things worthy reading and didst do Things worthy writing too Thy Arts thy Valour show And by thy Works we do thy Learning know I shall conclude all with these excellent Verses made by himself a little before his Death It is not I that die I do but leave an Inn Where harbour'd was with me all filthy Sin It is not I that die I do but now begin Into eternal Joy by Faith to enter in Why mourn you then my Parents Friends and Kin Lament you when I lose not when I win Sir FVLK GREVIL NExt to Sir Philip Sidney we shall add his great Friend and Associate Sir Fulk Grevil Lord Brook one very eminent both for Arts and Arms to which the genius of that time did mightily invite active Spirits This Noble Person for the great love he bore to Sir Philip sidney wrote his Life He wrote several other Works both in Prose and Verse some of which were Dramatick as his Tragedies of Alaham Mustapha and Marcus Tullius Cicero and others commonly of a Political Subject amongst which a Posthume Work not publish'd till within a few years being a two fold Treatise the first of Monarchy the second of Religion in all which is observable a close mysterious and sententious way of Writing without much regard to Elegancy of Stile or smoothness of Verse Another Posthume Book is also fathered upon him namely The Five Years of King James or the Condition of the State of England and the Relation it had to other Provinces Printed in the Year 1643. But of this last Work many people are doubtful Now for his Abilities in the Exercise of Arms take this instance At such time when the French Ambassadours came over into England to Negotiate a Marriage between the Duke of Anjou and Queen Elizabeth for their better entertainment Solemn Justs were proclaimed where the Earl of Arundel Frederick Lord Windsor Sir Philip Sidney and he were chief Challengers against all comers in which Challenge be behaved himself so gallantly that he won the reputation of a most valiant Knight Thus you see that though Ease be the Nurse of Poesie the Muses are also Companions to Mars as may be exemplified in the Lives of the Earl of Surrey Sir Philip Sidney and this Sir Fulk Grevil I shall only add a word or two of his death which was as sad as lamentable He kept a discontented servant who conceiving his deserts not soon or well enough rewarded wounded him mortally and then to save the Law a labour killed himself Verifying therein the observation That there is none who never so much despiseth his own life but yet is master of another mans This ingenious Gentleman in whose person shined all true Vertue and high Nobility as he was a great friend to learning himself so was he a great favourer of learning in others witness his liberality to Mr. Speed the Chronologer when finding his wide Soul was stuffed with too narrow an Occupation gave it enlargement as the said Author doth ingeniously consess in his description of Warwick shire Whose Merits saith he to me-ward I do acknowledge in setting his hand free from the daily employments of a Manual Trade and giving it full liberty thus to express the inclination of mind himself being the Procurer of my present Estate He lieth interred in Warwick-Church under a Monument of Black and White Marble wherein he is styled Servant to Queen Elizabeth Councellor to King James and Friend to Sir Philp Sidney He died Anno 16 without Issue save only those of his Brain which will make his Name to live when others Issue they may fail them Mr. EDMOND SPENSER THis our Famous Poet Mr. Edmond Spenser was born in the City of London and brought up in Pembroke-Hall in Cambridge where he became a most excellent Scholar but especially very happy in English Poetry as his learned elaborate Works do declare which whoso shall peruse with a judicious eye will find to have in them the very height of Poetick fancy and though some blame his Writings for the many Chaucerisms used by him yet to the Learned they are known not to be blemishes but rather beauties to his Book which notwithstanding saith a learned Writer had been more salable if more conformed to our modern language His first flight in Poetry as not thinking himself fully fledged was in that Book of his called The Shepherds Kalendar applying an old Name to a new Book It being of Eclogues fitted to each Month in the Year of which Work hear what that worthy Knight Sir Philip Sidney writes whose judgment in such cases is counted infallible The Shepherds Kalendar saith he hath much Poetry in his Eclogues indeed worthy the reading if I be not deceived That same framing his Stile to an old rustick Language I dare not allow since neither Theocritus in Greek Virgil in Latine nor Sanazara in Italian did effect it Afterwards he translated the Gnat a little fragment of Virgil's excellency Then he translated Bellay his Ruins of Rome His most unfortunate Work was that of Mother Hubbard's Tale giving therein offence to one in authority who after wards stuck on his skirts But his main Book and which indeed I think Envy its self cannot carp at was his Fairy Queen a Work of such an ingenious composure as will last as long as time endures Now as you have heard what esteem Sir Philip Sidney had of his Book so you shall hear what esteem Mr. Spenser had of Sir Philip Sidney writing thus in his Ruins of Time. Yet will I sing but who can better sing Than thou thy self thine own selfs valiance That while thou livedst thou madest the Forests ring And Fields resound and Flocks to leap and dance And Shepherds leave their Lambs unto mischance To run thy shrill Arcadian Pipe to hear O happy were those days thrice happy were In the same his Poem of the Rains of Time you may see what account he makes of the World and of the immortal Fame gotten by Poesie In vain do earthly Princes then in vain Seek with Pyramids to Heaven aspir'd Or huge Collosses built with costly pain Or brazen Pillars never to be fir'd Or Shrines made of the metal most desir'd To make their Memories for ever live For how can mortal immortality give For deeds do die however nobly done And thoughts of men do in themselves decay But wise words taught in numbers for to run Recorded by the Muses live for aye Ne may with storming showers be wash'd away Ne bitter breathing with harmful blast Nor age nor envy shall them ever wast There passeth a story commonly told and believed that Mr. Spenser presenting his Poems to Queen Elizabeth she highly affected therewith commanded the Lord Cecil her Treasurer to give him an Hundred Pound and when the Treasurer a good Steward of the Queen's Money alledged that Sum was too much for such a matter then give him quoth the Queen what is reason but was so busied or seemed to be
Tale of the Squire but only himself which he had not done had he not felt as he saith the infusion of Chaucer's own sweet Spirit surviving within him And a little before he calls him the most Renowned and Heroical Poet and his Writings the Works of Heavenly Wit concluding his commendation in this manner Dan Chaucer well of English undefiled On Fames eternal Bead-roll worthy to be filed I follow here the footing of thy feet That with thy meaning so I may the rather meet Mr. Cambden reaching one hand to Mr. Ascham and the other to Mr. Spenser and so drawing them together uttereth of him these words De Homero nostro Anglico illud vere asseram quod de Homero eruditus ille Italus dixit Hic ille est cujus de gurgite sacro Combibit arcanos vatum omnis turba furores The deservingly honoured Sir Philip Sidney in his Defence Poesie thus writeth of him Chaucer undoubtedly did excellently in his Troylus and Crescid of whom truly I know not whether to marvel more either that he in that misty time could see so clearly or we in this clear age walk so stumblingly after him And Doctor Heylin in his elaborate Description of the World ranketh him in the first place of our chiefest Poets Seeing therefore that both old and new Writers have carried this reverend conceit of him and openly declared the same by writing let us conclude with Horace in the eighth Ode of his fourth Book Dignum Laudi causa vetat mori The Works of this famous Poet were partly published in Print by William Caxton Mercer that first brought the incomparable Art of Printing into England which was in the Reign of King Henry the Sixth Afterward encreased by William Thinne Esq in the time of King Henry the Eighth Afterwards in the year 1561. in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth Corrected and Encreased by John Stow And a fourth time with many Amendments and an Explanation of the old and obscure Words by Mr. Thomas Speight in Anno 1597. Yet is he said to have written many considerable Poems which are not in his publish'd Works besides the Squires Tale which is said to be compleat in Arundel-house Library JOHN LYDGATE JOhn Lydgate was born in a Village of the same name not far off St. Edmondsbury a Village saith Cambden though small yet in this respect not to be passed over in silence because it brought into the World John Lydgate the Monk whose Wit may seem to have been framed and fashioned by the very Muses themselves so brightly reshine in his English Verses all the pleasant graces and elegancy of Speech according to that Age. After some time spent in our English Universities he travelled through France and Italy improving his time to his great accomplishment in learning the Languages and Arts Erat autem non solum elegans Poeta Rhetor disertus verum etiam Mathematicus expertus Philosophus acutus Theologus non contemnendus he was not only an elegant Poet and an eloquent Rhetorician but also an expert Mathematician an acute Philosopher and no mean Divine saith Pitseus After his return he became Tutor to many Noblemens Sons and both in Prose and Poetry was the best Author of his Age for if Chaucer's Coin were of greater Weight for deeper Learning Lydgate's was of a more refined Stantard for purer Language so that one might mistake him for a modern Writer But because none can so well describe him as himself take an Essay of his Verses out of his Life and Death of Hector pag. 316 and 317. I am a Monk by my profession In Berry call'd John Lydgate by my name And wear a habit of perfection Although my life agree not with the same That meddle should with things spiritual As I must needs confess unto you all But seeing that I did herein proceed At his command whom I could not refuse I humbly do beseech all those that read Or leisure have this story to peruse If any fault therein they find to be Or error that committed is by me That they will of their gentleness take pain The rather to correct and mend the same Than rashly to condemn it with disdain For well I wot it is not without blame Because I know the Verse therein is wrong As being some too short and some too long For Chaucer that my Master was and knew What did belong to writing Verse and Prose Ne're stumbled at small faults nor yet did view With scornful eye the Works and Books of those That in his time did write nor yet would taunt At any man to fear him or to daunt Now if you would know further of him hear him in his Prologue to the Story of Thebes a Tale as his Fiction is which or some other he was constrained to tell at the command of mine Host of the Tabard in Southwark whom he found in Canterbury with the rest of the Pilgrims which went to visit Saint Thomas shrine This Story was first written in Latine by Geoffry Chaucer and translated by Lydgate into English Verse but of the Prologue of his own making so much as concerns himmself thus While that the Pilgrims lay At Canterbury well lodged one and all I not in sooth what I may it call Hap or fortune in conclusioun That me befell to enter into the Toun The holy Sainte plainly to visite After my sicknesse vows to acquite In a Cope of blacke and not of greene On a Palfrey slender long and lene With rusty Bridle made not for the sale My man to forne with a voyd Male That by Fortune tooke my Inne anone Where the Pilgrimes were lodged everichone The same time her governour the host Stonding in Hall full of wind and bost Liche to a man wonder sterne and fers Which spake to me and said anon Dan Pers Dan Dominick Dan Godfray or Clement Ye be welcome newly into Kent Thogh your bridle have nother boos ne bell Beseeching you that ye will tell First of your name and what cuntre Without more shortly that ye be That looke so pale all devoid of bloud Upon your head a wonder thred-bare Hood Well arrayed for to ride late I answered my Name was Lydgate Monke of Bury me fifty yeare of age Come to this Town to do my Pilgrimage As I have hight I have thereof no shame Dan John quoth he well brouke ye your name Thogh ye be sole beeth right glad and light Praying you to soupe with us this night And ye shall have made at your devis A great Puddding or a round hagis A Franche Moile a Tanse or a Froise To been a Monk slender is your coise Ye have been sick I dare mine head assure Or let feed in a faint pasture Lift up your head be glad take no sorrow And ye should ride home with us to morrow I say when ye rested have your fill After supper sleep will doen none ill Wrap well your head clothes round about Strong nottie Ale will
it is said at one time he had cleared all Suits depending on that Court whereupon one thus versified on him When More some years had Chancellor been No more Suits did remain The same shall never more be seen Till More be there again He was of such excellency of Wit and Wisdom that he was able to make his Fortune good in whatsoever he undertook and to this purpose it is reported of him that when he was sent Ambassador by his Master Henry the Eighth into Germany before he deliver'd his Embassage to the Emperor he bid one of his Servants to fill him a Beer-glass of Wine which he drunk off twice commanding his Servant to bring him a third he knowing Sir Thomas More 's Temperance that he was not used to drink at first refused to fill him another telling Sir Thomas of the weight of his Employment but he commanding it and his Servant not daring to deny him he drank off the third and then made his immediate address to the Emperor and spake his Oration in Latine to the admiration of all the Auditors Afterwards Sir Thomas merrily asking his Man what he thought of his Speech he said that he deserved to govern three parts of the World and he believed if he had drunk the other Glass the Elegancy of his Language might have purchased the other part of the World. Being once at Bruges in Flanders an arrogant Fellow had set up a Thesis that he would answer any Question could be propounded unto him in what Art soever Of whom when Sir Thomas More heard he laughed and made this Question to be put up for him to answer Whether Averia caepta in Withernamia sunt irreplegibilia Adding That there was an Englishman that would dispute thereof with him This bragging Thraso not so much as understanding the Terms of our Common Law knew not what to answer to it and so became ridiculous to the whole City for his presumptuous bragging Many were the Books which he wrote amongst whom his Vtopi beareth the Bell which though not written in Verse yet in regard of the great Fancy and Invention thereof may well pass for a Poem it being the Idea of a compleat Common-wealth in an Imaginary Island but pretended to be lately discovered in America and that so lively counterfeited that many at the reading thereof mistook it for a real Truth insomuch that many great Learned men as Budeus and Johannes Paludanus upon a fervent zeal wished that some excellent Divines might be sent thither to preach Christ's Gospel yea there were here amongst us at home sundry good Men and learned Divines very desirous to undertake the Voyage to bring the People to the Faith of Christ whose Manners they did so well like Mr. Owen the Brittish Epigrammatist on this Book of Vtopia writeth thus More 's Vtopia and Mercurius Britanicus More shew'd the best the worst World 's shew'd by the Thou shew'st what is and he shews what should be But at last he fell into the King's displeasure touching the Divorce of Queen Katherine and for refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy for which he was committed to the Tower and afterwards beheaded on Tower-Hill July 6 1635. and buried at Chelsey under a plain Monument Those who desire to be further informed of this Learned Knight let them read my Book of England's Worthies where his Life is set forth more at large HENRY HOWARD Earl of Surrey THis Honourable Earl was Son to Thomas Howard Duke of Norfolk and Frances his Wife the Daughter of John Vere Earl of Oxford He was saith Cambden the first of our English Nobility that did illustrate his high Birth with the Beauty of Learning and his Learning with the knowledge of divers Languages which he attained unto by his Travels into foreign Nations so that he deservedly had the particular Fame of Learning Wit and Poetical Fancy Our famous Poet Drayton in his England's Heroical Epistles writing of this Noble Earl thus says of him The Earl of Surrey that renowned Lord Th' old English Glory bravely that restor'd That Prince and Poet a Name more divine Falling in Love with Beauteous Geraldine Of the Geraldi which derive their Name From Florence whether to advance her Fame He travels and in publick Justs maintain'd Her Beauty peerless which by Arms he gain'd In his way to Florence he touch'd at the Emperor's Court where he fell in acquaintance with the great Learned Cornelius Agrippa osb famous for Magick who shewed him the Image of his Geraldine in a Glass sick weeping on her Bed and resolved all into devout Religion for the absence of her Lord upon sight of which he made this Sonnet All Soul no earthly Flesh why dost thou fade All Gold no earthly Dross why look ' st thou pole Sickness how dar'st thou one so fair invade Too base Infirmity to work her Bale Heaven be distempered since she grieved pines Never be dry these my sad plantive Lines Pearch thou my Spirit on her Silver Breasts And with their pains redoubled Musick beatings Let them toss thee to world where all toil rests Where Bliss is subject to no Fear 's defeatings Her Praise I tune whose Tongue doth tune the Sphears And gets new Muses in her Hearers Ears Stars fall to fetch fresh light from her rich eyes Her bright Brow drives the Sun to Clouds beneath Her Hairs reflex with red strakes paints the Skies Sweet Morn and Evening dew flows from her breath Phoebe rules Tides she my Tears tides forth draws In her sick-Bed Love sits and maketh Laws Her dainty Limbs tinsel her Silk soft Sheets Her Rose-crown'd Cheeks eclipse my dazled sight O Glass with too much joy my thoughts thou greets And yet thou shew'st me day but by twilight He kiss thee for the kindness I have felt Her Lips one Kiss would unto Nectar melt From the Emperor's Court he went to the City of Florence the Pride and Glory of Italy in which City his Geraldine was born never ceasing till he came to the House of her Nativity and being shewn the Chamber her clear Sun-beams first thrust themselves in this cloud of Flesh he was transported with an Extasie of Joy his Mouth overflow'd with Magnificats his Tongue thrust the Stars out of Heaven and eclipsed the Sun and Moon with Comparisons of his Geraldine and in praise of the Chamber that was so illuminatively honoured with her Radiant Conception he penned this Sonnet Fair Room the presence of sweet Beauties pride This place the Sun upon the Earth did hold When Phaeton his Chariot did misguide The Tower where Jove rain'd down himself in Gold Prostrate as holy ground I le worship thee Our Ladies Chappel henceforth be thou nam'd Here first Loves Queen put on Mortality And with her Beauty all the world inflam'd Heaven's Chambers harbouriug fiery Cherubins Are not with thee in Glory to compare Lightning it is not Light which in thee shines None enter thee but streight entranced are O! if Elizium be above
giving at my last need like Succour as I have sought all my Life Being in this extremity as void of help as thou hast been of hope Reason would that after so long waste I should not send thee a Child to bring the Charge but consider he is the fruit of thy Womb in whose Face regard not the Father 's so much as thy own Perfections He is yet Green and may grow strait if he be carefully tended otherwise apt enough I fear me to follow his Fathers Folly. That I have offended thee highly I know that thou canst forget my Injuries I hardly believe yet I perswade my self if thou sawest my wretched estate thou couldst not but lament it Nay certainly I know thou wouldst All my wrongs muster themselves about me and every Evil at once plagues me For my contempt of God I am Contemned of Men for my swearing and forswearing no man will believe me for my Gluttony I suffer Hunger for my Drunkenness Thirst for my Adultery ulcerous Sores Thus God hath cast me down that I might be humbled and punisht me for example of others and though he suffers me in this world to perish without succour yet trust I in the world to come to find Mercy by the Merits of my Saviour to whom I commend thee and commit my Soul. Thy Repentant Husband for his Disloyalty Robert Greene. In a Comedy called Green's Tu quoque written by John Cooke I find these Verses made upon his Death How fast bleak Autumn changeth Flora's Die What yesterday was Greene now 's sear and dry THOMAS NASH THomas Nash was also a Gentleman born and bred up in the University of Cambridge a man of a quick apprehension and Satyrick Pen One of his first Books he wrote was entituled Pierce Penniless his Supplication to the Devil wherein he had some Reflections upon the Parentage of Dr. Harvey his Father being a Rope-maker of Saffron-Walden This begot high Contests betwixt the Doctor and him so that it became to be a well known Pen-Combate Amongst other Books which Mr. Nash wrote against him one was entituled Have with ye to Saffron-Walden and another called Four Letters confuted in which last he concludes with this Sonnet Were there no Wars poor men should have no Peace Uncessant Wars with Wasps and Drones I cry He that begins oft knows not how to cease He hath begun I le follow till I die I le hear no Truce Wrong gets no Grave in me Abuse pell-mell encounter with abuse Write he again I le write eternally Who feeds Revenge hath found an endless Muse If Death ere made his black Dart of a Pen My Pen his special Bayly shall become Somewhat I le be reputed of ' mongst men By striking of this Dunce or dead or dumb Await the World the Tragedy of Wrath What next I paint shall tread no common Path. It seems he had a Poetical Purse as well as a Poetical Brain being much straghitned in the Gifts of Fortune as he exclaims in his Pierce Penniless Why is 't damnation to despair and die When Life is my true happiness disease My Soul my Soul thy Safety makes me fly The faulty Means that might my Pain appease Divines and dying men may talk of Hell But in my Heart her several Torments dwell Ah worthless Wit to train me to this Wo Deceitful Arts that nourish Discontent Ill thrive the Folly that bewitch'd me so Vain Thoughts adieu for now I will repent And yet my Wants persuade me to proceed Since none takes pity of a Scholar's need Forgive me God although I curse my Birth And ban the Ayr wherein I breath a wretch Since Misery hath daunted all my Mirth And I am quite undone through Promise breach Oh Friends no Friends that then ungently frown When changing Fortune casts us headlong down Without redress complains my careless Verse And Midas ears relent not at my mone In some far Land will I my griefs rehearse ' Mongst them that will be mov'd when I shall grone England adieu the Soil that brought me forth Adieu unkind where Skill is nothing worth He wrote moreover a witty Poem entituled The White Herring and the Red and two Comedies the one called Summer's last Will and Testament and See me and see me not Sir PHILIP SIDNEY SIr Philip Sidney the glory of the English Nation in his time and pattern of true Nobility in whom the Graces and Muses had their domestical habitations equally addicted both to Arts and Arms though more fortunate in the one than in the other Son to Sir Henry Sidney thrice Lord Deputy of Ireland and Sisters Son to Robert Earl of Leicester Bred in Christ's Church in Oxford Cambridge being nevertheless so happy to have a Colledge of his name where he so profited in the Arts and Liberal Sciences that after an incredible proficiency in all the Species of Learning he left the Academical Life for that of the Court invited thither by his Uncle the Earl of Leicester that great Favourite of Queen Elizabeth Here he so profited that he became the glorious Star of his Family a lively Pattern of Vertue and the lovely Joy of all the learned sort These his Parts so indeared him to Queen Elizabeth that she sent him upon an Embassy to the Emperor of Germany at Vienna which he discharged to his own Honour and her Approbation Yea his Fame was so renowned throughout all Christendom that as it is commonly reported he was in election for the Kingdom of Poland though the Author of his Life printed before his Arcadia doth doubt of the truth of it however it was not above his deserts During his abode at the Court at his spare hours he composed that incomparable Romance entituled The Arcadia which he dedicated to his Sister the Countess of Pembroke A Book saith Dr. Heylin which besides its excellent Language rare Contrivances and delectable Stories hath in it all the strains of Poesie comprehendeth the whole art of speaking and to them who can discern and will observe affordeth notable Rules of Demeanour both private and publick and though some men sharp-witted only in speaking evil have depraved the Book as the occasion that many precious hours are spent no better they consider not that the ready way to make the minds of Youth grow awry is to lace them too hard by denying them just and due liberty Surely saith one the Soul deprived of lawful delights will in way of revenge to enlarge its self out of prison invade and attempt unlawful pleasures Let such be condemned always to eat their meat with no other sawce but their own appetite who deprive themselves and others of those sallies into lawful Recreations whereof no less plenty than variety is afforded in this Arcadia One writes that Sir Philip Sidney in the extream agony of his wounds so terrible the sence of death is requested the dearest friend he had to burn his Arcadia what promise his friend returned herein is uncertain but if he
brake his word to be faithful to the publick good posterity herein hath less cause to censure him for being guilty of such a mâ—â—â—orious offence wherewith he hath obliged so many ages Hereupon thus writeth the British Epigramatist Ipse tuam morient sede conjuge teste jubebas Arcadium saevis ignibus esse cibum Si meruit mortem quia flammam accendit amoris Mergi non uri debuit iste liber In Librum quaecunque cadat sententia nulla Debuit ingenium morte perire tuum In serious thoughts of Death 't was thy desire This sportful Book should be condemn'd with Fire If so because it doth intend Love-matters It rather should be quench'd or drown'd i' th waters However doom'd the Book the memory Of thy immortal Wit will never die He wrote also besides his Arcadia several other Works namely A Defence of Poesie a Book entituled Astrophel and Stella with divers Songs and Sonnets in praise of his Lady whom he celebrated under that bright Name whom afterwards he married that Paragon of Nature Sir Francis Walsingham's Daughter who impoverished himself to enrich the State from whom he expected no more than what was above all Portions a beautiful Wife and a virtuous Daughter He also translated part of that excellent Treatise of Philip Morney du Plessis of the Truth of Religion and no doubt had written many other excellent Works had not the Lamp of his Life been extinguish'd too soon the manner whereof take as followeth His Unkle Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester a man almost as much hated as his Nephew was loved was sent over into the Low-Countries with a well appointed Army and large Commission to defend the United Provinces against the Spanish Cruelty Under him went Sir Philip Sidney who had the Command of the cautionary Town of Flushing and Castle of Ramekius a Trust which he so faithfully discharged that he turned the Envy of the Dutch Townsmen into Affection and Admiration Not long after some Service was to be performed nigh Zutphen in Guelderland where the English through false intelligence were mistaken in the strength of the Enemy Sir Philip is employed next to the Chief in that Expedition which he so discharged that it is questionable whether his Wisdom Industry or Valour may challenge to it self the greatest praise of the Action And now when the triumphant Lawrels were ready to Crown his Brows the English so near the Victory that they touched it ready to lay hold upon he was unfortunately shot in the Thigh which is the Rendezvouz of Nerves and Sinews which caused a Feaver that proved so mortal that five and twenty days after he died of the same the Night of whose Death was the Noon of his Age and the exceeding Loss of Christendom His Body was conveyed into England and most honourably interred in the Church of St. Paul in London over which was fixed this Epitaph England Netherland the Heavens and the Arts All Souldiers and the World have made six parts Of the Noble Sidney for none will suppose That a small heap of Stones can Sidney enclose England hath his Body for she it bred Netherland his Blood in her defence shed The Heavens his Soul the Arts his Fame All Soldiers the Grief the World his good Name To recite the Commendations given him by several Authors would of it self require a Volume to rehearse some few not unpleasing to the Reader The reverend Cambden writes thus This is that Sidney whom as God's will was he should be therefore born into the world even to shew unto our Age a Sample of ancient Virtues Doctor Heylin in his Cosmography calleth him That gallant Gentleman of whom he cannot but make honourable mention Mr. Fuller in his Worthies thus writes of him His homebred Abilities perfected by Travel with foreign accomplishments and a sweet Nature set a gloss upon both Stow in his Annals calleth him a most valiant and towardly Gentleman Speed in his Chronicle That worthy Gentleman in whom were compleat all Virtues and Valours that could be expected to reside in man And Sir Richard Baker gives him this Character A man of so many excellent parts of Art and Nature of Valour and Learning of Wit and Magnanimity that as he had equalled all those of former Ages so the future will hardly be able to equal him Nor was this Poet forgotten by the Poets who offered whole Hecatombs of Verses in his praise Hear first that Kingly Poet or Poetical King King James the first late Monarch of Great Britain who thus writes Armipotens cui jus in fortia pectora Mavors Tu Dea quae cerebrum perrumpere digna totantis Tuque adeo bijugae proles Latonia rupis Gloria deciduae cingunt quam collibus artes Duc tecum querela Sidnaei funera voce Plangite nam vester fuer at Sidnaeus alumnus Quid genus proavos spem floremque juventae Immaturo obitu raptum sine sine retexo Heu frustra queror heu rapuit Mors omnia secum Et nihil ex tanto nunc est Heroe superstes Praeterquam Decus Nomen virtute paratum Doctaque Sidneas testantia Carmina laudes Thus translated by the said king Thou mighty Mars the Lord of Soldiers brave And thou Minerve that dost in wit excel And thou Apollo who dost knowledge have Of every Art that from Parnassus fell With all your Sisters that thereon do dwell Lament for him who duly serv'd you all Whom in you wisely all your Arts did mell Bewail I say his unexpected fall I need not in remembrance for to call His Race his Youth the hope had of him ay Since that in him doth cruel Death appall Both Manhood Wit and Learning every way But yet he doth in bed of Honour rest And evermore of him shall live the best And in another place thus When Venus sad saw Philip Sidney slain She wept supposing Mars that he had been From Fingers Rings and from her Neck the Chain She pluckt away as if Mars ne'er again She meant to please in that form he was in Dead an yet could a Goddess thus beguile What had he done if he had liv'd this while These Commendations given him by so learned a Prince made Mr. Alexander Nevil thus to write Harps others Praise a Scepter his doth sing Of Crowned Poet and of Laureat King. Divine Du Bartus speaking of the most Learned of the English Nation reckoneth him as one of the chief in these words And world mourn'd Sidney warbling to the Thames His Swan-like Tunes so courts her coy proud Streams That all with child with Fame his Fame they bear To Thetis Lap and Thetis every where Sir John Harrington in his Epigrams thus If that be true the latter Proverb says Laudari a Laudatis is most Praise Sidney thy Works in Fames Books are enroll'd By Princes Pens which have thy Works extoll'd Whereby thy Name shall dure to endless days Mr. Owen the Brittsh Epigrammatist thus sets him forth Thou writ'st
lived so He must have wit to spare and to hurl down Enough to keep the Gallants of the Town He must have learning plenty both the Laws Civil and Common to judge any Cause Divinity great store above the rest None of the worst Edition but the best He must have Language Travel all the Arts Judgment to use or else he wants thy parts He must have friends the highest able to do Such as Maecenas and Augustus too He must have such a sickness such a death Or else his vain descriptions come beneath He must unto all good men be a friend And like to thee must make a pious end Dr. RICHARD CORBET THis reverend Doctor was born at Ewel in Surrey a witty Poet in his youth witness his Iter Boreale and other facetious Poems which were the effects of his juvenal fancy He was also one of those celebrated Wits which with Mr. Benjamin Johnson Mr. Whitaker Sir Joh. Harrington Dr. Donne Mr. Drayton Mr. Davis whom I mentioned before and several others wrote those mock commendatory Verses on Coriats Crudities which because the Book is scarce and very few have seen it I shall give you them as they are recited in the Book I do not wonder Coriat that thou hast Over the Alps through France and Savoy past Parcht on thy skin and founder'd in thy feet Faint thirsty lousie and didst live to see 't Tho' these are Roman sufferings and do show What Creatures back thou hadst could carry so All I admire is thy return and how Thy slender pasterns could thee bear when now Thy observations with thy brain ingendred Have stufft thy massy and volumnious head With Mountains Abbeys Churches Synagogues Preputial Offals and Dutch Dialogues A burthen far more grievous than the weight Of Wine or Sleep more vexing then the freight Of Fruit and Oysters which lade many a pate And send folks crying home from Billings-gate No more shall man with Mortar on his head Set forward towards Rome no Thou art bred A terror to all Footmen and to Porters And all Lay-men that will turn Jews Exhorters To fly their conquer'd trade Proud England then Embrace this luggage which the man of men Hath landed here and change thy Welladay Into some home-spun welcome Roundelay Send of this stuff thy Territories thorough To Ireland Wales and Scottish Edenborough There let this Book be read and understood Where is no theme nor writer half so good He from a Student in became Dean of Christ-Church then Bishop of Oxford being of a courteous carriage and no destructive nature to any who offended him counting himself plentifully repaired with a Jest upon him He afterwards was advanced Bishop of Norwich where he died Anno 1635. Mr. BENJAMIN JOHNSON THis renowned Poet whose Fame surmounts all the Elogies which the most learned Pen can bestow upon him was born in the City of Westminster his Mother living there in Harts-horn-lane near Charing-cross where she married a Bricklayer for her second Husband He was first bred in a private School in St. Martin's-Church then in Westminster-School under the learned Mr. Cambden as he himself intimates in one of his Epigrams Cambden most reverend head to whom I owe All that I am in Arts all that I know How nothings that to whom my Country owes The great renown and name wherewith she goes Under this learned Schoolmaster he attained to a good degree of learning and was statutably admitted in St. John's-Colledge in Cambridge as many years after incorporated a honorary Member of Christ-Church in Oxford here he staid but some small time for want of maintainance for if there be no Oyl in the Lamp it will soon be extinguish'd And now as if he had quite laid aside all thoughts of the University he betook himself to the Trade of his Father-in-law And let not any be offended herewith since it is more commendable to work in a lawful Calling then having one not to use it He was one who helped in the building of the new Structure of Lincolns-Inn where having a Trowel in his hand he had a Book in his pocket that as his work went forward so his study went not backward But such rare Parts as he had could be no more hid than the Sun in a serene day some Gentlemen pitying such rare Endowments should be buried under the rubbish of so mean a Calling did by their bounty manumise him freely to follow his own ingenious inclinations Indeed his Parts were not so ready to run of themselves as able to answer the spur so that it may be truly said of him that he had an elaborate wit wrought out by his own indudustry yet were his Repartees for the most part very quick and smart and which savour'd much of ingenuity of which I shall give you two instances He having been drinking in an upper room at the Feathers-Tavern in Cheap side as he was coming down stairs his foot slipping he caught a fall and tumbling against a door beat it open into a room where some Gentlemen were drinking Canary recovering his feet he said Gentlemen since I am so luckily fallen into your company I will drink with you before I go He used very mach to frequent the Half-Moon-Tavern in Aldersgate-street through which was a common Thorough fare he coming late that way one night was denied passage whereupon going through the Sun-Tavern a little after he said Since that the Moon was so unkind to make me go about The Sun henceforth shall take my Coin the Moon shall go without His constant humour was to sit silent in learned Company and suck in besides Wine their several Humours into his observation what was Ore in others he was able to refine unto himself He was one and the chief of them in ushering forth the Book of Coriats Crudities writing not only a Character of the Author an explanation of his Frontispiece but also an Acrostick upon his Name which for the sutableness of it tho' we have written something of others mock Verses we shall here insert it Try and trust Roger was the word but now Honest Tom Tell troth puts down Roger How Of travel he discourseth so at large Marry he sets it out at his own charge And therein which is worth his valour too Shews he dare more than Paul's Church-yard durst do Come forth thou bonny bouncing Book then daughter Of Tom of Odcombe that odd jovial Author Rather his son I should have call'd thee why Yes thou wert born out of his travelling thigh As well as from his brains and claim'st thereby To be his Bacchus as his Pallas he Ever his Thighs Male then and his Brains She. He was paramount in the Dramatick part of Poetry and taught the Stage an exact conformity to the Laws of Comedians being accounted the most learned judicious and correct of them all and the more to be admired for being so for that neither the height of natural parts for he was no Shakespear nor the cost of extraordinary
in Warwick-shire but more certain to have his Breeding in Trinity Colledge in Cambridge where he so Profited that he became Doctor of Physick and practised the same in Coventry in his if so it were native Country Here did he begin and finish the Translation of so many Authors that considering their Voluminousness a Man would think he had done nothing else which made one thus to descant on him Holland with his Translations doth so fill us He will not let Suetonius be Tranquillus Now as he was a Translator of many Authors so was he very Faithful in what he did But what commended him most in the Praise of Posterity was his Translating Cambdens Britania a Translation more then a Translation he adding to it many more notes then what were first in the Lattin Edition but such as were done by Mr. Cambden in his Life time discoverable in the former part with Astericks in the Margent But these Additions with some Antiquaries obtain not equal Authenticalness with what was set forth by Mr. Cambden himself Some of these Books not withstanding their Gigantick bigness he wrote with one Pen where he himself thus pleasantly versified With one sole Pen I writ this Book Made of a Gray Goose quill A Pen it was when I it took And a Pen I leave it still This Monumental Pen he kept by him to show Friends when they came to visit him as a great Rarity THOMAS GOFF. THomas Goff was one whose Abilities rais'd him to a high Reputation in the Age he lived in chiefly for his Dramatick Writings Being the Author of the Couragious Turk Rageing Turk Selimus and Orestes Tragedies the Careless Shepherdess a Tragi-Comedy and Cupids Whirligig a Comedy THOMAS NABBES THomas Nabbes was also one who was a great Contributer to the English Stage chiefly in the Reign of King Charles the First His Comedies were The Brides Covent-Garden Totnam Court and the Woman-hater Arraigned His Tragedies The Vnfortunate Mother Hannibal and Scipio and The Tragedy of King Charles the First besides two Masques The Springs Glory and Microcosmus and an Entertainment on the Princes Birth-day an interlude RICHARD BROOME RIchard Broome was a Servant to Mr. Benjamin Johnson a Servant saith one suitable to such a Master having an excellent Vain fitted for a Comique Strain and both natural Parts and Learning answerable thereunto though divers witty only in reproving say That this Broome had only what he swept form his Master But the Comedies he Wrote so well received and generally applauded give the Lie to such Detractors three of which viz. His Northern Lass The Jovial Crew and Sparagus Garden are little inferior if not equal to the writings of Ben. Johnson himself besides these three Comedies before mentioned he wrote twelve others viz. The Antipodes Court Beggar City Wit Damoyselle Mock Marriage Love Sick Court Mad Couple well Matcht Novella New Exchange Queens Exchange Queen and Concubine Covent Garden Wedding and a Comedy called the Lancaster Witches in which he was joyned with Heyward Now what Account the Wits of that Age had of him you shall here from two of his own Profession in Commendation of two of his Plays and first those of Mr. James Shirley on his Comedy the Jovial Crew This Comedy ingenious Friends will raise It self a Monument without a praise Beg'd by the Stationer who with strength of purse And Pens takes care to make his Book sell worse And I dare calculate thy Play although Not Elevated unto fifty two It may grow old as time or wit and he That dares dispise may after envy thee Learning the file of Poesy may be Fetch'd from the Arts and University But he that writes a Play and good must know Beyond his Books Men and their Actions too Copies of Verse that makes the new Men swear Reach not a Poem nor the Muses heat Small Brain Wits and wood may burn a while And make more noise then Forrests on a Pile Whose Finers shrunk ma' invite a Piteans Stream Not to Lament but to extinguish them Thy fancies Mettal and thy stream's much higher Proof ' gainst their wit and what that dreads the Fire The other of Mr. John Ford on the Northern Lass Poets and Painters curiously compar'd Give life to fancy and Atchieve reward By immortality of name so thrives Arts Glory that All which it breaths on lives Witness this Northern Piece The Court affords No newer Fashion or for wit or words The Body of the Plot is drawn so fair That the Souls Language quickens with fresh Air. This well Limb'd Poem by no rule or thought Too dearly priz'd being or sold or bought We could also produce you Ben. Johnsons Verses with other of the prime Wits of those times but we think these sufficient to shew in what respect he was held by the best Judgments of that Age. ROBERT CHAMBERLAIN THis Robert Chamberlain is also remembred amongst of the Dramatick Writers of that time for two Plays which he Wrote the Swaggering Damosel a Comedy and Sicelides a Pastoral There was also one W. Chamberlain who wrote a Comedy called Loves Victory WILLIAM SAMPSON ABout the same time also Flourisht William Sampson who wrote of himself two Tragedies The Vow Breaker and the Valiant Scot and joyned with Markham a Tragedy called Herod and Antipater and how to choose a good Wife from a Bad a Tragi-Comedy GEORGE SANDYS Esquire THis worthy Gentleman was youngest Son of Edwin Sandys Arch-Bishop of York and born at Bishops Throp in that County He having good Education proved a most Accomplished Gentleman and addicting his mind to Travel went as far as the Sepulcher at Jerusalem the rarities whereof as also those of Aegypt Greece and the remote parts of Italy He hath given so lively a Description as may spare others Pains in going thither to behold them none either before or after him having more lively and truly described them He was not like to many of our English Travellers who with their Breath Suck in the vices of other Nations and instead of improving their Knowledge return knowing in nothing but what they were ignorant of or else with Tom. Coriat take notice only of Trifles and Toyes such Travellers as he in his most excellent Book takes notice of the one sayes he Do Toyes divulge The other carried on in the latter part of the Distick Still add to what they hear And of a Mole-hill do a Mountain rear But his Travels were not only painful but profitable living piously and by that means having the blessing of God attending on his endeavours making a holy use of his viewing those sacred places which he saw at Jerusalem Take an instance upon his sight of that place where the three wise men of the East offered their Oblations to our Saviour Three Kings to th' King of Kings three gifts did bring Gold Incense Myrrh as Man as God as King Three holy gifts be likewise given by thee To Christ even such as acceptable be For Myrhah Tears for
to Land by Death doth lie A Vessel fitter for the Skie Than Jason's Argo though in Greece They say it brought the Golden Fleece The skilful Pilot steer'd it so Hither and thither too and fro Through all the Seas of Poverty Whether they far or near do lie And fraught it so with all the wealth Of wit and learning not by stealth Or privacy but perchance got That this whole lower World could not Richer Commodities or more Afford to add unto his store To Heaven then with an intent Of new Discoveries he went And left his Vessel here to rest Till his return shall make it blest The Bill of Lading he that looks To know may find it in his Books Mr. PHINEAS FLETCHER THis learned person Son and Brother to two ingenious Poets himself the third not second to either was son to Giles Fletcher Doctor in Law and Embassadour from Queen Elizabeth to Theodor Juanowick Duke of Muscovia who though a Tyranick Prince whose will was his Low yet setled with him very good Terms for our Merchants trading thither He was also brother to two worthy Poets viz. George Fletcher the Author of a Poem entituled Christs Victory and Triumph over and after Death and Giles Fletcher who wrote a worthy Poem entituled Christs Victory made by him being but Batchelor of Arts discovering the piety of a Saint and divinity of Doctor This our Phineas Fletcher was Fellow of Kings Colledge in Cambridge and in Poetick fame exceeded his two Brothers in that never enough to be celebrated Poem entituled The Purple Island of which to give my Reader a taste who perhaps hath never seen the Book I shall here add two Stanza's of it Thrice happy was the worlds first infancy Nor knowing yet not curious ill to know Joy without grief love without jealousie None felt hard labour or the sweating Plough The willing earth brought tribute to her King Bacchus unborn lay hidden in the cling Of big swollen Grapes their drink was every silver spring And in another place speaking of the vanity of ambitious Covetousness Vain men too fondly wise who plough the Seas With dangerous pains another earth to find Adding new Worlds to th' old and scorning ease The earths vast limits daily more unbind The aged World though now it falling shows And hasts to set yet still in dying grows Whole lives are spent to win what one Deaths hour must lose Besides this purple Island he wrote divers Piscatorie Eclogues and other Poetical Miscelanies also a Piscatory Comedy called Sicelides which was acted at Kings-Colledge in Cambridge Mr. GEORGE HERBERT THis divine Poet and person was a younger brother of the Noble Family of the Herberts of Montgomery whose florid wit obliging humour in conversation fluent Elocution and great proficiency in the Arts gained him that reputation at Oxford where he spent his more youthful Age that he was chosen University Orator a place which required one of able parts to Mannage it at last taking upon him Holy Orders not without special Encouragement from the King who took notice of his extraordinary Parts he was made Parson of Bemmerton near Salisbury where he led a Seraphick life converting his Studies altogether to serious and Divine Subjects which in time produced those his so generally known and approved Poems entituled The Temple Whose Vocal notes tun'd to a heavenly Lyre Both learned and unlearned all admire I shall only add out of his Book an Anagram which he made on the name of the Virgin Mary MARY ARMY And well her name an Army doth present In whom the Lord of Hosts did pitch his Tent. Mr. RICHARD CRASHAW THis devout Poet the Darling of the Muses whose delight was the fruitful Mount Sion more than the barren Mount Pernassus was Fellow first of Pembrook-Hall after of St. Peters-Colledge in Cambridge a religious pourer forth of his divine Raptures and Meditations in smooth and pathetick Verse His Poems consist of three parts the first entituled Steps to the Temple being for the most part Epigrams upon several passages of the New Testament charming the ear with a holy Rapture The Second part The delights of the Muses or Poems upon severral occasions both English and Latin such rich pregnant Fancies as shewed his Breast to be filled with Phoebean Fire The third and last part Carmen Deo nostro being Hymns and other sacred Poems dedicated to the Countess of Denbigh all which bespeak him The learned Author of Immortal Strains He was much given to a religious Solitude and love of a recluse Life which made him spend much of his time and even lodge many Nights under Tertullian's roof of Angels in St. Mary's Church in Cambridge But turning Roman Catholick he betook himself to 〈◊〉 so zealously frequented place Our Lady 's of Loâ—â—etto in Italy where for some years he spent his time in Divine Contemplations being a Canon of that Church where he dyed Mr. WILLIAM CARTWRIGHT MR. William Cartwright a Student of Christ Church in Oxford where he lived in Fame and Reputation for his singular Parts and Ingenuity being none of the least of Apollo's Sons for his excelling vein in Poetry which produc'd a Volume of Poems publisht not long after his Death and usher'd into the World by Commendatory Verses of the choicest Wits at that time enough to have made a Volume of it self So much was he reverenced by the Lovers of the Muses He wrote besides his Poems The Ordinary a Comedy the Royal Slave Lady Errant and The Seige Or Loves Convert Tragi-Comedies Sir ASTON COCKAIN SIr Aston Cockain laies Claim to a place in our Book being remembred to Posterity by four Plays which he wrote viz. The Obstinate Lady a Comedy Trapolin supposed a Prince Tyrannical Government Tragi-Comedies and Thersites an Interlude Sir JOHN DAVIS THis worthy Knight to whom Posterity is indebted for his learned Works was well beloved of Queen Elizabeth and in great Favour with King James His younger Years he addicted to the study of Poetry which produced two excellent Poems Nosce Teipsum and Ochestra Works which speak themselves their own Commendations He also wrote a judicious Metaphrase on several of David's Psalms which first made him known at Court afterwards addicting himself to the Study of the Common-Law of England he was first made the Kings Serjeant and after his Attorney-General in Ireland THOMAS MAY. THomas May was one in his time highly esteemed not only for his Translation of Virgils Georgicks and Lucans Pharfalia into English but what he hath written Propria Minerva as his Supplement to Lucan till the Death of Julius Caesar His History of Henry the Second in Verse besides what he wrote of Dramatick as his Tragedies of Antigone Agrippina and Cleopatra The Heir a Tragi-Comedy the Old Couple and The Old Wives Tale Comedies and the History of Orlando Furioso of these his Tragi-Comedy of The Heir is done to the life both for Plot and Language and good had it been for his Memory to Posterity if he
London Printed for Samuel Manship at the Black Bull in Cornhill near the Royall Exchange THE LIVES Of the most Famous English Poets OR THE Honour of PARNASSVS In a Brief ESSAY OF THE WORKS and WRITINGS of above Two Hundred of them from the Time of K. WILLIAM the Conqueror To the Reign of His Present Majesty King JAMES II. Marmora Maeonij vincunt Monumenta Libelli Vivitur ingenio caetera Mortis erunt Written by WILLIAM WINSTANLEY Author of the English Worthies Licensed June 16 1686. Rob. Midgley LONDON Printed by H. Clark for Samuel Manship at the Sign of the Black Bull in Cornhil 1687. TO THE WORSHIPFUL Francis Bradbury Esq THE Judicious Philosopher Philo-Judaeus in his Book De Plantatione Noe saith That when God had made the whole World's Mass he created Poets to celebrate and set out the Creator himself and all his Creatures such a high Estimate had he of those Genius of brave Verse Another saith that Poets were the first Politicians the first Philosophers and the first Historiographers And although Learning and Poetick Skill were but very rude in this our Island when it flourished to the height in Greece and Rome yet since hath it made such improvement that we come not behind any Nation in the World both in Grandity and Gravity in Smoothness and Propriety in Quickness and Briefness so that for Skill Variety Efficacy and Sweetness the four material points required in a Poet our English Sons of Apollo and Darlings of the Delian Deity may compare if not exceed them Whose victorious Rhime Revenge their Masters Death and conquer Time. And indeed what is it that so masters Oblivion and causeth the Names of the dead to live as the divine Strains of sacred Poesie How are the Names forgotten of those mighty Monarchs the Founders of the Egyptian Pyramids when that Ballad-Poet Thomas Elderton who did arm himself with Ale as old Father Ennius did with Wine is remembred in Mr. Cambden's Remains having this made to his Memory Hic situs est sitiens atque ebr ius Eldertonus Quid dico hic situs est hic potius sitis est Now Sir all my Ambition that I address these Lines unto you is that you will pardon the Defects I have committed herein as having done my good will no so short an Epitome to lay a Ground-work on which may be built a sumptuous Structure a Work well worthy the Pen of a second Plutarch since Poetical Devices have been well esteemed even amongst them who have been ignorant of what they are as the judicious Mr. Cambden reports of Sieur Gauland who when he heard a Gentleman express that he was at a Supper where they had not only good Company and good Chear but also savoury Epigrams and fine Anagrams he returning home rated and belowted his Cook as an ignorant Scullion that never dressed or served up to him either Epigrams or Anagrams But Sir I intrench upon your Patience and shall no further only subscribing my self Your Worship 's ever to be Commanded William Winstanley THE PREFACE TO THE READER AS we account those Books best written which mix Profit with Delight so in my opinion none more profitable nor delightful than those of Lives especially them of Poets who have laid out themselves for the publick Good and under the Notion of Fables delivered unto us the highest Mysteries of Learning These are the Men who in their Heroick Poems have made mens Fames live to eternity therefore it were pity saith Plutarch that those who write to Eternity should not live so too Now above all Remembrances by which men have endeavoured even in despight of Death to give unto their Fames eternity for Worthiness and Continuance Books and Writings have ever had the Preheminence which made Ovid to give an endless Date to himself and to his Metamorphosis in these Words Jamque Opus exegi c. Thus Englished by the incomparable Mr. Sandys And now the Work is ended which Jove's Rage Nor Fire nor Sword shall raze nor eating Age Come when it will my Death 's uncertain hour Which only of my Body hath a power Yet shall my better Part transcend the Sky And my immortal Name shall never dy For wheresoe're the Roman Eagles spread Their conquering Wings I shall of all be read And if we Prophets truly can divine I in my living Fame shall ever shine With the same Confidence of Immortality the Renowned Poet Horace thus concludes the Third Book of his Lyrick Poesie Exegi Monumentum are perennius Regalique situ c. A Monument than Brass more lasting I Than Princely Pyramids in site more high Have finished which neither fretting Showrs Nor blustring Winds nor flight of Years and Hours Though numberless can raze I shall not die Wholly nor shall my best part buried lie Within my Grave And Martial Lib. 10. Ep. 2. thus speaks of his Writings My Books are read in every place And when Licinius and Messala's high Rich Marble Towers in ruin'd Dust shall lie I shall be read and Strangers every where Shall to their farthest Homes my Verses bear Also Lucan Lib. 9. of his own Verse and Caesar's Victory at Pharsalia writeth thus O great and sacred Work of Poesie Thou freest from Fate and giv'st Eternity To mortal Wights but Caesar envy not Their living Names if Roman Muses ought May promise thee whilst Homer's honoured By future Times shalt Thou and I be read No Age shall us with dark Oblivion stain But our Pharsalia ever shall remain But this Ambition or give it a more moderate Title Desire of Fame is naturally addicted to most men The Triumph of Miltiades would not let Themistocles sleep For what was it that Alexander made such a Bustle in the world but only to purchase an immortal Fame To what purpose were erected those stupendious Structures entituled The Wonders of the World viz. The walls of Babylon the Rhodian Colossus the Pyramids of Egypt the Tomb of Mausolus Diana's Temple at Ephesus the Pharoes Watch-Tower and the Statue of Jupiter in Achaya were they not all to purchase an immortal Fame thereby Nay how soon was this Ambition bred in the heart of man for we read in Genesis the 11th how that presently after the Flood the People journeying from the East they said among themselves Go to let us build us a City and a Tower whose Top may reach unto Heaven and let us make us a Name Here you see the intent of their Building was to make them a Name though God made it a Confusion as all such other lofty Buildings built in Blood and Tyranny of which nothing now remains but the Name which is excellently exprest by Ovid in the Fifteenth Book of his Metamorphosis Troy rich and powerful which so proudly stood That could for ten years spend such streams of Blood For Buildings only her old Ruines shows For Riches Tombs which slaughter'd Sires enclose Sparta Mycenae were of Greece the Flowers So Cecrops City and Amphion's Towers Now
Cal. Feb. sepultus erat apud Fanum S. Albani cujus Animae propitietur altissimus Amen ALEXANDER ESSEBIE THis Alexander was born in Staffordshire say some in Somersetshire say others for which each County might strive as being a Jewel worth the owning being reckoned among the chief of English Poets and Orators of that Age. He in imitation of Ovid de Fastis put our Christian Festivals into Verse setting a Copy therein to Baptista Mantuan Then leaving Ovid he aspired to Virgil and wrote the History of the Bible with the Lives of some Saints in an Heroical Poem which he performed even to admiration and though he fell short in part of Virgtl's lofty style yet went he beyond himself therein He afterward became Prior of Esseby-Abbey belonging to the Augustines and flourished under King Henry the Third Anno Dom. 1220. ROBERT BASTON RObert Baston was born not far from Nottingham and bred a Carmelite Frier at Scarborough in Yorkshire He was of such great Fame in Poetry that King Edward the Second in his Scotish Expedition pitcht upon him to be the Celebrater of his Heroick Acts when being taken Prisoner by the Scots he was forced by Torments to change his Note and represent all things to the advantage of Robert bruce who then claimed the Crown of Scotland This Task he undertook full sore against his will as he thus intimates in the two first Lines In dreery Verse my Rymes I make Bewailing whilest such Theme I take Besides his Poem De Bello Strivilensi there was published of his writing a Book of Tragedies with other Poems of various Subjects HENRY BRADSHAW HEnry Bradshaw was born in the City of Chester and bred a Benedictine Monk in the Monastery of St. Werburg the Life of which Saint he wrote in Verse as also saith my Author a no bad Chronicle though following therein those Authors who think it the greatest Glory of a Nation to fetch their Original from times out of mind Take a Taste of his Poetry in what he wrote concerning the Original of the City of Chester in these words The Founder of this City as saith Polychronicon Was Leon Gawer a mighty strong Gyant Which builded Caves and Dungeons many a one No goodly Building ne proper ne pleasant But King Leir a Britain fine and valiant Was Founder of Chester by pleasant Building And was named Guer Leir by the King. These Lines considering the Age he lived in which Arnoldus Vion saith was about the Year 1346. may pass with some praise but others say he flourished a Century of years afterwards viz. 1513. which if so they are hardly to be excused Poetry being in that time much refined but whensoever he lived Bale saith he was the Diamond in the Ring Pro ea ipsa aetate admodum pius HAMILLAN SHould we forget the learned Hamillan our Book would be thought to be imperfect so terse and fluent was His Verse of which we shall give you two Examples the one out of Mr. John Speed his Description of Devonshire speaking of the arrival of Brute The God's did guide his Sail and Course the Winds were at command And Totness was the happy shore where first he came on land The other out of Mr. Weever his Funeral Monuments in the Parish of St. Aldermanbury in London speaking of Cornwal There Gyants whilome dwelt whose Clothes were skins of Beasts Whose Drink was Blood Whose Cups to serve for use at Feasts Were made of hollow Wood Whose Beds were bushy Thorns And Lodgings rocky Caves to shelter them from Storms Their Chambers craggy Rocks their Hunting found them Meat To vanquish and to kill to them was pleasure great Their violence was rule with rage and fury led They rusht into the fight and fought hand over head Their Bodies were interr'd behind some bush or brake To bear such monstrous Wights the earth did grone and quake These pestred most the Western Tract more fear made these agast O Conwall utmost door that art to let in Zephyrus blast JOHN GOWER JOhn Gower whom some make to be a Knight though Stow in his Survey of London unknighteth him and saith he was only an Esquire however he was born of a knightly Family at Stitenham in the North-Riding in Bulmore-Wapentake in Yorkshire He was bred in London a Student of the Laws but having a plentiful Estate and prizing his pleasure above his profit he quitted Pleading to follow Poetry being the first renner of our English Tongue effecting mich but endeavouring more therein as you may perceive by the difference of his Language with that of Robert of Glocester who lived in the time of King Richard the First which notwithstanding was accounted very good in those days This our Gower was contemporary with the famous Poet Geoffry Chaucer both excellently learned both great friends together and both alike endeavour'd themselves and employed their time for the benefit of their Country And what an account Chaucer had of this our Gower and of his Parts that which he wrote in the end of his Work entituled Troilus Cressida do sufficiently testifie where he saith O marvel Gower this Book I direct To thee and to the Philosophical Strode To vouchsafe there need is to correct Of your benignitees and zeles good Bale makes him Equitem Auratum Poetam Laureatum proving both from his Ornaments on his Monumental Statue in St. Mary Overies Southwark Yet he appeareth there neither laureated nor hederated Poet except the leaves of the Bays and Ivy be wither'd to nothing since the erection of the Tomb but only rosated having a Chaplet of four Roses about his Head yet was he in great respect both with King Henry the Fourth and King Richard the Second at whose request the wrote his Book called Confessio Amantis as he relateth in his Prologue to the same Book in these words As it befell upon a tide As thing which should tho betide Vnder the town of New Troie Which toke of Brute his first ioye In Themese when it was flowende As I by Bote came rowende So as fortune hir tyme sette My leige Lord perchance I mette And so befelle as I cam nigh Out of my Bote when he me sigh He had me come into his Barge And when I was with him at large Amonges other things seyde He hath this charge upon me leyde And bbad me doe my businesse That to his high worthinesse Some newe thynge I should boke That he hymselfe it might loke After the forme of my writynge And this upon his commandynge Myne herte is well the more glad To write so as he we bad And eke my fear is well the lasse That none enuie shall compasse Without a reasonable wite To feige and blame that I write A gentill hert his tongue stilleth That it malice none distilleth But preiseth that is to be preised But he that hath his word unpeised And handleth with ronge any thynge I praie unto the heuen kynge Froe such tonges he me shilde And
nethelesse this worlde is wilde Of such ianglinge and what befall My kings heste shall not falle That I in hope to deserue His thonke ne shall his will observe And els were I nought excused He was before Chaucer as born and flourishing before him yea by some accounted his Master yet was he after Chaucer surviving him two years living to be stark blind and so more properly termed our English Homer His death happened Anno 1402. and was buried at St. Mary Overies in S. Sâ—uthwark on the North side of the said Church in the Chappel of St. John where he founded a Chauntry and left Means for a Mass such was the Religion of those times to be daily sung for him as also an Obit within the same Church to be kept on Friday after the Feast of St. Gregory He lieth under a Tomb of stone with his Image also of stone over him the hair of his head auburn long to his shoulders but curling up and a small forked beard on his head a Chaplet like a Coronet of four Roses an habit of purple damasked down to his feet a Collar of Esses of Gold about his neck which being proper to places of Judicature makes some think he was a Judge in his old age Under his feet the likeness of three Books which he compiled the first named Speculum Meditantis written in French the second Vox Clamantis penned in Latine the third Confessio Amantis written in English which was Printed by Thomas Berthelette and by him dedicated to King Henry the Eighth of which I have one by me at this present His Vox Clamantis with his Cronica Tripartita and other Works both in Latine and French Stow saith he had in his possession but his Speculum Meditantis he never saw but heard thereof to be in Kent Besides on the Wall where he lieth there was painted three Virgins crowned one of which was named Charity holding this device En toy qui es fitz de Dieu le Pere Sauue soit qui gist sours cest pierre The second Writing Mercy with this Decree O bone Jesu fait ta mercy Al' ame dont le corps gisticy The third Writing Pity with this device Pour ta pite Jesu regarde Et met cest a me en sauue garde And thereby formerly hung a Table wherein was written That whoso prayed for the Soul of John Gower so oft as he did it should have a M. and D. days of pardon His Arms were in a Field Argent on a Cheveron Azure three Leopards heads gold their tongues Gules two Angels supporters on the Crest a Talbot His Epitaph Armigeri Scultum nihil a modo fert sibi tutum Reddidit immolutum morti generale tributum Spiritus exutum se gaudeat esse solutum Est ubi virtutum Regnum sine labe statutum All I shall add is this That about fifty years ago there lived at Castle-Heningham in Essex a School-master named John Gower who wrote a witty Poem called the Castle Combate which was received in that Age with great applause GEOFFERY CHAVCER THree several Places contend for the Birth of that famous Poet. 1. Berkshire from the words of Leland that he was born in Barocensi sprovincia and Mr. Cambden avoweth that Dunington-Castle nigh unto Newbery was anciently his Inheritance 2. Oxfordshire where J. Pits is positive that his Father was a Knight and that he was born at Woodstock 3. The Author of his Life set forth 1602. proveth him born in London out of these his own words in the Testament of Love. Also in the City of London that is to me so dear and sweet in which I was forth grown and more kindly loue haue I to that place than any other in yerth as euery kindely creature hath full appetite to that place of his kindly ingendure and to wilne rest and peace in that stede to abide thilke peace should thus there haue been broken which of all wise men is commened and desired For his Parentage although Bale writes he termeth himself Galfridus Chaucer nobili loco natus summae spei juvenis yet is the opinion of some Heralds otherwise than his Virtues and Learning commemded him he descended not of any great House which they gather by his Arms And indeed both in respect of the Name which is French as also by other Conjectures it may be gathered that his Progenitors were Stranngers but whether they were Merchants for that in places where they have dwelled the Arms of the Merchants of the Staple have been seen in the Glass-windows or whether they were of other Callings it is not much necessary to search but wealthy no doubt they were and of good account in the Commonwealth who brought up their Sons in such sort that both he was thought fit for the Court at home and to be employed for Matters of State in Foreign Countries His Education as Leland writes was in both the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge as appeareth by his own words in his Book Entituled The Court of Love And in Oxford by all likelihood in Canterbury or in Merton Colledge improving his Time in the University he became a witty Logician a sweet Rhetorician a grave Philosopher a holy Divine a skilful Mathematician and a pleasant Poet of whom for the Sweetness of his Poetry may be said that which is reported of Stesichoâ—â—us and as Cethegus was called Suadae Medulla so may Chaucer be rightly called the Pith and Sinews of Eloquence and the very Life it self of all Mirth and pleasant Writing Besides one Gift he had above other Authors and that is by the Excellencies of his Descriptions to possess his Readers with a stronger imagination of seeing that done before their eyes which they read than any other that ever writ in any Tongue But above all his Book of Canterbury-Tales is most recommended to Posterity which he maketh to be spoken by certain Pilgrims who lay at the Tabard-Inn in Southwark as he declareth in the beginning of his said Book It befell in that season on a day In Southwark at the Tabert as I lay Ready to wend on my pilgrimage To Canterbury with full devout courage That night was comen into the Hosterie Well nine and twenty in a companie Of sundry folke by aduenture yfall In fellowship and Pilgrims were they all That toward Canterbury woulden ride The Stables and Chambers weren wide And well wee were eased at the best c. By his Travel also in France and Flanders where he spent much time in his young years but more in the latter end of the Reign of King Richard the Second he attained to a great perfection in all kind of Learning as Bale and Leland report of him Circa postremos Richardi Secundi annos Galliis floruit magnamque illic ex assidua in Literis exercitatione gloriam sibi comparavit Domum reversus Forum Londinense Collegia Leguleiorum qui ibidem Patria Jura interpretantur frequentavit c. About the latter
end of King Richard the Second's Days he flourished in France and got himself into high esteem there by his diligent exercise in Learning After his return home he frequented the Court at London and the Colledges of the Lawyers which there interpreted the Laws of the Land. Amongst whom was John Gower his great familiar Friend whose Life we wrote before This Gower in his Book entituled Confessio Amantis termeth Chaucer a worthy Poet and maketh him as it were the Judge of his Works This our Chaucer had always an earnest desire to enrich and beautifie our English Tongue which in those days was very rude and barren and this he did following the example of Dante 's and Petrarch who had done the same for the Italian Tongue Alanus for the French and Johannes Mea for the Spanish Neither was Chaucer inferior to any of them in the performance hereof and England in this respect is much beholding to him as Leland well noteth Anglia Chaucerum veneratur nostra Poetam Cui veneris debet Patria Lingua suas Our England honoureth Chaucer Poet as principal To whom her Country-Tongue doth owe her Beauties all He departed out of this world the 25th day of October 1400 after he had lived about seventy two years Thus writeth Bale out of Leland Chaucerus ad Canos devenit sensitque Senectutem morbum esse dum Causas suas Londini curaret c. Chaucer lived till he was an old man and found old Age to be grievous and whilst he followed his Causes at London he died and was buried at Westminster The old Verses which were written on his Grave at the first were these Galfridus Chaucer Vates Fama Poesis Maternae haec sacra sum tumulatus humo Thomas Occleue or Okelefe of the Office of the Privy Seal sometime Chaucer's Scholar for the love he bore to the said Geoffrey his Master caused his Picture to be truly drawn in his Book De Regimine Principis dedicated to Henry the Fifth according to which that his Picture drawn upon his Monument was made as also the Monument it self at the Cost and Charges of Nicolas Brigham Gentleman Anno 1555. who buried his Daughter Rachel a Child of four years of Age near to the Tomb of this old Poet the 21th of June 1557. Such was his Love to the Muses and on his Tomb these Verses were inscribed Qui fuit Anglorum Vates ter maximus olim Galfridus Chaucer conditur hoc Tumulo Annum si quaer as Domini si tempor a Mortis Ecce notae subsunt quae tibi cuncta notant 25 Octobris 1400. Aerumnarum requies Mors. N. Brigham hos fecit Musarum nomine sumptus About the Ledge of the Tomb these Verses were written Si rogitas quis eram forsante Fama docebit Quod si Fama negat Mundi quia Gloria transit Haec Monumenta lege The foresaid Thomas Occleve under the Picture of Chaucer had these Verses Although his Life be queint the resemblance Of him that hath in me so fresh liveliness That to put other men in remembrance Of his Person I have here the likeness Do make to the end in Soothfastness That they that of him have lost thought and mind By this peniture may again him find In his foresaid Book De Regimine Principis he thus writes of him But welaway is mine heart wo That the honour of English Tongue is dead Of which I wont was counsaile haue and reed O Master dere and Fadre reuerent My Master Chaucer Floure of Eloquence Mirror of fructuous entendement O vniuersal fadre of Science Alas that thou thine excellent Prudence In thy Bed mortal mightest not bequeath What eyl'd Death alas why would she the sle O Death thou didst not harm singler in slaughter of him But all the Land it smerteth But natheless yet hast thou no power his name slee But his vertue asterteth Unslain fro thee which ay us lifely herteth With Books of his ornat enditing That is to all this Land enlumining In another place of his said Book he writes thus Alas my worthy Maister honourable This Land 's very Treasure and Richess Death by thy Death hath harm irreparable Unto us done her vengeable duress Dispoiled hath this Land of the sweetness Of Rhetorige for unto Tullius Was never man so like among us Also who was here in Philosophy To Aristotle in our Tongue but thee The Steps of Virgil in Poesie Thou suedst eken men know well enough What combre world that thee my Master slough Would I slaine were John Lidgate likewise in his Prologue of Bocchas of the Fall of Princes by him translated saith thus in his Commendation My Master Chaucer with his fresh Comedies Is dead alas chief Poet of Brittaine That whilom made full pitous Tradgedies The faule of Princes he did complaine As he that was of making Soveraine Whom all this Land should of right preferre Sith of our Language he was the load-sterre Also in his Book which he writeth of the Birth of the Virgin Mary he hath these Verses And eke my Master Chaucer now is in grave The noble Rhetore Poet of Britaine That worthy was the Laurel to have Of Poetry and the Palm attaine That made first to distill and raine The Gold dew drops of Speech and Eloquence Into our Tongue through his Eloquence That excellent and learned Scottish Poet Gawyne Dowglas Bishop of Dunkold in the Preface of Virgil's Eneados turned into Scottish Verse doth thus speak of Chaucer Venerable Chaucer principal Poet without pere Heavenly Trumpet orloge and regulere In Eloquence Baulme Conduct and Dyal Milkie Fountaine Cleare Strand and Rose Ryal Of fresh endite through Albion Island brayed In his Legend of Noble Ladies sayed And as for men of latter time Mr. Ascham and Mr. Spenser have delivered most worthy Testimonies of their approving of him Mr. Ascham in one place calleth him English Homer and makes no doubt to say that he valueth his Authority of as high estimation as he did either Sophocles or Euripides in Greek And in another place where he declareth his Opinion of English Versifying he useth these Words Chaucer and Petrark those two worthy Wits deserve just praise And last of all in his Discourse of Germany he putteth him nothing behind either Thucydides or Homer for his lively Descriptions of Site of Places and Nature of Persons both in outward Shape of Body and inward Disposition of Mind adding this withal That not the proudest that hath written in any Tongue whatsoever for his time hath out-stript him Mr. Spenser in his first Eglogue of his Shepherds Kalendar calleth him Tityrus the God of Shepherds comparing him to the worthiness of the Roman Tityrus Virgil. In his Fairy Queen in his Discourse of Friendship as thinking himself most worthy to be Chaucer's friend for his like natural disposition that Chaucer had he writes That none that lived with him nor none that came after him durst presume to revive Chaucer's lost labours in that imperfect
Knight being sent Ambassador by King Henry the Eighth to Charles the Fifth Emperor then residing in Spain died of the Pestilence in the West Country before he could take Shipping Anno 1541. Dr. CHRISTOPHER TYE IN the writing this Doctors Life we shall principally make use for Directions of Mr. Fuller in his England's Worthies fol. 244. He flourished saith he in the Reign of King Henry the Eighth and King Edward the Sixth to whom he was one of the Gentlemen of their Chappel and probably the Organist Musick which received a grievous wound in England at the dissolution of Abbeys was much beholding to him for her recovery such was his excellent Skill and Piety that he kept it up in Credit at Court and in all Cathedrals during his life He translated the Acts of the Apostles into Verse and let us take a tast of his Poetry In the former Treatise to thee dear friend Theophilus I have written the veritie of the Lord Christ Jesus Which he to do and eke to teach began until the day In which the Spirit up did him fetch to dwell above for aye After that he had power to do even by the Holy Ghost Commandements then he gave unto his chosen least and most To whom also himself did shew from death thus to revive By tokens plain unto his few even forty days alive Speaking of God's kingdom with heart chusing together them Commanding them not to depart from that Jerusalem But still to wait on the promise of his Father the Lord Of which you have heard me e're this unto you make record Pass we now saith he from his Poetry being Musick in words to his Musick being Poetry in sounds who set an excellent Composition of Musick in four parts to the several Chapters of his aforenamed Poetry dedicating the same to King Edward the Sixth a little before his death and Printed it Anno Dom. 1353. He also did Compose many excellent Services and Anthems of four and five parts which were used in Cathedrals many years after his death the certain date whereof we cannot attain to JOHN LELAND THis famous Antiquary Mr. John Leland flourish'd in the year 1546. about the beginning of the Reign of King Edward the Sixth and was born by most probable conjecture at London He wrote among many other Volumes several Books of Epigrams his Cigneo Cantio a Genethliac of Prince Edward Naniae upon the death of Sir Thomas Wiat out of which we shall present you with these Verses Transtulit in nostram Davidis carmina linguam Et numeros magnareddidit arte pares Non morietur opus tersum spectabile sacrum Clarior hac fama parte Viattus erit Vna dies geminos Phoenices non dedit orbi Mors erit in unius vita sed alterius Rara avis in terris confectus morte Viattus Houerdum haeredem scripser at ante suum Dicere nemo potest recte periisse Viattum Ingenit cujus tot monimenta vigent He wrote also several other things both in Prose and Verse to his great fame and commendation THOMAS CHVRCHYARD THomas Churchyard was born in the Town of Shrewsbury as himself doth affirm in his Book made in Verse of the Worthiness of Wales taking Shropshire within the compass to use his own Expression Wales the Park and the Marches the Pale thereof He was one equally addicted to Arts and Arms serving under that renowned Captain Sir William Drury in a rode he made into Scotland as also under several other Commanders beyond Sea as he declares in his Tragical Discourse of the Unhappy Mans Life saying Full thirty years both Court and Wars I tryde And still I sought acquaintance with the best And served the State and did such hap abide As might befal and Fortune sent the rest When Drum did sound I was a Soldier prest To Sea or Land as Princes quarrel stood And for the same full oft I lost my blood But it seems he got little by the Wars but blows as he declares himself a little after But God he knows my gain was small I weene For though I did my credit still encrease I got no wealth by wars ne yet by peace Yet it seems he was born of wealthy friends and had an Estate left unto him as in the same Work he doth declare So born I was to House and Land by right But in a Bag to Court I brought the same From Shrewsbury-Town a seat of ancient fame Some conceive him to be as much beneath a Poet as above a Rymer yet who so shall consider the time he wrote in viz. the beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth shall find his Verses to go abreast with the best of that Age. His Works such as I have seen and have now in custody are as followeth The Siege of Leith A Farewel to the World. A feigned Fancy of the Spider and the Gout A doleful Discourse of a Lady and a Knight The Road into Scotland by Sir William Drury Sir Simon Burley's Tragedy A Tragical Discourse of the Vnhappy Mans Life A Discourse of Vertue Churchyard's Dream A Tale of a Fryar and and a Shoomaker 's wife The Siege of Edenborough-Castle Queen Elizabeth's Reception into Bristol These Twelve several Treatises he bound togegether calling them Church-yard's Chips and dedicated them to Sir Christopher Hatton He also wrote the Falls of Shore's Wife and of Cardinal Wolsey which are inserted into the Book of the Mirrour for Magistrates Thus like a stone did he trundle about but never gather'd any Moss dying but poor as may be seen by his Epitaph in Mr. Cambden's Remains which runs thus Come Alecto lend me thy Torch To find a Church-yard in a Church-porch Poverty and Poetry his Tomb doth enclose Wherefore good Neighbours be merry in prose His death according to the most probable conjecture may be presumed about the eleventh year of the Queen's Reign Anno Dom. 1570. JOHN HIGGINS JOhn Higgins was one of the chief of them who compiled the History of the Mirrour of Magistrates associated with Mr. Baldwin Mr. Ferrers Thomas Churchyard and several others of which Book Sir Philip Sidney thus writes in his Defence of Poesie I account the Mirrour of Magistrates meetly furnished of beautiful parts These Commendations coming from so worthy a person our Higgins having so principal a share therein deserves a principal part of the praise And how well his deservings were take an essay of his Poetry in his induction to the Book When Summer sweet with all her pleasures past And leaves began to leave the shady tree The Winter cold encreased on full fast And time of year to sadness moved me For moisty blasts not half so mirthful be As sweet Aurora brings in Spring-time fair Our joys they dim as Winter damps the air The Nights began to grow to length apace Sir Phoebus to th' Antartique 'gan to fare From Libra's lance to the Crab he took his race Beneath the Line to lend of light a share For then with
us the days more darkish are More short cold moist and stormy cloudy clit For sadness more than mirths or pleasures fit Devising then what Books were best to read Both for that time and sentence grave also For conference of friend to stand in stead When I my faithful friend was parted fro I gat me strait the Printers shops unto To seek some Work of price I surely ment That might alone my careful mind content And then he declareth how there he found the first part of this Mirrour for Magistrates which yet took beginning from the time of King Richard the Second But he knowing many Examples of famous persons before William the Conquerour which were wholly omitted he set upon the Work and beginning from Brute continued it to Aurelius Bassianus Caracalla Emperour of Rome about the year of Christ 209. shewing in his Writings a great deal of Wisdom and Learning He flourished about the beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth ABRAHAM FRAVNCE THis Abraham Fraunce a Versifier about the same time with John Higgins was one who imitated Latine measure in English Verse writing a Pastoral called the Countess of Pembroke ' s Ivy-church and some other things in Hexameter some also in Hexameter and Pentameter He also wrote the Countess of Pembroke ' s Emanuel containing the Nativity Passion Burial and Resurrection of Christ together with certain Psalms of David all in English Hexameters Nor was he altogether singular in this way of writing for Sir Philip Sidney in the Pastoral Interludes of his Arcadia uses not only these but all other sorts of Latine measure in which no wonder he is followed by so few since they neither become the English nor any other modern Language He began also the Translation of Heliodorus his Aethiopick History in the same kind of Verse of which to give the Reader the better divertisement we shall present you with a tast As soon as Sun-beams could once peep out fro the Mountains And by the dawn of day had somewhat lightned Olympus Men whose lust was law whose life was still to be lusting Whose thriving thieving convey'd themselves to an hill top That stretched forward to the Heracleotica entry And mouth of Nylus looking thence down to the main sea For sea-faring men but seeing none to be sailing They knew 't was bootless to be looking there for a booty So that strait fro the sea they cast their eyes to the sea-shore Where they saw that a Ship very strangely without any ship-man Lay then alone at road with Cables ty'd to the main-land And yet full fraighted which they though far fro the hill-top Easily might perceive by the water drawn to the deck-boards c. His Ivy-Church he dedicated to the Countess of Pembroke in which he much vindicated his manner of writing as no Verse fitter for it then that he also dedicated his Emanuel to her which being but two lines take as followeth Mary the best Mother sends her best Babe to a Mary Lord to a Ladies sight and Christ to a Christian When he died we cannot find but suppose it to be about the former part of Queen Elizabeth's Reign WILLIAM WARNER WIlliam Warner one of principal esteem in his time was chiefly famous for his Albion's England which he wrote in the old-fashioned kind of seven-footed Verse which yet sometimes is in use though in different manner that is to say divided into two He wrote also several Books in prose as he himself witnesseth in his Epistle to the Reader but as we said before his Albion's England was the chiefest which he deduced from the time of Noah beginning thus I tell of things done long ago of many things in few And chiefly of this Clime of ours the accidents pursue Thou high director of the same assist mine artless Pen To write the Jests of Brutons stout and Arts of English-men From thence he proceeds to the peopling of the Earth by the Sons of Noah intermixing therein much variety of Matter not only pleasant but profitable for the Readers understanding of what was delivered by the ancient Poets bringing his Matter succinctly to the Siege of Troy and from thence to the coming of Brute into this Island and so coming down along the chiefest matters touched of our British Historians to the Conquest of England by Duke William and from him the Affairs of the Land to the beginning of Queen Elizabeth where he concludeth thus Elizabeth by peace by war for majesty for mild Enrich'd fear'd honour'd lov'd but loe unreconcil'd The Muses check my saucy Pen for enterprising her In duly praising whom themselves even Arts themselves might err Phaebus I am not Phaeton presumptuously to ask What shouldst thou give I could not guide guide give not me thy task For as thou art Apollo too our mighty subjects threats A non plus to thy double power Vel volo vel nollem I might add several more of his Verses to shew the worth of his Pen but the Book being indifferent common having received several Impressions I shall refer the Reader for his further satisfaction to the Book itself THOMAS TVSSER THomas Tusser a person well known by his Book of Husbandry was born at Riuen-hall in Essex of an ancient Family but now extinct where when but young his Father designing him for a Singing-man put him to Wallingford-School where how his Misfortunes began in the World take from his own Pen. O painful time for every crime What toosed ears like baited Bears What bobbed lips what yerks what nips What hellish toys What Robes so bare what Colledge-fare What Bread how stale what penny Ale Then Wallingford how wer 't thou abhorr'd Of silly boys From thence he was sent to learn Musick at Pauls with one John Redford an excellent Musician where having attained some skill in that Art he was afterwards sent to Eaton-School to learn the Latine Tongue where how his Miserie 's encreas'd let himself speak From Pauls I went to Eaton sent To learn straightways the Latine phrase Where fifty three stripes given to me At once I had For fault but small or none at all It came to pass thus beat I was See Vdal see the mercy of thee To me poor Lad. Having attained to some perfection in the Latine Tongue he was sent to Trinity-Hall in Cambridge where he had not continued long but he was vexed with extream sickness whereupon he left the University and betook himself to Court and lived for a while under the Lord Paget in King Edward the Sixth's days when the Lords falling at dissention he left the Court and went to Suffolk where he married his first Wife and took a Farm at Ratwade in that County where he first devised his Book of Husbandry but his Wife not having her health there he removed from thence to Ipswich and soon after buried her Not long after he married again to one Mrs. Amy Moon upon whose Name he thus versified I chanced soon to find a Moon Of chearful
hue Which well and fine me thought did shine And never change a thing most strange Yet keep in sight her course aright And compass true Being thus married he betook himself again to Husbandry and hired a Farm called Diram Cell and there he had not lived long but his Landlord died and his Executors falling at variance and now one troubled him and then another whereupon he left Diram and went to Norwâ—ch turning a Singing-man under Mr. Salisbury the Dean thereof There he was troubled with a Dissury so that in a 138 Hours he never made a drop of Water Next he hired a Parsonage at Fairstead in Essex but growing weary of that he returned again to London where he had not lived long but the Pestilence raging there he retired to Cambridge Thus did he roul about from place to place but like Sisiphus stone could gather no Moss whithersoever he went He was successive a Musician Schoolmaster Servingman Husbandman Grasier Poet more skilful in all than thriving in any Vocation He traded at large in Oxen Sheep Dairies Grain of all kinds to no profit He spread his Bread with all sorts of Butter yet none would stick thereon So that he might say with the Poet Monitis sum minor ipse meis None being better at the Theory or worse at the Practice of Husbandry and may be fitly match'd with Thomas Churchyard they being mark'd alike in their Poetical parts living in the same time and statur'd both alike in their Estates and that low enough in all reason He died in London Anno Dom. 1580. and was buried at St. Mildred's-Church in the Poultrey with this Epitaph Here THOMAS TVSSER clad in earth doth lie That sometime made the Points of Husbandry By him then learn thou may'st here learn we must When all is done we sleep and turn to dust And yet through Christ to Heaven we hope to go Who reads his Books shall find his Faith was so THOMAS STORER THomas Storer was a great writer of Sonnets Madrigals and Pastoral Airs in the beginning of Q. Elizabeth's Reign and no doubt was highly esteemed in those days of which we have an account of some of them in an old Book called England's Hellicon This kind of writing was of great esteem in those days and much imitated by Thomas Watson Bartholomew Yong Dr. Lodge and several others What time he died is to me unknown THOMAS LODGE THomas Lodge a Doctor of Physick flourish'd also about the beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth He was also an eminent Writer of Pastoral Songs Odes and Madrigals This following Sonnet is said to be of his composing If I must die O let me chuse my Death Suck out my Soul with Kisses cruel Maid In thy Breasts Crystal Balls embalm my Breath Dole it all out in sighs when I am laid Thy Lips on mine like Cupping-glasses clasp Let our Tongues meet and strive as they would sting Crush out my Wind with one straight girting Grasp Stabs on my Heart keep time whilst thou dost sing Thy Eyes like searing-Irons burn out mine In thy fair Tresses stifle me outright Like Circes change me to a loathsom Swine So I may live for ever in thy sight Into Heavens Joys can none profoundly see Except that first they meditate on thee Contemporary with Dr. Lodge were several others who all of them wrote in the same strain as George Gascoigne Tho. Hudson John Markham Tho. Achely John Weever Chr. Midleton George Turbervile Henry Constable Sir Edward Dyer Charles Fitz Geoffry Of these George Gascoigne wrote not only Sonnets Odes and Madrigals but also something to the Stage as his Supposes a Comedy Glass of Government a Tragi-Comedy and Jocasta a Tragedy But to return to Dr. Lodge we shall only add one Sonnet more taken out of his Euphues Golden Legacy and so proceed to others Of all chaste Birds the Phoenix doth excel Of all strong Beasts the Lion bears the Bell Of all sweet Flowers the Rose doth sweetest smell Of all fair Maids my Rosalind is fairest Of all pure Metals Gold is only purest Of all high Trees the Pine hath highest Crest Of all soft Sweets I like my Mistress best Of all chaste Thoughts my Mistress Thoughts are rarest Of all proud Birds the Eagle pleaseth Jove Of pretty Fowls kind Venus likes the Dove Of Trees Minerva doth the Olive love Of all sweet Nymphs I honour Rosalinde Of all her Gifts her Wisdom pleaseth most Of all her Graces Virtue she doth boast For all the Gifts my Life and Joy is lost If Rosalinde prove cruel and unkind ROBERT GREENE RObert Greene that great Friend to the Printers by his many Impressions of numerous Books was by Birth a Gentleman and sent to study in the University of Cambridge where he proceeded Master of Art therein He had in his time sipped of the Fountain of Hellicon but drank deeper Draughts of Sack that Helliconian Liquor whereby he beggar'd his Purse to enrich his Fancy writing much against Viciousness but too too vicious in his Life He had to his Wife a Virtuous Gentlewoman whom yet he forsook and betook himself to a high course of Living to maintain which he made his Pen mercenary making his Name very famous for several Books which he wrote very much taking in his time and in indifferent repute amongst the vulgar at this present of which those that I have seen are as followeth Euphues his Censure to Philautus Tullies Love Philomela The Lady Fitz-waters Nightingale A Quip for an upstart Courtier the History of Dorastus and Fawnia Green's never too late first and second Part Green's Arcadia Green his Farewell to Folly Greene's Groats-worth of Wit c. He was also an Associate with Dr. Lodge in writing of several Comedies namely The Laws of Nature Lady Alimony Liberality and Prodigality and a Masque called Luminalia besides which he wrote alone the Comedies of Fryer Bacon and fair Emme But notwithstanding by these his Writings he got much Money yet was it not sufficient to maintain his Prodigality but that before his death he fell into extream Poverty when his Friends like Leaves to Trees in the Summer of Prosperity fell from him in his Winter of Adversity of which he was very sensible and heartily repented of his ill passed Life especially of the wrongs he had done to his Wife which he declared in a Letter written to her and found with his Book of A Groatsworth of Wit after his Death containing these Words THE Remembrance of many Wrongs offered Thee and thy unreproved Vertues add greater sorrow to my miserable State than I can utter or thou conceive neither is it lessened by consideration of thy Absence though Shame would let me hardly behold thy Face but exceedingly aggravated for that I cannot as I ought to thy own self reconcile my self that thou mightest witness my inward Wo at this instant that have made thee a woful Wife for so long a time But equal Heaven hath denied that comfort
so about matters of higher concernment that Mr. Spenser received no reward whereupon he presented this Petition in a small piece of Paper to the Queen in her progress I was promis'd on a time To have reason for my rime From that time unto this season I receiv'd nor rime nor reason This tart reflect so wrought upon the Queen that she gave strict order not witstout some check to her Treasurer for the present payment of the hundred pounds she first intended him He afterwards went over into Ireland Secretary to the Lord Gray Lord Deputy thereof and though that his Office under his Lord was lucrative yet got he no Estate Peculiari Poetis fato semper cum paupertate conflictatus est saith the reverend Cambden so that it fared little better with him than with Churchyard or Tusser before him or with William Xiliander the German a most excellent Linguist Antiquary Philosopher and Mathematician who was so poor that as Thuanus writes he was thought Fami non famae scribere Thriving so bad in that boggy Country to add to his misery he was robb'd by the Rebels of that little he had left whereupon in great grief he returns into England and falling into want which to a noble spirit is most killing being heart-broken he died Anno 1598. and was honourably buried at the sole charge of Robert first of that name Earl of Essex on whose Monument is written this Epitaph Edmundus Spencer Londinensis Anglicorum Poetarum nostri seculi fuit Princeps quod ejus Poemata faventibus Musis victuro genio conscripta comprobant Obiit immatur a morte Anno salutis 1598. prope Galfredum Chaucerum conditur qui scqelisissime Poesin Anglicis literis primus illustravit In quem haec scripta sunt Epitaphia Hic prope Chaucerum situs est Spenserius illi Proximus ingenio proximus ut tumulo Hic prope Chaucerum Spensere poeta poetam Conderis versu quam tumulo proprior Anglica te vivo vixit plausitque Poesis Nunc moritur a timet te moriente mori These two last lines for the worthiness of the Poet are thus translated by Dr. Fuller Whilest thou didst live liv'd English Poetry Which fears now thou art dead that she shall die A modern Author writes that the Lord Cecil owed Mr. Spenser a grudge for some Reflections of his in Mother Hubbard's Tale and therefore when the Queen had order'd him that Money the Lord Treasurer said What all this for a Song And this he is said to have taken so much to heart that he contracted a deep Melancholy which soon after brought his life to a period so apt is an ingenious spirit to resent a slighting even from the greatest persons And thus much I must needs say of the Merit of so great a Poet from so great a Monarch that it is incident to the best of Poets sometimes to flatter some Royal or Noble Patron never did any do it more to the height or with greater art and elegance if the highest of praises attributed to so Heroick a Princess can justly be termed flattery Sir JOHN HARRINGTON SIr John Harrington is supposed to be born in Somerset-shire he having a fair Estate near Bath in that County His Father for carrying a Letter to the Lady afterwards Queen Elizabeth was kept twelve months in the Tower and made to spend a Thousand Pounds e're he could be free of that trouble His Mother also being Servant to the Lady Elizabeth was sequestred from her and her Husband enjoyned not to keep company with her so that on both sides he may be said to be very indear'd to Queen Elizabeth who was also his Godmother a further tye of her kindness and respects unto him This Sir John was bred up in Cambridge either in Christ's or in St. John's-Colledge under Dr. Still his Tutor He afterwards proved one of the most ingenious Poets of our English Nation no less noted for his Book of witty Epigrams than his judicious Translation of Ariosto's Orlando Furioso dedicated to the Lady Elizabeth afterwards Queen of Bohemia The British Epigramatist Mr. John Owen in his second Book of Epigrams thus writes to him A Poet mean I am yet of the Troop Though thou art not yet better thou canst do 't And afterwards in his fourth Book Epig. 20. concerning Envy's Genealogy he thus complements him Fair Vertue foul-mouth'd Envy breeds and feeds From Vertue only this foul Vice proceeds Wonder not that I this to you indite ' Gainst your rare Vertues Envy bends her spite It happened that whilest the said Sir John repaired often to an Ordinary in Bath a Female attendress at the Table neglecting other Gentlemen which sat higher and were of greater Estates applied herself wholly to him accommodating him with all necessaries and preventing his asking any thing with her officiousness She being demanded by him the reason of her so careful waiting on him I understand said she you are a very witty man and if I should displease you in any thing I fear you would make an Epigram of me Sir John frequenting often the Lady Robert's House his Wives Mother where they used to go to dinner extraordinary late a Child of his being there then said Grace which was that of the Primmer Thou givest them Meat in due season Hold said Sir John to the Child you ought not to lie unto God for here we never have our Meat in due season This Jest he afterwards turned into an Epigram directing it to his Wife and concluding it thus Now if your Mother angry be for this Then you must reconcile us with a kiss A Posthume Book of his came forth as an addition to Bishop Godwin's Catalogue of Bishops wherein saith Dr. Fuller besides mistakes some tart reflections in Vxaratos Episcopos might well have been spared In a word saith he he was a Poet in all things save in his wealth leaving a fair Estate to a learned and religious Son and died about the middle of the Reign of King James JOHN HEYWOOD THis John Heywood was one of the first writers of English Plays contemporary with the Authors of Gammar Gurton's Needle and Tom Tyler and his Wife as may appear by the Titles of his Interludes viz. The Play of Love Play of of the Weather Play between Johan the Husband and Tib his Wife Play between the Pardoner and the Fryer and the Curate and Neighbour Prat Play of Gentleness and Nobility in two parts Besides these he wrote two Comedies the Pinner of Wakefield and Philotas Scotch There was of this Name in King Henry the Eighth's Reign an Epigramatist who saith the Author of the Art of English Poetry for the mirth and quickness of his conceits more than any goqd learning was in him came to be well benefited by the King. THOMAS HEYWOOD THomas Heywood was a greater Benefactor to the Stage than his Namesake John Heywood aforesaid he having as you may read in an Epistle to a Play of his
called The English Travellers had an entire hand or at least a main finger in the writing of 220 of them And no doubt but he took great pains therein for it is said that he not only Acted himself almost every day but also wrote each day a Sheet and that he might lose no time many of his Plays were composed in the Tavern on the back-side of Tavern Bills which may be an occasion that so many of them are lost for of those 220. mentioned before we find but 25. of them Printed viz. The Brazen Age Challenge for Beauty The English Travellers The first and second part of Edward the Fourth The first and second part of Queen Elizabeth's Troubles Fair Maid of the West first and second part Fortune by Land and Sea Fair Maid of the Exchange Maidenhead well lost Royal King and Loyal Subject Woman kill'd with kindess Wise Woman of Hogsdon Comedies Four London Prentices The Golden Age The Iron Age first and second part Robert Earl of Huntington ' s downfal Robert Earl of Huntington ' s death The Silver Age Dutchess of Suffolk Histories And Loves Mistress a Mask And as if the Name of Heywood were destinated to the Stage there was also one Jasper Heywood who wrote three Tragedies namely Hercules Furiens Thyestes and Troas Also in my time I knew one Matthew Heywood who wrote a Comedy called The Changling that should have been acted at Audley-end House but by I know not what accident was prevented GEORGE PEEL GEorge Peel a somewhat antiquated English Bard of Queen Elizabeth's date some remnants of whose pretty pastoral Poetry we have extant in a Collection entituled England's Helicon He also contributed to the Stage three Plays Edward the first a History Alphonsus Emperour of Germany a Tragedy and David and Bathsabe a Tragi-Comedy which no doubt in the time he wrote passed with good applause JOHN LILLY JOhn Lilly a famous Poet for the State in his time as by the Works which he left appears being in great esteem in his time and acted then with great applause of the Vulgar as such things which they understood and composed chiefly to make them merry Yet so much prized as they were Printed together in one Volume namely Endymion Alexander and Campasce Galatea Midas Mother Boniby Maids Metamorphosis Sapho and Phao Woman in the Moon Comedies and another Play called A Warning for fair Women all which declare the great pains he took and the esteem which he had in that Age. WILLIAM WAGER THis William Wager is most famous for an Interlude which he wrote called Tom Tyler and his Wife which passed with such general applause that it was reprinted in the year 1661. and has been Acted divers times by private persons the chief Argument whereof is Tyler his marrying to a Shrew which that you may the better understand take it in the Author 's own words speaking in the person of Tom Tyler I am a poor Tyler in simple array And get a poor living but eight pence a day My Wise as I get it doth spend it away And I cannot help it she saith wot ye why For wedding and hanging comes by destiny I thought when I wed her she had been a Sheep At board to be friendly to sleep when I sleep She loves so unkindly she makes me to weep But I dare say nothing god wot wot ye why For wedding and hanging comes by destiny Besides this unkindness whereof my grief grows I think few Tylers are matcht to such shrows Before she leaves brawling she falls to deal blows Which early and late doth cause me to cry That wedding and hanging is destiny The more that I please her the worse she doth like me The more I forbear her the more she doth strike me The more that I get her the more she doth glike me Wo worth this ill fortune that maketh me cry That wedding and hanging is destiny If I had been hanged when I had been married My torments had ended though I had miscarried If I had been warned then would I have tarried But now all too lately I feel and cry That wedding and hanging is destiny He wrote also two Comedies The Tryal of Chivalry and The longer thou livest the more Fool thou art NICHOLAS BRETON NIcholas Breton a writer of Pastoral Sonnets Canzons and Madrigals in which kind of writing he keeps company with several other contemporary Emulators of Spencer and Sir Philip Sidney in a publish'd Collection of several Odes of the chief Sonneters of that Age. He wrote also several other Books whereof two I have by me Wits Private Wealth and another called The Courtier and the Country-man in which last speaking of Vertue he hath these Verses There is a Secret few do know And doth in special places grow A rich mans praise a poor mans wealth A weak mans strength a sick mans health A Ladies beauty a Lords bliss A matchless Jewel where it is And makes where it is truly seen A gracious King and glorious Queen THOMAS KID THOMAS WATSON c. THomas Kid a writer that seems to have been of pretty good esteem for versifying in former times being quoted among some of the more fam'd Poets as Spencer Drayton Daniel Lodge c. with whom he was either contemporary or not much later There is particularly remembred his Tragedy Cornelia There also flourish'd about the same time Thomas Watson a contemporary immitater of Sir Philip Sidney as also Tho. Hudson Joh. Markham Tho. Achelly Joh. Weever Ch. Middleton Geo. Turbervile Hen. Constable with some others especially one John Lane whose Works though much better meriting than many that are in print yet notwithstanding had the ill fate to be unpublish'd but they are all still reserved in Manuscript namely his Poetical Vision his Alarm to the Poets his Twelve Months his Guy of Warwick a Heroick Poem and lastly his Supplement to Chaucer's Squires Tale. Sir THOMAS OVERBVRY SIr Thomas Overbury a Knight and Wit was Son to Sir Nicholas Overbury of Burton in Glocester-shire one of the Judges of the Marches who to his natural propension of ingenuity had the addition of good Education being bred up first in Oxford afterwards for a while a Student of the Law in the Middle Temple soon after he cast Anchor at Court the Haven of Hope for all aspiring Spirits afterwards travell'd into France where having been some time he returned again and was entertained into the respects of Sir Rob. Carre one who was newly initiated a Favourite to King James where by his wise carriage he purchased to himself not only the good affection and respect of Sir Robert but also of divers other eminent persons During his abode with Sir Robert Carre he composed that excellent Poem of his entituled A Wife which for the excellency thereof the Author of the Epistle to the Reader prefixed before his Book thus writes Had such a Poem been extant among the ancient Romans altho' they wanted our easie conservation of Wit
education but his own proper industry and addiction to Books advanced him to this perfection He wrote fifty Plays in all whereof fifteen Comedies three Tragedies the rest Masques and Entertainments His comedies were The Alchimist Bartholomew Fair Cynthia's Revels Câ—se is alter'd The Devil is an Ass Every Man in is humour every Man out of his humour The Fox Magnetick Lady New Inn Poeâ—aster Staple of News Sad Shepherd Silent Woman and A Tale of a Tub. His Tragedies were Cateline's Conspiracy Mortimer's Fall and Scianus His Masques and Entertainments too long here to write were thirty and two besides a Comedy of East-ward hoe in which he was Partner with Chapman These his Plays were above the vulgar capacity which are onely tickled with down-right obscenity and took not so well at the first stroke as at the rebound when beheld the second time yea they will endure reading and that with due commendation so long as either ingenuity or learning are fashionable in our Nation And although all his Plays may endure the test yet in three of his Comedies namely The Fox Alchymist and Silent Woman he may be compared in the judgment of the learned men for decorum language and well-humouring parts as well with the chief of the ancient Greek and Latine Comedians as the prime of modern Italians who have been judged the best of Europe for happy vein in Comedies not is his Bartholomew-Fair much short of them As for his other Comedies Staple of News Devil 's an Ass and the rest if they be not so sprightful and vigorous as his first pieces all that are old will and all that desire to be old should excuse him therein and therefore let the Name of Ben Johnson sheild them against whoever shall think fit to be srvere in censure against them Truth is his Tragedies Seianus and Cateline seem to have in them more of an artificial and inflate than of a pathetical and naturally Tragick height yet do they every one of them far excel any of the English ones that were writ before him so that he may be truly said to be the first reformer of the English Stage as he himself more truly than modestly writes in his commendatory Verses of his Servants Richard Broom's Comedy of the Northern Lass Which you have justly gained from the Stage By observation of those Comick Laws Which I your Master first did teach the Age. In the rest of his Poetry for he is not wholly Dramatick as his Vnderwoods Epigrams c. he is sometimes bold and strenuous sometimes Magisterial sometimes lepid and full enough of conceit and sometimes a man as other men are It seems the issue of his brain was more lively and lasting than the issue of his body having several Children yet none living to survive him This he bestowed as part as an Epitaph on his eldest Son dying an Infant Rest in soft peace and ask'd say Here doth lye Ben Johnson his best piece of Poetry But tho' the immortal Memory still lives of him in his learned Words yet his Body subject to mortality left this life Anno 1638. and was buried about the Belfrey in the Abbey-Church at Westminster having only upon a Pavement over his Grave this written O Rare Ben Johnson Yet were not the Poets then so dull and dry but that many expressed their affection to his Memory in Elegies and Epitaphs amongst which this following may not be esteemed the worst The Muses fairest Light in no dark time The Wonder of a learned Age the line That none can pass the most proportion'd Wit To Nature the best Judge of what was fit The deepest plainest highest clearest Pen The Voyce most eccho'd by consenting men The Soul which answer'd best to all well said By others and which most requital made Tun'd to the highest Key of ancient Rome Returning all her Musick with her own In whom with Nature Study claim'd a part And yet who to himself ow'd all his Art Here lies Ben Johnson every Age will look With sorrow here with Wonder on his Book FRANCIS BEAVMONT and JOHN FLETCHER THese two joyned together made one of the happy Triumvirate the other two being Johnson and Shakespear of the chief Dramatick Poets of our Nation in the last foregoing Age among whom there might be said to be a symmetry of perfection while each excelled in his peculiar way Ben Johnson in his elaborate pains and knowledge of Authors Shakespear in his pure vein of wit and natural Poetick height Fletcher in a Courtly Elegance and Gentile Familiarity of Style and withal a Wit and Invention so overflowing that the luxuriant Branches thereof were frequently thought convenient to be lopt off by Mr. Beaumont which two joyned together like Castor and Pollux most happy when in conjunction raised the English to equal the Vthenian and Roman Theaters Beaumont bringing the Ballast of Judgment Fletcher the Sail of Phantasie but compounding a Poet to admiration These two admirable Wits wrote in all two and fifty Plays whereof three and forty were Comedies namely Beggars Bush Custom of the Country Captain Coxcomb Chances Cupid's Revenge Double Marriage Elder Brother Four Plays in one Fair Maid of the Inn Honest man's Fortune Humorous Lieutenant Island Princess King and no King Knight of the burning Pestle Knight of Malta Little French Lawyer Loyal Subject Laws of Candy Lovers Progress Loves Cure Loves Pilgrimage Mad Lover Maid in the Mill Monsieur Thomas Nice Valour Night-Walker Prophetess Pilgrim Philaster Queen of Corinth Rule a Wife and have a Wife Spanish Curate Sea-Voyage Scornful Lady Womans Prize Women pleased VVife for a Month VVit at several weapons and a VVinters Tale. Also six Tragedies Bonduca the Bloody Brother False One the Maids Tragedy Thiery and Theodoret Valentinian and Two Noble Kinsmen a Tragi-Comedy Fair Shepherdess a Pastoral and a Masque of Grays-Inn Gentlemen It is reported of them that meeting once in a Tavern to contrive the rude Draught of a Tragedy Fletcher undertook to kill the King therein whose Words being over-heard by a Listner though his Loyalty not to be blamed herein he was accused of High Treason till the Mistake soon appearing that the Plot was only against a Dramatick and Scenical King all wound off in Merriment Yet were not these two Poets so conjoyned but that each of them did several Pieces by themselves Mr. Beaumont besides other Works wrote a Poem entituled Salmacis and Hermaphroditus a Fable taken out of Ovid's Metamorphosis and Mr. Fletcher surviving Mr. Beamont wrote good Comedies of himself so that it could not be laid to his Charge what Ajax doth to Vlysses Nihil hic Diomede remoto When Diomedes was gone He could do nought alone Though some think them inferior to the former and no wonder if a single thread was not so strong as twisted one Mr. Fletcher as it is said died in London of the Plague in the first year of King Charles the First 1625. WILLIAM SHAKESPEAR THis eminent Poet the Glory of the English
The Breath of whose perfumed Locks Might choke the Devil with a Pox Whose dainty twinings did entice The whole monopoly of Lice Her Forehead next is to be found Resembling much the new-plough'd ground Furrow'd like stairs whose windings led Unto the chimney of her head The next thing that my Muse descries Is the two Mill-pits of her Eyes Mill-pits whose depth no plum can sound For there the God of Love was drown'd On either side there hangs a Souse And Ear I mean keeps open house An Ear which always there did dwell And so the Head kept sentinel Which there was placed to descry If any danger there was nigh But surely danger there was bred Which made them so keep off the head Something for certain caus'd their fears Which made them so to hang their ears But hang her ears Thalia seeks To suck the bottle of her cheeks c. THOMAS RANDOLPH THis Famous Poet was born at Houghton in Northampton-shire and was first bred in Westminster-School then Fellow in Trinity-Colledge in Cambridge He was one of such a pregnant Wit that the Muses may seem not only to have smiled but to have been tickled at his Nativity such the festivity of his Poems of all sorts Yet was he also sententiously grave as may appeâ—r by many of his Writings not only in his Necessary Precepts but also in several other of his Poems take one instance in the conclusion of his Commendatory Verses to Mr. Feltham on his excellent Book of Resolves ' Mongst thy Resolves put my Resolves in too Resolve who will this I resolve to do That should my Errors chuse anothers line Whereby to write I mean to live by thine His extraordinary indulgence to the too liberal converse with the multitude of his applauders drew him to such an immoderate way of living that he was seldom out of Gentlemens company and as it often happens that in drinking high quarrels arise so there chanced some words to pass betwixt Mr. Randolph and another Gentleman which grew to be so high that the Gentleman drawing his Sword and striking at Mr. Randolph cut off his little finger whereupon in an extemporary humour he instantly made these Verses Arithmetick nine digits and no more Admits of then I have all my store But what mischance hath tane from my Left-hand It seems did only for a cypher stand Hence when I scan my Verse if I do miss I will impute the fault only to this A fingers loss I speak it not in sport Will make a Verse a foot too short That he was of a free generous disposition not regarding at all the Riches of the World may be seen in the first Poem of his Book speaking of the inestimable content he enjoyed in the Muses to those of his friends which dehorted him from Poetry Go sordid earth and hope not to bewitch My high-born Soul which flies a nobler pitch Thou canst not tempt her with adulterate show She bears no appetite that flags so low c. His Poems publish'd after his death and usher'd into the World by the best Wits of those times passed the Test with general applause and have gone through several I lmpressions To praise one were in some sort to dispraise the other being indeed all praise-worthy His Cambridge Duns facetiously pleasing as also his Parley with his Empty Purse in their kind not out-done by any He was by Ben. Johnson adopted for his Son and that as is said upon this occasion Mr. Randolph having been at London so long as that he might truly have had a parley with his Empty Purse was resolved to go see Ben. Johnson with his associates which as he heard at a set-time kept a Club together at the Devil-Tavern near Temple-Bar accordingly at the time appointed he went thither but being unknown to them and wanting Money which to an ingenious spirit is the most daunting thing in the World he peep'd in the Room where they were which being espied by Ben. Jonhson and seeing him in a Scholars thred-bare habit John Bo-peep says he come in which accordingly he did when immediately they began to rime upon the meanness of his Clothes asking him If he could not make a Verse and withal to call for his Quart of Sack there being four of them he immediately thus replied I John Bo peep to you four sheep With each one his good fleece If that you are willing to give me five shilling 'T is fifteen pence a piece By Jesus quoth Ben. Johnson his usual Oath I believe this is my Son Randolph which being made known to them he was kindly entertained into their company and Ben. Johnson ever after called him Son. He wrote besides his Poems the Muses Looking-glass Jealous Lovers and Hey for Honesty down with Knavery Comedies Amintas Pastoral and Aristippus an Interlude Sir JOHN BEAVMONT Baronet SIr John Beaumont was one who Drank as deep Draughts of Helicon as any of that Age and though not many of his Works are Extant yet those we have be such as are displayed on the Flags of highest Invention and may justly Stile him to be one of the chief of those great Souls of Numbers He wrote besides several other things a Poem of Bosworth Field and that so Ingeniously as one thus writes of it Could divine Maro hear his Lofty Strain He would condemn his Works to fire again I shall only give you an Instance of some few lines of his out of the aforesaid Poem and so conclude Here Valiant Oxford and Fierce Norfolk meet And with their Spears each other rudely greet About the Air the shined Pieces play Then on their Swords their Noble Hand they lay And Norfolk first a Blow directly guides To Oxfords Head which from his Helmet slides Upon his Arm and biteing through the Steel Inflicts a Wound which Vere disdains to feel But lifts his Faulcheon with a threatning grace And hews the Beaver off from Howards Face This being done he with compassion charm'd Retires asham'd to strike a Man disarm'd But strait a deadly Shaft sent from a Bow Whose Master though far off the Duke could know Untimely brought his combat to an end And pierc'd the Brains of Richards constant Friend When Oxford saw him Sink his Noble Soul Was full of grief which made him thus condole Farewel true Knight to whom no costly Grave Can give due honour would my Tears might save Those streams of Blood deserving to be Spilt In better service had not Richard s guilt Such heavy weight upon his Fortune laid Thy Glorious vertues had his Sins outweigh'd Dr. PHILEMON HOLLAND THis worthy Doctor though we find not many Verses of his own Composing yet is deservedly placed amongst the Poets for his numerous Translations of so many Authors insomuch that he might be called the Translator General of his Age So that those Books alone of his turning into English are sufficient to make a Country Gentleman a Competent Library for Historians He is thought to have his Birth
of them VVhen I remember what mine eyes have seen And what mine Ears have heard Concerning Muses too too young and green And how they have been jear'd T' expose my own I am afear'd And yet this fear decreases when I call To my tempestuous mind How the strong loins of Phoebus Children all Have faln by Censures mind And in their road what Rocks they find He went over afterwards into Ireland where he continued for some time but whether he dyed there or no I am not certain EDMVND PRESTWICH EDmund Prestwich was one who deservedly cometh in as a Member of the Noble Society of Poets being the Author of an ingenious Comedy called the Hectors or False Challenge as also Hippolytus a Tragedy what ever he might have written besides which may not have come to my knowledge PAGAN FISHER PAganus Piscator vulgarly Fisher was a notable Undertaker in Latin Verse and had well deserved of his Country had not lucre of Gain and private Ambition over-swayed his Pen to favour successful Rebellion He wrote in Latin his Marston-Moor A Gratulatory Ode of Peace Englished afterwards by Thomas Manley and other Latin pieces besides English ones not a few which as we said might have been meriting had not those worldly Considerations over-swayed the Dictates of his own Conscience But this his temporizing with the Times preferred him to be Poet Laureat if that were any Preferment to that notorious Traytor Oliver Cromwell to whom being Usurper if his Muse did homagâ— it must be considered saith Mr. Phillips that Poets in all times have been inclinable to ingratiate themselves with the highest in Power by what Title so ever However it was I have heard him often confess his Unhappiness therein and imparted to me a design he had of committing to memory the Monuments of the several Churches in London and Westminster not only those mentioned by Stow and Weaver but also those who have been erected since which might have been of great use to Posterity had it been done before the great Conflagration of the Fire thereby preserving many Monuments endangered since to be lost but Death interposing hindred him of his Design EDWARD SHIRBVRN Esq EDward Shirburn saith a learned Author was intimately knowing as well of the ancient Greek and Latin as of the choicest of modern Poets both Italian French and Spanish and in what he hath elegantly and judiciously Translated either of the former or latter in the Translating of which he hath discovered a more pure Poetical Fancy than many others can justly pretend to in their Original Works Nor was his Genius confined only to Poetry his Version of those Books of Manilius which relate meerly to Astronomy is a very Noble Work being set forth with most exact Notes and other learned and proper Illustrations Besides many other genuine Pieces which he wrote JOHN QVARLES JOhn Quarles Son to Francis Quarles Esq may be said to be born a Poet and that his Father's Genius was infused into him nor was he less Loyal in his Principles to his Prince writing besides several other VVorks an Elegy on the Lord Capell and A Curse against the Enemies of Peace of which I remember those were the two last lines That all the world may hear them hiss and cry Who loves no peace in peace shall never die He was also addicted to Arms as well as Arts and as I have been informed was a Captain in the King's Army but then Loyalty suffering an Eclipse he came up to London and continued there till the great Sickness which swept away of the Pestilence no fewer than 68586 persons amongst whom this unfortunate Gentleman was one tho to my knowledge to prevent it he might have been kindly welcom to his worthy Kinsman Mr. William Holgate of Saffron-Walden in Essex but Fate had decreed it otherwise JOHN MILTON JOhn Milton was one whose natural parts might deservedly give him a place amongst the principal of our English Poets having written two Heroick Poems and a Tragedy namely Paradice Lost Paradice Regain'd and Sampson Agonista But his Fame is gone out like a Candle in a Snuff and his Memory will always stink which might have ever lived in honourable Repute had not he been a notorious Traytor and most impiously and villanously bely'd that blessed Martyr King Charles the First JOHN OGILBY JOhn Ogilby was one who from a late Initiation into Literature made such a Progress therein as might well stile him to be the Prodigy of his time sending into the world so many large and learned Volumes as well in Verse as in Prose as will make posterity much indebted to his Memory His Volumes in Prose were his Atlas and other Geographical Works which gained him the Style and Office of the King's Cosmographer In Verse his Translations of Homer and Virgil done to the Life and adorned with most excellent Sculptures but above all as composed Propria Minerva his Paraphrase upon Aesop's Fables which for Ingenuity and Fancy besides the Invention of new Fables is generally confest to have exceeded what ever hath been done before in that kind He also set forth King Charles the Second his Entertainment through London when he went to his Coronation with most admirable Cuts of the several Pageants as he passed through and Explanations upon them And that which added a great grace to his VVorks he printed them all on special good Paper and had them printed on very good Letter Sir RICHARD FANSHAW THis worthy Gentleman one of Apollo's chiefest Sons was Secretary to King Charles the Second when Prince of Wales and after his Restoration his Embassadour to Spain where he died His Employments were such as one would think he should have had no time for Poetical Diversions yet at leisure times he Translated Guarim's Pastor Fido into English Verse and Spencer's Shepherds Callendar into Latin Verse ROGER BOILE Lord Braghil Earl of Orrery THis Noble Person the credit of the Irish Nobility for Wit and ingenious Parts and who had the command of a smooth Stile both in Prose and Verse in which last he hath written several Dramatick Histories as Mustapha Edward the Third Henry the Fifth and Tryphon all of them with good success and applause as writing after the French way of Rhyme now of late very much in Fashion THOMAS HOBBS of Malmsbury THis noted Person who gave occasion for so many Pens to band against him is of the more consideration for what he hath either judged or writ in Poetry but his Leviathan which he wrote in Prose caused the Pen of a no less than a learned Bishop to write against him He wrote a Preface to Davenant's Gondibert where no wonder if Complement and friendly Compliance do a little byass and over-sway Judgment His Latin Poem De Mirabilibus Pexi wanteth not due Commendation After many bustles in the world he sequestred himself wholly to Malmsbury where he died better inform'd as I have heard of the Deity than in the former part of his life he
English Meetre THOMAS MANLEY THomas Manley was saith my Author one of the Croud of Poetical writers of the late King's Time. He wrote among other things the History of Job in verse and Translated into English Pagan Fisher his Congratulatory Ode of Peace Mr. LEWYS GRIFFIN HE was born as he informed me himself in Rutland-shire and bred up in the University of Cambridge where proving an Excellent Preacher he was after some time preferred to be a Minister of St. George's Church in Southwark where being outed for Marrying two Sisters without their Friends Consent He was afterwards beneficed at Colchester in Essex where he continued all the time during a sore Pestilence raged there He wrote a Book of Essays and Characters an excellent Piece also The Doctrine of the Ass of which I remember these two lines Devil's pretences always were Divine A Knave may have an Angel for a Sign He wrote also a Book called The Presbyterian Bramble with several other Pieces in Defence of the King and the Church Now to shew you the Acuteness of his VVit I will give you an Instance The first year that Poor Robin's Almanack came forth about Six and Twenty Years ago there was cut for it a Brass Plate having on one side of it the Pictures of King Charles the First the Earl of Strafford the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Earl of Darby the Lord Capel and Dr. Hewit all six adorned with Wreaths of Lawrel On the other side was Oliver Cromwell Bradshaw Ireton Scot Harrison and Hugh Peters hanging in Halters Betwixt which was placed the Earl of Essex and Mr. Christopher Love upon which plate he made these Verses Bless us what have we here What sundry Shapes Salute our Eyes have Martyrs too their Apes Sure 't is the War of Angels for you 'd Swear That here stood Michael and the Dragon there Tredescan is out-vy'd for we engage Both Heaven and Hell in an Octavo Page Martyrs and Traytors rallied six to six Half fled unto Olimpus half to Styx Joyn'd with two Neuters some Condemn some Praise They hang betwixt the Halters and the Bayes For 'twixt Nolls Torment and Great Charles's Glory There there 's the Presbyterian Purgatory He died as I am informed at Colchester about the Year of our Lord 1670. JOHN DAVNCEY JOhn Dauncey a true Son of Apollo and Bacchus was one who had an Excellent Command of his Pen a fluent Stile and quick Invention nor did any thing come amiss to his undertaking He wrote a compleat History of the late times a Chronicle of the Kingdom of Portugal the English Lovers a Romance which for Language and Contrivance comes not short of either of the best of French or Spanish He Translated a Tragi-Comedy out of French called Nichomede equal in English to the French Original besides several other things too long to recite His English Lovers was Commended by divers of sound Judgment amongst others Mr. Lewis Griffin our forementioned Poet made these verses in commendations of it Rich Soul of Wit and Language thy high strains So plunge arid puzzle unrefined brains That their Illiterate Spirits do not know How much to thy Ingenious Pen they owe. Should my presumptuous Muse attempt to raise Trophies to thee she might as well go blaze Bright Planets with base Colours or display The Worlds Creation in a Puppet-Play Let this suffice what Calumnies may chance To blut thy Fame they spring from Ignorance When Old Orpheus drew the Beasts along By sweet Rhetorick of his learned Tongue 'T was deafness made the Adder sin and this Caus'd him who should have hum'd the Poet hiss RICHARD HEAD RIchard Head the Noted Author of the English Rogue was a Ministers Son born in Ireland whose Father was killed in that horrid Rebellion in 1641. Whereupon his Mother with this her Son came into England and he having been trained up in Learning was by the help of some Friends for some little time brought up in the University of Oxford in the same Colledge wherein his Father had formerly been a Student But means falling short he was taken away from thence and bound Apprentice to a Latin Bookseller in London attaining to a good Proficiency in that Trade But his Genius being addicted to Poetry and having Venus for his Horoscope e're his time were fully out he wrote a Piece called Venus Cabinet Vnlock'd Afterwards he married and set up for himself But being addicted to play a Mans Estate then runs in Hazard for indeed that was his Game until he had almost thrown his Shop away Then he betook himself to Ireland his Native Country where he composed his Hic Vbique a noted Comedy and which gained him a general Esteem for the worth thereof And coming over into England had it Printed dedicating it to the then Duke of Monmouth But receiving no great Incouragement from his Patron he resolved to settle himself in the World and to that purpose with his Wife took a House in Queens-Head Alley near Pater-Noster-Row and for a while followed his Business so that contrary to the Nature of a Poet his Pockets began to be well lined with Money But being bewitched to that accursed vice of Play it went out by handfuls as it came in piece by piece And now he is to seek again in the World whereupon he betook him to his Pen and wrote the first part of the English Rogue which being too much smutty would not be Licensed so that he was fain to refine it and then it passed stamp At the coming forth of this first part I being with him at three Cup Tavern in Holborn drinking over a glass of Rhenish made these verses upon it What Gusman Buscon Francion Rablais writ I once applauded for most excellent Wit But reading thee and thy rich Fancies store I now condemn what I admir'd before Henceforth Translations pack away be gone No Rogue so well-writ as the English one There was afterwards three more parts added to it by him and Mr. Kirkman with a promise of a fifth which never came out He wrote several other Books besides as The art of Whedling The Floating Island or a Voyage from Lambethania to Ramalia A discovery of O Brazil Jacksons Recantation The Red Sea c. Amongst others he had a great Fancy in Bandying against Dr. Wild although I must confess therein over Matcht yet fell he upon him tooth and nail in Answer to his Letter directed to his Friend Mr. J. J. upon Occasion of his Majesties Declaration for Liberty of Conscience concluding in this manner Thus Sir you have my Story but am Sorry Taunton excuse it is no better for ye However read it as you Pease are shelling For you will find it is not worth the telling Excuse this boldness for I can't avoid Thinking sometimes you are but ill Imploy'd Fishing for Souls more fit then frying Fish That makes me throw Pease Shellings in your Dish You have a study Books wherein to look How comes it then the
Spanish and French Poets So that we may well conclude him to be both the Glory and Admiration of his time EDWARD PHILLIPS EDward Phillips Brother to John Phillips aforesaid the Judicious Continuator of Sir Richard Bakers Chronicle which will make his name Famous to Posterity no less than his Genuine Poems upon several occasions in which he comes not far short of his Spritely Brother Mr. THOMAS SPRAT MR. Thomas Spart whose Judicious History of the Royal Society for the Smoothness of the Stile and exactness of the Method deserveth high Commendations He hath also writ in Verse a very applauded tho little Poem entitled The Plague of Athens WILLIAM SMITH WIlliam Smith the Author of a Tragedy entituled Hieronymo as also The Hector of Germany Mr. JOHN LACEY MR. John Lacy one of the noted'st Wits of these Times who as William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlow before him rose from an Ator to be an Author to the Stage having written two ingenious Comical Pieces viz. Monsieur Ragou and The Dumb Lady Mr. WILLIAM WHICHERLY MR. William Whicherly a Gentleman of the Inner Temple who besides his other learned Works hath contributed largely to the Stage in his Comedies of Love in a Wood The Gentleman Dancing-Master The Country Wife c. Sir ROGER L'ESTRANGE AND so we have reckoned up all the most Eminent-Poets which have come to our knowledge craving pardon for those we have omitted We shall conclude all with Sir Roger L' Strange one whose Pen was never idle in asserting the Royal Cause as well before the King's Restoration against his open Enemies as since that time against his Feigned Friends Those who shall consider the Number and Greatness of his Books will admire he should ever write so many and those who have Read them considering the Stile and Method they are writ in will more admire he should Write so well And because some people may imagine his Works not to be so many as he hath Written we will give you a Catalogue of as many as we can remember of them Collections in Defence of the King. Tolleration Discussed Relapsed Apostate Apology for Protestants Richard against Baxter Tyranny and Popery Growth of Knavery Reformed Catholique Free-born Subjects The Case Put. Seasonable Memorials Answer to the Appeal No Papist The Shammer Shamm'd Account Cleared Reformation Reformed Dissenters Sayings in Two Parts Notes on Colledge Citizen and Bumkin in Two Parts Further Discovery of the Plot. Discovery on Discovery Narrative of the Plot. Zekiel and Ephraim Appeal to the King and Parliament Papist in Musquerade Answer to the Second Character of a Popish Successor These Twenty Six with divers others he writ in Quarto Besides which he wrote divers others viz. The History of the Plot in Folio Quevedo's Visions Englished Octavo Erasmus's Coloquies Eng. Oct. Seneca's Morals Oct. Cicero's Offices in English The Guide to Eternity in Twelves Five Love Letters from a Nun to a Cave c. The Holy Cheat. Caveat to the Cavaliers Plea for the Caveat and the Author Besides his indefatigable pains taken in writing the Observator a Work which for Vindicating the Royal Interest and undeceiving the People considering the corruption of the Times of as great use and behoof as may be mens minds having been before so poysoned by Fanatical Principles that it is almost an Herculean Work to reduce them again by Reason or as we may more properly say to Reason Of which useful Work he hath done already Two large Volumes and a Third almost compleated his Pen being never weary in Service of his Country But should I go about to enumerate all the Works of this worthy Gentleman I should run my self into an irrecoverable Labyrinth Not is he less happy in his Verse than Prose which for Elegancy of Language and quickness of Invention deservedly entitles him to the honour of a Poet and therefore I shall forbear to write more of him since what I can do upon that account comes infinitely far short of his deservings FINIS ERRATA PAge 6. line 4. for Arts read Acts l. 25. r. estimation p. 17. l. 1. r. Havillan p. 24. l. 6. r. Son p. 44. l. 5. r better p. 82. l. 29. add it p. 88. l. 18. r. this l. 20 add my p. 117. l. 28. r. London p. 119. l. 21. r. 't was p. 127. l. 14. r. of p. 128. l. 28. r. Athenian l. 30. r. both p. 133. l. 9. r. his p. 143. l. 2. r. still p. 168. l. 18. r. unknown p. 174. l. 20. r. Ap. p. 178. l. 25. r. fare p. 187. l. 13. r. infamy besides several other literal mistakes which I would desire the Reader to Correct with his Pen. †Hen. 5. †Countenance †Guts †Clock †Verily * Resurgam