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A longe maire's necke, and overspred
the corps in everye steade

With sondrye feathers of straunge huie;
the whole proportioned so
Without all good congruitye,
the nether partes doe goe
Into a fishe,-on hye a freshe,
wel favord womans face.

My friends, let in to see this sighte,
could you but laugh a pace?

Pisoes! trust me, that booke shalbe

much lyke unto this same,

Whose fancies, lyke a sickeman's dreames,

so rudelye hange in frame,

That heade and feete do square from th' whole.

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Spenser and Harvey, in their Familiar Letters, repeatedly allude to rules and precepts of art in making verse, which M. Drant devised, and Sir P. Sidney augmented with his Observations. Qu. whether these Rules and Observations constituted Sir Philip's Defence of Poesy?

DEE'S VERSES AGAINST POPERY.

THESE are an odd collection of verses, somewhat after the contexture of ballad stanzas, and inscribed "to the noble, worthie, renowned Prince, Kinge James." The composition professes to be

An Exortacon for all those

That are blinded with Idolatry;

They hate the light, and walke in darknes,
Deceiving themselves.

The author then states his extended views on the subject, loyally and spiritually.

Unto my Exortacon attend and give eare,
You that walke in darknes, I wish you beware;
For now the light shineth so perfect and cleere,
All men they mai venter.

With God and our Kinge now lett us agree,
In fayth and true love; for soo itt must bee;
The perfect waie and the true veritee

Therin lett us venter.

To doo them good is all my intentt,

That waver and wander: if they doe repente,
From ignorant follie, with on consentt,

With Christ they maie enter.

In the same measure, and with no other variation of rhyme, the poem passes on to forty-seven stanzas, partly

dissuading from the errors, superstitions, and idolatries of the Church of Rome, and partly inviting to the purer light of the protestant reformation. This is the close :

Now God hath sent us, all men maie see,

A noble Kinge James, (soe named is hee)
To maintaine the Gospell, the true veritee;
With him lett us venter.

All they that were blinded, did hope for a daie
To bringe in the Pope, to whom they obeye;
But God bee thanked, that liveth for aye;
Nowe they shall not enter.

The Pope with his pardons, for silver and gould,
Long time hath deceived boeth yoonge and ould;
The blessings of God is not to be sould;
Take heede howe you venter.

Perchaunce you will marvell,

And thinke in your minde,
Whence I have this knowledge,

And see me soe blind :

All those that seeke, Christ saith they shall finde :

To Him lett us venter.

My hartt and mind nowe doth rejoyce

Your noble grace to see:

I am your subject poore and basse,

My name is

Edmund Dee.

Anno 1603, June 12.

This MS. is marked 18 A. xxvii. in the royal col

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Virtos past Fenera vivit, or, Honour tryumphing over Death. Being true Epitomes of Honorable, Noble, Learned, and Hospitable Personages. By William Sampson.

London, printed by John Norton, 1636.

4to. 36 leaves.

"A Proeme to the right Honorable, and most nobly deserving Lord, William Earle of Newcastle, Barron Ogle, c.

Fight Honourable,

CESAR did adventure to write his

owne acts and heroicke deedes by commentary; (and very well he might.) I, that with Virgils gnat, have nothing to write of myselfe (save misery) have assaied to write the lives, pious, and vertuous deedes of others; (not that by this they are immortalizde,) for their owne worthes, vertues, hospitable and pious deedes united have eternized themselves. My full scope and modest aime is to perpetuate them on earth, that posterities unborne may not let such honourable, religious, and vertuous acts, as your noble progenitors have done, and daily do performe, slip into oblivion, but as in a christall mirror we may here behold them......

Your Honour's humblest creature

WILLIAM SAMPSON."

A prose dedication follows to Christian, Dowager Countesse of Devon, and one in verse to Lord Viscount Mansfield, son of the Earl of Newcastle.

In laudem authoris, by Ph. K. M. in Arts.

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The titles of these elegiac eulogies have all the precision of a herald in naming the family of the deceased, which we shall here state very briefly.

1. On Elizabeth, Countesse of Shrewsbury, "Erectoresse of the two famous fabricks of Chattsworth and Hardwicke, and sole foundresse of the famous almeshouse in Derby."

2. On Lady Katherine Baroness Ogle, mother of Will. Earl of Newcastle, and Sir Charles Cavendish.

3. On William, last Earl of Devonshire, who married Lady Christian, sister to the Lord Bruce.

4. On Jane, Countess of Shrewsbury, wife of Edward Lord Talbot, last of that family.

5. On Elizabeth, Countess of Huntington, wife of Ferdinand E. of H.

6. On Eliz. Willoughby, first wife to Henry W. of Risley, Bart.

7. On Lady Clifton, second wife to Sir Gervase C. Bar, daughter to the Earl of Cumberland.

8. On "Ould Sir John Harper of Swarkston, grandfather to Sir John Harper."

9. On Sir John Byron of Newsteed Abbey.

10. On Sir Geo. Mannors of Haddon, father to John Mannors, Esq.

11. On Sir Geo. Perkins of Bunny.

12. On Will. Cavendish, second son of William, Earl of Newcastle, 1633, with his Epitaph.

13. On Sir Peter Fretchville of Stalie.

14. On Henry Lord Stanhope of the North, son of Philip E. of Chesterfield, 1634.

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