That it was in high esteem throughout the reign of queen Elifabeth, appears, not only from its numerous editions, but from the teftimony 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 verfe, and published in 1560. It must be remembered that only Baldwyne's part had yet appeared, and that the tranflator is fuppofed to be fpeaking to Seneca.

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

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

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

And all their woorks with ftately ftyle

And goodly grace to endight.

There shalt thou fe the felfe fame Northe,
Whose woork his witte displayes;
And DYALL doth of PRINCES paynte,

And preache abroade his prayse *.
There Sackvyldes SONNETS" fweetly faufte,

f 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 house late Thomas Berthelettes. Cum priv. &c. Anno "M.D.LX." duodecim. bl. lett. It is dedicated in verse to fir John Mason.

Sir Thomas North, fecond fon of Edward lord North of Kirtling, translated from French into English Antonio Guevara's HOROLOGIUM PRINCIPUM. This translation was printed in 1557, and dedi

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 sure 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

Well pewrde with pen: fuch yong men three
As weene thou mightst 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, 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.-

w Norton is Sackville's coadjutor in GORDOBUCKE.

*The Epilogue to Gafcoigne's JoCASTA, acted 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 tranflations. His PLUTARCH mentioned in the text, is perhaps a manuscript in the British Mufeum, PLUTARCHS COM

A pryncely place in Parnaffe hill
For thefe there is preparde,

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 fhall hang full high, &c.

Thefe, he adds, are alone qualified to tranflate Seneca's tragedies. In a fmall 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 "choyfeft learned wittes, which for the ftately-proportioned "uaine of the heroick ftyle, and good meetly proportion of ❝uerse, 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 ap prooued friende, he calls himself an attourney in the Common Pleas, obferving at the fame time, that the" name of an At66 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 "schoolfellow, with the inftructions of "that learned and exquifite teacher, Maif"ter JOHN HOPKINS, that worthy schoole "maifter, nay rather that most worthy pa

"rent

46

in a general criticism on the style 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 profe 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 "historian in our tongue to affect the like out of those our "poets, would be accounted a foul oversight.-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, whofe English hath in my conceit most

propriety, and is nearest to the phrase of court, and to the "speech 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. Brave language are Chap"man's Iliads. The works of Samuel Daniel containe fomeDo teache unto philofophie A perfit ready way.

4: 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 fpe-
cimen of this little piece, which fhews at
leaft that he learned verfification under his
mafter Hopkins. He is fpeaking of the
Latin tongue. (Signat. G. 4.)

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

With morall fawes in couert tales:
Whereto agreeth rite

Fine Comedies with pleasure sawft,
Which, as it were by play,

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

"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 "C 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-pensioners, "Puttenham, are princely as her profe. Never must be forgotten "St. PETER'S COMPLAINT, and those other serious poems "faid to be father Southwell's: the English whereof, as it is "most proper, so the sharpness and light of wit is very rare "in them. Noble Henry Conftable was a great master 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 Majesty's LEPANTO. I " have not feen much of fir Edward Dyer's poetry. Among "the leffer late poets, George Gascoigne's Works may be en"dured. But the best of these times, if Albion's England "be not preferred, for our business, is the MIRROUR OF "MAGISTRATES, and in that MIRROUR, Sackvil's INDUC"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 alfo in noble, courtly, and luftrous

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 moft 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