made with success and though Sternhold did not possess the talents of Marot, his industry has been rewarded by still more permanent popularity. It is rather whimsical, that the first versions of the Psalms were made in both countries by laymen and court-poets; and they translated nearly an equal number: Marot 50, and *Sternhold 51. Sternhold died in 1549; and his Psalms were printed in the same year, by Edward Whitchurch.

* Fuller says 37; the passage is worth citing. About this time (1550), David's Psalms were translated into English meeter, and (if not publicly commanded) generally permitted to be sung in all churches. The work was performed by Thomas Sternhold (an Hampshireman, Esquire, and of the Privie Chamber to King Edward the Sixt, who for his part translated thirty-seven selected Psalms), John Hopkins, Robert Wisedom, &c. men, whose piety was better than their poetry; and they had drank more of Jordan, than of Helicon.-Church History of Britain.

John Hopkins, a clergyman and schoolmaster in Suffolk, rather a better poet than Sternhold, added 58 Psalms to the list. Of the other contributors, the chief in point of rank and learning, was William Whyttingham, Dean of Durham, whose translations are marked with the initials of his name; Thomas Norton, a barrister, and a native of Sharpenhoe, in Bedfordshire, who assisted Sackville in composing the tragedy of Gorbodue, wrote 27. The entire collection was at length published by John Day, in 1562.

It certainly is not easy to discover the grand features of Hebrew poetry, through the muddy medium of this translation, but it is à curious repertory, and highly characteristic of the times in which it was written. Metre was the universal vehicle of devotion. Our poets were inspired with a real and fervent enthusiasm, and though the tameness and insipidity of the

language in which they vented this inspiration, may surprize and disgust a modern reader, it was probably once thought to derive grandeur and sanctity from its subject. Mr. Ellis's Specimens of the early English Poets, vol. ii. ́.

Sternhold and Hopkins (says Dr. Beattie) are in general bad, but have given us a few stanzas that are wonderfully fine.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES

OF THOSE

WHO HAVE TRANSLATED

THE WHOLE BOOK OF PSALMS.

MATTHEW PARKER

WAS born in the city of Norwich, in the year 1504, and admitted into Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, 1520; of which house he afterwards became master, 1544. He died 1575.

"In the year 1533, or 4, he was appointed chaplain to Queen Ann Boleyn, who liked him so well for his learning, prudent, and godly behaviour, that, not long before her death, she gave him a particular charge to take care of her daughter, Elizabeth, that she might not want his pious and wise counsel.*"

* Le Neve,

B

Queen Elizabeth took the earliest opportunity of rewarding him for his services, for he was consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury, in the first year of her glorious reign.

“The Archbishop (says his biographer) published also the Psalms of David, in very elegant English metre, dividing them into three parts, each part 'containing fifty psalms, which I have not yet come to the sight of." These also were his employment in his solitary retirement, in the Marian days, for his own comfort, and for the comfort of his friends in those melancholy times. †

Parker's Version of the Psalms is an extremely rare book; some account of it may be found in Warton's History of English Poetry, where Mr. Warton contrasts his translation of the 18th psalm with the celebrated one of Sternhold: the comparison, I

* Strype's Life of Archbishop Parker.

+ Dr. Parker was so little affected with his reverse of fortune, that he seems even to have rejoiced in his situation, of which himself gives the following account :-" Postea privatus vixi, ita coram Deo lætus in conscientiâ meâ, adeoque nec pudefactus, nec dejectus, ut dulcissimum otium literarium, ad quod Dei bona providentia me revocavit, multo majores et solidiores voluptates mihi pepererit, quam negotiosum illud et periculósum vivendi genus unquam placuit."

Berkenhout Biographia Literaria.