of Cowley, and the friendship of Selden. To the former of such sources the editor of the edition of 1649 justly points, while referring to the last line of his verses on Bishop Andrews' portrait :

"Look on the following leaves, and see him breathe." The qualities which recommended him to the esteem of two such men as those now named, can have been of no common order, and make the absence of materials for his biography the more truly to be deplored.

As a poet, his works have ever been appreciated by those most qualified to decide upon their sterling beauties, and have suggested to others (too frequently without acknowledgment) some of their finest imageries. In every volume of any pretensions to taste, designed to offer specimens of English poetry, extracts are to be found; yet, with the exception of being partially, and by no means accurately, printed in the bulky and inconvenient collections of Chalmers and Anderson, it is somewhat remarkable that, in an age when familiarity with our Old English Authors is so eagerly sought, a full reprint should have been deferred till now. Of those which have preceded it, the following is a list :

Epigrammata Sacra, published anonymously at Cambridge, 1634, Svo.

Steps to the Temple, London, 1646, 12mo.

The same, with additions and a frontispiece, London, 1648, 12mo.

Carmen Deo Nostro, Paris, 1652, 8vo. with beautiful plates.

Among such I would particularly name the Rev. Robert Aris Willmott, above mentioned.

*

Lines to Lady Denbigh (p 146 of the present edition), London, Sept. 23, 1653, 4to. pp. 4.

Steps to the Temple, London, 1649, 8vo. with frontispiece. To this second edition, in its text the most inaccurate of all, a fresh title-page, bearing the date of 1670, was afterwards affixed.

Poetry, by Peregrine Phillips, London, 1785, 12mo.

All these are very scarce, that of Paris extremely so. I have already commended its illustrations, and, as it would seem, from the epigram at p. 145 seq., that they had been designed by Crashaw, a list of them may not be deemed superfluous, in order as they appear in the elegant little volume from the press of "Peter Targa, printer to the Archbishope of Paris, in S. Victor's streete at the golden sunne." A copy of this produced £4 148. 6d at Sir Mark Sykes' sale in 1824, and would, if in fair condition, command a much higher price now. That in the Grenville Library is, perhaps, the finest in existence,

1. "To the noblest and best of ladies." A heart with padlock inscribed "Non Vi." Beneath, these lines:

'Tis not the work of force but skill
To find the way into man's will;

'Tis love alone can hearts unlock :

Who knows the word, he needs not knock.

2. "To the name above every name,"-" Numisma Urbani 6." A dove under the tiara, surrounded by a glory legend, "In unitate Deus est."

3. "To the Holy Nativity." The Holy Family at Bethlehem. Beneath, these lines :

Ton Créateur te faict voir sa naissance,
Deignant souffrir pour toy des son enfance.
Quem vidistis Pastores, &c.
Natum vidimus, &c.

4. "To the glorious Epiphany." The adoration of the Magi.

5. "The Office of the Holy Cross." The crucified Redeemer. Beneath :

Tradidit semetipsum pro nobis oblationem et hostiam Deo in odorem suavitatis.-Ad Ephe. 5.

6. "The Recommendation."

Above it :

The Ascended Saviour.

Expostulatio Jesu Christi cum mundo ingrato.

Beneath :

Sum pulcher: at nemo tamen me diligit.
Sum nobilis: nemo est mihi qui serviat.
Sum dives: a me nemo quicquam postulat.
Et cuncta possum: nemo me tamen timet.
Eternus exsto: quæror a paucissimis.
Prudensque sum: sed me qui est qui consulit?
Et sun Via: at per me quotusquisque ambulet?
Sum Veritas: quare mihi non creditur.
Sum Vita: verum rarus est qui me petit.
Sum Vera Lux: videre me nemo cupit.
Sum misericors : nullus fidem in me collocat.
Tu, si peris, non id mihi imputes, Homo:
Salus tibi est a me parata: hac utere.

I. messager excud.

7. "Sancta Maria Dolorum." The Blessed Virgin seated on a sepulchre under the Cross with instruments of the passion, the chalice, &c., holding the dead Saviour on her lap. Messager excud.

8. 66

Hymn of St. Thomas." A Remonstrance. "Ecce panis Angelorum."

9. "Dies Iræ." The last Judgment. Dies Illa."

"Dies Ira,

10. "O Gloriosa Domina.' Our Lady and Infant. Angels holding a crown over her head, surmounted by the Holy Dove. Beneath :

S. Maria Major.

Dilectus meus mihi et ego illi,

Qui pascitur inter lilia. Cant.

I. Messager excud.

11. "The Weeper." A weeping female resting upon a bleeding and inflamed heart, surrounded by a glory. Beneath :

Lo, where a wounded heart with bleeding eyes conspire!
Is she a flaming fountain or a weeping fire?

12. "Hymn to St. Teresa." Portrait, scroll over her head inscribed: "Misericors Domini in æternum cantabo." Beneath :

La Vray Portraict de Ste. Terese Fondatrice des Religieuses, et Religieux réformez de l'ordre de N. Dame de mont Carmel: Decedée le 4e. Octo. 1582. Canonisée le 120. Mars 1622.-I. Messager excud.

The volume concludes with "Hope" by Cowley, and "M. Crashaw's Answer for Hope," separately, and not combined, as usual in form of dialogue.

After the sheets containing them had been printed off, a correspondent of the "Notes and Queries" (the Rev. J. L. B. Major, in 2nd series, vol. IV. p. 286) pointed out, on the authority of Bank's Life of Dr. Rainbow, Bishop of Carlisle, that the first of the two poems, "On the Frontispiece of Isaacson's Chronology explained," beginning, "If with distinctive eye and mind you look," was written, not by Crashaw, but by

Rainbow.

Upon referring to this very scarce little volume, I find the following:-

"In his youth he had a rich vein in poesy, in which appeared somewhat of Ovid's air and fancy, tempered with the judgment of Virgil; but none of his poetical exercises and diversions have been published, but a paper of verses upon the Frontispiece of Mr. Henry Isaacson's Chronology, which accurate Chronologer was our Bishop's particular friend, and had formerly been amanuensis to that living library while he was alive, the reverend and learned Bishop Andrews; and another short paper on Mr. Skelton's Art of Short-writing.

"Of the honour of the former of these poems, printed without the addition of any name in 1633, he was robbed by the publisher of Mr. Richard Crashaw's poems, entituled Steps to the Temple, and ascribed by him to that ingenious epigrammatist. But he having no title to it, but what the modest silence of Mr. Rainbow gave him, I have recovered it to the true owner by a melius inquirendum, and subjoined it here."-P. 84.

This is sufficiently distinct; yet it is somewhat singular that the lines should neither have been claimed by the Bishop, nor disowned by Crashaw, who must have seen, if he did not superintend, at least one of the editions of his own poems containing them; and that no one during the life of either party should have detected and denounced the misappropriation. Isaacson died in 1656, four years after Crashaw; and Dr. Rainbow in 1684, his biography by Banks being published in 1688. If Banks is correct as regards the first of these complimentary effusions, the second may, perhaps, have as