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ADDITIONAL NOTES.

FLETCHER.

Page 63.-Dr. Fletcher formed one of the Commission of the Metropolitan Visitation, appointed in 1581.— Strype's Life of Bishop Grindal, p. 396, Oxford edition. In May 1596, Bishop Fletcher wrote to Lord Burleigh, requesting that nobleman to procure for his brother the appointment of Master Extraordinary in Chancery.Strype's Annals of the Reformation, vol. iv., p. 373. Dr. Fletcher was also Remembrancer of the City of London, an office obtained for him by Queen Elizabeth, who addressed a long letter in her own hand to the Lord Mayor, &c., upon the subject. A copy of this singular epistle I have been permitted to peruse, and the terms in which Dr. Fletcher is recommended, evince the respect he was held in by Elizabeth.

WITHER.

Page 115.-Wither was again in prison in 1621. Mr. Collier has communicated to me the following interesting extracts from the Registers of the Privy Council:

26 June, 1621.

A Warrant to John Perrial, to bring before the Lords the person of George Wither.

27 June, 1621.

This day George Wither, Gent., having been sent for by warrant from the Lords, hath tendred his appearance, which for his indemnity is here entred, he being nevertheless injoined to remaine in the custody of the Messenger, until by order from the Lords he shalbe dismissed.

On the same day, however, we find from another entry, that the Council issued a warrant to commit George Wither close prisoner into the Marshalsea, until further order.

15 March, 1621.

A warrant to the Keeper of the Marshalsea, to enlarge and sett at liberty the person of George Wythers, upon Bond, to be given by him, with a Suretie before the Clerke of the Councell attendant, to his Majesty's use for his forthcomeing and appearance at all tyme, as there shalbe cause.

Page 183.-Burton has the following entry in his Diary, December 22, 1656:

"Colonel Whetham offered a petition in behalf of Colonel Wither.

"Mr. Speaker said he had also a copy of very good verses, from the same hand, to offer."

Mr. Rutt supposes this copy of verses to have been the Boni Ominis Votum, which was printed in 1656, and was occasioned, as we are told by Wood, by the summoning of extraordinary grand juries from the Baronets, Knights, &c., to serve in their several counties during the summer assizes.

HERRICK.

Page 204.-When Nichols wrote the History of Leicestershire, in 1798, the Farewell to Dean Bourn was remembered by some old persons of that parish, to whom it had been orally bequeathed by their ancestors. They had also

author of Poor After his ejec

a tradition that Herrick was the original Robin's Almanac, first published in 1662. tion from his preferment, he was thrown on his own resources, and the scheme of such a popular production was not unlikely to suggest itself.

QUARLES.

Page 227.-It happens, unfortunately for Quarles, that his beauties rarely exist in clusters; the perfect fruit can only be found after a careful search. This composition, on a verse in Proverbs, is interesting, as clearly manifesting the muscular force of the writer's mind:

"Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches make themselves wings-they flie away as an eagle."-Proverbs xxiii. 8.

False world, thou ly'st: thou canst not lend

The least delight:

Thy favours cannot gain a friend,

They are so slight:

Thy morning pleasures make an end

To please at night.

Poor are the wants that thou suppliest ;'

And yet thou vaunt'st, and yet thou viest

With heaven; fond earth, thou boast'st; false world,

thou liest.

Thy babbling tongue tells golden tales

Öf endless treasure;

Thy bounty offers easy sales

Of lasting pleasure.

Thou ask'st the conscience what she ails,

And swear'st to ease her.

There's none can want where thou suppliest,

There's none can give where thou deniest.

Alas! fond world, thou boast'st; false world, thou liest.

What well-advised ear regards

What earth can say?

Thy words are gold, but thy rewards
Are painted clay;

Thy cunning can but pack the cards,

Thou canst not play.
Thy game at weakest, still thou viest

If seen, and then revy'd, deniest

Thou art not what thou seem'st; false world, thou liest.

Thy tinsel bosome seems a mint

Of new-coined treasure,

A paradise that has no stint,

No change, no measure;

A painted cask, but nothing in't,

Nor wealth, nor pleasure.

Vain earth! that falsely thus compliest

With man; vain man! that thou reliest

On earth; vain man, thou dot'st; vain earth, thou liest.

What mean dull souls, in this high measure,

To haberdash

In earth's base wares, whose greatest treasure
Is dross and trash?

The height of whose enchanting pleasure
Is but a flash?

Are these the goods that thou suppliest

Us mortals with? Are these the highest?

Can these bring cordial peace? False world, thou liest.

CRASHAW.

Emb., book ii.

Page 315.-The Sospetto di Herode has also been translated in 1675, by an unknown writer, who prefixed the initials T. R. It is often spirited and poetical, but generally inferior to the version by Crashaw.

MORE.

Page 337.-There was a playful simplicity about all his expressions. After completing a work on which he had been long engaged, he said,-"Now for these three months, I will neither think a wise thought, nor speak a wise word, nor do an ill thing." He used often to remark, that he found it one of the hardest things in the world not to over-study himself; and when he was writing his Exposition of the Apocalypse, he observed, that his nag (as he called his imagination) was but over-free, and went even faster than he almost desired, but he thought it was the right way. But when his toil was over, he shared the weariness

and exhaustion which result from literary exertion, and he complained to his friends that the Earthly House was a poor habitation for its immortal guest. More, indeed, underwent all the drudgery of authorship, his works being fairly transcribed by his own hand. Pope is known to have wished himself dead while translating Homer; and More, in his moments of irritation, assured his friends that when he got his hands out of the fire, he would not very suddenly thrust them in again. He seems to have shone in colloquial intercourse. His remarks often possess the terseness which gave such animation to the manner of Johnson.

Speaking of criticism and quotations, he said, that it was like going over ploughed lands; and in allusion to the copiousness of his fancy, he once observed, that he was forced to cut his way through a crowd of thoughts as through a wood.

THE END.

LONDON: J. W. PARKER, ST. MARTIN'S LANE.

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