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and twelfth books, were finished at London in 1573. The whole was printed at London in 1584, with a dedication, dated that year from Lewes, to Robert Sackville', the eldeft fon of lord Buckhurst, who lived in the diffolved monaftery of the Cluniacs at Lewes $. So well received was this work, that it was followed by three new editions in 1596, 1607, and 1620'. Soon after the last-mentioned period, it became obfolete and was forgotten *.

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Phaier undertook this translation for the defence, to use his own phrase, of the English language, which had been by too many deemed incapable of elegance and propriety, and for the “ honest "recreation of you the nobilitie, gentlemen, and ladies, who " ftudie in Latine." He adds, "" By mee first this gate is fet young writers will uouchfafe to enter, they may finde in this language both large and abvndant camps [fields] of uarietie, wherein they may gather innumerable "fortes of moft beavtifull flowers, figures, and phrafes, not "only to fupply the imperfection of mee, but also to garnish "all kinds of their own verses with a more cleane and compen"diovs order of meeter than heretofore hath bene accustomed'.' Phaier has omitted, mifreprefented, and paraphrased many paffages; but his performance in every respect is evidently superior to Twyne's continuation. The measure is the fourteen-footed

I believe, remains on a brafs plate affixed to the eastern wall.

Large antiquarian and historical manufcript collections, by the father JOHN TWYNE, are now in Corpus Chrifti library at Oxford In his COLLECTANEA VARIA, (ibid. vol. iii. fol. 2.) he fays he had written the Lives of T. Robethon, T. Lupfet, Rad. Barnes, T. Eliot, R. Sampfon, T. Wriothefle, Gul. Paget, G. Day, Joh. Chriftopherfon, N. Wooton. He is in Leland's ENCOMIA, p. 83.

Coloph. ut fupr.

f In quarto. Bi. Lett. For Abraham Veale.

• Now ruined. But to this day called, Lord's Place.

For Thomas Creed.

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Alexandrine of Sternhold and Hopkins. I will give a short specimen from the fiege of Troy, in the second book. Venus addreffes her fon Eneas.

Thou to thy parents heft take heede, dread not, my minde obey: In yonder place, where ftones from stones, and bildings huge to

fway,

Thou feeft, and mixt with duft and smoke thicke ftremes of reekings rife,

Himfelfe the god Neptune that fide doth furne in wonders m

wife;

With forke threetinde the wall vproots, foundations allto shakes, And quite from vnder foile the towne, with groundworks all

vprakes.

On yonder fide with Furies moft, dame Iuno fiercely stands, The gates she keeps, and from the ships the Greeks, her friendly bands,

In armour girt the calles.

Lo! there againe where Pallas fits, on fortes and castle-towres, With Gorgons eyes, in lightning cloudes inclofed grim fhe

lowres.

The father-god himselfe to Greeks their mights and courage fteres,

Himselfe against the Troyan blood both gods and armour reres.
Betake thee to thy flight, my fonne, thy labours ende procure,
I will thee neuer faile, but thee to refting place afsure.
She faid, and through the darke night-fhade herselfe the drew
from fight:

Appeare the grifly faces then, Troyes en'mies vgly dight.

The popular ear, from its familiarity, was tuned to this meafure. It was now used in moft works of length and gravity, but feems to have been confecrated to tranflation. Whatever abfolute and original dignity it may boaft, at present it is almoft

Wonderous.

ridiculous,

ridiculous, from an unavoidable afsociation of ideas, and because it neceffarily recalls the tone of the verfification of the puritans. I suspect it might have acquired a degreee of importance and reverence, from the imaginary merit of its being the established poetic vehicle of scripture, and its adoption into the celebration of divine fervice.

I take this opportunity of observing, that I have seen an old ballad called GADS-HILL by Faire, that is probably our translator Phaier. In the Regifters of the Stationers, among feven Ballettes licenced to William Bedell and Richard Lante, one is entitled "The Robery at Gads hill," under the year 1558". I know not how far it might contribute to illuftrate Shakespeare's HENRY THE FOURTH. The title is promifing.

After the affociated labours of Phaier and Twyne, it is hard to say what could induce Robert Stanyhurst, a native of Dublin, to tranflate the four firft books of the Eneid into English hexameters, which he printed at London, in 1583, and dedicated to his brother Peter Plunket, the learned baron of Dufanay in Ireland. Stanyhurst at this time was living at Leyden, having left England for fome time on account of the change of religion. In the choice of his measure, he is more unfortunate than his predeceffors, and in other refpects fucceeded worfe. It may be remarked, that Meres, in his WITS TREASURIE, printed in 1598, among the learned tranflators, mentions only" Phaier, "for Virgil's Aeneads "." And William Webbe, in his Dis

REGISTR. A. fol. 32. b. See Clavell's RECANTATION, a poem in quarto, Lond. 1634. Clavell was a robber, and here recites his own adventures on the high-way. His firft depredations are on Gad's-hill. See fol. 1.

• In octavo. Licenced to Binneman, Jan. 24. 1582. "By a copie printed at Lei"den." REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 192. b. At the end of the Virgil are the four firft of David's pfalms Englifhed in Latin measures, p. 82. Then follow "Certayne "Poetical Conceits (in Latyn and Eng

"lish) Lond. 1583." Afterwards are printed Epitaphs written by our author, both in Latin and English. The firft, in Latin, is on James earl of Ormond, who died at Ely houfe, Octob. 18. 1546. There is another on his father, James Stanyhurst, Recorder of Dublin, who died, aged 51, Dec. 27, 1573. With translations from More's Epigrams. Stanyhurft has a copy. of recommendatory verfes prefixed to Verftegan's RESTITUTION OF DECAYED IN. TELLIGENCE, Antwerp, 1605. 4to.

Fol. 289. p. 2.

COURSE

COURSE OF ENGLISH POETS printed in 1586, entirely omits our author, and places Phaier at the Head of all the English tranflators'. Thomas Nafhe, in his APOLOGY OF PIERCE PENNILESSE, printed in 1593, obferves, that" Stanyhurst the "otherwife learned, trod a foul, lumbring, boisterous, wal"lowing measure in his tranflation of Virgil,He had neuer "been praised by Gabriel Harvey for his labour, if therein he "had not been fo famously abfurd." Harvey, Spenfer's friend, was one of the chief patrons, if not the inventor, of the English hexameter, here ufed by Stanyhurst. I will give a specimen. in the first four lines of the second book.

With tentiue liftning each wight was fetled in harkning;
Then father Æneas chronicled from loftie bed hautie:
You bid me, O princefle, to scarifie a festered old fore,
How that the Troians were prest by the Grecian armie ".

With all this foolish pedantry, Stanyhurst was certainly a fcholar. But in this tranflation he calls Chorebus, one of the Trojan chiefs, a bedlamite, he fays that old Priam girded on his fword Morglay, the name of a fword in the Gothic romances, that Dido would have been glad to have been brought to bed even of a cockney, a Dandiprat bopthumb, and that Jupiter, in kiffing his daughter, but his pretty prating parrot. He was admitted at University college, in 1563, where he wrote a system

For John Charlewood. But there is a former edition for Walley, 1585, 4to, I know not to which tranflation of Virgil, Puttenham in THE ARTE OF ENGLISH POESIE refers, where he fays, " And as "one who tranflating certaine bookes of "Virgil's NEIDOS into English meetre, "faid, that Eneas was fayne to trudge out "of Troy, which terme became better to "be fpoken of a beggar, or of a rouge or a lackey, &c." Lib. iii. ch. xxiii. p. 229,

Fol. 9.

! Gabriell Harvey, in his Foure Ler

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of logic in his eighteenth year ". Having taken one degree, he became fucceffively a ftudent at Furnival's and Lincoln's Inn. He has left many theological, philosophical, and historical books. In one of his EPITAPHS called COMMVNE DEFUNCTORUM, he mentions Julietta, Shakespeare's Juliet, among the celebrated heroines *. The title, and fome of the lines, deserve to be cited, as they shew the poetical squabbles about the English hexa"meter. An Epitaph against rhyme, entituled COMMVNE DEFUNCTORUM fuch as our vnlearned Rithmours accuftomably "make vpon the death of euerie Tom Tyler, as if it were a last "for euerie one his foote, in which the quantities of fyllables are not to be heeded.".

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A Sara for goodneffe, a great Bellona for budgeneffe,
For myldnesse Anna, for chastitye godlye Sufanna.
Hefter in a good shift, a Iudith ftoute at a dead lift:
Alfo IULIETTA, with Dido rich Cleopatra :

With fundrie nameleffe, and women many more blameleffe, &c.

His Latin DESCRIPTIO HIBERNIÆ, tranflated into English, appears in the first volume of Hollinfhed's Chronicles, printed in 1583. He is ftyled by Camden, "Eruditiffimus ille nobilis "Richardus Stanihurftus Z " He is faid to have been careffed for his literature and politenefs by many foreign princes. He died at Bruffels in 1618.

« Harmonia five Catena Dialectica in "Porphyrianas conftitutiones," a commentary on Porphyry's ISAGOGE. Lond. 1570. fol. Campion, then of S. John's college, afterwards the Jefuit, to whom it was com municated in manufcript, fays of the author, "Mirifice lætatus fum, effe adolef"centem in academia noftra, tali familia, "eruditione, probitate, cujus extrema pue"ritia cum multis laudabili maturitate vi"ris certare poffit." EPISTOL. edit. Ingoldftat. 1602. fol. 50. Four or five of Campion's EPISTLES are addreffed to Stanyhurst.

* Meres mentions Stanyhurft and Gabriel Harvey, as "Jambical poets." Ubi fupr. fol. 282. p. 2. Stanyhurft tranflated VOL. III.

fome epigrams of fir Thomas More. They are at the end of his Virgil.

y At the end of his Virgil. SIGNAT. Hiij. He mentions the friends Damon and Pythias in the fame piece.

2 In HIBERNIA. Com. WEST MEATH.

In the title of his HEBDOMADA MARIANA he ftyles himself "Sereniffimorum "principum SACELLAN S," That is, Albert archduke of Austria and his princess Ifabell. Antw. 1609. 8vo.

Coxeter fays a mifcellany was printed in the latter end of Elifabeth's reign" by R. S. that is, R. Stanyhurt." I prefume he may probably mean, a collection called "The PHOENIX NEST, Built vp "with most rare and refined workes of 3 E "noble

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