Lester mentioned, that he and his trane did in Flaunders; and the gentlemen pensioners proved to be a great piece of honour to the court." The following is known to have been printed, but is not supposed to be now extant: its discovery at least still remains a desideratum with the indefatigable Mr. Nichols:* "The devises of Warre, and a play at Awsterley, [Osterley, in Middlesex] her Highness [Q. Elizabeth] being at Sir Thomas Gresham's."

T. P.

ART. XLIV. Epitaphes, Epigrams, Songs, and Sonets; with a Discourse of the friendly affections of Tymetes to Pyndara, his Ladie. Newly corrected, with additions, and set out by George Turbervile, Gentleman. Imprinted at London, by Henry Denham. 1567, and 1570, small 8vo.

THE latter edition of these poems is alone recorded by Wood and Herbert; but the former is still extant, and bears a dedication by the author "To the right noble and his singular good lady, Lady Anne Countesse Warwick," &c. From Fullert it appears that the Turberviles, (de turbida villa) were an ancient and respectable family in Dorsetshire. Wood informs us that George, the poet, was born at Whitchurch in that county, and educated a Wykehamist; became perpetual fellow of New College, Oxon, in 1561; but left it the following year, before he was graduated, and went to one of the Inns

See Preface to Vol. III. of Progresses &c. and Lysons's Environs, III. 26.

+ Worthies of Dorset, p. 279.

Athenæ, I. 275.

These were printed in

of Court, where he was much admired for his poetic talents. In 1568-9, he was employed as Secretary, when Randolph went on an embassy to Russia; from which country Turbervile addressed three metrical epistles to his friends Edw. Dancie, Edm. Spencer, (not the poet) and Parker. the Voyages of Hakluyt, and at the end of Turbervile's Tragical Tales. After his return, says Wood, he was esteemed a most accomplished gentleman,* and his company was much sought after by all ingenious men, especially upon the publication of his labours. Wood describes him to have been living in 1594, but knew not the time of his decease. If the same biographer had not recorded with so much precision the æra (36 Reg. Eliz.) when Turbervile flourished, it might now have been suspected that his life had been terminated by the hand of violence in 1579. For in that year, says Herbert + was entered in the Stationer's hooks "a dittie of Mr. Turbervyle murthered, and John Morgan that murthered him with a letter of the said Morgan to his mother and another to his sister Turbervyle." Harington‡ has some epitaphial lines in commendation of Turbervile, as a polisher of our poetry and a purifier of our morality. Nash gave him only negative praise as a writer; but Puttenham numbers him among those who have written excellently well, and Meres cites him as of good note for his translations of

:

*A note among Rawlinson's MSS. says he was knighted; but this does not appear from Morgan's Catalogue of Knights in his Sphere of Gentry.

Typogr. Antiquities, II. 1053.

Epigrams, lib. I. ep. 42.

Ovid's Epistles and Mantuan: which may here be noticed in continuation. Mr. Ellis has afforded specimens of his Songs and Sonnets.

T. P.

ART. XLV. The heroycall Epistles of the learned poet Publius Ovidius Naso: with Aulus Sabinus aunsweres to certaine of the same: in English verse. Set out and translated by George Turbervile, Gent. Imprinted by Henry Denham, 1567, 1569, 1600, and sine anno.

THIS version is dedicated to Ld. Tho. Howarde, Visct. Byndon, &c. and has a metrical address prefixed, from the Translator to his Muse. An Epistle to the reader speaks of some other projected work, and promises" that if he shew himselfe friendly in well accepting this provision, he shall be invited to a better banquet, as soon as occasion will serve."

At the close of the volume are some stanzas from the translator to the captious reader, which thus rebuked the hypercritics of that period, and may be applied to those of our own.

If thou thy selfe for lumpish ydle life

No leysure hast, to take in hand the like,

But keep'st thy cowch;-put up that cankerd knife,
Wherewith thou wonted art the good to strike:
Let others presse in place to purchase fame,
For vertue's sake that worke to winne a name!
Discerne their deedes, when all their toyle is done;
Say thou thy worst, when they have done their best ;
Condemne them not ere that thou hast begun

To viewe their works, but over-reade the rest :

That done, let eche sustaine his earned meede :
This were a way to purchase love indeede!

Warton has honoured him with the title of "a polite scholar," and remarks that some of the passages in his version of Ovid are not unhappily turned.

T. P.

ART. XLVI. The Eglogs of the poet B. Mantuan, Carmelitan; turned into English verse, and set forth with the Argument to every Egloge, by George Turbervile, Gent. Anno 1567. Imprinted at London, in Paternoster-rowe, at the signe of the Mermayde, by Henry Bynneman, 12mo.

Or this little volume I have seen only one copy, which is in the Royal Library. In a dedication "To the right worshipful and his good uncle Maister Hugh Bamfield, Esquier, George Turbervile wisheth Nestor's yeares, with all good fortune." The translator, before his Mantuan, thus Englishes the wellknown introduction to Horace's Art of Poetry: "Humano capiti cervicem," &c.

Hist. of Eng. Poetry, III. 421. Among Rawlinson's MSS. were two fair copies in large folio of a Translation of Tasso in octave stanzas, by Sir G. T. which initials being assigned to Turbervile, gave rise probably to the unsupported assertion that he had received the honour of knighthood. See Warton, ut sup. p. 485.

Or paint a womans face
aloft to open showe,

And make the picture end in fish,
with scaly skinne belowe:

I thinke, my friendes, would cause
you laugh and smile to see,
How yl these yl-compact things
and members would agree.

Wood says, that Tho. Harvey afterwards translated the Eclogues of Mantuan, but not without the help of Turbervile's translation, though unacknowledged.

T. P.

ART. XLVII. Tragical Tales, translated by Turbervile, in time of his troubles, out of sondrie Italians; with the argument and L'Envoye to ech Tale. Nocet empta dolore voluptas. Imprinted at London, by Abell Jeffs, dwelling in the Forestreete without Crepelgate, at the signe of the Bel. Anno Dom. 1576, 1587. 12mo.

To the latter edition of these Tales were annexed,

Epitaphes and Sonets, with some other broken pamphlettes and Epistles, sent to certaine of his frends in England, at his being in Moscovie. Anno

1569.

THIS very rare publication is inscribed "to the right worshipful, his loving brother, Nicholas Turbervile, Esq." and was conceived by Wood to be the same production as that entitled "Epitaphes, Epigrams, Songs, and Sonets:" but it differs altogether. The Tragical Tales are ten in number, and an excuse is offered at the close, for writing these and other