66 He is said to have liament under Henry the eighth; and, in 1542, imprisoned by that whimsical tyrant, perhaps very unjustly, and for fome cabal now not exactly known. About the fame time, in his juridical capacity, he tranflated the MAGNA CHARTA from French into Latin and English, with fome other ftatutes of England". In a fcarce book, William Patten's Expedition into Scotlande of the moft woorthely fortunate prince Edward duke of Somerset, printed at London in 1548', and partly incorporated into Hollinfhead's history, it appears from the following paffage that he was of the fuite of the protector Somerfet. George Ferrers a gentleman of my lord Protectors, and one of the commif"fioners of the carriage of this army." compiled the hiftory of queen Mary's reign, which makes a part of Grafton's CHRONICLE. He was a compofer almost by profeffion of occafional interludes for the diverfion of the court: and in 1553, being then a member of Lincolns-inn, he bore the office of LORD OF MISRULE at the royal palace of Greenwich during the twelve days of Christmas. Stowe fays, "George "Ferrers gentleman of Lincolns-inn, being lord of the difportes "all the 12 days of Christmas anno MDLIII', at Greenwich: "who so pleasantly and wifely behaved himself, that the king "had great delight in his pastymes "." No common talents were required for these festivities. Bale fays that he wrote fome rhymes, rhythmos aliquot". He died at Flamstead in Hertfordfhire in 1579. Wood's account of George Ferrers, our author, who misled by Puttenham the author of the ARTE OF ENGLISH POESIE, has confounded him with Edward Ferrers a writer of plays, is full of mistakes and inconfiftencies. Our author For Robert Redman. No date. After 1540. At the end he is called George Ferrerz. In duodecimo. Redman printed MAGNA CHARTA in French, 1529. Duodecim. oblong. i Dedicated to fir William Paget. Duodecimo. Compare Leland, ut fupr. fol. 66. Stowe, CHRON. p. 632. Hollinfhead fays 1552. fol. 1067. CHRON. p. 608. [See fupr. vol. ii. p. 382.] Л p. 108. SCRIPT. NOSTR. TEMP. ATH. OXON. i. 193. The fame miftake is in Meres's WITS TREASURY, printed in 1598. In reciting the dramatic poets of thofe times he fays, "Maifter "Edward Ferris the authour of the MIR"ROUR FOR MAGISTRATES." fol. 282. None wrote the epitaph of his friend Thomas Phayer, the old tranflator of the Eneid into English verse, who died in 1560, and is buried in the church of Kilgarran in Pembrokeshire. Baldwyne and Ferrers, perhaps deterred by the greatness of the attempt, did not attend to the feries prefcribed by Sackville; but inviting fome others to their affiftance, among which are Churchyard and Phayer, chofe fuch lives from the newly published chronicles of Fabyan and Hall, as feemed to display the most affecting catastrophes, and which very probably were pointed out by Sackville. The civil wars of York and Lancafter, which Hall had compiled with a laborious investigation of the fubject, appear to have been their chief resource. These legends with their authors, including Sackville's part, are as follows. Robert Trefilian chief Justice of England, in 1388, by Ferrers. The two Mortimers, furnamed Roger, in 1329, and 1387, by Baldwyne. Thomas of Woodstock duke of Gloucester, uncle to Richard the fecond, murdered in 1397, by Ferrers. Lord Mowbray, preferred and banished by the fame king in 1398, by Churchyard. King Richard the second, depofed in 1399, by Baldwyne. Owen Glendour, the pretended prince of Wales, starved to death in 1401, by Phayer. Henry Percy earl of Northumberland, executed at York in 1407, by Baldwyne. Richard Plantagenet earl of Cambridge, executed at Southampton in 1415, by Baldwyne. Thomas Montague earl of Salisbury, in 1428, by Baldwyne. James the first of Scotland, by Baldwyne. William de la Poole duke of Suffolk, None of his plays, which, Puttenham fays, "were written with much skill and mag"nificence in his meter, and wherein the "king had fo much good recreation that "he had thereby many good rewards," are now remaining, and as I fuppose were never printed. He died and was buried in the church of Badefley-Clinton in Warwickshire 1564. He was of Warwickhire, and educated at Oxford. See Philips's THEATR. POET. p. 221. SUPPL. Lond. 1674. 12mo. Another Ferris [Ri chard] wrote The dangerous adventure of Richard Ferris and others who undertooke to rowe from Tower wharfe to Briftowe in a Small wherry-boate, Lond. 1590. 4to. I believe the names of all three should be written FERRERS. P Hall's Union of the two noble and illuftrious families of Yorke and Lancafter was printed at London, for Berthelette, 1542 fol. Continued by Grafton the printer, from Hall's manufcripts, Lond. 1548. fol. banished banished for destroying Humphry duke of Gloucester in 1450, by Baldwyne. Jack Cade the rebel in 1450, by Baldwyne. Richard Plantagenet duke of Yorke, and his fon the earl of Rutland, killed in 1460, by Baldwyne. Lord Clifford, in 1461, by Baldwyne. Tiptoft earl of Worcester, in 1470, by Baldwyne. Richard Nevil earl of Warwick, and his brother John lord Montacute, killed in the battle of Barnet, 1471, by Baldwyne. King Henry the fixth murthered in the Tower London, in 1471, by Baldwyne. George Plantagenet, third fon of the duke of York, murthered by his brother Richard in 1478, by Baldwyne. Edward the fourth, who died fuddenly in 1483, by Skelton". Sir Anthony Woodville, lord Rivers and Scales, governor of prince Edward, murthered with his nephew lord Gray in 1483, by Baldwyne'. Lord Hafting's betrayed by Catesby, and murthered in the Tower by Richard duke of Gloucefter, in 1483. Sackville's INDUCTION. Sackville's Duke of Buckingham. Collingbourne, cruelly executed for making a foolish rhyme, by Baldwyne. Richard duke of Gloucefter, flain in Bosworth field by Henry the feventh, in 1485, by Francis Seagers. Jane Shore, by Churchyard". Edmund duke of Somerset killed in the first battle of Saint Albans in 1454, by Ferrers. Michael Jofeph the blacksmith and lord Audely, in 1496, by Cavyl. It was injudicious to choose so many stories which were then Most of thefe events were at that time too well known recent. 9 Printed in his WORKS. But there is an old edition of this piece alone, without date, in duodecimo. The SECONDE PARTE begins with this Life. Subfcribed in Niccols's edition, "Mafter "D." that is, John Dolman. It was intended to introduce here The two Princes murthered in the tower, "by the lord Vaulx, "who undertooke to penne it, fays Bald66 wyne, but what he hath done therein I am not certaine." fol. cxiiii. b. Dolman abovementioned was of the Middle-temple. VOL. III. to become the proper fubject of poetry, and must have lost much of their folemnity by their notoriety. But Shakespeare has been guilty of the fame fault. The objection, however, is now worn away, and age has given a dignity to familiar circumstances, This collection, or fet of poems, was printed in quarto, in 1559, with the following title. "A MYRROVRE FOR "MAGISTRATES, Wherein may be seen by example of " others, with howe greuous plages vices are punished, and "howe frayl and vnstable worldly profperitie is founde, euen of "those whom Fortvne feemeth most highly to favour. Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum. Anno 1559. Londini, in " ædibus Thomæ Marshe." A Mirrour was a favorite title of a book, especially among the old French writers. Some anecdotes of the publication may be collected from Baldwyne's DEDICATION TO THE NOBILITIE, prefixed. "The wurke was begun and parte of it prynted in Queene Maries tyme, but hyndred by the Lord Chancellour that then was: nevertheles, through the meanes of my lorde Stafford, the fyrst parte was licenced, and imprynted the fyrst yeare of the raygne of this our most noble and vertuous queene', and de"dicated then to your honours with this preface. Since whych "time, although I have been called to another trade of lyfe, "yet my good lord Stafford hath not ceaffed to call upon me "to publyshe so much as I had gotten at other mens hands, fo "that through his lordfhyppes earnest meanes I have now alfo "fet furth another parte, conteyning as little of myne owne "as the fyrst parte doth of other mens 2." The plan was confeffedly borrowed from Boccace's DE CASI w This chancellor must have been bishop Gardiner. * Henry lord Stafford, fon and heir of Edward last duke of Buckingham, a scholar and a writer. See Wood, Aтн. OXON. i. 108. One of his books is dedicated to the Protector Somerset. Aubrey gives us a rhyming epitaph in Howard's chapel in Lambeth church, written by this noble man to his fifter the duchefs of Norfolk. SURREY, vol. v. p. 236. It is fubfcribed "by thy most bounden brother Henry, "lord Stafford." Bale fays that he was "vir multarum rerum ac difciplinarum "notitia ornatus," and that he died in 1558. par. poft. 112. Y Elifabeth. BUS BUS PRINCIPUM, a book tranflated, as we have seen, by Lydgate, but which never was popular, because it had no English examples. But Baldwyne's fcope and conduct, with respect to this and other circumftances, will beft appear from his Preface, which cannot eafily be found, and which I fhall therefore infert at large. "When the printer had purposed with himfelfe to "printe Lydgate's booke of the FALL OF PRINCES, and had "made pryvye therto many both honourable and worshipfull, " he was counfayled by dyvers of them, to procure to have the ftory contynewed from where as Bochas left, unto this pre"fent time; chiefly of fuch as Fortune had dalyed with in "this ylande.-Which advyfe lyked him fo well, that he re"quyred me to take paines therin. But because it was a matter paffyng my wit and skyll, and more thankles than gaineful to meddle in, I refufed utterly to undertake it, except I might have the help of fuche, as in wit were apte, in learnyng al"lowed, and in judgement and eftymacyon able to wield and "furnysh fo weighty an enterpryfe, thinkyng even so to shift my handes. But he, earneft and diligent in his affayres, pro"cured Atlas to fet under his fhoulder. For fhortly after, "divers learned men, whose manye giftes nede fewe prayses, "confented to take upon them parte of the travayle. And "when certaine of them, to the numbre of seven, were through " a general affent at an appoynted tyme and place gathered to"gether to devyfe thereupon, I reforted unto them, bearing the booke of Bochas tranflated by Dan Lidgate, for the better "observation of his order. Which although we liked wel, yet "would it not cumly ferve, feeing that both Bochas and Lid"gate were dead; neither were there any alive that meddled "with like argument, to whom the UNFORTUNATE might "make make their mone. To make therefore a state mete for "the matter, they all agreed that I fhould ufurpe Bochas "-rowme, and the WRETCHED PRINCES Complayne unto me: " and take upon themselves every man for his parte to be fundry perfonages, and in their behalfes to bewaile unto ME their น |