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"feen that incomparable earl of Surrey his English translation "of Virgil's Eneids, which, for a book or two, he admirably "rendreth, almost line for line, will bear me witness that those "other were foils and fportives. The English poems of fir "Walter Raleigh, of John Donne, of Hugh Holland, but especially of fir Foulk Grevile in his matchless MUSTAPHA, are not easily to be mended. I dare not prefume to speak of "his Majesty's exercises in this heroick kind. Because I fee "them all left out in that which Montague lord bishop of Win"chefter hath given us of his royal writings. But if I should "declare mine own rudeness rudely, I fhould then confess, that "I never tasted English more to my liking, nor more smart, "and put to the height of use in poetry, than in that vital, "judicious, and most practicable language of Benjamin Jonson's "poems".

"

d Bolton's HYPERCRITICA, "Or a "Rule of Judgement for writing or read"ing our Hiftorys." ADDRESSE, iv. SECT. iii. pag. 235. feq. First printed by Anthony Hall, (at the end of Trivet. Annal. Cont. And Ad. Murimuth, Chron.) Oxford, 1722. octavo. The manufcript is among Cod. MSS. A. WOOD, Muf. ASHMOL. 8471. 9. quarto. with a few notes by Wood. This judicious little tract was occafioned by a paffage in fir Henry Saville's Epiftle prefixed to his edition of our old Latin hiftorians, 1596. HYPERCRIT. p. 217. Hearne has printed that part of it which contains a Vindication of Jeffrey of Monmouth, without knowing the author's name. Gul. Neubrig. PRÆFAT. APPEND. Num. iii. p. lxxvii. vol. i. See HYPERCRIT. p. 204. Bolton's principal work now extant is "NERO CÆSAR, "or Monarchie depraved, an Historical "Worke." Lond. 1624. fol. This fcarce book, which is the life of that emperor, and is adorned with plates of many curious and valuable medals, is dedicated to George duke of Buckingham, to whom Bolton feems to have been a retainer. (See Hearne's Lel. COLLECTAN. vol. vi. p. 60. edit. 1770.) In it he supports a fpecious theory, that Stonehenge was a

monument erected by the Britons to Boadicea. ch. xxv. At the end is his HISTORICAL PARALLEL, fhewing the difference between epitomes and just histories, "here"tofore privately written to my good and "noble friend Endymion Porter, one of "the gentlemen of the Prince's chamber." He inftances in the accounts given by Florus and Polybius of the battle between Hannibal and Scipio: obferving, that generalities are not fo interefting as facts and circumstances, and that Florus gives us "in proper words the flowers and tops "of noble matter, but Polybius fets the "things themselves, in all their neceffary t parts, before our eyes." He therefore concludes, "that all spacious mindes, at"tended with the felicities of means "and leifure, will fly abridgements as "bane." He published, however, an English verfion of Florus. He wrote the Life of the Emperor Tiberius, never printed. NER. CES. ut fupr. p. 82. He defigned a General Hiftory of England. HYPERCRIT. p. 240. In the British Museum, there is the manufcript draught of a book entitled "AGON HEROICUS, or concern

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ing arms and armories, by Edmund Boul"ton." MSS. Corr. Faustin. E. 1. 7. fol. 63. And in the fame library, his PROSOPOPEIA

Among feveral proofs of the popularity of this poem afforded by our old comedies, I will mention one in George Chapman's MAY-DAY printed in 1611. A gentleman of the most elegant taste for reading, and highly accomplished in the current books of the times, is called "One that has read Marcus Aurelius, "Gefta Romanorum, and the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES." The books of poetry which abounded in the reign of queen Elifabeth, and were more numerous than any other kinds of writing in our language, gave birth to two collections of FLOWERS selected from the works of the most fashionable poets.

PROSOPOPEIA BASILICA, a Latin Poem upon the translation of the body of Mary queen of Scots in 1612, from Peterborough to Westminster abbey. MSS. COTT. Tit. A. 13. 23. He compiled the Life of king Henry the fecond for Speed's Chronicle: but Bolton being a catholic, and fpeaking too favourably of Becket, another Life was written by Doctor John Barcham, dean of Bocking. See THE SURFEIT TO A. B. C. Lond. 12mo. 1656. p. 22. Written by Dr. Ph. King, author of poems in 1657, fon of King bishop of London. Compare HYPERCRIT. p. 220. Another work in the walk of philological antiquity, was his "VINDICIE BRITANNICE, or London "righted, &c." Never printed, but prepared for the prefs by the author. Among other ingenious paradoxes, the principal aim of this treatife is to prove, that London was a great and flourishing city in the time of Nero; and that confequently Julius Cefar's general defcription of all the British towns, in his CoMMENTARIES, is falfe and unjuft. Hugh Howard, efquire, (fee GEN. DICT. iii. 446.) had a fair manufcript of this book, very accurately writ ten in a thin folio of forty five pages. It is not known when or where he died. One Edmund Bolton, moft probably the fame, Occurs as a CONVICTOR, that is, an independent member, of Trinity college Oxford, under the year 1586. In Archiv. ibid. Wood (MS. Notes, ut fupr) fuppofed the HYPERCRITICA to have been written about 1610. But our author himself, (HY

VOL. III.

The

PERCRIT. P. 237.) mentions king James's
Works published by bithop Montague.
That edition is dated 1616.

A few particularities relating to this writer's NERO CASAR, and fome other of his pieces, may be feen in Hearne's MSS. COLL. Vol 50. p. 125. Vol. 132. p. 94. Vol. 52. pp. 171. 192. 186. See alfo Original Letters from Anftis to Hearne. MSS. Bibl. Bodl. RAWLINS. I add, that Edmund Bolton has a Latin copy of recommendatory verses, in company with George Chapman, Hugh Holland, Donne, Selden, Beaumont, Fletcher, and others, prefixed to the old folio edition of Benjamin Jonfon'. Works in 1616.

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"Lord Berners's Golden boke of "MARCUS AURELIUS emperour and eloquent oratour." See fupr. p. 42. The first edition I have feen was by Berthelette, 1536. quarto. It was often reprinted. But fee Mr. Steevens's HAKESPEARE, vol. i. p. 91. edit. 1778. MARCUS AURELIUS is among the COPPIES of James Roberts, a confiderable printer from 1573, down to below 1600. MSS. Coxeter. See Ames, HIST. PRINT. p. 341.

f AcT iii. fol. 39. 4to. See DISSERTAT. fupr. p. iv. I take this opportunity of remarking, that Ames recites, printed for Richard Jones, "The MIROUR OF "MAJESTRATES by G. Whetstone, 1584," quarto. HIST. PRINT. p. 347. I have never feen it, but believe it has nothing to do with this work.

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first of these is, "ENGLAND'S PARNASSUS. Or, the choysest "Flowers of our moderne Poets, with their poeticall Compari"fons, Descriptions of Bewties, Perfonages, Caftles, Pallaces, Mountaines, Groues, Seas, Springs, Riuers, &c. Whereunto are annexed other various Difcourfes both pleafaunt and profit"able. Imprinted at London for N. L. C. B. and Th. Hayes. " 1600"." The collector is probably Robert Allot', whose initials R. A. appear fubfcribed to two Sonnets prefixed, one to fir Thomas Mounfon, and the other to the Reader. The other compilation of this fort is entitled, "BELVIDERE, or the Gar"den of the Mufes. London, imprinted for Hugh Aftly, " 1600 *." The compiler is one John Bodenham. In both of

Poetical extracts.

In duodecimo. cont. 510 pages.
i A copy which I have feen has R. Allot,
inftead of R. A. There is a cotemporary
bookfeller of that name. But in a little
book of EPIGRAMS by John Weever,
printed in 1599, (12mo.) I find the fol-
lowing compliment.

Ad Robertum Allot et Chriftopherum
Middleton.

Quicke are your wits, fharpe your conceits,
Short, and more fweet, your lays:
Quick but no wit, fharp no conceit,
Short and leffe feet my Praife."

* "Or fentences gathered out of all "kinds of poets, referred to certaine me"thodical heads, profitable for the use of "these times to rhyme upon any occafion "at a little warning." Octavo. But the compiler does not cite the names of the poets with the extracts. This work is ridiculed in an anonymous old play, "The "RETURN FROM PARNASSUS, Or, the "Scourge of Simony, publickly acted by "the ftudents in Saint John's College Cam"bridge, 1606." quarto. JUDICIO fays, "Confidering the furies of the times, I "could better fee thefe young can-quafling "huckfters fhoot off their pelletts, fo they could keep them from thefe ENGLISH FLORES POETARUM; but now

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"the world is come to that pass, that there "ftarts up every day an old goofe that fits

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hatching up these eggs which have been "filched from the nest of crowes and kef"trells, &c." Acr i. Sc. ii. Then fol. lows a criticism on Spenfer, Conftable, Lodge, Daniel, Watfon, Drayton, Davis, Marston, Marlowe, Churchyard, Nafhe, Locke, and Hudfon. Churchyard is commended for his Legend of SHORE'S WIFE in the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES. Hath not Shores Wife, although a lighte fkirts the,

Given him a long and lafting memory?
By the way, in the Regifter of the Sta-
tioners, jun. 19. 1594, The lamentable end
of SHORE'S WIFE is mentioned as a part
of Shakespeare's Richard the third. And
in a pamphlet called PYMLICO OR RUN
AWAY REDCAP, printed in 1596, the
well-frequented play of SHORE is men-
tioned with PERICLES PRINCE of TYRE.
From Beaumont and Fletcher's KKIGHT
OF THE BURNING PESTLE, written 1613,
JANE SHORE appears to have been a cele-
brated tragedy. And in the Stationer's
Register (Oxenbridge and Busby, Aug.
28. 1599.) occurs "The Hiftory of the
"Life and Death of Master Shore and
JANE SHORE his wife, as it was lately
"acted by the earl Derbie his fervants."

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these, especially the former, the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES is cited at large, and has a confpicuous share *. At the latter end of the reign of queen Elifabeth, as I am informed from some curious manufcript authorities, a thin quarto in the black letter was published, with this title, "The MIRROUR OF "MIRROVRS, or all the tragedys of the Mirrovr for Magif"trates abbreuiated in breefe hiftories in profe. Very neceffary "for those that haue not the Cronicle. London, imprinted for "James Roberts in Barbican, 1598." This was an attempt

kAllot's is much the most complete performance of the two. The method is by far more judicious, the extracts more copious, and made with a degree of taste. With the extracts he refpectively cites the names of the poets, which are as follows. Thomas ACHELLY. Thomas BASTARD. George CHAPMAN, Thomas CHURCHYARD. Henry CONSTABLE. Samuel DANIEL. John DAVIES. Michael DRAYTON. Thomas DEKKAR. Edmund FAIRFAX. Charles FITZ JEFFREY. Abraham FRAUNCE. George GASCOIGNE. Edward GILPIN. Sir John HARRINGTON. John HIGGINS. Thomas HUDSON. JAMES King of Scots. [i. e. James the Firft.] Benjamin JONSON. Thomas KYD. Thomas LODGE. [M. M. i. e. MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES.] Chriftopher MARLOWE. Jarvis MARKHAM. John MARSTON. Chriftopher MIDDLETON. Thomas NASHE. [Vaulx] Earl of Oxford. George PEELE. Matthew RAYDON. Mafter SACKVILE. William SHAKESPEARE. Sir Philip SIDNEY. Edmund SPENSER. Thomas STORER. [H. Howard] Earl of SURREY. John SYL. VESTER. George TURBERVILLE. William WARNER. Thomas WATSON. John, and William, WEEVER. Sir Thomas WYAT. I fufpe&t that Wood, by mistake, has attributed this collection by Allot, to Charles Fitz-jeffrey abovementioned, a poet before and after 1600, and author of the AFFANIE. But I will quote Wood's words."Fitz-jeffrey hath alfo made, as "tis faid, A Collection of choice Flowers and "Defcriptions, as well out of his, as the "works of feveral others the most renown

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TISH MUSE, A Collection of THOUGHTS, "MORAL, NATURAL, and SUBLIME, Of "our ENGLISH POETS, who flourished in "the fixteenth and feventeenth Centuries. "With feveral curious Topicks, and beau"tiful Paffages, never before extracted, "from Shakespeare, Jonfon, Beaumont, "Fletcher, and above a Hundred more. "The whole digested alphabetically, &c. "In three volumes. London, Printed for "F. Cogan, &c. 1738." 12mo. The PREFACE, of twenty pages, was written by Mr. William Oldys, with the fupervifal and corrections of his friend doctor Campbell. This anecdote I learn from a manufcript infertion by Oldys in my copy of Allot's ENGLANDS PARNASSUS, abovementioned, which once belonged to Oldys.

From manufcripts of Mr. Coxeter, of Trinity college Oxford, lately in the hands. of Mr. Wife Radclivian Librarian at Oxford, containing extracts from the copyrights of our old printers, and registers of the Stationers, with feveral other curious notices of that kind. Ames had many of Coxeter's papers. He died in London about 1745. Nh 2

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to familiarife and illuftrate this favorite series of hiftoric foliloquies or a plan to present its subjects, which were now become univerfally popular in rhyme, in the drefs of profe.

It is reasonable to suppose, that the publication of the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES enriched the ftores, and extended the limits, of our drama. Thefe lives are fo many tragical fpeeches in character. We have feen, that they fuggefted scenes to Shakefpeare. Some critics imagine, that HISTORICAL Plays owed their origin to this collection. At least it is certain, that the writers of this MIRROUR were the first who made a poetical ufe of the English chronicles recently compiled by Fabyan, Hall, and Hollinfhed, which opened a new field of subjects and events; and, I may add, produced a great revolution in the state of popular knowledge. For before thofe elaborate and voluminous compilations appeared, the Hiftory of England, which had been shut up in the Latin narratives of the monkish annalists, was unfamiliar and almost unknown to the general reader.

SECT.

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