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undertaken for the instruction of posterity. Mr. Warton thinks he sees in the writers of this reign

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a certain dignified inattention to niceties," and to this he attributes the "flowing modulation which now marked the measures of our poets:" but there seems to be neither dignity nor inattention in deviating from rules which had never been laid down; and the modulation which he ascribes to this cause, is not less likely to have resulted from the musical studies, which at this time formed a part of general education. The lyrical composi tions of this time, are so far from being usually marked with a faulty negligence, that excess of ornament, and laboured affectation, are their characteristic blemishes. Such as are free from conceit and antithesis are, in general, exquisitely polished, and may safely be compared with the most elegant and finished specimens of modern poetry.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.

"I find none example in English metre so well maintaining "this figure (the Exargasia or the Gorgeous) as that ditty of "her Majesty's own making, passing sweet and harmoni"cal.-And this was the reason: our sovereign Lady, "perceiving how by the Scotch queen's residence within "this realm, with so great liberty and ease as were scarce "meet for so great and dangerous a prisoner, bred secret "factions among her people, and made many of the nobi"lity incline to favour her party: to declare that she was "nothing ignorant of those secret practises, though she "had long with great wisdom and patience, dissembled it, "writeth this ditty, most sweet and sententious," &c. Puttenham, Art of Poesy, 1589, p. 207.

A DITTY.

THE doubt of future foes exiles my present joy,

And wit me warns to shew such snares as threaten

mine annoy.

For falsehood now doth flow, and subject faith doth ebb;

Which would not be if reason ruled, or wisdom

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But clouds of toys untried do cloak aspiring minds, Which turn to rain of late repent, by course of changed winds.

The top of hope supposed, the root of ruth will be, And fruitless all their graffed guiles, as shortly ye shall see.

Then dazzled eyes with pride, which great ambition. blinds,

Shall be unseal'd by worthy wights, whose foresight falsehood finds.

The daughter of debate, that eke discord doth sow, Shall reap no gain where former rule hath taught still peace to grow.

No foreign banish'd wight shall anchor in this port, Our realm it brooks no strangers' force, let them elsewhere resort.

Our rusty sword with rest, shall first his edge employ,

To pull their tops that seek such change, and gape

for joy.

WEBSTER, ALIAS GEORGE PUTTENHAM,

Published "the Arte of English Poesie," contrived into three books, 1589. This writer has given us many specimens of his own poetry, with a view of exemplifying the rules he inculcates. The following short ditty is perhaps the best that can be selected as an example of his talents.

CRUEL you be, who can say nay;

Since you delight in other's woe:
Unwise am I,

ye may well say,

For that I have honour'd you so:

But blameless I, who could not chuse

To be enchanted by your eye:

But

ye

to blame, thus to refuse My service, and to let me die.

Puttenham speaks of himself as having been a scholar in Oxford; though whether he was bred there, Wood says he could not tell. He recites an anecdote which he remembered in the first year of Queen Mary's reign, and he quotes a passage from an eclogue entitled " Elpine," which he made at the age of 18, addressed to King Edward VI. This places the date of his birth before 1535. He was author of two interludes, "Lustie London," and "The Won," and a copious composer of Triumphals, &c. in honour of Queen Elizabeth; to whom he was a gentleman pensioner. His "Arte of Poesie" is recommended by Bolton, in his Hypercritica, as "elegant, witty, and artificial.”

EARL OF OXFORD.

Edward Vere, the seventeenth earl of Oxford, succeeded his father in his title and honours in 1562, and died an old man in 1604. It is therefore probable that he was not born later than 1534.

His poetical talents were much admired, or at least much extolled, by his comtemporaries: and such of his sonnets as are preserved in the Paradise of Dainty Devices are certainly not among the worst, although they are by no means the best, in that collection. One only (the Judgement of Desire) can be said to rise a little above mediocrity.

PENITENT BEAUTY.

[From lord Oxford's works, Vol. I. p. 329.]

WHEN I was fair and young, then favour graced

me;

Of many was I sought their mistress for to be;

But I did scorn them all, and answer'd them there

fore,

Go, go, go! seek some other-where, importune me no more!

How many weeping eyes I made to pine in woe, How many sighing hearts, I have not skill to show.

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