science of Physicke, of
your urbanite exasperate not your selve, &c. But notwithstanding this,
will any one from hence infer or assert, that the author was either a
pedant or a superficial scholar ? I think, upon due consideration, he

a See his Introduction to Knowledge, that to the princess Mary is dated 3 May

ut infr. cap. xxxv. 1542, and may be supposed to have been

b "Compyled by Andrewe Boorde of printed soon after, though indeed it has

Physicke Doctoure an Englysshe man." no date of printing. It was printed by

It was reprinted by William Powell in Wm. Copland. See Bibl. West. No. 1643.

1552, and again in 1557. There was an PARK.]

impression by T. East, 1587, 4to. others c At the end of which is this note :

also in 1548, and 1575, which I have "Here endeth the first boke Examined

never seen. The latest is by East in in Oxforde in the yere of our Lorde

1598, 4to. [This seems to have been MCCCCCXLVI," &c.

printed, says Herbert, before 1547, by d See Against Martin, &c. p. 48.

William Mydilton, in 12mo, because * [" I have gone round Christendome

therein he mentions his Introduction to and overthwart Christendome," says

Knowledge, as at that time printing at old Borde in his Dietarie of Health. PARK-]
Rob. Copland's. But the dedication of

74 ANDREW HORDE. , [SECT. XLI.

will judge the contrary. Dr. Borde was an ingenious man, and knew
how to humour and please his patients, readers, and auditors. In his
travells and visits, he often appeared and spoke in public; and would
often frequent markets and fairs where a conflux of people used to get
together, to whom he prescribed ; and to induce them to flock thither
the more readily, he would make humorous speeches, couched in such
language as caused mirth) and wonderfully propagated his fame : and
'twas for the same end that he made use of such expressions in his
Books, as would otherwise (the circumstances not considered) be very
justly pronounced bombast. As he was versed in antiquity, he had
words at command from old writers with which to amuse his hearers,
which could not fail of pleasing, provided he added at the same time
some remarkable explication. For instance, if he told them that Aejuzdqs
was an old brass medal among the Greeks, the oddness of the word,
would, without doubt, gain attention; tho nothing near so much, as if
withall he signified, that 'twas a brass medal a little bigger than an
Obolus, that used to be put in the mouths of persons that were dead.
And withall, 'twould affect them the more, if when he spoke of such
a brass medal, he signified to them, that brass was in old time looked
upon as more honourable than other metals, which he might safely
enough do, from Homer and his scholiast. Homer's words are, &c. A
passage, which without doubt HIERONYMUS MAGIUS would have taken
notice of in the fourteenth chapter of his Book DE TINTINNABULIS,
had it occurred to his memory when in prison he was writing, without
the help of books before him, that curious Discourse. 'Twas from the
Doctor's method of using such speeches at markets and fairs, that in
aftertimes, those that imitated the like' humorous, jocose language, were
styled MERRY ANDREWS, a term much in vogue on our stages 6 ."

He is supposed to have compiled or composed the MERRY TALES of
the mad men of Gotham, which, as we are told by Wood, " in the
reign of Henry the Eighth, and after, was accounted a book full of wit
and mirth by scholars and gentlemen f ." This piece, which probably
was not without its temporary ridicule, and which yet maintains a po-
pularity in the nursery, was, I think, first printed by Wynkyn de Worde.
Hearne was of opinion, that these idle pranks of the men of Gotham, a
town in Lincolnshire, bore a reference to some customary law-tenures
belonging to that place or its neighbourhood, now grown obsolete; and
that Blount might have enriched his book on ANTIENT TENURES with
these ludicrous stories. He is speaking of the political design of REY-
NARD THE Fox, printed by Caxton. " It was an admirable Thing.
And the design, being political, and to represent a wise government,
was equally good. So little reason is there to look upon this as a poor

e Hearne's Benedict. Abb. torn. i. Prae- out date, but about 1568, entitled, MERIE

fat. p. 50. edit. Oxon. 1735. TALES of the madmen of Gotam, gathered

s Ath. Oxon. i. 74. There is an edi- together by A. B. ofphysicke doctour. The

tion in duodecimo by Henry Wikes, with- oldest I have seen, is London, 1630, 12mo.

SECT. XLI.] ANDREW BORDE.

book. Nor is there more reason to esteem the MERRY
TALES OF THE MAD MEN OF GOTHAM (which was much valued and
cried up in Henry the eighth's time tho now sold at ballad-singers
stalls) as altogether a romance: a certain skillfull person having told me
more than once, that he was assured by one of Gotham, that they formerly
held lands there, by such Sports and Customs as are touched upon in
this book. For which reason, I think particular notice should have
been taken of it in Blount's TENURES, as I do not doubt but there
would, had that otherwise curious author been apprised of the matter.
But 'tis strange to see the changes that have been made in the book of
REYNARD THE Fox, from the original editions^!"

Borde's chief poetical work is entitled, " The first Boke of the IN-
TRODUCTION OF KNOWLEDGE, the which doth teach a man to speake
parte of al maner of languages, and to knowe the usage and fashion of
al maner of countryes: and for to knowe the most parte of al maner of
coynes of money, the whych is currant in every region. Made by An-
drew Borde of phisyk doctor." It was printed by the Coplands, and is
dedicated to the king's daughter the princess Mary. The dedication
is dated from Montpelier, in the year 154*2. The book, containing
Ihirty-nine chapters, is partly in verse and partly in prose; with wooden
cuts prefixed to each chapter. The first is a satire, as it appears, on
the fickle nature of an Englishman: the symbolical print prefixed to
this chapter, exhibiting a naked man, with a pair of shears in one hand
and a roll of cloth in the other, not determined what sort of a coat he
shall order to be made, has more humour than any of the verses which
follow 11 . Nor is the poetry destitute of humour only; but of every
embellishment, both of metrical arrangement and of expression. Borde
has all the baldness of allusion, and barbarity of versification, belong-
ing to Skelton, without his strokes of satire and severity. The follow-
ing lines, part of the Englishman's speech, will not prejudice the reader
in his favour.

What do I care, if all the world me faile ?

I will have a garment reach to my taile.

Then am I a minion*, for I weare the new guise,

The next yeare after I hope to be wise,

Not only in wearing my gorgeous aray,

For I will go to learning a whole summers day.

g Hearne's Not. et Spicileg. ad Gul. after the Almaine fashion : by and by the

Neubrig. vol. iii. p. 744. See also Bene- Turkish maner otherwise the Morisco

diet. Abb. ut supr. p. 54. gowns, the Barbarian sieves, the mandi-

h Harrison, in his Description of En- lion worne to Collie Weston ward, and the

gland, having mentioned this work by shorte French breeches," &c. B. ii. ch. 9.

Borde, adds, " Suche is our mutabilitie, p. 172.

that to daie there is none [equal] to the * [A young fashionable courtier. See

Spanish guise, to morrow the French toies a print of French mignons in Montfau-

are most fine and delectable, yer [ere] con's Antiquities. ASHBY.]
long no such apparel as that which is

76 ANDREW BORDE. [SECT. XLI.

In the seventh chapter, he gives a fantastic account of his travels 1 , and
owns, that his metre deserves no higher appellation than ryme dogrell.
But this delineation of the fickle Englishman is perhaps to be restrict-
ed to the circumstances of the author's age, without a respect to the
national character; and, as Borde was a rigid catholic, there is a pro-
bability, notwithstanding in other places he treats of natural disposi-
tions, that a satire is designed on the laxity of principle, and revolutions
of opinion, which prevailed at the reformation, and the easy compliance
of many of his changeable countrymen with a new religion for lucrative
purposes.

I transcribe the character of the Welshman, chiefly because he speaks
of his harp.

I am a Welshman, and do dwel in Wales,

I have loved to serche budgets, and looke in males :

I love not to labour, to delve, nor to dyg,

My fyngers be lymed lyke a lyme-twyg.

And wherby ryches I do not greatly set,

Syth all hys [is] fysshe that cometh to the net.
. I am a gentylman, and come of Brutes blood,

My name is ap Ryce, ap Davy, ap Flood :

I love our Lady, for I am of hyr kynne,

He that doth not love her, I beshrewe his chynne.

My kyndred is ap Hoby, ap Jenkin, ap Goffe.

By cause I go barelegged, I do catch the coffe.

Bycause I do go barelegged it is not for pryde.

I have a gray cote, my body for to hyde.

I do love cawse boby*, good rosted cheese,

And swysshe metheglyn I loke for my fees.

And yf I have my HARPE, I care for no more,

It is my treasure, I kepe it in store.

For my harpe is made of a good mare's skyn,

The strynges be of horse heare, it maketh a good dyn.

My songe, and my voyce, and my harpe doth agree,

Much lyke the bussing of an homble bee :

Yet in my country I do make pastyme

In tellyng of prophyces which be not in ryme. 1

1 Prefixed to which, is a wooden cut castels and the country of the people of

of the author Borde, standing in a sort Castyle and Biscayn." In describing

of pew or stall, under a canopy, habited Gascony, he says, that at Bordeaux, " in

in an academical gown, a laurel-crown the cathedrall church of Saint Andrews,

on his head, with a book before him on a is the fairest and the greatest payre of

desk. orgyns [organs] in al Chrystendome, in

k That is, toasted cheese, next men- the which orgins be many instrumentes

tioned. and vyces [devices] as gians [giants]

1 Ch. ii. In the prose description of heads and starres, the which doth move

Wales he says, there are many beautiful and wagge with their jawes and eis

and strong castles standing yet. " The [eyes] as fast as the player playeth."

castels and the countre of Wales, and the ch. xxiii.
people of Wales, be much lyke to the

SECT. XLI.] ANDREW BORDE. 77

I have before mentioned " A ryght pleasant and merry History of
the MYLNER OF ABiNGTON m , with his wife and his faire daughter, and
of two poor scholars of Cambridge," a meagre epitome of Chaucer's
MILLER'S TALE. In a blank leaf of the Bodleian copy, this tale is said
by Thomas Newton of Cheshire, an elegant Latin epigrammatist of the
reign of queen Elisabeth, to have been written by Borde 11 . He is also
supposed to have published a collection of silly stories called SCOGIN'S
JESTS, sixty in number. Perhaps Shakspeare took his idea from this
jest-book, that Scogan was a mere buffoon, where he says that Falstaffe,
as a juvenile exploit, "broke Scogan's head at the court-gate ." Nor
have we any better authority, than this publication by Borde, that Sco-
gan was a graduate in the university, and a jester to a king?. Hearne,
at the end of Benedictus Abbas, has printed Borde's ITINERARY, as it
may be called; which is little more than a string of names, but is
quoted by Norden in his SPECULUM BRITANNIA. Borde's circula-
tory peregrinations, in the quality of a quack-doctor, might have fur-
nished more ample materials for an English topography. Beside the
BREVIARY OF HEALTH, mentioned above, and which was approved by
the university of Oxford, Borde has left the DIETARIE OF HEALTH,
reprinted in 1576, the PROMPTUARIE OF MEDICINE, the DOCTRINE
OF URINES, and the PRINCIPLES OF ASTRONOMICAL PROGNOSTICA-
TIONS r : which are proofs of attention to his profession, and show that
he could sometimes be serious s . But Borde's name would not have
been now remembered, had he wrote only profound systems in medi-
cine and astronomy. c He is known to posterity as a buffoon, not as a
philosopher. Yet, I think, some of his astronomical tracts have been
epitomised and bound up with Erra Pater's Almanacs.

Of Borde's numerous books, the only one that can afford any degree
of entertainment to the modern reader, is the DIETARIE OF HELTHE ;
where, giving directions as a physician, concerning the choice of

m A village near Cambridge. Regarded and rewarded, which few poets

n See supr. vol. ii. p. 197. Are nowadays.

Henry IV., Part Second, act iii. sc. 2. ... _.

" It is hard [o say whence Jonson got See Tyrwhitt's Chaucer, vol. v. An Ao

his account of Scogan, Masque of the For- , count ' &c ' P- * x ' And com P ar ? what I

tunate Isles, vol. iv. p. 192. ** sai * ^ Scogan, supr. vol. 11 p 335.

[where Mr. Ritson s correction of this pas-

Merefool. Skogan ? What was he ? sage is given.] Drayton, in the Preface

Johphiel. O, a fine gentleman, and a to his Eclogues, says, "the COLIN CLOUT

Master of Arts OF SKOGGAN under Henry the Seventh is

Of Henry the Fourth's time, that made pretty." He must mean Skelton.

disguises q Pag. 13. Middlesex, i. P.

For the king's sones, and writ in balad- r The Princyples of Astronamye the

royal whiche diligently per scrutyd is in a maner

Daintily well. a prognosticacyon to the worldes ende. In

Merefool. But wrote he like a gentle- thirteen chapters. For R. Copland, with-

man ? out date, 12mo. It is among bishop More's

Johphiel. In rhyme, fine tinkling collection at Cambridge, with some other

rhyme, and flowand verse, of Borde's books.

With now and then some sense; and he * See Ames, Hist. Print, p. 152. Pits,

was paid for't, p. 735.

78 JOHN BALE. [SECT. XLI.

houses, diet, and apparel, and not suspecting how little he should in-
struct, and how much he might amuse, a curious posterity, he has pre-
served many anecdotes of the private life, customs, and arts, of our
ancestors*. This work is dedicated to Thomas duke of Norfolk, lord
treasurer under Henry the Eighth. In the dedication, he speaks of his
being called in as a physician to sjr John Drury, the year when car-
dinal Wolsey was promoted to York; but that he did not choose to pre-
scribe without consulting doctor Buttes, the king's physician. He apo-
logises to the duke, for not writing in the ornate phraseology now gene-
rally affected. He also hopes to be excused, for using in his writings so
many wordes of mirth : but this, he says, was only to make your grace
merrie, and because mirth has ever been esteemed the best medicine.
Borde must have had no small share of vanity, who could think thus
highly of his own pleasantry. And to what a degree of taste and re-
finement must our ancient dukes and lords treasurers have arrived, who
could be exhilarated by the witticisms and the lively language of this
facetious philosopher ?

John Bale, a tolerable Latin classic, and an eminent biographer,
before his conversion from popery, and his advancement to the bishop-
rick of Ossory by king Edward the Sixth, composed many scriptural
interludes, chiefly from incidents of the New Testament. They are, the
life of Saint John the Baptist, written in 1538*. Christ in his twelfth
year. Baptism and Temptation. The Resurrection of Lazarus. The
Council of the High-priests. Simon the Leper. Our Lord's Supper,
and the Washing of the feet of his Disciples. Christ's Burial and Re-
surrection. The Passion of Christ. The Comedie of the three Laws
of Nature, Moses, and Christ, corrupted by the Sodomites, Pharisees,
and Papists, printed by Nicholas Bamburg in 1538 ; and so popular,
that it was reprinted by Colwell in 1562 U . God's Promises to Man w .
Our author, in his Vocacyon to the Bishoprich of Ossory, informs us,
that his COMEDY of John the Baptist, and his TRAGEDY of God's Pro-
mises, were acted by the youths upon a Sunday, at the market cross of

* In his rules for building or planning In the Garden a Pool or two, for fish. A

a House, he supposes a quadrangle. The Park filled with deer and conies. " A

Gate-house, or Tower, to be exactly op- Dove-house also is a necessary thyng

posite to the Portico of the Hall. The about a mansyon-place. And, among other

Privy Chamber to be annexed to the thynges, a Payre of Buttes is a decent

Chamber of State. A Parlour joining to thynge about a mansyon. And other-

the Buttery and Pantry at the lower end whyle, for a great man necessary it is for

of the Hall. The Pastry-house and Larder to passe his tyme with bowles in an aly,

annexed to the Kitchen. Many of the when al this is finished, and the mansyon

chambers to have a view into the Chapel. replenished with implemens." Ch. iv.

In the outer quadrangle to be a stable, but Sign. C. ii. Dedication dated 1542 [7],
only for horses of pleasure. The stables, * [SeeHarleianMiscell. vol.i. PARK.]

dairy, and slaughter-house, to be a quarter u Both in quarto. At the end is A song

of a mile from the house. The Moat to of Benedictus, compiled by Johan Bale,
have a spring falling into it, and to be w This was written in 1538 ; and first

often scowered. An Orchard of sundry printed under the name of a Tragedie or

fridtsis convenient; but he rather recom- Interlude, by Charlewood, 1577. 4to.
mends a Garden filled with aromatic herbs.

SRCT. XLI.] BRIAN ANSLAY. 79

Kilkenny x . What shall we think of the state, I will not say of the stage,
but of common sense, when these deplorable dramas could be endured?
of an age, when the Bible was profaned and ridiculed from a principle
of piety ? But the fashion of acting mysteries appears to have expired
with this writer. He is said, by himself, to have written a book of
Hymns, and another jrf jests and tales ; and to have translated the tra-
gedy of PAMMACHiusy; the same perhaps which was acted at Christ's
college in Cambridge in 1544, and afterwards laid before the privy
council as a libel on the reformation 2 . A low vein of abusive bur-
lesque, which had more virulence than humour, seems to have been
one of Bale's talents : two of his pamphlets against the papists, all whom
he considered as monks, are entitled the MASS OF THE GLUTTONS, and
the ALCORAN OF THE PRELATES a . Next to exposing the impostures
of popery, literary history was his favorite pursuit ; and his most cele-
brated performance is his account of the British writers. But this work,
perhaps originally undertaken by Bale as a vehicle of his sentiments in
religion, is not only full of misrepresentations and partialities, arising
from his religious prejudices, but of general inaccuracies, proceeding
from negligence or misinformation. Even those more ancient Lives
which he transcribes from Leland's Commentary on the same subject,
are often interpolated with false facts, and impertinently marked with a
misapplied zeal for reformation. He is angry with many authors, who
flourished before the thirteenth century, for being catholics. He tells
us, that lord Cromwell frequently screened him from the fury of the
more bigoted^ bishops, on account of the comedies he had published 1 *.
But whether plays in particular, or other compositions, are here to be
understood by comedies, is uncertain.

Brian Anslay, or Annesley, yeoman of the wine cellar to Henry the
Eighth about the year 1520, translated a popular French poem into En-
glish rhymes, at the exhortation of the gentle earl of Kent, called the
CITIE OF DAMES [Ladyes*], in three books. It was printed in 1521,
by Henry Pepwell, whose prologue prefixed begins with these unpro-
mising lines,

So now of late came into my custode
This forseyde book, by Brian Anslay,
Yeoman of the seller with the eight king Henry.

Another translator of French into English, much about the same
time, is Andrew Chertsey. In the year 1520, Wynkyn de Worde print-

x Fol. 24. [Still acted at the market- a See supr. vol. ii. p. 523.

cross of Bury, but not on a Sunday. b "Ob editas COMCEDIAS." Ubi supr.

ASHBY.] * [Mr. Ellis conjectures this to be atrans-

y Cent. viii. 100. p. 702. And Verhei- lation of the Tresor de la Cite des Dames,

den, p. 149. by Christian of Pise. Hist. Sketch, ii. 20.

z See supr. vol. ii. p. 523. Bale says, PARK.]
"Pammachii tragcedias transtuli."

80 ANDREW CHERTSEY. [SECT. XLI.

ed a book with this title, partly in prose and partly in verse, Here fo-
loweth thepassyon of our lord Jesu Crist translated out of French into
Englysch by Andrew Chertsey gentleman the yere of our lord MDXX. C I
will give two stanzas of Robert Copland's prologue, as it records the
diligence, and some other performances, of this very obscure writer.

The godly use of prudent- wytted men
Cannot absteyn theyr auncyent exercise.
Recorde of late how besiley with his pen
The translator of the sayd treatyse
Hath him indevered, in most godly wyse,
Bokes to translate, in volumes large and fayre,
From French in prose, of goostly exemplaire.

As is, thefioure of Gods commaundements,
A treatyse also called Lucydarye,
With two other of the sevyn sacraments,
One of cristen men the ordinary,
The seconde the craft to lyve well and to dye,
With dyvers other to mannes lyfe profytable,
A vertuose use and ryght commendable.

The Floure of God's Commaundements was printed by Wynkyn de
Worde, in folio, in 1521. A print of the author's arms, with the name
CHERTSEY, is added. The Lucydayre is translated from a favorite old
French poem called Li Lusidaire. This is a translation of the ELUCI-
DARIUM, a large work in dialogue, containing the sum of Christian
theology, by some attributed to Anselm archbishop of Canterbury in the
twelfth century d . Chertsey's other versions, mentioned in Copland's pro-
logue, are from old French manuals of devotion, now equally forgotten.
Such has been the fate of volumes fayre and large ! Some of these
versions have been given to George Ashby, clerk of the signet to Mar-
garet queen of Henry the Sixth, who wrote a moral poem for the use
of their son prince Edward, on the Active policy of a prince, finished
in the author's eightieth year. The prologue begins with a compliment
to " Maisters Gower, Chaucer, and Lydgate," a proof of the estimation
which that celebrated triumvirate still continued to maintain. I believe
it was never printed. But a copy, with a small mutilation at the end,
remains among bishop More's manuscripts at Cambridge 6 .

In the dispersed library of the late Mr. William Collins, I saw a thin
folio of two sheets in black letter, containing a poem in the octave
stanza, entitled, FABYL'S GHOSTE, printed by John Rastell in the year

c in quarto. e MSS< More, 492. It begins, "Right

d Wynkyn de Worde printed, Here be- [high] and myghty prince and my ryght

gynneth a lytell treatyse called the Lycy- good lorde."

darye. With wooden cuts. No date. In

quarto.

SECT. XLI.] MERRY DEVIL OF EDMONTON. 81

1533. The piece is of no merit; and I should not perhaps have men-
tioned it, but as the subject serves to throw light on our early drama.
Peter Fabell, whose apparition speaks in this poem, was called The
Merrie Devil of Edmonton, near London. He lived in the reign of
Henry the Seventh, and was buried in the church of Edmonton.
Weever, in his ANTIENT FUNERAL MONUMENTS, published in 1631,
says under Edmonton, that in the church " lieth interred under a seemlie
tombe without inscription, the body of Peter Fabell, as the report goes,
upon whom this fable was fathered, that he by his wittie devises be-
guiled the devill. Belike he was some ingenious-conceited gentleman,
who did use some sleighte trickes for his own disportes. He lived and
died in the raigne of Henry the Seventh, saith the booke of his merry
Pranks f ." The book of Fabell's Merry Pranks I have never seen.
But there is an old anonymous comedy, written in the reign of James
the First, which took its rise from this merry magician. It was printed
in 1617, and is called the MERRY DEVIL OF EDMONTON, as it hath
been sundry times acted by his majesties servants at the Globe on the
Banke-side%. In the Prologue, Fabell is introduced, reciting his own
history.

Tis Peter Fabell a renowned scholler,

Whose fame hath still beene hitherto forgot

By all the writers of this latter age.

In Middle-sex his birth, and his aboade,

Not full seauen mile from this great famous citty :

That, for his fame in slights and magicke won,

Was cald the Merry Fiend of Edmonton.

If any heere make doubt of such a name,

In Edmonton yet fresh vnto this day,

Fixt in the wall of that old ancient church

His monument remaineth to be scene:

His memory yet in the mouths of men,

That whilst he liu'd he could deceiue the deuill.

Imagine now, that whilst he is retirde,

From Cambridge backe vnto his natiue home,

Suppose the silent sable visage night,

Casts her blacke curtaine ouer all the world,

And whilst he sleepes within his silent bed,

Toyl'd with the studies of the passed day :

The very time and howre wherein that spirite

That many yeares attended his command;

And oftentimes 'twixt Cambridge and that towne,

Had in a minute borne him through the ayre,

By composition 'twixt the fiend and him,

Comes now to claime the scholler for his due.

f Pag. 534. in quarto, Lond.

VOL. III. G

82 HOLME. BANSLEY. [SECT. XLI.

Behold him here laid on his restlesse couch,
His fatall chime prepared at his head,
His chamber guarded with these sable slights,
And by him stands that necromantick chaire,
In which he makes his direfull inuocations,
And binds the fiends that shall obey his will.
Sith with a pleased eye vntill you know
The commicke end of our sad tragique show.

The play is without absurdities, and the author was evidently an at-
tentive reader of Shakspeare. It has nothing, except the machine of
the chime, in common with FABYLL'S GHOSTE. Fabell is mentioned in
our chronicle-histories, and, from his dealings with the devil, was com-
monly supposed to be a friar h .

In the year 1537, Wilfrid Holme, a gentleman of Huntington in
Yorkshire, wrote a poem called The Fall and evil Success of Rebellion.
It is a dialogue between England and the author, on the commotions
raised in the northern counties on account of the reformation in 1537,
under Cromwell's administration. It was printed at London in 1573.
Alliteration is here carried to the most ridiculous excess ; and from the
constraint of adhering inviolably to an identity of initials, from an
affectation of coining prolix words from the Latin, and from a total
ignorance of prosodical harmony, the author has produced one of the
most obscure, rough, and unpleasing pieces of versification in our lan-
guage. He seems to have been a disciple of Skelton. The poem, pro-
bably from its political reference, is mentioned by Hollinshed 1 . Bale,
who overlooks the author's poetry in his piety, thinks that he has learn-
edly and perspicuously discussed the absurdities of popery k .

One Charles Bansley, about the year 1540, wrote a rhyming satire
on the pride and vices of women now a days. I know not if the first
line will tempt the reader to see more.

" Bo peep, what have we spied ! "

It was printed in quarto by Thomas Rainolde; but I do not find it
among Ames's books of that printer, whose last piece is dated 1555.
Of equal reputation is Christopher Goodwin, who wrote the MAYDEN'S
DREME, a vision without imagination, printed in 1542 1 , and THE
CHANCE OF THE DOLORUS LOVER, a lamentable story without pathos,
printed in 1520 m . With these two may be ranked, Richard [Thomas]
Feylde, or Field, author of a poem printed in quarto by Wynkyn de

b See also Norden's Speculum Bri- k ix. 22.

tanniae, written in 1596. Middlesex, p. 18. ' In 4to. Pr. "Behold you young la-

And Fuller's Worthies, Middlesex, p. 1 86. dies of high parentage."
edit. fol. 1662. m In 4to. Pr. " Upon a certain tyme as

* Chron. iii. p. 978. it befell."

SECT. XLI.] HALIWELL. BLOMEFIELD. 83

Worde, called A CONTRA VERSYE BETWENE A LOVER AND A JAYE.
The prologue begins

Thoughe laureate poetes in olde antyquyte.

I must not forget to observe here, that Edward Haliwell, admitted a
fellow of King's college Cambridge in 1532, wrote the Tragedy of
DIDO, which was acted at saint Paul's school in London, under the
conduct of the very learned master John Rightwise, before cardinal
Wolsey". But it may be doubted, whether this drama was in English.
Wood says, that it was written by Rightwise . One John Hooker,
fellow of Magdalene college Oxford in 1535, wrote a comedy called by
Wood PISCATOR, or The Fisher caught?. But as latinity seems to
have been his object, I suspect this comedy to have been in Latin, and
to have been acted by the youth of his college.

The fanaticisms of chemistry seem to have remained at least till the
dissolution of the monasteries. William* Blomefield, otherwise Rat-
tlesden, born at Bury in Suffolk, bachelor in physic, and a monk of Bury-
abbey, was an adventurer in quest of the philosopher's stone. While
a monk of Bury, as I presume, he wrote a metrical chemical tract, en-
titled, BLOMEFIELD'S BLOSSOMS, or the CAMPE OF PHILOSOPHY. It
is a vision, and in the octave stanza. It was originally written in the
year 1530, according to a manuscript that I have seen : but in the copy
printed by Ashmole% which has some few improvements and additional
stanzas, our author says he began to dream in 1557 r . He is admitted
into the camp of philosophy by TIME, through a superb gate which has
twelve locks. Just within the entrance were assembled all the true
philosophers from Hermes and Aristotle, down to Roger Bacon, and
the canon of Bridlington. Detached at some distance, appear those un-
skilful but specious pretenders to the transmutation of metals, lame,
blind, and emaciated, by their own pernicious drugs and injudicious ex-
periments, who defrauded king Henry the Fourth of immense treasures
by a counterfeit elixir. Among other wonders of this mysterious re-
gion, he sees the tree of philosophy, which has fifteen different buds,
bearing fifteen different fruits. Afterwards, Blomefield turning pro-
testant, did not renounce his chemistry with his religion, for he appears
to have dedicated to queen Elisabeth another system of occult science,
entitled, THE RULE OF LIFE, OR THE FIFTH ESSENCE, with which her
majesty must have been highly edified 3 .

Although lord Surrey and some others so far deviated from the dull-
ness of the times, as to copy the Italian poets, the same taste does not

n See supr. p. 2. q See Stanz. 5.

Compare Tanner, Bibl. pag. 632. 372. r See Ashmole's Theatrum Chemicum,

Ath. Oxon. i. 17. p Ath. Oxon. i. 60. p. 305. 478.

[* From Ashmole's notes on Theatrum * MSS. More, autograph. 430. Pr.

Chemicum, 1652, p. 478, it seems doubt- " Althoughe, most redoubted, suffran

ful whether his name was not MYLES. lady." See Fox, Martyr, edit. i. p. 479.
PARK.]

84 LORD MORLEY. JOHN HEYWOOD. [SECT. XLII.

seem to have uniformly influenced all the nobility of the court of king
Henry the Eighth who were fond of writing verses. Henry Parker,
lord Morley, who died an old man in the latter end of that reign, 'was
educated in the best literature which our universities afforded. Bale
mentions his TRAGEDIES and COMEDIES, which I suspect to be nothing
more than grave mysteries and moralities, and which probably would
not now have been lost, had they deserved to live. He mentions also his
RHYMES, which I will not suppose to have been imitations of Petrarch*.
Wood says, that "his younger years were adorned with all kinds of super-
ficial learning, especially with dramatic poetry, and his elder with that
which was divine u ." It is a stronger proof of his piety than his taste,
that he sent, as a new year's gift to the princess Mary, HAMPOLE'S
COMMENTARY UPON SEVEN OF THE FIRST PENITENTIAL PSALMS.
The manuscript, with his epistle prefixed, is in the royal manuscripts
of the British Museum w . Many of Morley 's translations, being dedi-
cated either to king Henry the Eighth, or to the princess Mary, are
preserved in manuscript in the same royal repository x . They are
chiefly from Solomon, Seneca, Erasmus, Athanasius, Anselm, Thomas
Aquinas, and Paulus Jovius. The authors he translated show his track
of reading. But we should not forget his attention to the classics, and
that he translated also Tully's DREAM OF SCIPIO, and three or four
lives of Plutarch, although not immediately from the Greek y. He
seems to have been a rigid catholic, retired and studious. His decla-
ration, or paraphrase, on the ninety-fourth Psalm, was printed by Ber-
thelette in 1539. A theological commentary by a lord, was too curious
and important a production to be neglected by our first printers.

SECTION XLII.

John Heywood the Epigrammatist. His Works examined. Ancient
unpublished burlesque Poem of Sir Penny.

JOHN HEYWOOD, commonly called the epigrammatist, was beloved and
rewarded by Henry the Eighth for his buffooneries *. At leaving the

* Script. Brit. par. p. st. 103. * [From having been termed civis Lon-

Ath. Oxon. i. 52. dinensis by Bale, he has been considered

w MSS. 18 B. xxi. as a native of London by Pitts, Fuller,

x But see MSS. Gresham, 8. Wood, Tanner, and by the editors of the

y See MSS. (Bibl. Bodl.) Laud. H. 17. New Biog. Diet, in 1798. Langbaine, and

MSS. Bibl. Reg. 17 D. 2. 17 D. xi. after him Gildon, conveyed the informa-

18 A. Ix. And Walpole, Roy. and Nob. don that he had lived at North Mims,

Auth. i. p. 92 seq. [p. 313 of Mr. Park's Herts; and Mr. Reed has followed up this

edition, where a specimen of his poetry is report in Biog. Dram, by saying he was

given. See also Wood's Ath. Oxon. by born there. That North Mims had been

Mr. Bliss, vol. i. col. 117. and the Brit. the place of his residence, if not of his na-

Bibliographer, vol. iv. p. 107.] tivity, may be deduced from the following

SECT. XLII.]

JOHN HEYWOOD.

university, he commenced author, and was countenanced by sir Thomas
More for his facetious disposition. To his talents of jocularity in con-
versation, he joined a skill in music, both vocal and instrumental. His
merriments were so irresistible, that they moved even the rigid muscles
of queen Mary*, and her sullen solemnity was not proof against his
songs, his rhymes, and his jests -|-. He is said to have been often in-
vited to exercise his arts of entertainment and pleasantry in her pre-
sence, and to have had the honour to be constantly admitted into her
privy-chamber for this purpose a .

Notwithstanding his professional dissipation, Heywood appears to
have lived comfortably under the smiles of royal patronage. What

lines in Thalia's Banquet 1620, by Hen.
Peacham.

I thinke the place l that gave me first my

birth,

The genius had of epigram and mirth ;
There famous More did his Utopia write,
And there came Heywood's Epigrams to

light. PARK.]

* [Heywood evinced his attachment to
this princess long before her ascent to the
throne, as appears from a copy of verses
preserved in Harl. MS. 1703, entitled, "A
Description of a most noble Ladye, ad-
vewed by John Hey woode presently ; who
advertisinge her yeares as face, saith of
her thus in much eloquent phrase.

Give place ye lady es- all, bee gone,
Shewe not your selves att all,

For why ? behoulde there cometh one
Whose face yours all blanke shall."

The eulogist then proceeds to describe the
virtuous attraction of her looks, the blush-
ing beauty of her lively countenance, the
wit and gravity, the mirth and modesty,
with the firmness of word and deed which
mingled in her character. This picture
was taken when the princess was eighteen ;
and consequently in the year 1534. Part
of the above poem was printed among the
songs and sonnets of Uncertain Authors in
Tottell's early Miscellany, and has been
inserted by Mr. Warton at p. 56 of this vo-
lume, with high commendation of the un-
suspected writer. Two ballads by Hey-
wood printed in 1554 and 1557 are pre-
served in the archives of the Society of
Antiquaries. The former was written on
the marriage of Philip and Mary ; the lat-
ter, on the traitorous taking of Scarbo-
rough castle. Both have been reprinted

in vol. ii. of a Supplement to the Harleian
Miscellany.- PARK.]

f* [One of these is preserved in Cotton
MS. Jul. F. x. "When Queene Mary tolde
Heywoode that the priestes must forego
their wives, he merrily answered, Then
your grace must allow them lemmans, for
the clergie cannot live without sauce."
Another is recorded by Puttenham in his
Arte of English Poesie, 1589: "At the
Duke of Northumberland's bourd, merry
John Heywood was allowed to sit at the
table's end. The duke had a very noble
and honorable mynde alwayes to pay his
debts well, and when he lacked money,
would not stick to sell the greatest part
of his plate: so had he done few dayes be-
fore. Heywood being loth to call for his
drinke so oft as he was dry, turned his
eye toward the cupbord and sayd, ' I finde
great misse of your grace's standing cups :'
the duke thinking he had spoken it of
some knowledge that his plate was lately
sold, said somewhat sharply, ' Why, sir,
will not these cups serve as good a man
as your selfe?' Heywood readily replied,
' Yes, if it please your grace : but I would
have one of them stand still at myne el-
bow full of drinke, that I might not be
driven to trouble your men so often to
call for it.' This pleasant and speedy
turn of the former wordes holpe all the
matter againe, whereupon the duke be-
came very pleasaunt and dranke a bolle
of wine to Heywood, and bid a cuppe
should alwayes be standing by him." p.
231. Pitts has related an extraordinary
instance of his death-bed waggery, which
seems to vie in merriment with the scaf-
fold jests of Sir Thomas More in articulo
mortis. PARK.]

a Wood, Ath. Oxon. i. 150.

1 " North Mimmes in Herts, neere to Saint Albans." Sir Thomas More must have
had a seat in that neighbourhood, says Dr. Berkenhout. His admiration of Heywood's
repartees is noticed in Dod's Church History, vol. i. p. 369.

86 JOHN HEYWOOD. [SECT. XLII.

the FAIRY QUEEN could not procure for Spenser from the penurious
Elisabeth and her precise ministers, Heywood gained by puns and con-
ceits.

His comedies, most of which appeared before the year 1534, are
destitute of plot, humour, or character, and give us no very high opinion
of the festivity of this agreeable companion. They consist of low inci-
dent, and the language of ribaldry. But perfection must not be ex-
pected before its time. He is called our first writer of comedies. But
those who say this, speak without determinate ideas, and confound
comedies with moralities and interludes. We will allow, that he is
among the first of our dramatists who drove the Bible from the stage,
and introduced representations of familiar life and popular manners.
These are the titles of his plays. The PLAY called the four P's, being
a new and a very mery ENTERLUDE OF A PALMER, A PARDONER, A
POTYCARY, AND A PEDLAR, printed at London in quarto*, without
date or name of the printer, but probably from the press of Berthelette
or Rastell. The PLAY of LOVE. The PLAY of the WEATHER, or a
new and a very mery ENTERLUDE of all maner of WEATHERS, printed
in quarto by William Rastell, 1533, and again by Robert Wyer b . A
mery PLA^ betweene the PARDONER and the FRERE, the CURATE, and
neybour PRATTE, in quarto, by William Rastell, dated the fifth day of
April, 1533. The PLAY of Genteelnes and Nobilitie, in two parts, at
London, without date. The PINNER of Wakejteld, a COMEDIE. Phi-
lotas Scotch\, a COMEDIE. A mery PLAY betweene JOHAN the hus-
band, TYB the wife, and syr JOHAN the preeste^ by William Rastell, in
quarto, 1533.

His EPIGRAMS, six hundred in number , are probably some of his
jokes versified J; and perhaps were often extemporaneous sallies, made
and repeated in company. Wit and humour are ever found in pro-
portion to the progress of politeness. The miserable drolleries and the

* [Reprinted in Dodsley's collection of without date. Again, 1577. 1587.

Old Plays, from an edition sine anno vel 1597. 4to. Pr. Prol. "Ryme without rea-

loco. Herbert says it was printed by J. son, and reason." The fifth and sixth

Aide in 1569, and by W. Middleton with- hundredth of Epigrammes. Pr. " Were it

out date. Typog. Ant. p. 576. PARK.] as perillous to deal cards as play." Lond.

b In duodecimo. No date. Pr. Jupi- 1566. 1577. 1587. 1597. 4to. See

ter ryght far so far longe as now were to John Heywoodes Woorkes, Anno domini

recyte." 1576. Imprinted at London in Fleete-

T [Langbaine expressed a confident be- streate, etc. by Thomas Marshe. In quarto,

lief that Philotas and the Pindar of Wake- The colophon has 1577. This edition is

field were not Hey wood's compositions, not mentioned by Ames. [The earliest

and Mr. Reed fully coincided in the same edition I have seen was dated 1562, and

belief. PARK.] this included the six centuries of Epi-

c See three hundred Epigrammes on grammes, and both parts of the dialogue

three hundred Proverbes. Pr. " If every on proverbs. PARK.]
man mend one," London, without date, J [Gabriel Harvey in a note on Speght's

but certainly before 1553. Again, 1577. Chaucer, (penes Bp. Percy,) says that some

1587. 1598. The first hundred Epi- of Heywood's epigrams are supposed to be

grammes. Pr. " Ryme without reason," conceits and devices of pleasant sir Tho-

London, 1566. 1577. 1587. 4to. The mas More. PARK.}
fourth hundred of Epigrammes, London,

SECT. XLII.] JOHN HEYWOOD. 87

contemptible quibbles, with which these little pieces are pointed, indi-
cate the great want of refinement*, not only in the composition but in
the conversation of our ancestors. This is a specimen, on a piece of
humour of Wolsey's Fool, A saying of PATCH my lord Cardinals

FOOLEf.

Maister Sexton d , a person of unknowen witte,
As he at my lord Cardinal's boord did sitte,
Greedily raught 6 at a goblet of wine :
Drinke none, sayd my lord, for that sore Teg of thyne :
I warrant your Grace, quoth Sexton, I provide
For my leg : for I drinke on the tother side f .

The following is rather a humorous tale than an epigram, yet with
an epigrammatic turn.

Although that Foxes have been scene there seelde*,
Yet was there lately in Finsbery Feelde h
A Foxe sate in sight of certaine people,
Nodding, and blissing 1 , staring on Poules steeple.
A Maide toward market with hens in a band
Came by, and with the Foxe she fell in hand k .
" What thing is it, Rainard, in your braine plodding,
That bringeth this busy blissing, and nodding ?
I nother 1 nod for sleepe sweete hart, the Foxe saide,
Nor blisse for spirites m , except the divell be a maide :
My nodding and blissing breedth of wonder"
Of the witte of Poules Weathercoke yonder.
There is more witte in that cocks onely head
Than hath bene in all mens heds that be dead.
As thus by common report we finde,
All that be dead, did die for lacke of winde :
But the Weathercocks wit is not so weake
To lacke winde the winde is ever in his beake.
So that, while any winde blowth in the skie,
For lacke of winde that Weathercocke will not die."

* [Heath well observed in his first Cen- son to the Lord Mayor of London upon
tury of Epigrams, 1610, that this condition, that he should every year

Heywood the old English epigrammatist ait n h *J<> c . ee j? d to * e office

Had wit at will, and Irt was fll he mist : See More's Life of Sir Thomas More, p.

But now adaies we of the modern frie

Have art and labour with wits penurie. Fool real nam6 f Patdl ' Wolse y s

Puttenham had some time before remark- e reached.

ed with critical discrimination, that " Hey- f First Hundred. Epigr. 44.

wood came to be well benefited for the g seldom. h Finsbury field.

myrth and quiknesse of his conceits, more * bowing and blessing.

than for any good learning which was in k joined company. ! neither,

him." Art of Eng. Poesie. PARK.] m to drive away evil spirits.

f [When sir Thomas More had resigned n proceeds from wonder,

the chancellorship, he gave his fool Pater- wisdom.

88 JOHN HEYWOOD. [SECT, XLII.

She cast downe hir hennes, and now did she blis?,

"Jesu," quod she, "in nomine patris !

Who hath ever heard, at any season,

Of a Foxes forgeing so feat a reason ?"

And while she preysed the Foxes wit so,

He gat her hennes on his necke, and to go<*.

" Whither away with my hennes, Foxe ? " quoth she.

" To Poules pig r as fast as I can," quoth he.

" Betweene these Hennes and yonder Weathercocke,

I will assaie to have chickens a flocke ;

Which if I may get, this tale is made goode,

In all christendome not so Wise a broode ! " 9

Another is on the phrase, wagging beards.

It is mery in hall, when beardes wagge all.
Husband, for this these woordes to mynd I call ;
This is ment by men in their merie eating,
Not to wag their beardes in brauling or threating :
Wyfe, the meaning hereof differth not two pinnes,
Between wagginge of mens beards and womens chins.*

On the fashion of wearing Verdingales, or farthingales.

Alas ! poore verdingales must lie in the street,
To house them no dore in the citee made meete.
Synce at our narrow doores they in cannot win u ,
Sende them to Oxforde, at brodegates to get in. w

Oar author was educated at Broadgate-hall in Oxford, so called from
an uncommonly wide gate or entrance, and since converted into Pem-
broke college. These EPIGRAMS are mentioned in Wilson's RHE-
TORIKE, published in 1553*.

Another of Heywood's works, is a poem in long verse, entitled, A
DIALOGUE containing in effect the number of al the PROVERBES in the
English tongue compact in a matter concerning tivo marriages^. The

cross herself. Heiwoode helpe wonderfull wele for thys

began to steal off. purpose," fol. 96 b. PARK.]

pike, L e. spire, or steeple. -f* [The following anecdote relating to

First Hundred. Epigr. 10. There this work has been transmitted among

six more lines, which are superfluous. some " witty aunsweres and saiengs of

Epigrammes on Proverbes. Epigr. 2. Englishmen" in Cotton MS. Jul. F. x.

enter in. Win is probably a contrac- " William Paulett, Marques of Wynches-

tion for go in. But see Tyrwhitt's Gloss. ter and highe treasurer of Engelande, be-

Ch. [See vol. i. p. 160. note *.] ing presented by John Heywoode with a

" Fifte Hundred. Epigr. 55. booke, asked him what yt conteyned? and

* [" The English proverbes gathered when Heywoode told him ' All the pro-

by Ihon Heiwoode helpe well in this be- verbes in Englishe' 'What, all?' quoth

haulfe (allegory), the whiche commonlie my Lorde ; ' No, Bate me an ace, quoth

are nothyng els but allegories and darke Bolton, is that in youre booke 1 ' ' No,

devised sentences," fol. 90 a. Again, "for by my faith, my Lorde, I thinke not,' aun-

furnishing similitudes the proverbes of swered Heywoode." But the neatest re-

SECT.XLII.] JOHN HEYWOOD. . 89

first edition I have seen, is dated 1547*. All the proverbs of the En-
glish language are here interwoven into a very silly comic tale.

The lady of the story, an old widow now going to be married again,
is thus described, with some degree of drollery, on the bridal day.

In this late olde widow, and then olde newe wife,

Age and Appetite fell at a strong strife.

Her lust was as yong, as her lims were olde.

The day of her wedding, like one to be solde,

She set out herself in fyne apparell ;

She was made like a beere-pot, or a barrell.

A crooked hooked nose, beetle browde, blere eyde,

Many men wisht for beautifying that bryde.

Her waste to be gyrde in, and for a boone grace,

Some well favoured visor on her ill favourd face ;

But with visorlike visage, such as it was,

She smirkt and she smilde, but so lisped this las,

That folke might have thought it done onely alone

Of wantonnesse, had not her teeth been gone.

Upright as a candel standeth in a socket,

Stoode she that day, so simpre de cocked.

Of auncient fathers she tooke no cure nor care,

She was to them as koy as a Crokers mare.

She tooke the'ntertainment of the yong men,

All in daliaunce, as nice as a nuns hen z .

I suppose, That day her eares might well glow,

For all the town talkt of her hie and low.

One sayd a wel favourd olde woman shee is :

The devill shee is, saide another : and to this

plication of this professed court-wit seems To old JOHN HEYWOOD the Epigram-

to be recorded in Camden's Remaines, matist.

1605, p. 234. Hey wood being asked by O lde Hey wood have with thee in his od

Queen Mary " What wind blew him to the vaine

court ? " He answered, " Two specially : That yet with booksellers as new doth re-

the one to see your Majestic." " We maine.

thank you for that," said the Queen ; " but, New poets sin ' g r i m i ng but thy rymes ad _

I pray you, what is the other 1 " " That vance

your Grace," said he, "might see me." Themselves in light measures: for thus

Sir John Harrington has an Epigram on a they doe dance

witty speech of Heywood to the Queene, Ile gather some prover bes thou gatherdst

another on young Heywood's answer to before

Lord, Warwick, and a third on old Hey- To descant upon them as thou didst of

wood's sons. PARK.] yore &c . PARK.]

* In quarto. Others followed, 1549. y ' , , , . .

i KTO 1 C.RC- IK.'-C is<7 i \OQ * 1 do not understand this, which is

1562. 15oo. lofb. 15o7. loUo. , , ,. , ,-,, '

,. marked tor a proverb. ^1 he phrase oc-

[Davies, of Hereford, in his "Scourge c R urs in Skelton ' s Pu n y n S of Elynour

of Folly," about 1611, printed a Descant mirr

upon Englishe proverbes, and exhibited And 8 ra Y russet rocket

with a retrograde taste, not only the man- With symper the cocket. PARK.]

ner, but the dull rhymth (?) of his precur- z An admirable proverbial simile. It

eor, in the following metrical address is used in Wilson's Arte of Rhetorike. "I

90 JOHN HBYWOOD. [SECT. XLII.

In came the third with his five egges, and sayd,
Fifty yere agoe I knew her a trim mayde.
Whatever she were then, sayde one, she is nowe,
To become a bryde, as meets as a sowe
To beare a saddle. She is in this manage,
As comely as a cowe in a cage.
Gup with a gold back. Gill, come up to supper,
What mine old mare would have a newe crupper,
And now mine olde hat must have a new band, &c. a

The work has its value and curiosity as a repertory of proverbs made
at so early a period. Nor was the plan totally void of ingenuity, to ex-
hibit these maxims in the course of a narrative, enlivened by facts and
circumstances. It certainly was susceptible of humour and invention.

Heywood's largest and most laboured performance is the SPIDER
AND THE FLIE, with wooden cuts, printed at London by Thomas Powell,
in 1556 b . It is a very long poem in the octave stanza, containing
ninety-eight chapters. Perhaps there never was so dull, so tedious,
and trifling an apologue : without fancy, meaning, or moral *. A long
tale of fictitious manners will always be tiresome, unless the design be
burlesque ; and then the ridiculous, arising from the contrast between
the solemn and the light, must be ingeniously supported. Our author
seems to have intended a fable on the burlesque construction f; but
we know not when he would be serious and when witty, whether he
means to make the reader laugh, or to give him advice. We must in-
deed acknowledge, that the age was not yet sufficiently refined, either
to relish or to produce burlesque poetry . Harrison, the author of the

knewe a priest that \vas as nice as aNunnes Measure is a merry meane,

Hen, when he would say masse he would And measure is this mate ;

never saie DOMINUS VOBISCUM, but Do- To be a Deacon or a Dean

minus Vobicum." M. 1 12 a. edit. 1567. 4to. Thou wouldst not change the state.

a Second Part. ch. i. b In quarto. ,

* [Mr. Ellis, in his Historical Sketch ****"** ls a "^ me fl ane

of English Poetry, &c., ch. xvi., has pro- * n v ? lewme * ful1 or flat >

nounced this parabolic tale utterly con- Th ^ e , 1S , n cha *f r

temptible :" but he has extracted two spe- That thou a PP hest llke that '

cimens from the First Century of Hey- Epig. upon Proverbes, Cent.iii. Ep.28.

wood's Epigrams, which certainly possess PARK.]

more true epigrammatic point than those t [Herbert says "We are to consider

selected by Mr. Warton. The following the author here, as he really was, a catholic;

lines afford the most favourable instance partial in vindicating the catholic cause

of his versification. and the administration by queen Mary,

whom he characterises by the maid, with

ON MEASURE. her broom (the civil sword), executing the

Measure is a merry meane, commands of her master (Christ) and her

Which filde with noppy drinke mistress (holy church). By the flies are

When merry drinkers drinke off cleane, to be understood the catholics ; and by the

Then merrily they winke. spiders, the protestants. How justly the

characters are supported I have neither

Measure is a merry meane, leisure nor inclination to examine." MS.

But I meane measures gret, note. PARK.]

Where lippes to litele pitchers leane, c But I must not forget Chaucer's Sir

Those lippes they scantly wet. Thopas, and that among the Cotton ma-

SECT. XLII.]

JOHN HEYWOOD.

DESCRIPTION OF BRITAINE, prefixed to Hollinshed's Chronicle, has
left a sensible criticism on this poem. " One hath made a booke of
the SPIDER AND THE FLIE, wherein he dealeth so profoundlie, and be-

nuscripts, there is an anonymous poem,
perhaps coeval with Chaucer, in the style
of allegorical burlesque, which describes
the power of money, with great humour,
and in no common vein of satire. The
hero of the piece is Sir Penny. MSS.
Cott. Galtra, E. 9.

INCIPIT NARRACIO DE DNO DENARIO.

In erth it es a littill thing,
And regnes als 1 a riche king,

Whare he es lent in land ;
SIR PENI es his name calde,
He makes both yong and aide 2

Bow untill 3 his hand:

Papes, kinges, and emperoures,
Bisschoppes, abbottes, and priowres,

Person, prest, and knyght,
Dukes, erles, and ilk barowne,
To serue him er 4 thai ful boune 5 ,

Both biday and nyght.

SIR PENI chaunges man's mode,

And gers 6 them oft to doun thaire hode

And to rise him agayne 7 .
Men honors him with grete reuerence,
Makes ful mekell obedience

Vnto that litill swaine.

In kinges court es it no bote 8 ,
Ogaines SIR PENI for to mote 9 ,

Se mekill es he of myght,
He es so witty and so strang,
That be it neuer so mekill wrang,

He will mak it right.

With PENY may men wemen till 10
Be thai neuer so strange of will,

So oft may it be sene,
Lang with him will thai noght chide,
For he may ger tham trayl syde 11

In gude skarlet and grene.

He may by l2 by heuyn and hell,
And ilka thing that es to sell.

In erth has he swilk grace,
He may lese 13 and he may bind.
The pouer er ay put bihind,

Whare he cumes in place.

When he bigines him to mell 14 ,
He makes meke that are was fell,

And waik 15 that bald has bene.
All ye nedes ful sone er sped 16 ,
Bath withowten borgh and wed 1 ?,

Whare PENI gase bitwene 18 .

The domes men 19 he mase 10 so blind
That he may noght the right find

Ne the suth 21 to se.
For to gif dome 22 tham es ful lath 23 ,
Tharwith to mak SIR PENI wrath,

Ful dere with tham es he.

Thare* 4 strif was PENI makes pese 25 ,
Of all angers he may relese,

In land whare he will lende,
Of fase 26 may he mak frendes sad,
Of counsail thar tham neuer be rad 27 ,

That may haue him to frende.

That SIRE es set on high dese i8 ,
And serued with mani riche mese 29

At the high burde 30 .
The more he es to men plente,
The more zernid 31 alway es he :

And halderi dere in horde.
He makes mani be forsworne,
And sum life and saul forlorne 32 ,

Him to get and wyn.
Other god will thai none haue,
Bot that litil round knaue,

Thaire bales 33 for to blin 34 .

On him halely 35 thaire hertes sett,
Him for to luf 36 will thai noght let 37 ,

Nowther for gude ne ill.
All that he will in erth haue done,
Ilka man grantes it ful sone,

Right at his awin will.

He may both lene 38 and gyf;
He may ger both sla and lif 39 ,
Both by frith and fell 40 .

PENI es a gude felaw,

Men welcums him in dede and saw 41 .

Cum he neuer so oft,
He es noght welkumd als a gest,
But euermore serued with the best,

And made at 42 sit ful soft.

1 as. 2 old. 3 unto. * are. 6 ready. 6 makes, causes, compels.
7 against, before. 8 use. 9 dispute. 10 approach, gain. u make them
walk. [He may enable them to wear long sweeping dresses. A " trayl-syde gown,"
says Dr. Jamieson, " is so long as to trail upon the ground."] 12 buy.

17 borrowing

18 loose. 14 meddle. 15 weak. lfl all you want is soon done.

or pledging, [surety and pledge.] 18 goes between. 19 judges. 20 makes.

21 truth. 22 judgement. 23 loath. 2 < where. 25 peace. 2S foes. 27 void.
28 seat, [the dais.] 29 mess. 30 high- table. 31 coveted. 32 despise, quit, [lose.]
33 eyes, [miseries.] 34 blind, [stop.] 35 wholly. 36 love. 37 never cease. 38 lend.
39 kill and save. 40 sea and land, [wood and hill.] 41 doing and speaking. 42 to sit.

JOHN HEY WOOD.

[SECT. XLII.

yond all measure of skill, that neither he himselfe that made it, neither
anie one that readeth it, can reach unto the meaning thereof d ." It is
a proof of the unpopularity * of this poem, that it never was reprinted.
Our author's EPIGRAMS, and the poem of PROVERBS, were in high
vogue, and had numerous editions before the year 1598 f. The most
lively part of the SPIDER AND FLIE is perhaps the mock-fight between
the spiders and flies, an awkward imitation of Homer's BATRACHO-
MUOMACHY. The preparations for this bloody and eventful engage-
ment, on the part of the spiders, in their cobweb-castle, are thus de-
scribed.

Who so es sted in any nede 43 ,
With SIR PENI may thai spede,

How so euer they betyde 44 .
He that SIR PENI es with all,
Sal haue his will in stede and stall,

When other er set byside 45 .

SIR PENY gers, in riche wede,
Ful mani go and ride on stede 46 ,

In this werldes wide.
In ilka 47 gamin and ilka play,
The maystri es gifen ay

To PENY, for his pride.

SIR PENY over all gettes the gre 48 ,
Both in burgh and in cete 49 ,

In castell and in towre.
Withowten owther 50 spere orschelde,
Es he the best in frith or felde,

And- stalworthest in stowre 51 .

In ilka place, the suth es sene 52 ,
SIR PENI es ouer-al bidene,

Maister most in mode.
And all es als he will cumand :
Ogains his stevyn 53 dar no man stand,

Nowther by land ne flode.

SIR PENY mai ful mekill availe 54
To tham that has nede of cownsail,

Als sene es in assize 55 :
He lenkithes 56 life and saues fro ded 57 .
Botluf it noght ouer wele I rede 53 ,

For sin of couaityse 59 .

If thou haue happ tresore to win,
Delite the noght to mekill tharin 60 .

Ne nything 61 thareof be,
But spend it als wele als thou can,
So that thou luf both god and man

In perfite charite.

God grant vs grace with hert and will,
The gudes that he has gifen vs till 68 ,
Wele and wisely to spend.

And so oure liues here for to lede,
That we may haue his blis to mede 63 ,
Euer withowten end. Amen.

An old Scotch poem called SIR PENNY
has been formed from this, printed in
Antient Scottish Poems, p. 153. Edinb.
1770.

d Descript. Brit. p. 226. Hollinsh.
Chron. torn. i.

* [Or rather, says Herbert, because
popery has not since been re-established.
MS. note. PARK.]

f [In that year, or perhaps in 1596,
the Epigrams of sir John Davis were
printed, and the following lines therein
addressed In Haywodum.

Haywood that did in Epigrams excell
In non put downe since my light Muse

arose,

As buckets are put down into a well,
Or as a schooleboy pulleth down his
hose. Ep. 29.

The lightness of Davis's witticisms led
to their inhibition in 1599. Bastard in
his Christoloros 1598, has two allusions
to Hey wood ; and in some satirical poems
published about 1616, 1 believe by Anton,
it is said,

Heywood was held for Epigrams the best
What time old Churchyard dealt in verse
and prose:

But fashions since are grown out of re-
quest

As bombast, doublets, bases and round
hose ;

Or as your lady may it now be saide,

That looks lesse lovely than her cham-
bermaide. PARK.]

44 whatever happens,
every.

45 despised.
48 degree, pre-eminence.

43 under any difficulty.
46 causes many to ride, &c.

49 town and city. 5 either. 51 sto " utest i n batt ] e . 5 2 "truth is seen.

53 voice sound. 54 be of much power. 55 as appears in the place of

judicature, or, in passing sentence. 56 lengthens. 57 death. 5 love

money not too much, I advise. 59 covetousness. 60 too much therein.

61 nyding. Be not too careless [niggardly] of it. 62 to us. 63 our rewar d.

SECT. XLII.] JOHN HEYWOOD. 93

Behold ! the battilments in every loope :
How th' ordinance lieth, flies far and nere to fach :
Behold how everie peace, that lieth there in groope 6 ,
Hath a spider gonner, with redy-fired match.
Behold on the wals, spiders making ware wach :
The wach-spider in the towre a larum to strike,
At aproch of any nomber shewing warlike.

Se the enprenabill f fort, in every border,
How everie spider with his wepon doth stand,
So thorowlie harnests, in so good order :
The capital h spider, with wepon in hand,
For that sort of sowdiers so manfully mand,
With copwebs like casting nets all flies to quell :
My hart shaketh at the sight : behold it is hell ! ' l

The beginning of all this confusion is owing to a fly entering the
poet's window, not through a broken pane, as might be presumed, but
through the lattice, where it is suddenly entangled in a cobweb. k The
cobweb, however, will be allowed to be sufficiently descriptive of the
poet's apartment. But I mention this circumstance as a probable proof,
that windows of lattice, and not of glass, were now the common
fashion. 1

e in rows. f impregnable. In the Conclusion to the Spider and

g clad in armour. Flie, Heywood mentions queen Mary and

h perhaps capitayne. king Philip 1 . But as most of his pieces

1 Cap. 37. Signat. B b. k Cap. i. seem to have been written some time be-

1 See his Epigrammes. Epig. 82. First fore, I have placed him under Henry the

Hundred. And Puttenham's Arte of En- Eighth.

glish Poesie, Lib. i. c. 31. p. 49. One of [The following doubtless was composed
Hey wood's Epigrams is descriptive of his on the spousals of Philip and Mary : "A
life and character. Fifte Hundred. Epigr. balade specifienge partly the maner, part-
100. ly the matter, in the most excellent meet-
Op HEYWOOD. vn g an d lyke mariage betwene our sove-
raigne Lord and our soveraigne Lady, the
Art thou Heywood with the mad mery ky * geg and queenes highne * p ^ fey

John Heywood." Herb. p. 800. Oldys
Yea forsooth, mayster, that same is even say he had geen A brief / balet Aching

, ' the trayterous takvnge of Scarborow cas-

Art thou Heywood that applyeth mirth fl gl f bscribed j/Heywood, and printed

more than thrift ? in b L Mention - g made of these g5>

Yes, sir, I take mery mirth a golden gift. note> The firgt of them ig all f call

Art thou Heywood that hath made many fi ti and b ins .

mad Playes ?

Yea, many playes, few good woorkes in The Egles byrde hath spred his wings

all my dayes. And from far of hathe taken flyght,

Art thou Heywood that hath made men j n w hiche meane way by no lourings

mery long? On bough or braunch this birde wold

Yea, and will, if 1 be made mery among. light ;

Art thou Heywood that would be made Till on the Rose, both red and whight,

mery now ? He lighteth now most lovinglie

Yea, sir, helpe me to it now I beseech And therto moste behovinglie.

yow.

1 [Mr. Warton must have read the Conclusion of Heywood very cursorily, says Her-
bert, or he would not have been at such a loss for the intention of his poem of the
Spider and the Flie. PARK.]

94 SIR THOMAS MORE. [SECT. XLI1F.

John Hey wood died at Mechlin in Brabant about the year 1565*.
He was inflexibly attached to the catholic cause, and on the death of
queen Mary quitted the kingdom. Antony Wood remarks 1 ", with his
usual acrimony, that it was a matter of wonder with many, that, con-
sidering the great and usual want of principle in the profession, a poet
should become a voluntary exile for the sake of religion.

SECTION XLIII.

Sir Thomas Mores English Poetry. Tournament of Tottenham. Its
age and scope. Laurence Minot. Alliteration. Digression illus-
trating comparatively the language of the fifteenth century, by a spe-
cimen of the Metrical Armoric Romance of Ywayn and Gawayn.

I KNOW not if sir Thomas More may properly be considered as an En-
glish poet. He has, however, left a few obsolete poems, which although
without any striking merit, yet, as productions of the restorer of lite-
rature in England, seem to claim some notice here. One of these is,
A MERY JEST how a SERGEANT would learne to play the FREERE.
Written by Maister Thomas More in hys youth 9 -. The story is too
dull and too long to be told here. But I will cite two or three of the
prefatory stanzas.

He that hath lafte b the Hosier's crafte,

And falleth to making shone c ;
The smythe that shall to payntyng fall,

His thrift is well nigh done.
A blacke draper with whyte paper,

To goe to writyng scole,
An olde butler becum a cutler,

I wene shall prove a fole.

Fuller speaks of a book written by Hey- This author Haywood dead and gone, and
wood entitled " Monumenta Literaria," shrinde in tombe of clay,
which are said to be uon tarn labore con- Bifore his death by penned workes did
dita, quam lepore condita. Worthies of carefully assay
London, p. 221. Lord Hales pointed out To builde himselfe a lasting tombe, not
a few lines in The Evergreen as the com- made of stone and lyme,
position of Heywood, but they prove to be But better farre and richer too triumph-
one of his Epigrams Scoticised. See Cent. ing over T yme. PAKK.]
i. p. 25. PARK.] m . ,

* [An epilogue or conclusion to the 8 \ Oxo T n ' L . 1 ;J;, . , ,.

works of Heywood in 1587, by Thomas _ ^ orkes ' Lond ' 1557 ' m foll ' Sl 8 n '

Newton the Cheshire poet, thus notices b*i ft c i

SECT. XLIII.] SIR THOMAS MORE. 95

And an olde trot, that can, got wot,

Nothyng but kysse the cup,
With her phisick will keep one sicke,

Till she have soused hym up.
A man of lawe that never sawe

The wayes to bye and sell,
Wenyng to ryse by marchaundyse,

I praye God spede hym well !
A marchaunt eke, that wyll goo seke

By all the meanes he may,
To fall in sute tyll he dispute

His money cleane away ;
Pletyng the lawe for every strawe,

Shall prove a thrifty man,
With bate d and strife, but by my life,

I cannot tell you whan.
Whan an hatter wyll go smatter

In philosophy ;
Or a pedlar waxe a medlar

In theology.

In these lines, which are intended to illustrate, by familiar examples,
the absurdity of a serjeant at law assuming the business of a friar,
perhaps the reader perceives but little of that festivity, which is sup-
posed to have marked the character and the conversation of sir Thomas
More. The last two stanzas deserve to be transcribed, as they prove,
that this tale was designed to be sung to music by a minstrel, for the
entertainment of company.

Now Masters all, here now I shall

Ende there as I began ;
In any wyse, I would avyse,

And counsayle every man,
His own craft use, all newe refuse,

And lyghtly let them gone :
Play not the FRERE, Now make good cheere,

And welcome everych one.

This piece is mentioned, among other popular story-books in 1575,
by Laneham, in his ENTERTAINMENT AT KILLINGWORTH CASTLE in
the reign of queen Elisabeth 6 .

In CERTAIN METERS, written also in his youth, as a prologue for his
BOKE OF FORTUNE, and forming a poem of considerable length, are
these stanzas, which are an attempt at personification and imagery.
FORTUNE is represented sitting on a lofty throne, smiling on all man-

d debate. e Fol. 44. seq.

96 SIR THOMAS MORE. [SECT. XLIII.

kind, who are gathered around her eagerly expecting a distribution of

her favours.

Then, as a bayte, she bryngeth forth her ware,
Silver and gold, riche perle and precious stone ;
On whiche the mased people gase and stare,
And gape therefore, as dogges doe for the bone.
FORTUNE at them laugheth : and in her trone
Amyd her treasure and waveryng rychesse
Prowdly she hoveth as lady and empresse.

Fast by her syde doth wery Labour stand,
Pale Fere also, and Sorow all bewept ;
Disdayn and Hatred, on that other hand,
Eke restles Watche fro slepe with travayle kept :
Before her standeth Daunger and Envy,
Flattery, Dysceyt, Mischiefe, and Tiranny. f

Another of sir Thomas More's juvenile poems is, A RUFUL LAMEN-
TACION on the death of queen Elisabeth, wife of Henry the Seventh,
and mother of Henry the Eighth, who died in childbed, in 1503. It is
evidently formed on the tragical soliloquies, which compose Lydgate's
paraphrase of Boccace's book DE CASIBUS VIRORUM ILLUSTRIUM, and
which gave birth to the MIRROR FOR MAGISTRATES, the origin of our
historic dramas. These stanzas are part of the queen's complaint at
the approach of death.

Where are our castels now, where are our towers ?

Goodly RychemondeS, sone art thou gone from me !

At Westmynster that costly worke of yours,

Myne owne dere lorde, now shall I never see !

Almighty God vouchesafe to graunt that ye

For you and your children well may edify :

My palyce byldyd is, and lo now here I ly. h

Farewell my doughter, lady Margarete 1 !
God wotte, full oft it greved hath my mynde
That ye should go where we should seldome mete,
Now I am gone and have left you behynde.
O mortall folke, that we be very blynde !
That we last feere, full oft it is most nye :
From you depart I must, and lo now here I lye.

Farewell, madame, my lordes worthy mother k !
Comfort your son, and be ye of good chere.
Take all a worth, for it will be no nother.

f Ibid. Sign. $T vi. Married in 1503 to James the Fourth,

e the palace of Richmond. king of Scotland.

h Henry VII.'s chapel, begun in the year k Margaret countess of Richmond.
1502, the year before the queen died.

SECT. XLIII.] SIR THOMAS MORE. 97

Farewell my doughter Katharine, late the fere
To prince Arthur myne owne chyld so dere 1 .
It booteth not for me to wepe or cry :
Pray for my soule, for lo now here I ly.

Adew lord Henry, my lovyng sonne adew m ,
Our lorde encrease your honour and estate.
Adew my doughter Mary, bright of hew",
God make you vertuous, wyse, and fortunate.
Adew swete hart, my little doughter Kate :
Thou shalt, sweete babe, suche is thy desteny,
Thy mother never know, for lo now here I ly.P

In the fourth stanza she reproaches the astrologers for their falsity
in having predicted that this should be the happiest and most fortunate
year of her whole life. This, while it is a natural reflection in the
speaker, is a proof of More's contempt of a futile and frivolous science,
then so much in esteem. I have been prolix in my citation from this
forgotten poem : but I am of opinion that some of the stanzas have
strokes of nature and pathos, and deserved to be rescued from total
oblivion.

More, when a young man, contrived in an apartment of his father's
house a goodly hangyng offynepaynted clothe, exhibiting nine pageants,
or allegoric representations, of the stages of man's life, together with
the figures of Death, Fame, Time, and Eternity. Under each picture
he wrote a stanza. The first is under CHILDHODE, expressed by a boy
whipping a top.

I anr called CHYLDHOD, in play is all my mynde,

To cast a coytei, a cockstele r , and a ball;

A toppe can I set, and dryve in its kynde ;

But would to God, these hatefull bookes all

Were in a fyre brent to pouder small 1

Than myght I lede my lyfe alwayes in play,

Which lyfe God sende me to myne endyng day.

Next was pictured MAN HOD, a comely young man mounted on a
fleet horse, with a hawk on his fist, and followed by two greyhounds,
with this stanza affixed.

MANHOD I am, therefore I me delyght

To hunt and hawke, to nourishe up and fede

The grayhounde to the course, the hawke to th' flyght,

And to bestryde a good and lusty stede :

These thynges become a very man in dede.

1 Catharine of Spain, wife of her son after she was delivered of this infant, the

prince Arthur, now dead. princess Catharine, who did not long sur-

m Afterwards king Henry the Eighth. vive her mother's death.

n Afterwards queen of France. Remar- p Workes, ut supr. q a quoit,

ried to Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk. r a stick for throwing at a cock. Stele

The queen died within a few days is handle, Sax.

VOL. III. II

98 TOURNAMENT OF TOTTENHAM. [SECT. XLIII,

Yet thynketh this boy his pevishe game sweter,
But what, no force, his reason is no better.

The personification of FAME, like RUMOUR in the Chorus to Shak-
speare's HENRY THE FOURTH, is surrounded with tongues 8 .

Tapestry, with metrical legends illustrating the subject, was common
in this age ; and the public pageants in the streets were often exhibited
with explanatory verses. I am of opinion, that the COMCEDIOL^E, or
little interludes, which More is said to have written and acted in his
father's house, were only these nine pageants*.

Another juvenile exercise of More in the English stanza, is annexed
to his prose translation of the LIFE of John Picus Mirandula, and en-
titled, TWELVE RULES OF JOHN Picus EARLE OF MIRANDULA, partely
exciting, partely directing a man in SPIRITUAL BATAILE U . The old
collector of his ENGLISH WORKES has also preserved two shorte bal-
lettes, or stanzas, which he wrote for his pastyme, while a prisoner in
the Tower x .

It is not my design, by these specimens, to add to the fame of sir
Thomas More ; who is reverenced by posterity, as the scholar who
taught that erudition which civilised his country, and as the philosopher
who met the horrours of the block with that fortitude which was equally
free from ostentation and enthusiasm : as the man, whose genius over-
threw the fabric of false learning, and whose amiable tranquillity of
temper triumphed over the malice and injustice of tyranny.

To some part of the reign of Henry the Eighth I assign the TOUR-
NAMENT OF TOTTENHAM, or The ivooeing, winning, and wedding of
TIBBE the Reeves Daughter there. I presume it will not be supposed
to be later than that reign : and the substance of its phraseology, which
I divest of its obvious innovations, is not altogether obsolete enough for
a higher period. I am aware, that in a manuscript of the British Mu-
seum it is referred to the time of Henry the Sixth. But that manu-
script affords no positive indication of that date^. It was published

8 Workes, Sign. C. iii. DAVY THE DYCER.

4 See vol. ii. p. 530, note r . Long was I, lady Luck, your serving

u These pieces were written in the man,

reign of Henry the Seventh ; but as More an a now have lost agayne all that I gat;

flourished in the succeeding reign, I have wherefore, whan I thinke on you nowe
placed them accordingly. & than,

w Workes, b.iii. an( j j n my m i n de remember this & that,

* Ut supr. fol. 1432. [These ballettes ye may not blame me, though I beshrew
are here given : your cat .

LEWYS THE LOST LOVER. but > in ^Y^ l blesse y u ag a Y ne a thou '

Ey, flatenng Fortune, loke thou never so for le ^**e* owe som e layaure to make

Or never so plesantly begin to smile, rymes. PARK.]

As though thou wouldst my ruine all re- y MSS. Harl. 5396. [One of the en-

payre, tries in this MS. is dated the 34th year of

During my life thou shalt me not begile : Henry VI. or 1456. There can be no

Trust shall I God, to entre in a while doubt that the poem is of equal antiquity.

His haven of heaven sure and uniforme, PRICE.]
Ever after thy calme loke I for a storme.

SECT. XLIT1.] TOURNAMENT OF TOTTENHAM.

from an ancient manuscript in the year 1631, and reduced to a more
modern style, by William Bed well, rector of Tottenham, and one of the
translators of the Bible. He says it was written by Gilbert Pilkington,
supposed to have been rector of the same parish, and author of an un-
known tract, called PASSIO DOMINI JESU. But Bedwell, without the
least comprehension of the scope and spirit of the piece, imagines it to
be a serious narrative of a real event ; and, with as little sagacity, be-
lieves it to have been written before the year 1330. Allowing that it
might originate from a real event, and that there might be some pri-
vate and local abase at the bottom, it is impossible that the poet could
be serious. Undoubtedly the chief merit of this poem, although not
destitute of humour, consists in the design rather than the execution.
As Chaucer, in the RIME OF SIR THOPAS Z , travestied the romances of

[The Rev. Wilhelm Bedwell, who
published the Turnament of Tottenham,
from an ancient MS. in 1631, 4to, says,
in his Epistle to the reader, " It is now
seven or eight years since I came to the
sight of the copy, and that by the meanes
of the worthy and my much honoured
good friend, M. George Withers, of whom
also, now at length, I have obtained the
use of the same. And because the verse
was then by him ( a man of so exquisite
judgement in this kinde of learning)
much commended, as also for the thing
it selfe, I thought it worth while to tran-
scribe it and to make it public," &c.
PARK.]

I take this opportunity of observing,
that the stanza of one of Laurence Mi-
not's poems on the wars of Edward the
Third, is the same as Chaucer's Sir To-
pas. Minot was Chaucer's contemporary.
MSS. Cott. Galb. E. ix,

Edward oure cumly king
In Braband has his woning,

With mani cumly knight,
And in that land, trewly to tell,
Ordains he still for to dwell,

To time he think to fight.

Now God that es of mightes maste,
Grant him grace of the Haly Gaste,

His heritage to win ;
And Mari moder of mercy fre,
Save oure king, and his menze,

Fro sorow, schame, and syn.

Thus in Braband has he bene,
Whare he bifore was seldom sene,

For to prove thaire japes ;
Now- no langer wil he spare,
Botunto Fraunce fast will he fare,

To confort him with grapes.

Furth he ferd into France,
God save him fro mischance,

And all his cumpany ;
The nobill due of Braband
With him went into that land,

Redy to lif or dy.

Than the riche floure de lice
Wan thare ful litill prise,

Fast he fled for ferde ;
The right aire 1 of that cuntre
Es cumen with all his knightes fre

To schac 2 him by the berd.

Sir Philip the Valayse,
Wit his men in tho dayes,

To batale had he thoght;
He bad his men tham purvay
Withowten lenger delay,

Bot he ne held it noght.

He broght folk ful grete wone,
Ay sevyn ogains one,

That ful wele wapind 3 were;
Bot sone when he herd ascry,
That king Edward was nere tharby,

Than durst he noght cum nere.

In that morning fell a myst ;

And when oure Ingliss men it wist,

It changed all thaire chere :
Oure king unto God made his bone,
And God sent him gude confort sone,

The weder wex ful clere.

Oure king and his men helde the felde,
Stalworthly with spere and schelde,

And thoght to win his right;"
With lordes and with knightes kene,
And other doghty men bydene,

That war ful frek to fight.

When sir Philip of France herd tell,
That king Edward in feld walld dwell,
Than gayned him no gle ;

1 heir.

2 shake.

weaponed, armed.

II 2

10O*

TOURNAMENT OP TOTTENHAM. [sECT. XLITf,

chivalry, the TOURNAMENT OF TOTTENHAM is a burlesque on the
parade and fopperies of chivalry itself. In this light, it may be con-
sidered as a curiosity ; and does honour to the good sense and discern-
ment of the writer, who seeing through the folly of these fashionable
exercises, was sensible at the same time, that they were too popular to
be attacked by the more solid weapons of reason and argument. Even
on a supposition that here is an allusion to real facts and characters,
and that it was intended to expose some popular story of the amours of
the daughter of the Reve of Tottenham, we must acknowledge that the
satire is conveyed in an ingenious mode. He has introduced a parcel
of clowns and rustics, the inhabitants of Tottenham, Islington, High-
gate, and Hackney, places then not quite so polished as at present*,
who imitate all the solemnities of the barriers. The whole is a mock-
parody on the challenge, the various events of the encounter, the ex-
hibition of the prize, the devices and escocheons, the display of arms,
the triumphant procession of the conqueror, the oath before the com-
bat, and the splendid feast which followed, with every other ceremony
and circumstance which constituted the regular tournament. The
reader will form an idea of the work from a short extract* 1 .

He that bearth him best in the tournament,
Shal be graunted the gree b by the common assent,
For to winne my daughter with doughtinesse of dent c ,
And Copple my broode hen that was brought out of Kent,

He traisted of no better bote,
Bot both on hors and on fote,
He hasted him to fle.

It semid he was ferd for strokes,
When he did fell his grete okes

Obout his pavilyoune.
Abated was than all his pride,
For langer thare durst he noght bide,

His bost was broght all doune.

The king of Berne had cares colde>
That was ful hardy, and bolde,

A stede to nmstride :
[He and] the king als of Naverne
War faire ferd in the feme

Thaire heviddes for to hide.

And leves wele, it is no lye,
The felde hat Flemangrye

That king Edward was in ;
With princes that war stif ande bolde,
And dukes that war doghty tolde,

In batayle to begin.

The princes that war riche on raw,
Gert nakers strikes and trumpes blaw 4 ,

And made mirth at thaire might ;
Both alblast and many a bow
War redy railed opon a row,

And ful frek for to fight.

Gladly thai gaf mete and drink,
So that thai suld the better swink y

The wight men that thar ware :
Sir Philip of Fraunce fled for dout,
And hied him hame with all his rout,

Coward, God giff him care.

For thare than had the lely flowre
Lorn all halely his honowre,

That so gat fled for ferd ;
Bot oure king Edward come ful still,
When that he trowed no harm him till,

And keped him in the berde.

[This and the following specimens from
Minot have been corrected by Mr. Rh-
son's editions of his poems. PRICE.]

* [Here Dr. Ashby remarks that Tot-
tenham, &c. were always as near the ca-
pital, and consequently as much so then
as now, comparatively. But what is more
to the point, and as true as strange, the
lower classes are little better than those
of the same rank at a greater distance.
PARK.]

a V. 42.

b prize.

strength of blows.

4 In glittering ranks, made the drums beat and trumpets blow.

SECT, XLIII.] ALLITERATIVE POETRY. 101

And my dunned cow :

For no spence d will I spare,
For no cattell will I care.
He shall have my gray mare, and my spotted sow.

There was many a bold lad their bodyes to bede e ;
Then they toke their leave, and hamward they hede f ;
And all the weke after they gayed her wede&,
Till it come to the day that they should do their dede h :
They armed them in mattes ;
They sett on their nowls 4
Good blacke bowls k ,
To keep their powls 1 from battering of battes.

They sewed hem in sheepskinnes for they should not brest",

And every ilk of them had a blacke hatte instead of a crest;

A baskett or panyer before on their brest,

And a flayle in her hande, for to fight prestP,
Forthe con thei fare q .

There was kid r mickle force.
Who should best fend 8 his corse,

He that had no good horse, borrowed him a mare, &C. 1

It appears to me, that the author, to give dignity to his narrative,
and to heighten the ridicule by stiffening the familiarity of his incidents
and characters, has affected an antiquity of style. This I could prove
from the east of its fundamental diction and idiom, with which many
of the old words do not agree. Perhaps another of the author's af-
fectations is the alliterative manner ; for although other specimens of
alliteration, ra smaller pieces, are now to be found, yet it was a singu-
larity. To those which I have mentioned, of this reign, I take this
opportunity of adding an alliterative poem, which may be called the
FALCON AND THE PIE, who support a DYALOGUE DEFENSYVE FOR
WOMEN AGAYNST MALICYOUS DETRACTOURS, printed in 1542 U . The

expence. and might probably once have been se-

bid, offer. f hied. parate papers, here stitched together. A*

made their clothes gay. the end of one of them, viz. fol. 46. The

fight for the lady. lysom ledys the Blynde, mention is in-

heads. serted of an accornpt settled ann. 34.

instead of helmets. Hen. VI. And this is in the hand and ink

poles. m cudgels. of that poem, and of some others. The

they sewed themselves up in sheep Tournament of Tottenham, which might

sk ns, by way of armour, to avoid being once have been detached from the present

hu t. collection, comes at some distance after-
each. p ready. wards, and cannot perhaps for a certainty
on they went. be pronounced to be of the same writing,
kithed, i. e. shown. u Coloph. " Thus endeth the faucon
defend. and pie anno dni 1542. Imprynted by
I have before observed, that it was a me Rob. Wyer for Richarde Bankes."

disgrace to chivalry to ride on a mare. I have an ancient manuscript allitera-

The poems of this manuscript do not tive poem, in which a despairing lover

seem to be all precisely of the same hand, bids farewell to his mistress. At the end

102

ALLITERATIVE POETRY,

[SECT. XLIII.

author's name Robert Vaghane, or Vaughan, is prefixed to some son-
nets which form a sort of epilogue to the performance.

For the purpose of ascertaining or illustrating the age of pieces

is written, " Explicit Amor p. Ducem
Eborr nup. fact." I will here cite a few
of the stanzas of this unknown prince.
[Q,u. Edward Duke of York, eldest son of
Edmond of Langley? See Noble Au-
thors, i. 183. ed. 1806. PARK.]

Farewell Lady of grete pris,

Farewell wys, both fair and free,

Farewell freefull flourdelys,

Farewell buril, bright of ble !

Farewell mirthe that y do mysse,
Farewell Prowesse in purpull pall !

Farewell creatur comely to kisse,
Farewell Faucon, fare you befall !

Farewell amerouse and amyable,
Farewell worthy, witty, and wys,

Farewell pured pris prisable,
Farewell ryal rose in the rys.

Farewell derworth of dignite,
Farewell grace of governaunce,

However y fare, farewell ye,

Farewell prymerose my plesaunce !

For the use of those who collect spe-
cimens of alliteration, I will add an in-
stance in the reign of Edward the Third
from the Banocburn of Laurence Minot,
all whose pieces, in some degree, are
tinctured with it. MSS. Cott. Galb. E. ix.
ut supr.

Skottes out of Berwik and of Abirdene,
At the Bannokburn war ze to kene ;
Thare slogh ze many sakles 1 , als it was

sene.
And now has king Edward wroken it I

wene;
It es wroken I wene wele wurth the

while,
War zit with the Skottes for thai er ful

of gile.

Whare er ze Skottes of saint Johnes

toune ?
The boste of zowre baner es betin all

doune;
When ze bosting will 2 bede, sir Edward

es boune,
For to kindel zow care and crak zowre

crowne :
He has crakked zowre croune wele worth

the while,
Schame bityde the Skottes for thai er

full of gile.

Skottes of Striflin war steren 3 and stout,
Of God ne of gude men had thai no

dout ;

Now have thai the pelers priked obout,
Bot at the last sir Edward rifild thaire

rout;
He has rifild thaire rout wele wurth the

while,
Bot euer er thai under bot gaudes and

gile.

Rughfute riueling now kindels thi care,
Bere-bag with thi boste thi biging 4 es

bare;
Fals wretche and forsworn, whider wiltou

fare ?

Busk the unto Brig and abide thare.
Thare wretche saltou won, and wery the

while,
Thi dwelling in Donde es done for thi

gile.

The Skottes gase 5 in burghes and betes

the stretes,

All thise Inglis men harmes he hetes ;
Fast makes he his mone to men that he

metes,
Bot sone frendes he finds that his bale

betes;

Sune betes his bale wele wurth the while,
He uses all threting with gaudes and gile.

Bot many man thretes and spekes full

ill,
That sumtyme war better to be stane

still ;
The Skot in his wordes has wind for to

spill,
For at the last Edward sail haue al his

will:
He had his will at Berwick wele wurth

the while,
Skottes broght him the kayes, bot get for

thaire gile.

A VISION on vellum, perhaps of the
same age, is alliterative. MSS. Cott.
Nero, A. x. These are specimens.

Ryzt as the maynful mone con rys 6 ,
Er thenne the day glem dryve aldoun',
So sodenly, on a wonder wyse,
I was war of a prosessyoun 8 :
This noble cite of ryche enpresse
Was sodanly full, withouten somoun 9 ,
Of such vergynes in the same gyse

1 naked, [guiltless. RITSON.] a allow it, [offer. R.] 3 stern.

4 clothing, [dwelling. R.] 6 go, 6 as the moon began to rise.

7 the even drove down the day-light. 8 procession. 9 summons, notice.

SECT. XLIII.]

YWAIN AND GAWAIN.

103

which have been lately or will be soon produced, I here stop to recall
the reader's attention to the poetry and language of the last century,
by exhibiting some extracts from the manuscript romance of YWAIN
AND GAWAIN, which has some great outlines of Gothic painting, and
appears to have been written in the reign of king Henry the Sixth w .
I premise, that but few circumstances happened, which contributed
to the improvement of our language, within that and the present pe-
riod.

The following is the adventure of the enchanted forest attempted by
sir Colgrevance, which he relates to the knights of the round table at
Cardiff in Wales x .

That was my blisful an under croun,
And coronde wern alle 10 of the same

fasoun,
Depaynt in perles and wedes qwhyte 11 .

Again,

On golden gates that glent l2 as glas.
Again,

But mylde as mayden sene at mas.
The poem begins,

Perle plesant to princes raye,
So clanly clos in golde so cler 13 .

In the same manuscript is an allitera-
tive poem without rhyme, exactly in the
versification of Pierce Plowman, of equal
or higher antiquity, viz.

Olde Abraham in erde 14 over he syttes,
Even byfor his house doore under an oke

grene,
Bryzt blikked the bem 15 of the brod he-

ven
In the hyze hete 16 therof Abraham bides.

The hand- writing of these two last-men-
tioned pieces cannot be later than Ed-
ward the Third. [See supr. vol. ii. p.
106.]

w MSS. Cott. Galb. E. ix. [Ritson
considers this MS. to be at least as old as
the time of king Richard II. Obs. p. 34.
The language, he adds, of all the poems
in the same MS. is a strong northern dia-
lect, from which it may be inferred that
they are the composition of persons, most
likely monks, resident in that part of
England, where in former times were
several nourishing monasteries. Notes to
Met. Romances, iii. 229. PARK.]

x [The present text has been corrected
by Mr. Ritson's edition of this romance.
PRICE.]

King Arthur,

He made a feste, the sothe to say,
Opon the Witsononday,
At Kerdyf, that es in Wales,
And efter mete thar in the hales 17 ,
Ful grete and gay was the assemble
Of lordes and ladies of that cuntre.
And als of knightes, war and wyse,
And damisels of mykel pryse,
Ilkane with other made grete gamin,
And grete solace, als thai war samin,
Fast thai carped, and curtaysli,
Of dedes of armes, and ofveneri,
And of gude knightes, &c.

It is a piece of considerable length, and
contains a variety of GESTS. Sir Ywain
is sir Ewain, or Owen, in Morte Arthur.
None of these adventures belong to that
romance. But see B. iv. c. 17. 27. etc.
The story of the lion and the dragon in
this romance, is told of a Christian cham-
pion in the Holy War, by Berchorius,
Reductor. p. 661. See supr. vol. i. Diss.
on the Gest. Romanor. ch. civ. The lion
being delivered from the dragon by sir
Ywain, ever afterwards accompanies' and
defends him in the greatest dangers.
Hence Spenser's Una attended by a lion.
F. Qu. i. iii. 7. See sir Percival's lion in
Morte Arthur, B. xiv. c. 6. The dark
ages had many stories and traditions of
the lion's gratitude and generosity to man.
Hence in Shakspeare, Troilus says, Tr.
and Cress, act v. sc. 3.

Brother, you have a vice of mercy in

you
Which better fits a lion than a man.

[The darker ages had many stories of the
gratitude and generosity of lions towards
man. ASHBY.]

10 all wore a crown. n white robes. 12 glanced, shone.

13 cleanly, a pearl beautifully inclosed or set in gold. 14 earth.

15 Bright shone the beam. 16 high heat. 17 halls.

104 YWAIN AND GAWAIN. [SECT. XLIII,

A faire forest sone I fand?,

Me thoght mi hap z thare fel ful hard

For thar was mani a wilde lebard a ,

Lions, beres, bath bul and bare,

That re w fully gan rope b and rare c .

Oway I drogh d me, and with that,

I saw sone whar a man sat

On a lawnd, the fowlest wight,

That ever yit e man saw in syght :

He was*"a lathly f creatur,

For fowl he was out of mesur ;

A wonder maces in hand he hade,

And sone mi way to him I made ;

His hevyd h , me thoght, was als grete

Als of a rowncy or a nete 1 .

Unto his belt hang k his hare 1 ;

And efter that by held I mare m ,

To his forhede byheld I than

Was bradder" than twa large span ;

He had eres als? ane olyfant,

And was wele more** than geant,

His face was ful brade and flat,

His nese r was cutted as a cat,

His browes war like litel buskes 8 ,

And his tethe like bare tuskes ;

A ful grete bulge* open his bak,

Thar was noght made withowten lac" ;

His chin was fast until w his brest,

On his mace he gan him rest.

Also it was a wonder wede x

That the cherlev yn yede z ,

Nowther a of wol b ne of line c ,

Was the wede that he went yn.

When he me sagh, he stode up right,

I frayned d him if he wolde fight,

For tharto was I in gude will,

Bot als e a beste than stode he still :

I hopid f that he no wittes kowth*,

Ne reson for to speke with mowth.

y found. z chance, fortune. p as. q bigger.

* leopard.

b ramp, [cry aloud, bellow. RITSON.]

c roar. d drew.

e yet f loathly.

B club. h head.

1 horse or ox. k hung.

l hair. ni more.

n broader. ears.

nose s bushes. l bunch,

lack. w to.

wondrous dress,
churl. z went in.

neither. b wool,

linen. d asked. e as.

supposed, apprehended,
had no understanding.

SECT. XLIII.] YWAIN AND GAWAIN. 105

To him I spak ful hardily,

And said, What ertow h , belamy* ?

He said ogain, I am a man.

I said, Swilk k saw I never nane .

What ertow m ? al sone n said he.

I said, Swilk als thou her may se.

I said, What dose? thou here allane^?

He said, I kepe thir r bestes ilkane 8 .

I said, That es mervaile, think me,

For I herd never of man bot the,

In wildernes, ne in forestes,

That kepeing had of wilde bestes,

Bot* thai war bunden faste in halde u .

He sayd, Of thir w es none so balde,

Nowther by day ne by night,

Anes x to pas out of mi sight.

I sayd, How so ? tell me thi scill.

Per fay, he said, gladly I will.

He said, In al this fair foreste

Es thar non so wilde beste,

That reniny dar z , bot stil stand a

Whan I am to him cumand b ;

And ay when that I will him fang c

With my fingers that er strang d ,

I ger e him cri on swilk manere,

That al the bestes when thai him here,

Obout me than cum thai all,

And to mi fete fast thai fall

On thair maner, merci to cry.

Bot understand now redyli,

Olyve f ess thar lifand h no ma 1 ,

Bot I, that durst omang them ga k ,

That he ne sold sone be al torent 1 ;

Bot thai er at my comandment,

To me thai cum whan I tham call,

And I am maister of tham all.

Than he asked onone right,

What man I was ? I said, A knyght,

That soght aventurs in that lande,

My body to assai m and fande" ;

h art thou. ! my friend. z there, [dare.] a stand still.

k such. l none. m art thou. b coming. c take. d are strong.

n also, [very soon.] as. e cause . f a n ve . e j St

p dost. q alone. r these. h living. s man. k go.

s every one. * except. " hold. all rent to pieces.

w these. x once. m exercise.

y runs, [running.] n fend, defend, [try.]

106 TWAIN AND GAWAIN. [SECT. XLIII.

And I the pray of thi kownsayle

Thou teche me to sum mervayle .

He said, I can no wonders tell,

Bot her bisyde es a Well ;

Wend thederi 1 , and do als I say,

Thou passes noght al quite oway,

Folow forth this ilk strete^,

And sone sum mervayles sal thou mete :

The well es under the fairest Tre,

That ever was in this cuntre ;

By that Well hinges 1 " a Bacyne 8

That es of golde gude and fyne,

With a cheyne, trewly to tell,

That % wil reche in to the Well.

Thares es a Chapel ner thar by,

That nobil es and ful lufely * :

By the well standes a Stane u

Tak the bacyn sone onane w ,

And cast on water with thi hand,

And sone thou sal se new tithand * :

A storme sal rise and a tempest,

Al obout, by est and west,

Thou sal here? mani thonor z blast

Al obout the a te blawand b fast,

And there sal cum sek c slete and rayne

That unnese d sal you stand ogayne :

Of lightnes 6 sal you se a lowe,

Unnethes you sal thi selven f knowe ;

And if thou pas withowten grevance,

Than has thou the fairest chance

That ever yit had any knyght,

That theder come to kyth& his myght.

Than toke I leve, and went my way,

And rade unto the midday ;

By than I com whare I sold be,

I saw the Chapel and the Tre :

Thare I fand the fayrest thorne

That ever groued sen God h was born :

tell me of some wonder. So Alex- p go thither. q way, road,

ander in the deserts of India, meets two r hangs. s a helmet, or bason.

old cheorlis, or churls, from whom he * lovely. u stone,

desires to learn, w perhaps, in hand, [anon. RITSON.]

Any merveilles by this wayes, * tidings, wonders. y hear.

That y myzte do in story, z thunder. a thee. b blowing.

That men ban in memorie. c such. d scarcely.

They tell him, that a little farther he ! % htnin S- f self '

will see the Trees of the Sun and Moon, I ^' P rove>
&c. Geste of Alexander, MS. p. 231.

SECT. XLI1I.]

YWAIN AND GAWAIN.

IP?

So thik it was with leves grene

Might no rayn cum thar bytwene 1 ;

And that grenes k lastes ay,

For no winter dere 1 yt may.

I fand the Bacyn, als he talde,

And the Well with water kalde m .

An amerawd" was the Stane ,

Richer saw I never nane,

On fowr rubyes on heght standandP,

Thair light lasted over al the land.

And whan I saw that semely syght,

It made me bath joyful and lyght.

I toke the Bacyn sone onane

And helt water opon the Stane :

The weder^ wex than wonder blak,

And the thoner 1 ' fast gan crak ;

Thar come slike 8 stormes of hayl and rayn,

Unnethes 1 1 might stand thareogayn :

The store" windes blew ful lowd,

So kene come never are w of clowd.

I was drevyn with snaw and slete,

Unnethes I might stand on my fete.

In my face the levelling x smate^,

I wend have brent 2 , so was it hate a :

That weder made me so will of rede,

I hopid b sone to have my dede c ;

And sertes d , if it lang had last,

I hope I had never thethin 6 past.

Bot thorgh his might that tholed f wownd

The storme sesed within a stownde* :

Then wex the weder fayr ogayne,

And tharof was I wonder fayne ;

For best comforth of al thing

Es solace after mislykeing.

Than saw I sone a merry syght,

Of al the fowles that er in flyght,

Lighted so thik opon that tre,

That bogh ne lefe none might I se ;

' there between. k verdure.

1 hurt. m cold.

" emerald. stone.

p standing high.

q weather.

r thunder.

s such.

1 hardly. u strong.

w air, [before. RITSON.]

* lightning. y smote.

z I thought I should be burnt.
a it was so hot.

b feared. See Johns, and Steev. Shak-
speare, vol. v. p. 273. edit. 1779.
c death.
d surely.
e thence.
f suffered.
g ceased on a sudden, (after a time.)

108 YWAIN AND GAWAIN. SECT. XLIII.]

So merily than gon thai sing,
That al the wode bigan to ring ;
Ful mery was the melody
Of thaire sang and of thaire cry ;
Thar herd never man none swilk,
Bot h if ani had herd that ilk.
And when that mery dyn was done,
Another hoyse than herd I sone,
Als it war of horsmen,
Mo than owther 1 nyen k or ten.
Sone than saw I cum a knyght,
In riche armurs was he dight ;
And sone when I gan on him loke,
My shelde and sper to me I toke.
That knight to me hied ful fast,
And kene wordes out gan he cast :
He batf that I sold tell him tite 1
Whi I did him swilk despite,
With weders wakend him of rest,
And done him wrang in his Forest ;
Thar fore, he sayd, Thou sal aby n :
And with that come he egerly,
And said, I had ogayn resowne
Done him grete destrucciowne,
And might it nevermore amend ;
Tharfor he bad, I sold me fend :
And sone I smate him on the shelde,
Mi schaft brae out in the felde ;
And then he bar me sone bi strenkith
Out of my sadel my speres lenkith :
I wate that he was largely
By the shuldres mare? than I;
And by the ded^ that I sal thole r ,
Mi stede by his was bot a fole.
For mate 8 1 lay down on the grownde,
So was I stonayd* in that stownde :
A worde to me wald he noght say,
Bot toke my stede, and went his way.
Ffull sarily" than thare I sat,
For wa w I wist noght what was what :
With mi stede he went in hy,
The same way that he come by ;

h unless. ' either. k nine. r suffer.

soon. m the storm. * sleep. [He lay as if he had been dead.

n abide, stay, [suffer. RITSON.] RITSON.]
against reason or law. * astonished, stunned.

greater. q death. u sorrily. w woe.

SECT. XLIII.]

YWAIN AND GAWAIN.

109

And I durst folow him no ferr
For dout me solde bite werr,
And also yit by Goddes dome x ,
I ne wist war he bycome.
Than I thoght how I had bight*
Unto myne oste the hende knyght,
And also til his lady bryght,
To come ogayn if that I myght.
Mine armurs left I thare ylkane,
For els myght I noght have gane z ;
Unto myne in a I come by day :
The hende knyght and the fayre may,
Of my come war thai full glade,
And nobil semblant thai me made ;
In al thinges thai have tham born
Als thai did the night biforn.
Sone thai wist whar I had bene,
And said, that thai had never sene
Knyght that ever theder come
Take the way ogayn home.

I add Sir Ywain's achievement of the same adventure, with its con-
sequences.

When Ywayn was withowten town,
Of his palfray lighted he down,
And dight him right wele in his wede,
And lepe up on his gude stede.
Furth he rade on one right,
Until it neghed nere b the nyght :
He passed many high mowntayne
In wildernes, and mony a playne,
Til he come to that lethir c sty d
That him byhoved pass by :
Than was he seker for to se
The Wei, and the fayre Tre ;
The Chapel saw he at the last,
And theder 6 hyed he ful fast.

God's sentence, the crucifixion,

hette, promised. z gone.

lodging.

drew near.

wicked, bad. [dangerous. RITSON.

that is, the forest, [place. RITSON.
But I do not precisely know the meaning
of sty. It is thus used in the Lay of Emare.
[where it means a road or way, from the
Saxon stig. RITSON.] MSS. Cott. Calig.
A. 2. fol. 59.

Messengeres forth he sent
Aftyr the mayde fayre and gent
That was hryght as someres day :
Messengeres dyghte hem in hye,
With myche myrthe and melodye
Forth gon they fare
Both by stretes and by STYE
Aftyr that fayr lady.

And again in the same romance.
e that way.

110

YWA1N AND GAWA1N,

[SECT. XLIII,

More curtaysli and more honowr
Fand f he with tham in that towr&,
And mar conforth by mony falde h ,
Than Colgrevance had him of talde.
That night was he herberd 1 thar,
So wel was he never are k .
At morn he went forth by the strete,
And with the cherel 1 sone gan he mete
That sold tel to him the way ;
He sayned m him, the sothe to say,
Twenty sith n , or ever he blan,
Swilk mervayle had he of that man,
For he had wonder?, that nature
Myght mak so foul a creature.
Than to the Wel he rade glide pase,
And down he lighted in that place ;
And sone the bacyn has he tane,
And kest^ water opon the Stane ;
And sone thar wex, withowten fayle,
Wind and thonor, and rayn and haile :
When it was sesed, than saw he
The fowles light opon the tre,
Thai sang ful fayre opon that thorn
Right als thai had done byforn.
And sone he saw cumand r a knight,
Als fast so the fowl in flyght,
With rude sembland 3 , and sterne chere,
And hastily he neghed nere ;
To speke of luf * na time was thar,
For aither hated uther ful sar*.
Togeder smertly gan thai drive,
Thair sheldes sone bigan to ryve,
Thair shaftes cheverd" to thair hand
Bot thai war bath ful wele syttand w .
Out thai drogh x thair swerdes kene,
And delt strakes tham bytwene ;
Al to pieces thai hewed thair sheldes,
The culpons? flegh 2 out in the feldes.
On helmes strake thay so with yre,
At ilka strake out-brast the fyr ;

f found.

B i. e. the castle. h manifold.

* lodged. k ever, [before. RITSON.]

1 churl, i. e. the wild-man.

m viewed, [crossed himself. RITSON.]

n times. ceased.

he wondered. q cast,

coming. s countenance,

friendly offices. * sore,

shivered. w seated,

drew. y pieces,

flew.

SECT. XLIII.] YWAIN AND GAWAIN. Ill

Aither of tham gude buffettes bede a ,

And nowther wald styr of the stede.

Ful kenely thai kyd b thair myght,

And feyned tham noght for to fyght :

Thair hauberkes that men myght ken

The blode out of thair bodyes ren.

Aither on other laid so fast,

The batayl might noght lang last :

Hauberkes er c broken, and helmes reven,

Stif strakes war thar gyfen ;

Thai foght on hors stifly always,

The batel was wele mor to prays ;

Bot at the last syr Ywayne

On his felow kyd his mayne,

So egerly he smate him than,

He clefe the helme and the hern pan d :

The knyght wist he was nere ded,

To fle than was his best rede 6 ;

And fast he fled with al his mayne,

And fast folow syr Ywayne,

Bot he ne might him overtake,

Tharfore grete murning gan he make :

He folowd him ful stowtlyk f ,

And wald have tane him ded or quik ;

He folowd him to the cete^,

Na man lyfand h met he.

When thai come to the kastel yate,

In he folowd fast tharate :

At aither entre was, I wys,

Straytly wroght a port culis,

Shod wele with yren and stele,

And also grunden* wonder wele :

Under that then was a swyke k

That made syr Ywain to myslike, -

a abided, [offered.] constructed for a similar purpose, though

b showed. c are. apparently not of equal ingenuity.

- So in Minot's Poems. MSS. Cott.

Gale, E. ix. ut supr. Coryen ^ JJWJ^ queyntl / kt j -

And sum lay knoked out their hernes. Though thou and thy folke were in ye

counsel. * stoutly. And mete

city. * no man living. gcholde feUen

Mr, Ritson, who ex-

Therefore beware and take good keep,

. , ,. Many on has had ful evyl happe.

Saxon sich, fossa. In the romance ot ^

Richard Coeur de Lion, we have the same

expression applied to a piece of machinery, The only words to be found in Lye's Saxon

112 YWAIN AND GAWAIN. [SECT. XLIII.

His hors fote toched thare on ;
Than fel the port culis onone 1 ,
Bytwyx him and his hinder arsown,
Thorgh sadel and stede it smate al down,
His spores 1 " of his heles it schare" :
Than had Ywayne murnyng mareP,
But so he wend have passed quite %
That fel the tother r bifor al yte.
A faire grace yit fel him swa s ,
Al if it smate his hors in twa fc ,
And his spors of aither hele,
That himself passed so wele.

While sir Ywaine remains in this perilous confinement, a lady looks
out of a wicket which opened in the wall of the gateway, and releases
him. She gives him her ring.

I sal lene the her mi Ring ",
Bot yelde it me at myne askyng :
When thou ert broght of al thi payn
Yelde w it than to me ogayne :
Als the bark hilles x the tre,
Right so sal my Ring do the ;
When thou in hand has the stane v ,
Der z sal thai do the nane,
For the stane es of swilk might,
Of the sal men have na syght a .
Wit ye b wel that sir Ywayne
Of thir wordes was ful fayne c ;

Dictionary, to which ' swyke ' might be misinterpreted this word in his Glossary,

referred, are swican, decipere ; swica, pro- The same anonymous writer quoted above

ditor ; and beswica, fraus. But in Alfred's has observed, " Partially regarding the

translation of Orosius we have ' ealle the context rather than the etymon, Ritson

cyningas mid his swice of shoh : ' which explains hilles 'protects, preserves;' al-

Mr. Harrington renders, ' slew all the though an attentive perusal of the whole

kings by his deceitful arts.' " ANON.] passage might have suggested that the

1 Traps of this kind are not uncommon virtue of this magic stone consisted in

in romance. Thus sir Lancelot, walking covering or concealing its wearer from the

round the chambers of a strange castle, sight, as the bark covers or conceals the

treads on a board which throws him into tree. Lye gives us hilan, to hill, tegere.

a cave twelve fathoms deep. Mort. Arth. From the same root is to be deduced the

B. xix. ch. vii. word ' hyllynges' occurring in the Squyr

m spurs. n cut. of Lowe Degre (left unexplained by Rit-

mourning. p more. son), and which must mean an upper co-
q but even so he thought to have passed vering for a bed, something similar to a

forward, through. counterpane."

1 the other portcullis Your %%? ^ ^ furres of ^^

u ;: . , . Powdred with golde of hew full fyne

ture nng ^ m ~ Your blanket &C.-V. 839. PRICE.]

w yield. v stone. z harm.

x covers. [Mr. Ritson, who disdained a no man will see you. b know ye.

to follow Warton even when correct, has c glad.

SKCT. XLIII.] YWATN AND GA WAIN. 113

In at the dore sho hem led,
And did him sit opon hir bed,
A quylt ful nobil lay tharon,
Richer saw he never none, &c.

Here he is secreted. In the mean time, the Lord of the castle dies
of his wounds, and is magnificently buried. But before the interment,
the people of the castle search for sir Ywayne.

Half his stede thar fand thai d

That within the yates e lay ;

Bot the knight thar fand thai noght :

Than was thar mekil sorow unsoght,

Dore ne window was thar nane,

Whar he myght oway gane.

Thai said he sold thare be laft f ,

Or else he cowth of weche craft %,

Or he cowth of nygromancy,

Or he had wenges for to fly.

Hastily than went thai all

And soght him in the maydens hall,

In chambers high es noght at hide,

And in solers h on ilka side.

Sir Ywaine saw ful wele al that,

And still opon the bed he sat :

Thar was nane that anes mynt

Unto the bed at smyte 1 a dynt k :

Al obout thai smate so fast,

That mani of thair wapins brast ;

Mekyl sorow thai made ilkane,

For thai ne myght wreke thair lord bane.

Thai went oway with dreri chere,

And sone tharefter come the Ber 1 ;

A lady folowd white so mylk,

In al that lond was none swilk :

Sho wrang her fingers, outbrast the blode,

For mekyl wa m sho was nere wode n ;

Hir fayr har scho alto drogh ,

And ful oft fel sho down in swogh P ;

Sho wepe with a ful dreri voice.

The hali water, and the croyce,

d they found. ' bier. m great grief. n mad.

e gates. f he still was there. drew. So in the Lay of the Erie of

8 understood witchcraft. Tholouse. MSS. Mus. Ashmol. 45.

high chambers. The erle h lfe an axe DROGH

^ i. e. on account of the ring. A hundre / men that day he sl h<
* never once minded, or thought, to

strike at the bed, not seeing him there. p swoon.
VOL. III. I

114 YWAIN AND GAWAIN. [SECT. XLIII.

Was born bifore the procession ;
Thar folowd mani a moder son,
Bifore the cors rade a knyght
On his stede that was ful wight <*;
In his aramrs wele arayd,
With sper and target gudely grayd.
Than sir Ywayn herd the cry
And the dole of that fayr lady, &c.

Sir Ywayne desires the damsel's permission to look at the lady of the
deceased knight through a window. He falls in love with her. She
passes her time in praying for his soul.

Unto his saul was sho ful hulde r :

Opon a sawter al of guide 3 ,

To say the sal-mas 1 fast sho bigan.

The damsel", whose name is Lunet, promises sir Ywaine an inter-
view with the Lady. She uses many arguments to the Lady, and with
much art, to show the necessity of her marrying again, for the defence
of her castle.

The maiden redies hyr ful rath vv ,
Bilive sho gert syr Ywaine bath x ,
And cled hym sethin in gude scarlet,
Forord y wele, and with gold fret 2 ;

* swift. Of tong scho was trew and renable 6 ,

r bound, obligated, [faithful.] And of her semblant 7 soft and stabile;

8 psaltery, a harp, of gold. [Psalter. Ful fain I wald 8 , if that I might,

RITSON.] Have woned 9 with that swete wight.

* soul mass, the mass of requiem. In Morte Arthur, Sir Launcelot going
u There is a damsel of this name in into a nunnery is unarmed in the abbess's

Morte Arthur, B. vii. ch. xvi. chamber. B. xiii. ch. i. In Morte Arthur,

w early, soon. sir Galahad is disarmed, and clothed " in

* made him bathe immediately. a cote of red sendall and a mantel} furred
y furrured, furred. with fyne ERMYNES," &c. B. xiii. ch. i.

* In another part of this romance, a In the British Lay, or romance, of Laun-
knight is dressed by a lady. val (MSS. Cott. Vespas. B. 14. i.) we have,

A damisel come unto me Un cher mantel de BLANCHE ERMINE,

Lufsumer lifed 1 never in land ; Couvert de purpre Alexandrine.
Hendly scho 2 toke me by the hand,

And sone that gentyl creature There is a statute, made in 1337, prohi-

Al unlaced myne armure ; biting any under 100/. per annum to wear

Into a chamber sho me led, fur. I suppose the richest fur was ermine ;

And with a mantil scho me cled, which, before the manufactures of gold

It was of purpur fair and fine, and silver, was the greatest article of finery

And the pane 3 of riche ermine ; in dress. But it continued in use long af-

Al the folk war went us fra 4 , terwards, as appears by ancient portraits.

And thare was none than bot we twa 5 ; In the Statutes of Cardinal Wolsey's Col-

Scho served me hendely to hend, lege at Oxford, given in the year 1525,

Her maners might no man amend, the students are enjoined, " Ne magis pre-

1 lovelier lived. 2 courteously she. 3 border. 4 from.

5 two. 6 reasonable. 7 look. s would. a lodged.

SECT. XLIII.]

YWAJN AND GAWAIN.

115

A girdel ful riche for the nanes,
Of perry and of preciows stanes.
Sho talde him al how he sold do
Whan that he come the lady to.

He is conducted to her chamber.

Bot yit sir Ywayne had grete drede,
When he unto chamber yede ;
The chamber, flore, and als the bed,
With klothes of gold was al over spred a .

tiosis aut sumptuosis utantur PELLIBUS."
De Vestitu, &c. fol. 49. MSS. Colt. Tit.
F. iii. This injunction is a proof that rich
furs were at that time a luxury of the se-
cular life. In an old poem written in the
reign of Henry the Sixth, about 1436, en-
titled the English Policie, exhorting all
England to keepe the sea, a curious and
valuable record of the state of our traffic
and mercantile navigation at that period,
it appears that our trade with Ireland, for
furs only, was then very considerable.
Speaking of Ireland, the writer says,

Martens goode been her marchandie,
Hertes hides, and other of venerie,
Skinnes of otter, squirrell, and Irish hare ;
Of sheepe, lambe, and foxe, is her chaffare.

See Hacklvyt's Voiages, vol. i. p. 199. edit.
1598.

At the sacking of a town in Normandy,
Froissart says, " There was founde so
rnoche rychesse, that the boyes and vyl-
laynes of the hooste sette nothynge by
goode FURRED gownes." Berner's Transl.
torn. i. fol. Ix. a.

a In the manners of romance, it was not
any indelicacy for a lady to pay amorous
courtship to a knight. Thus in Davie's
Geste of Alexander, written in 1312, queen
Candace openly endeavours to win Alex-
ander to her love. MS. penes me, p. 271.
[Cod. Hospit. Line. 150.] She shews
Alexander, not only her palace, but her
bedchamber.

Quoth the quene,

Go we now myn esteris to seone 1 :

Oure mete schol, thar bytweone 2 ,

Ygraithed 3 and redy beone 4 ,

Scheo 5 ladde him to an halle of nobleys,

Then he dude of his harneys 6 :

Of Troye was ther men? the storye 8

How Gregoys 9 had the victorye:

Theo bemes ther weore 10 of bras.

Theo wyndowes weoren of riche glass 11 :

Theo pinnes' 2 weore of ivorye.

The king went with the ladye,

Himself alone, from bour to bour,

And syze 13 muche riche tresour,

Gold and seolver, and preciouse stones,

Baudekyns 14 made for the nones 15 ,

Mantellis, robes, and pavelounes 16 ,

Of golde and seolver riche foysounes 17 ;

And heo 18 him asked, par amour,

Zef he syze ever suche a tresour.

And he said, in his contray

Tresour he wiste 19 of grete noblay.

Heo 20 thozte more that heo saide.

To anothir stude 21 sheo he gan him lede,

That hir owne chambre was,

In al this world richer none nas.

Theo atyr 22 was therein so riche

In al thys world nys him non lyche 23 .

Heo ladde him to a stage,

And him schewed one ymage,

And saide, Alexander leif thou me 24 ,

This ymage is made after the 25 ;

Y dude hit in ymagoure 2(5 ,

And caste hit after thy vigoure 8 ':

This othir zeir, tho thou nolde 28

To me come for love ne for golde,

Het is the ylyche 29 , leove brother 3,

So any faucon 31 is anothir.

O Alisaunder, of grete renoun,

Thou taken art in my prisoun !

1 to see my apartments. 2 our dinner shall, meanwhile.

3 prepared. 4 be. 5 she. * put off his armour. 1 for

ther men, read therein, as MS. Laud. I. 74. Bibl. Bodl. 8 the story of

Troy was in the tapestry, or painted on the walls of the hall. 9 Greeks.

10 The rafters were. " painted glass. 12 of the windows.

13 saw. 14 rich clothes. 15 that is, for the occasion : so the paint-

ing or tapestry, before mentioned, representing the Greeks victorious, was in com-
pliment to Alexander. 16 pavilions. J 7 stores. l8 she.
19 knew. 2 she. 21 stede. lodging. 22 the furniture.
23 none like it. 24 believe, 2S thee. 26 imagery. 27 figure.
28 wouldest not. 29 like. 3 dear brother, or friend. 31 as one

116

YWAIN AND GAWAIN.

[SECT. XLIII.

After this interview, she is reconciled to him, as he only in self-defence
had slain her husband, and she promises him marriage.

Than hastily she went to Hall,
Thar abade hir barons all,
For to hald thair parlement b ,
And mari c hir by thair asent.

They agree to the marriage.

Than the lady went ogayne
Unto chameber to sir Ywaine ;
Sir, sho said, so God me save,
Other lorde wil I nane have :
If I the left d I did noght right,
A king son, and a noble knyght.
Now has the maiden done hir thoght*>
Syr Ywayne out of anger broght.
The Lady led him unto Hall,
Ogains f him rase the barons all,
And al thai said ful sekerly,
This Knight sal wed the Lady :
And ilkane said thamself bitwene^,
So fair a man had thai noght sene,
For his bewte in hal and bowr :
Him semes to be an emperowr.
We wald that thai war trowth plight,
And weded sone this ilk nyght.
The lady set hir on the dese h ,
And cumand al to hald thaire pese 1 ' ;
And bad hir steward sumwhat say,
Or k men went fra cowrt away.
The steward said, Sirs, understandes,
Wer 1 is waxen m in thir landes;

Al thy streynthe helpethe the nowzt,
For womman the haveth bycowzt 32
For womman the heveth in hire las 33 .
O, quoth Alisaunder, alas,
That I were yarmed 34 wel,
And hed my sweord of browne stel,
Many an heid wolde y cleove,
Ar y wolde yn prison bileve 85 .
Alysaunder, heo saide, thou saist soth,
Beo noither adrad no wroth 36 ;
For here, undir this covertour,
Y wil have the to myn amour, &c.
b assembly, consultation.

" marry. d was I not to marry you.

e intention. f against, before.

B among themselves.

h deis, the high-table. In the Geste of
Alexander we have the phrase of holding
the deis, MS. ut supr. p. 45.

There was gynning a new feste,
And of gleomen many a geste,
King Philip was in mal ese,
Alisaundre HELD THE DESE.

' peace.

ere.
1 grown.

falcon. In MSS. Laud, I. 174. ut supr. it is peny, for falcon. 2 catched.

83 her lace. 34 Here, y is the Saxon i. See Hearne's GI. Rob. Glouc. p. 738.

36 be left, stay, even. 36 neither affrighted nor angry.

SECT. XLIII.] TWAIN AND GAWAIN.

The king Arthur es redy dight
To be her byn this fowre-tenyght :
He and his menye n ha thoght
To win this land if thai moght :
Thai wate ful wele, that he es ded
That was lord here in this stedeP :
None es so wight wapins to welde**,
Ne that so boldly mai us belde,
And wemen may maintene no stowr r ,
Thai most nedes have a governowr :
Tharfor mi lady most nede
Be weded hastily for drede s ,
And to na lord wil sho take tent fc ,
Bot if it be by yowr assent.
Than the lordes al on raw 11
Held them wele payd of this saw w .
Al assented hyr untill*
To tak a lord at hyr owyn will.
Than said the lady onone right,
How hald ye yow payd of this knight?
He prefers hym on al wyse
To myne honor and my servyse,
And sertes, sirs, the soth to say,
I saw him never, or this day ;
Bot talde unto me has it bene
He es the kyng son Uriene :
He es cumen of hegh parage v ,
And wonder doghty of vasselage 1 ,
War and wise, and ful curtayse,
He yernes a me to wife alwayse;
And nere the lese, I wate, he might
Have wele better, and so war right.
With a voice halely b thai sayd,
Madame, ful wele we hald us payd :
Bot hastes fast al that ye may,
That ye war wedded this ilk day :

n knights. In Afrik were thai compast and wrought

know. p mansion, castle. Geantz TILLE Ireland from thitheu tham
q active to wield weapons. brought.

* Mention That is ' " Giants brou S h t them from Africa
11 on a row* * nto Ireland -"

* opinion, word. It is of extensive sig- \ kin ?5f S in the Geste of Alex "
nification, Emare, MS. ut supr. ander > MS ' P- 258 '

They wer men of gret paraere,

1 have herd mmstrelles syng in SAW. And haden fowrty wyn r ter m age<

* unto. So Rob. Brunne, of Stone- r courage.

henge, edit. Hearne, p. cxci. a eagerly wishes. b wholly.

118

YWA1N AND GAWAIN.

[SECT. XLIII,

And grete prayer gan thai make
On alwise, that sho suld hym take.
Sone unto the kirk thai went,
And war wedded in thair present ;
Thar wedded Ywaine in plevyne c
The riche lady ALUNDYNE,
The dukes doghter of Landuit,
Els had hyr lande bene destruyt.
Thus thai made the maryage
Omang al the riche barnage d :
Thai made ful mekyl mirth that day,
Ful grete festes on gude aray ;
Grete mirthes made thai in that stede,
And al forgetyn es now the dede e
Of him that was thair lord fre ;
Thai say that this es worth swilk thre.
And that thai lufed him mekil mor
Than him that lord was thare byfor.
The bridal f sat, for soth to tell,
Til king Arthur come to the well

c Fr. Plevine. See Du Fresne. PLE-

VINA.

d baronage. e death.

{ Bridal is Saxon for the nuptial feast.
So in Davie's Geste of Alexander. MS.
fol. 41. penes me,

He wist nouzt of this BRIDALE,
Ne no man tolde him the tale.

In Gamelyn, or the Coke's Tale, v. 1267.
At every BRIDALE he would sing and hop.
Spenser, Faerie Q,u. B. v. C. ii. st. 3.

Where and when the BRIDALE cheare

Should be solemnised.

And, vi. x. 13.

Theseus her unto his BRIDALE bore.

See also Spenser's Prothalamion.

The word has been applied adjectively,
for CONNUBIAL. Perhaps Milton remem-
bered or retained its original use in the
following passage of Sarnson Agonistes,
ver. 1196.

And in your city held my nuptial feast :
But your ill-meaning politician lords,
Under pretence of BRIDAL friends and

guests,
Appointed to await me thirty spies.

" Under pretence of friends and guests in-
vited to the BRIDAL." But in Paradise
Lost, he speaks of the evening star hasten-
ing to light the BRIDAL LAMP, which in

another part of the same poem he calls
the NUPTIAL TORCH, viii. 520. xi. 590.
I presume this Saxon BRIDALE is Bride-
Ale, the FEAST in honour of the bride or
marriage. ALE, simply put, is the feast
or the merry-making, as in Pierce Plow-
man, fol. xxxii. b. edit. 1550. 4to.

And then satten some and songe at the
ALE [nale].

Again, fol. xxvi. b.

I am occupied everie daye, holye daye
and other,

With idle tales at the ALE, and other-
while in churches.

So Chaucer of his Freere, Urr. p. 87. v.85.

And they were only glad to fill his purse,
And maden him grete festis at the NALE.

Nale is ALE. " They feasted him, or en-
tertained him, with particular respect, at
the parish-feast," &c. Again, Plowman's
Tale, p. 125. v. 2110.

At the Wrestling, and at the Wake,
And the chief chaunters at the NALE.

See more instances, supr. vol. i. p. 56. That
ALE is festival, appears from its sense in
composition ; as, among others, in the
words Leet-ale, Lamb-ale, Whitson-ale,
Clerk-ale, and Church-ale. LEET-ALE,
in some parts of England, signifies the
dinner at a court-leet of a manor for the

SECT. XLIII.]

TWAIN AND GAWAIN.

119

With al his knyghtes everilkane,

Behind leved thar noght ane g .

The king kest water on the stane,
The storme rase ful sone onane
With wikked h weders, kene and calde,
Als it was byfore-hand talde.
The king and his men ilkane
Wend tharwith to have bene slane,
So blew it stor 1 with slete and rayne:
And hastily than syr Ywayne k
Dight him graythly 1 in his gere,
With nobil shelde, and strong spere :

jury and customary tenants. LAMB-ALE
is still used at the village of Kirtlington in
Oxfordshire, for an annual feast or cele-
brity at lamb-shearing. WHITSON-ALE
is the common name in the midland coun-
ties for the rural sports and feasting at
Whitsontide. CLERK-ALE occurs in Au-
brey's manuscript History of Wiltshire:
"In the Easter holidays was the CLARKES-
ALE, for his private benefit and the solace
of the neighbourhood." MSS. Mus. Ashm.
Oxon. CHURCH-ALE was a feast esta-
blished for the repair of the church, or in
honour of the church-saint, &c. In Dods-
worth's Manuscripts, there is an old in-
denture, made before the Reformation,
which not only shows the design of the
Church-ale, but explains this particular
use and application of the word Ale. The
parishioners of Elveston and Okebrook, in
Derbyshire, agree jointly, "to brew four
ALES, and every ALE of one quarter of
malt, betwixt this and the feast of saint
John Baptist next coming. And that
every inhabitant of the said town of Oke-
brook shall be at the several ALES. And
every husband and his wife shall pay two
pence, every cottager one penny, and all
the inhabitants of Elveston shall have and
receive all the profits and advantages co-
ming of the said ALES, to the use and be-
hoof of the said church of Elveston. And
the inhabitants of Elveston shall brew
eight ALES betwixt this and the feast of
saint John Baptist, at the which ALES
the inhabitants of Okebrook shall come
and pay as before rehersed. And if he
be away at one ALE, to pay at the toder
ALE for both," &c. MSS. Bibl. Bodl. vol.
148. f. 97. See also our Church-Canons,
given in 1603. Can. 88. The application of
what is here collected to the word BRI*

DALE, is obvious. But Mr. Astle has a cu-
rious record, about 1575, which proves the
BRIDE-ALE synonymous with the WED-
DYN-ALE. During the course of queen
Elizabeth's entertainments at Kenilworth-
castle, in 1575, a BRYDE-ALE was cele-
brated with a great variety of shows and
sports. Laneham's Letter, dated the same
year. fol. xxvi. seq. What was the nature
of the merriment of the CHURCH- ALE, we
learn from theWiTCHES-soNG in Jonson's
Masque of Queens at Whitehall in 1609,
where one of the Witches boasts to have
killed and stole the fat of an infant, begot-
ten by a piper at a CHURCH-ALE. S. 6.

Among bishop Tanner's manuscript ad-
ditions to Cowell's Law-Glossary in the
Bodleian library, is the following Note,
from his own Collections. [Lit.V.] "A.D.
1468. Prior Cant, et Commissarii visita-
tionem fecerunt (diocesi Cant, vacante per
mortem archiepiscopi) et ibi publicatura
erat, quod Potationes factse in ecclesiis,
vulgariter dictse YEVEALYS*, vel BREDE-
ALYS 2 , non essent ulterius in usu sub pcena
excommunicationis majoris."

Had the learned author of the Disser-
tation on BARLEY WINE been as well ac-
quainted with the British as the Grecian
literature, this long note would perhaps
have been unnecessary.

E one.

u wicked is here, accursed; in which
sense it is used by Shakspeare's Caliban,
Tempest, act i. sc. 2.

As WICKED dew as e'er my mother brush'd
With raven's feather, &c.

1 strong.

k to defend the fountain, the office of
the lord of this castle.
1 readily.

give-ales, or gift-ales.

2 bride-ales.

120 YWAIN AND GAWAIN. [SECT. XLIII.

When he was dight in seker wede,
Than he umstrade m a nobil stede :
Him thoght that he was als lyght
Als a fowl es to the flyght.
Unto the Well fast wendes he,
And sone when thai myght him se,
Syr Kay, for he wald noght fayle,
Smertly askes the batayle.
And alsone than said the kyng,
Sir Kay, I grante the thine askyng.

Sir Ywaine is victorious, who discovers himself to king Arthur after
the battle.

And sone sir Ywaine gan him tell
Of al his far how it byfell,
With the knight how that he sped,
And how he had the Lady wed ;
And how the Mayden him helpid wele :
Thus tald he to him ilka dele.
Sir kyng, he sayd, I yow byseke,
And al yowr menye milde and meke,
That ye wald grante to me that grace,
At n wend with me to my purchace,
And se my Kastel and my Towre,
Than myght ye do me grete honowre.
The kyng granted him ful right
To dwel with him a fowretenyght.
Sir Ywayne thanked him oft sith,
The knyghtes war al glad and blyth,
With sir Ywaine for to wend :
And sone a squier has he send
Unto the kastel, the way he nome,
And warned the Lady of thair come,
And that his Lord come with the kyng.
And when the Lady herd this thing,
It es no lifand man with mowth
That half hir cumforth tel kowth.
Hastily that Lady hende
Cumand al hir men to wende,
And dight tham in thair best aray,
To kepe the king that ilk day :
Thai keped* him in riche wede
Rydeand on many a nobil stede ;

m bestrode. n to. oft-times. * waited on. See Tyrwh. Gl. Ch.

SECT. XLIII.] YWAIN AND GAWAIN. 121

Thai hailsedP him ful curtaysly,
And also al his cumpany :
Thai said he was worthy to dowt%
That so fele folk led obowt r :
That was grete joy, I yow bihete 8 ,
With clothes spred* in ilka strete,
And damysels danceand ful wele,
With trompes, pipes, and with fristele :
The Castel and the Cetee rang
With mynstralsi and nobil sang.
Thai ordand tham ilkane in fer
To kepe the king on faire maner.
The Lady went withouten towne,
And with her many balde barowne,
Cled in purpure and ermyne,
With girdels al of gold ful fyne.
The Lady made ful meri chere,
Sho was al dight with drewries u dere ;
Abowt hir was ful mekyl thrang,
The puple cried and sayd omang,
Welkum ertou, kyng Arthoure,
Of al this werld thou beres the floure !
Lord kyng of all kynges,
And blessed be he that the brynges !
W T hen the Lady the Kyng saw,
Unto him fast gan sho draw,
To hald his sterap whils he lyght;
Bot sone when he of hir had syght,
With mekyl myrth thai samen v met,
With hende wordes sho him gret ;
A thousand sithes welkum sho says,
And so es syr Gawayne the curtayse.
The king said, Lady white so flowr,
God gif the joy and mekil honowr,
For thou ert fayr with body gent :
With that he hir in armes hent,
And ful faire he gan hir falde w ,
Thar was many to bihalde :
It es no man with tong may tell
The mirth that was tham omell ;

saluted. in one of Alexander's battles, many a lady

to fear. lost her drewery. Geste Alexander, MS.

so large a train of kniglits. p. 86. Athens is called the Drywery of

promise you. the world, ibid,
tapestry spread on the walls. v together,

gallantries, jewels. Davie says, that w fold.

122

YWAIN AND GAWAIN.

[SECT. XLIII

Of maidens was thar so gude wane x ,
That ilka knight myght take ane.

The king stays here eight days, entertained with various sports.

And ilk day thai had solace sere
Of huntyng, and als of revere ^:
For thar was a ful fayre cuntre,
With wodes and parkes grete plente ;
And castels wroght with lyme and stane,
That Ywayne with his wife had tane. z

x assembly [a great many].

y hawking [tor herons, ducks, &c.
PARK].

z There are three old poems on the ex-
ploits of Gawain, one of the heroes of this
romance. There is a fourth in the Scotch
dialect, by Clerke of Tranent, an old Scotch
poet. See Lament for the Death of the
Makkaris, st. xvii.

Clerke of Tranent eke has [death] tane
That made the Aventers of GAWANE.

Anc. Scot. P. 1576.

The two heroes of this romance, Ywain
and Gawain, are mentioned jointly in a
very old French version of the British or
Armorican Lay of Launval, of which there
is a beautiful vellum manuscript. MSS.
Cott. Vespas. B. xiv. [supr. modo citat,]

Ensemble od eus GAWAYNS,
E sis cosins li beus YWAYNS.

This Lay, or Song, like the romance
in the text, is opened with a feast cele-
brated at Whitsontide by king Arthur at
Kardoyl, a French corruption from Car-
liol, by which is meant Cairleon in Wales,
sometimes in romances confounded with
Cardiff. [See Geoffr. Monm. ix. 12.]

"Jci commence le Lay de Launval."
Laventure de un Lay,
Cum ele avint vus cunteray,
Fait fu dun gentil vassal,
En Bretaigne lapelent Launval :
A Kardoyl suiornont li reys
Arthur, li prouz, e li curteys,
Pur les Escot, e pur les Pis,
Ki destrueient les pays ;
En la terre de Logres 1 le trououent,
Mult souent le damagouent:

A la Pentecuste en este,

I aveit li reys sojourne,

A les i dona riches duns,

E al cuntes 2 , e al baruns,

A ceus de la Table Runde, &c.

That is, " Here begins the Lay of Laun-
val. [I will relate to you.] The Adven-
ture of a certain Lay, made of a gentle
vassal, whom in Bretaigne they called
Launval. The brave and courteous king
Arthur sojourned at Kardoyl, for making
war against the Scots and Picts, who
destroyed the country. He found them
in the land of Logres, where they com-
mitted frequent outrages. The king was
there at the feast of Pentecost, where
he gave rich gifts to the counts and ba-
rons, and the knights of the round ta-
ble," &c.

The writing of this nnanuscript of Laun-
val seems about 1300. The composition is
undoubtedly much earlier. There is an-
other, MSS. Harl. 978. 1 1 2. This I have
cited in the First Dissertation. From this
French Launval is translated, but with
great additions, the English Launfall, of
which I have given several extracts in the
Third Dissertation prefixed to the first
volume. [See also supr. vol. ii. p. 323,
NOTE A.]'

I presume this romance of Ywain and
Gawayne is translated from a French one
of the same title, and in the reign of Hen-
ry the Sixth ; but not by Thomas Chestre,
who translated, or rather paraphrased,
Launval, or Sir Launfall, and who seems
to have been master of a more copious and
poetic style. It is not however unlikely,
that Chestre translated from a more mo-
dern French copy of Launval, heightened

1 Logres, or Loegria, from Locrine, was the middle part of Britain.

2 counts. So in Sir Robert of Gloucester, we have Contass for countess. On which
word his editor Hearne observes, that king James the First used to call a Countess a
cuntys; and he quotes one of James's letters, "Come and bring the three Cuntys [for
countesses] with you." Gloss, p. 635.

SECT. XLIV.] THE NOTBROWNE MAYDE.

123

SECTION XLIV.

The Notbrowne Mayde. Not older than the sixteenth century. Artful
contrivance of the story. Misrepresented by Prior. Metrical Ro-
mances, Guy, syr Bevys, and Kynge Apoli/n, printed in the reign of
Henry. The Scole howse, a Satire. Christmas Carols. Religious
Libels in rhyme. Merlins PropJiecies. Laurence Minot. Occa-
sional disquisition on the late continuance of the use of waxen tablets.
Pageantries of Henry s Court. Daivn of Taste.

I FEAR I shall be pronounced a heretic to modern criticism, in retract-
ing what I have said in a preceding page, and in placing the NOTBROWNE
MAYDE under some part of this reign*. Prior, who, about the year
1718, paraphrased this poem, without improving its native beauties,
supposes it to have been three hundred years old. It appears from
two letters preserved in the British Museum, written by Prior to Wan-
ley, lord Oxford's librarian, that Prior consulted Wanley about this
ancient ballad*. It is, however, certain, that Wanley, an antiquarian
of unquestionable skill and judgement in these niceties, whatever di-
rections and information he might have imparted to Prior on this sub-
ject, could never have communicated such a decision. He certainly in
these letters gives no such opinion 5 . This is therefore the hasty con-

and improved from the old simple Armo-
rican tale of which I have here produced a
short extract. [See supr. vol. ii. p. 306.
note k .] [The original of [Ywaine and
Gawin] is Le chevalier au Lion, by Chre-
stien or Christian de Troyes, an eminent
French poet who died in 1191; [and]
the only ancient copy of the [English
version] is contained in the Cotton MS.
Galba, E. ix. which seems to have been
written in the time of Richard II., or
towards the close of the fourteenth cen-
tury. RITSON.] The same perhaps may
be said of the English metrical romance
Emare, who marries the king of Galys, or
Wales, originally an Armorican tale, be-
fore quoted. MSS. Cott. Calig. A. 2. fol. 69.
[See Diss. Ill, prefixed to the first volume,]
[and Mr. Ritson's Metrical Romances, vol.
ii. where it is printed. PRICE.] The last
stanza confirms what has been advanced
in the First Dissertation, concerning the
connection between Cornwall and Bre-
tagne, or.Armorica. fol. ult.

A grette feste thar was holde
Of erles and barons bolde,

As testymonieth thys story :
Thys is on of BRYTAYNE LAYES,
That was used in olde dayes,

Men callys playn the GARYE.

I believe the last line means, " Made for an
entertainment," " Which men call play-
ing the GARYE." The reader may perhaps
recollect, that the old Cornish Miracle in-
terlude was called the Guary MiraJcil, that
is, the Miracle Play, [See supr. vol. ii.
p. 20. note c . In Cornish, Plan an guare
is the level place, the plain of sport and
pastime, the theatre of games, &c. Guare
is a Cornish verb, to sport, to play. In
affinity with which, is probably garish,
gay, splendid. Milton, II Pens. v. 141.
Day's garish eye. Shakspeare, Rom. and
Jul. iii. 4. The garish sun. King Richard
the Third, A garish flag. Compare Lye,
Sax. Diet. v. jeajijiian. To dress fine.

Who was the translator of Emare, is
not known. I presume it was translated
in the reign of Henry the Sixth, and very
probably by Thomas Chestre, the transla-
tor of Launval.

* [i. e. the reign of Henry VIII., but
Herbert says he possessed an edition
which was printed about 1502, i. e. the
18th year of Henry VII. PARK.]

a MSS. Harl. 3777.

b These letters are printed in the Ad-
ditions to Pope's Works, in two volumes,
published about two years ago. [Namely
in 1776. This publication has been at-

124 THE NOTBROWNE MAYDE. [SECT. XLIV.

jecture of Prior, who thought that the curiosity which he was present-
ing to the world would derive proportionable value from its antiquity,
who was better employed than in the petty labour of ascertaining dates,
and who knew much more of modern than ancient poetry.

The NOT-BROWNE MAYDE first appeared in Arnolde's CHRONICLE,
or CUSTOMS OF LONDON, which was first printed about the year 1521.
This is perhaps the most heterogeneous and multifarious miscellany that
ever existed. The collector sets out with a catalogue of the mayors
and sheriffs, the customs and charters, of the city of London. Soon
afterwards we have receipts to pickle sturgeon, to make vinegar, ink,
and gunpowder ; how to raise parsley in an hour ; the arts of brewery
and soap-making ; an estimate of the livings in London ; an account of
the last visitation of saint Magnus's church ; the weight of Essex cheese,
and a letter to cardinal Wolsey. The NOT-BROWNE MAYDE is intro-
duced, between an estimate of some subsidies paid into the exchequer,
and directions for buying goods in Flanders. In a word, it seems to
have been this compiler's plan, by way of making up a volume, to print
together all the notices and papers, whether ancient or modern, which
he could amass, of every sort and subject. It is supposed, that he in-
tended an antiquarian repertory : but as many recent materials were
admitted, that idea was not at least uniformly observed ; nor can any
argument be drawn from that supposition, that this poem existed long
before, and was inserted as a piece of antiquity.

The editor of the PROLUSIONS infers , from an identity of rhythmus
and orthography, and an affinity of words and phrases, that this poem
appeared after sir Thomas More's JEST OF THE SERJEANT AND FREER,
which, as I have observed, was written about the year 1500. This rea-
soning, were not other arguments obvious, would be inconclusive, and
might be turned to the opposite side of the question. But it is evident
from the language of the NOTBROWNE MAYDE, that it was not written
earlier than the beginning, at least, of the sixteenth century *. There
is hardly an obsolete word, or that requires a glossary, in the whole
piece ; and many parts of Surrey and Wyat are much more difficult to
be understood. Reduce any two stanzas to modern orthography, and
they shall hardly wear the appearance of ancient poetry. The reader
shall try the experiment on the two following, which occur acci-
dentally d .

HE.

Yet take good hede, for ever I drede

That ye could nat sustayne,
The thornie wayes, the depe valeis,

The snowe, the frost, the rayne,

tributed to the late George Steevens, Esq. ; c Prolusions, or Select Pieces of Ancient

but I heard from Mr. Isaac Reed that it Poetry, Lond. 1760. 8vo. Pref. p. vii.,

was culled by Baldwin from the comma- [edited by E. Capell. PARK.]

nications of Mr. Steevens in the St. James's * [But might it not be modernized to

Chronicle, and put forth with a preface the style of 1500, in the edition of 1521?

by William Cooke, Esq. PARK.] Herbert MS. Note. PARK.] A V. 168.

SECT. XLIV.] THE NOTBROWNE MAYDE. 125

The colde, the hete : for, dry or wete,

We must lodge on the playne ;
And us abofe 6 none other rofe

But a brake bush or twayne.
Which sone sholde greve you, I believe ;

And ye wolde gladly than,
That I had to the grene wode go

Alone a banyshed man.

SHE.

Among the wylde dere, such an arch ere,

As men say that ye be,
May ye not fayle of good vitayle

Where is so great plente :
And water clere of the ry vere

Shall be full swete to me ;
With which in hele, I shall ryght wele

Endure, as ye shall see :
And, or we go, a bedde or two

I can provyde an one.
For, in my mynde, of all mankynde

I love but you alone.

The simplicity of which passage Prior has thus decorated and dilated.

HENRY.

Those limbs, in lawn and softest silk array'd,

From sun-beams guarded, and of winds afraid ;

Can they bear angry Jove ? can they resist

The parching dog-star, and the bleak north-east ?

When, chill'd by adverse snows and beating rain,

We tread with weary steps the longsome plain ;

When with hard toil we seek our evening food,

Berries and acorns from the neighbouring wood ;

And find among the cliffs no other house,

But the thin covert of some gather'd boughs ;

Wilt thou not then reluctant send thine eye

Around the dreary waste ; and weeping try

(Though then, alas ! that trial be too late)

To find thy father's hospitable gate,

And seats, where ease and plenty brooding sate ?

Those seats, whence long excluded thou must mourn ;

That gate, for ever barr'd to thy return :

Wilt thou not then bewail ill-fated love,

And hate a banish'd man, condemn'd in woods to rove ?

e i. e. above.

126 THE NOTBROWNE MAYDE. [sKCT. XLIV.

EMMA.

Thy rise of fortune did I only wed,

From its decline determined to recede ;

Did I but purpose to embark with thee

On the smooth surface of a summer's sea ;

While gentle Zephyrs play in prosperous gales,

And Fortune's favour fills the swelling sails ;

But would forsake the ship, and make the shore,

When the winds whistle, and the tempests roar?

No, Henry, no : one sacred oath has tied

Our loves ; one destiny our life shall guide ;

Nor wild nor deep our common way divide.

When from the cave thou risest with the day,

To beat the woods, and rouse the bounding prey,

The cave with moss and branches I '11 adorn,

And cheerful sit, to wait my lord's return :

And, when thou frequent bring'st the smitten deer

(For seldom, archers say, thy arrows err),

1 '11 fetch quick fuel from the neighbouring wood,

And strike the sparkling flint, and dress the food ;

With humble duty and officious haste,

I '11 cull the farthest mead for thy repast ;

The choicest herbs I to thy board will bring,

And draw thy water from the freshest spring :

And, when at night with weary toil opprest,

Soft slumbers thou enjoy 'st, and wholesome rest ;

Watchful I'll guard thee, and with midnight prayer

Weary the gods to keep thee in their care ;

And joyous ask, at morn's returning ray,

If thou hast health, and I may bless the day.

My thoughts shall fix, my latest wish depend,

On thee, guide, guardian, kinsman, father, friend :

By all these sacred names be Henry known

To Emma's heart ; and grateful let him own,

That she, of all mankind, could love but him alone I

What degree of credit this poem maintained among our earlier an-
cestors, I cannot determine. I suspect the sentiment was too refined
for the general taste. Yet it is enumerated among the popular tales
and ballads by Laneham, in his narrative of queen Elizabeth's enter-
tainment at Kenilworth castle in 1575 f . I have never seen it in manu-
script. I believe it was never reprinted from Arnolde's Chronicle,
where it first appeared in 1521, till so late as the year 1707- It was
that year revived in a collection called the MONTHLY MISCELLANY*,

f Fbl. 34. 1707, according to Dr. Percy. See Re-

* [Read the Muses Mercury for June liques of Engl. Pgctry, ii. 27. PARK.]

SECT. XLIV.] THE NOTBROVVNE MAYDE. 12?

or MEMOIRS FOR THE CURIOUS, and prefaced with a little essay on our
ancient poets and poetry, in which it is said to have been three hundred
years old. Fortunately for modern poetry, this republication suggested
it to the notice of Prior, who perhaps from the same source might have
adopted or confirmed his hypothesis, that it was coeval with the com-
mencement of the fifteenth century.

Whoever was the original inventor of this little dramatic dialogue,
he has shown no common skill in contriving a plan, which powerfully
detains our attention, and interests the passions, by a constant succes-
sion of suspense and pleasure, of anxiety and satisfaction. Betwixt
hopes perpetually disappointed, and solicitude perpetually relieved, we
know not how to determine the event of a debate, in which new diffi-
culties still continue to be raised, and are almost as soon removed. In
the midst of this vicissitude of feelings, a striking contrast of character
is artfully formed, and uniformly supported, between the seeming un-
kindness and ingratitude of the man, and the unconquerable attachment
and fidelity of the woman, whose amiable compliance unexpectedly de-
feats every objection, and continually furnishes new matter for our love
and compassion. At length, our fears subside in the triumph of suf-
fering innocence and patient sincerity. The Man, whose hard speeches
had given us so much pain, suddenly surprises us with a change of sen-
timent, and becomes equally an object of our admiration and esteem.
In the disentanglement of this distressful tale, we are happy to find,,
that all his cruelty was tenderness, and his inconstancy the most inva-
riable truth ; his levity an ingenious artifice, and his perversity the
friendly disguise of the firmest affection. He is no longer an unfortu-
nate exile, the profligate companion of the thieves and ruffians of the
forest, but an opulent earl of Westmoreland ; and promises, that the
lady, who is a baron's daughter, and whose constancy he had proved
by such a series of embarrassing proposals, shall instantly be made the
partner of his riches and honours. Nor should we forget to commend
the invention of the poet, in imagining the modes of trying the lady's
patience, and in feigning so many new situations ; which, at the same
time, open a way to description, and to a variety of new scenes and
images.

I cannot help observing here, by the way, that Prior has miscon-
ceived and essentially marred his poet's design, by softening the stern-
ness of the Man, which could not be intended to admit of any degree
of relaxation. Henry's hypocrisy is not characteristically nor consist-
ently sustained. He frequently talks in too respectful and complaisant
a style. Sometimes he calls Emma my tender maid, and my beauteous
Emma ; he fondly dwells on the ambrosial plenty of her flowing ring-
lets gracefully wreathed with variegated ribands, and expatiates with
rapture on the charms of her snowy bosom, her slender waist, and har-
mony of shape. In the ancient poem, the concealed lover never abates
his affectation of rigour and reserve, nor ever drops an expression which

128 METRICAL ROMANCES.' [SECT. XLIV.

may tend to betray any traces of tenderness. He retains his severity
to the last, in order to give force to the conclusion of the piece, and to
heighten the effect of the final declaration of his love. Thus, by dimi-
nishing the opposition of interests, and by giving too great a degree of
uniformity to both characters, the distress is in some measure destroyed
by Prior. For this reason, Henry, during the course of the dialogue,
is less an object of our aversion, and Emma of our pity. But these are
the unavoidable consequences of Prior's plan, who presupposes a long
connection between the lovers, which is attended with the warmest pro-
fessions of a reciprocal passion. Yet this very plan suggested another
reason why Prior should have more closely copied the cast of his ori-
ginal. After so many mutual promises and protestations, to have made
Henry more obdurate, would have enhanced the sufferings and the sin-
cerity of the amiable Emma.

It is highly probable that the metrical romances of RICHARD CUER
DE LYON, GUY EARL OF WARWICK, and SYR BEVYS OF SOUTHAMP-
TON, were modernised in this reign from more ancient and simple nar-
rations*. The first was printed by Wynkyn de Worde, in 1528 h . The
second without date, but about the same time, by William Copland. I
mean that which begins thus,

[S]Ithen the tyme that God was borne,
And crystendome was set and sworne.

With this colophon, " Here endeth the booke of the most victoryous
prynce Guy earle of Warwyk. Imprinted at London in Lothbury, over
against saynt Margaret's church by Wyllyam Copland V Richard Pin-
son printed SIR BEVYS without date. Many quarto prose romances
were printed between the years 1510 and 154>0 k . Of these, KYNGE
APPOLYN of THYRE is not one of the worst.

In the year 1542, as it seems, Robert Wyer printed, " Here begyn-
neth a lytell boke named the SCOLE HOWSE, wherein every man may
rede a goodly Prayer of the condycyons of women f." Within the leaf

* [These three romances were pro- more polished, or the story more ampli-

nounced by Ritson to be extant in MSS. fied or intricate, in the editions than they

above 300 years old ; and one of them, at are in the MS. Simplicity, indeed, is a

least (Sir Bevis), excepting the typogra- fault of which few people will have reason

phical incorrectness of the old printed to complain in the perusal of an old me-

copy, differs no otherwise from it than in trical romance, let its antiquity be what it

its orthography and the slight variations it may. Ritson's Obs. p. 35. PARK.]

inseparable from repeated transcription. h In quarto. See &upr. vol. i. p. 155.

The ancient MS. copy of Richard Cuer seq.

de Lion is as long at least as the old edi- In 4to.

tions. But some MS. copies are so totally k See svipr. p. 64.

different from each other, as not to have f [Thomas Petyt printed another edi-

two lines in common; being translations tion in 1541 or 1561, for the title and

from the French by different hands. This colophon bear different dates : and a third

is the case with respect to Sir Guy ; there was printed by John Kyng in 1560.

are two distinct translations, both very PARK.] [It has also been reprinted among

old, one of which is line for line the same the Select Pieces of Early Popular Poetry,

with the printed copy ; but it will not be PRICE.]
found that the phraseology or style is

SECT.XLIV.] CHRISTMAS CAROLS. 129

is a border of naked women. This is a satire against the female sex.
The writer was wise enough to suppress his name, as we may judge
from the following passage.

Trewly some men there be,

That Ivye alwaye in greate horroure ;
And say, it goeth by destenye

To hange or wed, bothe hath one houre :

And whether it be, I am well sure,
Hangynge is better of the twayne,
Sooner done, and shorter payne.

In the year 1521, Wynkyn de Worde printed a sett of Christmas
Carols 1 . I have seen a fragment of this scarce book, and it preserves
this colophon : " Thus endeth the Christmasse carolles newly imprinted
at London in the Flete-strete at the sygne of the sonne by Wynkyn de
Worde. The yere of our Lorde, M.D.XXI." These were festal chan-
sons for enlivening the merriments of the Christmas celebrity ; and not
such religious songs as are current at this day with the common people
under the same title, and which were substituted by those enemies of
innocent and useful mirth the puritans. The boar's head soused was
anciently the first dish on Christmas day, and was carried up to the
principal table in the Hall with great state and solemnity. Hollinshed
says, that in the year 1170, upon the day of the young prince's coro-
nation, king Henry the Second " served his sonne at the table as sewer,
bringing up the BORES HEAD with trumpets before it according to the
manner 11 ." For this indispensable ceremony, as also for others of that
season, there was a Carol, which Wynkyn de Worde has given us in the
miscellany just mentioned, as it was sung in his time, with the title,
" A CAROLL bringyng in the Bores heed."

Caput Apri defero,

Reddens laudes Domino.
The Bore's head in hand bringe I,
With garlans gay and rosemary.
I pray you all synge merely,

Qui estis in convivio.

The Bore's head, I understande,
Is the chefe servyce in this lande :
Loke whereever it be fande p
Servite cum cantico.

1 For many small miscellaneous pieces n Chron. iii. 76. See also Polyd. Virg.

under the reign of Henry VIII., the more Hist. p. 2 12. 10. ed. 1534.
inquisitive reader is referred to MSS. Cott. that is, the chief dish served <at a

Vesp. A. 25. feast.

m In quarto. [See Ritson's Ancient p found.

Songs, p. 126. PARK.]

VOL. III. K

130 RHYMING LIBELS. [SECT. XLIV.

Be gladdc lordes, bothe more and lasse^,
For this hath ordeyned our stewarde

To chere you all this Christmasse,
The Bore's head with mustarde.

This carol, yet with many innovations, is retained at Queen's college
in Oxford. Other antient Christmas carols occur with Latin Burthens
or Latin intermixtures. As thus,

Puer nobis natus est de Virgine Maria.
Be glad lordynges, be the more or lesse,
I brynge you tydynges of gladnesse r .

The Latin scraps were banished from these jocund hymns when the
Reformation had established an English liturgy. At length appeared,
" Certaine of David's Psalmes intended for Christmas Carolls fitted to
the most common but solempne tunes every where familiarly used, by
William Slatyr, printed by Robert Young 1630 s ."

It was impossible that the reformation of religion could escape with-
out its rhyming libels. Accordingly, among others, we have, "An
Answer to a papystical exhortation, pretending to avoyd false doctrine,
under that colour to mayntayne the same," printed in 1548, and begin-
ning,

Every pilde* pedlar

Will be a medlar.

In the year 1533, a proclamation was promulged, prohibiting evil-
disposed persons to preach, either in public or private, " after their own
braine, and by playing of enterludes, and printing of false fond bookes,
ballades, rhymes, and other lewd treatyses in the English tongue, con-
cerning doctrines in matters now in question and controversie," &c. u
But this popular mode of attack, which all understood, and in which
the idle and unlearned could join, appears to have been more powerful
than royal interdictions and parliamentary censures.

In the year 154-0, Thomas lord Cromwell, during the short interval
which Henry's hasty passion for Catharine Howard permitted between
his commitment and execution, was insulted in a ballad written by a
defender of the declining cause of popery, who certainly showed more
zeal than courage, in reproaching a disgraced minister and a dying man.
This satire, however unseemly, gave rise to a religious controversy in
verse, which is preserved in the archives of the Antiquarian Society.

I find a poem of thirty octave stanzas, printed in 1546, called the
DOWNFAL OF ANTJCHRISTES MAS, or Mass, in which the nameless
satirist is unjustly severe on the distresses of that ingenious class of
mechanics who got their living by writing and ornamenting service-
books for the old papistic worship, now growing into decay and disuse ;

q great and small. s In octavo. * pilled, i. e. bald.

r MSS. Harl. 5396, fol. 4. fol, 18. u Fox, Martyrolog. f. 1339. edit. 1576.

SECT. XLIV.] TRETISE OP MERLYN. 131

insinuating at the same time, in a strain of triumph, the great blow their
craft had received, by the diminution of the number of churches in the
dissolution of the monasteries vv . It is, however, certain, that this busy
and lucrative occupation was otherwise much injured by the invention
and propagation of typography, as several catholic rituals were printed
in England : yet still they continued to employ writers and illuminators
for this purpose. The finest and the latest specimen of this sort I have
seen, is Cardinal Wolsey'sLECTioNARY, now preserved at Christ-church
in Oxford, a prodigious folio on vellum, written and embellished with
great splendor and beauty by the most elegant artists, either for the
use of his own private chapel, or for the magnificent chapel which he
had projected for his college, and peculiarly characteristic of that pre-
late's predominant ideas of ecclesiastic pomp.

Wynkyn de Worde printed a TRETISE OF MERLYN, or his prophe-
cies in verse, in 1529. Another appeared by John Hawkyns, in 1533.
Metrical and prosaic prophecies attributed to the magician Merlin, all
originating from Geoffrey of Monmouth's historical romance, and of
oriental growth, are numerous and various. Merlin's predictions were
successively accommodated by the minstrel-poets to the politics of their
own times. There are many among the Cotton manuscripts, both in
French and English, and in other libraries x . Laurence Minot above
cited, who wrote about 1360, and in the northern dialect, has applied
some of them to the numerous victories of Edward the Third y. As
thus:

Men may rede in Romance 2 right,

Of a grete clerk that MERLIN night :

w In a roll of John Morys, warden of covered with deer-skin. As, " Item in vj

Winchester college, an. xx. Ric. II. A. D. pellibus cervinis emptis pro libris predictis

1397, are large articles of disbursement cooperiendis, xiij s. iiij d." In another roll

for grails, legends, and other service- (xix. Ric. II. A. D. 1396.) of warden John

books for the choir of the chapel, then Morys above-mentioned, disbursements of

just founded. It appears that they bought diet for SCRIPTORES enter into the quar-

the parchment; and hired persons to do terly account of that article. "EXPENSE

the business of writing, illuminating, no- extraneorum superveniencium, iij SCRIP-

ting, and binding, within the walls of the TORUM, viij serviencium, et x choristarum,

college. As thus: " Item in xi doseyn ixl. iiijs. xd." The whole diet expenses

iiij pellibus emptis pro i legenda integra, this year, for strangers, writers, servants,

que incipit folio secundo Quia dixerunt, and choristers, amount to 201. 19s. lOd.

continente xxxiiij quaterniones, (pret. do- In another roll of 1399, (Rot. Comp.

seyn iiij s. vi d. pret. pellis iiijd. ob.) lis. Burss. 22 Ric. II.) writers are in commons

Item in scripturaejusdem Legende, Ixxij s. weekly with the regular members of the

Et in illuminacione et ligacione ejusdem, society.

xxx s. Item in vj doseyn de velym emptis x See Geoffr. Monm. vii. 3. And Rob.

pro factura vj Processionalium, quorum Glouc. p. 132. 133. seq. 254. 256. Of the

quilibet continet xv quaterniones, (pret. authority of Merlin's Prophecies in Eng-

doseyn iiijs. vid.) xxvijs. Etin scriptura, land in 1216, see Wykes's Chron. sub

notacione, illuminacione, et ligacione eo- ann. Merlin's Prophecies were printed

rundem, xxxiijs." The highest cost of one in French at Paris, in 1498. And Mer-

of these books is, 71. 13s. Vellum, for lini Vitae et Prophetiae, at Venice, 1554.

this purpose, made an article of staurum y MS. Galb. E. ix. ut supr.

or store. As, " Item in vj doseyn de velym z In another place Minot calls the book

emptis in staurum pro aliis libris inde fa- on which his narrative is founded the Ro-

ciendis, xxxiiij s. xjd." The books were MANCE:

132 TRETISE OF MERLYN. [SECT. XLIV.

Ful many bokes er of him wreten,
Als thir clerkes wele may witten a ;
And zit b in many preve nokes c
May men find of Merlin bokes.
Merlin said thus with his mouth,
Out of the North into the Sowth,
Suld cum a Bare d over the se,
That suld mak many men to fle ;
And in the se, he said, ful right,
Suld he schew e full mekill myght :
And in France he suld bigin f
To make tham wrath that ere thare in :
Untill the se his taile reche sale&,
All folk of France to mekill bale b .
Thus have I mater for to make
For a nobill Prince 1 sake.
Help me, God, my wit is thin k ,
Now LAURENCE MINOT will bigin.

A Bore es broght on bankes bare,
With ful batail bifor his brest,
For John of France will he noght spare

In Normondy to tak his rest.

At Cressy when thai brak the brig",
That saw Edward with both his ine ;
Than liked him no langer to ligP,
Ilk Inglis man on others rig^;
Over that water er thai went r ,
To batail er thai baldly big,
With brade ax s , and with bowes bent,
With bent bowes thai war ful bolde,
For to fell of 1 the Frankisch men.
Thai gert u tham lig with cares colde.
Ful sari w was sir Philip x then :
He saw the toun o ferrum? bren z ,
And folk for ferd war fast fleand a :

How Edward, als the Romance saies, n bridge. eyne, eyes. p lie idle.

Held his sege before Calais. q The English ran over one another,

pressed forward,
as scholars well know. V r Froigsart ^ thig the s or ford

I S ^ * pnvy 5? of Blanch ta i ue > B - h ch - cxxvii - Ber -

< Should come a Boar This Boar is , Transl. fol. Ixiii. a.

king Arthur in Merlin s Prophecies. . broad batfle -ax.

e Should he show. ' begin. t f u u

* his tail shall reach to the sea. cause d. ' w sorry.

* to the great destruction of the French. x p hm of Valoig) SQn of Johrij king of

G 1 nircU -n

t ranee.

TJohn duke of Nor- I ? ha s VernOI> - C afar ff - B ' TSON -]

SECT. XLIV.] TRETISE OF MERLYN. 133

The teres he lete fui rathly ren b
Out of his eghen c , I understand.
Than cum Philip, ful redy dight,
Toward the toun with all his rowt ;
With him come mani a kumly knight,
And all umset d the Bare obout :
The Bare made tham ful law to lout,
And delt tham knokkes to thaire mede*,
He gert tham stumbill that war stout.
Thare helpid nowther staf ne stede e .
Stedes strong bilevid still f
Biside Cressy opon the grene*.
Sir Philip wanted all his will
That was wele on his sembland h sene,
With spere and schelde, and helmis schene 1 ,
The Bare than durst thai noght habide k .
The king of Berne 1 was cant m and kene,
Bot thare he left both play and pride.
Pride in prese ne prais I noght n .
Omong thir princes prowd in pall,
Princes suld be wele bithoght
When kinges suld tham tyllP counsail call.

The same boar, that is, Edward the Third, is introduced by Minot
as resisting the Scottish invasion in 134-7, at Nevil's cross near Dur-
ham^.

b quickly, fast, run. c eyes. d beset. q The reader will recollect that this

* reward. versification is in the structure of that of

e lances and horses were now of no ser- the Lives of the Saints, where two lines

vice. are thrown into one. viz. VNDECIM

' stood still. Bleve. Sax. Chauc. Tr. Cr. MILLIA VIRGINUM. MSS. Coll. Trin.

iv. 1357. Oxon. 57.

A Bore with brenis bright Imartird wer for godis sone, ich wille

Es broght opon zowre grene, telle that cas.

That as a semely sizht, A kyng ther was in Bretaygne, Maur was

With schilterouns faire and schene. his name,

" countenance.[semblance. RiTSON.l A douzte f he ^ de that h et Vrse, a mayde

bright helmets. . ofguodfame.

* They could no longer withstand the bo fair woman me n y ste non ne so g uod

Boar m none P vnte

i John king of Bohemia. By Froissart Cristene waS al hire ken ' SWithe n ble

he is called inaccurately the king of Be- _, . . and . 91 U -y nte '

haigne, or Charles of Luxemburg. See Of hlre . fairhede and guodnesse me told

Froissart, ut supr. fol. Ixiv. b. The lord _, . in * sonde . slde '

Charles of Bohemia, his son, was also in That the d com into Engelonde, and

the battle and killed, being lately elected . .

, . .

emperor. Hollinsh. iii. 372. A k ? n S there was ln kngelonde, man of

m gay, alert S ret P ow e r >

n I cannot praise the mere pomp of roy- Of this f^ide he herde telle gret nobleize
a j ty> far and ner.

advised, prepared. p to. The minstrel, who used the perpetual re-

134 TRETISB OF MERLYN. [SECT. XLIV.

Sir David the Bruse*
Was at distance,
When Edward the Baliolfe r
Rade 9 with his lance:
The north end of Ingland
Teched him to daunce,
When he was met on the more
With mekill mischance.
Sir Philip the Valayse
May him noght advance*,
The flowres that faire war,
Er u fallen in Fraunce I
The flowres er now fallen,
That fers x war and fell,
A Bare^ with his bataille,
Has done tham to dwell.
Sir David the Bruse
Said he sulde fonde 2
To ride thurgh all Ingland,
Wuld he noght wonde a :
At the Westminster Hall,
Suld his stedes stonde,
Whils oure king Edward
War out of the londe. b

turn of a kind of plain chant, made his His heved 3 was wyte as any swan, his

pause or close at every hemistic. In the higehen 4 were gret and grai, &c.

same manner, the verses of the following His robe was al golde biganne, well crist-

poem were divided by the minstrel. MSS. lik maked i understande,

Cott. Jul. v. fol. 175. Pergamen. Botones asurd everilke ane, from his el-

[The transcript is not later than the bouthe on til his hande 5 .

year 1300.] They enter a castle .

Als y yod on ay Monday, by twene Wil- The bankers on the binkes lay 6 , and faire

tindon and Walle, ' lordes sette y fonde,

Me ane after brade way, ay litel man y In ilk ay him y herd ay lay, and levedys

melte withalle, southe me loud sange 7.

The leste that ever y sathe, to say oither * David Bruce, king of Scotland. See

in boure oither in halle, P. Langtoft, p. 116.

His robe was neither grene na gray, hot r warlike. [Edward de Baliol. Edward

alle yt was of riche palle. the Third was not in England when the

On me he cald and bad me bide, wel stille affair at Nevill's Cross happened. RIT-

y stode ay litel space ; SON.]

Fro Lanchester the Parke syde, yeen he 8 rode. * could do him no service.

come wel faire his pace : &c. u are. x fierce. y boar.

I biheld that litel man, bi the strete als z should attempt.

we gon gae 1 , B wander in going, [stop, stay. RIT-

His berde was syde ay large span, and SON.]

glided als the fether of pae 2 . b MSS. ut supr. Galb., E. ix.

1 went on. 2 His beard was a span broad, and shone like a peacock's plumage.

3 head. 4 eyes. 5 buttons, every one of them azure, from his elbow to his hand.
6 cushions, or tapestry, on the benches laid. 7 In every corner I heard a Lay,

and ladies, &c.

SECT. XLIV.] TRETISE OF MERLYN. 135

Also in Edward's victory over the Spaniards in a sea-fight, in 1350,
a part of Minot's general subject.

I wald noght spare for to speke,

Wist I to spede,

Of wight men with wapin a ,

And worthly in wede.

That now er driven to dale b ,

And ded all thaire dede,

Thai sail in the see-gronde c ,

Fissches to fede!

Fele d Fissches thei fede,

For all thaire grete fare 6 ,

It was in the waniand f

That thai come thare.

Thai sailed furth in the Swin

In a somers tyde,

With trompes and taburns^,

And mikell other pryde h .

I have seen one of Merlin's PROPHESIES, probably translated from
the French, which begins thus.

Listeneth now to Merlin's saw,
And I woll tell to aw 1 ,
What he wrat for men to come,
Nothcr by greffe ne by plume. k

a active with weapons. b sorrow. year, is the following disbursement: "Et

c sea-bottom. d many. c feasting. in i tabula ceranda cum viridi cera pro

f Q. waning of the moon ? intitulatione capellanorum et clericorum

E tambourins, labours or drums. In Capelle ad missas et alia psallenda, viijd." 1

Chaucer we have TABOURE, Fr.to drum. This very curious and remarkable article

h MSS. ut supr. signifies, that a tablet covered with green

1 all. wax was kept in the chapel, for noting

k I know not when this piece was writ- down with a style, the respective courses

ten. But the word greffe is old French of daily or weekly portions of duty, alter-

for Graphium, or Stylus. It is generally nately assigned to the officers of the choir.

supposed, and it has been positively as- So far, indeed, from having ceased in the

serted by an able French antiquary, that fifth century, it appears that this mode of

the ancient Roman practice of writing writing continued throughout all the dark

with a style on waxen tablets lasted not ages. Among many express proofs that

longer than the fifth century. Hearne might be produced of the centuries after

also supposes that the pen had succeeded that period, Du Cange cites these verses

to the style long before the age of Alfred. from a French metrical romance, written.

Lei. Itin. Vol. vii. Pref. p. xxi. I will about the year 1376. Lat. Gloss, v. GRA-

produce an instance of this practice in PHIUM'.

England so late as the year 1395. In an Les uns se prennent a ecrire,

accompt-roll of Winchester college, of that Des greffes 3 en tables de cire ;

1 Viz. " COMPUTUS magistri Johis Morys Custodis a die Sabbati proxime post fes-
tum Annunciationis beate Marie anno regni Regis Ricardi Secundi post conquestum
xvij mo , usque diem Veneris proxime ante festum sancti Michaelis extunc proxime se-
quens anno regis predict! xviij vo , vid 14 per xxvj septimanas." It is indorsed, " Com-
putus primus post ingrcssum in Collegium. Anno octavo post inceptionem Operis."

2 See ibid. STYLISONUS. 3 Styles. Lat. Graphium,

136

PUBLIC PAGEANTRIES.

[SECT. XLIV.

The public pageantries of this reign are proofs of the growing fami-
liarity and national diffusion of classical learning. I will select an in-

Les autres suivent la coustume
De fournir lettres a la plume.

Many ample and authentic records of the
royal household of France, of the thir-
teenth and fourteenth centuries, written
on waxen tablets, are still preserved.
Waxen tablets were constantly kept in
the French religious houses, for the same
purpose as at Winchester college. Thus in
the Ordinary of the Priour of saint Lo at
Rouen, printed at Rouen, written about
the year 1250: "Qui, ad missam, lec-
tiones aut tractus dicturi sunt, in tabula
cerea primitus recitentur." pag.261. Even
to this day, several of the collegiate bodies
in France, more especially the chapter of
the cathedral of Rouen, retain this usage
of marking the successive rotation of the
ministers of the choir. See the Sieur le
Brun's Voyage Liturgique, 1718. p. 527.
The same mode of writing was used for
registering the capitular acts of the mo-
nasteries in France. Du Cange, in reciting
from an ancient manuscript the Signs en-
joined to the monks of the order of saint
Victor at Paris, where the rule of silence
was rigorously observed, gives us, among
others, the tacit signals by which they
called for the style and tablet: "Pro
SIGNO Grqfii. Signo metalli praemisso,
extenso pollice cum indice simila [simula]
scribentem. Pro SIGNO Tabularum.
Manus ambas complica, et ita disjunge
quasi aperiens Tabulas." Gloss, ut supr.
v. SIGNA. torn. iii. p. 866. col. 2. edit. vet.
Among the implements of writing allowed
to the Carthusians, Tabula and Graphium
are enumerated. Statut. Antiq. Carthu-
sian. 2 part. cap. xvi. 8. This, how-
ever, at Winchester college, is the only
express specification which I have found
of the practice, in the religious houses of
England 4 . Yet in many of our old colle-
giate establishments it seems to be pointed
out by implication ; and the article here
extracted from the roll at Winchester col-
lege, explains the manner of keeping the
following injunction in the Statutes of saint
Elizabeth's college at Winchester, now
destroyed, which is a direction of the same
kind, and cannot be well understood with-
out supposing a waxen tablet. These sta-
tutes were given in 1301. " llabeat itaque
idem prsecentor unam Tabulam semper in
capella appensam, in qua scribat quolibet

die sabbati post prandium, et ordinet, qua-
lem Missam quis eorum capellanorum in
sequent! septimana debeat celebrare ; quis
qualem lectionem in crastino legere de-
beat; et sic de caeteris divinis officiis in
prsedicta capella faciendis. Et sic cotidie
post prandium ordinet idem praecentor de
servicio diei sequentis : hoc diligentius ob-
servando, quod capellani Missam, ad quam
die sabbati, ut prsemittitur, intitulantur,
per integram celebrent septimanam."
Dugd. Monast. torn. iii. Eccles. Coll. i. 10.
Nothing could have been a more conve-
nient method of temporary notation, espe-
cially at a time when parchment and
paper were neither cheap nor common
commodities, and of carrying on an ac-
count, which was perpetually to be obli-
terated and renewed : for the written sur-
face of the wax being easily smoothed by
the round or blunt end of the style, was
soon again prepared for the admission of
new characters. And among the Romans,
the chief use of the style was for fugitive
and occasional entries. In the same light,
we must view the following parallel pas-
sage of the Ordination of bishop Wykeham's
sepulchral chantry, founded in Winchester
cathedral, in the year 1404: "Die sab-
bati cujuslibet septimanae futurae, mona-
chi prioratus nostri in ordine sacerdotali
constituti, valentes et dispositi ad cele-
brandum, ordinentur et intitulentur in
Tabula seriatim ad celebrandum Missas
prsedictas cotidie per septimanam tune
sequentem," &c. B. Lowth's WYKEHAM.
Append, p. xxxi. edit. 1777. Without
multiplying superfluous citations 5 , 1 think
we may fairly conclude, that whenever a
Tabula pro Clericis intitulandis occurs in
the more ancient rituals of our ecclesias-
tical fraternities, a PUGILLARE or waxen
tablet, and not a schedule of parchment or
paper, is intended. The inquisitive reader,
who wishes to see more foreign evidences
of this mode of writing during the course
of the middle ages, is referred to a Memoir
drawn up with great diligence and research
by M. 1'Abbe Lebeuf. Mem. Litt. torn. xx.
p. 267. edit. 4to.

The reasonings and conjectures of Wise
and others, who have treated of the Saxon
AESTEL, more particularly of those who
contend that king Alfred's STYLE is still
in being at Oxford, may perhaps receive
elucidation or correction from what is here

* But see Wanley's account of the text of S. Chad. Catal. Codd. Anglo-Sax, p. 289.
seq.

6 See Statut. Eccles. Cath. Lichf. Dugd. Mon. iii. p. 244. col. 2. 10. p. 247. col. 2. 20.
Statut. Eccles. Collegiat. de Tonge, ibid. Eccles. Coll. p. 152. col. 2. 40.

SECT. XLIV.] PUBLIC PAGEANTRIES* 13?

stance, among others, from the shows exhibited with great magnificence
at the coronation of queen Anne Boleyn, in the year 1533. The pro-
cession to Westminster abbey began from the Tower ; and the queen,
in passing through Gracechurch-street, was entertained with a repre-
sentation of mount Parnassus. The' fountain of Helicon, by a bold
fiction unknown to the bards of antiquity, ran in four streams of Rhe-
nish wine from a basin of white marble. On the summit of the moun-
tain sate Apollo, and at his feet Calliope. On either side of the decli-
vity were arranged four of the Muses, playing on their respective
musical instruments. Under them were written epigrams and poesies
in golden letters, in which every Muse praised the queen, according to
her character arid office. At the Conduit in Cornhill appeared the three
Graces ; before whom, with no great propriety, was the spring of Grace
perpetually running wine. But when a conduit came in the way, a re-
ligious allusion was too tempting and obvious to be omitted. Before
the spring, however, sate a poet, describing in metre the properties or
functions of every Grace : and then each of these four Graces allotted
in a short speech to the queen, the virtue or accomplishment over which
she severally presided. At the Conduit in Cheapside, as my chronicler
says, she was saluted with " a rich pageaunt full of melodic and song."
In this pageant were Pallas, Juno, and Venus : before them stood Mer-
cury, who presented to her majesty, in the name of the three goddesses,
a golden ball or globe divided into three parts, signifying wisdom, riches,
and felicity. At entering saint Paul's gate, an ancient portal leading into
the church-yard on the east, and long since destroyed, three ladies richly
attired showered on her head wafers, in which were contained Latin
distichs. At the eastern side of saint Paul's church-yard, two hundred
scholars of saint Paul's school addressed her in chosen and apposite
passages from the Roman poets, translated into English rhymes. On
the leads of saint Martin's church stood a choir of boys and men, who
sung, not spiritual hymns, but new balads in praise of her majesty. On
the conduit without Ludgate, where the arms and angels had been re-
freshed, was erected a tower with four turrets, within each of which was
placed a Cardinal Virtue, symbolically habited. Each of these per-
sonages in turn uttered an oration, promising to protect and accompany
the queen on all occasions 1 . Here we see the pagan history and my-

casually collected on a subject, which this peculiar and obsolete fashion of wri-
needs and deserves a full investigation. ting, to express a poet's design of descri-
To a Note already labouring with its bing general life, will appear, if we consider
length I have only to add, that without the freedom and facility with which it is
supposing an allusion to this way of wri- executed. It is not yet, I think, disco-
ting, it will be hard to explain the follow- vered, on what original Shakspeare formed
ing lines in Shakspeare'sTimon of Athens, this drama.

act i. sc. 1. i Hall's Chronicle, fol. ccxii. Among

M f A iff '^e O rat i ns spoken to the Queen, is one

Halts not particularly, but moves itself t0 CuHous A tO be ^"^ A * Leadenha11
In a wide sea of wax Satc samt Anne wlth her numerous P r -

geny, and Mary Cleophas with her four

Why Shakspeare should here allude to children. One of the children made " a

138 THE MASQUE. [SECT. XLIV.

thology predominating in those spectacles, which were once furnished
from the Golden Legend. Instead of saints, prophets, apostles, and
confessors, we have Apollo, Mercury, and the Muses. Instead of re-
ligious canticles, and texts of scripture, which were usually introduced
in the course of these ceremonies, we are entertained with profane poetry,
translations from the classics, and occasional verses ; with exhortations,
not delivered by personified doctors of the church, but by the heathen
divinities.

It may not be foreign to our purpose, to give the reader some distinct
idea of the polite amusements of this reign, among which, the Masque,
already mentioned in general terms, seems to have held the first place.
It chiefly consisted of music, dancing, gaming, a banquet, and a display
of grotesque personages and fantastic dresses. The performers, as I
have hinted, were often the king, and the chief of the nobility of both
sexes, who under proper disguises executed some preconcerted strata-
gem, which ended in mirth arid good humour. With one of these shows,
in 1530, the king formed a scheme to surprise cardinal Wolsey, while
he was celebrating a splendid banquet at his palace of Whitehall. At
night his majesty in a masque, with twelve more masquers all richly
but strangely dressed, privately landed from Westminster at Whitehall
stairs. At landing, several small pieces of cannon were fired, which the
king had before ordered to be placed on the shore near the house. The
cardinal, who was separately seated at the banquet in the presence-
chamber under the cloth of state, a great number of ladies and lords
being seated at the side-tables, was alarmed at this sudden and unusual
noise ; and immediately ordered lord Sandys, the king's chamberlain,
who was one of the guests, and in the secret, to inquire the reason.
Lord Sandys brought answer, that thirteen foreign noblemen of distinc-
tion were just arrived, and were- then waiting in the great hall below;
having been drawn thither by the report of the cardinal's magnificent
banquet, and of the beautiful ladies which were present at it. The
cardinal ordered them immediately into the banqueting-room, to which
they were conducted from the hall with twenty new torches and a con-
cert of drums and fifes. After a proper refreshment, they requested
in the French language to dance with the ladies, whom they kissed,
and to play with them at mum-chance" ; producing at the same time a
great golden cup filled with many hundred crowns. Having played for
some time with the ladies, they designedly lost all that remained in the
cup to the cardinal ; whose sagacity was not easily to be deceived, and
who now began, from some circumstances, to suspect one of them to
be the king. On finding their plot in danger, they answered, " If your
grace can point him out, he will readily discover himself." The cardi-
nal pointed to a masque with a black beard, but he was mistaken, for

goodlie oration to the queene, of the fruit- m It then belonged to Wolsey.

fulness of saint Anne, and of her generation; n A game of hazard with dice,

trusting the like fruit should come of hir."

SECT. XLIV.] THE MASQUE. 139

it was sir Edward Nevil. At this, the king could not forbear laughing
aloud ; and pulling off his own and sir Edward Nevil's masque, con-
vinced the cardinal, with much arch complaisance, that he had for once
guessed wrong. The king and the masquers then retired into another
apartment to change their apparel ; and in the meantime the banquet
was removed, and the table covered afresh with perfumed clothes. Soon
afterwards, the king, with his company, returned, and took his seat
under the cardinal's canopy of state. Immediately two hundred dishes*
of the most costly cookery and confectionary were served up ; the con-
trivance and success of the royal joke afforded much pleasant conver-
sation, and the night was spent in dancing, dice-playing, banketting
and other triumphs . The old chronicler Edward Hall, a cotemporary
and a curious observer, acquaints us, that at Greenwich, in 1512, "on
the daie of the Epiphanie at night, the king with eleven others was dis-
guised after the maner of Italic, called a Maske, a thing not scene be-
fore in England ; they were apparelled in garments long and broad,
wrought all with gold, with visors and caps of gold. And after the
banket doone, these maskers came in, with six gentlemen disguised in
silke, bearing staffe-torches, and desired the ladies to danse ; some were
content, and some refused ; and after they had dansed and communed
togither, as the fashion of the maske is, they tooke their leave and de-
parted, and so did the queene and all the ladies?."

I do not find that it was a part of their diversion in these entertain-
ments to display humour and character^. Their chief aim seems to have
been, to surprise, by the ridiculous and exaggerated oddity of the visors,
and by the singularity and splendor of the dresses. Every thing was
out of nature and propriety. Frequently the Masque was attended with
an exhibition of some gorgeous machinery, resembling the wonders of
a modern pantomime. For instance, in the great hall of the palace, the
usual place of performance, a vast mountain covered with tall trees
arose suddenly, from whose opening caverns issued hermits, pilgrims,
shepherds, knights, damsels, and gypsies, who being regaled with spices
and wine danced a morisco, or morris-dance. They were then again
received into the mountain, which with a symphony of rebecs and re-
corders closed its caverns ; and tumbling to pieces, was replaced by a
ship in full sail, or a castle besieged. To be more particular. The fol-
lowing device was shown in the hall of the palace at Greenwich. A
castle was reared, with numerous towers, gates, and battlements ; and
furnished with every military preparation for sustaining a long siege.

* [Can we imagine, that though the Car- Hollinsh. Chron. iii. 921. seq.

dinal was giving such a magnificent enter- p Chron. fol. xv. [See supr. vol. ii.

tainment, lie would have had 200 costly p. 21 et seq.]

dishes in reserve, ready to set on, if he f [Of these there was probably about

had not been in the secret about the king's as much as would be found in a modern

masqued visit? As to the mistake about masquerade, consisting of the king and his

his person, this might be real or pretended. court, lords of the bed-chamber and maids

ASHBY.] of honour. ASHBY.]

140 COURT REGULATIONS OF HENRY VIII. [sECT.XLIV.

On the front was inscribed Lefortresse dangereux. From the windows
looked out six ladies, clothed in the richest russet satin, " laid all over
with leaves of gold, and every one knit with laces of blew silk and gold,
on their heads coifs and caps all of golde." This castle was moved about
the hall ; and when the queen had viewed it for a time, the king entered
the hall with five knights, in embroidered vestments, spangled and
plated with gold, of the most curious and costly workmanship. They
assaulted the castle ; and the six ladies, finding them to be champions
of redoubted prowess, after a parley, yielded their perilous fortress,
descended, and danced with their assailants. The ladies then led the
knights into the castle, which immediately vanished, and the company
retired^. Here we see the representation of an action. But all these
magnificent mummeries, which were their evening- amusements on fes-
tivals, (notwithstanding a parley *, which my historian calls a commu-
nication, is here mentioned,) were yet in dumb show 1 ", and without
dialogue.

But towards the latter part of Henry's reign, much of the old cum-
bersome state began to be laid aside. This I collect from a set of new
regulations given to the royal household about the year 1526, by car-
dinal Wolsey. In the Chapter For keeping the Hall and ordering of
the Chapel, it is recited, that by the frequent intermission and disuse of
the solemnities of dining and supping in the great hall of the palace,
the proper officers had almost forgot their duty, and the manner of con-
ducting that very long and intricate ceremonial. It is therefore ordered,
that when his majesty is not at Westminster, and with regard to his
palaces in the country, the formalities of the Hall, which ought not
entirely to fall into desuetude, shall be at least observed when he is at
Windsor, Beaulieu, or Newhall 8 in Essex, Richmond, Hampton- court,
Greenwich, Eltham, and Woodstock ; and that at these places only,
the whole choir of the chapel shall attend. This attempt to revive that
which had begun to cease from the nature of things, and from the growth
of new manners, perhaps had but little or no lasting effect ; and with
respect to the Chapel, my record adds, that when the king is on jour-
neys or progresses, only six singing boys and six gentlemen of the choir
shall make a part of the royal retinue ; who " daylie in absence of the

9 Hollinsh. iii. 812. place in the Hall of the old Westminster-

* [About the terms on which to surren- palace, several foreign embassadors being

der the fortress that six fine ladies had present. " After supper, his grace [the

defended. ASHBY.] king] with the queene, lords, and ladies,

r But at a most sumptuous Disguising came into the White Hall, which was

in 1519, in the hall at Greenwich, the hanged richlie ; the hall was scaffolded

figure of FAME is introduced, who, " in and railed on all parts. There was an

French, declared the meaning of the trees, ENTERLUDE of the gentlemen of his cha-

the rocke, and turneie." But as this show pell before his grace, and diverse freshe

was a political compliment, and many fo- songes." Hall, Chron. fol. xi. xii. [See

reigners present, an explanation was ne- supra, vol. ii. p. 392.]

cessary. See Hall, Chron. fol. Ixvi. This s A new house built by Henry the

was in 1512. But in the year 1509, a Eighth. Hollinsh. Chron. iii. 852.
more rational evening-amusement took

SECT. XLIV.] ENCOURAGEMENT OF THE ARTS. 141

residue of the chapel shall have a Masse of our Ladie bifore noon, and
on Sondaies and holidaies, masse of the day besides our Lady-masse,
and an anthempne in the afternoone : for which purpose, no great
carriage of either vestiments or bookes shall require*." Henry never
seems to have been so truly happy, as when he was engaged in one of
these progresses ; in other words, moving from one seat to another, and
enjoying his ease and amusements in a state of royal relaxation. This
we may collect from a curious passage in Hollinshed ; who had pleased
and perhaps informed us less, had he never deserted the dignity of the
historian. " From thence the whole court remooved to Windsor, then
beginning his progresse, and exercising himself dailie in shooting, sing-
ing, dansing, wrestling, casting of the barre, plaieing at the recorders,
flute, virginals, in setting of songes, and making of ballades. And when
he came to Oking u , there were kept both justes turneies w ." I make no
apology for these seeming digressions. The manners and the poetry of
a country are so nearly connected, that they mutually throw light on
each other.

The same connection subsists between the state of poetry and of the
arts ; to which we may now recall the reader's attention with as little
violation of our general subject.

We are taught in the mythology of the ancients, that the three Graces
were produced at a birth. The meaning of the fable is, that the three
most beautiful imitative arts were born and grew up together. Our
poetry now beginning to be divested of its monastic barbarism, and to
advance towards elegance, was accompanied by proportionable improve-
ments in Painting and Music. Henry employed many capital painters,
and endeavoured to invite Raphael and Titian into England. Instead
of allegorical tapestry, many of the royal apartments were adorned with
historical pictures. Our familiarity with the manners of Italy, and affec-
tation of Italian accomplishments, influenced the tones and enriched the
modulation of our musical composition. Those who could read the
sonnets of Petrarch must have relished the airs of Palestrina. At the
same time, Architecture, like Milton's lion pawing to get free, made
frequent efforts to disentangle itself from the massy incumbrances of
the Gothic manner ; and began to catch the correct graces, and to copy
the true magnificence, of the Grecian and Roman models. Henry was
himself a great builder ; and his numerous edifices, although constructed
altogether on the ancient system, are sometimes interspersed with chaste
ornaments and graceful mouldings, and often marked with a legitimacy
of proportion, and a purity of design, before unattempted. It was
among the literary plans of Leland, one of the most classical scholars
of this age, to write an account of Henry's palaces, in imitation of

1 " ORDENAUNCES made for the kinges mentioned as Chancellour of the Duchie

household and chambres." Bibl. Bodl. of Lancaster.

MSS. Laud, K. 48. fol. It is the original u Woking in Surrey, near Guildford, a

on vellum. In it, Sir Thomas More is royal seat. w Chron. iii. 800.

142 EFFECTS OF THE REFORMATION [SECT. XLV.

Procopius, who is said to have described the palaces of the emperor Jus-
tinian. Frequent symptoms appeared, that perfection in every work of
taste was at no great distance. Those clouds of ignorance which yet
remained began now to be illuminated by the approach of the dawn of
truth.

SECTION XLV.

Effects of the Reformation on our poetry. Clement Marofs Psalms.
Why adopted by Calvin. Version of the Psalms by Sternhold and
Hopkins. Defects of this version, which is patronised by the Puritans
in opposition to the Choral Service.

THE reformation of our church produced an alteration for a time in the
general system of study, and changed the character and subjects of our
poetry. Every mind, both learned and unlearned, was busied in reli-
gious speculation ; and every pen was employed in recommending,
illustrating, and familiarising the Bible, which was now laid open to the
people.

The poetical annals of king Edward the Sixth, who removed those
chains of bigotry which his father Henry had only loosened, are marked
with metrical translations of various parts of the sacred scripture. Of
these the chief is the versification of the Psalter by Sternhold and Hop-
kins; a performance, which has acquired an importance, and conse-
quently claims a place in our series, not so much from any merit of its
own, as from the circumstances with which it is connected.

It is extraordinary, that the protestant churches should be indebted
to a country in which the reformation had never begun to make any
progress, and even to the indulgence of a society which remains to this
day the grand bulwark of the catholic theology, for a very distinguish-
ing and essential part of their ritual.

About the year 1540, Clement Marot, a valet of the bedchamber to
king Francis the First, was the favorite poet of France. This writer,
having attained an unusual elegance and facility of style, added many
new embellishments to the rude state of the French poetry. It is not the
least of his praises, that La Fontaine used to call him his master. He
was the inventor of the rondeau, and the restorer of the madrigal ; but
he became chiefly eminent for his pastorals, ballads, fables, elegies,
epigrams, and translations from Ovid and Petrarch*. At length, being

* [Hence was it observed in a poem be- Was Petrark murthing full with Dante,

fore quoted, at p. 44. Who erst did wonders do.

In Fraunce did Marot rayne, PARK.]

And neighbour thearunto

SECT. XLV.] ON ENGLISH POETRY. 143

tired of the vanities of profane poetry, or rather privately tinctured with
the principles of Lutheranism, he attempted, with the assistance of his
friend Theodore Beza, and by the encouragement of the professor of
Hebrew in the university of Paris, a version of David's Psalms into
French rhymes. This translation, which did not aim at any innovation
in the public worship, and which received the sanction of the Sorbonne
as containing nothing contrary to sound doctrine, he dedicated to his
master Francis the First, and to the Ladies of France. In the dedica-
tion to the Ladies or les Dames de France, whom he had often before
addressed in the tenderest strains of passion or compliment, he seems
anxious to deprecate the raillery which the new tone of his versification
was likely to incur, and is embarrassed how to find an apology for turn-
ing saint. Conscious of his apostasy from the levities of life, in a spirit
of religious gallantry he declares that his design is to add to the hap-
piness of his fair readers, by substituting divine hymns in the place of
chansons d'amour, to inspire their susceptible hearts with a passion in
which there is no torment, to banish that fickle and fantastic deity CUPID
from the world, and to fill their apartments with the praises, not of the
little god) but of the true Jehovah.

E voz doigts sur les espinettes
Pour dire SAINCTES CHANSONETTES.

He adds, that the golden age would now be restored, when we should
see the peasant at his plough, the carman in the streets, and the me-
chanic in his shop, solacing their toils with psalms and canticles ; and
the shepherd and shepherdess, reposing in the shade, and teaching the
rocks to echo the name of the Creator.

Le Laboureur a sa charrue,

Le Charretier parmy le rue,

Et 1' Artisan en sa boutique,

Avecques un PSEAUME ou C ANTIQUE,

En son labour se soulagcr.

Heureux qui orra le Berger

Et la Bergere au bois estans,

Fair que rochers et estangs,

Apres eux chantant la hauteur

Du sainct nom de Createur 3 .

Marot's Psalms soon eclipsed the brilliancy of his madrigals and son-
nets. Not suspecting how prejudicial the predominant rage of psalm-
singing might prove to the ancient religion of Europe, the catholics
themselves adopted these sacred songs as serious ballads, and as a more
rational species of domestic merriment. They were the common accom-
paniments of the fiddle. They were sold so rapidly, that the printers-

a Les Oewres de Clement Marot de Lyon, 1551. 12mo. See ad calc. Traduc-
Cahors, valet de chambre du roy, &c. A tions, &c. p. 192,

144 CLEMENT MARGINS PSALMS, [SECT. XLV.

could not supply the public with copies. In the festive and splendid
court of Francis the First, of a sudden nothing was heard but the psalms
of Clement Marot. By each of the royal family and the principal no-
bility of the court a psalm was chosen, and fitted to the ballad-tune
which each liked best*. The dauphin prince Henry, who delighted in
hunting, was fond of Ainsi quon oit le cerf bruire, or Like as the hart
desireth the water-brooks, which he constantly sung in going out to the
chase. Madame de Valentinois, between whom and the young prince
there was an attachment, took Du fond de ma pensee, or, from the
depth of my heart, O Lord. The queen's favorite was, Ne vueilles pas,
O Sire, that is, O Lord, rebuke me not in thine indignation, which she
sung to a fashionable jigf. Antony king of Navarre sung, Revenge
moy, pren le querelle, or, Stand up, O Lord, to revenge my quarrel, to
the air of a dance of Poitou b . It was on very different principles that
psalmody flourished in the gloomy court of Cromwell. This fashion
does not seem in the least to have diminished the gaiety and good hu-
mour of the court of Francis.

At this period, John Calvin, in opposition to the discipline and doc-
trines of Rome, was framing his novel church at Geneva, in which the
whole substance and form of divine worship was reduced to praying,
preaching, and singing. In the last of these three, he chose to depart
widely from the catholic usage ; and, either because he thought that
novelty was sure to succeed, that the practice of antiphonal chanting
was superstitious, or that the people were excluded from bearing a part
in the more solemn and elaborate performance of ecclesiastical music,
or that the old papistic hymns were unedifying, or that verse was better
remembered than prose, he projected, with the advice of Luther, a species
of religious song, consisting of portions of the psalms intelligibly trans-
lated into the vernacular language, and adapted to plain and easy me-
lodies, which all might learn, and in which all might join. This scheme,
either by design or accident, was luckily seconded by the publication of
Marot's metrical psalms at Paris, which Calvin immediately introduced
into his congregation at Geneva J. Being set to simple and almost mo-

* [This mode of adaptation may be seen purpose. The verses were easy and prosaic

in the Godly and Spirituall Songs, &c., enough to be intelligible to the meanest

printed at Edinburgh in 1597, and re- capacity. The melodies to which they

printed there in 1801. PARK.] were set rivalled the words in plainness

f [Jig does not here signify a dance, and simplicity. They who could read the

but a tune. PARK.] one would find little difficulty in learning

b See Bayle's Diet. v. MAROT. to sing the other. As therefore it was the

J [Marot's French translation of the protestant father's aim to open the Scrip-
Psalms, said the late Mr. Mason, became tures entirely which had been so long shut
popular in the court where it had its ori- up in a dead language, nothing would come
gin ; not, as it seems, because it was a more opportune than this version of the
version of the Psalms, but as being a ver- psalter ; which, united with prayer in their
sion in rhyme, and what the taste of the own tongue, would enable his congregation
time deemed good poetry. Devotion it to understand and join in the one, and be-
must be believed had little to do in this come choristers of the other. Essays, &c.
matter; the version was fashionable ! Cal- on English Church Music. PARK.]
vin conceived it might be turned to a pious

SECT. XLV.] WHY ADOPTED BY CALVIN. 145

notonous notes by Guillaume de Franc, they were soon established as
the principal branch in that reformer's new devotion, and became a
characteristical mark or badge of the Calvinistic worship and profession.
Nor were they sung only in his churches. They exhilarated the con-
vivial assemblies of the Calvinists, were commonly heard in the streets,
and accompanied the labours of the artificer. The weavers and woollen
manufacturers of Flanders, many of whom left the loom and entered
into the ministry, are said to have been the capital performers in this
science. At length Marot's psalms formed an appendix to the catechism
of Geneva, and were interdicted to the catholics under the most severe
penalties. In the language of the orthodox, psalm-singing and heresy
were synonymous terms.

It was Calvin's system of reformation, not only to strip religion of its
superstitious and ostensible pageantries, of crucifixes, images, tapers,
superb vestments, and splendid processions, but of all that was estimable
in the sight of the people, and even of every simple ornament, every
significant symbol, and decent ceremony ; in a word, to banish every
thing from his church which attracted or employed the senses, or which
might tend to mar the purity of an abstracted adoration, and of a men-
tal intercourse with the Deity. It is hard to determine how Calvin
could reconcile the use of singing, even when purged from the corrup-
tions and abuses of popery, to so philosophical a plan of worship. On
a parallel principle, and if any artificial aids to devotion were to be al-
lowed, he might at least have retained the use of pictures in the church.
But a new sect always draws its converts from the multitude and the
meanest of the people, who can have no relish for the more elegant
externals. Calvin well knew that the manufacturers of Germany were
no judges of pictures. At the same time it was necessary that his con-
gregation should be kept in good humour by some kind of pleasurable
gratification and allurement, which might qualify and enliven the at-
tendance on the more rigid duties of praying and preaching. Calvin
therefore, intent as he was to form a new church on a severe model, had
yet too much sagacity to exclude every auxiliary to devotion. Under
this idea, he permitted an exercise, which might engage the affections
without violating the simplicity of his worship ; and sensible that his
chief resources were in the rabble of a republic, and availing himself
of that natural propensity which prompts even vulgar minds to express
their more animated feelings in rhyme and music, he conceived a mode
of universal psalmody, not too refined for common capacities, and
fitted to please the populace. The rapid propagation of Calvin's reli-
gion, and his numerous proselytes, are a strong proof of his address in
planning such a sort of service. France and Germany were instantly
infatuated with a love of psalm-singing ; which being admirably cal-
culated to kindle and diffuse the flame of fanaticism, was peculiarly
serviceable to the purposes of faction, and frequently served as the
trumpet to rebellion. These energetic hymns of Geneva, under the

VOL. in. L

146 THOMAS STERNHOLD. [SECT. XLV.

conduct of the Calvinistic preachers, excited and supported a variety
of popular insurrections ; they filled the most flourishing cities of the
Low Countries with sedition and tumult, and fomented the fury which
defaced many of the most beautiful and venerable churches of Flan-
ders.

This infectious frenzy of sacred song soon reached England, at the
very critical point of time, when it had just embraced the reforma-
tion ; and the new psalmody was obtruded on the new English liturgy
by some few officious zealots, who favored the discipline of Geneva,
and who wished to abolish, not only the choral mode of worship in
general, but more particularly to suppress the TE DEUM, BENEDICTUS,
MAGNIFICAT, JUBILATE, NUNC DIMITTIS, and the rest of the liturgic
hymns, which were supposed to be contaminated by their long and an-
cient connection with the Roman missal, or, at least in their prosaic
form, to be unsuitable to the new system of worship.

Although Wyat and Surrey had before made translations of the
Psalms into metre, Thomas Sternhold was the first whose metrical ver-
sion of the Psalms was used in the church of England. Sternhold was
a native of Hampshire, and probably educated at Winchester college.
Having passed some time at Oxford, he became groom of the robes to
king Henry the Eighth. In this department, either his diligent ser-
vices or his knack at rhyming so pleased the king, that his majesty be-
queathed him a legacy of one hundred marks. He continued in the
same office under Edward the Sixth, and is said to have acquired some
degree of reputation about the court for his poetry. Being of a serious
disposition, and an enthusiast to reformation, he was much offended at
the lascivious ballads which prevailed among the courtiers ; and, with
a laudable design to check these indecencies, undertook a metrical ver-
sion of the Psalter, " thinking thereby," says Antony Wood, " that the
courtiers would sing them instead of their sonnets, but did not, only
some few excepted c ." Here was the zeal, if not the success, of his
fellow labourer Clement Marot. A singular coincidence of circum-
stances is, notwithstanding, to be remarked on this occasion. Verna-
cular versions for general use of the Psalter were first published both
in France and England, by laymen, by court-poets, and by servants of
the court. Nor were the respective translations entirely completed by
themselves ; and yet they translated nearly an equal number of psalms,
Marot having versified fifty*, and Sternhold fifty-onef- Sternhold
died in the year 1549. His fifty-one psalms were printed the same

* Ath. Oxon. i. 76. f [Mr. Haslewood has pointed out an

* [" Marot first published thirty psalms, edition printed by G. Whitchurch in 1551,
and afterwards translated twenty more, which contains thirty-seven psalms by
which he published at Geneva in 1543, Sternhold, and to these seven more were
with the other thirty, together with a adjoined. See Censura Literaria, x. 4.
preface written by Calvin." The Rev. PARK.]

Charles Dunster's Considerations on
Psalmpdy. PARK.]

SECT. XLV.] STERNHOLD AND HOPKINS. 14?

year by Edward Whitchurch, under the following title : " All such
Psalms of David as Thomas Sternholde late grome of the kinges Maie-
styes robes did in his lyfe tyme drawe into Englysshe metre*." They
are without the musical notes, as is the second [third] edition in 1552.
He probably lived to prepare the first edition for the press, as it is de-
dicated by himself to king Edward the Sixth.

Cotemporary with Sternhold, and his coadjutor, was John Hopkins;
of whose life nothing more is known, than that he was a clergyman
and a schoolmaster of Suffolk, and perhaps a graduate at Oxford about
the year 1544. Of his abilities as a teacher of the classics, he has left
a specimen in some Latin stanzas prefixed to Fox's MARTYROLOGY.
He is rather a better English poet than Sternhold ; and translated fifty-
eight of the psalms, distinguished by the initials of his name.

Of the rest of the contributors to this undertaking, the chief, at least
in point of rank and learning, was William Whyttingham, promoted by
Robert earl of Leicester to Ihe deanery of Durham, yet not without a
strong reluctance to comply with the use of the canonical habiliments.
Among our religious exiles in the reign of Mary, he was Calvin's prin-
cipal favorite, from whom he received ordination. So pure was his
faith, that he was thought worthy to succeed to the congregation of
Geneva, superintended by Knox, the Scotch reformer; who, from a
detestation of idols, proceeded to demolish the churches in which
they were contained. It was one of the natural consequences of Why t-
tingham's translation from Knox's pastorship at Geneva to an English
deanery, that he destroyed or removed many beautiful and harmless
monuments of ancient art in his cathedral. To a man, who had so
highly spiritualized his religious conceptions, as to be convinced that
a field, a street, or a barn, were fully sufficient for all the operations

* [" Henry the Eighth," says Brath- to disparage the pious endeavours of those
waite, "for a few psalmes of David trans- who tooke paynes in that translation; but
lated and turned into English meetre by rather, commending their laborious and
Sternhold, made him groom of his privie Christian intention, do acknowledge that
chamber." English Gentleman, p. 191, (considering the tymes they lived in, and
1630. Against George Wither of Lin- of what quality they were) they made so
coin's Inn, who had published " Hymnes worthye an attempt, as may justly shame
and Songs of the Church " by royal li- us who came after, to see it no better se-
cense in 1623, it was alleged that he conded, during all the flourishing tymes
had " indecently obtruded upon the dS- which have followed their troublesome
vine calling;" to which he indignantly age ; especially seeing, howe curiously our
replied, " I wonder what divine calling language and expressions are refined in
Hopkins and Sternhold had, more than our triviall discourses." Yet Wither, like
I have, that their metricall Psalmes may his predecessors, professes to have used
be allowed of rather than my Hymnes. that "simplicity of speech which best be-
Surely, yf to have been groomes . of the cometh the subject," and to have as natu-
privie-chamber were sufficient to qualify rally and as plainly expressed the sense
them, that profession [the law] which I of Scripture, as most prose translations
am of, may as well fitt me for what I have done. Few things perhaps are more
have undertaken." Schollers Purgatory, difficult in metrical composition, than to
p. 40. Wither proceeds to say: "Ex- unite simplicity with gracefulness. Some
cuse me, if I seeme a little too playne in of our most distinguished modern poets
discovering the faultiness of that whereof have failed to produce such union.
so many are overweening: for I do it not PARK.]

148 STBRNHOLD AND HOPKINS's [SECT. XLV.

of Christian worship, the venerable structures raised by the magnificent
piety of our ancestors could convey no ideas of solemnity, and had no
other charms than their ample endowments. Beside the psalms he
translated d , all which bear his initials, by way of innovating still fur-
ther on our established formulary, he versified the Decalogue, the Ni-
cene, Apostolic, and Athanasian Creeds, the Lord's Prayer, the TE
DEUM, the Song of the three Children, with other hymns which follow
the book of psalmody. How the Ten Commandments and the Athana-
sian Creed, to say nothing of some of the rest, should become more
edifying and better suited to common use, or how they could receive
improvement in any respect or degree, by being reduced into rhyme,
it is not easy to perceive. But the real design was, to render that more
tolerable which could not be entirely removed, to accommodate every
part of the service to the psalmodic tone, and to clothe our whole
liturgy in the garb of Geneva. All these (for he was a lover of music)
were sung in Whyttingham's church of Durham, under his own direc-
tions. Heylin says, that from vicinity of situation, he was enabled to
lend considerable assistance to his friend Knox in the introduction of
the presbyterian hierarchy into Scotland. I must indulge the reader
with a stanza or two of this dignified fanatic's divine poetry from his
Creeds and the Decalogue. From the Athanasian Creed.

The Father God is, God the Son,

God Holy Ghost also ;
Yet are there not three Gods in all,

But one God and no mo.

Of none the Father is, ne made,

Ne create, nor begot:
The Son is of the Father, not
Create, ne made, but got.

From the Apostolic Creed.

From thence shall he come for to judge,

All men both dead and quick ;
I in the holy ghost believe,

And church that 's catholick.

The Ten Commandments are thus closed.

Nor his man-servant, nor his maid,

Nor oxe, nor asse of his ;
Nor any other thing that to

Thy neighbour proper is.

These were also versified by Clement Marot.

4 Among them is the hundredth, and the hundred and nineteenth.

SECT. XLV.] VERSION OF THE PSALMS. 149

Twenty-seven of the psalms were turned into metre by Thomas Nor-
ton e , who perhaps was better employed, at least as a poet, in writing
the tragedy of GORBODUC in conjunction with lord Buckhurst. It is
certain that in Norton's psalms we see none of those sublime strokes
which sir Philip Sydney discovered in that venerable drama. He was
of Sharpenhoe in Bedfordshire, a barrister, and in the opinion and
phraseology of the Oxford biographer, a bold and busy Calvinist about
the beginning of the reign of queen Elizabeth. He was patronised by
the Protector Somerset ; at whose desire he translated an epistle ad-
dressed by Peter Martyr to Somerset, into English, in 1550. Under
the same patronage he probably translated also Calvin's Institutes.

Robert Wisdome, a protestant fugitive in the calamitous reign of
queen Mary, afterwards archdeacon of Ely*, and who had been nomi-
nated to an Irish bishoprick by king Edward the Sixth, rendered the
twenty-fifth psalm of this version f . But he is chiefly memorable for
his metrical prayer, intended to be surig in the church, against the
Pope and the Turk, of whom he seems to have conceived the most
alarming apprehensions. It is probable, that he thought popery and
mahometanism were equally dangerous to Christianity, at least the most
powerful and the sole enemies of our religion. This is the first stanza.

Preserve us, Lord, by thy dear word,
From POPE and TURK defend us, Lordf !
Which both would thrust out of thy throne
Our Lord Jesus Christ, thy dear son !

Happily we have hitherto survived these two formidable evils I

* Marked N. [Mr. Haslewood, who qualified for preaching, and licensed
took great pains to examine the distinct thereunto by the Queen's Majesty. See
claims of the several contributors to this Mr. Gilchrist's complete edition of Cor-
collective version of the psalms, has ap- bet's poems, p. 228. PARK.]
portioned 28 to Norton, 25 to Kethe, f See Strype's Cranmer, p. 274. 276,
16 to Whyttingham, 43 to Sternhold, 277. Psalms 70, 104, 112, 122, 125,
and 56 to Hopkins. John Pullain con- and 134, are marked with W. K. Psalm
tributed 2, Robert Wisdom 1, and T. C. 136, with T. C. It is not known to
[Thomas Churchyard?] a different ver- whom these initials belong. [Those of
sion of the 136th; D. Cox supplied aver- W. K. have been assigned to William
sion of the Lord's prayer, and likewise a Kethe, an exile at Frankfort, and whose
grace before and after meat, in sixteen name occurs again in Sect. LVJII. PARK.]
lines each of alternate rhyme, in a Ma- f [Wither, in a tract quoted above,
nuel of Christian Prayers by Abr. Flem- thus glances at this church solecism,
ming, 1694. Initials occur before other "My booke of hymnes being allowed by
specimens, which with their conjectural authority, are as fitt, I trust, to keepe
appropriations may be seen in Cens. Lit. company with David's Psalmes as Ro-
vol. x. 7. PARK.] bert Wisdomes TURKE and POPE and

* [After holding the rectory of Set- those other apocryphal songs and praises
trington in Yorkshire, he was presented which the stationers add to the Psalme
to this archdeaconry by queen Elizabeth booke for their more advantage." Schol.
in 1559-60. In bishop Cox's Certifica- Purg. p. 35. " From Turke and Pope "
torium (MS. Benet Coll. Lib.) he was re- is used by Wither to designate a certain
turned as a priest and B.D. usually re- psalm tune. See Table to his Lyric
siding upon his living at Wilberton ap- Versions, p. 300. PARK.]
propriated to the archdeaconry of Ely, as

150 STJERNHOLD AND HOPKINS's [SECT. XLV.

Among other ortTiodox wits, the facetious bishop Corbet has ridiculed
these lines. He supposes himself seized with a sudden impulse to hear
or to pen a puritanical hymn, and invokes the ghost of Robert Wis-
dome, as the most skilful poet in this mode of composition, to come
and assist. But he advises Wisdome to steal back again to his tomb,
which was in Carfax church at Oxford, silent and unperceived, for fear
of being detected and intercepted by the Pope or the Turk. But I
will produce Corbet's epigram, more especially as it contains a criticism
written in the reign of Charles the First, on the style of this sort of
poetry.

To THE GHOST OF ROBERT WISDOME.

Thou once a body, now but ayre,
Arch-botcher of a psalm or prayer,

From Carfax come!
And patch us up a zealous lay,
With an old ever and for ay *,

Or all and some.
Or such a spirit lend me,
As may a hymne down sende me

To purge my braine ;
But, Robert, looke behind thee,
Lest TURK or POPE doe find thee,

And goe to bed againe&.

The entire version of the psalter was at length published by John
Day, in 1562, attached for the first time to the common prayer, and
entitled, " The whole Booke of Psalmes collected into English metre by
T. Sternhold, J. Hopkins, and others, conferred with the Ebrue, with
apt Notes to sing them withall." Calvin's music was intended to cor-
respond with the general parsimonious spirit of his worship : not to
captivate the passions, and seduce the mind, by a levity, a variety, or a
richness of modulation ; but to infuse the more sober and unravishing
ecstasies. The music he permitted, although sometimes it had wonder-
ful effects, was to be without grace, elegance, or elevation. These apt
notes were about forty tunes, of one part only, and in one unisonous
key ; remarkable for a certain uniform strain of sombrous gravity, and
applicable to all the psalms in their turns, as the stanza and sense might
allow. They also appear in the subsequent impressions, particularly of
1564 and 1577. They are believed to contain some of the original melo-

* [This patching or ekeing out of Overbury, in his Characters, makes a

Wisdome's psalmody is thus glanced at in precisian declare he " had rather heare

Jordan's Piety and Poesy contrasted, un- one of Robert Wisdomes psalmes than the

der (f A Fancy upon Words." best hymne a cherubim can sing:" and

Sir J. Birkenhead sarcastically observes

If long he to that idol pray in his Assembly-man " When Rons

His sight by -Love's inflaming ray stood forth for his trial, Robin Wisdom

Is lost for ever and for ay. was found the better poet." PARK.]

Rob. Wisdom. g Poems, Lond. 1647. duod. p. 49.

SECT. XLV.] VERSION OF THE PSALMS. 151

dies, composed by French and German musicians. Many of them,
particularly the celebrated one of the hundredth psalm, are the tunes of
Goudimel and Le Jeune, who are among the first composers of Marot's
French psalms h . Not a few were probably imported by the protestant
manufacturers of cloth, of Flanders, and the Low Countries, who fled
into England from the persecution of the Duke de Alva, and settled in
those counties where their art now chiefly flourishes. It is not however
unlikely, that some of our own musicians, who lived about the year
1562, and who could always tune their harps to the religion of the times,
such as Marbeck, Tallis, Tye, Parsons, and Munday, were employed on
this occasion ; yet under the restriction of conforming to the jejune and
unadorned movements of the foreign composers. I presume much of
the primitive harmony of all these ancient tunes is now lost, by addi-
tions, variations, and transpositions.

This version is said to be conferred with the Ebrue : but I am in-
clined to think, that the translation was altogether made from the vulgate
text, either in Latin or English.

It is evident that the prose psalms of our liturgy were chiefly con-
sulted and copied, by the perpetual assumption of their words and com-
binations : many of the stanzas are literally nothing more than the prose-
verses put into rhyme, as,

Thus were they stained with the workes
Of their owne filthie way ;

And with their owne inventions did
A whoring go astray 1 .

Whyttingham however, who had travelled to acquire the literature
then taught in the foreign universities, and who joined in the transla-
tion of Coverdale's Bible, was undoubtedly a scholar, and an adept in
the Hebrew language.

It is certain that every attempt to clothe the sacred Scripture in verse,
will have the effect of misrepresenting and debasing the dignity of the
original*. But this general inconvenience, arising from the nature of
things, was not the only difficulty which our versifiers of the psalter
had to encounter, in common with all other writers employed in a simi-
lar task. Allowing for the state of our language in the middle of the
sixteenth century, they appear to have been but little qualified either
by genius or accomplishments for poetical composition. It is for this

h See this matter traced with great of Addison before him he declared that

skill and accuracy by Hawkins, Hist. " such devotional poetry must always

Mus. iii. 518. please." And in truth the dogma of Dr.

> Psalm cvi. 38. Johnson, that "contemplative piety can-

* [Dr. Johnson in his life of Waller not be poetical," is completely refuted by

opined, that " poetical devotions cannot the Task of Cowper, inasmuch as contem-

often please," and assigned strong reasons plative piety forms one of the mostpower-

for such opinion; but these (as Mr. Dun- ful charms by which that devout and chris-

ster observed) are not irrefragable. The tianpoetaccomplisheshis poetical enchant-

observer's own feelings, indeed, furnished mcnt. See Hayley's Life. PARK.]
a strong confutation, when with the hymns

152 STEBNHOLD AND HOPKINs's [SECT. XLV.

reason that they have produced a translation entirely destitute of ele-
gance, spirit, and propriety*. The truth is, that they undertook this
work, not so much from an ambition of literary fame, or a conscious-
ness of abilities ; as from motives of piety, and in compliance with the
cast of the times. I presume 1 am communicating no very new criti-
cism when I observe, that in every part of this translation we are dis-
gusted with a languor of versification, and a want of common prosody.
The most exalted effusions of thanksgiving, and the most sublime
imageries of the divine majesty, are lowered by a coldness of concep-
tion, weakened by frigid interpolations, and disfigured by a poverty of
phraseology. John Hopkins expostulates with the Deity in these ludi-
crous, at least trivial, expressions :

Why doost withdrawe thy hand aback,

And hide it in thy lappe ?
O, plucke it out, and be not slack

To give thy foes a rappe ! k

What writer who wished to diminish the might of the Supreme Being,
and to expose the style and sentiments of Scripture, could have done it
more skilfully, than by making David call upon God, not to consume
his enemies by an irresistible blow, but to give them a rap ? Although
some shadow of an apology may be suggested for the word rap, that it
had not then acquired its present burlesque acceptation, or the idea of

* [" But had they been better poets," [George Wither, who printed in the

said Mr. Warton in his MS. memoranda, Netherlands, 1632, a lyric version of the

" their performances had been less popu- Psalms, says he was commanded to per-

lar." PARK.] feet that translation by king James, and

k Ps. Ixxiv. 12. Perhaps this verse is finished the same about the time of that

not much improved in the translation of monarch's translation to a better kingdom,

king James the First, who seems to have viz. about March 1625. This version is an

rested entirely on the image of why with- entirely different work from his Hymnes

drawest thou not thine hand ? which he has and Songs of the Church, published in

expressed in Hopkins's manner: 1623. It was designed, he tells us, to be

Why dost thou thus withdraw thy hand, brief > P lain ' and significant; and to com-

Ev'n thy right hand restraine ? bine the fullness of the sense with the re "

Out of thy bosom, for our good, llsh of the Scripture phrase. In some of

Drawe backe the same againe ! his effort ! he assuredly has been success-

ful. I will cite two verses from the first
In another stanza he has preserved Hop- psalm,
kins's rhymes and expletives, and, if pos-
sible, lowered his language and cadences. Blest is he who neither straies
Ps. Ixxiv. 1. Where the godless man misguideth,
Oh why, our God, for evermore Neither stands in sinners waies,

Hast thou neglected us ? Nor in scorners chair abideth ;

Why smoaks thy wrath against the sheep But in God ' s P ure lawe deli g hts .

Of thine own pasture thus ? Thereon musing daies and nights.

Here he has chiefly displayed the nuking Li Jf * tr f' f ett " ear ^ e s P ri . n f

of God's wrath, which kindles in Hopkins. _ "l? ? 1 ? lw f y f S fl . orl8b ;

The particle *A was never so distinguish- Stl " his fruits he timely brings

ed and dignified. And it is hard to say, And hls lea [ s ^ a11 never P ensh :

why his majesty should choose to make ff'"! f ln * fall prosper too,

the divine indignation smoke, rather than Whlch he undertakes to do, &c.
burn, which is suggested by the original. PARK.]

SECT. XLV.] VERSION OF THE PSALMS. 153

a petty stroke, the vulgarity of the following phrase, in which the prac-
tice or profession of religion, or more particularly God's covenant with
the Jews, is degraded to a trade, cannot easily be vindicated on any
consideration of the fluctuating sense of words*:

For why, their hearts were nothing bent,
To him nor to his trade 1 .

Nor is there greater delicacy or consistency in the following stanza :

Confound them that apply

And seeke to worke my shame ;
And at my harme do laugh, and cry,

So, So, there goeth the game.

The psalmist says, that God has placed the sun in the heavens,
" which cometh forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber." Here is a
comparison of the sun rising, to a bridegroom ; who, according to the
Jewish custom, was ushered from his chamber at midnight, with great
state, preceded by torches and music. Sternhold has thus metrified the
passage n :

In them the Lord made for the sun,

A place of great renown,
Who like a bridegroom ready trimm'd

Doth from his chamber come.

The translator had better have spared his epithet to the bridegroom ;
which, even in the sense of ready -dressed, is derogatory to the idea of
the comparison ; but ready-trimmd, in the language of that time, was
nothing more than fresh-shaved. Sternhold as often impairs a splendid
description by an impotent redundancy, as .by an omission or contrac-
tion of the most important circumstances.

The miraculous march of Jehovah before the Israelites through the
wilderness in their departure from Egypt, with other marks of his om-
nipotence, is thus imaged by the inspired psalmist : " O God, when tho
wentest forth before the people, when thou wentest through the wilder-
ness ; the earth shook, and the heavens dropped at the presence of God ;
even as Sinai also was moved at the presence of God, who is the God of
Israel. Thou, O God, sentedst a gracious rain upon thine inheritance,
and refreshedst it when it was weary. The chariots of God are twenty
thousand, even thousands of angels ; and the Lord is among them, as

* [" In the whole book of Psalms," parts of divine service to contempt." Diss.

says Dr. Brown, " as they are versified by on Poetry and Music, p. 213. PARK.]

Sternhold and his companions, there are ' Ps. Ixviii. 37.

few stanzas which do not present expres- m Ps. Ixx. 3. [This seems to have been

sions to excite the ridicule of some part of a technical expression. PARK.}

every congregation. This might well be n Ps. xix. 4.
abolished, as it exposeth one of the noblest

J54 STERNHQLD AND HOPKINii's [SECT. XLV.

in the holy place of Sinai." Sternhold has thus represented these great
ideas :

When thou didst march before thy folk,

The Egyptians from among,
And brought them from the wildernes,
Which was both wide and long :

The earth did quake, the raine pourde downe y

Heard were great claps of thunder ;
The mount Sinai shooke in such sorte,

As it would cleave in sunder.

Thy heritage with drops of rain

Abundantly was washt,
And if so be it barren was,

By thee it was refresht.

God's army is two millions,

Of warriours good and strong,
The Lord also in Sinai

Is present them among .

If there be here any merit, it arises solely from preserving the ex-
pressions of the prose version ; and the translator would have done
better had he preserved more, and had given us no feeble or foreign
enlargements of his own. He has shown no independent skill or energy.
When once he attempts to add or dilate, his weakness appears. It is
this circumstance alone, which supports the two following well-known
stanzas P :

The Lord descended from above,

And bowde the heavens high ;
And underneath his feet he cast
The darknesse of the skie.

On Cherubs and on Cherubims

Full roiallie he rode ;
And on the winges of all the windes *

Came flying all abrode.

Almost the entire contexture of the prose is here literally transferred,
unbroken and without transposition, allowing for the small deviations
necessarily occasioned by the metre and rhyme. It may be said, that
the translator has testified his judgment in retaining so much of the
original, and proved he was sensible the passage needed not any adven-

Ps. Ixviii. 7. seq. tional honour by an imitation of them in

p Ps. xviii. 9, 10. his Annus Mirabilis:

* [Dryden honoured these verses with Qn wings of all the winds to combat flies,
high commendation, and conferred addi St. 55. PARK.]

SECT. XLV.] VERSION OF THE PSALMS. 155

titious ornament. But what may seem here to be judgment or even
taste, I fear, was want of expression in himself. He only adopted what
was almost ready done to his hand.

To the disgrace of sacred music, sacred poetry, and our established
worship, these psalms still continue to be sung in the church of En-
gland. It is certain, had they been more poetically translated, they
would not have been acceptable to the common people. Yet however
they may be allowed to serve the purposes of private edification, in ad-
ministering spiritual consolation to the manufacturer and mechanic, as
they are extrinsic to the frame of our liturgy, and incompatible with
the genius of our service, there is perhaps no impropriety in wishing,
that they were remitted and restrained to that church in which they
sprung, and with whose character and constitution they seem so aptly
to correspond. Whatever estimation in point of composition they might
have attracted at their first appearance in a ruder age, and however in-
strumental they might have been at the infancy of the reformation in
weaning the minds of men from the papistic ritual, all these considera-
tions can now no longer support even a specious argument for their
being retained. From the circumstances of the times, and the growing
refinements of literature, of course they become obsolete and contempt-
ible. A work grave, serious, and even respectable for its poetry, in the
reign of Edward the Sixth, at length in a cultivated age has contracted
the air of an absolute travestie. Voltaire observes, that in proportion
as good taste improved, the psalms of Clement Marot inspired only dis-
gust ; and that although they charmed the court of Francis the First,
they seemed only to be calculated for the populace in the reign of Lewis
the Fourteenth r .

To obviate these objections, attempts have been made from time to
time to modernise this ancient metrical version, and to render it more
tolerable and intelligible by the substitution of more familiar modes of
diction. But, to say nothing of the unskilfulness with which these ar-
bitrary corrections have been conducted, by changing obsolete for
known words, the texture and integrity of the original style, such as
it was, has been destroyed ; and many stanzas, before too naked and
weak, like a plain old Gothic edifice stripped of its few signatures of
antiquity, have lost that little and almost only strength and support
which they derived from ancient phrases. Such alterations, even if
executed with prudence and judgment, only corrupt what they endea-
vour to explain ; and exhibit a motley performance, belonging to no
character of writing, and which contains more improprieties than those
which it professes to remove. Hearne is highly offended at these un-
warrantable and incongruous emendations, which he pronounces to be
abominable in any book, " much more in a sacred work ;" and is confi-
dent, that were Sternhold and Hopkins " now living, they would be so

r Hist. Mod. ch. ccvii.

156 DEFECTS OF POPULAR PSALMODY. [SECT. XLV.

far from owning what is ascribed to them, that they would proceed
against the innovators as CHEATS S ." It is certain, that this translation
in its genuine and unsophisticated state, by ascertaining the signification
of many radical words now perhaps undeservedly disused, and by display-
ing original modes of the English language, may justly be deemed no in-
considerable monument of our ancient literature, if not of our ancient
poetry*. In condemning the practice of adulterating this primitive
version, I would not be understood to recommend another in its place,
entirely new. I reprobate any version at all, more especially if intended
for the use of the church f.

In the mean time, not to insist any longer on the incompatibility of
these metrical psalms with the spirit of our liturgy, and the barbarism
of their style, it should be remembered, that they were never admitted
into our church by lawful authority. They were first introduced by
the puritans, and afterwards continued by connivance. But they never
received any royal approbation or parliamentary sanction;}:, notwith-
standing it is said in their title page, that they are " set forth and AL-
LOWED to be sung in all churches of all the people together before and
after evening prayer, and also before and after sermons : and moreover
in private houses for their godly solace and comfort, laying apart all
ungodly songs and ballads, which tend only to the nourishing of vice
and the corrupting of youth." At the beginning of the reign of queen
Elizabeth, when our ecclesiastical reformation began to be placed on a
solid and durable establishment, those English divines who had fled
from the superstitions of queen Mary to Franckfort and Geneva, where
they had learned to embrace the opposite extreme, and where, from an
abhorrence of catholic ceremonies, they had contracted a dislike to the

8 Gloss. Rob. Gl. p. 699. [Hearne pular psalmody in our churches." Life of

complains also that these innovators have Warton, p. cvi. PARK.]
in several places changed the very initial J [This is humorously attested by Sir

letters that were to represent the several John Birkenhead in his witty character

parts of the Psalms that every one turned of an Assembly-man or Independent, who

into metre. PARK.] is made to tear the liturgy, and burn the

* [Sir John Hawkins observes, that the book of common prayer : yet he has mercy

early translation of the psalms into metre (he adds) on Hopkins and Sternhold, be-

" was the work of men as well qualified cause their metres are sung without au-

for the undertaking as any that the times thority (no statute, canon, or injunction

they lived in could furnish; and he deemed at all) only like himself, first crept into

Fuller had not greatly erred in saying that private houses, and then into churches.

' match these verses for their ages, they Wither gravely confirms the same in the

shall go abreast with the best poems of following paragraph from his Scholler's

those times.'" Hist, of Music, iii. 512. Purgatory, before quoted: "By what pub-

PARK.] licke example did we sing David's Psalms

f [Dr. Huntingford, bishop of Glou- in English meeter before the raigne of

cester, represented Mr. Warton as strongly king Edward the Sixth ? or by what com-

attached to the church of England in all mand of the church do we sing them as

the offices of her liturgy. " This attach- they are now in use ? Verily by none,

ment," says Mr. Mant, " mixed with a But tyme and Christian devotion having

decided antipathy to Calvinistic doctrine first brought forth that practice, and cus-

and discipline, may have disposed our tome ripening it, long toleration hath in

historian not only to regard choral service a manner fully authorized the same."

with fondness, but to have reprobated PARK.]
somewhat too severely the practice of po-

SKCT. XLVF.] METRICAL VERSIONS OF SCRIPTURE. 15?

decent appendages of divine worship, endeavoured, in conjunction with
some of the principal courtiers, to effect an abrogation of our solemn
church service, which they pronounced to be antichristian and unevan-
gelical. They contended that the metrical psalms of David, set to plain
and popular music, were more suitable to the simplicity of the gospel,
and abundantly adequate to all the purposes of edification : and this
proposal they rested on the authority and practice of Calvin, between
whom and the church of England the breach was not then so wide as
at present. But the queen and those bishops to whom she had dele-
gated the business of supervising the liturgy, among which was the
learned and liberal archbishop Parker, objected, that too much atten-
tion had already been paid to the German theology. She declared,
that the foreign reformers had before interposed, on similar delibera-
tions, with unbecoming forwardness ; and that the Common Prayer of
her brother Edward had been once altered, to quiet the scruples, and
to gratify the cavils, of Calvin, Bucer, and Fagius. She was there-
fore invariably determined to make no more concessions to the impor-
tunate partisans of Geneva, and peremptorily decreed that the choral
formalities should still be continued in the celebration of the sacred
offices*.

SECTION XL VI.

Metrical versions of Scripture. Archbishop Parkers Psalms in metre.
Robert Crowleys puritanical poetry.

THE spirit of versifying the psalms, and other parts of the Bible, at the
beginning of the reformation, was almost as epidemic as psalm-singing.
William Hunnis, a gentleman of the chapel under Edward the Sixth,
and afterwards chapel-master to queen Elizabeth, rendered into rhyme
many select psalms*, which had not the good fortune to be rescued
from oblivion by being incorporated into Hopkins's collection, nor to
be sung in the royal chapel. They were printed in 1550, with this
title : " Certayne Psalmes chosen out of the Psalter of David, and drawen
furth into Englysh meter by William Hunnis servant to the ryght ho-

1 See Canons and Injunctions, A.D. To God my soule I do bequeathe, because
1559. Num. xlix. it is his owen,

* [On the back of the title to a copy My body to be layd in grave, where to my
of Sir Thomas More's works, 1557, (pre- frends best known:

sented to the library of Trin. Coll. Oxon. Executors I wyll none make, thereby
by John Gibbon, 1630,) the following great stryffe may grow ;

lines occur, which bear the signature of Because the goodes that I shall leave wyll
our poet in a coeval hand. not pay all I owe.

" MY LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT. W : Hvnnys." PARK.]

158

METRICAL VERSIONS OF SCRIPTURE. [SECT. XLVI.

nourable syr William Harberd knight Newly collected and im-
printed*."

I know not if among these are his SEVEN SOBS of a sorrowful soul
for sin, comprehending the SEVEN PENITENTIAL PSALMS in metre*.
They are dedicated to Frances countess of Sussex, whose attachment
to the gospel he much extols f, and who was afterwards the foundress
of Sydney college in Cambridge. Hunnis also, under the happy title
of a HANDFUL OF HONEY-SUCKLES, published Blessings out of Deu-
teronomie, Prayers to Christy Athanasiuss Creed, and Meditations I, in
metre with musical notes. But his spiritual nosegays are numerous.
To say nothing of his RECREATIONS on Adams Banishment, Christ his
Cribb, and the Lost Sheep, he translated into English rhyme the whole
book of GENESIS, which he calls a HIVE FULL OF HoNEY b . But his
honey-suckles and his honey are now no longer delicious. He was a
large contributor to the PARADISE OF DAINTY DEVISES, of which
more will be said in its place. In the year 1550, were also published
by John Hall, or Hawle, a surgeon or physician of Maidstone in Kent,
and author of many tracts in his profession, " Certayne chapters taken
out of the proverbes of Solomon, with other chapters of the holy Scrip-
ture, and certayne Psalmes of David translated into English metre by
John Hali c ." By the remainder of the title it appears, that the pro-

* I have also seen Hunnis's " Abridge-
ment or brief meditation on certaine of
the Psalmes in English metre," printed
by R. Wier, 4to. [8vo. says Bishop Tan-
ner. PARK.]

* [The " Certayne Psalmes'* did not
appear among the " Seven Sobs," which
were licensed to H. Denham Nov. 1581,
and printed in 15, 1585, 1589, 1597,
1629 and 1636. Hunnis's "Seven Steps
to Heaven" were also licensed in 1581.
The love of alliteration had before pro-
duced "a Surge of Sorrowing Sobs," in
the "gorgeous gallery of gallant inven-
tions," 1578. PARK.]

f [Her ladyship's virtue and courtesie
are extolled ; but godlie fear, firm faith,
&c. are only enumerated among the dedi-
cator's wishes. PARK.]

J [To these were added the poore Wi-
dowes mite, Comfortable Dialogs betweene
Christ and a Sinner, a Lamentation of
youth's follies, a psalme of rejoising, and
a praierfor the good estate of Queen Eliza-
beth. The last being the shortest is here
given ; for Hunnis was rather a prosaic
penman.

Thou God that guidst both heaven and
earth,

On whom we all depend ;
Preserve our Queene in perfect health,

And hir from harme defend.
Conserve hir life, in peace to reigne,

Augment hir joyes withall :

Increase hir friends, maintaine hir cause,

And heare us when we call!
So shall all we that faithfull be

Rejoise and praise thy name :
O God, 6 Christ, 6 Holie-Ghost,

Give eare, and grant the same. Amen.
PARK.]

b Printed by T. Marshe, 1578. 4to.
[And entitled " A Hyve full of Hunnye :
contayning the firste Booke of Moses called
Genesis. Turned into English Meetre by
William Hunnis, one of the Gent, of her
Majestie's Chappel and Maister to the
Children of the same," &c. It is inscribed
to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, in an
acrostic on his name, which is followed by
another on the versifiers " to the friendlye
reader." Thos. Newton has verses pre-
fixed "in commendation of this his
Frendes travayle," which was written, as
it seems, " in the winter of his age." He
names as previous productions of Hunnis,
" Interludes and gallant layes, and ronde-
letts and songs, his Nosegay and his Wy-
dowes Myte, with other fancies of his
forge :" and he tells us, that in the prime
of youth his pen " had depaincted Sonets
Sweete." This probably is allusive to his
contributions in the " Paradise of Daintie
Devises." Wood calls Hunnis a crony of
Thomas Newton, the Latin poet. Ath.
Oxon. i. 152. PARK.]

c There is an edition in quarto dedicated
to king Edward the Sixth with this title,

SECT. XLVI.] METRICAL VERSIONS OF SCRIPTURE.

159

verbs had been in a former impression unfairly attributed to Thomas
Sternhold. The other chapters of Scripture are from Ecclesiasticus
and saint Paul's Epistles. We must riot confound this John Hall with
his cotemporary Eliseus Hall, who pretended to be a missionary from
heaven to the queen, prophesied in the streets, and wrote a set of me-
trical visions d . Metre was now become the vehicle of enthusiasm, and
the puritans seem to have appropriated it to themselves, in opposition
to our service, which was in prose *.

William Baldwyn, of whom more will be said when we come to the
MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES, published a Phraselike declaration in
English meeter on the CANTICLES or SONGS OF SOLOMON, in 154?9't-

" The Psalmes of David translated into
English metre by T. Sternhold, sir T.
Wyat, and William Hunnis, with certaine
chapters of the Proverbes and select
Poalmes by John Hall." I think I have
seen a book by Hall called the " Court of
Virtue," containing some or all of these
sacred songs, with notes, 1565. 8vo.
[16mo.] He has a copy of verses pre-
fixed to Gale's Enchiridion of Surgery,
Lond. 1563. See John Reade's Preface
to his translation of F. Arcaeus's Anatomy.

d Strype, Ann. i. p. 291. ch. xxv. ed.
1725.

* [I suppose that church service of
chant and anthem is here meant ; other-
wise, their preaching and praying was at
least as bad prose as ours. ASHBY.]

f [With the sight of this rare book I
have been favoured by a friend; its title
runs thus: "The CANTICLES orBALADES
of SALOMON, phrasely he declared in En-
glysh metres, by WILLIAM BALDWIN.

Halleluiah.
Syng to the Lord sum pleasant song,

Of matter fresh and newe :
Unto his churche it doth belong
His prayses to renewe. Psalme cxviii.
M.D.XLIX."

Colophon : " Imprinted at London by
William Baldwin, servaunt with Edwarde
Whitchurche." Baldwin, in the dedica-
tion to his royal patron, expresses a pious
wish that these swete and mistical songs
may drive out of office " the baudy ba-
lades of lecherous love," which were in-
dited and sung by idle courtiers in the
houses of princes and noblemen. To for-
ward the same purpose, he tells us "his
Majesty [Edw. VI.] had given a notable
example, in causyng the Psalmes, brought
into fine Englysh meter, by his godly dis-
posed servaunt Thomas Sternholde, to be
song openly before his grace, in the hear-
ing of all his subjectes." Baldwin's me-
trical paraphrase of the Song of Solomon
exhibits a greater facility of versification

than the psalmody of his predecessor, and
the lyrical varieties of his metre render it
far more pleasing. I extract a few short
specimens from different parts of the vo-
lume.

Loe, thou my love art fayer;
Myselfe have made thee so :
Yea, thou art fayer, in dede,
Wherefore thou shall not nede
In beautie to dispayer :
For I accept thee, lo,
For fayer.

For fayer, because thyne eyes
Are like the culvers, whyte;
Whose simplenes in dede,
All others doe excede :
Thy judgement wholly lyes
In true sence of [the] spryte,
Moste wyse. Sign. B. 3. b.

In wysedome of the flesh, my bed,
Finde truste in wurkes of mannes devise,
By nyght, in darkenes of the dead,
I sought for Christe, as one unwyse,
VVhome my soule loveth.

I sought hym long, but founde him not,
Because I sought hym not aryght;
I sought in wurkes, but now, I wot,
He is found by fayth, not in the nyght,
Whome my soule loveth.

Sign. E. 1. a.

Ye faythfull, would ye know

As full what one he is ?
My wit and learnyng is too low

To shew that shape of his.

My love is suche a gem,

My frende also is he :
Ye daughters of Jerusalem,

Suche is my love to me.

Sign. H. 3. a.

A more brief and much more prosaic
version of Solomon's Canticum Cantico-
rum was published, in 1575, by a rhymer
hitherto unrecorded in these annals, or in

160 ARCHBISHOP PARKER'S PSALMS IN METRE. [SECT. XLVI.

It is dedicated to Edward the Sixth 6 . Nineteen of the psalms in
rhyme are extant by Francis Seagar*, printed by William Seres in
1553, with musical notes, and dedicated to Lord llussel f .

Archbishop Parker also versified the psalter ; not from any opposi-
tion to our liturgy, but, either for the private amusement and exercise
of his religious exile, or that the people, whose predilection for psalm-
ody could not be suppressed, might at least be furnished with a rational
and proper translation. It was finished in 1557, and a few years
afterwards printed by Day, the archbishop's printer, in quarto, with
this title, " The whole Psalter translated into English metre, which
contayneth an hundredth and fifty psalmes. The first Quinquagene&.
Quoniam omnis terrce deus, psallite sapienter. Ps. 14. 47. Imprinted
at London by John Daye, dwelling over Aldersgate beneath Saint
Marty n's. Cum privilegio per decenniumV Without date of the
printer 1 , or name of the translator. In the metrical preface prefixed,
he tries to remove the objections of those who censured versifications
of Scripture, he pleads the comforts of such an employment to the per-
secuted theologist who suffers voluntary banishment, and thus displays
the power of sacred music :

The psalmist stayde with tuned songe

The rage of myndes agast,
As David did with harpe among

To Saule in fury cast.

the typographical antiquities of Herbert. But wil ye gladli knoe who made that

His book was entitled, " A misticall devise boke in dede,

of the spirituall and godly love betweene OneWYLLiAMBALDEWiNE Godgraunt

Christ the spouse, and the Church or him wel to spede. PARK.]

Congregation : first made by the wise e T

prince Saloman, and now newly set forth p * J , n 1 ua I tO - . J have c s f en al ? "The

in verse by Jud Smith," &c. Printed by Ba ! lads or ,? an ^ ^ f Solomon ln Prose e

H. KirckhL, IGmo, b. 1. A single stan! $~ uflT^ * -" f

* [Sir Thomas Smith, the learned se-

Come, wend unto my garden gay, cretary to Edward VI. and to his sister

My sister and my spowse ; Elizabeth, while a prisoner in the Tower

For I have gathered mirre with spice, in 1549, translated eleven of David's

And other goodly bowes. psalms into English metre, and composed

A fantastical and almost unintelligible three metrical prayers, which are now in

pamphlet was printed in black letter, * e B . r ^ s p h M " seum ' MSS ' Re S' l7 '

called " Beware the Cat," and was attri- {*' , V

, i A A

buted to one Stremer : but in the library e end " a 06 ' Ied " A

n . f

of the Society of Antiquaries, a black P^T ^ ^ e L) f f ,,, Man ' - the
letter copy of verses is preserved, which World and Vamties l iereof ' ^ lnc -
ascribes ^he production peremptorily to "** on earth can justly rejoyce ?

the^pen of Baldwin in these ta fc

h In black letter. Among the prefaces

Wheras ther is a boke called Beware the are four lines from lord Surrey's Eccle-

Cat, siastes. Attached to every psalm is a

The verie truth is so that STREMER made prose collect. At the end of the psalms

not that : are versions of Te Deum, Benedictus,

Nor no suche false fabels fell ever from Quicunque vult, &c. &c.

his pen, i Day had a license, June 3d, 1561,

Nor from his hart or mouth, as knoe to print the psalms in metre. Ames, p.

mani honest men. 238.

SECT. XLVI.] ARCHBISHOP PARKER'S PSALMS IN METRE. 161

With golden stringes such harmonie

His harpe so sweete did wrest,
That he relievd his phrenesie

Whom wicked sprites possest k .

Whatever might at first have been his design, it is certain that his
version, although printed, was never published ; and notwithstanding
the formality of his metrical preface above-mentioned, which was pro-
fessedly written to show the spiritual efficacy or virtue of the psalms
in metre, and in which he directs a distinct and audible mode of con-
gregational singing, he probably suppressed it, because he saw that the
practice had been abused to the purposes of fanaticism, and adopted by
the puritans in contradiction to the national worship; or at least that
such a publication, whatever his private sentiments might have been,
would not have suited the nature and dignity of his high office in the
church. Some of our musical antiquaries, however, have justly con-
jectured, that the archbishop, who was skilled in music, and had for-
merly founded a music-school in his college of Stoke Clare*, intended
these psalms, which are adapted to complicated tunes of four parts,
probably constructed by himself, and here given in score, for the use
of cathedrals ; at a time, when compositions in counterpoint were un-
common in the church, and when that part of our choir-service called
the motet or anthem, which admits a more artificial display of harmony,
and which is recommended and allowed in queen Elizabeth's earliest
ecclesiastical injunctions, was yet almost unknown, or but in a very
imperfect state. Accordingly, although the direction is not quite com-
prehensible, he orders many of them to be sung by the rector chori, or
chantor, and the quier, or choir, alternately. That at least he had a
taste for music, we may conclude from the following not inelegant
scale f of modulation, prefixed to his eight tunes above-mentioned.

k He thus remonstrates against the be students in some college in Cam-
secular ballads : bridge." Hist, of Music, iii. 508. PARK.]

f [This scale, however elegant," says
Ye songes so nice, ye sonnets all, Mr ^ shb wil , pot a]one * ove Arcfj _

Of lothly lovers layes bish Parker . s ri ht to this version of

Ye worke mens myndes but bitter gall the ^ becauge ifc . g n<)t on , ,. k

By phansies peevish playes. {n generalj that the translator would be ' a

* [In the county of Suffolk. From lover of music, but it so happens that the

the statutes of which college, as framed other claimant, John Keeper, had studied

by Dr. Parker, Sir John Hawkins has music and poetry at Wells." I presume

given the following curious extract : that the following extract from the arch-

" Item to be found in the college, hence- bishop's diary will establish his claim to

forth a number jf quiristers, to the num- the performance. " This 6 August (his

ber of eight or ten or more, as may be birth-day), Ann. Dom. 1557, I persist in

borne conveniently of the stock, to have the same constancy, upholden by the grace

sufficient meat, drink, broth, and learn- and goodness of my Lord and Saviour

ing. Of which said quiristers, after their Jesus Christ; by whose inspiration I have

breasts (i. e. voices) be changed, we will finished the Book of Psalms, turned into

the most apt of wit and capacity be vulgar verse." (Strype's Lite of Arch-

helpen with exhibition of forty shillings, bishop Parker.) "Vulgar" here means

four marks, or three pounds a-piece, to vernacular ; as in the ministration of bap-

VOL. III. M

162 ARCHBISHOP PARKER'S PSALMS IN METRE. [SECT. XLVI.

" THE NATURE OF THE EYGHT TUNES.

The first is meke, devout to see,
The second sad, in maiesty :
The third doth rage, and roughly brayth,
The fourth doth fawne, and flattry playth :
The fifth deligth, and laugheth the more,
The sixth bewayleth, it wepeth full sore :
The seventh tredeth stoute in froward race,
The eyghte goeth milde in modest pace."

What follows is another proof, that he had proposed to introduce
these psalms into the choir-service. " The tenor of these partes be
for the people when they will syng alone, the other partes put for the
greater quiers, or to suche as will syng or play them privately 1 ."

How far this memorable prelate, perhaps the most accomplished
scholar that had yet filled the archbishoprick of Canterbury, has suc-
ceeded in producing a translation of the psalter preferable to the com-
mon one, the reader may judge from these stanzas of a psalm highly
poetical, in which I have exactly preserved the translator's peculiar use
of the hemistic punctuation.

To feede my neede : he will me leade

To pastures greene and fat :
He forth brought me : in libertie,
. To waters delicate.

My soule and hart : he did convart,

To me he shewth the path :
Of right wisness : in holiness,

His name such vertue hath.
Yea though I go : through Death his wo

His vale and shadow wyde :
I feare no dart : with me thou art

With rod and staife to guide.

tism, the sponsors are directed to let the Lincoln ; now from henceforth all the

child be taught the creed, &c. in the whole realm shall have but one use."

" vulgar tongue." And in the prefix to But this is said in reference to the chants,

Drant's version of the Satires of Horace responds, suffrages, versicles, introites,

" I have englished thinges not accordyng kyrie-eleeysons, doxologies, and other

to the vain of the Latin proprietie, but of melodies of the Book of Common Prayer,

our own vulgar tongue." PARK.] then newly published under lawful author-

1 As the singing-psalms were never a ity, with musical notes by Marbeck, and

part of our liturgy, no rubrical directions which are still used ; that no arbitrary

are any where given for the manner of variations should be made in the manner

performing them. In one of the Prefaces, of singing these melodies, as had been

written about 1550, it is ordered, "Where- lately the case with the Roman missal, in

as heretofore there hath been great diver- performing which some cathedrals affect-

sitie of saying and singing in churches ed a manner of their own. The Salisbury

within this realm, some following Salis- missal was most famous and chiefly fol-

bury use, some Hereford use, some the lowed,
use of Bangor, some of York, some of

SECT. XLVI.] ARCHBISHOP PARKER/S PSALMS IN METRE. 163

Thou shalt provyde : a table wyde,

For me against theyr spite :
With oyle my head : thou hast bespred,

My cup is fully dight. m

I add, in the more sublime character, a part of the eighteenth psalm,
in which Sternhold is supposed to have exerted his powers most suc-
cessfully, and without the interruptions of the pointing, which perhaps
was designed for some regulations of the music, now unknown.

The earth did shake, for feare did quake,

The hils theyr bases shooke ;
Removed they were, in place most fayre,

At God's ryght fearfull looke.

Darke smoke rose to hys face therefro,

Hys mouthe as fire consumde,
That coales as it were kyndled bright

When he in anger fumde.

The heavens full lowe he made to bowe,

And downe dyd he ensue";
And darkness great was undersete

His feete in clowdy hue.

He rode on hye, and dyd so flye,

Upon the Cherubins ;
He came in sight, and made his flight

Upon the wyng of wyndes.

The Lorde from heaven sent downe his leaven

And thundred thence in ire;
He thunder cast in wondrous blast

With hayle and coales of fyre.

Here is some degree of spirit, and a choice of phraseology. But on
the whole, and especially for this species of stanza, Parker will be found
to want facility, and in general to have been unpractised in writing
English verses. His abilities were destined to other studies, and adapt-
ed to employments of a more archiepiscopal nature.

The industrious Strype, Parker's biographer, after a diligent search
never could gain a sight of this translation*; nor is it even mentioned
by Ames, the inquisitive collector of our typographical antiquities. In
the late Mr. West's library there was a superb copy, once belonging to

m Fol. 13. By Sir John Hawkins the discovery was

n follow. announced. Mr. Todd describes a copy

Fol. 35. very curiously bound in the church library

* [Neither did bishop Tanner; nor does of Canterbury. See his Milton, vi. 1 16.

Dr. Burney, in speaking of it in his Histo- PARK.]

ry of Music, appear to have seen any copy.

164 ^ ARCHBISHOP PARKER'S PSALMS IN METRE. [SECT. XLVI.

bishop Kennet, who has remarked in a blank page, that the archbishop
permitted his wife dame Margaret to present the book to some of the
nobility. It is certainly at this time extremely scarce, and would be
deservedly deemed a fortunate acquisition to those capricious students
who labour only to collect a library of rarities. Yet it is not generally
known, that there are two copies in the Bodleian library of this anony-
mous version, which have hitherto been given to an obscure poet by
the name of John Keeper. One of them, in 1643, appears to have
been the property of bishop Barlow ; and on the opposite side of the
title, in somewhat of an ancient hand, is this manuscript insertion : "The
auctor of this booke is one John Keeper*, who was brought upp in the
close of Wells." Perhaps Antony Wood had no better authority than
this slender unauthenticated note, for saying that John Keeper, a na-
tive of Somersetshire, and a graduate at Oxford in the year 1564, and
who afterwards studied music and poetry at Wells, translated The whole
Psalter into English metre which containeth 150psalms, etc. printed at
London by John Day living over Aldersgate, about 1570 [1574-], in
quarto : and added thereunto The Gloria Patri, Te Deum, The Song
of the three Children, Quicunque vult, Benedictus, &c. all in metre. At
the end of which, are musical notes set in four parts to several psalms.
What other things, he adds, of poetry, music, or other faculties, he has
published, I know not ; nor any thing more ; yet I suppose he had some
dignity in the church of Wells P. If this version should really be the
work of Keeper, I fear we are still to seek for archbishop Parker's
psalms f, with Strype and Ames**.

* [John Keeper, or Kepyer, occurs in unique, and therefore claimed an entire
the " Arbor of Amitie, wherein is com- perusal :
prised pleasant poems & pretie poesies, when first , ^ care]egse

set *? Z i " ". owe T ' g r IT' U P" th y hue that drew the ^art,

anno 156S " Imprinted at London, by H. ^ * sho uldest Ive

Denham 1 2mo, b. 1. Dedicated to Ladie SQ e J^ downe in

Anne Talbot Among the recommenda- j wouW J, fame f

tory copies of verses is one signed "John free estate .*

Keeper, student. See also "J. K. to his

friend H." fol. 27 a. and "H. to K." ibid. As birde alurde in winters sore,

Again, fol. 33 b. 34 a. 38, 39, &c. On limed twigges that often bee,

Howell had another volume of verses in Thinkes he is free as late before

Pearson's collection, entitled "Devises for Untill he 'sayes his flight to flee :

his owne exercise and his Friends plea- He cries, he flies, in vaine he tries,

sure," printed in 1581, 4to. The first of On twigge in bondage there he lies.

these occurs in the Bodleian library, and So , b lure of th d

denotes him to have had a contraction of That thought my hart at Hbertie,

metrical spirit, which fitly adapted itself Was t unwares by f ea turde face,

to posies for rings ; ex. gr. with most extreme cap tivitie :

As flowres freshe to-day, A Beautie hath me bondman made,

To-morrow in decay ; By love sincere, that shall not vade.

Such is th' uncertaine stay / i 9 PARK 1

That man hath here alway. P Ath Oxon< j 18L

The following lines from a poem wherein f [This suggestion of Mr. Warton drew

a lover " describes his loss of liberty and forth the following satisfactory investiga-

craves return of love," are the very best I tion, it is conjectured, from the Rev. Dr.

could trace in the volume, which is deemed Lort, who was chaplain to the archbishop

SECT. XLVI.] ROBERT CROWLEY's POETRY. 165

A considerable contributor to the metrical theology was Robert
Crowley, educated in Magdalene college at Oxford, where he obtained
a fellowship in 154-2. In the reign of Edward the Sixth, he commenced
printer and preacher in London. He lived in Ely-rents in Holborn ;
" where," says Wood, " he sold books, and at leisure times exercised
the gift of preaching in the great city and elsewhere 1 "." In 1550 he
printed the first edition of PIERCE PLOWMAN'S VISION, but with the
ideas of a controversialist, and with the view of helping forward the
reformation by the revival of a book which exposed the absurdities of
popery in strong satire, and which at present is only valuable or use-
ful, as it serves to gratify the harmless researches of those peaceable
philosophers who study the progression of ancient literature. His pul-
pit and his press, those two prolific sources of faction, happily co-ope-
rated in propagating his principles of predestination ; and his shop and
his sermons were alike frequented. Possessed of those talents which
qualified him for captivating the attention and moving the passions of
the multitude, under queen Elizabeth he held many dignities in a
church, whose doctrines and polity his undiscerning zeal had a tend-
ency to destroy. He translated into popular rhyme, not only the
psalter, but the litany, with hymns, all which he printed together in
1549. In the same year, and in the same measure, he published Tfte
Voice of the last Trumpet blown by the seventh angel. This piece con-
tains twelve several lessons, for the instruction or amendment of those
who seemed at that time chiefly to need advice ; and among whom he
enumerates lewd priests, scholars, physicians, beggars, yeomen, gentle-
men, magistrates, and women. He also attacked the abuses of his age
in thirty-one EPIGRAMS, first printed in 1551. The subjects are placed
alphabetically. In his first alphabet are Abbayes, Alehouses, Alleys,
and Almeshouses. The second, Bailiffs, Bawds, Beggars, Bear-bayt-
ing, and Brawlers. They display, but without spirit or humour, the
reprehensible practices and licentious manners which then prevailed.
He published in 1551 a kind of metrical sermon on Pleasure and Pain,
Heaven and Hell. Many of these, to say nothing of his almost innu-

of Canterbury : "In the Lambeth library Margaret Parker's name written in it, for
is a beautiful copy of this edition of the she died (as Strype tells us) in 1570: and
Psalms, on the back of the title of which if the book was printed in this or the fore-
is written ' to the right vertuouse and going year, Keeper could not (according
honorable Ladye the Countesse of Shrews- to Antony Wood's account of him) be
burye,from your lovinge frende, Margaret above 22 or 23 years of age. So that I
Parker.' This is written in the hand of think archbishop Parker may still keep
the time when she lived ; and the binding his title to this version of the Psalms, till
of the book, which is richly gilded, seems a stronger than Keeper shall be found to
also of the same date. But there is no dispossess him." Gent. Mag. for 1781.
date to the book, and where Antony Wood p. 567. PARK.]

found that of 1570 for his copy, if it was q There is a metrical English version of

of the same book with this, we are yet to the Psalms among the Cotton manuscripts

seek. If that date really belongs to it, it about the year 1320, which has merit,

cannot probably be the same edition with See also supr. vol. i. p. 22.

that in the Lambeth library, which has r Ath. Oxon. i. 235.

1G6 ROBERT CROWLEY'S POETRY. [SECT. XLVI.

merable controversial tracts in prose, had repeated editions, and from
his own press. But one of his treatises, to prove that Lent is a human
invention and a superstitious institution, deserves notice for its plan :
it is a Dialogue between Lent and Liberty. The personification of
Lent is a bold and a perfectly new prosopopeia. In an old poem* of
this age against the papists, written by one doctor William Turner, a
physician, but afterwards dean of Wells, the Mass, or mistress MISSA,
is personified, who, arrayed in all her meretricious trappings, must at
least have been a more theatrical figure 3 . Crowley likewise wrote, and
printed in 1588, a rhyming manual, The School of Vertue and Book of
good Nurture. This is a translation into metre, of many of the less ex-
ceptionable Latin hymns anciently used by the catholics, and still con-
tinuing to retain among the protestants a degree of popularity. One
of these begins, Jam Lucis orto sydere. At the end are prayers and
graces in rhyme. This book, which in Wood's time had been degraded
to the stall of the ballad-singer, and is now only to be found on the
shelf of the antiquary, was intended to supersede or abolish the original
Latin hymns, which were only offensive because they were in Latin,
and which were the recreation of scholars in our universities after din-
ner on festival days. At an archiepiscopal visitation of Merton college
in Oxford, in the year 1562, it was a matter of inquiry, whether the
superstitious hymns appointed to be sung in the Hall on holidays, were
changed for the psalms in metre ; and one of the fellows is accused of
having attempted to prevent the singing of the metrical Te Deum in
the refectory on All-saints day *.

It will not be foreign to our purpose to remark here, that when doc-
tor Cosins, prebendary of Durham, afterwards bishop, was cited before
the parliament in 1640, for reviving or supporting papistic usages in
his cathedral, it was alleged against him, that he had worn an embroi-
dered cope, had repaired some ruinous cherubims, had used a conse-
crated knife for dividing the sacramental bread, had renovated the blue
cap and golden beard of a little image of Christ on bishop Hatfield's
tomb, had placed two lighted tapers on the altar which was decorated
with emblematic sculpture, and had forbidden the psalms of Sternhold
and Hopkins to be sung in the choir".

* [My late friend Mr. Fillingham, who Doctor Porphyry,

underwent the task of framing an Index Sir Philip Philargirye." PARK.]

to Warton's History, pointed out that this s See Strype, Eccl. Mem. ii. p. 138. See

was not a poem, but a Dialogue in prose, the speakers in Ochin's Dialogue against

entitled "The Examination of the Masse." the Pope, Englished by Poynet, printed

The speakers are, in 1549. Strype, ibid. 198.

"Mastres Missa. t Strype's Parker, B. 11. Ch. ii. pag.

Master Knowledge. 116, 117. Compare Life of Sir Thomas

Master Fremouth. Pope, 2nd edit. p. 354.
Master Justice of the peace. u Neale's Hist. Purit. vol. ii. ch. vii.

Peter Preco, the Cryer. pag. 387. edit. 1733. Nalson's Collections,

Palemon, the Judge. vol. i. pag. 789.

SECT. XLVII.] TYK'S ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 167

SECTION XLVII.

Tf/es Acts of the Apostles in rhyme. His merit as a Musician* Early
piety of king Edward the Sixth. Controversial Ballads and Plays.
Translation of the Bible. Its effects on our Language. Arthur Kel-
tons Chronicle of the Brutes. First Drinking-song. Gammar Gur-
tons Needle.

BUT among the theological versifiers of these times, the most notable is
Christopher Tye, a doctor of music at Cambridge in 1545, and musical
preceptor to prince Edward, and probably to his sisters the princesses
Mary and Elizabeth. In the reign of Elizabeth he was organist of the
royal chapel, in which he had been educated. To his profession of
music he joined some knowledge of English literature ; and having
been taught to believe that rhyme and edification were closely con-
nected, and being persuaded that every part of the Scripture would be
more instructive and better received if reduced into verse, he projected
a translation of the ACTS OF THE APOSTLES into familiar metre. It
appears that the BOOK OF KINGS had before been versified, which for
many reasons was more capable of shining under the hands of a trans-
lator. But the most splendid historical book, I mean the most suscep-
tible of poetic ornament, in the Old or New Testament, would have be-
come ridiculous when clothed in the fashionable ecclesiastical stanza.
Perhaps the plan of setting a narrative of this kind to music was still
more preposterous and exceptionable. However, he completed only
the first fourteen chapters; and they were printed in 1553, by William
Serres, with the following title, which, by the reader who is not ac-
quainted with the peculiar complexion of this period, will hardly be
suspected to be serious : " The ACTES OF THE APOSTLES translated into
Englyshe metre, and dedicated to the kinges most excellent maiestye
by Cristofer Tye, doctor in musyke, and one of the Gentylmen of hys
graces most honourable Chappell, with notes to eche chapter to synge
and also to play upon the Lute, very necessarye for studentes after
theyr studye to fyle their wittes, and alsoe for all Christians that cannot
synge, to reade the good and godlye storyes of the lives of Christ his
apostles." It is dedicated in Sternhold's stanza, "To the vertuous and
godlye learned prynce Edward the Sixth." As this singular dedication
contains, not only anecdotes of the author and his work, but of his ma-
jesty's eminent attention to the study of the scripture, and of his skill
in playing on the lute, I need not apologise for transcribing a few dull
stanzas ; especially as they will also serve as a specimen of the poet's
native style and manner, unconfined by the fetters of translation.

168 TYE'S ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. [SECT. XLVII.

Your Grace may note, from tyme to tyme,

That some doth undertake
Upon the Psalms to write in ryme,

The verse plesaunt to make :

And some doth take in hand to wryte

Out of the Booke of Kynges ;
Because they se your Grace delyte

In suche like godlye thynges a .

And last of all, I youre poore man,

Whose doinges are full base,
Yet glad to do the best I can

To give unto your Grace,

Have thought it good now to recyte

The stories of the Actes
Even of the Twelve, as Luke doth wryte,

Of all their worthy factes.

Unto the text I do not ad,

Nor nothyng take awaye ;
And though my style be gros and bad,

The truth perceyve ye may. ^

My callynge is another waye,

Your Grace shall herein fynde
By notes set forth to synge or playe,

To recreate the mynde.

And though they be not curious b ,

But for the letter mete ;
Ye shall them fynde harmonious,

And eke pleasaunt and swete.

A young monarch singing the ACTS OF THE APOSTLES in verse to
his lute, is a royal character of which we have seldom heard. But he
proceeds,

That such good thynges your Grace might move

Your Lute when ye assay e,
In stede of songes of wanton love,
These stories then to play.

a Strype says, that " Sternhold com- his publication and dedication of them to

posed several psalms at first for his own the said king." Eccles. Memor. B. i. ch.

solace ; for he set and sung them to his 2. p. 86.

organ. Which music king Edward VI. b That is, they are plain and unisonous ;

sometime hearing, for he was a Gentle- the established character of this sort of

man of the privy-chamber, was much music,
delighted wiu\them; which occasioned

SECT. XLVII.] TYE'S ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 169

So shall your Grace plese God the lorde

In walkyng in his waye,
His lawes and statutes to recorde

In your heart night and day.

And eke your realme shall florish styll,

No good thynge shall decaye,
Your subjectes shall with right good will,

These wordes recorde and saye :

" Thy lyf, O kyng, to us doth shyne,

As God's boke doth thee teache ;
Thou dost us feede with such doctrine

As Christes elect dyd preache."

From this sample of his original vein, my reader will not perhaps
hastily predetermine, that our author has communicated any consi-
derable decorations to his ACTS OF THE APOSTLES in English verse.
There is as much elegance and animation in the two following initial
stanzas of the fourteenth chapter, as in any of the whole performance,
which I shall therefore exhibit :

It chaunced in Iconium,

As they c oft tymes did use,
Together they into did come

The Sinagoge of Jewes ;

Where they did preache and only seke

God's grace them to atcheve ;
That they so spake to Jew and Greke

That many did bileve.

Doctor Tye's ACTS OF THE APOSTLES were sung for a time in the
royal chapel of Edward the Sixth ; but they never became popular*.
The impropriety of the design, and the impotency of the execution f,
seem to have been perceived even by his own prejudiced and undis-
cerning age. This circumstance, however, had probably the fortunate

c Apostles. tion of the work "impotent." Dr. Tye,

* [Nash said, in 1596, "Dr. Tye was in disclaiming for his performance the

a famous musitian some few years since." epithet " curious," could only mean that

See Have with you to Saffron Waldon. he had not made it merely a vehicle for

PARK.] the display of the intricacies of harmony ;

f [Warton's estimate of the musical for, although much of it is written in sim-

character and merits of Tye's work is pie counterpoint, it exhibits frequent in-

altogether erroneous. So far from being stances of fugue and even of canon. Of

*' unisonous," it is throughout in four the latter a very beautiful example will be

parts ; nor was this " the established cha- found in the ninth chapter. And, withal,

racter of this sort of music" at that time. there is such a graceful flow of melody

In point of fact it was just the reverse : pervading the composition, that the mu-

Tallis, Tye, Bird, Farrant were pro- sician even of the nineteenth century

found harmonists, and music with them listens to it with unabated delight. Much

constantly assumed a combined and com- of it is worthy, as it is in the style, of its

plicated never a unisonous character. author's illustrious Italian cotemporary,

Equally erroneous is it to call the execu- Palestrina. E. T.]

1?0 KING EDWARD VI, [SECT. XLVII.

and seasonable effect of turning Tye's musical studies to another and
a more rational system ; to the composition of words judiciously selected
from the prose psalms in four or five parts. Before the middle of the
reign of Elizabeth, at a time when the more ornamental and intricate
music w.as wanted in our service, he concurred with the celebrated
Tallis and a few others in setting several anthems, which are not only
justly supposed to retain much of the original strain of our ancient
choral melody before the Reformation, but in respect of harmony, ex-
pression, contrivance, and general effect, are allowed to be perfect
models of the genuine ecclesiastic style. Fuller informs us, that Tye
was the chief restorer of the loss which the music of the church had
sustained by the destruction of the monasteries 11 . Tye also appears to
have been a translator of Italian. The History of Nastagio and Tra-
versari translated out of Italian into English by C. T., perhaps Chri-
stopher Tye, was printed at London in 1569 e .

It is not my intention to pursue any further the mob of religious
rhymers, who, from principles of the most unfeigned piety, devoutly
laboured to darken the lustre, and enervate the force, of the divine
pages. And perhaps I have been already too prolix in examining a
species of poetry, if it may be so called, which even impoverishes prose ;
or rather, by mixing the style of prose with verse, and of verse with
prose, destroys the character and effect of both. But in surveying the
general course of a species of literature, absurdities as well as excel-
lencies, the weakness and the vigour of the human mind, must have
their historian. Nor is it unpleasing to trace and to contemplate those
strange incongruities, and false ideas of perfection, which at various
times, either affectation, or caprice, or fashion, or opinion, or prejudice,
or ignorance, or enthusiasm, present to the conceptions of men, in the
shape of truth.

I must not, however, forget, that king Edward the Sixth is to be
ranked among the religious poets of his own reign. Fox has published
his metrical instructions concerning the eucharist, addressed to sir An-
tony Saint Leger. Bale also mentions his comedy called the WHORE
OF BABYLON, which Holland the heroologist, who perhaps had never

d Worthies, ii. 244. Tallis here men- to observe, that John Mardiley, clerk of

tioned, at the beginning of the reign of the king's Mint, called Si/jfolk-house in

Elizabeth, and by proper authority, en- Southwark, translated twenty- four of Da-

riched the music of Marbeck's liturgy. vid's Psalms into English verse, about

He set to music the Te Deiim, Benedictus, 1550. He wrote also Religious Hymns.

Magnificat, Nunc dimittis, and other of- Bale, par. post. p. 106. There is extant

fices, to which Marbeck had given only his Complaint against the stiff-necked pa~

the canto firmo, or plain chant. He com- pist in verse, Lond. by T. Reynold, 1548.

posed a new Litany still in use ; and im- Svo. and a Short Resytal of certyne holie

proved the simpler modulation of Mar- doctors f agn\nst the real presence, collected

beck's Suffrages, Kyries after the Com- in myter [metre] by John Mardiley. Lond.

mandments, and other versicles, as they 12mo. See another of his pieces on the

are sung at present. There are two chants same subject, and in rhyme, presented and

of Tallis, one to the Venite Kxullemus, and dedicated to queen Elizabeth, MSS. Reg.

another to the Athanasian Creed. 17 B. xxxvii. The Protector Somerset was

e In duodecimo. I had almost forgot his patron.

SECT. XLVII.] PIETY OF EDWARD VI.

seen it, and knew not whether it was a play or a ballad, in verse or
prose, pronounces to be a most elegant performance f . Its elegance,
with some, will not perhaps apologise or atone for its subject ; and it
may seem strange, that controversial ribaldry should have been suf-
fered to enter into the education of a great monarch. But the genius,
habits, and situation of his age should be considered. The reforma-
tion was the great political topic of Edward's court. Intricate discus-
sions in divinity were no longer confined to the schools or the clergy.
The new religion, from its novelty, as well as importance, interested
every mind, and was almost the sole object of the general attention.
Men emancipated from the severities of a spiritual tyranny, reflected
with horror on the slavery they had so long suffered, and with exulta-
tion on the triumph they had obtained. These feelings were often ex-
pressed in a strain of enthusiasm. The spirit of innovation which had
seized the times, often transgressed the bounds of truth. Every change
of religion is attended with those ebullitions, which growing more mo-
derate by degrees, afterwards appear eccentric and ridiculous.

We who live at a distance from this great and national struggle be-
tween popery and protestantism, when our church has been long and
peaceably established, and in an age of good sense, of politeness and
philosophy, are apt to view these effusions of royal piety as weak and
unworthy the character of a king. But an ostentation of zeal and ex-
ample in the young Edward, as it was natural, so it was necessary, while
the reformation was yet immature. It was the duty of his preceptors,
to impress on his tender years, an abhorrence of the principles of Rome,
and a predilection to that happy system which now seemed likely to
prevail. His early diligence, his inclination to letters, and his serious-
ness of disposition, seconded their active endeavours to cultivate and
to bias his mind in favour of the new theology, which was now become
the fashionable knowledge. These and other amiable virtues his co-
temporaries have given young Edward in an eminent degree. But it
may be presumed, that the partiality which youth always commands,
the specious prospects excited by expectation, and the flattering pro-
mises of religious liberty secured to a distant posterity, have had some
small share in dictating his panegyric.

The new settlement of religion, by counteracting inveterate preju-
dices of the most interesting nature, by throwing the clergy into a state
of contention, and by disseminating theological opinions among the
people, excited so general a ferment, that even the popular ballads and
the stage, were made the vehicles of the controversy between the papal
and protestant communions g .

f Heroolog. p. 27. [Qu. whether Hoi- B See instances of rhyming libels al-

land might not have mistakingly read a ready given, before the Reformation had

play with the same title published in 1607 actually taken place, in the present vo-

by Decker, and have applauded it as a lume, p. 130. et seq.
royal production ? PARK.]

1?2 CONTROVERSIAL BALLADS. [sECT.XLVII.

The Ballad of LUTHER, the POPE, a CARDINAL, and a HUSBAND-
MAN, written in 1550, in defence of the reformation, has some spirit,
and supports a degree of character in the speakers. There is another
written about the same time, which is a lively satire on the English
Bible, the vernacular liturgy, and the book of homilies 11 . The measure
of the last is that of PIERCE PLOWMAN, with the addition of rhyme ; a
sort of versification which now was not uncommon.

Strype has printed a poem called the PORE HELP*, of the year 1550,
which is a lampoon against the new preachers or gospellers, not very
elegant in its allusions, and in Skelton's style. The anonymous satirist
mentions with applause Mayster Huggarde^ or Miles Hoggard, a shoe-
maker of London, and who wrote several virulent pamphlets against
the reformation, which were made important by extorting laboured
answers from several eminent divines 1 . He also mentions a nobler
clarke, whose learned Balad in defence of the holy Kyrke had triumphed
over all the raillery of its numerous opponents k . The same industrious
annalist has also preserved A song on bishop Latimer, in the octave
rhyme, by a poet of the same persuasion 1 ; and in the catalogue of
modern English prohibited books delivered in 1542 to the parish priests,
to the intent that their authors might be discovered and punished, there
is the Burying of the Mass in English rithme. But it is not my in-
tention to make a full and formal collection of these fugitive religious
pasquinades, which died with their respective controversies.

In the year 1547, a proclamation was published to prohibit preaching.
This was a temporary expedient to suppress the turbulent harangues of
the catholic ministers, who still composed no small part of the parochial
clergy ; for the court of augmentations took care perpetually to supply
the vacant benefices with the disincorporated monks, in order to exo-
nerate the exchequer from the payment of their annuities. These men,
both from inclination and interest, and hoping to restore the church to
its ancient orthodoxy and opulence, exerted all their powers of decla-

b See Percy, Ball. ii. 102. These yonkers for to hyt

* [My erudite friend Mr. Douce, who is And wyll not them permyt

supposed to possess the only ancient copy In errour styll to syt,

of this little libel now remaining, thinks it As it maye well speare

was probably written by Skelton. The fpl- By his clarkely answere

lowing is its title : " A PORE HELPE. The whiche intitled is

The bukler and defence A ^ nst what meaneth ^.-PARK.]

Of mother holy Kyrke, ' One of these pieces is, " A Confuta-

And wepon to drive hence tion to the answer of a wicked ballad,"

Al that against her wircke." printed in 1550. Crowley above men-

L, . . ii-,. r 4. tioned wrote " A Confutation of Miles

Herbert in his genera history of print-

ng, , has blended this title with he poem g* transubrtantiation of the Sacra-

itself, from which it nqrwflM to extract Lond 154g octavo>

the passage relating to Miles Hoggard: k gtrype, Eccl. Mem. ii. Append, i.

And also Maister Huggarde p. 34.

Doth shewe hymselfe no sluggarde, 1 Ibid. vol. 5. Append, xliv. p. 121.

Nor yet no dronken druggarde, m Burnet, Hist. Kef. vol. i. Rec. Num.

But sharpeth up his wyt xxvi. p. 257.

And frameth it so fyt

SECT. XLVII.] CONTROVERSIAL PLAYS.

mation in combating the doctrines of protestantism, and in alienating
the minds of the people from the new doctrines and reformed rites of
worship. Being silenced by authority, they had recourse to the stage;
and from the pulpit removed their polemics to the play-house. Their
farces became more successful than their sermons. The people flocked
eagerly to the play-house, when deprived not only of their ancient pa-
geantries, but of their pastoral discourses, in the church. Archbishop
Cranmer and the protector Somerset were the chief objects of these
dramatic invectives". At length, the same authority which had checked
the preachers, found it expedient to control the players ; and a new
proclamation, which I think has not yet appeared in the history of the
British drama, was promulgated in the following terms . The inquisi-
tive reader will observe, that from this instrument plays appear to have
been long before a general and familiar species of entertainment ; that
they were acted not only in London but in the great towns ; that the
profession of a player, even in our present sense, was common and
established ; and that these satirical interludes are forbidden only in the
English tongue. " Forasmuch as a great number of those that be
COMMON PLAYERS of ENTERLUDEs and PLATES, as well within the
city of London as elsewhere within the realm, doe for the most part
play such ENTERLUDES, as contain matter tending to sedition, and
contemning of sundry good orders and laws ; whereupon are grown
and daily are likely to gro