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upon it, and, with all my study, care, cogitation, continual meditation, pain, and travail, I employed myself thereunto when I had any spare time. I made search after the etymology of Britain and the first inhabitants timorously; neither in so doubtful a matter have I affirmed ought confidently. For I am not ignorant that the first originals of nations are obscure, by reason of their profound antiquity, as things which are seen very deep and far remote; like as the courses, the reaches, the confluences, and the outlets of great rivers are well-known, yet their first fountains and heads lie commonly unknown. I have succinctly run over the Romans' government in Britain, and the inundation of forcing people thereinto, what they were, and from whence they came. I have traced out the ancient divisions of these kingdoms; I have summarily specified the states and judicial courts of the same. In the several counties I have compendiously set down the limits, (and yet not exactly by perch and pole, to breed question,) what is the nature of the soil, which were places of the greatest antiquity, who have been dukes, marquisses, earls, viscounts, barons, and some of the most signal and ancient families therein, (for who can particulate all?) What I have performed, I leave to men of judgment. But time, the most sound and sincere witness, will give the truest information, when envy (which persecuteth the living) shall have her mouth stopped. Thus much give me leave to saythat I have in no wise neglected such things as are material to search and sift out the truth. I have attained to some skill of the most ancient British and Saxon tongues. I have travelled over all England for the most part; I have conferred with most skillful observers in each country; I have studiously read over our own country writers, (old and new,) all Greek and Latin authors which have once made mention of Britain; I have had conference with learned men in the other parts of Christendom; I have been diligent in the records of this realm; I have looked into most libraries, registers, and memorials of churches, cities, and corporations; I have pored over many an old roll and evidence, and produced their testimony (as beyond all exception) when the cause required in their very own words (although barbarous they be) that the honour of verity might in no wise be impeached.

For all this I may be censured as unadvised, and scant modest, who, being but of the lowest form in the school of antiquity, where I might well have lurked in obscurity, have adventured as a scribbler upon the stage in this learned age, amidst the diversities of relishes both in wit and judgment. But to tell the truth unfeignedly, the love of my country, which compriseth all love in it, and hath endeared me to it, the glory of the British name, the advice of some judicious friends, hath overmastered my modesty, and (will'd I, nill'd I) hath enforced me, against mine own judgment, to undergo this burden too heavy for me, and so thrust me forth into the world's view. For I see judgment, prejudices, censures, aspersions, obstructions, detractions, affronts, and confronts as it were, in battle array to environ me on every side; some there are which wholly contemn and avile this study of antiquity as a back-looking curiosity; whose authority as I do not utterly vilify, so I do not overprize or admire their judgment, neither am I destitute of reason whereby I might approve this my purpose to well-bred, well-meaning men, which tender the glory of their native country, and moreover, could give them to understand that, in the study of antiquity, (which is always accompanied with dignity, and hath a certain resemblance with eternity,) there is a sweet food of the mind well befitting such as are of honest and noble disposition. If any there be which are desirous to be strangers in their own soil, and foreigners in their own city, they may so continue, and therein flatter themselves. For such I have not written these lines, nor taken these pains.

JOHN SPEED was born at Farington, Cheshire, in 1555. He was brought up to the business of a tailor, and followed that trade until he rose to such emimence in it as to become one of the principal merchant-tailors in London.

Under what circumstances he abandoned the needle for the pen, is uncertain; but in 1596, he published his first important work under the title of The Theatre of Great Britain, which he afterwards enlarged and greatly improved. In 1606, he published maps of Great Britain and Ireland, with the English shires, hundreds, cities, and shire-towns. This work was much superior to any other of the kind that had then appeared. Speed's great work, the History of Great Britain, was not published till 1614. Though the author enjoyed few of the advantages of education, yet his history is a highly creditable performance, and was, for a long time, the best in existence. He was the first to reject the fables of preceding chroniclers concerning the origin of the Britons, and to exercise a just discrimination in the selection of authorities. His history commences with the original inhabitants of the island, and extends to the union of England and Scotland under James the First, to whom the work is dedicated. Bishop Nicholson characterizes Speed as a person of extraordinary industry and attainments in the study of antiquities. Besides his histories, Speed published, in 1616, The Cloud of Witnesses, or Genealogies of Scriptures, a valuable book of divinity, and often bound up with the Bible. His death occurred on the twenty-eighth of July, 1629, and he was buried in the church of St. Giles, Cripplegate, London, where a monument was erected to his memory.

HENRY SPELMAN was of a respectable family, and was born at Congham, Norfolk, in 1561. He passed two years at Trinity College, Cambridge, and then entered Lincoln's Inn as a student of law. In 1604, he was made Sheriff of Norfolk, and became so well known for his abilities, that the king sent him on three different occasions into Ireland on public business, and afterward appointed him one of the commissioners to inquire into the fees exacted in all the courts and offices in England. He received, soon after, the honor of knighthood from the king, and removing, at the age of fifty, to London, he devoted his life henceforth to historical and antiquarian researches.

Spelman was the intimate friend of Camden, and was a man of remarkably similar tastes. His works are almost exclusively upon legal and ecclesiastical antiquities. Having, in the course of his investigations, found it necessary to study the Saxon language, he embodied the fruits of his labors in his great work called The Glossary, the object of which is the explanation of obsolete words occurring in the laws of England. Another of his productions is A History of the English Councils, in three parts, the first of which was published in 1639, and the remaining two after the author's death. This is a performance of great learning and research, and embraces an entire history of the church from its first establishment in Britain until the author's own time. Spelman died in London, in 1641, at the advanced age of eighty years, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, near Camden's monument.

The writings of Sir Henry Spelman have furnished valuable materials to

414 SIR ROBERT COLTON.-THOMAS MAY. [LECT. XVIII.

English historians, and he is regarded as the restorer of Saxon literature, both by means of his own studies, and by founding a Saxon professorship at Cambridge.

ROBERT COLTON was descended from a very ancient family, and born at Denton, Huntingdonshire, in 1570. His mind very early developed, and having entered Trinity College, Cambridge, he there took the degree of bachelor of arts before he had passed the fifteenth year of his age. From the university he went to London, where, in his eighteenth year, he became a member of the society of antiquaries, and soon after an industrious collector of records, charters, and writings of every kind relative to the ancient history of England. In the prosecution of his object he enjoyed unusual facilities, the recent suppression of monasteries having thrown many valuable books and written documents into private hands. In 1600, he accompanied Camden on an excursion to Carlisle for the purpose of examining the Picts' wall and other relics of former times. On the accession of James the First, Colton was knighted, and at his suggestion that monarch, in 1611, resorted to the scheme of creating baronets, as a means of supplying the treasury. He died of a fever at Westminster, on the sixth of May, 1631, in his sixtyfirst year.

Sir Robert Colton was the author of various historical, political, and antiquarian works, which are now of little interest except to men of kindred tastes. His name is remembered chiefly for the benefit which he conferred upon literature, by saving his valuable library of manuscripts from dispersion. After being considerably augmented by his son and grandson, it became, in 1706, the property of the public, and in 1757, was deposited in the British Museum. One hundred and eleven of these manuscripts, many of them highly valuable, had before this time been unfortunately destroyed by fire. From those which remain, historians still continue to extract large stores of information. During his lifetime, materials were drawn from his library by Raleigh, Bacon, and Herbert; and he furnished literary assistance to Camden, Speed, and many other contemporary authors. Colton lived on terms of intimacy with all the literary men of eminence of his own country, and held frequent correspondence with distinguished foreign scholars. The historical writings of the authors last mentioned, do not furnish any examples sufficiently characteristic to require quotation.

Besides the eminent antiquarians and historical writers whom we have already noticed, in connection with this period, we have still to glance at May, Hayward, Knolles, Wilson, and Baker-authors though of less celebrity, yet of sufficient importance to require our attention.

THOMAS MAY was descended from an ancient but declining family of Sussex, and was born at Mayfield, in that county, in 1594. He was early instructed in classical learning in the neighborhood of his home, and afterwards entered a commoner in Sidney Sussex-College, Cambridge, where, in

1612, he took the degree of Bachelor of Arts, but never proceeded any farther in academical advancement. In 1615, he removed to London, and entered Gray's Inn as a student of law; but his taste for belles-lettres studies prevailing over all considerations of permanent advantage from a regular profession, he abandoned his legal pursuits to devote himself to those which were more congenial to his mind. Through association with eminent wits and courtiers, he soon acquired such reputation as to obtain the countenance of Charles the First and his royal consort, under whose particular patronage he published his first volume of poems. From the period of this publication he became a resident at court; and under the same royal favor which countenanced and encouraged his first literary performance, he produced, in succession, five plays; two of which, The Heir, and The Old Couple, are comedies, and the other three, Cleopatra, Antigone, and Agrippiana, tragedies. May was, however, more successful as a translator of Latin poetry, than as an original writer, and his version of Lucan's Pharsalia is really a meritorious performance. He added to the original poem two books in order to bring the events down to the death of Julius Cæsar. These were written in both the Latin and the English languages.

As most of May's poems were produced at the command of Charles the First, and were dedicated to that monarch, it is natural to infer that a pretty close intimacy must have existed between the king and the poet; yet when the civil wars broke out, the latter joined the parliament, and soon after became their secretary and historiographer. This position imposed upon him the duty of writing The History of the Parliament of England, which began November the third, 1640. The work is, in reality, a history of the civil war which arose while that parliament was sitting, rather than of the proceedings of the parliament itself. It gave great offence to the royalists, by whom both the author and his performance were loudly abused. As a composition, it is inelegant, but the candor displayed in it has been pronounced much greater than the royalists were willing to allow; it, therefore, still holds a permanent place in the history of the times. On the thirteenth of November, 1650, May retired to rest in his usual health, and was found, the next morning, dead in his bed. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, near the tomb of Camden, and a monument was erected to his memory.

JOHN HAYWARD was educated at the university of Cambridge, where he took the degree of doctor of laws; but his birth-place is not known, nor has the time when his birth occurred been preserved. He early became an historian, and in 1599, published The First Part of the Life and Reign of Henry the Fourth, which he dedicated to the Earl of Essex. Some passages in this work gave such offence to Queen Elizabeth, that she caused the author to undergo a severe and very tedious imprisonment. He was, however, patronized by James the First, and at the desire of Prince Henry he wrote, and in 1613, published, The Lives of the Three Norman Kings of England.

William the First, William the Second, and Henry the First. In 1619, Hayward was knighted by James the First, having previously been made historiographer of Chelsea College. At his death, which occurred on the twenty-seventh of June, 1627, he left in manuscript a history of The Life and Reign of King Edward VI., with The Beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, which was published in 1630.

Sir John Hayward wrote with considerable smoothness, but in too dramatic a style, imitating Livy and other ancient historians in the practice of putting speeches into the mouths of the characters. Besides his historical works, he wrote several pieces on religious subjects, which possess very considerable merit.

RICHARD KNOLLES was born in Northamptonshire, and educated at Oxford, but at what college is uncertain. After having taken his degrees he was chosen fellow of Lincoln College, and thence elected master of a free school at Sandwich, in Kent, where he remained until his death, which occurred in 1610.

As a public teacher Knolles was very celebrated, and from year to year sent many pupils to the universities who afterward became eminent scholars; but his genius and literary efforts were by no means restricted to the region of his school. Besides producing Grammatica Latina, Græcæ, and Hebraica, for the especial use of his pupils, he wrote a History of the Turks, which Johnson, in the 'Rambler,' praises as exhibiting all the excellencies that narration can admit. His style,' says the learned critic, though somewhat obscured by time, and sometimes vitiated by false wit, is pure, nervous, elevated, and clear. Nothing could have sunk this author into obscurity but the remoteness and barbarity of the people whose story he relates.' In addition to his history, Knolles wrote the Lives and Conquests of the Ottoman Kings and Emperors, to the year 1610, and a brief Discourse of the Greatness of the Turkish Empire. From the History of the Turks we select the following passage :—

THE TAKING OF CONSTANTINOPLE BY THE TURKS.

A little before day, the Turks approached the walls and begun the assault, where shot and stones were delivered upon them from the walls as thick as hail, whereof little fell in vain, by reason of the multitude of the Turks, who, pressing fast unto the walls, could not see in the dark how to defend themselves, but were without number wounded or slain; but these were of the common and worst soldiers, of whom the Turkish king made no more reckoning than to abate the first force of the defendants. Upon the first appearance of the day, Mahomet gave the sign appointed for the general assault, whereupon the city was in a moment, and at one instant, on every side most furiously assaulted by the Turks; for Mahomet, the more to distress the defendants, and the better to see the forwardness of the soldiers, had before appointed which part of the city every colonel with his regiment should assail: which they valiantly performed, delivering their arrows and shot upon the defendants so thick, that the light of day was therewith darkened; others in the meantime courageously mounting the scaling-ladders, and coming even to handy-strokes with the defendants upon the wall, where the foremost were for the most part violently

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