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struction of his countrymen, at Rome, Paris, and Douay. Being now, however, advanced in years, he shortly afterwards resigned the mitre, and retired to a monastery in the Netherlands, where he died in 1596. His chief publications are, a treatise in defence of Queen Mary and her title to the English crown; a Description of Scotland and the Scottish Isles; and a work on the Origin, Manners, and Exploits of the Scotch. All these are in Latin; the last two forming a volume which he published at Rome in 1578. He wrote in the Scottish language a History of Scotland from 1436 to 1561, of which only a Latin translation (contained in the volume just mentioned) was published by himself; the original, however, was printed by the Bannatyne Club in 1830. In 1842 appeared a work entitled Vestiarium Scoticum, the body of which consisted of a catalogue of the tartans peculiar to Scottish families, composed by Bishop Lesley in the Scottish language, and which had long been preserved in manuscript in the college of Douay.

[Character of James V.]

[From Lesley's History of Scotland."]

to be registered in the book of fame, gave up and rendered his spirit into the hands of Almighty God, where I doubt not but he has sure fruition of the joy that is prepared for these as shall sit on the right hand of our Saviour.

[Burning of Edinburgh and Leith by the English in 1544.]

Now will I return to the earnest ambition of King Henry of England, who ceased not to search by all means possible to attain to his desire, and therefore sent a great army by sea into Scotland, with the Earl of Hertford, his lieutenant, and the Viscount Lisle, his admiral, with two hundred great ships, besides boats and crears that carried their victuals, whereof there firth fornent? Leith the third day of May, and landed was great number; and the whole fleet arrived in the at the New Haven about xx thousand men, with great artillery and all kind of munition, the fourth of May. In the meantime, the Governor being in the town of Edinburgh, hearing of their sudden arrival, departed forth of the town toward Leith, accompanied with the Cardinal, Earls of Huntly, Argyll, Bothwell, and others, with their own household men only, purposing to stop the landing of the enemy; but frae they were [Original Spelling.—Thier wes gryt dule and meane maid for him throw all the partis of his realme, because he was a nobill surely advertised of the great number of their enemies, prince, and travaillet mekill all his dayis for maintening of wherethrough they were not able to withstand their his subjectis in peace, justice, and quietnes. He was a man, &c.] forces, they returned to Edinburgh, and sent Sir Adam Otterburne, provost of the town, and two of the bailies, There was great dole and moan made for him through to the said Earl Hertford, lieutenant, desiring to know all the parts of his realm, because he was a noble for what cause he was come with such an army to prince, and travailed mickle all his days for main-invade, considering there was no war proclaimed betaining of his subjects in peace, justice, and quietness. twixt the two realms; and if there was any injuries He was a man of personage and stature convenient, or wrongs done whereupon the King of England was albeit mighty and strong therewith, of countenance offended, they would appoint commissioners to treat amiable and lovely, specially in his communication; with them thereupon, and to that effect thankfully his eyes gray and sharp of sight, that whomsoever he would receive them within the town of Edinburgh. did once see and mark, he would perfectly know in The said Earl of Hertford answered, that he had no all times thereafter; of wit in all things quick and commission to treat upon any matters, but only to prompt; of a princely stomach and high courage in receive the Queen of Scotland, to be convoyed in Enggreat perils, doubtful affairs, and matters of weighty land to be married with Prince Edward; and if they importance: he had, in a manner, a divine foresight, would deliver her, he would abstain from all pursuit, for in such things as he went about to do, he did them otherwise he would burn and destroy the towns of advisedly and with great deliberation, to the intent Edinburgh, Leith, and all others where he might be that amongst all men his wit and prudence might be master within the realm of Scotland, and desired noted and regarded, and as far excel and pass all therefore the haill men, wives, bairns, and others, others in estate and dignity. Besides this, he was being within the town of Edinburgh, to come forth of sober, moderate, honest, affable, courteous, and so far the same, and present them before him as lieutenant, abhorred pride and arrogance, that he was ever sharp and offer them into the king's will, or else he would and quick to them which were spotted or noted with proceed as he had spoken. To the which the provost, that crime. He was also a good and sure justiciar, by the command of the Governor and council, answered, by the which one thing he allured to him the hearts that they would abide all extremity rather or they fulof all the people, because they lived quietly and in filled his desires; and so the Governor caused furnish rest, out of all oppression and molestation of the nobi- the castle of Edinburgh with all kind of necessary furlity and rich persons; and to this severity of his was niture, and departed to Striveling. In the meantime, joined and annexed a certain merciful pity, which he the English army lodged that night in Leith. Upon did ofttimes show to such as had offended, taking the morn, being the fifth of May, they marched forrather compositions of money nor men's lives; which ward toward Edinburgh by the Canongate, and or their was a plain argument that he did use his rigour only entering therein, there came to them six thousand (as he said himself) to bow and abate the high and horsemen of English men from Berwick by land, who wrongous hearts of the people, specially Irishmen3 joined with them, and passed up the Canongate, of and borderers, and others, nursed and brought up in purpose to enter at the Nether Bow; where some reseditious factions and civil rebellions; and not for sistance was made unto them by certain Scottish greedy desire of riches or hunger of money, although men, and divers of the English men were slain, and such as were afflicted would cry out; and surely this some also of the Scottish side, and so held them that good and modest prince did not devour and consume day occupied skirmishing, till the night came, which the riches of his country; for he by his high policy mar- compelled them to return unto their camp. And on vellously riched his realm and himself, both with gold the next day, being the sixth of May, the great army and silver, all kind of rich substance, whereof he came forward with the haill ordinances,7 and assailed left great store and quantity in all his palaces at his the town, which they found void of all resistance, departing. And so this king, living all his time in saving the ports of the town were closed, which they the favour of fortune, in high honour, riches, and glory, and, for his noble acts and prudent policies, worthy 1 To enforce a marriage between his son and the infant Queen Mary of Scotland. *Edited by John Sobieski Stuart. 4to. Tait: Edinburgh. 2 Opposite. 1 Criminal judge. 2 Than 3 Ersemen, or Highlanders. 5 Ere.

3 When, from the time when. 4 Whole. 7 Whole ordnance.

6 Stirling.

20

broke up with great artillery, and entered thereat, carrying carted ordinances before them till they came in sight of the castle, where they placed them, purposing to siege the castle. But the laird of Stanehouse, captain thereof, caused shoot at them in so great abundance, and with so good measure, that they slew a great number of English men, amongst whom there was some principal captains and gentlemen; and one of the greatest pieces of the English ordinances was broken; wherethrough they were constrained to raise the siege shortly and retire them.

The same day the English men set fire in divers places of the town, but was not suffered to maintain it, through continual shooting of ordinance forth of the castle, wherewith they were so sore troubled, that they were constrained to return to their camp at Leith. But the next day they returned again, and did that they could to consume all the town with fires. So likewise they continued some days after, so that the most part of the town was burnt in cruel manner; during the which time their horsemen did great hurt in the country, spoiling and burning sundry places thereabout, and in special all the castle and place of Craigmillar, where the most part of the whole riches of Edinburgh was put by the merchants of the town in keeping, which not without fraud of the keepers, as was reported, was betrayed to the English men for a part of the booty and spoil thereof.

When the English men of war was thus occupied in burning and spoiling, the Governor sent and relieved the Earl of Angus, Lord Maxwell, master of Glencairn, and Sir George Douglas, forth of ward, and put them to liberty; and made such speedy preparation as he could to set forward an army for expelling the English men forth of the realm; who hearing thereof, upon the xiiij day of May, they broke down the pier of Leith haven, burned and destroyed the same; and shipping their great artillery, they sent their ships away homeward, laden with the spoil of Edinburgh and Leith, taking with them certain Scottish ships which was in the haven, amongst the which the ships

called Salamander and the Unicorn were carried in

England. Upon the xv day of May their army and their fleet departed from Leith at one time, the town of Leith being set in fire the same morning; and their said army that night lodged at Seaton, the next night beside Dunbar, the third night at Renton in the Merse, and the 18 day of May they entered in Berwick. In all this time, the borderers and certain others Scottish men, albeit they were not of sufficient number to give battle, yet they held them busy with daily skirmishing, that sundry of their men and horse were taken, and therefore none of them durst in any wise stir from the great army in all their passage from Edinburgh to Berwick.*

* As some of our readers may be pleased to see Bishop Lesley's Latin version of this atrocious narrative, we here transcribe the greater part of it from his volume printed at Rome in 1578. It will be observed that the style is much more concise than in the original:

Anglorum copiæ Leythi pernoctant. Postero autem die Edinburgum versus per vicum qui à canonicis nomen habet progredientes, sex millibus equitum, qui terrestri itinere Bervico venerant, se conjungunt. Ad inferiorem urbis portam Angli tota die levibus præliis à Scotis lacessiti sistere coguntur. Repulsi, nocte appetente, se in castra recipiunt; sequenti die ad oppidum jam desertum ab omnibus oppugnandum universi prodeunt. Portis igitur, quæ clausæ erant, diruptis, in urbem irruunt, ac tormentis, quâ ex arce prospici potest, dispositis, obsidionem parant. Interea D. Stanhousius arcis præfectus magna vi tormenta bellica displodens, rupta ingenti hostium machina, Anglos circiter quingentos transverberat. Quam ob rem soluta obsidione, Angli eadem die in varias oppidi partes ignes injecerunt. Verum illud incendium latius spargere non poterant; quod propter assiduam castri ejaculationem ita fuerant disturbati, ut coacti pedem in castra retulerint. Postero tamen die oppidum summa hostium diligentia inflammatum

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Archbishop Spotiswood.

popular commotions had obliged him to retire. He wrote, at the command of James, a History of the the king, on expressing his wish for the composition Church of Scotland, from A.D. 203 to 1625. When of that work, was told that some passages in it might possibly bear too hard upon the memory of his mother. he desired Spotiswood to write and spare not;' and yet, says Bishop Nicolson, the historian ventured not so far with a commission as Buchanan did without one.' The history was published in London in 1655, and is considered to be, on the whole, a faithful and impartial narrative.

[Destruction of Religious Edifices in 1559.] from Geneva into Scotland, and, joining with the conWhilst these things passed, John Knox returned gregation, did preach to them at Perth. In his ser- || mon, he took occasion to speak against the adoration of images, showed that the same tended to God's dishonour, and that such idols and monuments of superper quatuor dies miserabili incendio conflagravit. Foris ab equite, aliisque militibus tam Anglis quam Scotis, tanquam à furiis omnia vastata et diruta fuerunt. Gubernator hoc tem pore Comitem Angusium, D. Maxuellum, ac Georgium Doug lasium educi ex custodiis jubet; exercitum quam accuratissime cogit, ut Anglos regno ejiciat. Quod cum illi cognovissent. pridie Id. Maii castra movent; aggerem portus Leythi diruunt, et alios in adverso littore portus, oppidaque incendio consumunt, ac naves spoliis onustas in Angliam traducunt. Quasdam | etiam Scoticas naves, inter quas duæ præcipuæ et insignes erant. Salamander et Unicornis dicta, secum auferunt. Id. Mali solvunt. Exercitus, qui terra ducebatur, prima nocte. Setonii castra locat, secunda Dumbarri: tertia Rentoni in Merchia: quarta ad xv Kal. Junii Bervicum pervenit. Scoti hostes insequi, infestare, aliquos etiam capere, illos denique ita agitare, ut toto itineris hujus spatio vix quisquam segregarp se à toto agmine auderet.'

*Nicolson's Scottish Historical Library, 1736, p. 66.

temple; and applying the corruption which was at that time in Jerusalem to the present estate in the church, and declaring what was the duty of those to whom God had given authority and power, he did so incite the auditors, as, the sermon being ended, they went all and made spoil of the churches, rasing the monasteries of the Black and Gray Friars to the ground.

[James VI. and a Refractory Preacher.]

stition as were erected in churches ought to be pulled down, as being offensive to good and godly people. The sermon ended, and the better sort gone to dinner, a priest, rather to try men's affections than out of any devotion, prepared to say mass, opening a great case, wherein was the history of divers saints exquisitely carved. A young boy that stood by, saying that such boldness was unsufferable, the priest gave him a blow. The boy, in an anger, casting a stone at the priest, happened to break one of the pictures, whereupon stir was presently raised, some of the common sort falling upon the priest, others running to the altar and breakThe king perceiving by all these letters that the ing the images, so as in a moment all was pulled down death of his mother was determined, called back his in the church that carried any mark of idolatry. The ambassadors, and at home gave order to the ministers people, upon the noise thereof, assembled in great to remember her in their public prayers: which they numbers, and, invading the cloisters, made spoil of all denied to do, though the form prescribed was most they found therein. The Franciscans had store of Christian and lawful; which was, 'That it might provision, both of victuals and household stuff; amongst please God to illuminate her with the light of his the Dominicans the like wealth was not found, yet so truth, and save her from the apparent danger wherein much there was as might show the profession they she was cast. Upon their denial, charges were dimade of poverty to be feigned and counterfeit. The rected to command all bishops, ministers, and other Carthusians, who passed both these in wealth, were office-bearers in the church, to make mention of her used in like manner; yet was the prior permitted to distress in their public prayers, and commend her to take with him what he might carry of gold and silver God in the form appointed. But of all the number, Mr plate. All the spoil was given to the poor, the rich David Lindsay at Leith, and the king's own ministers, sort forbearing to meddle with any part thereof. But gave obedience. At Edinburgh, where the disobedience that which was most admired was the speed they made was most public, the king, purposing to have their in demolishing these edifices. For the Charterhouse fault amended, did appoint the 3d of February for (a building of exceeding cost and largeness) was not solemn prayers to be made in her behalf, commandonly ruined, but the stones and timber so quickly ing the bishop of St Andrews to prepare himself for taken away, as, in less than two days' space, a vestige that day; which when the ministers understood, they thereof was scarce remaining to be seen. They of stirred up Mr John Cowper, a young man not entered Cupar in Fife, hearing what was done at Perth, went as yet in the function, to take the pulpit before the in like manner to their church, and defaced all the time, and exclude the bishop. The king coming at images, altars, and other instruments of idolatry; the hour appointed, and seeing him in the place, which the curate took so heavily, as the night follow-called to him from his seat, and said, Mr John, that ing he put violent hands on himself. place was destinate for another; yet, since you are The noblemen remained at that time in St Andrews; there, if you will obey the charge that is given, and and because they foresaw this their answer would not remember my mother in your prayers, you shall go be well accepted, and feared some sudden attempt on.' He replying, he would do as the Spirit of God (for the queen with her Frenchmen lay then at Falkshould direct him,' was commanded to leave the land), they sent to the lords of Dun and Pittarrow, place. And making as though he would stay, the and others that favoured religion in the countries of captain of the guard went to pull him out; whereAngus and Mearns, and requested them to meet at upon he burst forth in these speeches, "This day shall St Andrews the 4th day of June. Meanwhile, they be a witness against the king in the great day of the themselves went to the town of Crail, whither all Lord' and then denouncing a woe to the inhabitants that had warning came, showing great forwardness of Edinburgh, he went down, and the bishop of St and resolutions; and were not a little encouraged by Andrews entering the pulpit, did perform the duty John Knox, who, in a sermon made unto them at the required. The noise was great for a while amongst same time, put them in mind of that he foretold at the people; but after they were quieted, and had Perth, how there was no sincerity in the Queen Re- heard the bishop (as he was a most powerful preacher) gent's dealing, and that conditions would not be kept, out of that text to Timothy, discourse of the duty of as they had found. Therefore did he exhort them not Christians in praying for all men,' they grieved sore to be any longer deluded with fair promises, seeing to see their teachers so far overtaken, and condemned there was no peace to be hoped for at their hands, who their obstinacy in that point. In the afternoon, took no regard of contracts and covenants solemnly Cowper was called before the council, where Mr WalAnd because there would be no quietness till ter Balcanquel and Mr William Watson, ministers, one of the parties were masters, and strangers expulsed accompanying him, for some idle speeches that esout of the kingdom, he wished them to prepare them-caped them, were both discharged from preaching in selves either to die as men, or to live victorious. Edinburgh during his majesty's pleasure, and Cowper sent prisoner to Blackness.

sworn.

*

By this exhortation the hearers were so moved, as they fell immediately to the pulling down of altars and images, and destroyed all the monuments which were abused to idolatry in the town. The like they did the next day in Anstruther, and from thence came directly to St Andrews. The bishop hearing what they had done in the coast-towns, and suspecting they would attempt the same reformation in the city, came to it well accompanied, of purpose to withstand them; but after he had tried the affections of the townsmen, and found them all inclining to the congregation, he went away early the next morning towards Falkland to the queen.

That day being Sunday, John Knox preached in the parish church, taking for his theme the history of the Gospel touching our Saviour's purging of the

GEORGE BUCHANAN.

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GEORGE BUCHANAN is more distinguished as a writer of classical Latinity than for his productions in the English tongue. He was born in Dumbartonshire in 1506, studied at Paris and St Andrews, and afterwards acted as tutor to the Earl of Murray. While so employed, he gave offence to the clergy by a satirical poem, and was obliged to take refuge on the continent, from which he did not return to Scotland till 1560. Though he had embraced the Protestant doctrines, his reception at the court of Mary was favourable: he assisted her in her studies, was employed to regulate the uni

versities, and became principal of St Leonard's college in the university of St Andrews. He joined, however, the Earl of Murray's party against the queen, and was appointed tutor to James VI., whose pedantry was probably in some degree the result of his instructions, and on whom he is said to have occasionally bestowed a hearty whipping. In 1571 he violently attacked the conduct and character of the queen, in a Latin work entitled Detectio Maria Regina. After the assassination of his patron, Regent Murray, he still continued to enjoy the favour of the dominant party, whose opinion that the people are entitled to judge of and control the conduct of their governors, he maintained with great spirit and ability in a treatise De Jure Regni, published in 1579. Having by this book offended his royal pupil, he spent in retirement the last few years of his life, during which he composed in Latin his well-known "History of Scotland,' published in Edinburgh in 1582, under the title of Rerum Scoticarum Historia. He died in the same year, so poor, that his funeral took place at the public expense. Buchanan's reputation as a writer of Latin stands very high; the general excellence of his poetical compositions in this language has been already adverted to. As a historian, his style is held to unite the excellences of Livy and Sallust. Like the former, however, he is sometimes too declamatory, and largely embellishes his narrative with fable. If his accuracy and impartiality,' says Dr Robertson, had been in any degree equal to the elegance of his taste, and to the purity and vigour of his style, his history might be placed on a level with the most admired compositions of the ancients. But, instead of rejecting the improbable tales of chronicle writers, he was at the utmost pains to adorn them; and hath clothed with all the beauties and graces of fiction, those legends which formerly had only its wildness and extravagance.'

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In those who are accustomed to peruse the elegant Latin compositions of Buchanan, a specimen of his vernacular prose is calculated to excite great surprise. One exists in a tract called the Chamaleon, which he designed as a satire upon the slippery statesman, Secretary Maitland, of Lethington, whose final desertion to the queen's party he could never forgive. A glance at this work, or even at the brief extract from it here subjoined, will suffice to extinguish all lamentation for the fact of his other writings being in a dead language. Yet this ungainly strain must have been that of the familiar daily speech of this rival of Horace and of Virgil.

[The Chamaleon.]

Thair is a certane kynd of Beist callit Chameleon, engenderit in sic Countreis as the Sone hes mair Strenth in than in this Yle of Brettane, the quhilk albeit it be small of Corporance, noghttheless it is of ane strange Nature, the quhilk makis it to be na less celebrat and spoken of than sum Beast is of greittar Quantitie. The Proprieties is marvalous, for quat Thing evir it be applicat to, it semis to be of the samyn3 Cullour, and imitatis all Hewis, excepte onelie the Quhyte and Reid; and for this caus anciene Writtaris commonlie comparis it to ane Flatterare, quhilk imitatis all the haill Maneris of quhome he fenzeis him self to be Freind to, except Quhyte, quhilk is taken to be the Symboll and Tokin gevin commonlie in Devise of Colouris to signifie Sempilnes and Loyaltic, and Reid signifying Manliness and heroyicall Courage. This Applicatioun being so usit, Zits peradventure mony that hes nowther sene6 the

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said Beist, nor na perfyte Portraict of it, wald beleif sick thing not to be trew. I will thairfore set furth schortlie the Descriptioun of sic an Monsture not lang ago engendrit in Scotland in the Cuntre of Lowthiane, not far from Hadingtoun, to that effect that the forme knawin, the moist pestiferus Nature of the said Monsture may be moir easelie evited :2 For this Monsture being under coverture of a Manis Figure, may easeliar endommage 3 and wers be eschapit than gif it wer moir deforme and strange of Face, Behaviour, Schap, and Membris. Praying the Reidar to apardoun the Febilnes of my waike Spreit and Engyne,5 gif it can not expreme perfytelie ane strange Creature, maid by Nature, other willing to schaw hir greit Strenth, or be sum accident turnit be Force frome the common Trade and Course.

WILLIAM DRUMMOND.

WILLIAM DRUMMOND of Hawthornden, who has already been introduced as an eminent Scottish poet, wrote several pieces in prose, the chief of which are, The History of the Five Jameses, and 4 Cypress Grove, or Philosophical Reflections against the Fear of Death. In the former, which has very little merit as a historical production, he inculcates to the fullest extent the absolute supremacy of kings, and the duty of passive obedience of subjects. The Cypress Grove' is written in a pleasing and solemn strain, and contains much striking imagery; but the author's reflections are frequently trite, and his positions inconsistent. He thus argues

[Against Repining at Death.]

If on the great theatre of this earth, amongst the numberless number of men, to die were only proper to thee and thine, then, undoubtedly, thou hadst reason to repine at so severe and partial a law: but since it is a necessity, from which never any age by past hath been exempted, and unto which they which be, and so many as are to come, are thralled (no consequent of life being more common and familiar), why shouldst thou, with unprofitable and noughtavailing stubbornness, oppose so inevitable and necessary a condition? This is the high way of mortality, and our general home: behold what millions have trode it before thee what multitudes shall after thee, with them which at that same instant run! In so universal a calamity (if death be one), private complaints cannot be heard: with so many royal palaces, it is no loss to see thy poor cabin burn. Shall the heavens stay their ever-rolling wheels (for what is the motion of them but the motion of a swift and ever-whirling wheel, which twineth forth, and again uprolleth our life), and hold still time to prolong thy miserable days, as if the highest of their working were to do homage unto thee. Thy death is a pace of the order of this all, a part of the life of this world; for while the world is the world, some creatures must die, and others take life. Eternal things are raised far above this sphere of generation and corruption, where the first matter, like an ever-flowing and ebbing sea, with divers waves, but the same water, keepeth s restless and never-tiring current; what is below, in the universality of the kind, not in itself doth abide : man a long line of years hath continued, this man every hundred is swept away. This earth is as a table-book, and men are the notes; the first are washen out, that new may be written in. They who fore-went us did leave a room for us; and should we grieve to do the same to those who should come after us? Who, being suffered to see the exquisite rarities

2 More easily avoided.

1 Such. 3 Damage. 4 Worse be escaped. 5 Weak spirit and ingine. Either willing to show her great strength.

of an antiquary's cabinet, is grieved that the curtain be drawn, and to give place to new pilgrims? And when the Lord of this universe hath showed us the amazing wonders of his various frame, should we take it to heart, when he thinketh time, to dislodge? This is his unalterable and inevitable decree: as we had no part of our will in our entrance into this life, we should not presume to any in our leaving it, but soberly learn to will that which he wills, whose very will giveth being to all that it wills; and reverencing the orderer, not repine at the order and laws, which all-where and always are so perfectly established, that who would essay to correct and amend any of them, he should either make them worse, or desire things beyond the level of possibility.

REMARKS ON THE STYLE OF THIS PERIOD.

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The poetry of Queen Elizabeth's reign, and the prose of that of her successor, were much disfigured through the operation of a strong propensity, on the part of the authors, to false wit; a propensity, as Sir Walter Scott explains it, to substitute strange and unexpected connections of sound, or of idea, for real humour, and even for the effusions of the stronger passions. It seems likely,' he adds, that this fashion arose at court; a sphere in which its denizens never think they move with due lustre, until they have adopted a form of expression, as well as a system of manners, different from that which is proper to mankind at large. In Elizabeth's reign, the court language was for some time formed on the plan of one Lyly, a pedantic courtier, who wrote a book entitled "Euphues and his England, or the Anatomy of Wit;" which quality he makes to consist in the indulgence of every monstrous and overstrained conceit that can be engendered by a strong memory and a heated brain, applied to the absurd purpose of hatching unnatural conceits.* It appears that this fantastical person had a considerable share in determining the false taste of his age, which soon became so general, that the tares which sprung from it are to be found even among the choicest of the wheat. These outrages upon language were committed without regard to time and place. They were held good arguments at the bar, though Bacon sat on the woolsack; and eloquence irresistible by the most hardened sinner, when King or Corbet were in the pulpit. Where grave and learned professions set the example, the poets, it will readily be believed, ran headlong into an error, for which they could plead such respectable example. The affectation "of the word" and "of the letter" (for alliteration was almost as fashionable as punning) seemed in some degree to bring back English composition to the barbarous rules of the ancient Anglo-Saxons, the merit of whose poems consisted, not in the ideas, but in the quaint arrangement of the words, and the regular recurrence of some favourite sound or letter.'

* For an account of Lyly as a dramatic poet, see p. 166. †' Witness a sermon preached at St Mary's before the university of Oxford. It is true the preacher was a layman, and harangued in a gold chain, and girt with a sword, as high sheriff of the county; but his eloquence was highly applauded by the learned body whom he addressed, although it would have startled a modern audience at least as much as the dress of the orator. "Arriving," said he, "at the Mount of St Mary's, in the stony stage where I now stand, I have brought you some fine biscuits, baked in the oven of charity, carefully conserved for the chickens of the church, the sparrows of the spirit, and the sweet swallows of salvation." "Which way of preaching," says Anthony Wood, the reporter of the homily, "was then mostly in fashion, and commended by the generality of scholars."—Athence Oxon. vol. i. p. 183.

During the reigns of Elizabeth, James, and Charles, literary language received large accessions of Greek and Latin, and also of the modern French have given from Overbury and Fuller may serve to illustrate the remarks quoted above. In our opinion, Sir Walter Scott has considerably exaggerated the faults of Lyly's Euphues,' which, however, are certainly of the kind described. Let us take, for example, two passages at random, the first on vigour of mind, and the second on grief for the death of a daughter :[Prerequisites of Mental Vigour.]

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There are three things which cause perfection in a mannature, reason, use. Reason I call discipline: use, exercise: if any one of these branches want, certainly the tree of virtue must needs wither; for nature without discipline is of small force, and discipline without nature more feeble: if exercise or study be void of any of these, it availeth nothing. For as in tilling of the ground in husbandry there is first chosen a fertile soil, then a cunning sower, then good seed, even so must we compare nature to the fat earth, the expert husbandman to the schoolmaster, the faculties and sciences to the pure seeds. If this order had not been in our predecessors, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, and whosoever was renowned in Greece for the glory of wisdom, they had never been eternised for wise men, neither canonised, as it were, for saints, among those that study sciences. It is therefore a most evident sign of God's singular favour towards him, that he is endued with all these qualities, without the which man is most miserable. But if there be any one that thinketh wit not necessary to the obtaining of wisdom, after he hath gotten the way to virtue, and industry, and exercise, he is a heretic, in my opinion, touching the true faith in learning; for if nature play not her part, in vain is labour; and, as it is said before, if study be not employed, in vain is nature: sloth turneth the edge of wit, study sharpeneth the mind; a thing, be it never so easy, is hard to the idle; a thing, be it never so hard, is easy to wit well employed. And most plainly we may see in many things the efficacy of industry and labour. The little drops of rain pierce the hard marble; iron, with often handling, is worn to nothing. Besides this, industry showeth herself in other things: the fertile soil, if it be never tilled, doth wax barren, and that which is most noble by nature is made most vile by negligence. What tree, if it be not topped, beareth any fruit? What vine, if it be not pruned, bringeth forth grapes? Is not the strength of the body turned to weakness with too much delicacy? Were not Milo his arms brawnfallen for want of wrestling? Moreover, by labour the fierce unicorn is tamed, the wildest falcon is reclaimed, the greatest bulwark is sacked. It was well answered of that man of Thessaly, who being demanded who among the Thessalians were reputed most vile, Those,' he said, 'that live at quiet and ease, never giving themselves to martial affairs.' But why should one use many words in a thing already proved? It is custom, use, and exercise, that brings a young man to virtue, and virtue to his perfection.

[A Father's Grief for the Death of his Daughter.]

Thou weepest for the death of thy daughter, and I laugh at the folly of the father; for greater vanity is there in the mind

But she was amiable-but yet sinful: but she was young,

of the mourner, than bitterness in the death of the deceased.

and might have lived-but she was mortal, and must have died. Ay, but her youth made thee often merry'-Ay, but thine age should once make thee wise. Ay, but her green years were unfit for death'-Ay, but thy hoary hairs should despise life. Knowest thou not, Eubulus, that life is the gift of God, death is the due of nature; as we receive the one as a benefit, so must we abide the other of necessity. Wise men have found that by learning, which old men should know by experience, that in life there is nothing sweet, in death nothing sour. The philosophers accounted it the chiefest felicity never to be born; the second, soon to die. And what hath death in it so hard, that we should take it so heavily? Is it strange to see that cut off which, by nature, is made to be cut off? or that melted which is fit to be melted? or that burnt which is apt to be burnt? or man to pass that is born to perish? But thou grantest that she should have died, and yet art thou sorrowful because she is dead. Is the death the better if it be the longer? No, truly. For as neither he that singeth most, or prayeth

Scott's Life of Dryden, section i.-The extracts which we longest, or ruleth the stern oftenest, but he that doth it best,

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