Chapter XXII: Part II: By THOMAS BLENER-HASSET (5)

I thought none yll, my heade was layde full saft,
All carke and care my wandring sprite had laft.

Not lying thus one houre by the clocke,
Me thought the chamber shone with torches bright,
And in the haste at doore I hearde one knocke,
And sayde: “What slugge, why sleepest all the night?”
I starting vp behelde one in my sight,
Dasht all in golden raies before me did appeare,
And sayde: “I am a god, beholde that standeth here.”

Miue eares were filde with noysè of trumpets sounde,
And dazled were mine eies, my sence was almost gon,
But yet amazde my knee vaylde to the grounde,
And sayde: “Heare lorde, thy will and mine be one,
What is thy minde, more redie there is none,
To ride, to runne, to trauell here and there,
By lande and seas halfe worthie if I were.

But first to know thy name I humbly thee beseeche,
Forgiue my rudenesse this of thee to craue:”
He aunswering sayd, with meeke and lowlie speeche:
“_Morpheus_ is my name, that alwaies power haue,
Dreames to shewe in countrie, courte, or caue.
In the heauens aboue, or Plutoe’s kingdome loe,
Its I that haue the power each thing t’unfolde and shoe.”

Morpheus, as the guide, conducts the author through Pluto’s dominions, who selects the following subjects as fit for his muse. 1. Hellen, tormented for her treason to her husbande, and liuing in fornication ten yeares. 2. Pope Alexander the sixt rewarded for his wickednesse and odible lyfe, with his colledge of cardinals, bishops, abbots, moonckes, freers, and nunnes, with the rabble of greasie priestes, and other members of idolatory and superstition. 3. Young Tarquine rewarded for his wickednesse. 4. The rewarde of Medea for hir wicked actes, and false deceyuing of hir father, sleying of hir children, and hir owne brother, and working by inchauntment. This historie is merueylous tragicall and a good example for women. 5. The wordes of tormented Tantalus, being rewarded for his extortion and couetousnes: Oppressing the poore people of his countrey, and for other wicked actes. 6. The rewarde of an ambicious and vaine glorious counseller, called Vetronius Turinus, for his wicked life among them that hee might ouercome and for his pride. 7. The wofull complaint of the monstrous Emperor Heliogabalus for spending of his dayes in abhominable whoredome. 8. The two Iudges for slaundering of Susanna: and bearing false witnesse against hir, be rewarded for the same most terribly. Q. Pope Ihoan rewarded for hir wickednesse. 10. Newes betwene the Pope and Pluto, and of the proclamation about the ladder betwixt hell and heaven. 11. The torment of Tiranny and the reward for his wickednesse, being a king called Mydas, which tirannouslye swallowed not onely his countrey for lucre sake, but his housholde seruauntes also. 12. The rewarde that Rosamonde had in hell, for murdering of hir husbande Albonius and liuing vitiouslie in hir husbandes dayes. 13 Retourning from Plutos Kingdome, to noble Helicon: the place of infinite joy.--Col. Imprinted at London in Pawles Churche Yarde, by William Williamson.

[29] See Vol. I. p. 243. Where, in note 8, the reader is requested to alter 'first’ to 'second’ edition. In a few other notes the like alteration may be wanted. I did not obtain sight of the copy described above, until the volume was in print.

[30] By very close examination it appears, as if the whole of the first sheet was reprinted.

[31] In the present edition the very numerous notes subscribed with the initial N. will point out the unusual interpolations or substitutions made upon the original text by Niccols; as the [brackets] in the text also show the words, lines, and passages wholly omitted in the edition of 1610.

[32] To select only three may be sufficient. “I account (says Sir Philip Sydney, in the _Defence of Poesy_) the Mirrour of Magistrates meetly furnished of beautiful parts.” That profound critic, Edmund Bolton, says: “Among the lesser late poets, George Gascoigne’s work may be endur’d. But the best of those times (if _Albion’s England_ be not preferr’d) for our business is, the _Mirrour of Magistrates_, and in that Mirrour Sackvil’s Induction,” &c. And Oldys, in his preface before _The British Muse_, examining the reign of Elizabeth, observes: “At that time came out the fine collection, called _The Mirror for Magistrates_. This piece was done by several hands. It represents pathetically the falls of many great and unfortunate men of our nation, and beautifully advises others to avoid following their example. Besides the particular praises given this work by Sir Philip Sidney and Mr. Edmund Bolton, (another judicious critick, who writes not long after him;) that it received the general approbation, appears from its having been three or four times reprinted. Every impression had new additions from other eminent hands, amongst whom the Earl of Dorset is not the least conspicuous.”

[33] John Higgins was born about 1544. He was educated at Christ Church, and in 1572 describes himself as late student at Oxford. He did not learn the tongues or begin to write until he was twenty years of age, and then studied, chiefly, French and Latin. At twenty-five he taught grammar for about two years, and spent as much time in enlarging Huloet’s Dictionary. He also translated phrases from Aldus, the Flowers of Terence, and wrote, with divers other works, the first part of the Mirror for Magistrates before he was thirty. This brief account is related by himself in some lines preserved in a note at the end of the legend of Mempricius. (See vol. i. p. 102.) In December 1586, while residing at Winsham, in Somersetshire, or, as Wood has it, in Surrey, he prepared and edited, as already noticed, the best edition extant of the present work. Before 1602, it is not improbable, he had established a school at Winsham, or taken orders, for in that year he published a tract upon a subject of theological controversy. The time of his death is uncertain. For a list of his works see Wood’s _Athenæ Oxonienses_, vol. i. col. 734, ed. 1813.

[34] Thomas Blenerhasset was probably a descendant from the ancient family of that name which flourished in Norfolk temp. Hen. 8. of whom Jane B. is named by Skelton in _the Crown of Laurel_ as one of the bevy of beauties attendant upon the noble Countess of Surrey; and John B. married the daughter of Sir John Cornwallis, knt. the steward of the household to Prince Edward. Our author was educated at Cambridge, and having adopted a military life, was in 1577 stationed in the Island of Guernsey, and there composed his portion of the present work. As the printer, in the following year, tells us the author was “beyond the seas,” it is probable he had then accompanied his regiment to Ireland, where he went as a captain, settled and “purchased an estate. He died about the beginning of the reign of King Charles I. and was the author of _Directions for the Plantation in Ulster_, London, 1610.” _History and Antiquities of Ireland, by Walter Harris_, 1764, vol. ii. p. 333.

[35] The note vol. i. p. 371. is a misprint for “of th’ armed Picts.”

[36] George Ferrers was born at or near St. Albans, in Hertfordshire, educated at Oxford, and afterwards became a barrister of Lincoln’s Inn. In his juridical pursuit he published, _The great Charter called in latyn Magna Carta, with diuers olde statvtes_, &c. Colophon, _Thus endeth the booke called Magna Carta translated out of Latyn and Frenshe into Englysshe by George Ferrers. Imprynted at London in Paules church yerde at the signe of the Maydens head by Thomas Petyt._ M. D. XLII. An earlier edition was printed without date. He was a polished courtier, and esteemed favourite with Henry the 8th, although that capricious monarch, for some offence, the nature of which has not been discovered, committed him to prison in 1542, in which year he was returned member of parliament for the town of Plymouth. The anger of the king was probably not of long duration, as, in addition to other rewards, he bequeathed him a legacy of an hundred marks. He appears to have served in the suite of the protector Somerset, and was one of the commissioners in the army in the expedition into Scotland. By Edward the VIth he was made Lord of Misrule: an appointment to which genius and talent only could pretend, or give its needed prominence and effect. A warrant was issued, on the 30th November, 1552, to pay him, being appointed to be Lord of the Pastimes for the Christmas, 100_l._ towards the necessary charges. And the honest chronicler Stowe, gives the following account of the jovial pastime and eclat which attended the keeping this annual feast. “The king kept his Christmas with open houshold at Greenewich, George Ferrers gentleman of Lincolns Inne, being lord of the merrie disportes all the twelue daies, who so pleasantly and wisely behaued himselfe, that the king had great delight in his pastimes. On Monday the fourth of January, the said lord of merry disportes came by water to London, and landed at the tower wharfe, entered the tower, and then rode through tower streete, where he was receiued by Sergeant Vawce lord of misrule, to John Mainard one of the Sherifs of London, and so conducted through the citie with a great company of yoong lords and gentlemen to the house of sir George Barne lord maior, where he with the chiefe of his company dined, and after had a great banket, and at his departure, the lord maior gaue him a standing cup with a couer of siluer and gilt, of the value of ten pound for a reward, and also set a hogshead of wine and a barrel of beere at his gate for his traine that followed him: the residue of his gentlemen and seruants dined at other aldermens houses, and with the sherifs, and so departed to the tower wharfe againe, and to the court by water, to the great commendation of the maior and aldermen, and highly accepted of the king and councell.” In the reign of queen Elizabeth he again held the appointment of Lord of Misrule in the court, and as such devised and penned a poetical address which was spoken to her majesty before _the princely pleasures of Kenelworth-castle_, 1576. He is one of the most prominent contributors to the Mirror for Magistrates, and was undoubtedly intimate with all the leading persons that assembled together for the purpose of completing that work. I think it is probable that the edition of 1578, which has many exclusive alterations, and his two legends of the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, so long withheld, then first inserted, was edited by him. He died at Flamstead in Hertfordshire, whereupon administration was granted May 18, 1579.

[37] Master Cavyll. Of this writer not any particulars are known.

[38] Thomas Chaloner, born in London about the year 1515, was descended from an ancient family of Denbigh in Wales. He studied at both Universities. Having accompanied Sir Henry Knevet, embassador from Hen. VIII. to the emperor Charles Vth, he afterwards was with that emperor in the expedition against Algiers in 1541. Upon his return to his native country, he became a favourite with the protectour Somerset, and for his gallant conduct at the battle of Musselburgh in 1547, “the protectour,” says Lloyd, “honoured him with a knighthood, and his Lady with a jewel, the delicate and valiant man at once pleasing Mars and his Venus too.” He went embassador with Sir William Pickering into France, 1553. Being a consistent protestant, he remained unshaken during the turbulent period of Queen Mary, devoting his time in retirement to literature, and then wrote his contribution to the Mirrour for Magistrates. Immediately upon the accession of Elizabeth, he was again called into active life, and successively her embassadour to the Emperor Ferdinand, and to Philip king of Spain, from which last, in consequence of his irksome situation, he obtained a recal in 1564, by addressing an Elegy, written in imitation of Ovid, to Elizabeth. He probably did not afterwards meddle with public affairs, dying at his own residence which he had built upon Clerkenwell Close, on Oct. 10th, 1565, and on the 20th was buried at St. Paul’s. His publications are enumerated in the _Biographia Britannica_, and Wood’s _Ath. Oxon._ Vol. I. col. 346; but his productions as an English poet are of recent discovery. In the _Nugæ Antiquæ_, edited by Mr. Park, 1804, Vol. II. p. 372, is the Epistle of _Helen to Paris_, translated from Ovid, by Sir Thomas Chaloner, Knt. which, from the date of the manuscript, and the contemporary testimony, now first discovered, in proof of his having indulged his Muse in her native tongue, may with confidence be assigned to his pen. The authority for the appropriation to him of the Legend of the Duke of Norfolk, is given in Vol. II. p. 53. In that authority he is called _Master Chaloner_ some years after his obtaining knighthood, and from that circumstance George Puttenham might allude to him when he praises “For Eglogue and pastorall poesie, Sir Philip Sydney and _Maister Challenner_, and that other Gentleman who wrate the late shepheardes callender,” although otherwise from the date of the _Art of Poesy_, being 1580, it might rather be transferred to his son, who was born 1559, and is said to have discovered at the University extraordinary talents in Latin and English poetry.

[39] Thomas Phaer is supposed to have been born in Pembrokeshire. He was educated, at Oxford, and afterwards became a student in the inns of court, and describes himself in 1558 “Sollicitour to the king and quenes maiesties, attending their honorable counsaile in the Marches of Wales.” From some unknown circumstance he suddenly quitted the practice of the law for that of physick, obtaining his degrees at Oxford, and was confirmed doctor March 21, 1558-9. In both professions his ready pen contributed several popular works to promote their general practice. As a poet, the first appearance of his name is prefixed to a few lines before Peter Betham’s _Precepts of War_, 1543. In May 1555, then residing in a house, which he possessed for a long term of years, in Kilgarran Forest, Pembrokeshire, he began to translate the Æneid of Virgil into English rhyme, which had not before been attempted. In this he proceeded at his leisure, and printed the first seven books in 1558, which were afterwards continued as far as part of the tenth, and left incomplete by his death. This work obtained him considerable reputation with contemporary scholars and critics. He was esteemed by William Webbe in the _Discourse of English Poetry_, 1586, as the best of those who had taken profitable pains in translating the Latin poets: and the encomiast also gives passages from the translation in proof of his own assertion of the meetness of our speech to receive the best form of poetry. Puttenham also praises “Phaer and Golding for a learned and well corrected verse, specially in translation, clear and very faithfully answering their author’s intent.” All that could be found of this work was added to the part already in print, and posthumously published by his friend William Wightman in 1562, who has given two verses at the end of the volume received from Phaer the day before his death, subscribed with his left hand, the use of the right being taken away through the hurt whereof he died. His will, dated August 12, 1560, was proved the June following, and he thereby directed his “boddie to be buried in the parish church of Kilgarran, [adding] with a stone vppon my grave in manner of a marble stone with suche scripture there vpon grauen, in brasse, as shalbe deuised by my friende master George Ferris.” An epitaph upon him is to be found with _Eglogs, Epytaphes, and Sonnettes, newly written by Barnaby Googe_, 1563, or in Reed’s _Shakespeare_, vol. ii. p. 103, n. and a Latin one by the author described in the last note, in the _Miscellanea Chaloneri_, 1579.

[40] William Baldwin is supposed by Wood to have been a west-countryman, and having studied several years in logic and philosophy at Oxford, supplicated for a degree in arts in January 1532. The scanty materials of his life neither shew his early pursuits nor connections. In 1549 he subscribes himself “seruaunt with Edwarde Whitchurche,” the printer; but what was his immediate station and dependance upon the press is uncertain, although he appears to have found employment therefrom for several years. It is conjectured by Herbert, that he was “one of those scholars who followed printing in order to forward the reformation,” and therefore submitted to the labour of correcting the press. Whatever department he filled, he was not considered an unfit associate by the best scholars. Besides, he was a court poet, as is shown by the following note from the _Apology_, by Mr. G. Chalmers. “A letter was written, on the 28th January, 1552-3, to Sir Thomas Carwerden, the master of the revels, to furnish William Baldwin, who was appointed to set forth a Play, before the King, upon Candlemas-day, at night, with all necessaries.” That he was very little dependant upon this occupation, appears by his answer to the printer, on his being counselled by many “both honourable and worshipful,” to continue Lydgate; for he refused “utterly to undertake it.” Such an answer to the solicitations of those who by birth and pursuits must have been considered the patrons of literature, can be little expected from the “servant” of the printer. In 1563 he tells his reader he has “bene called to another trade of lyfe,” and believed to have then taken orders, and commenced schoolmaster. With the exception of Sir Thomas Chaloner, he was probably the oldest man of the number who met by general assent to devise the continuation of Lydgate, and therefore made to 'vsurpe Bochas rome’, to hear the complaints of the princes: But another reason for fixing upon him, might be his long connection with the press. One of the earliest of his pieces was _a treatise of Moral Philosophy_, printed for E. Whitchurche, 1549, and speedily, and unblushingly adopted by Thomas Palfreyman. This compilation was nearly as popular as the Mirror for Magistrates, and went through many editions. “Keepe a smooth plain forme in my eloquence (says Tom Nash) as one of the Lacedemonian Ephori, or Baldwin in his morrall sentences, which now are all snatched up for painters’ posies.” (_Haue with you to Saffron Walden_, 1596.) He also penned _The Funeralles of King Edward the sixt_, “before his corse was buryed,” though not printed until 1560. The furniture of this poem seems a retouching after the Mirrour was commenced, vide _British Bibliographer_, Vol. II. p. 97. His other pieces are all enumerated in Wood’s _Ath. Ox._ Vol. I. col. 342. At what place and when he died is not known. There was a William Baldwin of Barrowe in the County of Lincoln, who died 1567, possessing Lands and Tenements in the territories of Normandy, Therilbie, Darbie, and Burton co. Lincoln; leaving four sons, William, Thomas, Edward, and Francis: but it is not easy to identify either father or son with our

“Baldwyne’s worthie name,
whose Mirrour doth of Magistrates
Proclayme eternal! fame.”

_Heywood._ 1560.

[41] John Skelton, poet laureat, born ...... died 21 June, 1529.

[42] John Dolman was student and fellow of the Inner Temple. He translated _Those fyue Questions which Marke Tullye Cicero disputed in his manor of Tusculanum_, 1561.

[43] Thomas Sackville was born at Buckhurst, in the parish of Withiam, in the county of Sussex. He was the only son of Sir Richard Sackville, knight, Chancellor of the Court of Augmentation to King Edward the VIth. afterwards to Q. Mary, and Under Treasurer of the Exchequer to Q. Elizabeth, (by Winifred Brydges); at whose death the jury upon the inquisition found that he died 21st April, in the eighth year of the reign of Elizabeth (1566), leaving his son Thomas S. then twenty-nine years of age, thereby making the time of his birth in 1537, a year later than that mentioned by all his biographers. Probably it should stand 1536-7. He was first sent to Hart-hall, Oxford, but removed to Cambridge, where he took the degree of Master of Arts, and was celebrated as a Latin and English poet at both universities. Like Phaer, Ferrers, and other contemporary wits, he was entered in the Inner Temple, and so far persevered in the study of the law as to be called to the bar. The earliest effort of his unrivalled genius that has been preserved was a joint production, and forms the first legitimate tragedy existing in our language. It was called by the authors _Ferrex_ and _Porrex_, but is more generally known as the tragedy of _Gorboduc_, and only composed for “furniture of part of the grand Christmas,” or revels, a species of amusement that combined dramatic representations with feasts and balls, and then occasionally kept with great magnificence by the society of the Inner Temple. This dramatic piece was first performed by the students in their hall, and afterwards by them on the 18th Jan. 1561, before Elizabeth at Whitehall. In this composition he is supposed to have assisted Thomas Norton, as, according to the title of the spurious edition of the play, of 1565, “three actes were written by Thomas Nortone, and the two laste by Thomas Sackvyle;” but the authorised edition of 1570, only extends to say it was “never intended by the authors thereof to be published,” and without attempting any thing like the above apportionment. The claim of Norton has been repeatedly doubted. Warton observes thereon: “The force of internal evidence often prevails over the authority of assertion, a testimony which is diminished by time, and may be rendered suspicious from a variety of other circumstances. Throughout the whole piece, there is an invariable uniformity of diction and versification. Sackville has two poems of considerable length in the Mirrour of Magistrates, which fortunately furnish us with the means of comparison: and every scene of Gorboduc is visibly marked with his characteristical manner, which consists in a perspicuity of style, and a command of numbers, superior to the tone of his times. Thomas Norton’s poetry is of a very different and a subordinate cast.” Certainly all the choruses bear such strong similarity to our author’s style and versification, as to leave no question of his well-founded claim to the entire outline of the whole performance. There cannot here be omitted: “the Order and Signification of the Domme Shew before the fourth Act. First the musick of howeboies began to playe, during which there came from under the stage, as though out of hell, three furies, Alecto, Megera, and Ctisiphone, clad in blacke garmentes sprinkled with bloud and flames, their bodies girt with snakes, their heds spred with serpentes instead of haire, the one bearing in her hand a snake, the other a whip, and the third a burning firebrand; ech driving before them a king and a queene, which moved by furies unnaturally had slaine their owne children. The names of the kings and queenes were these, Tantalus, Medea, Athamas, Ino, Cambises, Althea; after that the furies and these had passed about the stage thrise, they departed, and than the musick ceased: hereby was signified the unnaturall murders to follow, that is to say: Porrex slaine by his owne mother; and of king Gorboduc, and queen Videna, killed by their owne subjects.” This shadowing out of the plot, and the extraordinary characters to be personified in the procession, are too similar to the model upon which the Mirror for Magistrates was to have been completed, had he carried his own plan into effect, to let us doubt, without supposing the author a mannerist, that the composing the Induction and the drama were nearly coeval, and that before entering his twenty-fifth year he had entirely forsaken the Muse. This circumstance leads to an inquiry of his other poetical effusions, which are supposed to be lost, or remain undiscovered. Jasper Heywood, in a poetical address before his translation of the tragedy of Thyestes, 1560, has the following lines:

There _Sackvylde’s_ SONNETS sweetly sauste,
And featly fyned bee:
There _Norton’s_ DITTIES do delight,
There _Yelverton’s_ do flee
Well pewrde with pen: such yong men three
As weene thou mightst agayne,
To be begotte as Pallas was
Of myghtie Jove his brayne.

Warton, in a note on the first line, remarks: “I have never seen his SONNETS, which would be a valuable accession to our old poetry. But probably the term _Sonnets_ here means only verses in general, and may signify nothing more than his part in the Mirror of Magistrates and his Gorboduc.” An oversight of the critic leaves this conjecture without any weight. The above lines were in print before either the communication was made to the Mirror for Magistrates, or the play performed. Several other writers are named by Heywood, in the same address, also their works, and those works known; the _sonnets_ of Sackville and the _ditties_ of Norton and Yelverton excepted. This circumstance may well support a belief of their having been published as well as the others: neither is there any thing improbable that the _sonnets_ and _ditties_ of “such yong men three” were united in one volume, however it has hitherto escaped all research. There is a single sonnet by our author which shall be here preserved as not an inelegant relic of his pen. It is prefixed to _The Courtier of Count Baldessar Castilio_, done into english by Sir Thomas Hoby, who died embassadour at Paris 13 July, 1566, æt. 36, and was buried at Bisham, co. Berks. This translation was printed 1561, 1577, 1588, (the last supplying the present copy,) again 1603, where the sonnet is omitted.

Thomas Sackeuyll in commendation of the worke.

To the Reader.

These royall kinges, that reare vp to the skye
Their pallace tops, and deck them all with gold:
With rare and curious workes they feede the eye:
And shew what riches here great princes hold.
A rarer worke and richer far in worth,
Castilio’s hand presenteth here to thee:
No proude, ne golden Court doth he set forth,
But what in Court a Courtier ought to be.
The prince he raiseth huge and mightie walles,
Castilio frames a wight of noble fame:
The king with gorgeous tissue clads his halles,
The Count with golden vertue deckes the same;
Whose passing skill, lo, Hobbie’s pen displaies,
To Britaine folk, a work of worthy praise.

Sackville, the junior of nearly all his compeers and associates, during this short career of his Muse,[44] had also to sustain the labour and restlessness of politics. He was elected member for Westmorland, and sat in parliament the 4th and 5th of Philip and Mary. Upon the accession of Elizabeth, he represented Sussex at the time his father did Kent, and in 1562, upon the latter being chosen for Sussex, he was returned one of the members for Buckinghamshire. He early obtained the confidence of Elizabeth, (to whom he was related, as first cousin by his grand mother to Anne Boleyn), being, in his younger years, “by her particular choice and liking, selected to a continual private attendance upon her own person,” and is named in D’Ewes Journal, March 17, 1563, as conveying a message from her to the House of Commons, relative to making an “allowance for Justices Diets,” &c. About this period he visited France, Italy, and Rome, where, for some imprudency of a pecuniary nature, he was detained prisoner for fourteen days. On the death of his father he returned to England. His prodigal taste for splendour was first checked and finally stopped by the influence and admonitions of his royal relative, who, it is said, “would not know him, till he began to know himself.” On the 8th of June, 1567, he was knighted in her presence by the Duke of Norfolk, and created Baron of Buckhurst. In 1573 he was sent ambassador to France, and in the following year sat on the trial of the Earl of Arundel, being styled the Queen’s beloved and faithful counsellor. In 1586 he was nominated a commissioner on the trial of Mary Queen of Scots. In 1587 he went ambassador to the States General, but recalled by the influence of the Earl of Leicester and Lord Burleigh, and confined to his house, by the queen’s command, for nine months, when, upon the death of the Earl of Leicester, he was immediately restored to presence and favour, and on April 24, 1589, without previous intimation, made Knight of the Garter. In January 1591-2 he was elected Chancellor of the University of Oxford. On the 15th March, 1599, after the death of Lord Burleigh, he was appointed Lord High Treasurer; the patent whereof was renewed for life on the accession of King James, by whom, in 1603, he was created Earl of Dorset, and appointed one of the commissioners for executing the office of Lord Marshal. He died suddenly at the council table at Whitehall on April 19th, 1608, and being taken to Dorset house, Whitefriars, was embowelled and so much of him buried on the 20th, at Saint Bride’s Fleetstreet. Much state ceremony and solemnity followed, and after a lapse of above a month there was _A Sermon preached at Westminster May 26, 1608, at the Fvnerall Solemnities of the Right Honorable Thomas Earle of Dorset, late L. High Treasurer of England: By George Abbott Doctor of Diuinitie and Deane of Winchester one of his Lordships Chaplines_.[45] 1608. qto. It does not appear that these funeral solemnities were followed with enterment at the Abbey. No tomb exists, and by his will one thousand pounds was given for the building of a chapel at Withiam, Sussex, where his ancestors lay, directing his remains to be there deposited; which is also alluded to in the sermon. Lloyd gives him the following character: “He was a very fine gentleman of person and endowments both of art and nature. His elocution is much commended, but the excellency of his pen more; for he was a scholar and a person of quick faculties, very facete and choice in his phrase and style. He was wise and stout, nor was he any ways insnared in the factions of the Court, which were all his time very strong. He stood still in grace and was wholly intentive to the Queen’s service; and such were his abilities, that she received assiduous proofs of his sufficiency.” As early as the first year of the reign of Philip and Mary his Lordship married his kinswoman, Cecile daughter of Sir John Baker, of Sisinghurst, co. Kent, knt. who survived him, and died Oct. 1st. 1615.

[44] It has been said he wrote the Epilogue to Ben Jonson’s comedy of Every Man in his Humour, acted 1598: but was there any epilogue to the play when first performed? Charles Lord Buckhurst, sixth Earl of Dorset, supplied an epilogue on the revival of that play, which may be found with other pieces by him, in the _Miscellany Poems_, by Dryden, vol. v.

[45] Dr. Abbott had but an imperfect knowledge of the productions of his patron. In one passage he says: “His yoonger daies, the time of his scholarship when first in that famous Vniuersitie of Oxford and afterward in the Temple (where he tooke the degree of Barister) he gave tokens of such pregnancie, such studiousnesse, and iudgment, that he was held no way inferiour to any of his time or standing. And of this there remaine good tokens both in English and in Latin published vnto the world.” A marginal note explains the “good tokens” by the legend undoubtedly written by Ferrers, called “The life of Tresilian. in the Mirrour of Magistr. [and] _Epist. prefix. Aulic. Barth. Clerke_.” 1571.

[46] Francis Segar. See _Bibliographia Poetica_, p. 326.

[47] Francis Dingley was probably author as well of the Legend of James IV. as that of Flodden Field, and both composed very recently after the events they record took place. Not any discovery has been made relative to the life of the author.

[48] Thomas Churchyard, born ...... died 1604.

[49] Michael Drayton, born about 1563, died Dec. 23, 1631.

[50] Richard Niccols was the offspring of respectable parents residing in London, and born about 1584. When about twelve years of age he embarked in a vessel called the Ark, which sailed with the expedition against Cadiz in June 1596, and was present at the great and complete victory obtained both by sea and land on that occasion. Whether this voyage was the result of boyish ardour, or that he was originally intended to be actively employed for his country in either marine or military service, is not known. He appears on his return to have resumed his studies, and in 1602 was entered a student in Magdalen College, Oxford. He took the degree of bachelor of arts in 1606, and was then esteemed among the “ingenious persons of the university.” In 1610, he impliedly says, he should have continued the Mirror for Magistrates further, if his own affairs would have suffered him to proceed, but being called away by other employments, he of force left the completion to others. What designation those employments gave him for the remainder of his life, beyond that of a poet, is not known. In that character his talents would appear over-rated by Headley, who considered him “a poet of great elegance and imagination,” had not Warton, unwittingly, gone further. Niccols, on reprinting the Induction, found the rhyme too perfect, and the language too polished, to allow the attempting any of his supposed emendations; but towards the conclusion of the poem, he was bold enough to reject one stanza, and foist in four of his own composing; and it is to his credit that Warton, in analysing the whole, reprinted two of those, as the genuine production of Sackville.[51] Such a compliment cannot be exceeded. He first published _The Cuckow_, 1607, quarto, and he says, “Cuckow-like of _Castae’s_ wrongs, in rustick tunes did sing.” 2. He reprinted the _Mirror for Magistrates_, in 1610, edited in a manner that had left his volume without any value, but for the adding his own poems: viz. First _the fall of Princes_, and last _A Winter Night’s Vision_. This Vision was probably composed as long before as August 1603, as that was the last calamitous year when the plague ravaged extensively previous to its being published.[52] On that occasion our author retired for safety to Greenwich; where wandering through the walks, long-favoured by Elizabeth, the circumstance of it being her natal place, combined with her then recent death, appears to have awakened his youthful Muse to attempt this metrical history of her life. 3. His next effusion was _The Three Sisters Teares, shed at the late Solemne Funerals of the Royall deceased Henry Prince of Wales_, &c. 1613, qto. 4. _The Fvries, with Vertves Encomium, or, the Image of Honour. In two bookes of Epigrammes._ 1614. oct. 5. _Monodia, or Waltham’s Complaint vpon the death of that most_ _vertuous and noble Ladie lately deceased, the Lady Honor Hay_, &c. 1615. oct. 6. _London’s Artillery, briefly containing the noble practise of that worthie Societie_, &c. 1616, qto. For an account of this Poem, see _British Bibliographer_, Vol. I. p. 363. 7. _Sir Thomas Overbury’s Vision_, &c. 1616. Reprinted in the _Harleian Miscellany_, 1811. Vol. VII. p. 178. The author makes the ghost of Overbury, in his address to him, say,

O thou mortal wight!
Whose mournful muse, but whilome, did recite
Our Britain’s princes and their woeful fates
In that true 'Mirrour of our Magistrates.’

[51] Compare _Hist. of Eng. Poetry_, vol. iii p. 234. with vol. ii, p. 330.

[52] See the Induction: However, according to Stowe, there was not any Lord Mayor’s Show for three years after 1605 “by reason of continuall sickness.”

[53] Hee. edit. 1575.

[54] Will you that I rehearse. ib.

[55] Of. ed. 1575.

[56] Of. ib.

[57] Which must I needs be confesse. ib.

[58] Veritie: [but for so much as the above named virtue by Plotinus his iudgement hath such excellent properties it is so fit in a Magistrate, that] I surely &c. ib.

[59] Facts estates fortunes, ib.

[60] Yet. ib.

[61] Yea and though. ib.

[62] And. ib.

[63] Those whiche were counted the wisest that ever were. ib.

[64] Yea and though. ib.

[65] Be. ib.

[66] He is not counted bolde, manly and constant but made beastly and desperate. I will also sith I haue gone so farre with the vertues (and the place so vrgeth) lastly set downe the difinition of Temperaunce, according to Cicero his opinion. Temperaunce (saith he) is of reason, &c. ib.

[67] Vertue hath three, ib.

[68] Well and wisely.

[69] An immoderate, ib.

[70] Also to. ib.

[71] Learnedly touched. ib.

[72] Other. ib.

[73] Further. [Onely I would to God it were so ofte read and regarded of all Magistrates as the matter requireth.] ib.

[74] Booke (which I am so bold to dedicate to your honors.) ib.

[75] Not in first edit.

[76] And. ed. 1575.

[77] Can do farre better, either with eloquence to amend that is amisse in mine, or else when they see these so rudely pende, to publish their own, ib.

[78] Your humble Iohn Higgins, [ed. 1575.]

[79] From edition, 1587.

[80] From first edition. This address is omitted in editions 1587 and 1610.

[81] This is principally taken from the latter part of the prefatory epistle of 1575.

[82] First printed and now given from edition 1587: also in Niccols.

[83] Higins, by correcting what he had wrote before, re-composed several passages: The first three stanzas of the Induction are thus varied in the edition of 1575.

As Somer sweete with all hir pleasures past,
And leaues began to leaue both braunche and tree,
While winter cold approched neere full faste,
Mee thought the time to sadnes moued mee
On drouping daies not half such mirth haue wee,
As when the time of yeare and wether’s fayre,
So moue our mindes as mocions moue the ayre.

The wearye nightes approched on apace
With darksom shades which somewhat breedeth care,
The Sun hath take more neere the earth his race,
In Libra than his greatest swinge he bare,
For pardy then the daies more colder are,
Then fades the greene fruite timely, herbes are don,
And wynter ginnes to waste that Sommer won,

I deemde some booke of mourning theame was beste
To reade, wherwith instructions mingled so
As migh[t] againe refresh my wittes oppreste,
With tediousnes not driue mee quyte therfro:
Wherfore I went the printer’s straight vnto,
To seeke some woorke of price I surely mente
That might herein my carefull mynde contente.

[84] At leength by hap, ib.

[85] Wynter, ed. 1575.

[86] Not leaue with once, ib.

[87] Tell, ib.

[88] Pleading, ib.

[89] May. ib.

[90] More cleare then any. ib.

[91] Which, ib.

[92] His. ib.

[93] Thus in first edition.

Me thinkes they might beware by others harme,
And eke eschue to clammer vp so hye:
Yet cursed pryde doth all their wittes becharme,
They thinke of naught but prouerbes true do trie:
Who hewes aloft the chips may hurte his eye:
Who climes the tops of trees, wher bowes ar smal,
Or hawty towres, may quickly catch a fall.
This thing full well doth Phaëtons fall declare,
And Icarus aloft would flie and soare:
Eke Bladud once of Britayne rule that bare,
Would clyme and flie, but eache did fal therfore:
For Phaëton was with lightning all to tore,
And Icarus the meane that did not recke,
Was drownde; by fal did Bladud breake his neck.
The scriptures eake of such beare witnes can;
As Babilon for high presumption fell:
But let me ende my tale--

[94] And past the night with labours long. ib.

[95] My. ib.

[96]

Methoughte nothing my minde from them could take,
So long as Somnus suffered me to wake. ib.

[97] Then straight appeard in purple colour blacke. ib. At last appeared. N.

[98] After paynes were past. ed. 1575.

[99] I might receiue by Somnus ease at last. ib.

[100] Vnhappy princes were of yore. ib.

[101] Instead of Stanzas 13 and 14 the following are inserted in the first edit.

At length hee foorth his seruant Morpheus calde,
And bad him shewe mee from the first to th’ ende,
Such persones as in Britayne Fortune thralde:
Which straight vpon his calling did attende,
And thus hee spake with countenaunce of frende,
“Come on thy wayes and thou shalt see and here,
“The Britaynes and their doinges what they were.”

And as he led me through the darkes a whyle,
At length wee came into a goodly hall,
At th’ ende wherof there seemde a duskish Ile:
Out of the which hee gan the Britaynes call,
Such only as from Fortune’s hap did fall:
Which when he called thryce, me seemde to heare,
The doores to cracke from whence they should appeare.

And thryce I shrinkte aside and shund the sight:
And three times thryce I wishte myselfe away:
Eke thryce from thence there flew a flashe of light,
Three times I sawe them coming make their staye:
At laste they all approchte in such array,
With sundrie shewes, appearing vnto mee,
A straunger sighte then erste with eyes I see.

Men mighty bigge, in plaine and straunge attyre,
But some with wounds and bloud were so disguisde,
You scarcely could with reasons ayde aspire,
To know what warre such cruell death deuisde:
But sithe I haue their formes beneath comprisde,
Wheras their stories seuerally I showe,
Your selfe therby their cause of death may know.

[102] And eke their faces all and bodies were. ib.

[103] Make my fearful harte. ib.

[104] For my life eschewe. ib.

[105] Their, ib.

[106] For Morpheus wilde me byde and bad them tell. ib.

[107] Globe, ib.

[108] A person tall wide woundes in breste. ib.

[109] And as to speake he wiste he might be bolde. ib.

[110] Vnquoth, N.

[111] But thus. ed. 1575.

[112] Some copies of Niccols have a castration of this Induction with some trifling difference of orthography.

[113] The story of Brutus, or Brute, as here related by his son Albanact, closely versifies the principal incidents of his history given in the Chronicle of Saint Albans; an authority probably referred to by Higgins in the prefaratory address as “an olde chronicle imprinted the year 1515,” that being the date of one of the editions printed by W. de Worde.

[114] Me first of all the princes of this lande. ed. 1575.

[115] Behold mee here. N.

[116] Then shalt thou see, what tale I mynde to frame. ed. 1575.

[117] The following stanza is second in edition 1575.

So if thou liste to heare what I recite,
If thou intende to showe my fatall fall:
I praye thee take the paynes my tale to wryte,
As I in order here repeate it shall,
What nedst thou muse? thou nedst not feare at all.
Syth those that later liu’de their tales haue tolde,
Our elder liues to write thou mayst be bolde.

[118] Dreade, ed. 1575.

[119] Ne haue dispaire of so vncouched ryme. ib.

[120] Of. N.

[121]

Then why he flying from the Latin land
Did saile the seas and found the Briton strand. N.

[122] Greeuous. ed. 1575.

[123] The following omitted stanza from ed. 1575.

Well nowe I see thou putst apart thy fright,
(And giuste an eare to heare not heard before)
I will declare the storie all so right,
Thou shalt no whit haue neede t’inquire no more;
Do marke me well what I recite therefore,
And after write it and therewith my name,
Let hardly me receiue if ought be blame.

[124]

And reign’de iii yeares, Ascanius then his sonne,
Reignde next to him, eke Siluius was his heyre,
Begate my father, of a Lady fayre. ib.

[125] Strook. N.

[126] “An arrow with a square head.” _Johnson._

[127]

But when as _Brutus_ fiftene yeares was olde,
(For so they calde my father by his name)
With _Siluius_ then a hunting goe he would,
And thinking for to strike in chace the game,
His father that by chaunce beyonde it came,
Receiude the glaunce and through his tender syde,
With deadly dint, the shaft did swiftly slyde. ed. 1575.

[128]

So though by chaunce my father Brutus slewe,
My grandsyre _Siluius_, sore against his will:
Which came by chaunce as he his arrow drewe,
That thought the fearfull Harte, not him to kill:
Yet was he banisht from Italia still: &c. ib.

[129] Thither. N.

[130] From death of those whose fall their. ed. 1575.

[131] My father all this. ib.

[132] Saw my father’s powre not weke. 1575.

[133] For of his brother he could finde no grace. N.

[134] Thus. 1575.

[135] All. ib.

[136] His post vnto the. ib.

[137] He. ib.

[138] Then whyle King. ib.

[139] My father with. ib.

[140] Him. ib.

[141] And tooke the brother of the Græcian King. N.

[142] My father into woods conueyde him than. ed. 1575.

[143]

And when the king had calde to mynde his foyle,
His flighte, and brother by the Troianes take. ib.

[144] And Brutus had. ib.

[145] By night my father. ib.

[146] He. ib.

[147] My father. ib.

[148]

Which victorie when he had wisely won,
The Trojane victour did a counsayle call,
To knowe what best were with the king be don;
Now tell (q’ he) what ransom aske we shall:
On which when none agreed scarce of all,
At length Mempricius vp from seate did ryse
And silence made, gaue thus his counsayle wise. ib.

[149] Troianes. ed. 1575.

[150] The fact. ib.

[151] Which thought, as ’twas a wicked heynous acte. ib.

[152] We rather ought. ib.

[153] All do wayle. ib.

[154] Lady. ib.

[155]

And by hir wisdome, cheere and parentes loue,
Doth vs, and Brutus, both to pitie moue. ib.

[156]

Yet some will saye, he should depriued bee,
Of kingdome quite, and worthy Brutus should
Receiue the scepter, this misliketh mee,
To this vniustice, Brutus, if we could
Consent, I deeme, agree he neuer would,
So much himselfe ambitiously t’ abuse,
Or else a king vnkindly so to vse, ib.

[157]

Our names for aye with foule defame would brand. N.

[158]

For kingdomes sake a king at home to kill
Were farre to bad, within his natiue lande:
Though he by right or wrong directed still,
His force gainst vs, that did him so withstande:
The king hath therfore ay the sworde in hand,
If any kicke against his pointes of lawe:
To cut them of, or keepe them vnder awe. ed. 1575.

[159]

’Tis best, O Brutus, if thou like her, take
His daughter Innogen vnto thy wyfe:
And let the king a dowry large hir make:
Gold, syluer, shippes, and corne for our reliefe:
With other thinges whereof this lande is rife:
That wee so fraught may seeke some desert shore
Where wee and ours may raigne for euermore. ed. 1575.

[160]

The hateful gods haue yelded mee. ib.

[161]

For feare I leese both life and goodes and landes. ib.

[162]

My father then was married by and by. ib.

[163]

The Troians proud of spoiles and victorie. N.

[164] Leogrece. ed. 1575.

[165]

Where Dian dwelt of whom the Troian crew. N.

[166] In. ib.

[167]

Wherin Diana to such credit grewe:
That sacrifice the Troianes counsayle gaue,
My father make, an aunswere for to haue. ed. 1575.

[168] Efilde with. ib.

[169]

In better sorte then I repeate it here. ib.

[170] Surelie. N.

[171] To reste and sleep. ed. 1575.

[172] Once. ib.

[173] Aunswere that it. ib.

[174] Affrica. ib.

[175]

From thence they sayled vnto _Saliues_ lake:
Twene _Azaræ_ hilles, and _Ruscitadam_
They paste, from thence to _Maluæ_ floud they gate
To _Hercules_ his pillers sight they came:
And then to Tuscan seas whereas by fame,
Not far from shore, like minded mates they finde,
Foure banisht races of the Troian kinde. ib.

[176] Calde. ib.

[177] For. ib.

[178]

My father did so frendely vse this man,
He was content and all his men besyde:
To trie aduentures by my fathers guyde. ib.

[179] This Stanza not in the first edit.

[180] Then. ib.

[181] And. ib.

[182] And vitayles for their men and them atchiue. ib.

[183] By fortune on an halberde then he light. ed. 1575.

[184] My father. ib.

[185] My father’s. ib.

[186]

----voide of breath,
Which pincht my fathers hart as pangs of death. ib.

[187] Cleeues. N.

[188] None. ed. 1575.

[189] But. ib.

[190]

My father had no cause but like it well
And gaue his souldiers places in to dwell. ib.

[191] My father caused Britayne called bee. ib.

[192] My father. ib.

[193] Sith. ib.

[194] Whereby his stock. ed. 1575.

[195] “Brute the fyrst King of Brytons, bylded & edefyed this cyte of London, the fyrst cyte of Brytayn, in remembraunce of the cyte of Troye, that was destroyed, and called it Troyeneweth and Trinouantum, that is newe Troye.” _Trevisa’s Polychronicon._ B. 1. C. xlvii.

[196] Then eke my mother all his, &c. ed. 1575.

[197] Of children erste. ib.

[198] Three sonnes because of Innogen he gate. ib.

[199] Then. ib.

[200]

Those mightie people borne of Giants brood,
That did possesse this Ocean-bounded land,
They did subdue, who oft in battell stood
Gainst them in field, vntill by force of hand
They were made subiect vnto _Brutes_ command.
Such boldnes then did in the Briton dwell,
That they in deedes of valour did excell. N.

[201] Surely. N.

[202] Did cause vs feare. N.

[203]

His counsayle all and wee assembled were,
To bid vs hie, or haste there was no nede,
Wee went with them, this newes vs caused feare
Sith so he sent, he was not well in dede, &c. ed. 1575.

[204] Speed. ib.

[205] Doulfull. ib.

[206] I. ib.

[207] You. ib.

[208] Will. ed. 1575.

[209] Record to this mine eldest, &c. ed. 1575.

[210] Twene this and that the _Stutiæ_ streame doth lie. ib.

[211] For which I nought but this remember craue. ib.

[212] Loe now. ed. 1575.

[213] And gasped thryse and gaue. ib.

[214] Then all at once with mourning voyce they cryde. ib.

[215] Teares. ib.

[216] And so. N.

[217] All with one assent. ed. 1575.

[218] Sayle. ib.

[219] This stanza follows in edit. 1575,

As custome wild wee funerals preparde,
And all with mourning cloathes, and chere did come,
To laye this king on beere we had regarde,
In royall sort, as did his corps become,
His Herce prepard, we brought him to his tombe,
At _Troynouant_ he built, where he did dye,
Was he entombde, his royall corps doth lye.

[220] Flits. ed. 1575.

[221] Or. ed. 1575.

[222] This fame declarde that euen a people small. ib.

[223] Had. ib.

[224] Into three parts. ib.

[225]

----did he arriue,
In hope this lande of Britayne to atchiue. ed. 1575.
In hope to bee the King of Britanie. N.

[226] When by report. N.

[227] Foe-men. N.

[228]

And left my men as flockes without a guide. ed. 1575.
----of deadly wounds I dide,
My souldiers lost their noble prince and guide. N.

[229] To worke with princes slye. ed. 1575.

[230] By my fall beware. N.

[231]

If you repent when life and labours lost.

THE AUTHOUR.

With that the wounded Prince departed quite,
From sight he slinchte, I sawe his shade no more,
But Morpheus bade remember this to write,
And therewithall presented mee before
A wight wet dropping from the water’s shore,
In princely weede, but like a warlike man,
And thus mee thought his story he began.

[232] The author’s continuation, as in first edition, is given in the preceding note. Nicolls uniformly rejected these connecting lines of “the authour” as well as those of the later edition entitled “L’envoy.”

[233] Thy. 1575.

[234]

Both from their realme and right: O filthy fye
On such ambition earst as vsed I. ib.

[235] Within. ed. 1575.

[236] The story of Humber is narrated according to the principal authorities. It is somewhat different in the Chronicle of St. Albans, which says: “so it befel that this Kynge Humbar was besyde a water that was a great riuer with his folke for to dysporte hym. And there came Lotrin and Camber with theyr folke sodaynly or that ony of the other hoost knew of them. And whan Humbar dyde se them come in aray he was sore adrad, for as moche as his men wyst it not a fore; and also that they were vnarmed. And a none Humbar for drede lept in to y^e water and drowned hymselfe, and so he deyed. And his men were all slayne in so moche that there escaped not one away on lyue. And therefore is that water called Humbar and euer more shall be, whyle the worlde is world.”

[237] THE AUTHOURE.

Then vanishte Humber, and no sooner gon
Was he but straight in place before me came,
A princely wight had complet harnesse on,
Though not so complet as they now do frame:
He seemde sometime t’aue bene of worthy fame,
In breste a shafte with bleeding wounde he bare,
And thus be told the cause of all his care. ed. 1575.