althoughe that before yt I moued ye marriage betwene youre sonne and her I knewe ryght well yt it was my daughter's good wyll and desire to have it come to passe: and so moued it by her consent and desire, yet accordynge to youre godly admonition in youre letter, I haue again fully tratayled w' her therein and fynde her moste wylling and desirouse to matche with youre sonne, so y' she is truly Mr. Sampsone's: who shal be sure to have of her a louynge and obedient wife, and you and Mastres Lennarde an obedient daughter. And allthough nature myghte moue my tonge and penne to say and write muche in favor of my daughter, yet as God shall judge me in this case, if I knewe any spotte in her, I woulde expressé it to you. She is truly God's seruaunt, and I trust y1 he wyll so preserue her.

Youre louynge frind,

T. DARRELL.

II.

A Copy of Marye Darrelles Letter sent to Mr. Goge.*

After my harty commendations, gentle Mr. Googe, where you have binne and yet do continue a sutor to me in y waye of marydge; whereunto nether presentlye I haue, nor I am wel assured neuer shall haue, ye good wyll or consent of father nor mother, to whome I am both by ye lawe of God and nature bound to geue honoure and obedyence, and in no wise wyllyngly to greue or offend them. And do well consider y1 my chefe obedience and dutye towardes them, is to be bestowed in maryage by there consentes, and to there good contentacion, assurynge myselfe in meditation and thinkynge hereof, y' beynge there obedient chylde and to them most bounden, in disobayenge them therein I shall not only be depriued from yt blessinge,

• No. 40.

wch God hath promised to suche as truly honor there parentes, but allso shalbe assured to fynde and haue the like disobedience of my children: yf euer God shall geue me any: wch by Godes grace I wyll eschue. Wherefore I hartely beseeche you, ientle Mr Googe, if euer any true love or good wyll you haue borne towards me, cease and leave of from all further sute or meanes to me in this matter, lettynge you to wete y' knowynge my parentes' myndes to the contrarye hereof, I wyll in no wyse matche with you in yis case. And thus wysshinge to you in other place to matche accordynge to youre owne hartes' desire, and to youre farre greter aduauncemente, I bid you farewell. From my father's house at Scotney this Thursday ye xxj" of Octobre.

MARY DARRell.

III.

A Copye of a scornefull Letter writen by Mr Goge to Mr George Darrell and Mr Edward Darrell.

Ryght worshippfull and my louynge frindes, I haue reaceaued your letters wherein you write y' you perfectly understand ye hole state of the case yt hath passed betwene Mr Lennard and your cosinne Mary before my acquayntaunce w her, euen so haue I binne certyfied of a pretye laffynge toye as touchynge a precontracte declarynge at full ye sharp inuencyon of Mr Lennarde's graue hedd, whereat if old Democritus were now alyue, I would thynke y' he shuld haue iuster cause to laffe then at his contrymen's folly. Ye seeme to wyll a meetynge to be had. betwene us, whereunto I wt all my hart consent, althoughe a number consyderynge my case would not doe considerynge ye martial furniture yt hathe benne prepared agaynst me, and the Italyon inuentyons yt haue binne menaced towards me, wch when ye counesell shall understande, I trust they wyll not altogether commend. For all this takyng you to be my verye fryndes, I reioyse to meate you; neyther if

my aduersaryes shuld be in commission, would I feare to see them: of one thyng I must craue pardonne, for not beynge able to meate you on Sundaye, because I have sent my manne to the courte, who wyll retorne on Munday as I trust; but whether he do or not, I wyll wt Gode's leaue wayte uppon you as y daye in hast from Dongeon the xvith of Octobre.

Youre louynge frynde BARNABE GOGE.

IV.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM MR. LENNARD

To the Right Honorable and his very good Mr. Sir Wm. Cecill, Knyght, These-Secretary to the Quenes Matie *

Νου. 10, 1563.

My duety done unto your honor yr l're directed to me touching Mr. Googe was delyuered a moneth after the date thereof to a boye of my howse by a plough boy, the cause not yours but Mr. Googes. I hasted the lesse to sende the answer for lacke of his messenger the matter not worth my sending sauing to satisfie you. The effect of your Ire is that Mr Googe hath enformed you that he is hindred by my meanes concerning his mariage with Mr Darells his daughter, and that my opinion is that he is destitute of frendes, and that you accompte not of him but as of one of yo' men. Ye write further that the matter is made plaine to you by the maides l'res and her fathers W-ch you haue sene and redde that she hath assured herselfe to Mr Googe and in as much as it hath pleased you so to puse the one side it occasioneth me to offer to you thother to that ende, which els I woulde not for the tediousnes thereof wch may not be shortened. I praie you doubte not that I haue good will to pleasure you. &c. t

• No. 38. vol. vii. Lansdowne MSS.

The copy of the remainder of this Letter has been mislaid; but it shall be given at a future opportunity.

V.

EXTRACT.

Matthew, Abp. of Canterbury, to Sir Wm. Cecil, Nov. 20, 1563.*

Yt may please yo' honor to understand that I haue grete cause most humblie to gyue the Q. M.ties thankes, for the favor shewed toward my request for the preferment of my chaplain, and so likewise I hartely thanke yo' honor for yo' instancye? therein, as by yo' letters I understand, wherein ye wright for yo' cosyn and servant BERNABY GOGE to haue his matter hard according to lawe and equytie wch matter as yesterdaye I haue examined auisedly, having not only the yong gentlewoman before me to understand of herselfe the state of the cause, who remayneth fyrme and stable to stand to the contract wch she hath made; as also her father and mother: whom I fynd the most ernest parents agaynst the bargain as I euer sawe. In fyne, as I haue requested her out of both their hands into the custodye of one Mr. Tufton a right honest gentleman until the precontract wch is by her parents alledged for one Leonard's son a pnotary b―ced, but this maye gyue occasion to bring it into the Arches to spend moneye; howbeit I meane to dull that expectation, and to go planè et summariè to worke to save expenses, wch rich Leonard and the wilful parents wold fayne enter to wery the yong gentleman, peradventure not superfluously monyed so to sayle the seas with them. Concerning the olde antiquities of Mr. Bale I have bespoken them; and am promysed to have them for mony, yf I be not deceyved. †

• Lansdowne MSS, vol. vi, No. 81.

+ This dispute is referred to by Tanner in his article of Googe in his Eibliotheca. See also a reference to these Letters in a former volume of ti is work.

The praise and dispraise of Women, very fruitfull to the well disposed minde, and delectable to the readers thereof. And a fruitfull shorte Dialogue uppon the sentence-Know before thou knitte. C. Pyrrye. Imprinted at London in Fleet streete by William How. (No date.) 12°. 32 leaves.

THIS title-page is followed by twenty Latin lines in hexameter and pentameter verse, "Ad Candidum Lectorem," and to these succeeds a prose address to the reader, which thus opens:

"After I had finished, though simplie and rudelye, this little Treatise of the praise and disprayse of Women; I thought it good, gentle reader, to declare and explane in some short preface, two principall causes which moved me thereunto. The one was to the intent that all those which at any time shall feele themselves entangled with prompte and redie enclination to vice and evill, and with great slackness in furderinge that is good and vertoous, may by diligent perusing hereof, learne to avoyde and eschew suche greate crimes and grevous offences, as they shall see conteyned and written in theyr disprayse; and seke diligentlie to embrace and earnestlie to followe those good condicions and laudable vertues, which they shall playnlie perceave to be at large specified, and abundantly set foorth in theyr commendacions. The other is-to the ende that the good examples of good and verteous Women, if no other thing wil naove them to doe that they ought, may incite and encorage