mund lord Sheffield, created a baron by king Edward the fixth, and killed by a butcher in the Norfolk infurrection, is faid by Bale to have written fonnets in the Italian manner. I have been informed, that Henry lord Berners tranflated fome of Petrarch's fonnets'. But this nobleman otherwise deserved notice here, for his profe works, which co-operated with the romantic genius and the gallantry of the age. He tranflated, and by the king's command, Froiffart's chronicle, which was printed by Pinson in 1523. Some of his other tranflations are profeffed romances. He tranflated from the Spanish, by defire of the lady of fir Nicholas Carew, THE CASTLE OF LOVE. From the French he tranflated, at the request of the earl of Huntingdon, SIR HUGH OF BOURDEAUX, which became exceedingly popular. And from the fame language, THE HISTORY OF ARTHUR an Armorican knight. Bale fays, that he wrote a comedy called Ite in vineam, or the PARABLE OF THE VINEYARD, which was frequently acted at Calais, where lord Berners refided, after vefpers". He died in 1532. I have also been told, that the late lord Eglintoun had a genuine book of manufcript fonnets, written by king Henry the eighth. There is an old madrigal, fet to music by William Bird, fuppofed to be written by Henry, when he first fell in love with Anne Boleyn. It begins, The eagles force fubdues eche byrde that flyes, See Tanner BIBL. p. 668. Dugd. BAR. iii. 386. f MSS. Oldys. 8 Cent. ix. p. 706. ATH. OXON. i. 33. It is not known, whether it was in Latin or English. Stowe fays, that in 1528, at Greenwich, after a grand tournament and banquet, there was themoft goodlieft Difguifing or Inter "lude in Latine, &c." CHRON. P. 539. edit. fol. 1615. But poffibly this may be Stowe's way of naming and defcribing a comedy of Plautus. See fupr. vol. ii. 363. I must not forget, that a fong is afcribed to Anne Boleyn, but with little probability, called her COMPLAINT. See Hawkins, HIST. Mus. iii. 32. v. 480. It appears in Bird's PSALMES, SONGS, AND SONNETS, printed with musical notes, in 1611*. Poetry and mufic are congenial; and it is certain, that Henry was skilled in musical compofition. Erasmus attests, that he composed some church fervices': and one of his anthems ftill continues to be performed in the choir of Chrift-church at Oxford, of his foundation. It is in an admirable style, and is for four voices. Henry, although a scholar, had little taste for the claffical elegancies which now began to be known in England. His education feems to have been altogether theological: and, whether it beft fuited his tafte or his intereft, polemical divinity seems to have been his favorite fcience. He was a patron of learned men, when they humoured his vanities; and were wife enough, not to interrupt his pleafures, his convenience, or his ambition. SECT. XXII. T a O thefe SONGES and SONNETTES of UNCERTAIN AUCTOURS, in Tottell's edition are annexed SONGES WRITTEN BY N. G. By the initials N. G. we are to understand Nicholas Grimoald, a name which never appeared yet in the poetical biography of England. But I have before mentioned him incidentally. He was a native of Huntingdonshire, and received the first part of his academical institution at Christ's college in Cambridge. Removing to Oxford in the year 1542, he was elected fellow of Merton College: but, about 1547, having opened a rhetorical lecture in the refectory of Chrift-church, then newly founded, he was tranfplanted to that society, which gave the greatest encouragement to such students as were distinguished for their proficiency in criticism and philology. The fame year, he wrote a Latin tragedy, which probably was acted in the college, entitled, ARCHIPROPHETA, five JOHANNES BAPTISTA, TRAGÆDIA, That is, The Arch-prophet, or Saint John Baptift, a tragedy, and dedicated to the dean Richard Cox. In the year 1548, he explained all the four books of Virgil's Georgics in a regular profe Latin paraphrase, in the public hall of his college. He wrote alfo explanatory commentaries or lectures on the Andria of Terence, the Epiftles of Horace, and many pieces of Cicero, perhaps for the fame auditory. He tranflated Tully's Offices into English. This tranflation, which is dedicated to the learned Thirlby bishop of Ely, was printed at London, 1553 He also familiarised some of the purest Greek claffics by English verfions, which I believe were never printed. Among others was the CYROPÆDIA. Bale the biographer and bishop of Offory, fays, that he turned Chaucer's TROILUS into a play: but whether this piece was in Latin or English, we are still to feek and the word Comedia, which Bale uses on this occafion, is without precifion or diftinction. The fame may be faid of what Bale calls his FAME, a comedy. Bale alfo recites his System of Rhetoric for the use of Englishmen, which seems to be the course of the rhetorical lectures I have mentioned. It is to be wished, that Bale, who appears to have been his friend, and therefore poffeffed the opportunities of information, had given us a more exact and full detail, at least of fuch of Grimoald's works as are now loft, or, if remaining, are unprinted'. Undoubtedly this is the fame perfon, called by Strype one Grimbold, who was chaplain to bishop Ridley, and who was employed by that prelate, while in prison, to translate into English, Laurentio Valla's book against the fiction of Conftantine's DONATION, with fome other popular Latin pieces against the papists *. In the ecclefiaftical history of Mary's reign, he appears to have been imprisoned for heresy, and to have saved his life, if not his credit, by a recantation. But theology does not seem to have been his talent, nor the glories of martyrdom to have made any part of his ambition. One of his plans, but which never took effect, was to print a new edition of Jofephus Ifcanus's poem on the TROJAN WAR, with emendations from the most correct manufcripts'. I have taken more pains to introduce this Nicholas Grimoald to the reader's acquaintance, because he is the second English. poet after lord Surrey, who wrote in blank-verse. Nor is it his In octavo. Again, 1574.-1596. Rhetorica in usum Britannorum. Bale cites his comment, or paraphrafe on the firft Eclogue of Virgil, addressed ad Amicum Joannem Baleum, viii. 99. iTitles of many others of his pieces may be seen in Bale, ubi fupr. * See Strype's CRANMER, B. iii. c. 11. P. 343. And GRINDAL, 8. Fox, edit. i. 1047. And Wood, АTH. Oxon. i. 178. Bale, ubi fupr. only only praise, that he was the first who followed in this new path of verfification. To the style of blank-verfe exhibited by Surrey, he added new strength, elegance, and modulation. In the difpofition and conduct of his cadencies, he often approaches to the legitimate ftructure of the improved blank-verfe: but we cannot suppose, that he is entirely free from those diffonancies and afperities, which still adhered to the general character and state of our diction. In his poem on the DEATH OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO are these lines. The affaffins of Cicero are faid to relent, When They his bare neck behelde, and his hore heares, And lo! hart-perfing PITHO, ftrange to tell, |