sende And yat he might seruy God wilned muche thereto And seyd he wald noght be glader hyt wer ydo This English Rhymer or Poet which you will have it to be is said to have lived whilst he was a very old man and to have died about the beginning of the Reign of King John. RICHARD the Hermit COntemporary with Robert of Glocester was one Richard a Religious Hermit whose Manuscripts were a while ago and for ought I know are still kept in Exeter-Library although Exeter-House in the Strand is converted now into an Exchange This Religious Hermit studied much in converting the Church-Service into English Verse of which we shall give you an Essay in part of the Te Deum and part of the Magnificat Te Deum We heryen ye God we knowlethen ye Lord All ye erye worships ye everlasting fader Alle Aungels in heuens and alle ye pours in yis world Cherubin and Seraphin cryen by voice to ye unstyntyng Magnificat My Soul worschips the Louerd and my Gost joyed in God my hele For he lokyd ye mekenes of hys hondemayden So for iken of yat blissefulle schall sey me all generacjouns For he had don to me grete yingis yat mercy is and his nam hely He likewise translated all the Psalms of David as also the Collects Epistles and Gospels for the whole year together with the Pater Noster and Creed though there was then another Pater Noster and Creed used in the Church sent into England by Adrian the Fourth Pope of Rome an Englishman the Son of Robert Breakspeare of Abbots Langley in Hertfordshire unto King Henry the Second which for variety sake we shall give you as followeth Pater Noster URe fader in hevene rithe Thi nom be haliid everliche Thou bring us to thi michilblisce Thi wil to wirche thu us wisse Al 's hit is in hevene ido Ever in erth ben hit also That heli bred yat lastyth ay Thou sende hious yis like day Forgio ous al yat we hauith don Al 's we forgiu och oder mon He ler ous falle in no founding Ak scilde ous fro ye foul thing Amen The Creed I Beleeve in God fader almighty shipper of heuen and erth And in Ihesus Crist his onle thi son vre Louerd That is iuange thurch the hooli Ghost hore of Mary Maiden Tholede pine undyr Pounce Pilate pitcht on rode tre dead and yburiid Litcht into helle the thridde day fro death arose Steich into hevene sit on his fader richt hand God Almichty Then is cominde to deme the quikke and the dede I beleve in ye hooli Gost Alle hooli Chirche Mone of alle hallouen forgivenis of sine Fleiss uprising Lif withuten end Amen When this Richard the Hermit died we cannot find but conjecture it to be about the middle of the Reign of King John about the year 1208. JOSEPH of Exeter JOseph of Exeter was born at the City of Exeter in Devonshire he was also sirnamed Iscanus from the River Isk now called Esk which running by that City gave it formerly the denomination of Isca This Joseph saith my Author was a Golden Poet in a Leaden Age so terse and elegant were his Conceits and Expressions In his younger years he accompanied King Richard the First in his Expedition into the Holy Land by which means he had the better advantage to celebrate as he did the Arts of that warlike Prince in a Poem entituled Antiochea He also wrote six Books De Bello Trojano in Heroick Verse which as the learned Cambden well observes was no other then that Version of Dares Phyrgius into Latine Verse Yet so well was it excepted that the Dutchmen not long since Printed it under the name of Cornelius Nepos an Author who lived in the time of Tully and wrote many excellent pieces in Poetry but upon a strict view of all his Works not any such doth appear amongst them they therefore do this Joseph great wrong in depriving him the honour of his own Works He was afterwards for his deserts preferred to be Arch-bishop of Burdeaux in the time of King John about the year 1210. MICHAEL BLAVNPAYN THis Michael Blaunpayn otherwise sirnamed the Cornish Poet or the Rymer was born in Cornwall and bred in Oxford and Paris where he attained to good proficiency in Learning being of great fame and ostentation in his time out of whose Rymes for marry England as Cambden calls them he quotes several passages in that most excellent Book of his Remains It hapned one Henry of Normandy chief Poet to our Henry the Third had traduced Cornwall as an inconsiderable Country cast out by Nature in contempt into a corner of the land Our Michael could not endure this Affront but full of Poetical fury falls upon the Libeller take a tast little thereof will go far of his strains Non opus est ut opus numere quibus est opulenta Et per quas inopes sustent at non ope lenta Piscibus stanno nusquam tam fertilis ora We need not number up her wealthy store Wherewith this helpful Lands relieves her poor No Sea so full of Fish Tin no shore Then in a triumphant manner he concludeth all with this Exhortation to his Countrymen Quid nos deterret si firmiter in pede stemus Fraus ni nos superat nihil est quod non superemus What should us fright if firmly we do stand Bar fraud and then no force can us command Yet his Pen was not so lushious in praising but when he listed it was as bitter in railing witness this his Satyrical Character of his aforesaid Antagonist Est tibi gamba Capri crus passeris latus Apri Os leporis catuli nasus dens gena Muli Frons vetulae tauri caput color undique Mauri His argumentis quibus est argutia Mentis Quod non a Monstro differs satis hic tibi monstro Gamb'd like a Goat Sparrow-thigh'd sides as a Boar Hare-mouth'd Dog-nos'd like Mule thy teeth and chin Brow'd as old wife Bull headed black as a More If such without then what are you within By these my signs the wise will easily conster How little thou does differ from a Monster This Michael flourished in the time of King John and Henry the Third MATTHEW PARIS MAtthew Paris is acknowledged by all to be an Englishman saving only one or two wrangling Writers who deserve to be arraigned of Felony for robbing our Country of its due and no doubt Cambridge shire was the County made happy by his birth where the Name and Family of Paris is right ancient even long before they were setled therein at Hildersham wherein they still flourish though much impaired for their Loyalty in the late times of Rebellion He was bred a Monk of St. Albans living in that loose Age a very strict and severe life never less idle than when he was alone spending those hours reserved from Devotion in the sweet delights of Poetry and
his Muse out of his Poly-Olbion speaking of his native County Warwickshire Upon the Mid-lands now th' industrious Muse doth fall That Shire which we the Heart of England well may call As she herself extends the midst which is Deweed betwixt St. Michael's Mount and Barwick-bordering Tweed Brave Warwick that abroad so long advanc'd her Bear By her illustrious Earls renowned every where Above her neighbouring Shires which always bore her Head. Also in the Beginning of his Poly-Olbion he thus writes Of Albions glorious Isle the wonders whilst I write The sundry varying Soyls the Pleasures infinite Where heat kills not the cold nor cold expells the heat The calms too mildly small nor winds too roughly great Nor night doth hinder day nor day the night doth wrong The summer not too short the winter not too long What help shall I invoke to aid my Muse the while c. However in the esteem of the more curious of these times his Works seem to be antiquated especially this of his Poly-Olbion because of the old-fashion'd kind of Verse thereof which seems somewhat to diminish that respect which was formerly paid to the Subject although indeed both pleasant and elaborate wherein he took a great deal both of study and pains and thereupon thought worthy to be commented upon by that once walking Library of our Nation Mr. John Selden His Barons Wars are done to the Life equal to any of that Subject His Englands Heroical Epistles generally liked and received entituling him unto the appellation of the English Ovid. His Legends of Robert Duke of Normandy Matilda Pierce Gaveston and Thomas Cromwel all of them done to the Life His Idea expresses much Fancy and Poetry And to such as love that Poetry that of Nymphs and Shepherds his Nymphals and other things of that nature cannot be unpleasant To conclude He was a Poet of a pious temper his Conscience having always the command of his Fancy very temperate in his Life slow of speech and inoffensive in company He changed his Lawrel for a Crown of Glory Anno 1631. and was buried in Westminster-Abbey near the South-door by those two eminent Poets Geoffry Chaucer and Edmond Spencer with this Epitaph made as it is said by Mr. Benjamin Johnson Do pious Marble let thy Readers know What they and what their Children ow To Drayton's Name whose sacred Dust We recommend unto thy Trust Protect his Memory and preserve his Story Remain a lasting Monument of his Glory And when thy Ruines shall disclaim To be the Treasurer of his Name His Name that cannot fade shall be An everlasting Monument to thee JOSHVA SYLVESTER JOshua Sylvester a very eminent Translator of his time especially of the Divine Du Bartus whose six days work of Creation gain'd him an immortal Fame having had many great Admirers even to these days being usher'd into the world by the chiefest Wits of that Age amongst others the most accomplisht Mr. Benjamin Johnson thus wrote of him If to admire were to commend my Praise might then both thee thy work and merit raise But as it is the Child of Ignorance And utter stranger to all Ayr of France How can I speak of thy great pains but err Since they can only judge that can confer Behold the reverend shade of Bartus stands Before my thought and in thy right commands That to the world I publish for him this Bartus doth wish thy English now were his So well in that are his Inventions wrought As his will now be the Translation thought Thine the Original and France shall boast No more those Maiden-Glories she hath lost He hath also translated several other Works of Du Bartus namely Eden the Deceipt the Furies the Handicrafts the Ark Babylon the Colonies the Columns the Fathers Jonas Vrania Triumph of Faith Miracle of Peace the Vocation the Fathers the Daw the Captains the Trophies the Magnificence c. Also a Paradox of Odes de la Nove Baron of Teligni with the Quadrains of Pibeac all which Translations were generally well received but for his own Works which were bound up with them they received not so general an approbation as you may perceive by these Verses We know thou dost well As a Translator But where things require A Genius and a Fire Not kindled before by others pains As often thou hast wanted Brains Mr. SAMVEL DANIEL MR. Daniel was born nigh to the Town of Taunton in Somersetshire his Father was a Master of Musick and his harmonious Mind saith Dr. Fuller made an Impression in his Son's Genius who proved to be one of the Darlings of the Muses a most excellent Poet whose Wings of Fancy displayed the Flags of highest Invention Carrying in his Christian and Sirname the Names of two holy Prophets which as they were Monitors to him for avoyding Scurrility so he qualified his Raptures to such a strain as therein he abhorred all Debauchery and Prophaneness Nor was he only one of the inspired Train of PhOebus but also a most judicious Historian witness his Lives of our English Kings since the Conquest until King Edward the Third wherein he hath the happiness to reconcile brevity with clearness qualities of great distance in other Authors and had he continued to these times no doubt it had been a Work incomparable Of which his Undertaking Dr. Heylin in the Preface to his Cosmography gives this Character speaking of the chiefest Historians of this Nation And to end the Bed-roll says he half the Story of this Realm done by Mr. Daniel of which I believe that which himself saith of it in his Epistle to the Reader that there was never brought together more of the Main Which Work is since commendably continued but not with equal quickness and judgment by Mr. Trussel As for his Poems so universally received the first in esteem is that Heroical one of the Civil Wars between the two Houses of York and Lancaster of which the elaborate Mr. Speed in his Reign of Richard the Second thus writes The Seeds saith he of those fearful Calamities a flourishing Writer of our Age speaking of Mr. Daniel willing nearly to have imitated Lucan as he is indeed called our English Lucan doth not unfortunately express tho' he might rather have said he wept them than sung them but indeed so to sing them is to weep them I sing the Civil Wars tumultuous Broils And bloody Factions of a mighty Land Whose people haughty proud with foreign spoyls Upon their selves turn back their conquering hand While Kin their Kin Brother the Brother foils Like Ensigns all against like Ensigns stand Bows against Bows a Crown against a Crown While all pretending right all right throw down Take one Taste more of his Poetry in his sixth Book of that Heroical Poem speaking of the Miseries of Civil War. So wretched is this execrable War This civil Sword wherein though all we see be foul and all things miserable are Yet most of all is even the Victory Which is not only the
Stage and so much the more eminent that he gained great applause and commendation when able Wits were his Contemporaries was born at Stratford upon Avon in Warwickshire and is the highest honour that Town can boast of He was one of the Triumvirate who from Actors became Makers of Comedies and Tragedies viz. Christopher Marlow before him and Mr. John Lacy since his time and one in whom three eminent Poets may seem in some sort to the compounded 1. Martial in the warlike sound of his Sirname Hasti-vibrans or Shakespear whence some have supposed him of military extraction 2. Ovid the most natural and witty of all Poets and hence it was that Queen Elizabeth coming into a Grammar-School made this extemporary Verse Persuis a Crab-staff Bawdy Martial Ovid a fine Wag. 3. Plautus a most exact Comedian and yet never any Scholar as our Shakespear if alive would confess himself but by keeping company with Learned persons and conversing with jocular Wits whereto he was naturally inclin'd he became so famously witty or wittily famous that by his own industry without the help of Learning he attained to an extraordinary height in all strains of Dramatick Poetry especially in the Comick part wherein we may say he outwent himself yet was he not so much given to Festivity but that he could when so disposed be solemn and serious so that Heraclitus himself might afford to smile at his Comedies they were so merry and Democritus scarce forbear to sigh at his Tragedies they were so mournful Nor were his Studies altogether confined to the Stage but had excursious into other kinds of Poetry witness his Poem of the Rape of Lucrece and that of Venus and Adonis wherein to give you a taste of the loftiness of his Style we shall insert some few Lines of the beginning of the latter Even as the Sun with purple-colour'd face Had tane his last leave of the weeping Morn Rose-cheek'd Adonis hy'd him to the Chase Hunting he lov'd but Love he laught to scorn Sick thoughted Venus makes amain unto him And like a bold-fac'd Suiter'gins to woo him Thrive fairer than my self thus she begins The fields chief flower sweet above compare Stain to all Nymphs more lovely than a man More white and red than Doves or Roses are Nature that made thee with herself at strife Says that the world hath ending with they life c He was an eminent instance of the truth of that Rule Poeta non fit sed nascitur one is not made but born a Poet so that as Cornish Diamonds are not polished by any Lapidary but are pointed and smoothed even as they are taken out of the Earth so Nature itself was all the Art which was used on him He was so great a Benefactor to the Stage that he wrote of himself eight and forty Plays whereof 18 Comedies viz. As you like it All 's well that ends well A Comedy of Errors Gentleman of Verona Loves labour lust London Prodigal Merry Wives of Windsor Measure for measure Much ado about Nothing Midsummer Nights Dream Merchant of Venice Merry Devil of Edmonton Mucedorus the Puritan VVidow the Tempest Twelf-Night or what you will the taming of the Shrew and a winters Tale. Fourteen Tragedies viz. Anthony and Cleopatra Coriolanus Cymbeline Hamlet Julius Cqesar Lorrino Leir and his three Daughters Mackbeth Othello the Moor of Venice Romeo and Juliet Troylus and Cressida Tymon of Athens Titus Andronicus and the Yorkshire Tragedy Also fifteen Histories viz. Cromwel's History Henry 4. in two parts Henry 5. Henry 6. in three parts Henry 8. John King of England in three parts Pericles Prince of Tyre Richard 2. Richard 3. and Oldrastes Life and Death Also the Arraignment of Paris Pastoral Many were the Wit-combats betwixt him and Ben Johnson which two we may compare to a Spanish great Gallion and an English Man of war Mr. Johnson like the former was built far higher in Learning solid but slow in his performances Shakespear with the English Man of war lesser in Bulk but lighter in sayling could turn with all Tides tack about and take advantage of all Winds by the quickness of his Wit and Invention His History of Henry the Fourth is very much commended by some as being full of sublime Wit and as much condemned by others for making Sir John Falstaffe the property of Pleasure for Prince Henry to abuse as one that was a Thrasonical Puff and emblem of mock Valour though indeed he was a man of Arms every inch of him and as valiant as any in Age being for his Martial Prowess made Knight of the Garter by King Henry the 6th This our famous Comedian died An. Dom. 16 and swas buried at Stratford upon Avon the Town of his Nativity upon whom one hath bestowed this Epitaph though more proper had he been buried in VVestminster Abbey Renowned Spencer lie a thought more nigh To learned Chaucer and rare Beaumont lie A little nearer Spencer to make room For Shakespear in your threefold fourfold Tomb To lodge all four in one Bed make a shift Until Doomsday for hardly will a fifth Betwixt his day and that by Fates be slain For whom your Curtains may be drawn again If your precedency in Death do bar A fourth place in your sacred Sepulcher Under this sacred Marble of thine own Sleep rare Tragedian Shakespear sleep alone Thy unmolested Peace in an unshar'd Cave Possess as Lord not Tenant of thy Grave That unto us and others it may be Honour hereafter to be laid by thee CHRISTOPHER MARLOW CHristopher Marlow was as we said not only contemporary with William Shakespear but also like him rose from an Actor to be a maker of Comedies and Tragedies yet was he much inferior to Shakespear not only in the number of his Plays but also in the elegancy of his Style His Pen was chiefly employ'd in Tragedies namely his Tamberlain the first and second Part Edward the Second Lust's Dominion or the Lascivious Queen the Massacre of Paris his Jew of Malta a Tragi-comedy and his Tragedy of Dido in which he was joyned with Nash But none made such a great Noise as this Comedy of Doctor Faustus with his Devils and such like tragical Sport which pleased much the humors of the Vulgar He also begun a Poem of Hero and Leander wherein he seemed to have a resemblance of that clear and unsophisticated Wit which was natural to Musaeus that incomparable Poet. This Poem being left unfinished by Marlow who in some riotous Fray came to an untimely and violent end was thought worthy of the finishing hand of Chapman as we intimated before in the performance whereof nevertheless he fell short of the Spirit and Invention with which it was begun BARTON HOLYDAY BArton Holyday an old Student of Christ-Church in Oxford who besides his Translation of Juvenal with elaborate Notes writ several other things in English Verse rather learned than elegant and particularly a Comedy called The Marriage of the Arts Out of
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
extream Ruiner of others but her own Calamity Where who obtains cannot what he would do Their power hath part that holp him thereunto Next take notice of his Musophilus or general Defence of Learning Dedicated to Sir Fulk Greuil his Letter of Octovia to Marcus Antonius his Complaint of Rosamond his Panegyrick Delia c. Besides his Dramatick Pieces as his Tragedy of Philotus and Cleopatra Hymenis Triumph and the Queens Arcadia a Pastoral being all of them of such worth that they were well accepted by the choicest Judgments of those Times and do yet remain in good esteem as by their often Impressions may appear This our Poet's deserts preferr'd him to be a Servant in ordinary to Queen Anne the most illustrious wife of King James I. who allowed him a fair Salary such as enabled him to keep a handsom Garden-house in Old-street nigh London where he would commonly lie obscure sometimes two Months together the better to enjoy that great Felicity he aimed at by enjoying the company of the Muses and then would appear in publick to recreate himself and converse with his Friends of whom the most endeared were the Learned Doctor Cowel and Judicious Mr. Cambden And now being weary of the Troubles of the City and Court he retired into the Country and turn'd Husbandman Renting a Farm or Grange in Wiltshire nigh the Devizes not so much as it is thought for the hope of gains as to enjoy the retiredness of a Country Life How he thrived upon it I cannot inform my self much less my Readers although no question pleasing himself therein he attained to that Riches he sought for viz. Quiet and Contentedness which whoso enjoys reapeth the benefit of his labours He left no Issue behind him but those of his Brain though living a good space of time with Justina his wife For his Estate he had neither a Bank of Wealth nor Lank of Want but living in a competent contented condition and died as it is conjectured about the latter end of King James I. GEORGE CHAPMAN GEorge Chapman was one in his time much famed for the Fluency of his Muse gaining a great repute for his Translation of Homer and Hesiod which in those times passed as Works done without compare and indeed considering he was one of the first who brake the Ice in the Translation of such learned Authors reading the highest conception of their Raptures into a neat polite English as gave the true meaning of what they intended and rendred it a style acceptable to the Reader considering I say what Age he lived in it was very well worthy praise though since the Translation of Homer is very far out-done by Mr. Ogilby He also continued that excellent Poem of Hero and Leander begun by Christopher Marlow and added very much to the Stage in those times by his Dramatick Writings as his Blind Beggar of Alexandria All Fools the Gentleman Vsher Humorous Days Mirth May Day Mounsieur D'Olive Eastward ho Two wise men and all the rest Fools Widows Tears Comedies Bussy D'Amboys Byron's Tragedy Bussy D'Amboys Revenge Caesar and Pompey Revenge for Honour Tragedies the Temple Masque of the Middle Temple and Lincolns-Inn Masques and Byron's Conspiracy a History in all seventeen ROBERT BARON OF this Robert Baron we can recover nothing save only those Dramatick Pieces which he wrote to the Stage and which no doubt passed with good applause in those times Of these are remembred his Don Quixot or the Knight of the Ill-favoured Countenance a Comedy Gripus and Hegia a Pastoral Deorum Dona Dick Scorner Destruction of Jerusalem the Marriage of Wit and Science Masques and Interludes and Myrza a Tragedy LODOVIC CARLISLE TO Mr. Robert Baron we may add Lodovic Carlisle as much about the same time and of like equal esteem having written some not yet totally forgotten Plays viz. Arviragus and Felicia in two pats the deserving Favorite the Fool would be a Favorite or the deserving Lover Tragi-Comedies Marius and Scylla and Osmond the Great Turk or the Noble Servant Tragedies all which shew him though not a Master yet a great Retainer to the Muses JOHN FORD TO these we may add John Ford a Dramatick Writer likewise of those times very beneficial to the Red-Bull and Fortune-Play-houses as may appear by these Plays which he wrote viz. The Fancies Ladies Tryal Comedies the broken Heart Lovers Melancholy Loves Sacrifice 't is pity she 's a Whore Tragedies Perkin Warbeck a History and an Associate with Rowley and Deckar in a Tragi-Comedy called The Witch of Edmonton ANTHONY BREWER ANthony Brewer was also one who in his time contributed very much towards the English Stage by his Dramatick Writings especially in that noted one of his entituled Lingua which as it is reported being once acted in Cambridge the late Usurper Cromwel had therein the Part of Tablus the Substance of the Play being a Contention among the Senses sor a Crown which Lingua who would have made up a sixth Sense had laid for them to sind having this Inscription Which of the five that doth deserve it best Shall have his Temples with this Coronet blest This Mock-contention for a Crown is said to swell his Ambition so high that afterwards he contended for it in earnest heading such a notable Rebellion as had almost ruined three flourishing Kingdoms But to return to Mr. Brewer Besides this Lingua he wrote Loves Loadstone and the Countrey-Girl Comedies the Love-sick King and Landagartha Tragi-Comedies and Loves Dominion a Pastoral HENRY GLAPTHORN HEnry Glapthorn was one well deserving of the English being one of the chiefest Dramatick Writers of this Age deservingly commendable not so much for the quantity as the quality of his Plays being his Hollander Ladies Priviledge and Wit in a Constable Comedies his Argalus and Parthenia a Pastoral and Alberus Watlestein a Tragedy in which Tragedy these Lines are much commended This Law the Heavens inviolably keep Their Justice well may slumber but ne'er sleep JOHN DAVIS of Hereford IN the writing of this Mans Life we shall make use of Dr. Fuller in his England's Worthies who saith that he was the greatest Master of the Pen that England in his Age beheld for 1. Fast writing so incredâ—ble his expedition 2. Fair writing some minutes consultation being required to decide whether his Lines were written or printed 3. Close writing a Mystery which to do well few attain unto 4. Various writing Secretary Roman Court and Text. The Poetical Fiction of â—riareus the Giant who had an hundred hands found a Moral in him who could so cunningly and copiously disguise his aforesaid elemental hards that by mixing he could make them appear an hundred and if not so many sorts so many degrees of writing He had also many pretty excursions into Poetry and could flourish Matters as well as Letters with his Fancy as well as with his Pen. Take a taste of his Abilities in those Verses of his before Coriat's Crudities being called the Odcombian Banquet wherein the