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worth while to extract the following specimen, which is in Heywood's very best manner.

66 AN OLD WIFE'S BOON.

In old world, when old wives bitterly prayed,

One, devoutly, as by way of a boon,

Ask'd vengeance on her husband; and to him said, 'Thou wouldst wed a young wife ere this week were done,

(Were I dead,) but thou shalt wed the devil as soon.' 'I cannot wed the devil,' quoth he- Why?' quoth she, 'For I have wedded his dam before,' quoth he."

The following lines, however, afford the most favourable instance of his versification.

66 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 deane,

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."

DIONYSIUS, KING OF SICILY.

125

DIONYSIUS THE ELDER, King of Sicily, possessed a passion for poetry. He contended for the prize at Athens, and, when he gained it, shewed more satisfaction than when victory crowned his arms in the field. On that occasion, he entertained the whole city with extraordinary magnificence, and spent an immense treasure in public feasts and banquets, which continued several days. In the midst of this rejoicing, he was seized with a disease, which terminated his life.

MRS. PILKINGTON.

MRS. PILKINGTON, whose poetical talents and frailties were, at one time of day, the alternate theme of praise and commiseration, tells us, in her Memoirs, that "from her earliest infancy she had a strong disposition to letters;" but, her eyes being weak, her mother would not permit her to look at a book, lest it should affect them. As she did not place so high a value, however,

on those lucid orbs as her mother, and as restraint only served to quicken her natural thirst for knowledge, she availed herself of every opportunity that could gratify it; so that, at five years old, she could read, and even taste, the beauties of some of the best English Poets. She continued in this manner to improve her mind by stealth, till she had accomplished her twelfth year, when her brother, a little playful boy, brought her a slip of paper one day, and desired her to write something on it that would please him; on which she wrote the following lines:

Oh, spotless paper, fair, and white!

On thee by force constrain'd to write,
Is it not hard I should destroy
Thy purity to please a boy?
Ungrateful I, thus to abuse

The fairest servant of the Muse.

Dear friend, to whom I oft impart
The choicest secrets of my heart,

Ah! what atonement can be made
For spotless innocence betray'd?
How fair, how lovely, didst thou shew
Like lilied banks, or falling snow :
But now, alas! become my prey,
Not tears can wash thy stains away:
Yet, this small comfort I can give,
That what destroy'd shall make thee live.

GEORGE GASCOIGNE.

"Chaucer by writing purchas'd fame,
And Gower got a worthy name;
Sweet Surry sucked Parnassus' springs,
And Wyatt wrote of wondrous things;
Old Rochford clambe the stately throne
Which Muses hold in Helicone;

Then thither let good GASCOIGNE go,
For sure his verse deserveth so."

His

THERE are several reasons for which Gascoigne claims a particular notice in a work illustrative of English Poetry and Poets. "Steele Glas" is one of the earliest specimens of blank verse, as well as of legitimate satire, in our language; his "Jocasta " is the second theatrical piece written in that measure; and his "Supposes," (a translation from the Italian of Ariosto,) the first comedy ever written in prose. Shakspeare's obligations to the latter piece, in his "Comedy of Errors," have been accurately stated by Warton and Farmer; they are not, however, very extensive.

George Gascoigne was born of an ancient family in Essex, but, for some unknown reason,

disinherited by his father. "Having," says Anthony Wood, "a rambling and unfixed head, he left Gray's Inn, went to various cities in Holland, and became a soldier of note, which he afterwards professed as much, or more, as learning, and therefore made him take the motto, Tam Marti quam Mercurio. From thence he went to France and fell in love with a Scottish dame." The latter part of this account rests on very slight foundation; it is doubtful whether or no he went to France, and the story of the "Scottish Dame" relies only on some lines in his " Herbes," written, probably, in an assumed character.

What is more certain is, that he took service in Holland, under the gallant William, Prince of Orange, who was then (in 1572) engaged in the glorious struggle which emancipated his country from the iron yoke of Spain. He there acquired considerable military reputation; but quarrelling with his Colonel, he repaired to Delf, where he resigned his commission into the hands of the Prince, who in vain endeavoured to reconcile his officers.

About this period, a circumstance occurred which had nearly cost our poet his life. A

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