and the Romaunt of the Rose, whereof he translated but one half, the device was John de Mehune's, a French Poet; the Canterbury Tales were Chaucer's own invention as I suppose, and where he sheweth more the natural of his pleasant wit, than in any other of his works, his similitudes, comparisons, and all other descriptions are such as can not be amended. His metre heroical of Troilus and Cressida is very grave and stately, keeping the staff of seven, and the verse of ten, his other verses of the Canterbury tales be but riding rhyme, nevertheless very well becoming the matter of that pleasant pilgrimage in which every man's part is played with much decency. Gower, saving for his good and grave moralities, had nothing in him highly to be commended, for his verse was homely and without good measure, his words strained much deal out of the French writers, his rhyme wrested, and in his inventions small subtilty: the applications of his moralities are the best in him, and yet those many times very grossly bestowed, neither doth the substance of his works sufficiently answer the subtilty of his titles. Lydgate, a translator only and no deviser of that which he wrote, but one that wrote in good verse. Harding, a poet epic or historical, handled himself well according to the time and manner of his subject. He that wrote the satire of Piers Plowman seemed to have been a malcontent of that time, and therefore bent himself wholly to tax the disorders of that age, and specially the pride of the Roman clergy, of whose fall he seemeth to be a very true prophet; his verse is but loose metre, and his terms hard and obscure, so as in them is little pleasure to be taken. Skelton, a sharp satirist, but with more railing and scoffery than became a poet laureate; such among the Greeks were called pantomimi, with us buffoons, altogether applying their wits to scurrilities and other ridiculous matters. Henry Earl of Surrey and Sir Thomas Wyat, between whom I find very little difference, I repute them (as before) for the two chief lanterns of light to all others that have since employed their pens upon English poesy; their conceits were lofty, their styles stately, their conveyance cleanly, their terms proper, their metre sweet and well proportioned, in all imitating very naturally and studiously their master Francis Petrarch. The Lord Vaux his commendation lieth chiefly in the facility of his metre, and the aptness of his descriptions, such as he taketh upon him to make, namely in sundry of his songs, wherein he sheweth the counterfeit action very lively and pleasantly. Of the later sort I think thus. That for tragedy, the Lord of Buckhurst, and Master Edward Ferrys, for such doings as I have seen of theirs do deserve the highest price. The Earl of Oxford and Master Edwards of her Majesty's Chapel for comedy and interlude. For eclogue and pastoral poesy, Sir Philip Sidney and Master Challenner, and that other gentleman who wrote the late Shepherd's Calendar. For ditty and amorous ode I find Sir Walter Raleigh's vein most lofty, insolent, and passionate. Master Edward Dyar, for elegy most sweet, solemn and of high conceit. Gascon for a good metre and for a plentiful vein. Phaer and Golding for a learned and well corrected verse, specially in translation clear and very faithfully answering their author's intent. Others have also written with much facility, but more commendably perchance if they had not written so much nor so popularly. But last in recital and first in degree is the Queen our sovereign Lady, whose learned, delicate, noble muse easily surmounteth all the rest that have written before her time or since, for sense, sweetness and subtilty, be it in ode, elegy, epigram, or any other kind of poem heroic or lyric, wherein it shall please her Majesty to employ her pen, even by as much odds as her own excellent estate and degree exceedeth all the rest of her most humble vassals. (From The Art of English Poesy.) WILLIAM CECIL, LORD BURLEIGH [The life of Queen Elizabeth's great treasurer belongs, in Horace Walpole's phrase, to "the annals of his country." Born in 1520, he held office in the reign of Edward VI., retired into private life during the reign of Mary, and was Elizabeth's prime minister for forty years, till his death in 1598. The suspicion-it is no more-that he defeated his thrifty Mistress's generous intentions to the poet Spenser has rather prejudiced him with men of letters. Against this may be set his early friendship with Ascham, who gives a pleasing report of his hospitality to men of learning. His own contribution to letters is the brief Ten Precepts to his Son, first published in 1637, and since then often reprinted.] THE clue to the character of Burleigh's prose, and perhaps also to his indifference to Spenser, is to be found in one of his precepts"Suffer not thy sons to pass the Alps." He abhorred Italian influence in every shape and form, on literature as much as on morals and manners. He was already an old man, near sixty, when the tendency to "Italianate terms" culminated in Lyly's Euphues, but the influence had been at work for many years before. There is not a trace of it in Burleigh's prose. In this respect it is distinguished from the prose of his nephew Bacon, who was affected not a little by the fashion of the new generation. Burleigh belongs emphatically to the old school. His is the prose of a man of affairs, concerned chiefly to convey his meaning clearly and forcibly, terse, pithy, compact, disdainful of far-fetched graces, but not insensible to the effect of a biting epigram. Such illustrations as he uses are homely and apt. Not till we come down to Temple and Dryden, do we find a diction equal to Burleigh's in simplicity of structure and in the homelier virtues of good prose. W. MINTO. TEN PRECEPTS SON ROBERT-The virtuous inclinations of thy matchless mother, by whose tender and godly care thy infancy was governed, together with thy education under so zealous and excellent a tutor, puts me in rather assurance than hope, that thou art not ignorant of that summum bonum, which is only able to make thee happy as well in thy death as life; I mean the true knowledge and worship of thy Creator and Redeemer; without which all other things are vain and miserable: so that thy youth being guided by so sufficient a teacher, I make no doubt but he will furnish thy life with divine and moral documents; yet that I may not cast off the care beseeming a parent towards his child; or that you should have cause to derive thy whole felicity and welfare rather from others than from whence thou receivedst thy breath and being; I think it fit and agreeable to the affection I bear thee, to help thee with such rules and advertisements for the squaring of thy life, as are rather gained by experience, than much reading; to the end that entering into this exorbitant age, thou mayest be the better prepared to shun those scandalous courses whereunto the world and the lack of experience may easily draw thee. And because I will not confound thy memory, I have reduced them into ten precepts; and next unto Moses' tables, if thou imprint them in thy mind, thou shalt reap the benefit, and I the content; and they are these following: I When it shall please God to bring thee to man's estate, use great providence and circumspection in choosing thy wife; for from thence will spring all thy future good or evil; and it is an action of life, like unto a stratagem of war, wherein a man can err but once. If thy estate be good, match near home and at leisure; if weak, far off and quickly. Enquire diligently of her disposition, and how her parents have been inclined in their youth; let her not be poor, how generous soever; for a man can buy nothing in the market with gentility; nor choose a base and uncomely creature altogether for wealth; for it will cause contempt in others and loathing in thee; neither make choice of a dwarf, or a fool; for by the one you shall beget a race of pigmies, the other will be thy continual disgrace, and it will yirke thee to hear her talk; for thou shalt find it, to thy great grief, that there is nothing more fulsome than a she-fool. And touching the guiding of thy house, let thy hospitality be moderate, and according to the means of thy estate; rather plentiful than sparing, but not costly; for I never knew any man grow poor by keeping an orderly table; but some consume themselves through secret vices, and their hospitality bears the blame; but banish swinish drunkards out of thine house, which is a vice impairing health, consuming much, and makes no show. I never heard praise ascribed to the drunkard, but for the well bearing of his drink, which is better commendation for a brewer's horse or a dray man, than for either a gentleman, or a serving man. Beware thou spend not above three or four parts of thy revenues; nor above a third part of that in thy house; for the other two parts will do no more than defray thy extraordinaries, which always surmount the ordinary by much: otherwise thou shalt live like a rich beggar, in continual want: and the needy man can never live happily or contentedly; for every disaster makes him ready to mortgage or sell; and that gentleman who sells an acre of land, sells an ounce of credit, for gentility is nothing else but ancient riches; so that if the foundation shall at any time sink, the building must need follow. So much for the first precept. II Bring thy children up in learning and obedience, yet without outward austerity. Praise them openly, reprehend them secretly. Give them good countenance and convenient maintenance according to thy ability, otherwise thy life will seem their bondage, and what portion thou shalt leave them at thy death, they will thank death for it, and not thee. And I am persuaded that the foolish cockering of some parents, and the overstern carriage of others, causeth more men and women to take ill courses, than their own VOL. I 2 G |