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of ingenuity, to exhibit these maxims in the course of a narrative, enlivened by facts and circumstances. It certainly was susceptible of humour and invention.

Heywood's largest and most laboured performance is the SPIDER AND THE FLIE, with wooden cuts, printed at London by Thomas Powell, in 1556. It is a very long poem in the octave stanza, containing ninety-eight chapters. Perhaps there never was so dull, so tedious, and trifling an apologue: without fancy, meaning, or moral. A long tale of fictitious manners will always be tiresome, unless the design be burlesque : and then the ridiculous, arising from the contrast between the solemn and the light, must be ingeniously supported. Our author seems to have intended a fable on the burlesque construction: but we know not when he would be serious and when witty, whether he means to make the reader laugh, or to give him advice. We must indeed acknowledge, that the age was not yet sufficiently refined, either to relish or to produce burlesque poetry. Harrison, the author of the DESCRIPTION OF

b In quarto. [Mr. Ellis, in his Historical Sketch of English Poetry, &c. chap. xvi. has pronounced this parabolic tale "utterly contemptible:" but he has extracted two specimens from the First Centuryof Heywood's Epigrams, which certainly possess more true epigrammatic point than those selected by Mr. Warton. The following lines afford the most favorable instance of his versification.

ON MEASURE.

Measure is a merry meane,

Which filde with noppy drinke
When merry drinkers drinke off cleane,
Then merrily they winke.

Measure is a merry meane,

But I meane measures gret,
Where lippes to litele pitchers leane,
Those lippes they scantly wet.

Measure is a merry meane,
And measure is this mate;
To be a Deacon or a Dean

Thou wouldst not change the state.

Measure is a merry meane

In volewmes full or flat,
There is no chapter nor no sceane

That thou appliest like that.
Epig. upon Proverbes, Cent.iii. Ep. 28.
PARK.]

[Herbert says "We are to consider the author here, as he really was, a catholic; partial in vindicating the catholic cause and the administration by queen Mary, whom he characterises by the maid, with her broom (the civil sword), executing the commands of her master (Christ) and her mistress (holy church). tholics; and by the spiders, the proBy the flies are to be understood the catestants. How justly the characters are supported I have neither leisure nor inclination to examine." MS. note.PARK.]

But I must not forget Chaucer's SIR THOPAS and that among the Cotton manuscripts, there is an anonymous poem, perhaps coeval with Chaucer, in the style of allegorical burlesque, which describes the power of money, with great

BRITAINE, prefixed to Hollinshed's Chronicle, has left a sensible criticism on this poem. “One hath made a booke of the Spider and the FLIE, wherein he dealeth so profoundlie, and

humour, and in no common vein of satire. The hero of the piece is SIR PENNY. MSS. Cott. Galba E. 9.

INCIPIT NARRACIO DE DNO DENARIO.

In erth it es a littill thing,
And regnes als' a riche king,
Whare he es lent in land;
SIR PENI es his name calde,
He makes both yong and alde
Bow untill his hand:

Papes, kinges, and emperoures,
Bisschoppes, abbottes, and priowres,
Person, prest, and knyght,
Dukes, erles, and ilk barowne,
To serue him er thai ful boune 5,
Both biday and nyght.

SIR PENI chaunges man's mode,
And gers them oft to doun thaire hode
And to rise him agayne'.
Men honors him with grete reuerence,
Makes ful mekell obedience

Vnto that litill swaine.

In kinges court es it no bote,
Ogaines SIR PENI for to mote",
So mekill es he of myght,
He es so witty and so strang,
That be it neuer so mekill wrang,
He will mak it right.

With PENY may men wemen till "
Be thai neuer so strange of will,

So oft may it be sene,
Lang with him will thai noght chide,
For he may ger tham trayl syde "
In gude skarlet and grene.

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are.

He may lese 13 and he may bind.
The pouer er ay put bihind,

Whare he cumes in place.
When he bigines him to mell",
He makes meke that are was fell,

And waik 15 that bald has bene. All ye nedes ful sone er sped 16, Bath withowten borgh and wed", Whare PENI gase bitwene 18.

The domes men 19 he mase 20 so blind That he may noght the right find

Ne the suth to se.

For to gif dometham es ful lath "3, Tharwith to mak SIA PENI wrath,

Ful dere with tham es he. Thare strif was PENI makes pese 25, Of all angers he may relese,

In land whare he will lende, Of fase 26 may he mak frendes sad, Of counsail thar tham neuer be rad", That may haue him to frende. That SIRE es set on high dese*, And serued with mani riche mese'

At the high burde 0.

31

The more he es to men plente,
The more zernid " alway es he:
And halden dere in horde.
He makes mani be forsworne,
And sum life and saul forlorne",
Him to get and wyn.
Other god will thai none haue,
Bot that litil round knaue,

29

Thaire bales 33 for to blin".
On him halely 35 thaire hertes sett,
Him for to luf will thai noght let",
Nowther for gude ne ill.

All that he will in erth haue done,
Ilka man grantes it ful sone,
Right at his awin will.

1

as.

* old.

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agains, before.

8

3 unto. use. ⚫ dispute.

5 ready.

in buy.

makes, causes, compels. 10 approach, gain. 11 make them walk. [He may enable them to wear long sweeping dresses. A "trayl-syde gown," says Dr. Jamieson, "is so long as to trail upon the ground."] 13 loose. 14 meddle. 15 weak. 16 all you want is soon done. 17 borrowing or pledging. [surety and pledge.] goes between. 19 judges. 20 makes. 21 truth. judgement. 23 loth. sect. [the dais. 29 mess. 30 high-table. eyes. [miseries.] blind. [stop.]

18

25 24 where.

peace.

26 foes. n void. 31 coveted. despise, quit. [lose.] wholly. love. 37 never cease.

beyond all measure of skill, that neither he himselfe that made it, neither anie one that readeth it, can reach unto the meaning thereof." It is a proof of the unpopularity* of this poem, that it never was reprinted. Our author's EPIGRAMs, and the poem of PROVERBS, were in high vogue, and had numerous editions before the year 1598+. The most lively part of the

He may both lene and gyf;
He may ger both sla and lif,
Both by frith and fell 10.

PENI es a gude felaw,

Men welcums him in dede and saw "1.
Cum he neuer so oft,
He es noght welkumd als a gest,
But euermore serued with the best,
And made at sit ful soft.
Who so es sted in any nede 13,
With SIR PENI may thai spede,

43

How so euer they betyde ".
He that SIR PENI es with all,
Sal haue his will in stede and stall,
When other er set byside 45.

SIR PENY gers, in riche wede,
Ful mani go and ride on stede 16,
In this werldes wide.

In ilka" gamin and ilka play,
The maystri es gifen ay

To PENY, for his pride.

SIR PENY Over all gettes the gre 49,
Both in burgh and in cete ",

In castell and in towre.
Withowten owther spere or schelde 50,
Es he the best in frith or felde,

And stalworthest in stowre 51. In ilka place, the suth es sene 52, SIR PENI es ouer-al bidene,

Maister most in mode.
And all es als he will cumand:
Ogains his stevyn 53 dar no man stand,
Nowther by land ne flode.

SIR PENY mai ful mekill availe 54
To tham that has nede of cownsail,
Als sene es in assize 55:

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He lenkithes 56 life and saues fro ded ".
Bot luf it noght ouer wele I rede 58,
For sin of couaityse 59.

If thou have happ tresore to win,
Delite the noght to mekill tharin®.

Ne nything thareof be,
But spend it als wele als thou can,
So that thou luf both god and man
In perfite charite.

God grante vs grace with hert and will,
The gudes that he has gifen vs tillR,

Wele and wisely to spend.

And so oure liues here for to lede,
That we may haue his blis to mede 63,
Euer withowten end. Amen.

An old Scotch poem called SIR PENNY has been formed from this, printed in ANTIENT SCOTTISH POEMS, p. 158. Edinb. 1770. [See supr. vol. i. 9.]

DESCRIPT. BRIT. p. 226. Hollinsh. CHRON. tom. i.

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sea and land. [wood and hill.] 43 under any difficulty. 44 whatever happens. every. degree, pre-eminence. 51 stoutest in battle. 58 truth is seen.

causes many to ride, &c.

50 either.

54 be of much power.

judicature, or, in passing sentence. money not too much, I advise.

47

56 lengthens. 59 covetousness.

nyding. Be not too careless [niggardly] of it.

55

48

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SPIDER AND FLIE is perhaps the mock-fight between the spiders and flies, an awkward imitation of Homer's BATRACHOMUOMACHY. The preparations for this bloody and eventful engagement, on the part of the spiders, in their cobweb-castle, are thus described.

Behold! the battilments in every loope:

How th' ordinance lieth, flies far and nere to fach:
Behold how everie peace, that lieth there in groope,
Hath a spider gonner, with redy-fired match.
Behold on the wals, spiders making ware wach:
The wach-spider in the towre a larum to strike,
At aproch of any nomber shewing warlike.

Se th' enprenabill fort, in every border,
How everie spider with his wepon doth stand,
So thorowlie harnest, in so good order:
The capital spider, with wepon in hand,
For that sort of sowdiers so manfully mand,
With copwebs like casting nets all flies to quell:
My hart shaketh at the sight: behold it is hell! i

The beginning of all this confusion is owing to a fly entering the poet's window, not through a broken pane, as might be presumed, but through the lattice, where it is suddenly entangled in a cobweb. The cobweb, however, will be allowed to be sufficiently descriptive of the poet's apartment. But I mention this circumstance as a probable proof, that windows of lattice, and not of glass, were now the common fashion.1

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John Heywood died at Mechlin in Brabant about the year 1565*. He was inflexibly attached to the catholic cause, and on the death of queen Mary quitted the kingdom. Antony Wood remarks, with his usual acrimony, that it was a matter of wonder with many, that, considering the great and usual want of principle in the profession, a poet should become a voluntary exile for the sake of religion.

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among.

Art thou Heywood that would be made mery now?

Yea, sir, helpe me to it now I beseech yow.

In the CONCLUSION to the SPIDER AND FLIE, Heywood mentions queen Mary and king Philip'. But as most of his pieces seem to have been written some time before, I have placed him under Henry the Eighth.

[The following doubtless was composed on the spousals of Philip and Mary: "A balade specifienge partly the maner, partly the matter, in the most excellent meetyng and lyke mariage betwene our soveraigne Lord and our soveraigne Lady, the kynges and queenes highnes. Pende by John Heywood." Herb. p. 800. Oldys says he had seen

1

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Worthies of

Fuller speaks of a book written by Hey-
which are said to be non tam labore con-
wood entitled "Monumenta Literaria,"
dita, quam lepore condita.
London, p. 221. Lord Hales pointed
out a few lines in The Evergreen as the
composition of Heywood, but they prove
to be one of his Epigrams Scoticised.
See Cent. i. p. 25.-PARK.]

[An epilogue or conclusion to the works of Heywood in 1587, by Thomas Newton the Cheshire poet, thus notices his decease:

This author Haywood dead and gone,

and shrinde in tombe of clay, Bifore his death by penned workes did carefully assay

To builde himselfe a lasting tombe, not
made of stone and lyme,
But better farre and richer too triumph-
ing over Tyme.-PARK.]

m ATH. OXON. i. 150.

[Mr. Warton must have read the Conclusion of Heywood very cursorily, says Herbert, or he would not have been at such a loss for the intention of his poem of the Spider and the Flie.-PARK.]

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