SAMUEL ROWLANDS. [Died, 1634?] THE history of this author is quite unknown, except that he was a prolific pamphleteer in the reigns of Elizabeth, James I. and Charles I. Ritson has mustered a numerous catalogue of his works, to which the compilers of the Censura Literaria have added some articles. It has been remarked by the latter, that his muse is generally found in low company, from which it is inferred that he frequented the haunts of dissipation. The conclusion is unjust-Fielding was not a blackguard, though he wrote the adventures of TRAGEDY OF SMUG THE SMITH. FROM THE NIGHT RAVEN. A SMITH for felony was apprehended, A thief that steals must die therefore, that's flat. THE VICAR. FROM HIS EPIGRAMS, NO. XXXVII. In the Letting of Humour's Blood, in the Head Vein. An honest vicar and a kind consort, Following the vicar's steps in everything, Of this good course the vicar well did think, LIKE MASTER, LIKE MAN. Two serving men, or rather two men-servers, Then, pray thee, let us two in love go drink, FOOLS AND BABES TELL TRUE. FROM THE SAME. Two friends that met would give each other wine, With water and sugar: so the same being brought THE MARRIED SCHOLAR. A SCHOLAR, newly enter'd marriage life, I would be such a book you love to read. "Marry," said he, " 'twere best an almanack: [* Malone attributes this saying to Dryden, but it was said before Dryden was born; is in Rowlands, and among the jests of Drummond of Hawthornden.] JOHN DONNE, D.D. [Born, 1573. Died, 1631.] but the chancellor would not again take him into Donne had been bred a catholic, but on mature reflection had made a conscientious renunciation of that faith. One of his warm friends, Dr. Morton, afterwards bishop of Durham, wished to have provided for him, by generously surrendering one of his benefices: he therefore pressed THE life of Donne is more interesting than his poetry. He was descended from an ancient family; his mother was related to Sir Thomas More, and to Heywood, the epigrammatist. A prodigy of youthful learning, he was entered of Hart Hall, now Hertford College, at the unprecedented age of eleven: he studied afterwards with an extraordinary thirst for general knowledge, and seems to have consumed a considerable patrimony on his education and travels. Having accompanied the Earl of Essex in his expedition to Cadiz, he purposed to have set out on an extensive course of travels, and to have visited the holy sepulchre at Jerusalem. Though compelled to give up his design by the insuper-him to take holy orders, and to return to him able dangers and difficulties of the journey, he did not come home till his mind had been stored with an extensive knowledge of foreign languages and manners, by a residence in the south of Europe. On his return to England, the Lord Chancellor Ellesmere made him his secretary, and took him to his house. There he formed a mutual attachment to the niece of Lady Ellesmere, and without the means or prospect of support, the lovers thought proper to marry. The lady's father, Sir George More, on the declaration of this step, was so transported with rage, that he insisted on the chancellor's driving Donne from his protection, and even got him imprisoned, together with the witnesses of the marriage. He was soon released from prison, the third day with his answer to the proposal. "At hearing of this," (says his biographer.) "Mr. Donne's faint breath and perplexed countenance gave visible testimony of an inward conflict. He did not however return his answer till the third day; when, with fervid thanks, he declined the offer, telling the bishop that there were some errors of his life which, though long repented of, and pardoned, as he trusted, by God, might yet be not forgotten by some men, and which might cast a dishonour on the sacred office." We are not told what those irregularities were; but the conscience which could dictate such an answer was not likely to require great offences for a stumbling-block. This occurred in the poet's thirty-fourth year. After the death of Sir F. Wolley, his next protector was Sir Robert Drury, whom he accompanied on an embassy to France. His wife, with an attachment as romantic as poet could wish for, had formed the design of accompanying him as a page. It was on this occasion, and to dissuade her from the design, that he addressed to her the verses beginning, By our first strange and fatal interview." Isaak Walton relates, with great simplicity, how the poet, one evening, as he sat alone in his chamber in Paris, saw the vision of his beloved wife appear to him with a dead infant in her arms, a story which wants only credibility to be interesting. He had at last the good fortune to attract the regard of King James; and, at his majesty's instance, as he might now consider that he had outlived the remembrance of his former follies, he was persuaded to become a clergyman. In this capacity he was successively appointed chaplain to the king, lecturer of Lincoln's Inn, vicar of St. Dunstan's Fleet Street, and dean of St. Paul's. His death, at a late age, was occasioned by consumption. He was buried in St. Paul's, where his figure yet remains in the vault of St. Faith's, carved from a painting for which he sat a few days before his death, dressed in his winding-sheet. SONG. SWEETEST love, I do not go For weariness of thee, Nor in hope the world can show A fitter love for me. But since that I Must die at last, 'tis best Yesternight the sun went hence, But believe that I shall make THE BREAK OF DAY. STAY, oh Sweet! and do not rise: The light that shines comes from thine eyes; Tis true, it's day-what though it be? Light hath no tongue, but is all eye; If it could speak as well as spy, This were the worst that it could say, And that I loved my heart and honour so, Must business thee from hence remove? He which hath business and makes love, doth do THE DREAM. IMAGE of her whom I love more than she So if I dream I have you, I have you, For all our joys are but fantastical, And, but the waking, nothing shall repent; ON THE LORD HARRINGTON, &c. TO THE COUNTESS OF BEDFORD. FAIR Soul! which wast not only, as all souls be, A part in God's great organ, this whole sphere; If looking up to God, or down to us, Come to your knowledge and affections too, To-morrow's business, when the lab'rers have THOMAS PICKE. Of this author I have been able to obtain no farther information, than that he belonged to the Inner Temple, and translated a great number of John Owen's Latin epigrams into English. His songs, sonnets, and elegies, bear the date of 1631. Indifferent as the collection is, entire pieces of it are pilfered. FROM SONGS, SONNETS, AND ELEGIES, BY T. PICKE. THE night, say all, was made for rest ; Bright was the moon, as bright as day, Say, gentle dames, what moved your mind No, no, you feared by her sight, At last for shame you shrunk away, Whose nights are clearer than the days. GEORGE HERBERT. [Born, 1593. Died, 1632-3.] "HOLY George Herbert," as he is generally called, was prebendary of Leighton Ecclesia, a village in Huntingdonshire. Though Bacon is said to have consulted him about some of his writings, his memory is chiefly indebted to the affectionate mention of old Isaak Walton. FROM HIS POEMS, ENTITLED "THE TEMPLE, SACRED POEMS, AND PRIVATE EJACULATIONS.” SWEET day, so cool, so calm, so bright, The bridal of the earth and sky, Sweet dews shall weep thy fall to-night, Sweet rose, whose hue, angry and brave, And thou must die. 8vo. 1633. Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses, Only a sweet and virtuous soul, JOHN MARSTON. [Died, 1634.] THIS writer was the antagonist of Jonson in the drama, and the rival of Bishop Hall in satire*, though confessedly inferior to them both in their respective walks of poetry. While none of his biographers seem to know anything about him, Mr. Gifford (in his Memoirs of Ben Jonson) conceives that Wood has unconsciously noticed him as a gentleman of Coventry, who married Mary, the daughter of the Rev. W. Wilkes, chaplain to King James, and rector of St. Martin, in Wiltshire. According to this notice, our poet died at London, in 1634, and was buried in the church belonging to the Temple. These particulars agree with what Jonson said to Drummond respecting this dramatic opponent of his, in his conversation at Hawthornden, viz. that Marston wrote his father-in-law's preachings, and his father-in-law Marston's comedies. Marston's comedies are somewhat dull; and it is not difficult to conceive a witty sermon of those days, when puns were scattered from the pulpit, to have been as lively as an indifferent comedy. Marston is the Crispinus of Jonson's Poetaster, where he is treated somewhat less contemptuously than his companion Demetrius (Dekker); an allusion is even made to the respectability of his birth. Both he and Dekker were afterwards reconciled to Jonson; but Marston's reconcilement, though he dedicated his Malcontent to his propitiated enemy, seems to have been subject to relapses. It is amusing to find Langbaine descanting on the chaste purity of Marston as a writer, and the author of the Biographia Dramatica transcribing the compliment immediately before the enumeration of his plays, which are stuffed with obscenity. To this disgraceful characteristic of Marston an allusion is made in "The Return from Parnassus," where it is said, "Give him plain naked words stript from their shirts, That might beseem plain-dealing Aretine." ļ FROM SOPHONISBA, A TRAGEDY. ACT V. SCENE III. SOPHONISBA, the daughter of Asdrubal, has been wooed by Syphax and Massinissa, rival kings of Africa, and both the allies of Carthage. She prefers Massinissa; and Syphax, indignant at her refusal, revolts to the Romans. Massinisssa, on the night of his marriage, is summoned to the assistance of the Carthaginians, on the alarm of Scipio's invasion. The senate of Carthage, notwithstanding Massinissa's fidelity, decree that Syphax shall be tempted back to them by the offer of Sophonisba in marriage. Sophonisha is on the point of being sacrificed to the enforced nuptials, when Massinissa, who had been apprised of the treachery of Carthage, attacks the troops of Syphax, joins the Romans, and brings Syphax a captive to Scipio's feet. Syphax, in his justification to Scipio, pleads, that his love for Sophonisba alone had tempted him to revolt from Rome. Scipio therefore orders that the daughter of Asdrubal, when taken prisoner, shall belong to the Romans alone. Lelius and Massinissa march on to Cirta, and storm the palace of Syphax, where they find Sophonisba. The cornets sounding a march, MASSINISSA enters with his beaver up. Mass. MARCH to the palace! Of Lybia thy fair arms speak, give heart To amazed weakness: hear her that for long time He wrote the Scourge of Villany; three books of tires, 1599. He was also author of the Metamorphosis of Pigmalion's Image, and certain Satires, published 1598, which makes his date as satirist nearly coeval with that of Bishop Hall. Let me not kneel to Rome; for though no cause As one well knowing the much-grounded hate To grant such freedom, give me long-wish'd death; Mass. Rarity! By thee and this right hand, thou shalt live free! Let slaughter cease! sounds, soft as Leda's breast, [Soft music. Slide through all ears! this night be love's high feast. Soph. O'erwhelm me not with sweets; let me not drink Till my breast burst! O Jove! thy nectar, think- |