A marchaunt eke, that wyll goo feke To fall in fute tyll he dispute His money cleane away; Shall prove a thrifty man, Or a pedlar waxe a medlar In theology. In these lines, which are intended to illuftrate by familiar examples, the absurdity of a ferjeant at law affuming the business of a friar, perhaps the reader perceives but little of that feftivity, which is fuppofed to have marked the character and the converfation of fir Thomas More. The last two stanzas deserve to be transcribed, as they prove, that this tale was defigned to be fung to music by a minstrel, for the entertainment of company. Now Maisters all, here now I shall End then as I began ; In any wyfe, I would avyfe, And counfayle every man, His own crafte ufe, all new refuse, And lyghtly let them gone : Play not the FREERE, Now make good cheere. This piece is mentioned, among other popular story-books im 1575, by Laneham, in his ENTERTAINMENT AT KILLINGWORTH CASTLE in the reign of queen Elifabeth *. In CERTAIN METERS, written alfo in his youth, as a prologue for his BOKE OF FORTUNE, and forming a poem of con d. Debate.. • Fol. 44. feq. fiderable fiderable length, are these ftanzas, which are an attempt at perfonification and imagery. FORTUNE is represented fitting on a lofty throne, smiling on all mankind who are gathered around her, eagerly expecting a distribution of her favours. Then, as a bayte, the bryngeth forth her ware, Fast by her fyde doth wery Labour stand, Flattery, Dyfceyt, Mischiefe, and Tiranny '. Another of fir Thomas More's juvenile poems is, A RUFULL LAMENTATION on the death of queen Elifabeth, wife of Henry the seventh, and mother of Henry the eighth, who died in childbed, in 1503. It is evidently formed on the tragical foliloquies, which compofe Lydgate's paraphrase of Boccace's book DE CASIBUS VIRORUM ILLUSTRIUM, and which gave birth to the MIRROR OF MAGISTRATES, the origin of our historic dramas. These stanzas are part of the queen's complaint at the approach of death. Where are our caftels now, where are our towers ? Ibid. Sign. C. iiiï. The palace of Richmond. Myne Myne owne dere lorde, now fhall I never fe1! Farewell my doughter, lady Margaret 1 ! God wotte, full oft it greved hath my mynde nye: Farewell, madame, my lordes worthy mother*! Adew lord Henry, my loving fonne adew In the fourth stanza, fhe reproaches the aftrologers for their falfity in having predicted, that this fhould be the happiest and most fortunate year of her whole life. This, while it is a natural reflection in the fpeaker, is a proof of More's contempt of a futile and frivolous fcience, then fo much in esteem. I have been prolix in my citation from this forgotten poem: but I am of opinion, that fome of the stanzas have strokes of nature and pathos, and deserved to be refcued from total oblivion. More, when a young man, contrived in an apartment of his father's houfe a goodly hangyng of fyne painted clothe, exhibiting nine pageants, or allegoric representations, of the stages of man's life, together with the figures of Death, Fame, Time, and Eternity. Under each picture he wrote a ftanza. The first is under CHILDHOODE, expreffed by a boy whipping a top. I am called CHILDHOD, in play is all my mynde, A toppe can I set, and dryve in its kynde: Then myght I lede my lyfe alwayes in play, Which lyfe God fende me to myne endyng day. Next was pictured MANHOD, a comely young man mounted on a fleet horse, with a hawk on his fift, and followed by two greyhounds, with this ftanza affixed. MANHOD I am, therefore I me delyght To hunt and hawke, to nourishe up and fede These thynges become a very man in dede. ¶ A quoit. A ftick for throwing at a cock. STELE is handle, Sax. The The personification of FAME, like RUMOUR in the Chorus to Shakespeare's HENRY THE FIFTH, is furrounded with tongues". Tapestry, with metrical legends illuftrating the subject, was common in this age: and the public pageants in the streets were often exhibited with explanatory verses. I am of opinion, that the COMOEDIOLA, or little interludes, which More is faid to have written and acted in his father's house, were only these nine pageants'. Another juvenile exercife of More in the English stanza, is annexed to his prose translation of the LYFE of John Picus Mirandula, and entitled, TWELVE RULES OF JOHN PICUS MIRANDULA, partely exciting partely directing a man in SPIRITUAL BATAILE". The old collector of his ENGLISH WORKES has also preserved two fhorte ballettes", or stanzas, which he wrote for his paftyme, while a prisoner in the tower *. It is not my defign, by these specimens, to add to the fame of fir Thomas More; who is reverenced by posterity, as the scholar who taught that erudition which civilised his country, and as the philosopher who met the horrours of the block with that fortitude which was equally free from oftentation and enthusiasm: as the man, whofe genius overthrew the fabric of false learning, and whose amiable tranquillity of temper triumphed over the malice and injustice of tyranny. To fome part of the reign of Henry the eighth I affign the TOURNAMENT OF TOTTENHAM, or The wooeing, winning, and wedding of TIBBE the Reeves Daughter there. I presume it will not be supposed to be later than that reign: and the substance of its phraseology, which I divest of its obvious innovations, is not altogether obfolete enough for a higher period. I am aware, that in a manuscript of the British Museum it is referred to the time of Henry the fixth. But that manuscript |