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mund lord Sheffield, created a baron by king Edward the fixth, and killed by a butcher in the Norfolk infurrection, is faid by Bale to have written fonnets in the Italian manner.

I have been informed, that Henry lord Berners tranflated fome of Petrarch's fonnets'. But this nobleman otherwise deferved notice here, for his profe works, which co-operated with the romantic genius and the gallantry of the age. He tranflated, and by the king's command, Froiffart's chronicle, which was printed by Pinson in 1523. Some of his other tranflations are profeffed romances. He tranflated from the Spanish, by defire of the lady of fir Nicholas Carew, THE CASTLE OF LOVE. From the French he tranflated, at the requeft of the earl of Huntingdon, SIR HUGH OF BOURDEAUX, which became exceedingly popular. And from the fame language, THE HISTORY OF ARTHUR an Armorican knight. Bale fays, that he wrote a comedy called Ite in vineam, or the PARABLE OF THE VINEYARD, which was frequently acted at Calais, where lord Berners refided, after vefpers. 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, fet to mufic by William Bird, supposed to be written by Henry, when he first fell in love with Anne Boleyn. It begins,

The eagles force fubdues eche byrde that flyes,
What metal can refyste the flamyng fyre?
Doth not the funne dazle the clearefte eyes,
And melt the yce, and makethe froste retyre?

• See Tanner BIBL. p. 668. Dugd. BAR. iii. 386.

f MSS. Oldys.

Cent. ix. p. 706.

ATH. OXON. i. 33. It is not known, whether it was in Latin or English. Stowe fays, that in 1528, at Greenwich, after a grand tournament and banquet, there was the most goodlieft Difguifing or Inter

"lude in Latine, &c." CHRON. p. 539. edit. fol. 1615. But poffibly this may be Stowe's way of naming and defcribing a comedy of Plautus. See fupr. vol. ii. 363.

I muft not forget, that a fong is afcribed to Anne Boleyn, but with little probability, called her COMPLAINT. See Hawkins, HIST. Mus. iii. 32. v. 480.

It appears in Bird's PSALMES, SONGS, AND SONNETS, printed with musical notes, in 1611. Poetry and mufic are congenial; and it is certain, that Henry was skilled in mufical compofition. Erasmus attests, that he composed some church services': and .one of his anthems ftill continues to be performed in the choir of Chrift-church at Oxford, of his foundation. It is in an admirable style, and is for four voices. Henry, although a scholar, had little tafte for the claffical elegancies which now began to be known in England. His education feems to have been altogether theological: and, whether it beft fuited his tafte or his intereft, polemical divinity feems to have been his favorite science. He was a patron of learned men, when they humoured his vanities; and were wife enough, not to interrupt his pleafures, his convenience, or his ambition.

See alfo NUGA ANTIQUÆ, ii. 248. 1 See Hawkins, HIST. Mus. ii. 533

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O thefe SONGES and SONNETTES of UNCERTAIN AUCTOURS, in Tottell's edition are annexed SONGES WRITTEN BY N. G. 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 tranfplanted to that fociety, which gave the greatest encouragement to such students as were distinguished for their proficiency in criticism and philology. The fame year, he wrote a Latin tragedy, which probably was acted in the college, entitled, ARCHIPROPHETA, five JOHANNES BAPTISTA, TRAGÆDIA, That is, The Arch-prophet, or Saint John Baptift, a tragedy, and dedicated to the dean Richard Cox. In the In the year *548*, he explained all the four books of Virgil's Georgics in a regular profe Latin paraphrase, in the public hall of his college*. He wrote also explanatory commentaries or lectures on the Andria of Terence, the Epiftles of Horace, and many pieces of Cicero, perhaps for the fame auditory. He tranflated Tully's Offices into English. This translation, which is dedicated to the learned Thirlby bishop of Ely, was printed at London,

a They begin with fol. 113. See vol. ii. 342.

Printed, Colon. 1548. 8vo. [See fupr.

vol. ii. 379.]

dii Edw. vi.

e Printed at London in 1591. 8vo.

1553'. He also familiarised some of the pureft Greek claffics by English verfions, which I believe were never printed. Among others was the CYROPÆDIA. Bale the biographer and bishop of Offory, fays, that he turned Chaucer's TROILUS into a play: but whether this piece was in Latin or English, we are still to feek and the word Comedia, which Bale uses on this occafion, is without precision or distinction. The fame may be faid of what Bale calls his FAME, a comedy. Bale alfo recites his System of Rhetoric for the ufe of Englishmen, which feems 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 poffeffed the opportunities of information, had given us a more exact and full detail, at least of such of Grimoald's works as are now loft, or, if remaining, are unprinted'. Undoubtedly this is the fame perfon, 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 Conftantine's DONATION, with some other popular Latin pieces against the papists *. In the ecclefiastical history of Mary's reign, he appears to have been imprisoned for heresy, and to have faved 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 Jofephus Ifcanus's poem on the TROJAN WAR, with emendations from the most correct manufcripts'.

I have taken more pains to introduce this Nicholas Grimoald to the reader's acquaintance, because he is the fecond English poet after lord Surrey, who wrote in blank-verfe. Nor is it his

f In octavo. Again, 1574.-1596. Rhetorica in ufum Britannorum. Bale cites his comment, or paraphrafe on the firft Eclogue of Virgil, addressed ad Amicum Joannem Baleum, viii. 99.

i Titles of many others of his pieces. may be seen in Bale, ubi fupr.

* See Strype's CRANMER, B. iii. c. 11. P. 343. And GRINDAL, 8. Fox, edit. i. 1047. And Wood, ATH. OXON. i. 178.

Bale, ubi fupr.

only

only praise, that he was the first who followed in this new path of verfification. To the style of blank-verse exhibited by Surrey, he added new strength, elegance, and modulation. In the difpofition and conduct of his cadencies, he often approaches to the legitimate structure of the improved blank-verse: but we cannot suppose, that he is entirely free from those diffonancies and afperities, which still adhered to the general character and state of our diction.

In his poem on the DEATH OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO are these lines. The affaffins of Cicero are faid to relent,

When

They his bare neck behelde, and his hore heares,
Scant could they hold the teares that forth gan burst,
And almost fell from bloody handes the fwoordes.
Onely the fterne Herennius, with
grym looke,
Daftardes, why stande ye still? he saith: and straight
Swapt off the head with his presumptuous yrone.
Ne with the slaughter yet is he not filled :
Fowle shame on shame to hepe, is his delite.
Wherefore the handes also he doth off-smyte,
Which durft Antonius' life fo lively paint.
Him, yelding ftrained ghofte", from welkin hie
With lothly chere lord Phebus
gan beholde;
And in black clowde, they fay, long hid his hed.
The Latine Mufes, and the Grayes ", they wept,
And for his fall eternally fhall wepe.

And lo! hart-perfing PITHO, ftrange to tell,
Who had fuffifde to him both fence and wordes,
When so he spake, and drest with nectar foote
That flowyng toung, when his windpipe disclofde,
Fled with her fleeing friend; and, out, alas!
Hath left the earth, ne will no more returne.

His conftrained fpirit.

Graia. Greek.

Peitho, the goddess of perfuafion. • Fol. 137,

Nor

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