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
glorious Sparta lies upon the ground Lofty Mycenae hardly to be found Of Oedipus his Thebes what now remains Or of Pandion's Athens but their Names So also Sylvester in his Du Bartus Thebes Babel Rome those proud Heaven-daring Wonders Lo under ground in Dust and Ashes lie For earthly Kingdoms even as men do die By this you may see that frail Paper is more durable than Brass or Marble and the Works of the Brain more lasting than that of the Hand so true is that old Verse Marmora Maeonij vincunt Monumenta Libelli Vivitur ingenio caetera mortis erunt The Muses Works Stone-Monuments out-last 'T is Wit keeps Life all else Death will down cast Now though it is the desire of all Writers to purchase to themselves immortal Fame yet is their Fate far different some deserve Fame and have it others neither have it nor deserve it some have it not deserving and others though deserving yet totally miss it or have it not equall to their Deserts Thus have I known a well writ Poem after a double expence of Brain to bring it forth and of Purse to publish it to the World condemned to the Drudgery of the Chandler or Oyl-man or which is worse to light Tobacco I have read in Dr. Fuller's Englands Worthies that Mr. Nathanael Carpenter that great Scholar for Logick the Mathematicks Geography and Divinity setting forth a Book of Opticks he found to his great grief the Preface thereof in his Printers House Casing Christmas-Pies and could never after from his scattered Notes recover an Original thereof thus saith he Pearls are no Pearls when Cocks or Coxcombs find them There are two things which very much discourage Wit ignorant Readers and want of Mecaenasses to encourage their Endeavours For the first I have read of an eminent Poet who pass by a company of Bricklayers at work who were repeating some of his Verses but in such a manner as quite marred the Sence and Meaning of them he snatching up a Hammer fell to breaking their Bricks and being demanded the reason thereof he told them that they spoiled his Work and he spoiled theirs And for the second what greater encouragement to Ingenuity than Liberality Hear what the Poet Martial saith Lib. 10. Epig. 11. What deathless numbers from my Pen would flow What Wars would my Pierian Trumpet blow If as Augustus now again did live So Rome to me would a Mecaenas give The ingenious Mr. Oldham the glory of our late Age in one of his Satyrs makes the renowned Spenser's Ghost thus speak to him disswading him from the Study of Poetry Chuse some old English Hero for thy Theme Bold Arthur or great Edward's greater Son Or our fifth Henry matchless to renown Make Agin-Court and Crescy-fields out-vie The fam'd Laucinan-shores and walls of Troy What Scipio what Maecenas wouldst thou find What Sidney now to thy great project kind Bless me how great a Genius how each Line Is big with Sense how glorious a design Does through the whole and each proportion shine How lofty all his Thoughts and how inspir'd Pity such wondrous Parts are not preferr'd Cry a gay wealthy Sot who would not bail For bare Five Pounds the Author out of Jail Should he starve there and rot who if a Brief Came out the needy Poets to relieve To the whole Tribe would scarce a Tester give But some will say it is not so much the Patrons as the Poets fault whose wide Mouths speak nothing but Bladders and Bumbast treating only of trifles the Muses Haberdashers of small wares Whose Wit is but a Tavern-Tympany The Shavings and the Chips of Poetry Indeed such Pedlars to the Muses whose Verse runs like the Tap and whose invention ebbs and flows as the Barrel deserve not the name of Poets and are justly rejected as the common Scriblers of the times but for such who fill'd with Phebean-fire deserve to be crowned with a wreath of Stars for such brave Souls the darlings of the Delian Deity for these to be scorn'd contemn'd and disregarded must needs be the fault of the times I shall only give you one instance of a renowned Poet out of the same Author On Butler who can think without just rage The glory and the scandal of the age Fair stood his hopes when first he came to Town Met every where with welcoms of renown Courted and lov'd by all with wonder read And promises of Princely favour fed But what reward for all had he at last After a life in dull expectance pass'd The wretch at summing up his mispent days Found nothing left but poverty and praise Of all his gains by Verse he could not save Enough to purchase Flannel and a grave Reduc'd to want he in due time fell sick Was fain to die and be interr'd on Tick And well might bless the Feaver that was sent To rid him hence and his worse fate prevent Thus you see though we have had some comparable to Homer for Heroick Poesie and to Euripides for Tragedy yet have they died disregarded and nothing left of them but that only once there were such Men and Writings in being I shall in the next place speak something of my Undertakings in writing the Lives of these Renowned Poets Two things I suppose may be laid to my charge the one is the omission of some that ought with good reason to have been mentioned and the other the mentioning of those which without any injury might have been omitted For the first as I have begg'd pardon at the latter end of my Book for their omission so have I promised if God spare me life so long upon the first opportunity or second Edition of this Book to do them right In the mean time I should think my self much beholding to those persons who would give me any intelligence herein it being beyond the reading and acquaintance of any one single person to do it of himself And yet let me tell ye that by the Name of Poet many more of former times might have been brought in than what I have named as well as those which I have omitted that are now living namely Sir Walter Rawleigh Mr. John Weever Dr. Heylin Dr. Fuller c. but the Volume growing as big as the Bookseller at present was willing to have it we shall reserve them to another time they having already eternized their Names by the never dying Histories which they have wrote Then for the second thing which may be objected against me That I have incerted some of the meanest rank I answer That comparatively it is a less fault to incert two than to omit one most of which in their times were of good esteem though now grown out of date even as some learned Works have been at first not at all respected which afterwards have been had in high estimation as it is reported of Sir Walter Rawleigh who being Prisoner in the Tower expecting every hour to be sacrificed to the Spanish cruelty some few days before
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
make a man to rout Take a Pillow that ye lye not low If nede be spare not to blow To hold wind by mine opinion Will engender colles passion And make men to greven on her rops When they have filled her maws and her crops But toward night eate some Fennell rede Annis Commin or Coriander-seed And like as I have power and might I charge you rise not at midnight Though it be so the Moon shine clere I will my self be your Orlogere To morrow early when I see my time For we will forth parcel afore prime Accompanie parde shall do you good But I have digressed too far To return therefore unto Lydgate Scripsit partim Anglice partim Latine partim Prosa partim Versu Libros numero plures eruditione politissimos He writ saith my Author partly English partly Latine partly in Prose and partly in Verse many exquisite learned Books saith Pitseus which are mentioned by him and Bale as also in the latter end of Chaucer's Works he last Edition amongst which are Eglogues Odes Satyrs and other Poems He flourished in the Reign of Henry the Sixth and departed this world aged about 60 years circiter An. 1440. and was buried in his own Convent at Bury with this Epitaph Mortuus saeclo superis Superstes Hic jacet Lydgate tumulaetus Vrna Qui fuit quondam celebris Britannae Fama Poesis Dead in this World living above the Sky Intomb'd within this Urn doth Lydgate lie In former time fam'd for his Poetry All over England JOHN HARDING JOhn Harding our Famous English Chronologer was born saith Bale in the Northern parts and most likely in Yorkshire being an Esquire of an eminent Parentage He was a man equally addicted to Arms and Arts spending his Youth in the one and his Age in the other His first Military Employment was under Robert Vmfreuil Governor of Roxborough-Castle where he did good Service against the Scots Afterwards he followed the Standard of King Edward the Fourth to whom he valiantly and faithfully adhered not only in the Sun-shine of his Prosperity but also in his deepest Distress But what endeared him the most to his Favour and was indeed the Masterpiece of his Service was his adventuring into Scotland a desperate Attempt and performed not without the manifest hazarding of his Life where he so cunningly demeaned himself and insinuated himself so far into their Favour as he got a sight of their Records and Original Letters a Copy of which he brought with him to England and presented the same to King Edward the Fourth Out of these he collected a History of the several Submissions and sacred Oaths of Fealty openly taken from the time of King Athelstane by the Kings of Scotland to the Kings of England for the Crown of Scotland a Work which was afterwards made much use of by the English although the Scotch Historians stickle with might and main that such Homage was performed only for the County of Cumberland and some parcel of Land their Kings had in England South of Tweed Now as his Prose was very useful so was his Poetry as much delightful writing a Chronicle of our English Kings from Brute to King Edward the Fourth and that in English Verse for which he was accounted one of the chiefest Poets of his time being so exactly done that by it Dr. Fuller adjudges him to have drunk as deep a draught of Helicon as any in his Age And another saying that by the same he deservedly claimed a Seat amongst the chiefest of the Poetical Writers But to give you the better view of his Poetical Abilities I shall present you with some of his Chronicle-Verse concerning the sumptuous Houshold kept by King Richard the Second cap. 193. Truly I herd Robert Ireleffe say Clarke of the Green-cloth and that to the Houshold Came euery daye forth most part alway Ten thousand folke by his Messes told That followed the hous aye as thei wold And in the Kechin three hundred Seruitours And in eche Office many Occupiours And Ladies faire with their Gentleweomen Chamberers also and Lauenders Three hundred of theim were occupied then There was great pride emong the Officers And of all men far passing their compeers Of rich arraye and much more costous Then was before or sith and more precious c. This our Poet Harding was living Anno 1461. being then very aged and is judged to have survived not long after ROBERT FABIAN RObert Fabian was born and bred in London as witnesseth Bale and Pits becoming one of the Rulers thereof being chosen Sheriff Anno 1493. He spent his time which he had spare from publick Employments for the benefit of posterity writing two large Chronicles the one from Brute to the Death of King Henry the Second the other from the First of King Richard to the Death of Henry the Seventh He was saith my Author of a merry disposition and used to entertain his Guests as well with good Discourse as good Victuals He bent his Mind much to the Study of Poetry which according to those times passed for currant Take a touch of his Abilities in the Prologue to the second Volume of his Chronicle of England and France Now would I fayne In words playne Some Honour sayne And bring to mynde Of that auncient Cytye That so goodly is to se And full true ever hath be And also full kynde To Prince and Kynge That hath borne just rulynge Syn the first winnynge Of this Iland by Brute So that in great honour By passynge of many a showre It hath euer borne the flowre And laudable Brute c. These Verses were made for the Honour of London which he calleth Ryme Dogerel and at the latter end thereof excuseth himself to the Reader in these words Who so him lyketh these Versys to rede With favour I pray he will theym spell Let not the rudenes of theym hym lede For to dispraue thys Ryme Dogerell Some part of the honour it doth you tell Of this old Cytye Troynouant But not thereof the halfe dell Connyng in the Maker is so adaunt But though he had the Eloquence Of Tully and the Moralytye Of Seneck and the Influence Of the swyte sugred Armony Or that faire Ladye Caliope Yet had he not connyng perfyght This Citye to prayse in eche degre As that shulde duely aske by ryght Sir John Suckling a prime Wit of his Age in the Contest betwixt the Poets for the Lawrel maketh Apollo to adjudge it to an Alderman of London in these words He openly declar'd it was the best sign Of good store of Wit to have good store of Coyne And without a syllable more or less said He put the Lawrel on the Alderman's Head. But had the Scene of this Competition been laid a hundred and fifty years ago and the same remitted to the Umpirage of Apollo in sober sadness he would have given the Lawrel to this our Alderman He died at London Anno 1511. and was buried at St. Michael's
Church in Cornhil with this Epitaph Like as the Day his Course doth consume And the new Morrow springeth again as fast So Man and Woman by Natures custom This Life do pass at last in Earth are cast In Joy and Sorrow which here their Time do wast Never in one state but in course transitory So full of change is of the World the Glory Dr. Fuller observeth That none hath worse Poetry than Poets on their Monuments certainly there is no Rule without Exceptions he himself instancing to the contrary in his England's Worthies by Mr. Drayton's Epitaph and several others JOHN SKELTON JOhn Skelton the Poet Laureat in his Age tho' now accounted only a Rhymer is supposed to have been born in Norfolke there being an ancient Family of that Name therein and to make it the more probable he himself was Beneficed therein at Dis in that County That he was Learned we need go no further than to Erasmus for a Testimony who in his Letter to King Henry the Eighth stileth him Britanicarum Literarum Lumen Decus Indeed he had Scholarship enough and Wit too much Ejus Sermo saith Pitz. salsus in mordacem risus in opprobrium jocus in amaritudinem Whoso reads him will find he hath a miserable loose rambling Style and galloping measure of Verse yet were good Poets so scarce in his Age that he had the good fortune to be chosen Poet Laureat as he stiles himself in his Works The King's Orator and Poet Laureat His chief Works as many as can be collected and that out of an old Printed Book are these Philip Sparrow Speak Parrot The Death of King Edward the Fourth A Treatise of the Scots Ware the Hawk The Tunning of Elianer Rumpkin In many of which following the humor of the ancientest of our Modern Poets he takes a Poetical Liberty of being Satyrical upon the Clergy as brought him under the Lash of Cardinal Woolsey who so persecuted him that he was forced to take Sanctuary at Westminster where Abbot Islip used him with much respect In this Restraint he died June 21 1529. and was buried in St. Margaret's Chappel with this Epitaph J. Sceltanus Vates Pierius hic situs est We must not forget how being charg'd by some on his Death-bed for begetting many Children on a Concubine which he kept he protested that in his Conscience he kept her in the notion of a Wife though such his cowardliness that he would rather confess Adultery than own Marriage the most punishable at that time WILLIAM LILLIE TO this John Scelton we shall next present you with the Life of his Contemporary and great Antagonist William Lillie born at Odiham a great Market-Town in Hantshire who to betâ—… his knowledge in his youth travelled to the City of Jerusalem where having satisfied his curiosity in beholding those sacred places whereon our Saviour trode when he was upon the Earth he returned homewards making some stay at Rhodes to study Greek Hence he went to Rome where he heard John Sulpitius and Pomponius Sabinus great Masters of Latine in those days At his return home Doctor John Collet had new builded a fair School at the East-end of St. Paul's for 153 poor mens Children to be taught free in the same School for which he appointed a Master an Usher and a Chaplain with large Stipends for ever committing the oversight thereof to the Masters Wardens and Assistants of the Mereers in London because he was Son to Henry Collet Mercer sometime Major leaving for the Maintenance thereof Lands to the yearly value of 120 l. or better making this William Lilly first Master thereof which Place he commendably discharg'd for 15 years During which time he made his Latine Grammar the Oracle of Free Schools of England and other Grammatical Works He is said also by Bale to have written Epigrams and other Poetry of various Subjects in various Latine Verse though scarce any of them unless it be his Grammar now extant only Mr. Stow makes mention of an Epitaph made by him and graven on a fair Tomb in the midst of the Chancel of St. Paul's in London containing these Words Inclyta Joannes Londini Gloria gentis Is tibi qui quondam Paule Decanus erat Qui toties magno resonabat pectore Christum Doctor Interpres fidus Evangelij Qui mores hominum multum sermone disertae Formarat vitae sed probitate magis Quique Scholam struxit celebrem cognomine Jesu Hac dormit tectus membra Coletus humo Floruit sub Henrico 7. Henrico 8. Reg. Obiit An. Dom. 1519. Disce mori Mundo vivere disce Deo. John Skelton whom we mentioned before whose Writings were for the most part Satyrical mixing store of Gall and Copperas in his Ink having fell foul upon Mr. Lilly in some of his Verses Lilly return'd him this biting Answer Quid me Sceltone fronte sic aperta Carpis vipereo potens veneno Quid Versus trutina meos iniqua Libras Dicere vera num licebit Doctrinae tibi dum parare famam Et doctus fieri studes Poeta Doctrinam ne habes nec es Poeta With Face so bold and Teeth so sharp Of Viper's venom why dost carp Why are my Verses by thee weigh'd In a false Scale May Truth be said Whilst thou to get the more esteem A Learned Poet fain wouldst seem Skelton thou art let all men know it Neither Learned nor a Poet. He died of the Plague Anno 1522. and was buried in St. Paul's with this Epitaph on a Brass Plate fixed in the Wall by the great North-Door Gulielmo Lilio Pauliae Scholae olim Praeceptori primaerio Agnetae Conjugi in sacratissimo hujus Templi Coemiterio hinc a tergo nunc destructo consepultis Georgius Lilius hujus Ecclesiae Canonicus Parentum Memoriae pie consulens Tabellam hanc ab amicis conservatam hic reponendam curavit Sir THOMAS MORE SIR Thomas More a great Credit and Ornament in his Time of the English Nation and with whom the Learned'st Foreigners of that Age were proud to have correspondence for his wit and excellent parts was born in Milk-street London Anno Dom. 1480. Son to Sir John More Knight and one of the Justices of the Kings Bench. He was bred first in the Family of Archbishop Morton then in Canterbury-Colledge in Oxford afterwards removed to an Inn of Chancery in London called New-Inn and from thence to Lincolns-Inn where he became a double Reader Next his Worth preferred him to be Judge in the Sheriff of London's Court though at the same time a Pleader in others and so upright was he therein that he never undertook any Cause but what appeared just to his Conscience nor never took Fee of Widow Orphan or poor Person King Henry the Eighth coming to the Crown first Knighted him then made him Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and not long after L. Chancellor of England in which place he demeaned himself with great integrity and with no less expedition so that
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
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
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