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
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
whole Club of Wits in that Age joyned together to write Mock-commendatory Verses in Praise-dispraise of his Book If Art that oft the Learn'd hath stammer'd In one Iron Head-piece yet no Hammer-Lead May joyn'd with Nature hit Fame on the Cocks-comb Then 't is that Head-piece that is crown'd with Odcomb For he hard Head and hard sith like a Whet-stone It gives Wits edge and draws them too like Jet-stone Is Caput Mundi for a world of School-tricks And is not ignorant in the learned'st tricks H' hath seen much more than much I essure ye And will see New-Troy Bethlem and Old-Jury Mean while to give a taste of his first travel With streams of Rhetorick that get golden Gravel He tells how he to Venice once did wander From whence he came more witty than a Gander Whereby he makes relations of such wonders That Truth therein doth lighten while Art thunders All Tongues fled to him that at Babel swerved Lest they for wunt of warm months might have starved Where they do revel in such passing measure Especially the Greek wherein 's his pleasure That jovially so Greek he takes the guard of That he 's the merriest Greek that ' ere was heard of For he as ' t were his Mothers twittle twattle That 's Mother-tongue the Greek can prittle prattle Nay of that Tongue he so hath got the Body That he sports with it at Ruffe Gleek or Noddy c. He died at London in the midst of the Reign of King James I. and lieth buried in St. Giles in the Fields Doctor JOHN DONNE THis pleasant Poet painful Preacher and pious Person was born in Doâ—â—â—n of wealthy Parents who took such care of his Education that at nine years of Age he was sent to study at Hart-Hall in Oxford having besides the Latine and Greek attained to a knowledge in the French Tongue Here he fell into acquaintance with that great Master of Language and Art Sir Henry Wootton betwixt whom was such Friendship contracted that nothing but Death could force the separation From Oxford he was transplanted to Cambridge where he much improved his Study and from thence placed at Lincolns Inn when his Father dying and leaving him three thousand pound in ready Money he having a youthful desire to travel went over with the Earl of Essex to Cales where having seen the issue of this Expedition he left them and went into Italy and from thence into Spain where by his Industry he attainted to a perfection in their Languages and returned home with many useful Observations of those Countries and their Laws and Government These his Abilities upon his Return preferred him to be Secretary to the Lord Elsmore Keeper of the Great Seal in whose Service he fell in Love with a young Gentlewoman who lived in that Family Neece to the Lady Elsmore and Daughter to Sir George Moor Chancellor of the Garter and Lieutenant of the Tower who greatly opposed this Match yet notwithstanding they were privately married which so exesperated Sir George Moor that he procured the Lord Elsmore to discharge him of his Secretariship and never left prosecuting him till he had cast him into Prison as also his two Friends who had married him and gave him his Wife in Marriage But Mr. Donne had not been long there before he found means to get out as also enlargement for his two Friends and soon after through the mediation of some able persons a reconciliation was made and he receiving a Portion with his Wife and having help of divers friends they lived very comfortably together And now was he frequently visited by men of greatest learning and judgment in this Kingdom his company desired by the Nobility and extreamly affected by the Gentry His friendship was sought for of most foreign Embassadors and his acquaintance entreated by many other strangers whose learning or employment occasioned their stay in this Kingdom In which state of life he composed his more brisk and youthful Poems in which he was so happy as if Nature with all her varieties had been made to exercise his great Wit and Fancy Nor did he leave it off in his old age as is witnessed by many of his divine Sonnets and other high holy and harmonious Composures as under his Effigies in these following Verses to his Printed Poems one most ingeniously expresses This was for youth strength mirth and wit the time Most count their golden age but times not thine Thine was thy later years so much refin'd From youths dross mirth and wit as thy pure mind Thought like the Angels nothing but the praise Of thy Creator in those last best days Witness this Book thy Emblem which begins With love but ends with sighs and tears for sins At last by King James's his command or rather earnest persuasion setting himself to the study of Theology and into holy Orders he was first made a Preacher of Lincoln's-Inn afterwards advanc'd to be Dean of Pauls and as of an eminent Poet he became a much more eminent Preacher so he rather improved then relinquisht his Poetical fancy only converting it from humane and worldly to divine and heavenly Subjects witness this Hymn made in the time of his sickness A Hymn to God the Father Wilt thou forgive that sin where I begun Which was my sin tho' it were done before Wilt thou forgive that sin through which I run And do run still tho' still I do deplore When thou hast done thou hast not done For I have more Wilt thou sorgive that sin which I have won Others to sin and made my sin their door Wilt thou forgive that sin which I did shun A year or two but wallowed in a score When thou hast done thou hast not done For I have more I have a sin of fear that when I have spun My last thrid I shall perish on the shore But swear by thy self that at my death thy son Shall shine as he shines now and heretofore And having done that thou hast done I ask no more He died March 31. Anno 1631. and was buried in St. Paul's-Church attended by many persons of Nobility and Eminency After his burial some mournful friends repaired and as Alexander the great did to the Grave of the most famous Achilles so they strewed his with curious and costly flowers Nor was this tho' not usual all the honour done to his reverend ashes for some person unknown to perpetuate his memory sent to his Executors Dr. King and Dr. Momford an 100 Marks towards the making of a Monument for him which they faithfully performed it being as lively a representation as in dead Marble could be made of him tho' since by that merciless Fire in 1666. it be quite ruined I shall conclude all with these Verses made to the Memory of this reverend person He that would write an Epitaph for thee And do it well must first begin to be Such as thou wert for none can truly know Thy worth thy life but he that
it spread Till 't is too fine for our weak eyes to find And dwindles into Nothing in the end No they 'r above the Genius of this Age Each word of thine swells pregnant with a Page Then why do some Mens nicer ears complain Of the uneven Harshness of thy strain Preferring to the vigour of thy Muse Some smooth weak Rhymer that so gently flowes That Ladies may his easy strains admire And melt like Wax before the softning fire Let such to Women write you write to Men We study thee when we but play with them Sir JOHN BERKENHEAD Sir John Berkenhead was a Gentleman whose worth and deserts were too high for me to delineate He was a constant Assertor of his Majesties Cause in its lowest Condition painting the Rebels forth to the life in his Mercurius Aulicus and other Writings his Zany Brittanieus who wrote against him being no more his Equal than a Dwarf to a Gyant or the goodness of his cause to that of the Kings for this his Loyalty he suffered several Imprisonments yet always constant to his first Principles His skill in Poetry was such that one thus writes of him Whil'st Lawrel sprigs anothers head shall Crown Thou the whole Grove mayst challenge as thy Own. He survived to see his Majesties happy Restoration and some of them hanged who used their best endeavor to do the same by him As for his learned Writings those who are ignorant of them must plead ignorance both to Wit and Learning Dr. ROBERT WILD HE was one and not of the meanest of the Poetical Caslock being in some sort a kind of an Anti-Cleaveland writing as high and standing up as stifly for the Presbyterians as ever Cleaveland did against them But that which most recommended him to publick fame was his Iter Boreale the same in Title though not in Argument with that little but much commended Poem of Dr. Corbets mentioned before This being upon General Monk's Journey out of Scotland in order to his Majesties Restoration and is indeed the Cream and flower of all his Works and look't upon for a lofty and conceited Stile His other things are for the most part of a lepid and facetious nature reflecting on others who as sharply retorted upon him for he that throwes stones at other 't is ten to one but is hit with astone himself one of them playing upon his red face thus I like the Man that carries in his Face the tinsture of that bloody Banner he fights under and would not have any Mans countenance prove so much an Hypocrite to cross a French Proverb His Nose plainly proves What pottage he loves Hear one of their reflections upon him on his humble thanks for his Majesties Declaration for Liberty of Conscience When first the Hawkers bawl'd ' i th' streets Wild's name A lickerish longing to my Pallat came A feast of Wit I look't for but alass The meat smelt strong and too much Sawce there was c. Indeed his strain had it been fitted to a right key might have equal'd the chiefest of his age Mr. ABRAHAM COWLEY THis Gentleman was one who may well be be stil'd the glory of our Nation both of the present and past ages whose early Muse began to dawn at the Thirteenth year of his age being then a Scholar at Westminiser-School which produc'd two little Poems the one called Antonius and Melida the other Pyramus and Thisbe discovering in them a maturity of Sence far above the years that writ them shewing by these his early Fruits what in time his stock of worth would come to And indeed Fame was not deceived in him of its Expectation he having built a lasting Monument of his worth to posterity in that compleat Volume of his Works divided into four parts His Mistress being the amorous Prolusions of his youthful Muse his Miscelanies or Poems of various arguments his most admired Heroick Poem Davideis the first Books whereof he compos'd while but a young Student at Trinity-Colledge in Cambridge and lastly that is in order of time though not of place his Pindaric Odes so call'd from the Measure in which he translated the first Ithmian and Nemean Odes where as the form of those Odes in the Original is very different yet so well were they approved by succeeding Authors that our primest Wits have hitherto driven a notable Trade in Pindaric Odes But besides these his English Poems there is extant of his writing a Latine Volume by it self containing a Poem of Herbs and Plants Also he Translated two Books of his Davideis into Latine Verse which is in the large Volume amongst the rest of his Works Mr. EDMOND WALLER THis Gentleman is one of the most fam'd Poets and that not undeservedly of the presentage excelling in the charming Sweets of his Lyrick Odes or amorous Sonnets as also in his other occasional Poems both smooth and strenuous rich of Conceit and eloquently adorned with proper Similies view his abilities in this Poem of his concerning the Puissance of our Navies and the English Dominion at Sea. Lords of the Worlds great Wast the Ocean we Whole Forrests send to reign upon the Sea And every Coast may trouble or relieve But none can visit us without our leave Angels and we have this Prerogative That none can at our happy Seat arrive While we descend at pleasure to invade The bad with Vengeance or the good to aid Our little world the image of the great Like that amidst the boundless Ocean set Of her own growth has all that Nature craves And all that 's rare as Tribute from the waves As Aegypt does not on the Clouds rely But to her Nyle owes more then to the sky So what our Earth and what our Heaven denies Our ever constant friend the Sea supplies The tast of hot Arabia's Spice we know Free from the Scorching Sun that makes it grow Without the worm in Persian Silks we shine And without Planting drink of every Vine To dig for wealth we weary not our limbs Gold though the heaviest mettal hither swims Ours is the Harvest where the Indians mow We plough the deep and reap what others Sow I shall only add two lines more of his quoted by several Authors All that the Angels do above Is that they sing and that they love In sum this our Poet was not Inferior to Carew Lovelace nor any of those who were accounted the brightest Stars in the Firmament of Poetry Sir JOHN DENHAM SIr John Denham was a Gentleman who to his other Honors had this added that he was one of the Chief of the Delphick Quire and for his Writings worthy to be Crowned with a wreath of Stars The excellency of his Poetry may be seen in his Coopers Hill which whosoever shall deny may be accounted no Friends to the Muses His Tragedy of the Sophy is equal to any of the Chiefest Authors which with his other Works bound together in one Volume will make his name Famous to all Posterity Sir WILLIAM DAVENANT