The ode, which is the comparison of the author's faithful and painful passion with that of Troilus', is founded on Chaucer's poem, or Boccace's, on the same subject. This was the most favorite love-story of our old poetry, and from its popularity was wrought into a drama by Shakespeare. Troilus's sufferings for Cressida were a common topic for a lover's fidelity and assiduity. Shakespeare, in his MERCHANT OF VENICE, compares a night favorable to the stratagems or the meditation of a lover, to such a night as Troilus might have chosen, for stealing a view of the Grecian camp from the ramparts of Troy. And sigh'd his soul towards the Grecian tents Among these poems is a short fragment of a translation into Alexandrines of Ovid's epistle from Penelope to Ulysses. This is the first attempt at a metrical translation of any part of Ovid into English, for Caxton's Ovid is a loose paraphrase in prose. Nor were the heroic epistles of Ovid translated into verse till the year 1582*, by George Turberville. It is a proof that the classics were studied, when they began to be translated. b It would be tedious and intricate to trace the particular imitations of the Italian poets, with which these anonymous poems abound. Two of the sonnets are panegyrics on Petrarch and Laura, names at that time familiar to every polite reader, and the patterns of poetry and beauty. The sonnet on The diverse and contrarie passions of the lover, is formed on one of Petrarch's sonnets, and which, as I have remarked before, was translated by sir Thomas Wyatd. So many of the nobility, and principal persons about the court, writing sonnets in the Italian style, is a circumstance which must have greatly contributed to circulate this mode of composition, and to encourage the study of the Italian poets. Beside lord Surrey, sir Thomas Wyat, lord Boleyn, lord Vaux, and sir Francis Bryan, already men Z Act V. Sc. i. y Fol. 81. a Fol. 89. [This is an oversight; since Mr. Warton has recorded the appearance of Turberville's Ovid in the year 1567, (see b Fol. 74. Fol. 107. d Supr. p.316. tioned, Edmund lord Sheffield, created a baron by king Edward the Sixth, and killed by a butcher in the Norfolk insurrection, is said by Bale to have written sonnets in the Italian manner. I have been informed, that Henry lord Berners translated some of Petrarch's sonnets f. But this nobleman otherwise deserved notice here, for his prose works, which co-operated with the romantic genius and the gallantry of the age. He translated, and by the king's command, Froissart's chronicle, which was printed by Pinson in 1523. Some of his other translations are professed romances. He translated from the Spanish, by desire of the lady of sir Nicholas Carew, THE CASTLE OF Love. From the French he translated, at the request of the earl of Huntingdon, SIR HUGH OF BOURDEAUX, which became exceedingly popular. And from the same language, THE HISTORY OF ARTHUR an Armorican knight. Bale says, that he wrote a comedy called Ite in vineam, or the PARable of the VINEYARD, which was frequently acted at Calais, where lord Berners resided, after vespers". He died in 1532. I have also been told, that the late lord Eglintoun had a genuine book of manuscript sonnets, written by king Henry the Eighth. There is an old madrigal, set to music by William Bird, supposed to be written by Henry, when he first fell in love with Anne Boleyn'. It begins,. The eagles force subdues eche byrde that flyes, Doth not the sunne dazle the cleareste eyes, And melt the yce, and make the froste retyre? It appears in Bird's PSALMES, SONGS, AND SONNETS, printed See Tanner BIBL. p. 668. Dugd. BAR. iii. 386. [And Noble Authors, i. 277. edit. 1806. also Nevyll's Letters of Lord Sheffield, p. 61. 1582.-PARK.] f MSS. Oldys. Cent. ix. p. 706. h ATH. OXON. i. 33. It is not known, whether it was in Latin or English. Stowe says, that in 1528, at Greenwich, after a grand tournament and banquet, there was the "most goodliest Disguising or Interlude in Latine," &c. CHRON. p. 539. edit. fol. 1615. But possibly this may be Stowe's way of naming and describing a comedy of Plautus. See supr. p. 188. I must not forget, that a song is ascribed to Anne Boleyn, but with little probability, called her COMPLAINT. See Hawkins, HIST. Mus. iii. 32. v. 480. with musical notes, in 1611. Poetry and music are congenial; and it is certain, that Henry was skilled in musical composition. Erasmus attests, that he composed some church services1: and one of his anthems still continues to be performed in the choir of Christ-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 classical elegancies which now began to be known in England. His education seems to have been altogether theological: and, whether it best suited his taste or his interest, polemical divinity seems to have been his favorite science. He was a patron of learned men, when they humoured his vanities; and were wise enough, not to interrupt his pleasures, his convenience, or his ambition. See also NUGÆ ANTIQ. ii. 248. [And it makes part of a stanza in Church yard's legend of Jane Shore.-PARK.] See Hawkins, HIST. Mus. ii. 533. SECTION XL. To these SONGES and SONNETTES of UNCERTAIN AUCTOURS, in Tottell's edition are annexed SONGES WRITTEN BY N. G. a 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 Christ-church, then newly founded, he was transplanted to that society,+ which gave the greatest encouragement to such students as were distinguished for their proficiency in criticism and philology. The same year, he wrote a Latin tragedy, which probably was acted in the college, entitled, ARCHIPROPHETA, sive JOHANNES BAPTISTA, Tragœdia, that is, The Arch-prophet, or Saint John Baptist, 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 prose Latin paraphrase, in the public hall of his college. He wrote also explanatory commentaries or lectures on the Andria of Terence, the Epistles of Horace, and many pieces of Cicero, perhaps for the same auditory. He translated Tully's Offices into English. This translation, which is dedicated to the learned Thirlby bishop of Ely, was printed at London, 1553f. He also familiarised some of the purest Greek classics by English versions, which I believe were never printed. Among others was the CYROPÆDIA. Bale the biographer, and bishop of Ossory, says, that he turned Chaucer's TROILUS into a play : but whether this piece was in Latin or English, we are still to seek and the word Comedia, which Bale uses on this occasion, is without precision or distinction. The same may be said of what Bale calls his FAME, a comedy. Bale also recites his System of Rhetoric for the use of Englishmen3, 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 possessed the opportunities of information, had given us a more exact and full detail, at least of such of Grimoald's works as are now lost, or, if remaining, are unprinted'. Undoubtedly this is the same person, 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 Constantine's Donation, with some other popular Latin pieces against the papists. In the ecclesiastical 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 Josephus Iscanus's poem on the TROJAN WAR, with emendations from the most correct manuscripts'. * f In octavo. Again, 1556.-1558.1574.-1583.-1596. Rhetorica in usum Britannorum. h Bale cites his comment, or paraphrase on the first Eclogue of Virgil, addressed ad Amicum Joannem Baleum, viii. 99. iTitles of many others of his pieces may be seen in Bale, ubi supr. * See Strype's CRANMER, B. iii. c. 11. p. 343. And GRINDAL, 8. Fox, edit. i. 1047. And Wood, ATH. Oxon. i. 178. 1 Bale, ubi supr. * [An epitaph on the death of Nicolas Grimaold appeared in the very scarce poems of Barn. Googe, 1563, and has been reprinted by Mr. Stevens in his Account of Ancient Translations from |