THOMAS SACKVILLE.

Thomas Sackville, Earl of Dorset, born 1536, died 1608, was distinguished both by high official position, Lord High Treasurer of England, and poetical eminence. He was one of the commissioners who tried Mary Queen of Scots, and it was he who was deputed to announce her sentence to that much-to-be pitied lady. When a student at the Inner Temple he wrote a tragedy, "Gorboduc," which was performed by the students in a Christmas entertainment and afterwards before Queen Elizabeth at Whitehall, in 1561. He contributed the Induction and Legend of the Duke of Buckingham to the "Mirror of Magistrates." Campbell says, "He carried taste and elegance even into his formal political functions, and for his eloquence was styled the bell of the Star Chamber. As a poet, his attempt to unite allegory with heroic narrative and his giving our language its earliest regular tragedy, evince the views and enterprise of no ordinary mind; but, though the induction to the Mirror for Magistrates' displays some potent sketches, it bears the complexion of a saturnine genius, and resembles a bold and gloomy landscape on which the sun never shines. As to Gorboduc,' it is a piece of monotonous recitals, and cold and heavy accumulation of incidents. As an imitation of classical tragedy it is peculiarly unfortunate, in being without even the unities of place and time, to circumscribe its dulness." Sir Philip Sydney, in his "Defence of Poesie," speaks, however, in much more favourable strains. "Gorboduc' is full of stately speeches and well-sounding phrases, clyming to the height of Seneca his style, and as full of notable moralitie, which it doth most delightfully teach and so obtayne the very end of poesie"; and Warton referring to the 'Complaint" of Henry Duke of Buckingham says, it is written "with a force and even elegance of expression, a copiousness of phraseology, and an exactness of versification, not to be found in any other part of the collection." See Warton's "Hist. of Eng. Poetry; Hor. Walpole's "Royal and Noble Authors"; Collins's "Peerage" by Brydges.

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JOHN HARRINGTON.

John Harrington, born 1534, died 1582. He was imprisoned by Queen Mary for his suspected attachment to Queen Elizabeth, by whom he was afterwards rewarded with a grant of lands. He wrote but little, but that little causes us to regret that he did not write more. "His love verses,' says Campbell, "have an elegance and terseness more modern, by an hundred years, than those of his contemporaries." Hallam adds, "they are as polished as any written at the close of the Queen's reign. See "Nugr Antiquæ "; Ellis's "Specimens "; Hallam's "Lit. Hist. of Europe."

GEORGE GASCOIGNE.

George Gascoigne, born 1537, died 1577, after studying for some time at Cambridge, removed to Gray's Inn, which he left for the ariny, and served in Holland, where he received a captain's commission from the Prince of Orange. Returning to England, he became a courtier, and contributed to the festivities which enlivened the business of statesmen and the progress of the queen. The name of the princely pleasures of "Kenilworth Castle," one of Gascoigne's masques, will remind many of our readers of Amy Robsart and Sir Richard Varney, of the ambitious Earl and his imperious mistress. Among Gascoigne's best-known picces are: "The Glasse of Government, a Tragicall Comedie, Lon., 1575"; "The Steele Glas, a Satyre, 1576"; "A Delicate Diet for daintie mouthde Droonkards; wherein the fowle abuse of common carousing and quaffing with heartie draughtes is honestly admonished, 1576"; "The Droome of Doomes Day; wherein the frailties and miseries of man's life are lively portrayed and learnedly set forth, 1586"; The Comedie of Supposes, and the Tragedie of Jocasta, in the collective edition of his whole woorkes, 1587." Warton

says, that the comedy of " Supposes" was the first comedy written in English prose; and Dr. Farmer in his Essay on Shakspere says that the latter borrowed part of the

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plot and of the phraseology of this play, and transferred it into his "Taming of the Shrew." This was the opinion of Chalmers, Warton, and Gifford. Phillips in his "Theat. Poet." says, that the poetical works of Gascoigne have been thought worthy to be quoted among the chief of that time, and Sir S. E. Brydges in his edition of Phillips's book says, From what I have seen of his works, his fancy seems to have been sparkling and elegant, and he always writes with the powers of a poet." Hallam deems his minor poems, especially one called The Arraignment of a Lover," as having much spirit and gaiety. Headley, in his "Select Beauties of Ancient English Poetry," speaks of him as a writer whose mind, though it exhibits few marks of strength, is not destitute of delicacy; he is smooth, sentimental, and harmonious. See Allibone's "Crit. Dict. of Eng. Lit."; "Athen. Oxon."; Whetstone's "Remembrance of Gascoigne"; "Censura Literaria"; Ritson's "Bibl. Poetica"; Watts's Bibl. Brit."; Chalmers's "British Poets."

SIR PHILIP SYDNEY.

Sir Philip Sydney was born at Penhurst, in Kent, in 1554. He was a chivalrous English soldier and poet. In his fifteenth year he was sent to Christ Church, Oxford, and at the age of seventeen he went on his travels. He was in Paris during the massacre of St. Bartholomew, and was obliged to take refuge in the abode of Sir Francis Walsingham, the English ambassador. After visiting various cities in Hungary, Italy, and Germany, he in 1575 returned to England, and in the following year Queen Elizabeth appointed him ambassador to the Emperor Rudolph, at whose court he contracted an intimacy with the famous Don John of Austria. On account of his declaring his sentiments freely against the queen's marriage with the Duke of Anjou, in 1580, in his remonstrance to her majesty, he retired from court, and in his retreat wrote his celebrated romance Arcadia," and his "Defence of Poesie." In 1582 he received the honour of knighthood, and in 1585 was appointed governor of Flushing, and general of the troops sent to the assistance of the United Provinces. About this time his reputation for wisdom and valour stood so high, that he was thought a fit person to be a candidate for the crown of Poland; but the queen would not consent to the loss of "the jewel of her dominions." In September, 1586, Sir Philip displayed extraordinary bravery at the battle of Zutphen, but received a mortal wound in the thigh as he was mounting his third horse, having had two slain under him. His conduct whilst leaving the battle-field illustrates his noble character. "In which sad progress," says his biographer, Lord Brook, "passing along by the rest of the army

where his uncle the general, the Earl of Leicester, was, and being thirsty with excess of bleeding, he called for some drink, which was presently brought him; but as he was putting the bottle to his mouth, he saw a poor soldier carried along, who had eaten his last at the same feast, ghastly casting up his eyes at the bottle, which, Sir Philip perceiving, took it from his head before he drank and delivered it to the poor man with these words, 'Thy necessity is yet greater than mine.'" This wound proved fatal twenty-five days afterwards. His body was brought home and buried in St. Paul's Cathedral. In addition to the works already mentioned, Sir Philip wrote sonnets, "Ourania," a poem, and several other pieces. (Beeton's Dict. Universal Biog.) Campbell speaks in the following terms of our poet" The contemporaries of Sydney knew the man, and foreigners, no less than his own countrymen, seem to have felt from his personal influence and conversation, an homage for him, that could only be paid to a commanding intellect guiding the principles of a noble heart. The variety of his ambition, perhaps, unfavourably divided the force of his genius; feeling that he could take different paths to reputation, he did not confine himself to one, but was successively occupied in the punctilious duties of a courtier, the studies and pursuits of a scholar and traveller, and in the life of a soldier, of which the chivalrous accomplishments could not be learnt without diligence and fatigue. All his excellence in those pursuits, and all the celebrity that would have placed him among the competitors for a crown, was gained in a life of thirty-two years. His sagacity and independence are recorded in the advice which he gave to his own sovereign. In the quarrel with Lord Oxford, he opposed the rights of an English commoner to the prejudices of aristocracy and of royalty itself. At home he was the patron of literature. All England wore mourning for his death. Perhaps the well-known anecdote of his generosity to the dying soldier speaks more powerfully to the heart than the whole volumes of elegies, in Hebrew, Greek and Latin, that were published at his death by the Universities."

ROBERT SOUTHWELL.

Robert Southwell, born 1560, died 1595. He was descended from an ancient family in Norfolk, but educated at the English college in Douay, after which he became a Jesuit at Rome. He was appointed prefect of studies there in 1585, but soon afterwards he was sent as a missionary to England. The Countess of Arundel, who appointed him her chaplain, proved a generous and faithful friend. He resided much with her. In July, 1592, he was apprehended as being implicated in secret

conspiracies against the government. He was kept in prison nearly three years, and was during that period often subjected to the torture of the rack. He thus suffered no less than ten times. He acknowledged that he was a priest and a Jesuit, that he came to England to preach the Catholic religion, and that for this he was ready to lay down his life; but he would never admit any knowledge of the conspiracies. He was at last brought to trial at the King's Bench, condemned and executed according to the barbarous custom of the period, the next day, at Tyburn. In the 67th volume of the "Gentleman's Magazine" there is given a list of his writings and a sketch of his life. Robert Aris Willmott says, "One of the least known, though certainly not the least deserving writers of the age of Elizabeth, was Robert Southwell. His poetical compositions do not entitle him to an elevated rank either by their fancy or their power, yet they contain many thoughts that often lie too deep for tears,' and as a warbler of poetic prose' he will be found to have few rivals; of all our early poets, Southwell recalls most freshly the manner of Goldsmith; not that he ever opened the same vein of pleasantry, or acquired the art of making a history of animals as amusing as a Persian tale; the resemblance is to be traced in the naturalness of the sentiment, the propriety of the expression, and the easy harmony of the verse." In his own times Southwell's works were very popular.

he abandoned the attempt to a mercantile corporation. The expedition brought home the tobacco-plant and the potato. Sir Walter bore a distinguished part in the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. In 1595 he sailed to Guiana and destroyed the capital of Trinidad. He was one of those who brought about the fall of Essex, and remained in the favour of the queen till her death. In the succeeding reign his fortunes changed. He was stripped of his preferments, tried and condemned for high treason, on a charge the most frivolous and without the least evidence. He remained in the Tower thirteen years, during which he wrote several works on various subjects of great importance, the best of which was the " History of the World," which was published in 1614. The year following he was released, in consequence of the flattering account which he had given of some rich mines in Guiana. On gaining his liberty, he sailed to that country, in search of those pretended mines, instead of discovering which, he burnt the Spanish town of St. Thomas, and returned to England, where on the complaint of Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador, he was apprehended, and, in a most unprecedented manner, beheaded at Westminster, 1618, on his former sentence. His works are historical, philosophical, poctical and political. As an author, Hume declares him to be the best model of our ancient style;" and Hallam speaks of him as "less pedantic than most of his contemporaries, seldom low, and never affected."

SIR WALTER RALEIGH.

Sir Walter Raleigh was born at Hayes, Devonshire, in 1552. In 1568 he was sent to Oriel College, Oxford, where "he was worthily esteemed a proficient in oratory and philosophy," but did not long remain. He entered the troop of gentlemen volunteers who went to the assistance of the Protestants of France, and in which he remained five or six years. He subsequently joined the expedition of General Norris in the Netherlands, in aid of the Prince of Orange. Soon after his return, he engaged with his brother-in-law, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, in a voyage to America, whence they returned in 1579. The next year he was in Ireland, and distinguished himself against the rebels of Munster. On his return to England, he gained the favour of Queen Elizabeth by a romantic piece of gallantry. Her Majesty, while taking a walk, stopped at a muddy place, hesitating whether to proceed or not; on which Raleigh took off his new plush cloak, and spread it on the ground. The queen trod gently over the foot-cloth and soon rewarded the sacrifice of a cloak. In 1584 he fitted out a squadron and endeavoured to establish the colony, named in honour of Elizabeth, Virginia. After spending £40,000,

NICHOLAS BRETON.

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Nicholas Breton, born 1555, died 1624. He is supposed to have been of a Staffordshire family. He published a number of poetical pieces. Sir Egerton Brydges writes: "The ballad of Phillida and Coridon, reprinted by Percy, is a delicious little poem; and if we are to judge from this specimen, his poetical powers-for surely he must have had the powers of a poet-were distinguished by simplicity, at once easy and elegant." "Nicholas Breton," says Phillips, in his "Theatrum Poetarum," a writer of pastorals, sonnets, canżons and madrigals, in which kind of writing he keeps company with several other contemporary emulators of Spenser and Sir Philip Sydney in a published collection of selected odes of the chief pastoral sonnetteers, &c. of that age." "His happiest vein," remarks Campbell, "is in little pastoral pieces."-See Ritson's "Biblio. Poetica"; Lowndes's "Brit. Bibliographer," Bohn's edit.

CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE.

Christopher Marlowe was born about the year 1565. He studied at Cambridge, and

took the M.A. degree in 1587. He became a writer for the stage and probably an actor. His life was disgraceful. At the early age of thirty he was killed in a disreputable quarrel, his own sword being turned against him in a house of ill-fame. He translated several of the classics. He also wrote "Dr. Faustus"; "Edward the Second"; "The Jew of Malta"; "Tamberlaine the Great"; "Lust's Dominion"; "Dido, Queen of Carthage"; and the "Massacre at Paris." They convey abundant proof of the great power their author possessed of drawing characters more than human in their intense malignity and terrible depth of villany. The bishops ordered his translations of "Ovid's Love Elegies" to be burnt in public for their licentiousness, although Campbell justly adds, that if all the licentious poems of that period had been included in the martyrdom, Shakspere's "Venus and Adonis' would have hardly escaped.-See Beeton's "Dict. Univ. Biog."; Campbell's "Specimens of the British Poets."

JOSHUA SYLVESTER.

Joshua Sylvester, born 1563, died in Holland 1618. He was a merchant adventurer, and was in great favour with Queen Elizabeth and King James. Prince Henry, son of the latter monarch, appointed him his poet pensioner. He wrote several poems, and translated into English verse, Du Bartas's "Divine Weeks and Works," and some pieces from Fracastarius. He was called by his contemporaries, Silver-tongued. Beeton's "Dict. Univ. Biog."; Campbell's "Specimens."

of eighteen lines; and perhaps in their superfluity of four, Stevens thought their excellence to consist; for as he loved quantity in Shakspere, he would like bulk in another." -Campbell's Specimens.

EDMUND SPENSER.

This eminent poet was born in 1553, and educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he took his degree, but not obtaining his fellowship, he quitted the university. His earliest poem was the "Shepherd's Calendar," first published in 1579, which he dedicated to Sir Philip Sydney, who became his patron, and introduced him at court. In 1580 he was appointed by the Earl of Leicester, Secretary to Lord Grey, Viceroy of Ireland, and obtained a grant of lands at Kilcolmain, in the county of Cork, where he built a house, and finished his celebrated poem, "The Faerie Queen." In the rebellion begun by the Earl of Tyrone, his house was fired, and one of his children perished in the conflagration; upon which he retired to London. He died in 1599, and was buried near Chaucer in Westminster Abbey. Pope says: "There is something in Spenser which pleases us as strongly in one's old age as it did in one's youth. I read the 'Faerie Queen' when I was about twelve with a vast deal of delight; and Professor 'Craik, in his admirable "Sketches of Literature and Learning in England," observes: "Without calling Spenser the greatest of all poets, we may still say that his poetry is the most poetical of all poetry."-See Beeton's "Dict. Univ. Biog."; Campbell's "Specimens"; Chambers's "Cyclo. English Lit." vol. i.

RICHARD BARNFIELD.

Richard Barnfield was born in 1574, and entered at Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1589. He wrote "The Affectionate Shepherd"; "The Encomium of Lady Pecunia, or the Praise of Money"; "The Complaint of Poetric for the Death of Liberalitie"; "The Combat between Conscience and Coveteousness in the Minds of Men"; and "Poems in divers Humours." In what year he died is unknown. -See Rose's "Biog. Dict."; Ellis's "Specimens"; Ritson's "Bib. Poet."; Warton's "Hist. of Eng. Poetry"; Allibone's "Crit. Dict. of Eng. Lit."

THOMAS WATSON.

Thomas Watson, born 1560, died about 1592. He was a native of London, and studied the common law. Stevens preferred his sonnets to Shakspere's; but Campbell wittily remarks, "Watson's sonnets are all

SAMUEL DANIEL.

Samuel Daniel was Somersetshire in 1562.

born at Taunton, He was educated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, and was subsequently tutor to the celebrated Anne Clifford, daughter of George, Earl of Cumberland, and afterwards Countess of Pembroke. We know little of his history. He resided for some years, it seems, in a small house in the parish of St. Luke, London, associated with. Shakspeare, Marlowe, Chapman and others, and towards the close of his life, retired to a farm at Beckington, near Philips-Norton, in Somersetshire. He wrote a number of works. Drummond says of him, "for sweetness and rhyming, second to none," and Bolton remarks of his writings that they "containe somewhat a flat, yet withal a very pure and copious English, and words as warrantable as any man's, and fitter perhaps for prose than measure." Gabriel Harvey admires Daniel for his efforts

to enrich and improve his native tongue. Langbaine, in his "Dramatic Poets," speaks of him as one whose memory will ever be fresh in the minds of those who favour history or poetry." Fuller, in his "Worthies," calls him " an exquisite poet." Headley says, "he has skill in the pathetic, and his pages are disgraced with neither pedantry nor conceit," in which opinion he is confirmed by the illustrious author of the "Introduction to the Literature of Europe," who writes, "It is the chief praise of Daniel, and must have contributed to what popularity he enjoyed in his own age, that his English is eminently pure, free from affectation, archaism, and from pedantic innovation, with very little that is now obsolete."-See Allibone's "Crit. Dict. of Eng. Lit."; Chambers's "Cycl." vol. i.; Campbell's 'Specimens"; Drake's "Shakspere and his Times."

MICHAEL DRAYTON.

Michael Drayton is said to have been born at Hartshill, Warwickshire, in 1653. He studied some time at Oxford, and was indebted to Sir Henry Goodeve, the Countess of Bedford, and Sir Walter Aston. To the hospitality of the last-mentioned patron he refers, when complaining of his want of success in gaining the smiles of the court, upon the accession of James I.: "All my longnourished hopes (were) even buried alive before my face; so uncertain in this world be the end of our dearest endeavours! And whatever is herein (the "Poly-Olbion") that tastes of a free spirit, I thankfully confess to proceed from the continued bounty of my truly noble friend, Sir Walter Aston; which hath given me the best of those hours, whose leisure hath effected this which now I publish;" and again :

"Trent, by Tixall graced, the Astons' ancient seat,

Which oft the Muse hath found her safe

and sweet retreat."

The Earl of Dorset proved as kind to his age as Sir Walter Aston had to his earlier years, and under the roof of this generous nobleman he spent his declining days in repose and comfort, beloved by his associates and admired by his countrymen at large. In 1613 appeared the first of his principal work, the "Poly-Olbion," containing eighteen songs; this he reprinted in 1622 with the addition of twelve songs, making thirty in the whole, or thirty thousand lines, written in Alexandrian couplets! He wrote the "Shepherd's Garland"; the "Barrons' Warres"; "England's Heroical Epistles"; the "Downfall of Robert of Normandy"; "Holy Himnes"; "Nymphidia"; the "Court of Fayrie"; "Elegies";

and other works. It is said of the "Nymphidia," that it "can never become obsolete until the spirit of true poetry shall have lost its charms." Burton, the antiquary of Leices. tershire, considers that the name alone of Drayton exalted the poetical eminence of England to an equality with Italy itself. Bishop Nicolson, in his English "Hist. Lib.," commends the accuracy of the "Poly-Olbion : "It affords a much truer account of this kingdom, and the dominion of Wales, than could well be expected from the pen of a poet." This work is, indeed, a most singular performance. Imagine a poet gravely proposing as the subject of his muse, a chorographical description of all the tracts, rivers, mountains, forests, and other parts of the renowned isle of Great Britain, with intermixture of the most remarkable stories, antiquities, wonders, &c., of the same. Headley remarks, that "his 'Poly-Olbion' is one of the most singular works this country has produced, and seems to me eminently original. The information contained in it is in general so accurate, that he is quoted as an authority by Hearne and Wood. His perpetual allusions to obsolete traditions, remote events, remarkable facts and personages, together with his curious genealogies of rivers, and his taste for natural history, have contributed to render his work very valuable to the antiquary."-See Allibone's "Crit. Dict. Eng. Lit."; Hallam's "Introduc. to Lit. His."; Brydges' "Imaginative Biog."; Disraeli's "Amenities of Lit."; Drake's "Shakspere and his Times."

EDWARD FAIRFAX, B.D.

Edward Fairfax, B.D., was the second son of Sir Thomas Fairfax, of Denton, in Yorkshire, and passed his days in lettered ease at his seat at Fuyistone. He wrote a poetical history of Edward the Black Prince, twelve eclogues, a "Discourse of Witchcraft," some letters against the Church of Rome, and a translation of Tasso's "Recovery of Jerusalem." Few translators have been honoured with commendations from so many distinguished authorities. The names of King James, King Charles, Dryden, Waller, Collins, Milton, Hume, Charles Lamb, by no means exhaust the list. Its ease, elegance, and exactness, for the age in which it was translated, is surprising.-See Allibone's "Crit. Dict. Eng. Lit."; Dryden's preface to his "Fables"; Hume's "History of England"; "London Quarterly Review"; Phillips's "Theat. Poet."

SIR JOHN HARRINGTON.

Sir John Harrington, born 1561, died 1612. He was the son of John Harrington, the poet