That it was in high esteem throughout the reign of queen Elifabeth, appears, not only from its numerous editions, but from the testimony of fir Philip Sidney, and other cotemporary writers'. It is ranked among the most fashionable pieces of the times, in the metrical preface prefixed to Jafper Heywood's THYESTES of Seneca, tranflated into English verse, and published in 1560'. It must be remembered that only Baldwyne's part had yet appeared, and that the tranflator is fupposed to be fpeaking to Seneca.

In Lyncolnes Inne, and Temples twayne,
Grayes Inne, and many mo,

Thou shalt them fynde whose paynefull pen
Thy verse shall florishe so;

That Melpomen, thou wouldst well weene,
Had taught them for to wright,

And all their works with ftately style

And goodly grace to endight.

There shalt thou fe the felfe fame Northe,
Whose woork his witte difplayes;
And DYALL doth of PRINCES paynte,
And preache abroade his prayfe.
There Sackvyldes SONNETS" fweetly faufte,

Sydney fays, "I efteem the MIRROUR "OF MAGISTRATES to be furnished of

"beautifull partes." He then mentions Surrey's Lyric pieces. DEFENCE OF POESIE, fol. 561. ad calc. ARCAD. Lond. 1629. fol. Sidney died in 1586. So that this was written before Higgins's, and confequently Niccols's, additions.

Coloph. "Imprinted at London in "Fleteftrete in the houfe late Tho

cated to Queen Mary, fol. Again, 1548, 1582, 4to. This is the book mentioned in the text. North ftudied in Lincoln's Inn in the reign of queen Mary. I am not fure that the tranflator of Plutarch's LIVES in 1579 is the fame. There is Doni's MoRALL PHILOSOPHIE from the Italian by fir Thomas North, in 1601.

"Sackville lord Buckhurst, the contributor to the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES. I have never feen his SONNETS, which would be a valuable acceffion to our old poetry. But probably the term Sonnets here means only verses in general, and may fignify nothing more than his part in the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES, and his GORDOBUCKE.

And featlye fyned bee:

There Norton's Ditties do delight,

There Yelverton's * do flee

yong men three

Well pewrde with pen: fuch
As weene thou mightft agayne,

To be begotte as Pallas was

Of myghtie Jove his brayne.
There heare thou shalt a great reporte
Of BALDWYNE's worthie name,

Whofe MIRROUR doth of MAGISTRATES
Proclayme eternall fame.

And there the gentle Blunduille is

By name and eke by kynde,

Of whom we learne by Plutarches lore
What frute by foes to fynde.

There Bauande bydes 2, that turnde his toyle
A common wealth to frame,
And greater grace in English gyves

To woorthy authors name.

There Googe a gratefull name has gotte,
Reporte that runneth ryfe;

Who crooked compaffe doth describe
And Zodiake of lyfe.

Norton is Sackville's coadjutor in GORDOBUCKE.

The Epilogue to Gascoigne's JoCASTA, ted at Grays-inn in 1566, was written by Chriftopher Yelverton, a ftudent of that inn, afterwards a knight and a Judge. I have never feen his DITTIES here mentioned.

y Thomas Blundeville of Newton-Flotman in Norfolk, from whence his dedication to lord Leicester of an English version of Furio's Spanish tract on COUNSELS AND COUNSELORS is dated, Apr. 1. 1570. He printed many other profe pieces, chiefly translations. His PLUTARCH mentioned in the text, is perhaps a manufcript in the British Museum, PLUTARCHS COM

A pryncely place in Parnaffe hill
For these there is préparde,

Whence crowne of glitteryng glorie hangs
For them a right rewarde.
Whereas the lappes of Ladies nyne,

Shall dewly them defende,

That have preparde the lawrell leafe
About theyr heddes to bende.

And where their pennes shall hang full high, &c.

These, he adds, are alone qualified to tranflate Seneca's tragedies. In a small black-lettered tract entitled the TOUCH-STONE OF WITTES, chiefly compiled, with some slender additions, from William Webbe's DISCOURSE OF ENGLISH POETRIE, written by Edward Hake, and printed at London by Edmund Botifaunt in 1588, this poem is mentioned with applause. "Then have "we the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES lately augmented

by my friend mayfter John Higgins, and penned by the "choyfest learned wittes, which for the ftately-proportioned "uaine of the heroick style, and good meetly proportion of "uerfe, may challenge the best of Lydgate, and all our late rhymers." That fenfible old English critic Edmund Bolton,

"and fchollers in learning. Gathered into

Englishe meeter by Edward Hake." It is an epitome of a Latin tract De pueris ftatim ac liberaliter inftituendis. In the dedication, to maifter John Harlowe his approoued friende, he calls himself an attourney in the Common Pleas, obferving at the fame time, that the “ name of an At"tourney in the common place [pleas] is "now a dayes growen into contempt." He adds another circumftance of his life, that he was educated under John Hopkins, whom I fuppofe to be the tranflator of the pfalms. [See fupr. p. 167.] " You being "trained vp together with me your poore "fchoolfellow, with the inftructions of "that learned and exquisite teacher, Maif"ter JOHN HOPKINS, that worthy schoole "maifter, nay rather that most worthy pa

"rent

in a general criticism on the ftyle of our most noted poets before the year 1600, places the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES in a high rank. It is under that head of his HYPERCRITICA, entitled "Prime Gardens for gathering English according to the "true gage or standard of the tongue about fifteen or fixteen years ago." The extract is a curious piece of criticism, as written by a judicious cotemporary. Having mentioned our prose writers, the chief of which are More, Sidney, queen Elifabeth, Hooker, Saville, cardinal Alan, Bacon, and Raleigh, he proceeds thus. "In verse there are Edmund Spenser's HYMNES. "I cannot advise the allowance of other his poems as for practick English, no more than I can Jeffrey Chaucer, Lydgate, Pierce "Plowman, or LAUREATE Skelton. It was laid as a fault "to the charge of Saluft, that he used fome old outworn words "ftoln out of Cato in his books de Originibus. And for an "hiftorian in our tongue to affect the like out of those our "poets, would be accounted a foul overfight.-My judgement "is nothing at all in poems or poefie, and therefore I dare not go far; but will fimply deliver my mind concerning those "authors among us, whose English hath in my conceit most "propriety, and is nearest to the phrafe of court, and to the "fpeech used among the noble, and among the better fort in "London: the two fovereign feats, and as it were parliament "tribunals, to try the question in. "man's Iliads. The works of

"rent vnto all children committed to his
"charge of education. Of whofe memory,
"if I fhould in fuch an oportunity as this
"is, be forgetful, &c." I will give a spe
cimen of this little piece, which shews at
leaft that he learned verfification under his
mafter Hopkins. He is fpeaking of the
Latin tongue. (Signat. G. 4.)

Wherete, as hath been fayde before,
The Fables do inuite,

With morall fawes in couert tales:
Whereto agreeth rite

Fine Comedies with pleafure fawit,
Which, as it were by play,

Brave language are Chap-
Samuel Daniel containe fome-

Do teache unto philofophie
A perfit ready way.
So as nathles we carefull be

To auoyde all bawdie rimes,
And wanton ieftes of poets vayne,

That teache them filthie crimes.
Good ftories from the Bible chargde,
And from fome civill style
As Quintus Curtius and fuch like,
To reade them other while, &c.
Compare Ames, p. 322. 389.

The pieces mentioned in this extract will be confidered in their proper places. "what

1

"what aflat, but yet withal a very pure and copious English, "and words as. warrantable as any mans, and fitter perhaps for "prose than measure. Michael Drayton's Heroical Epistles are "well worth the reading alfo for the purpose of our fubject, " which is to furnish an English hiftorian with choice and ́ "copy of tongue. Queen Elizabeth's verfes, thofe which I "have feen and read, fome exftant in the elegant, witty, and "artificial book of the ART OF ENGLISH POETRIE, the "work, as the fame is, of one of her gentlemen-penfioners, "Puttenham, are princely as her profe. Never must be forgotten "St. PETER'S COMPLAINT, and those other ferious poems "faid to be father Southwell's: the English whereof, as it is "most proper, fo the sharpness and light of wit is very rare "in them. Noble Henry Conftable was a great mafter in "English tongue, nor had any gentleman of our nation a more pure, quick, or higher delivery of conceit, witness among all "other that Sonnet of his before his Majefty's LEPANTO. I " have not feen much of fir Edward Dyer's poetry. Among "the leffer late poets, George Gafcoigne's Works may be en"dured. But the beft of these times, if Albion's England "be not preferred, for our business, is the MIRROUR OF "MAGISTRATES, and in that MIRROUR, Sackvil's INDUC66 TION, the work of Thomas afterward earl of Dorfet and "lord treasurer of England: whofe also the famous Tragedy " of GORDOBUC, was the best of that time, even in fir Philip Sidney's judgement; and all skillful Englishmen cannot but "afcribe as much thereto, for his phrafe and eloquence therein. "But before in age, if not also in noble, courtly, and luftrous

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English, is that of the Songes and Sonnettes of Henry Howard! "earl of Surrey, (fon of that victorious prince, the duke of "Norfolk, and father of that learned Howard his most lively "image Henry earl of Northampton,) written chiefly by him, "and by fir Thomas Wiat, not the dangerous commotioner, "but his worthy father. Nevertheless, they who commend "thofe poems and exercises of honourable wit, if they have

"feen