Chapter XIX: Part V: =The Drawing Room.= (2)

With Henry, himself, the question of spiritual supremacy was soon changed, or merged (as the lawyers call it) into the exclusive consideration of adding to his wealth. The Visitors who had been deputed to inspect the abbies, and to draw up reports of the same (some of whom, by the bye, conducted themselves with sufficient baseness[307]), did not fail to inflame his feelings by the tempting pictures which they drew of the riches appertaining to these establishments.[308] Another topic was also strongly urged upon Henry's susceptible mind: the alleged abandoned lives of the owners of them. These were painted with a no less overcharged pencil:[309] so that nothing now seemed wanting but to set fire to the train of combustion which had been thus systematically laid.

[Footnote 307: Among the visitors appointed to carry into
execution the examination of the monasteries, was a Dr.
London; who "was afterwards not only a persecutor of
Protestants, but a suborner of false witnesses against them,
and was now zealous even to officiousness in suppressing the
monasteries. He also studied to frighten the abbess of
Godstow into a resignation. She was particularly in
Cromwell's favour:" &c. Burnet: _Hist. of the Reformation_,
vol. iii., p. 132. Among Burnet's "Collection of Records,"
is the letter of this said abbess, in which she tells
Cromwell that "Doctor London was suddenly _cummyd_ unto her,
with a great rout with him; and there did threaten her and
her sisters, saying that he had the king's commission to
suppress the house, spite of her teeth. And when he saw that
she was content that he should do all things according to
his commission, and shewed him plain that she would never
surrender to his band, being her ancient enemy--then he
began to entreat her and to inveigle her sisters, one by
one, otherwise than ever she heard tell that any of the
king's subjects had been handel'd;" vol. iii., p. 130.
"Collection." It is not very improbable that this treatment
of Godstow nunnery formed a specimen of many similar
visitations. As to London himself, he ended his days in the
Fleet, after he had been adjudged to ride with his face to
the horse's tail, at Windsor and Oakingham. Fox in his _Book
of Martyrs_, has given us a print of this transaction;
sufficiently amusing. Dod, in his _Church History_, vol. i.,
p. 220, has of course not spared Dr. London. But see, in
particular, Fuller's shrewd remarks upon the character of
these visitors, or "emissaries;" _Church History_, b. vi.,
pp. 313, 314.]

[Footnote 308: "The yearly revenue of all the abbies
suppressed is computed at £135,522_l._ 18_s._ 10_d._ Besides
this, the money raised out of the stock of cattle and corn,
out of the timber, lead, and bells; out of the furniture,
plate, and church ornaments, amounted to a vast sum, as may
be collected from what was brought off from the monastery of
St. Edmonsbury. Hence, as appears from records, 5000 marks
of gold and silver, besides several jewels of great value,
were seized by the visitors." Collier's _Ecclesiastical
History_, vol. ii., 165. See also Burnet's similar work,
vol. i., p. 223. Collier specifies the valuation of certain
monasteries, which were sufficiently wealthy; but he has not
noticed that of St. Swithin's in Winchester--of which Strype
has given so minute and interesting an inventory. A lover of
old coins and relics may feed his imagination with a
gorgeous picture of what might have been the "massive silver
and golden crosses and shrines garnished with stones"--but a
tender-hearted bibliomaniac will shed tears of agony on
thinking of the fate of "A BOOK OF THE FOUR EVANGELISTS,
WRITTEN AL WITH GOLD; AND THE UTTER SIDE OF PLATE OF GOLD!"
_Life of Cranmer_, _Appendix_, pp. 24-28.]

[Footnote 309: The amiable and candid Strype has polluted
the pages of his valuable _Ecclesiastical Memorials_ with an
account of such horrid practices, supposed to have been
carried on in monasteries, as must startle the most
credulous Anti-Papist; and which almost leads us to conclude
that _a legion of fiends_ must have been let loose upon
these "Friar Rushes!" The author tells us that he takes his
account from authentic documents--but these documents turn
out to be the letters of the visitors; and of the character
of one of these the reader has just had a sufficient proof.
Those who have the work here referred to, vol. i., p. 256-7,
may think, with the author of it, that "this specimen is
enough and too much." What is a little to be marvelled at,
Strype suffers his prejudices against the conduct of the
monks to be heightened by a letter from one of the name of
Beerly, at Pershore; who, in order that he might escape the
general wreck, turned tail upon his brethren, and vilified
them as liberally as their professed enemies had done. Now,
to say the least, this was not obtaining what Chief Baron
Gilbert, in his famous Law of Evidence, has laid it down as
necessary to be obtained--"the best possible evidence that
the nature of the case will admit of." It is worth remarking
that Fuller has incorporated a particular account of the
names of the abbots and of the carnal enormities of which
they are supposed to have been guilty; but he adds that he
took it from the 3d edition of Speed's _Hist. of Great
Britain_, and (what is worth special notice) that it was not
to be found in the prior ones: "being a posthume addition
after the author's death, attested in the margine with the
authority of Henry Steven his _Apologie for Herodotus_, who
took the same out of an English book, containing the
_Vileness discovered at the Visitation of Monasteries_."
_Church History_, b. vi., pp. 316, 317.]

A pause perhaps of one moment might have ensued. A consideration of what had been done, in these monasteries, for the preservation of the literature of past ages, and for the cultivation of elegant and peaceful pursuits, might, like "the still small voice" of conscience, have suspended, for a second, the final sentence of confiscation. The hospitality for which the owners of these places had been, and were then, eminently distinguished; but more especially the yet higher consideration of their property having been left with them only as a sacred pledge to be handed down, unimpaired, to their successors--these things,[310] one would think, might have infused some little mercy and moderation into Henry's decrees!

[Footnote 310: There are two points, concerning the
subversion of monasteries, upon which all sensible Roman
Catholics make a rest, and upon which they naturally indulge
a too well-founded grief. The dispersion of books or
interruption of study; and the breaking up of ancient
hospitality. Let us hear Collier upon the subject: "The
advantages accruing to the public from these religious
houses were considerable, upon several accounts. To mention
some of them: The temporal nobility and gentry had a
creditable way of providing for their younger children.
Those who were disposed to withdraw from the world, or not
likely to make their fortunes in it, had a handsome retreat
to the cloister. Here they were furnished with conveniences
for life and study, with opportunities for thought and
recollection; and, over and above, passed their time in a
condition not unbecoming their quality."--"The abbies were
very serviceable places for the education of young people:
every convent had one person or more assigned for this
business. Thus the children of the neighbourhood were taught
grammar and music without any charge to their parents. And,
in the nunneries, those of the other sex learned to work and
read English, with some advances into Latin," &c.--"Farther,
it is to the abbies we are obliged for most of our
historians, both of church and state: these places of
retirement had both most learning and leisure for such
undertakings: neither did they want information for such
employment," _Ecclesiastical History_, vol. ii., 165. A host
of Protestant authors, with Lord Herbert at the head of
them, might be brought forward to corroborate these sensible
remarks of Collier. The hospitality of the monastic life has
been on all sides admitted; and, according to Lord Coke, one
of the articles of impeachment against Cardinal Wolsey was
that he had caused "this hospitality and relief to grow into
decay and disuse;" which was "a great cause that there were
so many vagabonds, beggars, and thieves;"--_Fourth
Institute_; p. 91, edit. 1669. So that the author of an
ancient, and now rarely perused work had just reason, in
describing the friars of his time as "living in common upon
the goods of a monastery, either gotten by common labour, or
else upon lands and possessions where with the monastery was
endowed." _Pype or Tonne of the Lyfe of Perfection_; fol.
clxxii., rev. 1532, 4to. And yet, should the active
bibliomaniac be disposed to peruse this work, after
purchasing Mr. Triphook's elegant copy of the same, he might
probably not think very highly of the author's good sense,
when he found him gravely telling us that "the appetite of
clean, sweet, and fair, or fine cloaths, and oft-washing and
curious _pykyng_ of the body, is an enemy of chastity," fol.
ccxxix. rect. The DEVASTATION OF BOOKS was, I fear,
sufficiently frightful to warrant the following writers in
their respective conclusions. "A judicious author (says
Ashmole) speaking of the dissolution of our monasteries,
saith thus: Many manuscripts, guilty of no other
superstition then (having) _red letters_ in the front, were
condemned to the fire: and here a principal key of antiquity
was lost, to the great prejudice of posterity. Indeed (such
was learning's misfortune, at that great devastation of our
English libraries, that) where a _red letter_ or a
mathematical diagram appeared, they were sufficient to
entitle the book to be popish or diabolical." _Theatrum
Chemicum_; prolegom. A. 2. rev. "The avarice of the late
intruders was so mean, and their ignorance so
undistinguishing, that, when the books happened to have
COSTLY COVERS, they tore them off, and threw away the works,
or turned them to the vilest purposes." _Life of Reginald
Pole_; vol. i., p. 253-4, edit. 1767, 8vo. The author of
this last quotation then slightly notices what Bale has said
upon these book-devastations; and which I here subjoin at
full length; from my first edition of this work:--"Never
(says Bale) had we been offended for the loss of our
LIBRARIES, being so many in number, and in so desolate
places for the more part, if the chief monuments and most
notable works of our excellent writers had been preserved.
If there had been, in every shire of England, but one
SOLEMPNE LIBRARY, to the preservation of those noble works,
and preferment of good learning in our posterity, it had
been yet somewhat. But to destroy all, without
consideration, is, and will be, unto England, for ever, a
most horrible infamy among the grave seniors of other
nations. A great number of them, which purchased those
superstitious mansions, reserved of those library-books some
to serve the _jakes_, some to scour their candlesticks, and
some to rub their boots: some they sold to the grocers and
soap sellers; some they sent over sea to the book-binders,
not in small number, but at times whole ships full, to the
wondering of the foreign nations. Yea, the Universities of
the realm are not all clear of this detestable fact. But
cursed is that belly which seeketh to be fed with such
ungodly gains, and shameth his natural country. I know a
merchant man, which shall at this time be nameless, that
_bought the contents of two noble libraries for forty
shillings price_; a shame it is to be spoken! This stuff
hath he occupied in the stead of grey paper, by the space of
more than ten years, and yet he hath store enough for as
many years to come!" Preface to _Leland's Laboryouse
Journey_, &c., 1549, 8vo. Reprint of 1772; sign. C.]

PHIL. But what can be said in defence of the dissolute lives of the monks?

LYSAND. Dissoluteness shall never be defended by me, let it be shewn by whom it may; and therefore I will not take the part, on this head, of the tenants of old monasteries. But, Philemon, consider with what grace could this charge come from HIM who had "shed innocent blood," to gratify his horrid lusts?

LIS. Yet, tell me, did not the dissolution of these libraries in some respects equally answer the ends of literature, by causing the books to come into other hands?

LYSAND. No doubt, a few studious men reaped the benefit of this dispersion, by getting possession of many curious volumes with which, otherwise, they might never have been acquainted. If my memory be not treacherous, the celebrated grammarian ROBERT WAKEFIELD[311] was singularly lucky in this way. It is time, however, to check my rambling ideas. A few more words only, and we cease to sermonize upon the Reformation.

[Footnote 311: "This ROBERT WAKEFIELD was the prime linguist
of his time, having obtained beyond the seas the Greek,
Hebrew, Chaldaic, and Syriac tongues. In one thing he is to
be commended, and that is this, that he carefully preserved
divers books of Greek and Hebrew at the dissolution of
religious houses, and especially some of those in the
library of Ramsey abbey, composed by Laurence Holbecke, monk
of that place, in the reign of Henry IV. He died at London
8th October, 1537, leaving behind him the name of _Polypus_,
as Leland is pleased to style him, noting that he was of a
witty and crafty behaviour." Wood's _Hist. of Colleges and
Halls_, p. 429, Gutch's edit.]

PHIL. There is no occasion to be extremely laconic. The evening has hardly yet given way to night. The horizon, I dare say, yet faintly glows with the setting-sun-beams. But proceed as you will.

LYSAND. The commotions which ensued from the arbitrary measures of Henry were great;[312] but such as were naturally to be expected. At length Henry died, and a young and amiable prince reigned for a few months. Mary next ascended the throne; and the storm took an opposite direction. Then an attempt was made to restore chalices, crucifixes, and missals. But the short period of her sovereignty making way for the long and illustrious one of her sister Elizabeth, the Cecils and Walsinghams[313] united their great talents with the equally vigorous ones of the Queen and her favourite archbishop Parker, in establishing that form of religion which, by partaking in a reasonable degree of the solemnity of the Romish church, and by being tempered with great simplicity and piety in its prayers, won its way to the hearts of the generality of the people. Our _Great English Bibles_[314] were now restored to their conspicuous situations; and the Bibliomania, in consequence, began to spread more widely and effectively.

[Footnote 312: Fuller has devoted one sentence only, and
that not written with his usual force, to the havoc and
consternation which ensued on the devastation of the
monasteries. _Ch. Hist._, b. vi., p. 314. Burnet is a little
more moving: _Hist. of the Reformation_; vol. i., p. 223.
But, from the foregoing premises, the reader may probably be
disposed to admit the conclusion of a virulent Roman
Catholic writer, even in its fullest extent: namely, that
there were "subverted monasteries, overthrown abbies, broken
churches, torn castles, rent towers, overturned walls of
towns and fortresses, with the confused heaps of all ruined
monuments." _Treatise of Treasons_, 1572, 8vo., fol. 148,
rev.]

[Footnote 313: There are few bibliographers at all versed in
English literature and history, who have not heard, by some
side wind or other, of the last mentioned work; concerning
which Herbert is somewhat interesting in his notes:
_Typographical Antiquities_, vol. iii., p. 1630. The reader
is here presented with a copious extract from this curious
and scarce book--not for the sake of adding to these
ponderous notes relating to the REFORMATION--(a subject,
upon which, from a professional feeling, I thought it my
duty to say something!)--but for the sake of showing how
dexterously the most important events and palpable truths
may be described and perverted by an artful and headstrong
disputant. The work was written expressly to defame
ELIZABETH, CECIL, and BACON, and to introduce the Romish
religion upon the ruins of the Protestant. The author thus
gravely talks

"_Of Queen Mary and her Predecessors._

"She (Mary) found also the whole face of the commonwealth
settled and acquieted in the ancient religion; in which, and
by which, all kings and queens of that realm (from as long
almost before the conquest as that conquest was before that
time) had lived, reigned, and maintained their states; and
the terrible correction of those few that swerved from it
notorious, as no man could be ignorant of it. As King John,
without error in religion, for contempt only of the See
Apostolic, plagued with the loss of his state, till he
reconciled himself, and acknowledged to hold his crown of
the Pope. King Henry VIII., likewise, with finding no end of
heading and hanging, till (with the note of tyranny for
wasting his nobility) he had headed him also that procured
him to it. Fol. 85, 86.

"_Libellous Character of Cecil._

"In which stem and trunk (being rotten at heart, hollow
within, and without sound substance) hath our spiteful
pullet (CECIL) laid her ungracious eggs, mo than a few: and
there hath hatched sundry of them, and brought forth
chickens of her own feather, I warrant you. A hen I call
him, as well for his cackling, ready and smooth tongue,
wherein he giveth place to none, as for his deep and subtle
art in hiding his serpentine eggs from common men's sight:
chiefly for his hennish heart and courage, which twice
already hath been well proved to be as base and deject at
the sight of any storm of adverse fortune, as ever was hen's
heart at the sight of a fox. And, had he not been by his
confederate, as with a dunghill cock, trodden as it were and
gotten with egg, I doubt whether ever his hennish heart,
joined to his shrewd wit, would have served him, so soon to
put the Q.'s green and tender state in so manifest peril and
adventure. Fol. 88, rect.

"_Libellous Characters of Cecil and N. Bacon._

"Let the houses and possessions of these two Catalines be
considered, let their furniture, and building, let their
daily purchases, and ready hability to purchase still, let
their offices and functions wherein they sit, let their
titles, and styles claimed and used, let their places in
council, let their authority over the nobility, let their
linking in alliance with the same, let their access to the
prince, let their power and credit with her: let this their
present state, I say, in all points (being open and unknown
to no men) be compared with their base parentage and
progeny, (the one raised out of the robes, and the other
from a _Sheeprive's_ son) and let that give sentence as well
of the great difference of the tastes, that the several
fruits gathered of this tree by your Q., and by them do
yield, as whether any man at this day approach near unto
them in any condition wherein advancement consisteth. Yea,
mark you the jollity and pride that in this prosperity they
shew; the port and countenance that every way they carry; in
comparison of them that be noble by birth. Behold at whose
doors your nobility attendeth. Consider in whose chambers
your council must sit, and to whom for resolutions they must
resort; and let these things determine both what was the
purpose indeed, and hidden intention of that change of
religion, and who hath gathered the benefits of that
mutation: that is to say, whether for your Q., for your
realms, or for their own sakes, the same at first was taken
in hand, and since pursued as you have seen. For according
to the principal effects of every action must the intent of
the act be deemed and presumed. For the objected excuses
(that they did it for conscience, or for fear of the French)
be too frivolous and vain to abuse any wise man. For they
that under King Henry were as catholic, as the six articles
required: that under King Edward were such Protestants as
the Protector would have them; that under Q. Mary were
Catholics again, even to creeping to the Cross: and that
under Q. Elizabeth were first Lutheran, setting up Parker,
Cheiny, Gest, Bill, &c., then Calvinists, advancing
Grindall, Juell, Horne, &c.: then Puritans, maintaining
Sampson, Deering, Humfrey, &c.; and now (if not Anabaptists
and Arians) plain Machiavellians, yea, that they persuade in
public speeches that man hath free liberty to dissemble his
religion, and for authority do allege their own examples and
practice of feigning one religion for another in Q. Mary's
time (which containeth a manifest evacuation of Christ's own
coming and doctrine, of the Apostles, preaching and
practice, of the blood of the martyrs, of the constancy of
all confessors; yea, and of the glorious vain deaths of all
the stinking martyrs of their innumerable sects of
hereticks, one and other having always taught the confession
of mouth to be as necessary to salvation as the belief of
heart): shall these men now be admitted to plead conscience
in religion; and can any man now be couzined so much, as to
think that these men by conscience were then moved to make
that mutation?" Fol. 96, 97. "At home, likewise, apparent it
is how they provided, every way to make themselves strong
there also. For being by their own marriages allied already
to the house of Suffolk of the blood royal, and by
consequence thereof to the house of Hertford also, and their
children thereby incorporated to both: mark you how now by
marriage of their children with wily wit and wealth
together, they wind in your other noblest houses unto them
that are left, I mean in credit and countenance. Consider
likewise how, at their own commendation and preferment, they
have erected, as it were, almost a new half of your nobility
(of whom also they have reason to think themselves assured)
and the rest then (that were out of hope to be won to their
faction) behold how, by sundry fine devices, they are either
cut off, worn out, fled, banished or defaced at home," &c.,
fol. 105, rect. The good LORD BURGHLEY, says Strype, was so
moved at this slander that he uttered these words: "God
amend his spirit, and confound his malice." And by way of
protestation of the integrity and faithfulness of both their
services, "God send this estate no worse meaning servants,
in all respects, than we two have been." _Annals of the
Reformation_, vol. ii., 178. Camden's _Hist. of Q.
Elizabeth_, p. 192,--as quoted by Herbert.]

[Footnote 314: "All curates must continually call upon their
parochians to provide a book of the _Holy Bible in English_,
of THE LARGEST FORM, within 40 days next after the
publication hereof, that may be chained in some open place
in the church," &c. Injunctions by Lee, Archbishop of York:
Burnet's _Hist. of the Reformation_, vol. iii., p. 136,
Collections. This custom of fixing a great bible in the
centre of a place of worship yet obtains in some of the
chapels attached to the colleges at Oxford. That of Queen's,
in particular, has a noble brazen eagle, with outstretched
wings, upon which the foundation members read the lessons of
the day in turn.]

LOREN. Had you not better confine yourself to personal anecdote, rather than enter into the boundless field of historical survey?

LYSAND. I thank you for the hint. Having sermonized upon the general features of the Reformation, we will resume the kind of discourse with which we at first set out.

PHIL. But you make no mention of the number of curious and fugitive pamphlets of the day, which were written in order to depreciate and exterminate the Roman Catholic religion? Some of these had at least the merit of tartness and humour.

LYSAND. Consult Fox's _Martyrology_,[315] if you wish to have some general knowledge of these publications; although I apprehend you will not find in that work any mention of the poetical pieces of Skelton and Roy; nor yet of Ramsay.

[Footnote 315: The curious reader who wishes to become
master of all the valuable, though sometimes loose,
information contained in this renowned work--upon which Dr.
Wordsworth has pronounced rather a warm eulogium
(_Ecclesiastical Biography_, vol. i., p. xix.)--should
secure the _first_ edition, as well as the latter one of
1641, or 1684; inasmuch as this first impression, of the
date of 1563, is said by Hearne to be "omnium optima:" see
his Adami de Domerham, _Hist. de reb. gest. Glaston._, vol.
i., p. xxii. I also learn, from an original letter of
Anstis, in the possession of Mr. John Nichols, that "the
late editions are not quite so full in some particulars, and
that many things are left out about the Protector Seymour."]

LOREN. Skelton and Roy are in my library;[316] but who is RAMSAY?

[Footnote 316: Vide p. 226, ante.]

LYSAND. He wrote a comical poetical satire against the Romish priests, under the title of "_A Plaister for a galled Horse_,"[317] which Raynald printed in a little thin quarto volume of six or seven pages.

[Footnote 317: In Herbert's _Typographical Antiquities_,
vol. i., p. 581, will be found rather a slight notice of
this raw and vulgar satire. It has, however, stamina of its
kind; as the reader may hence judge:

Mark the gesture, who that lyst;
First a shorne shauelynge, clad in a clowt,
Bearinge the name of an honest priest,
And yet in no place a starker lowte.
A whore monger, a dronkard, ye makyn him be snowte--
At the alehouses he studieth, till hys witte he doth lacke.
Such are your minysters, to bringe thys matter about:
But guppe ye god-makers, beware your galled backe.

Then wraped in a knaues skynne, as ioly as my horse,
Before the aulter, in great contemplacion
Confessinge the synnes of his lubbrysh corse
To god and all saynctes, he counteth hys abhomination
Then home to the aulter, with great saintification
With crosses, and blesses, with his boy lytle Jacke:
Thus forth goeth syr Jhon with all his preparation.
But guppe ye god-makers, beware your galled backe.

Then gloria in excelsis for ioye dothe he synge
More for his fat liuinge, than for devocion:
And many there be that remember another thinge
Which syng not wyth mery hart for lacke of promocion
Thus some be mery, some be sory according to their porcion
Then forth cometh collects, bounde up in a packe,
For this sainct and that sainct, for sickenes, and extorcion
But guppe ye god-makers, beware your galled backe.

Stanzas, 17, 18, 19.

At the sale of Mr. Brand's books, in 1807, a copy of this
rare tract, of six or seven pages, was sold for 3_l._ 17_s._
6_d._ Vide _Bibl. Brand_, part i., no. 1300. This was
surely more than both plaister and horse were worth! A
poetical satire of a similar kind, entitled "_John Bon and
Mast Person_," was printed by Daye and Seres; who struck off
but a few copies, but who were brought into considerable
trouble for the same. The virulence with which the author
and printer of this lampoon were persecuted in Mary's reign
is sufficiently attested by the care which was taken to
suppress every copy that could be secured. The only perfect
known copy of this rare tract was purchased at the sale of
Mr. R. Forster's books, for the Marquis of Bute; and Mr.
Stace, the bookseller, had privilege to make a fac-simile
reprint of it; of which there were six copies struck off
UPON VELLUM. It being now rather common with
book-collectors, there is no necessity to make a quotation
from it here. Indeed there is very little in it deserving of
republication.]

LOREN. I will make a memorandum to try to secure this "comical" piece, as you call it; but has it never been reprinted in our "_Corpora Poetarum Anglicorum_?"

LYSAND. Never to the best of my recollection. Mr. Alexander Chalmers probably shewed his judgment in the omission of it, in his lately published collection of our poets. A work, which I can safely recommend to you as being, upon the whole, one of the most faithful and useful, as well as elegant, compilations of its kind, that any country has to boast of. But I think I saw it in your library, Lorenzo?--

LOREN. It was certainly there, and bound in stout Russia, when we quitted it for this place.

LIS. Dispatch your "gall'd horse," and now--having placed a justly merited wreath round the brow of your poetical editor, proceed--as Lorenzo has well said--with personal anecdotes. What has become of Wyatt and Surrey--and when shall we reach Leland and Bale?

LYSAND. I crave your mercy, Master Lisardo! One at a time. Gently ride your bibliomaniacal hobby-horse!

WYATT and SURREY had, beyond all question, the most exquisitely polished minds of their day. They were far above the generality of their compeers. But although Hall chooses to notice _the whistle_[318] of the latter, it does not follow that I should notice his _library_, if I am not able to discover any thing particularly interesting relating to the same. And so, wishing every lover of his country's literature to purchase a copy of the poems of both these heroes,[319] I march onward to introduce a new friend to you, who preceded Leland in his career, and for an account of whom we are chiefly indebted to the excellent and best editor of the works of Spencer and Milton. Did'st ever hear, Lisardo, of one WILLIAM THYNNE?

[Footnote 318: About the year 1519, Hall mentions the Earl
of Surrey "on a great coursir richely trapped, and a greate
whistle of gold set with stones and perle, hanging at a
great and massy chayne baudrick-wise." Chronicles: p. 65, a.
See Warton's _Life of Sir Thomas Pope_: p. 166, note o., ed.
1780. This is a very amusing page about the custom of
wearing whistles, among noblemen, at the commencement of the
16th century. If Franklin had been then alive, he would have
had abundant reason for exclaiming that these men "paid too
much for their _whistles_!"]

[Footnote 319: Till the long promised, elaborate, and
beautiful edition of the works of SIR THOMAS WYATT and LORD
SURREY, by the Rev. Dr. Nott,[E] shall make its appearance,
the bibliomaniac must satisfy his book-appetite, about the
editions of the same which have already appeared, by
perusing the elegant volumes of Mr. George Ellis, and Mr.
Park; _Specimens of the Early English Poets_; vol. ii., pp.
43-67: _Royal and Noble Authors_, vol. i., pp. 255-276. As
to early black letter editions, let him look at _Bibl.
Pearson_, no. 2544; where, however, he will find only the
7th edition of 1587: the first being of the date of 1557.
The eighth and last edition was published by Tonson, in
1717, 8vo. It will be unpardonable not to add that the Rev.
Mr. Conybeare is in possession of a perfect copy of Lord
Surrey's Translation of a part of the Æneid, which is the
third only known copy in existence. Turn to the animating
pages of Warton, _Hist. Engl. Poetry_; vol. iii., pp. 2-21,
about this translation and its author.]

[Footnote E: Conducting this celebrated book through the
press occupied Dr. Nott several years; it was printed by the
father of the printer of this work, in two large 4to.
volumes--and was just finished when, in the year 1819, the
Bolt Court printing-office, and all it contained, was
destroyed by fire. Only _two_ copies of the works of Wyatt
and Surrey escaped, having been sent to Dr. Nott by the
printer, as _clean sheets_.]

LIS. Pray make me acquainted with him.

LYSAND. You will love him exceedingly when you thoroughly know him; because he was the first man in this country who took pains to do justice to Chaucer, by collecting and collating the mutilated editions of his works. Moreover, he rummaged a great number of libraries, under the express order of Henry VIII.; and seems in every respect (if we may credit the apparently frank testimony of his son[320]), to have been a thoroughbred bibliomaniac. Secure Mr. Todd's _Illustrations of Gower and Chaucer_, and set your heart at ease upon the subject.

[Footnote 320: "--but (my father, WILLIAM THYNNE) further
had commissione to serche all the libraries of England for
Chaucer's works, so that oute of all the abbies of this
realme (which reserved any monuments thereof), he was fully
furnished with multitude of bookes," &c. On Thynne's
discovering Chaucer's Pilgrim's Tale, when Henry VIII. had
read it--"he called (continues the son) my father unto hym,
sayinge, 'William Thynne, I doubt this will not be allowed,
for I suspecte the byshoppes will call thee in question for
yt.' To whome my father beinge in great fauore with his
prince, sayed, 'yf your Grace be not offended, I hope to be
protected by you.' Whereupon the kinge bydd hym goo his waye
and feare not," &c. "But to leave this, I must saye that, in
those many written bookes of Chaucer, which came to my
father's hands, there were many false copyes, which Chaucer
shewethe in writinge of Adam Scriuener, of which written
copies there came to me, after my father's death, some fyve
and twentye," &c. _Illustrations of Gower and Chaucer_; pp.
11, 13, 15. Let us not hesitate one moment about the
appellation of _Helluo Librorum_,--justly due to MASTER
WILLIAM THYNNE!]

But it is time to introduce your favourite LELAND: a bibliomaniac of unparalleled powers and unperishable fame. To entwine the wreath of praise round the brow of this great man seems to have been considered by Bale among the most exquisite gratifications of his existence. It is with no small delight, therefore, Lorenzo, that I view, at this distance, the marble bust of Leland in yonder niche of your library, with a laureate crown upon its pedestal. And with almost equal satisfaction did I observe, yesterday, during the absence of Philemon and Lisardo at the book-sale, the handsome manner in which Harrison,[321] in his _Description of England_, prefixed to Holinshed's Chronicles, has spoken of this illustrious antiquary. No delays, no difficulties, no perils, ever daunted his personal courage, or depressed his mental energies. Enamoured of study, to the last rational moment of his existence, Leland seems to have been born for the "Laborious Journey" which he undertook in search of truth, as she was to be discovered among mouldering records, and worm-eaten volumes. Uniting the active talents of a statist with the painful research of an antiquary, he thought nothing too insignificant for observation. The confined streamlet or the capacious river--the obscure village or the populous town--were, with parchment rolls and oaken-covered books, alike objects of curiosity in his philosophic eye! Peace to his once vexed spirit!--and never-fading honours attend the academical society in which his youthful mind was disciplined to such laudable pursuits!

[Footnote 321: "One helpe, and none of the smallest, that I
obtained herein, was by such commentaries as LELAND had
sometime collected of the state of Britaine; books vtterlie
mangled, defaced with wet and weather, and finallie
vnperfect through want of sundrie volumes." _Epistle
Dedicatorie_; vol. i., p. vi., edit. 1807. The history of
this great man, and of his literary labours, is most
interesting. He was a pupil of William Lilly, the first
head-master of St. Paul's school; and, by the kindness and
liberality of a Mr. Myles, he afterwards received the
advantage of a college education, and was supplied with
money in order to travel abroad, and make such collections
as he should deem necessary for the great work which even
then seemed to dawn upon his young and ardent mind. Leland
endeavoured to requite the kindness of his benefactor by an
elegant copy of Latin verses, in which he warmly expatiates
on the generosity of his patron, and acknowledges that his
acquaintance with the _Almæ Matres_ (for he was of both
Universities) was entirely the result of such beneficence.
While he resided on the continent, he was admitted into the
society of the most eminent Greek and Latin scholars, and
could probably number among his correspondents the
illustrious names of Budæus, Erasmus, the Stephenses, Faber
and Turnebus. Here, too, he cultivated his natural taste for
poetry; and, from inspecting the FINE BOOKS which the
Italian and French presses had produced, as well as fired by
the love of Grecian learning, which had fled, on the sacking
of Constantinople, to take shelter in the academic bowers of
the Medici--he seems to have matured his plans for carrying
into effect the great work which had now taken full
possession of his mind. He returned to England, resolved to
institute an inquiry into the state of the LIBRARIES,
ANTIQUITIES, RECORDS, and WRITINGS then in existence. Having
entered into holy orders, and obtained preferment at the
express interposition of the king (Henry VIII.), he was
appointed his antiquary and library-keeper; and a royal
commission was issued, in which Leland was directed to
search after "ENGLAND'S ANTIQUITIES, and peruse the
libraries of all cathedrals, abbies, priories, colleges,
&c., as also all the places wherein records, writings, and
secrets of antiquity were reposited." "Before Leland's
time," says Hearne--in a strain which makes one
shudder--"all the literary monuments of antiquity were
totally disregarded; and students of Germany, apprized of
this culpable indifference, were suffered to enter our
libraries unmolested, and to cut out of the books, deposited
there, whatever passages they thought proper--which they
afterwards published as relics of the ancient literature of
their own country." _Pref. to the Itinerary._ Leland was
occupied, without intermission, in his laborious
undertaking, for the space of six years; and, on its
completion, he hastened to the metropolis to lay at the feet
of his sovereign the result of his researches. As John Kay
had presented his translation of the _Siege of Rhodes_ to
Edward IV., as "A GIFT of his labour," so Leland presented
his Itinerary to Henry VIII., under the title of _A New
Year's Gift_; and it was first published as such by Bale in
1549, 8vo. "Being inflamed," says the author, "with a love
to see thoroughly all those parts of your opulent and ample
realm, in so much that all my other occupations intermitted,
I have so travelled in your dominions both by the sea coasts
and the middle parts, sparing neither labour nor costs, by
the space of six years past, that there is neither cape nor
bay, haven, creek, or pier, river, or confluence of rivers,
breaches, wastes, lakes, moors, fenny waters, mountains,
valleys, heaths, forests, chases, woods, cities, burghes,
castles, principal manor places, monasteries, and colleges,
but I have seen them; and noted, in so doing, a whole world
of things very memorable." Leland moreover tells his
majesty--that "By his laborious journey and costly
enterprise, he had conserved many good authors, the which
otherwise had been like to have perished; of the which part
remained in the royal palaces, part also in his own
custody," &c. As Leland was engaged six years in this
literary tour, so he was occupied for a no less period of
time in digesting and arranging the prodigious number of
MSS. which he had collected. But he sunk beneath the
immensity of the task. The want of amanuenses, and of other
attentions and comforts, seems to have deeply affected him.
In this melancholy state, he wrote to Archbishop Cranmer a
Latin epistle, in verse, of which the following is the
commencement--very forcibly describing his situation and
anguish of mind:

Est congesta mihi domi supellex
Ingens, aurea, nobilis, venusta,
Qua totus studeo Britanniarum
Vero reddere gloriam nitori;
Sed fortuna meis noverca coeptis
Jam felicibus invidet maligna.

Quare, ne pereant brevi vel hora
Multarum mihi noctium labores
Omnes----
CRANMERE, eximium decus priorum!
Implorare tuam benignitatem
Cogor.

The result was that Leland lost his senses; and, after
lingering two years in a state of total derangement, he died
on the 18th of April, 1552. "Prôh tristes rerum humanarum
vices! prôh viri optimi deplorandam infelicissimamque
sortem!" exclaims Dr. Smith, in his preface to Camden's
Life, 1691, 4to. The precious and voluminous MSS. of Leland
were doomed to suffer a fate scarcely less pitiable that
[Transcriber's Note: than] that of their owner. After being
pilfered by some, and garbled by others, they served to
replenish the pages of Stow, Lambard, Camden, Burton,
Dugdale, and many other antiquaries and historians.
"Leland's Remains," says Bagford, "have been ever since a
standard to all that have any way treated of the Antiquities
of England. Reginald Wolfe intended to have made use of
them, although this was not done 'till after his death by
Harrison, Holinshed, and others concerned in that work.
Harrison transcribed his Itinerary, giving a Description of
England by the rivers, but he did not understand it. They
have likewise been made use of by several in part, but how
much more complete had this been, had it been finished by
himself?" _Collectanea_: Hearne's edit., 1774; vol. i., p.
LXXVII. Polydore Virgil, who had stolen from these Remains
pretty freely, had the insolence to abuse Leland's
memory--calling him "a vain-glorious man;" but what shall we
say to this flippant egotist? who according to Caius's
testimony (_De Antiq. Cantab. Acad._, lib. 1.) "to prevent a
discovery of the many errors of his own History of England,
collected and burnt a greater number of ancient histories
and manuscripts than would have loaded a waggon." There are
some (among whom I could number a most respectable friend
and well qualified judge) who have doubted of the propriety
of thus severely censuring Polydore Virgil; and who are even
sceptical about his malpractices. But Sir Henry Savile, who
was sufficiently contemporaneous to collect the best
evidence upon the subject, thus boldly observes: "Nam
Polydorus, ut homo Italus, et in rebus nostris hospes, et
(quod caput est) neque in republica versatus, nec magni
alioqui vel judicii vel ingenii, pauca ex multis delibans,
et falsa plerumque pro veris amplexus, historiam nobis
reliquit cum cætera mendosam tum exiliter sanè et jejunè
conscriptam." _Script. post. Bedam._, edit. 1596; pref. "As
for Polydore Virgil, he hath written either nothing or very
little concerning them; and that so little, so false and
misbeseeming the ingenuitie of an historian, that he seemeth
to have aimed at no other end than, by bitter invectives
against Henry VIII., and Cardinal Wolsey, to demerit the
favour of Queen Mary," &c., Godwyn's translation of the
_Annales of England_; edit. 1630, author's Preface. "It is
also remarkable that Polydore Virgil's and Bishop Joscelin's
edition of Gildas's epistle differ so materially that the
author of it hardly seems to be one and the same person."
This is Gale's opinion: _Rer. Anglican. Script. Vet._; vol.
i., pref., p. 4. Upon the whole--to return to Leland--it
must be acknowledged that he is a melancholy, as well as
illustrious, example of the influence of the BIBLIOMANIA!
But do not let us take leave of him without a due
contemplation of his expressive features, as they are given
in the frontispiece of the first volume of the Lives of
Leland, Hearne, and Wood. 1772, 8vo.

]

BALE follows closely after Leland. This once celebrated, and yet respectable, writer had probably more zeal than discretion; but his exertions in the cause of our own church can never be mentioned without admiration. I would not, assuredly, quote Bale as a decisive authority in doubtful or difficult cases;[322] but, as he lived in the times of which he in a great measure wrote, and as his society was courted by the wealthy and powerful, I am not sure whether he merits to be treated with the roughness with which some authors mention his labours. He had, certainly, a tolerable degree of strength in his English style; but he painted with a pencil which reminded us more frequently of the horrific pictures of Spagnoletti than of the tender compositions of Albano. That he idolized his master, Leland, so enthusiastically, will always cover, in my estimation, a multitude of his errors: and that he should leave a scholar's inventory (as Fuller saps [Transcriber's Note: says]), "more books than money behind him," will at least cause him to be numbered among the most renowned bibliomaniacs.

[Footnote 322: Like all men, who desert a religion which
they once enthusiastically profess, Bale, after being
zealous for the papal superstitions, holding up his hands to
rotten posts, and calling them his "fathers in heaven,"
(according to his own confession) became a zealous
Protestant, and abused the church of Rome with a virulence
almost unknown in the writings of his predecessors. But in
spite of his coarseness, positiveness, and severity, he
merits the great praise of having done much in behalf of the
cause of literature. His attachment to Leland is,
unquestionably, highly to his honour; but his biographies,
especially of the Romish prelates, are as monstrously
extravagant as his plays are incorrigibly dull. He had a
certain rough honesty and prompt benevolence of character,
which may be thought to compensate for his grosser failings.
His reputation as a _bibliomaniac_ is fully recorded in the
anecdote mentioned at p. 234, ante. His "magnum opus," the
_Scriptores Britanniæ_, has already been noticed with
sufficient minuteness; vide p. 31, ante. It has not escaped
severe animadversion. Francis Thynne tells us that Bale has
"mistaken infynyte thinges in that booke de Scriptoribus
Anglie, being for the most part the collections of Lelande."
_Illustrations of Gower and Chaucer_; p. 23. Picard, in his
wretched edition of _Gulielmus Neubrigensis_ (edit. 1610, p.
672), has brought a severe accusation against the author of
having "burnt or torn all the copies of the works which he
described, after he had taken the titles of them;" but see
this charge successfully rebutted in Dr. Pegge's
_Anonymiana_; p. 311. That Bale's library, especially in the
department of manuscripts, was both rich and curious, is
indisputable, from the following passage in _Strype's Life
of Archbishop Parker_. "The archbishop laid out for BALE'S
rare collection of MSS. immediately upon his death, fearing
that they might be gotten by somebody else. Therefore he
took care to bespeak them before others, and was promised to
have them for his money, as he told Cecil. And perhaps
divers of those books that do now make proud the University
Library, and that of Benet and some other colleges, in
Cambridge, were Bale's," p. 539. It would seem, from the
same authority, that our bibliomaniac "set himself to search
the libraries in Oxford, Cambridge, London (wherein there
was but one, and that a slender one), Norwich, and several
others in Norfolk and Suffolk: whence he had collected
enough for another volume De Scriptoribus Britannicis."
_Ibid._ The following very beautiful wood-cut of Bale's
portrait is taken from the original, of the same size, in
the _Acta Romanorum Pontificum_; Basil, 1527, 8vo. A similar
one, on a larger scale, will be found in the "_Scriptores_,"
&c., published at Basil, 1557, or 1559--folio. Mr. Price,
the principal librarian of the Bodleian Library, shewed me a
rare head of Bale, of a very different cast of features--in
a small black-letter book, of which I have forgotten the
name.

]

Before I enter upon the reign of Elizabeth, let me pay a passing, but sincere, tribute of respect to the memory of CRANMER; whose _Great Bible_[323] is at once a monument of his attachment to the Protestant religion, and to splendid books. His end was sufficiently lamentable; but while the flames were consuming his parched body, and while his right hand, extended in the midst of them, was reproached by him for its former act of wavering and "offence," he had the comfort of soothing his troubled spirit by reflecting upon what his past life had exhibited in the cause of learning, morality, and religion.[324] Let his memory be respected among virtuous bibliomaniacs!

[Footnote 323: I have perused what Strype (_Life of
Cranmer_, pp. 59, 63, 444), Lewis (_History of English
Bibles_, pp. 122-137), Johnson (_Idem opus_, pp. 33-42), and
Herbert (_Typog. Antiquities_, vol. i., p. 513,) have
written concerning the biblical labours of Archbishop
Cranmer; but the accurate conclusion to be drawn about the
publication which goes under the name of CRANMER'S, or THE
GREAT BIBLE, [Transcriber's Note: 'is' missing in original]
not quite so clear as bibliographers may imagine. However,
this is not the place to canvass so intricate a subject. It
is sufficient that a magnificent impression of the Bible in
the English language, with a superb frontispiece (which has
been most feebly and inadequately copied for Lewis's work),
under the archiepiscopal patronage of CRANMER, did make its
appearance in 1539: and it has been my good fortune to turn
over the leaves of the identical copy of it, printed UPON
VELLUM, concerning which Thomas Baker expatiates so
eloquently to his bibliomaniacal friend, Hearne. _Rob. of
Gloucester's Chronicle_; vol. i., p. xix. This copy is in
the library of St. John's College, Cambridge; and is now
placed upon a table, to the right hand, upon entering of the
same: although formerly, according to Bagford's account, it
was "among some old books in a private place nigh the
library." _Idem_; p. xxii. There is a similar copy in the
British Museum.]

[Footnote 324: "And thus"--says Strype--(in a strain of
pathos and eloquence not usually to be found in his
writings) "we have brought this excellent prelate unto his
end, after two years and a half hard imprisonment. His body
was not carried to the grave in state, nor buried, as many
of his predecessors were, in his own cathedral church, nor
inclosed in a monument of marble or touchstone. Nor had he
any inscription to set forth his praises to posterity. No
shrine to be visited by devout pilgrims, as his
predecessors, S. Dunstan and S. Thomas had. Shall we
therefore say, as the poet doth:

Marmoreo Licinus tumulo jacet, at Cato parvo,
Pompeius nullo. Quis putet esse Deos?

No; we are better Christians, I trust, than so: who are
taught, that the rewards of God's elect are not temporal but
eternal. And Cranmer's martyrdom is his monument, and his
name will outlast an epitaph or a shrine." _Life of
Cranmer_; p. 391. It would seem, from the same authority,
that RIDLEY, LATIMER, and CRANMER, were permitted to dine
together in prison, some little time before they suffered;
although they were "placed in separate lodgings that they
might not confer together." Strype saw "a book of their
diet, every dinner and supper, and the charge thereof,"--as
it was brought in by the bailiffs attending them.

_Dinner Expenses of Ridley, Latimer, and Cranmer._

Bread and Ale ii_d._
Item, Oisters i_d._
Item, Butter ii_d._
Item, Eggs ii_d._
Item, Lyng viii_d._
Item, A piece of fresh Salmon x_d._
Wine iii_d._
Cheese and pears ii_d._

_Charges for burning Ridley and Latimer._

_s._ _d._
For three loads of wood fagots 12 0
Item, One load of furs fagots 3 4
For the carriage of the same 2 0
Item, A Post 1 4
Item, Two chains 3 4
Item, Two staples 0 6
Item, Four Labourers 2 8

_Charges for burning Cranmer._

_s._ _d._
For an 100 of wood fagots, 06 0
For an 100 and half of furs fagots 03 4
For the carriage of them 0 8
To two labourers 1 4

I will draw the curtain upon this dismal picture, by a short
extract from one of Cranmer's letters, in which this great
and good man thus ingeniously urges the necessity of the
Scriptures being translated into the English language; a
point, by the bye, upon which neither he, nor Cromwell, nor
Latimer, I believe, were at first decided; "God's will and
commandment is, (says Cranmer) that when the people be
gathered together, the minister should use such language as
the people may understand, and take profit thereby; or else
hold their peace. For as an harp or lute, if it give no
certain sound that men may know what is stricken, who can
dance after it--for all the sound is vain; so is it vain and
profiteth nothing, sayeth Almighty God, by the mouth of St.
Paul, if the priest speak to the people in a language which
they know not." _Certain most godly, fruitful, and
comfortable letters of Saintes and holy Martyrs, &c._, 1564;
4to., fol. 8.]