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and sometimes parodical. In the address to the reader prefixed, our tranflator says of his Horace, "I haue translated him fum"tymes at randun. And nowe at this last time welnye worde "for worde, and lyne for lyne. And it is maruaile that I, being in all myne other speaches fo playne and perceauable, "should here defyer or not shun to be harde, so farre forth as I "can kepe the lerninge and fayinges of the author." What follows is too curious not to be tranfcribed, as it is a picture of the popular learning, and a ridicule of the idle narratives, of the reign of queen Elifabeth. "But I feare me a number do fo "thincke of thys booke, as I was aunfwered by a prynter not long agone: Though fayth he, fir, your boke be wyfe and "ful of learnyng, yet peradventure it wyl not be faleable: Signifying indeede, that flim flames, and gue gawes, be they "neuer fo fleight and flender, are fooner rapte vp thenne are "those which be lettered and clarkly makings. And no doubt "the cause that bookes of learnynge feme fo hard is, because "fuch and fo greate a fcull of amaroufe [amorous] pamphlets "haue fo preoccupyed the eyes and eares of men, that a multy“tude beleue ther is none other style or phrase ells worthe mercy. No bookes fo ryfe or fo frindly red, as be these

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well, "The fyrfte twoo fatars and peyfels "of Orace Engleshed by Lewis Evans "schoolemaifter," in 1564. REGISTR. A. fol. 121. a. This piece is not catalogued among Evans's works in Wood, ATH. OXON. i. 178. Nor in Tanner, BIBL. p. 270.

We have this passage in a poem called PASQUILL'S MADNESSE, Lond. 1600. 4to. fol. 36.

And tell profe writers, ftories are so stale,
That pennie ballads make a better fale.

And in Burton's Melancholy, fol. 122.
edit. 1624." If they reade a booke at
"any time 'tis an English Cronicle, fir
"Huon of Bourdeaux, or Amadis de
"Gaule, a playe booke, or fome pamphlett
"of newes." Hollinfhed's and Stowe's
VOL. III.

gra

CRONICLES became at length the only
fashionable reading. In The Guls Hornbook,
it is faid, "The top [the leads] of faint
"Paules containes more names than Stowe's
"Cronicle." Lond. 1609. 4to. p. 21. Bl.
Lett. That the ladies now began to read
novels we find from this paffage,
"Let
"them learne plaine workes of all kinde,
"fo they take heed of too open feaming.
"Infteade of fonges and muficke, let them
"learne cookerie and laundrie. And in-
"tead of reading fir Philip Sidney's AR-
CADIA, let them reade the Greundes of
good Hufwifery. I like not a female poe-
"teffe at any hand.There is a pretty way
"of breeding young maides in an Ex-
change-hop, or Saint Martines le Grand.
"But many of them gett fuch a foolish
"trick with carrying their band-box to
"gentlemens

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"bokes. But if the fettyng out of the wanton tricks of a

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payre of louers, as for example let theym be cauled fir "Chaunticleare and dame Partilote, to tell howe their firste "combination of loue began, howe their eyes floted, and howe they anchered, their beames mingled one with the others bewtye. Then, of their perplexed thowghts, their throwes, "their fancies, their dryrie driftes, now interrupted now vnperfyted, their loue days, their fugred words, and their fugred ioyes. Afterward, howe enuyous fortune, through this chop "or that chaunce, turned their blefs to bale, feuerynge two "fuch bewtiful faces and dewtiful hearts. Laft, at partynge, "to ad-to an oration or twane, interchangeably had betwixt "the two wobegone perfons, the one thicke powderd with manly paffionat pangs, the other watered with womanish teares.

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"trifeling fancies, &c." Lond. by Thomas Hacket, 1574, 12mo. SIGNAT, C4. He adds, after many fevere cenfures on the impiety of dancing, that "the fub"ftaunce which is confumed in twoo yeares "space vppon the apparaill of one meane

gentlemans daughter, or vppon the "daughter or wife of one citizen, woulde "bec fufficient to finde a poore ftudent in "the vniuerfitye by the space of foure or "five yeares at the leaft." Ibid. SIGNAT. D 2. But if girls are bred to learning, he fays, "It is for no other ende, but to "make them companions of carpet knights, "and giglots for amorous louers." Ibid. SIGNAT. C 4. Gabriel Harvey, in his elegy DE AULICA, or character of the Maid of Honour, fays, among many other requifite accomplishments,

Saltet item, pingatque eadem, DOCTUM.
QUE POEMA

Pangat, nec Musas nefciat illa meas. See his GRATULATIONES VALDINENSES, Lond. Binneman, 1578. 4to. Lib. iv. p. 21. He adds, that the fhould have in her library, Chaucer, lord Surrey, and Gafcoigne, together with fome medical books. Ibid. p. 22.

"Then

"Then to shryne them vp to god Cupid, and make martirres " of them both, and therwyth an ende of the matter." Afterwards, reverting to the peculiar difficulty of his own attempt, he adds, "Neyther any man which can iudge, can iudge it one " and the like laboure to tranflate Horace, and to make and "translate a loue booke, a fhril tragedye, or a fmoth and plat"leuyled poefye. Thys can I trulye fay of myne owne expe66 ryence, that I can foner tranflate twelve verses out of the "Greeke Homer than fixe out Horace." Horace's fatirical writings, and even his Odes, are undoubtedly more difficult to translate than the narrations of epic poetry, which depend more on things than words: nor is it to be expected, that his fatires and epiftles should be happily rendered into English at this infancy of style and taste, when his delicate turns could not be expreffed, his humour and his urbanity justly relished, and his good fenfe and obfervations on life understood. Drant feems to have fucceeded beft in the exquifite Epistle to Tibullus, which I will therefore give entire.

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* An inventor, a poet.

That which is.

He means to exprefs the loose and n Knowledge, wisdom. Sapiente

rough verification of the SERMONES.

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Not thou a bodie without breast!

The goddes made thee t' excell

In fhape, the gods haue lent thee goodes,
And arte to vse them well.

What better thing vnto her childe

Can wifh the mother kinde?

Than wifedome, and, in fyled frame ",
To vtter owte his minde:

To haue fayre fauoure, fame enoughe,
And perfect staye, and health;
Things trim at will, and not to feele
The emptie ebb of wealth.

Twixt hope to haue, and care to kepe,

Twixt feare and wrathe, awaye

Confumes the time: eche daye that cummes,

Thinke it the latter daye.

The hower that cummes unlooked for

Shall cum more welcum aye.

Thou shalt Me fynde fat and well fed,

As pubble as may be;

And, when thou wilt, a merie mate,

To laughe and chat with thee'.

Drant undertook this version in the character of a grave divine, and as a teacher of morality. He was educated at faint John's college in Cambridge; where he was graduated in theology, in the year 1569'. The fame year he was appointed prebendary of Chichester and of faint Pauls. The following year he was inftalled archdeacon of Lewes in the cathedral of Chichester. These preferments he probably procured by the interest of Grindall archbishop of York, of whom he was a domeftic chaplain'.

P Having a comely perfon. Or, to speak with elegance.

I have never feen this word, which is perhaps provincial. The fenfe is obvious.

Signat. C iiij.

Catal. Grad. Cant. MS.

MS. Tann.

He

He was a tolerable Latin poet. He tranflated the ECCLESIASTES into Latin hexameters, which he dedicated to fir Thomas Henneage, a common and a liberal patron of these times, and printed at London in 1572". At the beginning and end of this work, are fix fmaller pieces in Latin verfe. Among these are the first fixteen lines of a paraphrafe on the book of JOB. He has two mifcellanies of Latin poetry extant, the one entitled SYLVA, dedicated to queen Elifabeth, and the other POEMATA VARIA ET EXTERNA. The last was printed at Paris, from which circumftance we may conclude that he travelled". In the SYLVA, he mentions his new verfion of David's pfalms, I fuppofe in English verse *. In the fame collection, he fays he had begun to tranflate the Iliad, but had gone no further than the fourth book. He mentions alfo his verfion

of the Greek EPIGRAMS of Gregory Nazianzen 2. But we are at a lofs to discover, whether the latter were English or Latin verfions. The indefatigably inquifitive bishop Tanner has col

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For Thomas Daye. In quarto. The title is, "In Solomonis regis ECCLESIASTEM, feu de Vanitate mundi Concio"nem, paraphrafis poetica. Lond. per Joan. "Dayum 1572." There is an entry to Richard Fielde of the " Ecclefiaftes in "Englishe verfe." Nov. 11, 1596. REGISTR. STATION. C. fol. 15. a. And, by Thomas Granger, to W. Jones, Apr. 30, 1620. Ibid. fol. 313. b.

w Drant has two Latin poems prefixed to Nevill's KETTUS, 1575. 4to. Another, to John Seton's LOGIC with Peter Carter's annotations, Lond. 1574. 12mo. And to the other editions. [Seton was of faint John's in Cambridge, chaplain to bishop Gardiner for feven years, and highly ef teemed by him. Made D. D. in 1544. Inftalled prebendary of Winchester, Mar. 19, 1553. Rector of Henton in Hampfhire, being then forty-two years old, and B. D. See A. Wood, MS. C. 237. is extolled by Leland for his diftinguished excellence both in the claffics and philofo

phy. He published much Latin poetry. See Strype's ELIZ. p. 242. Carter was alfo of S. John's in Cambridge.] Another, with one in English, to John Sadler's English version of Vegetius's TACTICS, done at the requeft of fir Edmund Brudenell, and addreffed to the earl of Bedford, Lond. 1572. 4to. He has a Latin epitaph, or elegy, on the death of doctor Cuthbert Scot, defigned bishop of Chester, but depofed by queen Elifabeth for popery, who died a fugitive at Louvaine, Lond. 1565. He probably wrote this piece abroad. There is licenced to T. Marsh, in 1565, "An Epigrame of the death of Cuthbert "Skotte by Roger Sherlock, and replyed "agaynfte by Thomas Drant." REGISTR, STATION. A. fol. 134. b. A Latin copy of verfes, DE SEIPSO, is prefixed to his HORACE.

× Fol. 56. y Fol. 75.

He

z Fol. 50.

lected

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