Chapter IV (5)

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Thomas Norton, Esq.
George Gascoigne, Esq.
Frauncis Hindlemarsh, Esq.
Thomas Atchelow.
George Whetstones.

"These being deceased, have left divers extant labours, and many more held back from publishing, which for the most part have been perused, and their due right here given them in the Muses Garden.

"Besides, what excellent sentences have been in any presented Tragedie, Historie, Pastorall, or Comedie, they have been likewise gathered, and are here inserted in their proper places."[727:A]

It will be perceived that eleven poets are here enumerated, who had no share in England's Parnassus; and it may be worth while to remark, that, among the verses prefixed in praise of the book, are some lines by _R. Hathway_, whom Mr. Malone conjectures to have been the kinsman of _Ann Hathaway_, the wife of our immortal bard.[727:B]

A small contribution of pieces by a few of the chief poets of the age, was, in 1601, annexed to a production by Robert Chester, entitled, "LOVE'S MARTYR, OR ROSALIN'S COMPLAINT, allegorically shadowing the Truth of Love in the constant fate of the Phœnix and Turtle. A poem, enterlaced with much varietie and raritie; now first translated out of the venerable Italian Torquato Cæliano, by Robert Chester. With the true legend of famous King Arthur, the last of the nine worthies; being the first Essay of a new British poet: collected out of authenticall records. _To these are added some new compositions of several modern writers; whose names are subscribed to their severall workes; upon the first subject; viz. the Phœnix and Turtle._"

These _new compositions_ have the following second title immediately preceding them: "_Hereafter follow diverse poetical essaies on the former subject; viz. the Turtle and Phœnix. Done by the best and chiefest of our modern writers, with their names subscribed to their particular workes. Never before extant. And now first consecrated by them all generally to the love and merit of the truly noble Knight, Sir John Salisburie._"

The only known copy of this collection was in Major Pierson's possession, and it is solely from Mr. Malone, to whom we are indebted for the above titles, that we learn the names of the principal contributors; these are _Shakspeare_, _Ben Jonson_, _Marston_, and _Chapman_.[728:A] Shakspeare's contribution forms the twentieth poem in "The Passionate Pilgrim," commencing

"Let the bird of loudest lay," &c.

A miscellany upon a more extensive scale than the preceding, and of great value for the taste exhibited in its selection, succeeded in 1602, under the appellation of "A POETICAL RAPSODÎE; containing diverse Sonnets, Odes, Elegies, Madrigals, Epigrams, Pastorals, Eglogues, with other Poems, both in Rime and Measured Verse. For varietie and pleasure, the like never yet published.

The Bee and Spider by a diverse power,
Sucke hony and poyson from the selfe-same flower.

London. 12mo."

The editor and principal contributor, was _Francis Davison_, a poet of no mean talents, and son of that Secretary of State, who experienced in so remarkable a degree the duplicity of Elizabeth, in relation to Mary Queen of Scots. In an Address to the Reader, he thus accounts for the form which the volume assumes:—"Being induced by some private reasons, and by the instant entreaty of speciall friends, to suffer some of my worthlesse poems to be published, I desired to make some written by my deere friends _Anonymoi_, and my deerer _Brother_, to beare them company: both, without their consent; the latter being in the low-country warres, and the rest utterly ignorant thereof. My friends names I concealed; mine owne and my brother's, I willed the printer to suppresse, as well as I had concealed the other, which he having put in without my privity, we must now undergo a sharper censure perhaps than our namelesse workes should have done; and I especially. For if their poems be liked, the praise is due to their invention; if disliked, the blame both by them and all men will be derived upon me, for publishing that which they meant to suppresse."

He then enters upon a defence of poetry, experience proving, he remarks, "by examples of many, both dead and living, that divers delighted and excelling herein, being princes or statesmen, have gouerned and counselled as wisely; being souldiers, have commanded armies as fortunately; being lawyers, have pleaded as judicially and eloquently; being divines, have written and taught as profoundly; and being of any other profession, have discharged it as sufficiently, as any other men whatsoever;" and concludes by alleging, as an excuse "for these poems in particular, that those under the name of _Anonymos_ were written (as appeareth by divers things to Sir Philip Sidney living, and of him dead) almost twenty years since, when poetry was farre from that perfection to which it hath now attained: that my brother is by profession a souldier, and was not eighteen years old when he writ these toys: that mine owne were made most of them sixe or seven yeares since, at idle times as I journeyed up and downe during my travails."

The division of the "Rapsodie" more peculiarly occupied by these kindred bards, is that including "Sonnets, Odes, Elegies, Madrigals, and Epigrams, by Francis and Walter Davison, brethren;" and they were assisted in that, and the residue of the work, by Spenser, Sidney, Sir John Davis, Mary Countess of Pembroke, Thomas Campion, Thomas Watson, Charles Best, Thomas Spelman, and by others, whose initials are supposed to indicate Henry Constable, Walter Raleigh, Henry Wotton, Robert Greene, Andrew Willet, and Joshua Sylvester.[730:A]

The "Poetical Rapsodie" is dedicated by Davison in a sonnet, "To the most noble, honorable, and worthy Lord William Earl of Pembroke, Lord Herbert of Cardiffe, Marmion, and St. Quintine," and was successively republished with augmentations in 1608, 1611, and 1621. It may be said to present us, not only with a felicitous choice of topics, but it claims the merit of having preserved several valuable poems not elsewhere to be discovered, and which, owing to the rarity of the book, although four times subjected to the press, have not, until lately, attracted the notice that is due to them.

Independent of the _ten_ miscellanies which we have now enumerated, an immense multitude of _Airs_, _Madrigals_, and _Songs_, set to music, and printed in Parts, were published during the latter part of the reign of Elizabeth, and during the reign of James the First. These Collections contain a variety of lyric poems not elsewhere to be met with, and which were either written expressly for the Composers, or selected by the latter from manuscripts, or rare and insulated printed copies. Foremost among these Professors of Music, who thus indirectly contributed to enrich the stores of English Poetry, stands _William Byrd_. This celebrated composer's first printed work in English was licensed in 1587, and has the following title:—"_Tenor. Psalmes, Sonets, and Songs of sadnes and pietie, made into musicke of five parts: whereof, some of them going a broad among divers, in untrue coppies, are heere truely corrected, and the other being Songs very rare and newly composed, are heere published, for the recreation of all such as delight in Musicke. By William Byrd, one of the Gent. of the Queene's Maiesties Royall Chappell._" 4to.

The volume is dedicated to Sir Christopher Hatton; and he tells his reader, in an epistle subscribed the most assured friend to all that love or learne musicke, William Byrd,—"heere is offered unto thy courteous acceptation, musicke of sundrie sorts, and to content divers humors. If thou bee disposed to pray, heere are psalmes. If to bee merrie, heere are sonets. If to lament for thy sins, heere are songs of sadnesse and pietie. If thou delight in musicke of great cõpasse, heere are divers songs, which beeing originally made for instruments to expresse the harmony, and one voyce to pronounce the dittie, are now framed in all parts for voyces to sing the same. If thou desire songs of smal compasse and fit for the reach of most voyces, heere are most in number of that sort."

Next to Byrd, whose publications of this kind are numerous, we may mention _Thomas Morley_, no less remarkable for his skill in music, and for his fertility in the production of _madrigals_, _ballets_, and _canzonets_. How fashionable and universal had become the practice of singing these compositions at every party of amusement, may be drawn from one of the elementary works of this writer:—"Being at a banquet," he relates, "supper being ended, and music books brought to table, the mistress of the house, _according to custom_, presented me with a part, earnestly intreating me to sing; when, after many excuses, I protested unfeignedly that I could not, _every one began to wonder_, yea, some whispered to others demanding _how I was brought up_."[732:A]

Of the various collections of lyric poetry adapted to music and published by Morley, who died about the period of the accession of James the First, we shall notice two; one as indicatory of the manners of the age, and the other of the estimation in which the science was held by our composer, who seems, on this occasion, to have partaken the enthusiasm of Shakspeare; for in a dedication, "To the Worshipfull Sir Gervis Clifton, Knight," prefixed to "_Madrigals to five voyces. Selected out of the best approved Italian Authors. By Thomas Morley, Gentleman of hir Maiesties Royall Chappell_, 1598," he tells his worthy patron, "I ever held this sentence of the poet, as a canon of my creede; _That whom God loveth not, they love not Musique_. For as the Art of Musique is one of the most Heavenly gifts, so the very love of Musique (without art) is one of the best engrafted testimonies of Heavens love towards us."

In 1601, Morley published in quarto, "Cantus Madrigales. The triumphes of Oriana, to 5 and 6 voices: composed by divers severall aucthors,"—a collection remarkable for its object, as it consisted of twenty-five songs, composed by twenty-four several musicians, for the express purpose of commemorating the beauty and virginity of Elizabeth, under the appellation of Oriana, and who was now in the sixty-eighth year of her age, one, among innumerable proofs, of the extreme vanity of this singular woman.

That a great proportion of these musical miscellanies consisted of translations from the Italian, is evident from the publications of _Byrd_ and _Morley_, and from the _Musica Transalpina_ of _Nicolas Yonge_, printed in two parts, in the years 1588 and 1597, where, however, equal industry appears to have been exerted in collecting English songs; the dedication, indeed, points out very distinctly the sources whence these popular works were derived. "I endeavoured," says Yonge, "to get into my hands all such English songes as were praise worthie, and amongst others I had the hap to find in the hands of some of my good friends certaine Italian Madrigales translated most of them five years ago by a gentleman for his private delight." The two parts of Musica Transalpina contain eighty-one songs.

It seems probable, indeed, from _Orlando Gibbons_'s dedication of his "First set of Mardrigals and Mottets" to Sir Christopher Hatton, dated 1612, that the courtiers of that period sometimes employed themselves in writing lyrics for their domestic Lutenists; for Orlando tells his lord,—"They were most of them composed in your own house, and do therefore properly belong unto you as lord of the soil; _the language they speak you provided them_; I only furnished them with tongues to utter the same." It may be, however, that Sir Christopher was only a selector of poetry for the lyre of Gibbons.

To enumerate the multitude of music-stricken individuals, who, during this period, were occupied in procuring and collecting lyric poetry for professional purposes, would fill a volume. Among the most indefatigable, may be mentioned _John Wilbye_, _Thomas Weelkes_, _John Dowland_ and _Robert Jones_; "_The Musicall Dream_," 1609, and "_The Muse's Gardin of Delights_," 1610, by the last of these gentlemen, were held in great esteem.

We cannot close this subject, indeed, without acknowledging our obligations to this numerous class for the preservation of many most beautiful specimens of lyric poetry, which, it is highly probable, without their care and accompaniments, would either not have existed, or would have perished prematurely.[733:A]

As a further elucidation of the Poetical Literature of this period, and with the view of condensing its retrospect, by an arrangement under general heads, it may prove satisfactory, if we briefly throw into classes, the names of those poets who may be considered as having given ornament or extension to their art. The following divisions, it is expected, will include all that, in this place, it can now be necessary to notice.

We have thus, in as short a compass as the nature of the subject would admit, given, we trust, a more accurate view of the poetry of the Shakspearean era, as it existed independent of the Drama, than has hitherto been attempted.

That Shakspeare was an assiduous reader of English Poetry; that he studied with peculiar interest and attention his immediate predecessors and contemporaries, there is abundant reason to conclude from a careful perusal of his volume of miscellaneous poetry, which is modelled on a strict adherence to the taste which prevailed at the opening of his career. The collection, indeed, may, with no impropriety, be classed under the two divisions of _Historic_ and _Lyric_ poetry; the former concluding "Venus and Adonis," and the "Rape of Lucrece," and the latter the "Sonnets," the "Passionate Pilgrim," and the "Lover's Complaint."

The great models of Historic poetry, during the prior portion of Shakspeare's life, were the "Mirror for Magistrates" and "Warner's Albion's England;" but for the mythological story of Venus and Adonis, though deviating in several important circumstances from its prototype, we are probably indebted to Golding's Ovid; and for the Rape of Lucrece and the structure of the stanza in which it is composed, to the reputation and the metre of the _Rosamond_ of Daniel, printed in 1592. For the Sonnets, he had numerous examples in the productions of Spenser, Sidney, Watson, and Constable; and, through the wide field of amatory lyric composition, excellence of almost every kind, in the form of ode, madrigal, and song, might be traced in the varied effusions of Gascoigne, Greene and Raleigh, Breton and Lodge.

How far our great bard exceeded, or fell beneath, the models which he possessed; in what degree he was independent of their influence, and to what portion of estimation his miscellaneous poetry is justly entitled, will be the subjects of the next chapter, in which we shall venture to assign to these efforts of his early days a higher rank in the scale of excellence than it has hitherto been their fate to obtain.

FOOTNOTES:

[596:A] Preface to Gondibert. Vide Chalmers's English Poets, vol. vi. p. 351.

[597:A] Headley's Select Beauties of Ancient English Poetry, vol. i. Introduction, p. 19. edit. 1810.

[602:A] Chalmers's English Poets, vol. vi. p. 4.

[602:B] Act ii.

[603:A] Vol. ix. p. 163.

[603:B] Arte of English Poesie, reprint of 1811. p. 49.

[603:C] Vide Censura Literaria, vol. ix. p. 47.

[603:D] Percy's Reliques, vol. iii. p. 62.

[603:E] Specimens of the Early English Poets, vol. ii. p. 240.

[603:F] Censura Literaria, vol. ix. pp. 159. 161.

[603:G] Shaw's Staffordshire, vol. i. p. 442. Ritson's Bibliographia Poetica, p. 143.

[603:H] Chalmers's English Poets, vol. vi. p. 268. col. 2.

[604:A] Beloe's Anecdotes of Literature and Scarce Books, vol. vi. p. 58. et seq.

[604:B] It is sufficient praise, however, to remark, that Milton, both in his L'Allegro and his Lycidas, is under many obligations to our author.

[605:A] We are told by Prince, in his "Worthies of Devonshire," that as Browne "had honoured his country with his sweet and elegant Pastorals, so it was expected, and he also entreated a little farther to grace it by his drawing out the line of his poetic ancestors, beginning in Joseph Iscanus, and ending in himself." Had this design been executed, how much more full and curious had our information been with regard to Shakspeare and his contemporaries, and how much is it to be lamented that so noble a scheme was relinquished.

Since these critical notices were written, Sir Egerton Brydges has favoured the world with some hitherto unpublished poems of Browne; productions which not only support the opinions given in the text, but which tend very considerably to heighten our estimation of the genius and imagination of this fine old bard.

[606:A] Muses Library, 1741. p. 315.

[606:B] Bagster's edit. 1808. p. 156. 276.

[607:A] Muses Library, pp. 317. 319. 327.

[607:B] See Beloe's Anecdotes, vol. ii. p. 83. Ritson has erroneously dated this publication 1598.

[608:A] Vide Pope's Preface to the Iliad; and Warton's History of English Poetry, vol. iii. p. 442, 443.

[609:A] In his "Challenge," he tells us, that his first publication was "a book named _Davie Dicars Dream_, in King Edward's daies."

[609:B] This publication, which was likewise called "A Musicall Consort of heavenly Harmonie," is not mentioned by Ritson.

[609:C] Vide Bibliographia Poetica, p. 169.

[610:A] Vide Birch's Memoirs of Queen Elizabeth, vol. i.; and Winwood's Memor. vol. ii. p. 36.

[610:B] Underwood's edit. of 1640, folio, p. 196.

[610:C] Ancient British Drama, vol. i. p. 49. col. 1.

[610:D] Brydge's Theatrum Poetarum, p. 268.

[610:E] Athenæ Oxonienses, vol. i. p. 14.

[610:F] Origin of the English Drama, vol. iii. p. 212.

[610:G] Warton's Hist. of English Poetry, vol. iii. p. 292. note.

[610:H] Todd's Milton, 2d. edit. vol. vi. p. 439.

[612:A] Percy's Reliques, vol. i. p. 328.

[612:B] Park's Royal and Noble Authors, vol. iii. p. 167. note.

[612:C] Thus Drayton speaks of him as

——— "too much historian in verse.
His rhimes were smooth, his metres well did close;
But yet his manner better fitted prose;"

and Bolton describes his works as containing "somewhat a flat, but yet withal a very pure and copious English, and words as warrantable as any man's, and fitter perhaps for prose than measure."

[613:A] Brydges's Theatrum Poetarum, p. 273.

[614:A] Vide Bagster's edit. p. 128.

[618:A] Lord Woodhouslee, speaking of our author's poem entitled, Forth Feasting, observes that it "attracted the envy as well as the praise of Ben Jonson, is superior, in harmony of numbers, to any of the compositions of the contemporary poets of England; and is, in its subject, one of the most elegant panegyrics that ever were addressed by a poet to a prince."—Life of Lord Kaimes.

[618:B] Theatrum Poetarum, p. 195. original edition.

[619:A] Dr. Johnson was of opinion that the translation of Mr. Hoole would entirely supersede the labours of Fairefax. With no discriminating judge of poetry, however, will this ever be the case; there is a lameness and mediocrity in the version of Mr. Hoole, which must always place it far beneath the spirited copy of the elder bard. Had Mr. Brookes completed the Jerusalem with the same harmony and vigour which he has exhibited in the first three books, a desideratum in English literature had been supplied, and the immortal poem of Tasso had appeared clothed in diction and numbers worthy of the most polished era of our poetry.

[620:A] Muses Library, 1741. p. 363.

[620:B] Chalmers's English Poets, vol. vi. p. 295. col. 2.

[621:A] Censura Literaria, vol. ix. p. 53.

[621:B] Vide British Bibliographer, No. VII. p. 118.

[622:A] Chalmers's English Poets, vol. vi. p. 79. col. 2.

[622:B] Ibid. vol. vi. p. 81.

[624:A] Whetstone published a pamphlet, entitled, "A Remembrance of the wel imployed life and godly end of George Gaskoigne Esquire, who deceased at Stalmford in Lincolne Shire, the 7th of October 1577. The reporte of George Whetstone Gent. an eye witness of his Godly and charitable end in this world. _Formæ nulla Fides._ Imprinted At London for Edward Aggas, dwelling in Pauls Churchyard and are there to be solde." "Since the antiquities of poetry," observes Mr. Chalmers, "have become a favourite study, many painful inquiries have been made after this tract, but it could not be found in Tanner's Library, which forms part of the Bodleian, or in any other collection, private or public, and doubts were entertained whether such a pamphlet had ever existed. About three years ago, however, it was discovered in the collection of a deceased gentleman, a Mr. Voight, of the Custom-house, London, and was purchased at his sale by Mr. Malone. It consists of about thirteen pages small quarto, black letter, and contains, certainly not much _life_, but some particulars unknown to his biographers."—English Poets, vol. ii. p. 447, 448.

[624:B] For further particulars of his life see Chalmers's English Poets, vol. ii. p. 447. et seq., Censura Literaria, vol. i. p. 110., and British Bibliographer, vol. i. 73.

[625:A] Gratulationes Valdinenses, edit. Binneman, 1578, 4to. lib. iv. p. 22.

[625:B] In his Dedication prefixed to his Translation of Ten Books of Homer.

[625:C] In his Address to Gentlemen Students, prefixed to Green's Arcadia.

[625:D] Discourse of English Poetrie, 1586.

[625:E] Arte of Poesie, 1589, reprint, p. 51.

[626:A] Todd's Spenser, vol. i. p. 191. Glosse to November.

[626:B] Chalmers's English Poets, vol. ii. p. 455.

[626:C] Observations on the Fairy Queen, vol. ii. p. 168.

[626:D] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ix. p. 144. note 4.

[627:A] Beloe's Anecdotes, vol. ii. p. 191. et seq.; and vol. vi. p. 1. 21.

[627:B] The reprint which has just appeared of our author's _Philomela_, is a proof, however, that his prose was occasionally the medium of sound instruction; for the moral of this piece is unexceptionable. We may also remark, that the confessions wrung from him in the hour of repentance are highly monitory, and calculated to make the most powerful and salutary impression.

[628:A] Mason's Gray, p. 224.

[629:A] Vide Chalmers's English Poets, vol. v. p. 226.

[629:B] Warton's Hist. of English Poetry, vol. iii. p. 485.

[630:A] Nugæ Antiquæ, apud Park, vol. i. p. xxii.

[630:B] This writer terms Sir John "one of the most ingenious poets of our English nation," and says "he was a Poet in all things, save in his wealth, leaving a fair estate to a learned and religious son."—Worthies, part iii. p. 28.

[630:C] They were also annexed to the third edition of the Translation of "Orlando Furioso," fol. 1634.

[630:D] The popularity of these epigrams, notwithstanding their poetical mediocrity, may be estimated from the opinion of the publisher of the edition of 1625. "If in poetry," he remarks, "heraldry were admitted, he would be found in happiness of wit near allied to the great Sidney: yet but near; for the Apix of the Cœlum Empyrium is not more inaccessible, than is the height of Sidney's poesy, which by imagination we may approach, by imitation never attain to."—Dedication to George Villiers Duke of Buckingham.

A subsequent writer has also gifted them with extraordinary longevity:—

"Still lives the Muse's Apollonian son,
The Phœnix of his age, rare HARINGTON!
Whose _Epigrams_, when time shall be no more,
May die, perhaps, but never can before."
Beedome's Poems, 1641.

Vide Nugæ Antiquæ, vol. i. p. xxiii.

[632:A] Edition of 1800, by Sir Egerton Brydges, p. 197, 198.

[632:B] Vide Beloe's Anecdotes of Literature, vol. ii. p. 114.

[632:C] Ibid. p. 115.

[633:A] Vide Beloe on Scarce Books, vol. ii. pp. 115-117.

[633:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. viii. p. 3.

[635:A] British Bibliographer, No. 11. Preface to England's Helicon, pp. 6, 7.

[635:B] Biographia Dramatica, vol. i. p. 287. edit. 1782.

[635:C] Vol. ii. p. 159. et seq.

[635:D] Phillips's Theatrum apud Brydges, p. 199.

[636:A] Theatrum Poetarum, edit. of 1800, p. 113.

[636:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. vi. p. 318. Act iii. sc. 2.

[637:A] Miscellaneous Pieces of Antient English Poesie, preface.

[637:B] Ancient British Drama, vol. i. p. 49.

[637:C] Affaniæ, lib. ii. Ad Johannem Marstonium.

[638:A] British Bibliographer, vol. i. p. 363.

[639:A] Athenæ Oxon. vol. i. col. 402.

[639:B] "The Poems of Sir Walter Raleigh: now first collected. With a Biographical and Critical Introduction:" Dedicated to William Bolland, Esq.

[639:C] Phillips's Theatrum apud Brydges, p. 308, 309.

[639:D] Arte of English Poesie, reprint of 1811. p. 168.

[639:E] Phillips's Theatrum apud Brydges, p. 314, 315.

[640:A] Arte of English Poesie, reprint, p. 165. 167.

[640:B] Ibid. p. 51.

[640:C] Vide Phillips's Theatrum apud Brydges, p. 269.

[642:A] Biographical and Critical Introduction, pp. 43-46.

[642:B] The date of this nobleman's birth has been variously given: thus Ritson affirms in his Bibliographia, p. 324., he was born in 1536; and Sir Egerton Brydges in his edition of the "Theatrum Poetarum," also expressly tells us, that "Sackville was not born till 1536," p. 66; but in "The British Bibliographer" he has corrected this assertion, and places his nativity in 1527, which is the true era, as he died aged 81, in 1608.

[642:C] Park's edition of Lord Orford's Royal and Noble Authors, vol. ii. p. 130.

[643:A] British Bibliographer, No. IV. p. 295.

[644:A] Specimens of the Early English Poets, 1st edit. vol. ii. p. 166.

[645:A] Vide Warton, vol. iii.; or, Phillips's Theatrum apud Brydges, p. 268.

[645:B] Select Beauties of Antient English Poetry, vol. ii. Kett's edit. pp. 2. 5. 86.

[645:C] Bibliographia Poetica, p. 340, 341.

[645:D] Censura Literaria, vol. vi. p. 285-298.

[646:A] Book ii. Song 1. See Chalmers's English Poets, vol. vi. p. 276. col. 2.

[646:B] Poems, edit. 1658. p. 8.

[646:C] Preface to Spenser's View of the State of Ireland, 1633.

[647:A] Epigrammatum Libri quatuor, 1607, p. 100. For this striking testimony we are indebted to Mr. Todd's valuable edition of Spenser, vol. i. p. cxxi.

[647:B] To the charge of "critical negligence," in this respect, I am sorry to say, that I must plead guilty in my "Literary Hours;" where, in delineating the character of Spenser, I have brought forward this accusation of _obsolete diction_, without the proper discrimination. Vide Literary Hours, 3d edit. vol. ii. p. 161.—In every other respect I consider the criticism as correct. I had then read Spenser but twice through; a further familiarity with the Fairie Queene has induced me to withdraw the censure, and to accede to the opinion of Mr. Malone, who conceives the language of the _Fairie Queene_ to have been "perfectly intelligible to every reader of poetry in the time of Queen Elizabeth, though the _Shepheards Calendar_ was not even then understood without a commentary."—See his Dryden's Prose Works, vol. iii. p. 94.

[649:A] It is impossible to view the portrait prefixed to Mr. Todd's valuable edition of Spenser, without being incredulous as to its authenticity. There is a pertness and satirical sharpness in its expression very inconsistent, not only with the disposition of the poet, but with the features given to him in every other representation, of which the leading character is an air of pensive sweetness.

[650:A] Royal and Noble Authors apud Park, vol. v. p. 73.

[650:B] Chalmers's English Poets, vol. v. p. 298.

[651:A] Orford's Royal and Noble Authors apud Park, vol. v. p. 76.

[652:A] "Its rude grandeur, its immense hall, its castellated form, its numerous apartments, well accord with the images of chivalry, which the memory of Sydney inspires."—British Bibliographer, vol. i. p. 293.

[652:B] Zouch's Life of Sydney, 4to. p. 256.

[653:A] Vide Poems, 1807, 12mo. 4th. edit.; and British Bibliographer, vol. i. p. 81-105. and 289-295. Censura Literaria, vol. ii. p. 175. et seq.; and vol. iii. p. 389.

[653:B] Considerations on Milton's Early Reading, and the Prima Stamina of his Paradise Lost; together with Extracts from a Poet of the Sixteenth Century. In a Letter to William Falconer, M. D., from Charles Dunster, Esq. M. A. London, 1800.

[653:C] Vide Wood's Athenæ, vol. i. p. 594.; and Phillips's Theatrum.

[654:A] For further observations on, and numerous extracts from, Sylvester's Du Bartas, see Dunster's Considerations, and Drake's Literary Hours, 3d edit. vol. iii. Nos. 49, 50, and 51.

[655:A] One of the Epigrams prefixed to the folio edition of Sylvester's Works. Ten pages in the copy of 1641 are occupied by commendatory Poems on the Translator.

[655:B] Lines by Viccars, under the portrait of Sylvester, in the edition of 1641.

[656:A] Vide Preliminary Dissertation to his edition of Tusser, pp. 5. 13. 20, 21. 25.

[657:A] British Bibliographer, No. III. p. 286.

[657:B] Preface to his Translation of Conradus Heresbachius, printed in 1596, and 1601.

[658:A] Bibliographia Poetica, p. 374.

[658:B] See Sharpe's British Poets, No. LXXIX. p. 17. note 20.

[659:A] Ritson's Bibliographia Poetica, p. 384.

[659:B] Reliques, vol. ii. p. 239. 4th edit.

[659:C] Wit's Academy, part ii. p. 280. edit. of 1598.

[659:D] Of Poets and Poesy, Chalmers's English Poets, vol. iv. p. 399. col. 2.

[660:A] Edit. 1741. p. 157.

[660:B] Vol. ii. p. 238.

[660:C] Vol. iv. p. 499.

[661:A] British Bibliographer, No. XII. p. 7.

[661:B] Ibid. p. 5. 7.

[663:A] British Bibliographer, No. XII. p. 3, 4.

[663:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 31.

[663:C] Epistle prefixed to Greene's Menaphon.

[663:D] Foure Letters and certaine Sonnets, 1592.

[663:E] Censura Literaria, vol. ix. p. 47.

[664:A] In the Apologie of Dorrell, dated 1596, and annexed to the second edition, he tells us, that "this poetical fiction was penned by the author at least for thirty and five yeares sithence." "If there was sufficient ground for this assertion," remarks Mr. Haslewood, "it fixes the time of the composition about 1561, and supposing the author then, as seems reasonable to presume, to have attained his twenty-first year, it places the time of his birth, as conjecturally fixed by Mr. Ellis, at 1540. However, some doubt arises whether this inference is not contradicted by the preface of 1594; which describes the author not only as 'a scholar of very good hope,' but also as a 'young man,' who, desirous of seeing the fashions of other countries, had, 'not long sithence,' departed voluntarily in Her Majesty's service. Here the most enlarged meaning bestowed on the expression 'not long sithence,' can neither explain the sentence that calls him a 'scholar of very good hope,' nor that of a 'young man,' whereby they shall be terms applicable to a person who had written thirty years before, and from the above inference might have been then in the fifty-fourth year of his age. It is probable the preface may be relied on; otherwise the author's departure from this country will be found too remote for the term of any voluntary engagement, civil or military, that could be attached to foreign service. Dorrell's subsequent anachronism may be ascribed to inadvertency: to a zealous, but hurried attempt to parry the attack of the critic, by the supposed youth of the writer; and by fixing the composition at a period sufficiently early to prevent an unfavourable comparison with more recent productions." British Bibliographer, No. XIV. p. 242.

[664:B] The term _hexameter_ is here meant to designate stanzas consisting of _six lines_.

[664:C] Ritson dates this fourth impression 1609, but Mr. Haslewood 1605: see Brit. Bibliogr., No. XIV. p. 241.

[665:A] Brit. Bibliogr., No. XIV. p. 243.

[665:B] Ibid., p. 245.

[666:A] Brit. Bibliogr., No. III. p. 17, et seq.

[666:B] At the end of his "Fides Anglicanæ," 1660.

[666:C] In his "Warning-piece to London," 1665.

[667:A] Vide Preface to "Abuses Stript and Whipt."

[668:A] Brit. Bibliogr., No. I. p. 4, 5.

[668:B] A Selection from Wither's Works, in three volumes 8vo., was promised, five years ago, by a gentleman of Bristol. In 1785 Mr. Alexander Dalrymple published Extracts from his Juvenilia; and "Fidelia," "Faire Virtue," "The Shepheard's Hunting," and "Abuses Stript and Whipt," are now separately reprinting from the press of Longman and Co.—October 1814.

[669:A] Restituta, No. VI. p. 394, 395.

[669:B] Theatrum Poetarum, edition of 1675.

[670:A] Reliques, vol. iii., 4th edit. p. 190-264.

[671:A] Dalrymple's Extracts from Wither's Juvenilia, 1785.

[672:A] "Laura: or an Anthology of Sonnets." By Capel Lofft. 5 vols. Preface, vol. i. p. cxliv. cxlv.

[673:A] Theatrum Poetarum apud Brydges, p. 318, 319.

[674:A] Observations on Spenser, vol. i. p. 155, 156.

[674:B] It may be useful in this note, to place, in immediate juxta-position, the names of the Poets whom we have thus enumerated, as leaders of a great portion of their Art, during a period of half a century.

1. Beaumont, Sir John.
2. Breton.
3. Browne.
4. Chalkhill.
5. Chapman.
6. Churchyard.
7. Constable.
8. Daniel.
9. Davies.
10. Davors.
11. Donne.
12. Drayton.
13. Drummond.
14. Fairfax.
15. Fitzgeffrey.
16. Fletcher, Giles.
17. Fletcher, Phineas.
18. Gascoigne.
19. Greene.
20. Hall.
21. Harrington.
22. Jonson.
23. Lodge.
24. Marlow.
25. Marston.
26. Niccols.
27. Raleigh.
28. Sackville.
29. Southwell.
30. Spenser.
31. Stirling.
32. Sydney.
33. Sylvester.
34. Turberville.
35. Tusser.
36. Warner.
37. Watson.
38. Willobie.
39. Wither.
40. Wotten.

Lane.

[677:A] "Here, through the course of twenty sonnets, not inelegant, and which were exceedingly popular, the poet bewails his unsuccessful love for a beautiful youth, by the name of Ganymede, in a strain of the most tender passion, yet with professions of the chastest affection." Warton's Hist. vol. iii. p. 405.—It was the fashion, at this period, to imitate the second Eclogue of Virgil.

[677:B] The Sonnets of Barnes, which are written in strict adherence to the recurring _rima_ of the Italian school, frequently possess no inconsiderable beauties. The Sonnet on Content, selected by Mr. Beloe (vol. ii. p. 78.), from Parthenophil, is highly pleasing and harmonious, and at least twenty of his centenary may be pronounced, both in imagery and versification, above mediocrity.

[677:C] Sheppard, in his Poems, 1651, remarks that "none in England, save Bastard and Harington, have divulged epigrams worth notice." A beautiful specimen of his Epigrams is given by Mr. Park, in Censura Literaria, vol. iv. p. 375.

[677:D] To this poet, Nash dedicated his "Strange Newes," &c. 1592, in the subsequent curious terms: "To the most copious carminist of our time, and famous persecutor of Priscian, his verie friend maister _Apis lapis_."—Vide Ritson, p. 131. note.

[678:A] For an account of this author, see British Bibliographer, No. VIII. p. 235. In this, as in other instances, I have only inserted the pieces published during the life of Shakspeare.

[678:B] Two pieces by this writer, entitled "The Mourning Muse of Thestylis," and "A Pastorall Aeglogue upon the Death of Sir Philip Sidney," have been inserted in Spenser's Works (Todd's edit. vol. viii. p. 66. et seq.), and probably form the contents of "The Mourning Muses." He is described by Spenser as a swain

"Of gentle wit and daintie sweet device,"

and if, as Ritson asserts, (Bibliograph. Poet. p. 146,) "we probably owe much that has descended to us of the incomparable "Faery Queen," to this poet, we are greatly his debtors indeed. That Bryskett had importuned his friend for the continuance of his immortal poem, is evident from Spenser's thirty-third sonnet, which pleads, as an excuse, disappointment in love, and closes with the following petitionary couplet:—

"Cease then, till she vouchsafe to grawnt me rest;
Or lend you me another living breast."
Vol. viii. p. 137.

Bryskett succeeded Spenser as Clerk of the Council of Munster.

[679:A] To these poems by Chester, are added on the first subject, which, he tells us, "allegorically shadows the truth of love, in the constant fate of the phœnix and turtle," poems by Shakspeare, Jonson, Marston, Chapman, and others.—Vide Ritson, p. 159.

[679:B] Ritson remarks,—"This is probably the poem alluded to in the _Midsummer-Night's Dream_:—

"Not Shafalus to Procrus was so true,
As Shafalus to Procrus, I to you."
Page 170.

[680:A] That Wittes Pilgrimage was written before 1614, is evident from its being alluded to in his _Scourge for Paper-Persecutors_: annexed to the _Scourge of Folly_, printed in this year.

[680:B] Beside these productions here enumerated, Davies published, in 1617, "_Wits Bedlam_," 8vo.; containing not less than 400 Epigrams, and about 80 Epitaphs. This writer usually designated himself by the title of _John Davies of Hereford_,—See Censura Literaria, vols. i. ii. v. vi. Brit. Bibliographer, No. VIII, Beloe's Anecdotes, vol. ii., and Wood's Athenæ Oxon. vol. i. p. 445. He also wrote _The Holy Rood, or Christ's Crosse_, 1609.

[680:C] These poetical brothers published their poems with the above title, in a valuable Collection of Metrical Miscellanies, called "A Poetical Rapsodie," 1602, which will be noticed hereafter. They are introduced in the Table as being the principal contributors, and as distinguishing their pieces by a separate title or division.

[681:A] This writer was the most popular ballad-maker of his day; he was by trade a silk-weaver, and the compiler of various Garlands, under the titles of "The Garland of Good Will;" "The Garland of Delight," &c. &c. Nash, in his "Have with you to Saffron-Walden," 1596, says, that "his muse from the first peeping forth, hath stood at livery at an alehouse wispe, never exceeding a penny a quart day nor night; and this deere yeare, together with the silencing of his looms, scarce that; he being constrained to betake himself to carded ale: whence it proceedeth, that since _Candlemas_, or his jigge of _John for the King_, not one merrie dittie will come from him, but _The thunder-bolt against swearers_, _Repent England repent_, and _The strange judgements of God_."

[681:B] Drant was a copious Latin Poet, having published two miscellanies under the titles of _Sylva_, and _Poemata Varia_.

[681:C] A quotation from one of the songs or ballads of this drunken rhymer, is to be found in _Much Ado about Nothing_, (Reed's Shakspeare, vol. vi. p. 196.) commencing

"The god of love,
That sits above."

[682:A] This poem, of which a prior edition is noticed in Censura Literaria, vol. v. p. 349, as published in 4to. 1600, is conjectured by Ritson, p. 201, to have been the production of William Evans, who is well known to the lovers of old English poetry, by his eulogium prefixed to the first edition of Spenser's "Faerie Queene," 1590. The Thamesiades, which consists of three books or cantos, is written with vigour, and exhibits some pleasing poetical pictures.

[682:B] This thin volume of 22 leaves, consists of seven poetical speeches "spoken before the King and Queens most excellent Majestie, the Prince his highnesse, and the Lady Elizabeth's Grace."

[682:C] He contributed also to the previous editions of 1559 and 1563.

[682:D] The "Georgiks" were added to a new version of the "Bucolikes," forming one volume, 4to. Both are in regular Alexandrines without rhyme.

[683:A] This production consists of a pastoral and an elegy; the former being a translation of the Aminta of Tasso.

[683:B] Fraunce also published in a work of his, entitled "The Lawyers Logicke," 1586, an hexameter version of Virgil's Alexis. His affectation of Latin metres has condemned him to oblivion, for as Phillips justly remarks, "they neither become the English, nor any other modern language."—Edit. apud Brydges, p. 109.

[683:C] Wood tells us (Ath. Oxon. vol. i. p. 398.), that Freeman was held in esteem by Donne, Daniel, Chapman, and Shakspeare; and to these poets, and to Spenser, he has addressed epigrams. For numerous specimens of this poet, see Warton, vol. iv., Ellis, and Park in Censura Lit. vol. iv. p. 129.

[683:D] This poem was afterwards annexed to Greene's "History of Arbasto," 1617, where it is termed "a lovely poem." It was reprinted in 1626. On Greene's authority, I have ranked it beyond mediocrity.

[684:A] A collection which consists, observes Mr. Park, "of the saddest trash that ever assumed the name of Epigrams; and which, with a very slight alteration, well merits the sarcasm bestowed by Shenstone on the poems of a Kidderminster bard:—

"Thy verses, friend, are _linsey woolsey_ stuff,
And we must own—you've measur'd out enough."
Censura Lit. vol. v. p. 348.

[684:B] The "Popish Kingdome" consists of four books, of which the last contains a curious and interesting description of feasts, holidays, and Christmas games; including, of course, many of the customs, and almost all the amusements of the period in which it was written.

[684:C] Besides these works, Googe published in 1563, "Eglogs, Epitaphs, and Sonnets," 12mo.

[685:A] "A Poem in manuscript, of considerable length, together with some Sonnets, preserved amongst numerous treasures of a similar nature, which belonged to the late Duke of Bridgewater, and now belong to the Marquis of Stafford."—Todd's Spenser, vol. i. p. 87. Mr. Todd has given us a specimen of Sir Arthur's talents, by the production of a Sonnet from this manuscript treasure, which indicates no common genius, and induces us to wish for the publication of the whole.

[685:B] Sir Arthur was the intimate friend of Spenser, who lamented the death of Lady Gorges in a beautiful elegy entitled "Daphnaida:" he has recorded, likewise, the conjugal affection and the talents of her husband, under the name of _Alcyon_, in the following elegant lines:—

"And there is sad Alcyon, bent to mourne,
Though fit to frame an everlasting dittie,
Whose gentle spright for Daphne's death doth tourne
Sweet layes of love to endlesse plaints of pittie.
Ah pensive boy, pursue that brave conceipt,
In thy sweet eglantine of Meriflure,
Lift up thy notes unto their wonted height,
That may thy Muse and mates to mirth allure."
Todd's Spenser, vol. viii. p. 23.

[685:C] This poem was printed, says Ritson, at the end of Kenton's "Mirror of man's life," 1580. Gosson is introduced here in consequence of the celebrity attributed to him by Wood, who declares, that "for his admirable penning of pastorals, he was ranked with Sir P. Sidney, Tho. Chaloner, Edm. Spenser, Abrah. Fraunce, and Rich. Bernfield."

[685:D] This forms the second part of a work by the same writer, called "The Golden Aphroditis," and consists of 19 pieces, four of which are in prose.

[686:A] Greepe's poem has been, through mistake, attributed by Mr. Beloe to Thomas Greene; and Ritson, by a second error, charged with its omission.—Vide Anecdotes, vol. ii. p. 89.

[686:B] These pieces, written before 1620, were collected in his Works, folio, 1633, and in his "Remains," 1670. 8vo.

[686:C] Vide Beloe's Anecdotes, vol. ii. p. 109.

[687:A] Warton observes, that "this translation has no other merit than that of being the first appearance of a part of the Iliad in an English dress."—Vol. iii. p. 440.

[687:B] Ritson appears to have confounded these two writers, Sir William, and William Harbert, and classed them as one. The latter speaks of his _unripened yeares_ in 1604.—Vide British Bibliographer, No. IV. p. 300.

[687:C] Beside these Sonnets, amounting to twenty-three, Harvey was the introducer of the miserable attempts to imitate the Latin metres, and boasts in this publication of being the first who exhibited English hexameters.

[687:D] The celebrated sister of Sir Philip Sydney.

[687:E] All that are printed of these, appear in the Paradise of Daintie Devises, of the date annexed. He had previously translated three tragedies from Seneca, and died in 1598.

[688:A] A writer known to greater advantage by his _Hierarchie of the Blessed Angels_, folio, 1635; a work of singular curiosity and much amusement.

[688:B] Higgins termed this the _first part_, merely in reference to the collection by Baldwin in 1559, which, commencing at a much later period, was afterwards called "the last part." Higgins's publication, in 1575, contains 17 Legends from Albanact to Irenglas; but in 1587 he edited an edition of the Mirrour, including Baldwin's part, and with the addition of 24 Legends of his own composition, which carries forward his department to the death of Caracalla.

[688:C] In the Dedication of this work, the fashionable reading of the times is thus reprobated:—"Novelties in these days delight dainty eares, and fine filed phrases to fit some fantasy's, that no book except it abound with the one or the other, or both of these, is brooked of them. Some read _Gascoyne_, some _Guevasia_, some praise the _Palace of Pleasure_, and the like, whereon they bestow whole days, yea, some whole months and years, that scarce bestow one minute on the Bible, albeit the work of God."

[688:D] For specimens of this volume, which is supposed to be unique, see British Bibliographer, No. II. p. 105.

[689:A] An edition of this "famous old ballad" was published by Thomas Gent of York, about 1740, who tells us, that it was "taken from an antient manuscript, which was transcribed by Mr. Richard Guy, late schoolmaster at Ingleton, in Yorkshire." Subsequent editions have been published by Lambe and Weber.

[689:B] Printed in Ashmole's _Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum_.

[690:A] Perhaps the only piece above mediocrity in Kendall's Epigrams is the following which I consider as very happily rendered:—

"MARTIAL.

_To Himselfe._

MARTIAL, the thinges that do attaine
The hapy life be these I finde:
The riches left, not got with paine;
The fruitefull ground, the quiet minde.

The egall frend; no grudge no strife;
No charge of rule, nor governaunce:
Without disease the healthfull life;
The household of continuance.

The mean dyet, no delicate fare;
True wisdome joynd with simplenes;
The night discharged of all care,
Where wine the wit may not oppresse.

The faithfull wife without debate;
Such sleepes as may beguile the night;
Content thyself with thine estate,
Ne wishe for death, nor feare his might."
Fol. 18, b.

[691:A] This writer transcends mediocrity in consequence of the singular purity and harmony of his diction and versification. The subsequent lines, forming the prior part of a sonnet, have the air of being written rather in the 19th than the 16th century:—

"Hard is his hap who never finds content,
But still must dwell with heavy-thoughted sadnesse:
Harder that heart that never will relent,
That may, and will not turne these woes to gladnesse;

Then joies adue, comfort and mirth, farewell;
For I must now exile me from all pleasure,
Seeking some uncouth cave where I may dwell,
Pensive and solitarie without measure."

[691:B] For an account of this author, and of a poem of his printed in 1631, see Wood's Fasti, vol. i. col. 147; and Censura Literaria, vol. i. p. 291.

[691:C] A poem in Alexandrines, printed at the end of the first edition of his "Pilgrimage of Princes."

[692:A] The 200 Sonnets are followed by 100, entitled "Sundry affectionate Sonets of a feeling conscience;" by 20, called "An Introdution to peculiar prayers," and by 59, termed "Sonnets of the Author to divers." In "The Return from Parnassus," Lok is thus, not undeservedly, sentenced to oblivion:—"Locke and Hudson, sleep you, quiet shavers, among the shavings of the press, and let your books lie in some old nook amongst old boots and shoes: so, you may avoid my censure."—Ancient British Drama, vol. i. p. 49.

[692:B] This is attributed to Markham on the authority of Mr. Haslewood. See British Bibliographer, No. IV. p. 381.

[692:C] Mr. Park conceives this translation to be the production of Robert Tofte, rather than of Markham.—Ritson's Bibliographia, p. 274, note.

[693:A] It is to be regretted that no complete edition of the Works of Montgomery has hitherto been published. Those printed by Foulis and Urie in 1751 and 1754, are very imperfect; but might soon be rendered faithful by consulting the manuscript collection of Montgomery's Poems, presented by Drummond to the University of Edinburgh. This MS., extending to 158 pages 4to., contains, beside odes, psalms, and epitaphs, 70 sonnets, written on the Petrarcan model; and, if we may judge from the six published by Mr. Irving, exhibiting a considerable portion of poetic vigour. _The Cherrie and the Slae_, which, as the critic just mentioned observes, "has maintained its popularity for the space of two hundred years," must be pronounced in some of its parts, beautiful, and, as a whole, much above mediocrity. Sibbald has printed ten of our author's poems in the third volume of his Chronicle of Scottish Poetry.

[694:A] The Sonnets of Murray appeared five years anterior to those of Drummond, and though not equal to the effusions of the bard of Hawthornden, are yet entitled to the praise of skilful construction and frequently of poetic expression. A copy is now seldom to be met with; but specimens may be found in Campbell's History of Poetry in Scotland, and in Censura Literaria, vol. x. p. 374, 375.

[694:B] This poet, who, in the former part of his life, practised as a physician, at Butley, in Cheshire, was a Latin poet of some eminence, and one of the translators of Seneca's Tragedies, published in 1581.

[694:C] For a specimen of this poem, see Beloe's Anecdotes, vol. ii. p. 104.

[694:D] Though said to be the fourth edition, this copy is supposed by Mr. Neve to be really the first impression. (See Cursory Remarks on Ancient English Poets, 1789, p. 27.) Few poems have been more popular than Overbury's "Wife;" owing partly to the good sense with which it abounds, and partly to the interesting and tragic circumstances which accompanied the author's fate. It was speedily and frequently imitated; in 1614, appeared "_The Husband. A poeme expressed in a compleat man_," by an anonymous writer; in 1616, "_A Select Second Husband for Sir Thomas Overburie's Wife_," by John Davies of Hereford; in 1619, "_The Description of a Good Wife_," by Richard Brathwaite; and in the same year, "_A Happy Husband, or Directions for a Maid to chuse her Mate_," by Patrick Hannay. These pieces are inferior to their prototype, which, though not displaying much poetic inspiration, is written with elegance and perspicuity.

[695:A] This work is a composition of verse and prose. Mr. Douce terms Parkes a "writer of great ability and poetical talents, though undeservedly obscure." Vide Illustrations, vol. ii. p. 75.

[695:B] Warton, in the Fragment of his fourth volume of the History of English Poetry, remarks at p. 73, that many of Parrot's epigrams "are worthy to be revived in modern collections." The _Laquei_ contain many of the epigrams which he had previously published.

[696:A] Peele, who will afterwards be noticed as a dramatic poet, may be classed with Scoggan, Skelton, and Tarleton, as a buffoon and jester. He died before 1598, and his "Merrie conceited Jests" were published in 4to. in 1627.

[696:B] An ample analysis of "The Historie of Lord Mandozze," has been given in the British Bibliographer, No. X. p. 523.; and No. XI. p. 587. Of the poetry of this very rare version, little laudatory can be said.

[696:C] Of this scarce poem, unknown to Ritson, the reader will find a description by Mr. Haslewood in the British Bibliographer, No. III. p. 214.

[696:D] Mr. Beloe conjectures this "Commemoration," not noticed by Ritson, to have been the production of a writer different from the _John Phillip_ of the Bibliographia (p. 299.), and assigns for his reason, the signature, at the conclusion, namely, _John Phyllips_; but it is remarkable that the inscription, copied by Mr. Beloe, runs thus: "To all Right Noble, Honorable, Godlye and Worshipfull Ladyes, _John Phillip_ wisheth," &c. a variation in the orthography which warrants an inference as to their identity. Vide Beloe, vol. ii. p. 111. et seq.

[697:A] Mr. Haslewood supposes this poem to have been written by William Phiston, of London, Student; who is considered by Herbert, p. 1012., as the same person mentioned by Warton, vol. iii. p. 308. under the appellation of W. Phist.—See Brit. Bibliogr. vol. v. p. 569.

[697:B] Ritson, in his Bibliographia, says, that no one except Warton appears to have met with this publication; extracts from it, however, may be found in the Monthly Mirror, vol. xiv. p. 17.

[697:C] These Flowers are the production of one of the most celebrated agriculturists of the 16th century, the author of the "Jewell House of Art and Nature;" the "Paradise of Flora;" the "Garden of Eden," &c. &c.; but, in his poetical capacity, they prove, as Mr. Park remarks, that he "did not attain to 'a plat of rising ground in the territory of Parnassus.'"—Censura Lit. vol. viii. p. 7.

[697:D] These are printed in the latter part of the miscellany, entitled "A Gorgeous Gallery of Gallant Inventions."

[697:E] Beside these verses in honour of Elizabeth, Puttenham wrote the "Isle of Great Britain," a little brief romance; "Elpine," an eclogue; "Minerva," an hymn; and, throughout his "Arte of Poesie," are interspersed a number of _verses_, _epigrams_, _epitaphs_, _translations_, _imitations_, &c. Mr. Haslewood has prefixed a copy of the _Partheniades_ to his reprint of "The Arte of English Poesie," 1811.

[698:A] For specimens of this poem, the British Bibliographer, No. II. p. 153., may be consulted. Why it was called Dolarny's Primerose does not appear. Reynolds possesses some merit as a descriptive poet.

[698:B] Of this work, not mentioned by Ritson, an account has been given by Mr. Haslewood in Censura Literaria, vol. iv. p. 241. The "Rewarde of Wickednesse" is written on the plan of the "Mirror for Magistrates," and was composed during the author's night-watches as one of the sentinels employed to guard the unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots. Robinson is supposed to be author of "The ruffull tragedy of Hemidos and Thelay," licensed in 1570.

[698:C] To Sibbald's Chronicle of Scottish Poetry, vol. iii. p. 287., and to _Restituta_, No. III. p. 177., I refer the reader for the only account which I can recollect of this obscure writer. Irving and Pinkerton merely mention the titles of his poems. Mr. Gillies, in a very interesting article in the Restituta, has given us an ample specimen of his "Seven Sages."

[699:A] Ritson says, that this is "a poem in 168 six-line stanzas, of considerable merit, and with great defects: a 4to. MS. in the possession of Francis Douce, Esq."—Vide Bibliographia Poetica, p. 315.

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