mentioned, which was profeffedly written to fhew the spiritual efficacy or virtue of the pfalms in metre, and in which he directs a distinct and audible mode of congregational finging, he probably fuppreffed it, because he saw that the practice had been abused to the purposes of fanaticism, and adopted by the puritans in contradiction to the national worship; or at least that fuch a publication, whatever his private fentiments might have been, would not have fuited the nature and dignity of his high office in the church. Some of our mufical antiquaries, however have justly conjectured, that the archbishop, who was skilled in mufic, and had formerly founded a mufic-school in his college of Stoke Clare, intended these pfalms, which are adapted to complicated tunes of four parts probably conftructed by himfelf and here given in fcore, for the use of cathedrals; at a time, when compofitions in counterpoint were uncommon in the church, and when that part of our choir-service called the motet or anthem, which admits a more artificial display of harmony, and which is recommended and allowed in queen Elifabeth's earliest ecclefiaftical injunctions, was yet almost unknown, or but in a very imperfect ftate. Accordingly, although the direction is not quite comprehenfible, he orders many of them to be fung by the rector chori, or chantor, and the quier, or choir, alternately. That at least he had a tafte for mufic, we may conclude from the following not inelegant scale of modulation, prefixed to his eight tunes abovementioned.

"THE NATURE OF THE EYGHT TUNES.

The first is meke, devout to fee,

The fecond fad, in maiefty:

The third doth rage, and roughly brayth,
The fourth doth fawne, and flattry playth:
The fifth deligth, and laugheth the more,
The fixt bewayleth, it wepeth full fore.
The feventh tredeth ftoute in froward race,
The eyghte goeth milde in modest pace."
VOL. III.
A a

What

What follows is another proof, that he had proposed to introduce these pfalms into the choir-service. "The tenor of these "partes be for the people when they will fyng alone, the other partes put for the greater quiers, or to fuche as will fyng or play them privately '."

86

How far this memorable prelate, perhaps the most accomplished scholar that had yet filled the archbishoprick of Canterbury, has fucceeded in producing a tranflation of the psalter preferable to the common one, the reader may judge from these stanzas of a psalm highly poetical, in which I have exactly preferved the tranflator's peculiar ufe of the hemiftic punctuation..

To feede my neede: he will me leade

To pastures greene and fat:

He forth brought me in libertie,
To waters delicate.

My foule and hart: he did convart,
To me he fhewth the path:

Of right wifness: in holiness,

His name fuch vertue hath.

Yea though I go through Death his wo
His vale and fhadow wyde:

I feare no dart: with me thou art
With rod and staffe to guide.

As the finging-pfalms were never a part of our liturgy, no rubrical directions are any where given for the manner of performing them. In one of the PREFACES, written about 1550, it is ordered, "Whereas heretofore there hath been "great diverfitie of faying and finging in "churches within this realm, fome follow"ing Salisbury ufe, fome Hereford ufe, "fome the use of Bangor, fome of York, "fome of Lincoln; now from henceforth "all the whole realm fhall have but one "ufe." But this is faid in reference to

the chants, refponds, fuffrages, verficles, introites, kyrie-eleey fons, doxologies, and other melodies of the Book of Common Prayer, then newly published under lawful authority, with mufical notes by Marbeck, and which are ftill used; that no arbitrary variations should be made in the manner of finging these melodies, as had been lately the cafe with the Roman miffal, in performing which fome cathedrals affected a manner of their own. The Salisbury miffal was most famous and chiefly followed..

Thou

Thou shalt provyde: a table wyde,

For me against theyr spite:

With oyle my head: thou haft befpred,
My cup is fully dight".

I add, in the more fublime character, a part of the eighteenth pfalm, in which Sternhold is supposed to have exerted his powers most successfully, and without the interruptions of the pointing which perhaps was defigned for fome regulations of the mufic, now unknown.

The earth did shake, for feare did quake,

The hils theyr bases shooke
Removed they were, in place most fayre,
At God's ryght fearfull looke.

Darke smoke rose to hys face therefro,
Hys mouthe as fire confumde,
That coales at it were kyndled bright
When he in anger fumde.

The heavens full lowe he made to bowe,
And downe dyd he ensue ";
And darkness great was underfete
His feete in clowdy hue.

The Lorde from heaven sent downe his leaven

And thundred thence in ire;

He thunder cast in wondrous blast

With hayle and coales of fyre.

m Fol. 13.

n Follow.

A a 2

• Fol. 35.

Here

Here is fome degree of fpirit, and a choice of phraseology. But on the whole, and especially for this fpecies of stanza, Parker will be found to want facility, and in general to have been unpractised in writing English verfes. His abilities were destined to other studies, and adapted to employments of a more archiepifcopal nature.

The industrious Strype, Parker's biographer, after a diligent fearch never could gain a fight of this tranflation: nor is it even mentioned by Ames, the inquifitive collector of our typographical antiquities. In the late Mr. Weft's library there was a fuperb copy, once belonging to bishop Kennet, who has remarked in a blank page, that the archbishop permitted his wife dame Margaret to present the book to some of the nobility. It is certainly at this time extremely fcarce, and would be defervedly deemed a fortunate acquifition to those capricious students who labour only to collect a library of rarities. Yet it is not generally known, that there are two copies in the Bodleian library of this anonymous verfion, which have hitherto been given to an obfcure poet by the name of John Keeper. One of them, in 1643, appears to have been the property of bishop Barlow and on the oppofite fide of the title, in fomewhat of an antient hand, is this manuscript insertion. "The

auctor of this booke is one John Keeper, who was brought "upp in the clofe of Wells." Perhaps Antony Wood had no better authority than this flender unauthenticated note, for faying, that John Keeper, a native of Somersetshire, and a graduate at Oxford in the year 1564, and who afterwards studied music and poetry at Wells, "translated The whole Pfalter into English metre which sontaineth 150 psalms, etc. printed at London by John Day living over Alderfgate, about 1570, in quarto: and "added thereunto The Gloria Patri, Te Deum, The Song of "the three Children, Quicunque vult, Benedictus, &c. all in ❝metre. At the end of which, are mufical notes, fet in four "parts to several pfalms. What other things, he adds, of. "poetry, mufic, or other faculties, he has published, I know

"not.;

"not, nor any thing more; yet I fuppose he had some dignity " in the church of Wells "." If this verfion fhould really be the work of Keeper, I fear we are still to seek for archbishop Parker's pfalms, with Strype and Ames'.

A confiderable contributor to the metrical theology was Robert Crowley, educated in Magdalene college at Oxford, where he obtained a fellowship in 1542. In the reign of Edward the fixth, he commenced printer and preacher in London. He lived in Ely-rents in Holborn: "where, fays Wood, he "fold books, and at leisure times exercised the gift of preach"ing in the great city and elsewhere "." In 1550 he printed the first edition of PIERCE PLOWMAN'S VISION, but with the ideas of a controverfialift, and with the view of helping forward the reformation by the revival of a book which exposed the absurdities of popery in strong satire, and which at present is only valuable or useful, as it ferves to gratify the harmless researches of thofe peaceable philofophers who study the progreffion of antient literature. His pulpit and his press, thofe two prolific fources of faction, happily cooperated in propagating his principles of predestination: and his fhop and his fermons were alike frequented. Poffeffed of those talents which qualified him for captivating the attention and moving the paffions of the multitude, under queen Elifabeth he held many dignities in a church, whofe doctrines and polity his undifcerning zeal had a tendency to deftroy. He tranflated into popular rhyme, not only the psalter, but the litany, with hymns,. all which he printed together in 1549. In the fame year, and in the fame measure, he published The Voice of the laft Trumpet blown by the feventh angel. This piece contains twelve feveral leffons, for the inftruction or amendment of those who feemed. at that time chiefly to need advice; and among whom he enumerates lewd priefts, fcholars, phyficians, beggars, yeomen, gen-

PATH. OXON. i. 181.

There is a metrical English verfion of the Pfalms among the Cotton manufcripts.