well, and Salisbury dean of Norwich. Under the latter he procured the place of a singing-man in Norwich cathedral. At length, having perhaps too much philosophy and too little experience to succeed in the business of agriculture, he returned to London; but the plague drove him away from town, and he took shelter at Trinity college in Cambridge. Without a tincture of careless imprudence, or vicious extravagance, this desultory character seems to have thrived in no vocation. Fuller says, that his stone, which gathered no moss, was the stone of Sisyphus. His plough and his poetry were alike unprofitable. He was by turns a fiddler and a farmer, a grazier and a poet, with equal success. He died very aged at London in 1580*, and was buried in saint Mildred's church in the Poultry 8. Some of these circumstances, with many others of less consequence, are related by himself in one of his pieces, entitled the AUTHOR'S Life, as follows. What robesh how bare, what colledge fare! Thence for my voice, I must, no choice, The better brest', the lesser rest, To serue the queer, now there now heer: And sorowe make. As it may in thy Husbandrie appeare Wherein afresh thou liust among VS here. So like thy selfe a number more are wont, To sharpen others with advice of wit, When they themselues are like the whetstone blunt, &c. [In a volume of epigrams, entitled "The More the Merrier," 1608, by H. P. (qu. Peacham or Parrot) these lines were anticipated in part. Ad Tusserum. Tusser, they tell me, when thou wert alive, Thou, teaching thrift, thyselfe couldst never thrive: So, like the whetstone, many men are wont To sharpen others, when themselves are blunt.-PARK.] 1 See Life of Sir Thomas Pope, 2d edit. p. 218. * [If Tusser was born in 1523, he could not die very aged in 1580; as he was only 57. If he went to college in 1543, aged 20, stayed there three years, and then followed the court for ten years, he must have been 33 at least when he married: this brings us to 1556, and the very next year produced the first edition of his Husbandry; which seems too short a space to furnish the practical knowledge discovered in that work.-ASHBY.] See his Epitaph in Stowe's Surv. Lond. p. 474. edit. 1618. 4to. And Fuller's Worthies, p. 334. [Fuller only collects the date of his death to be about 1580.-PARK.] The livery, or vestis liberata, often called robe, allowed annually by the college. To the passages lately collected by the commentators on Shakspeare to prove that breast signifies voice, the following may be added from Ascham's Toxophilus. He is speaking of the expediency of educating youth in singing. "Trulye two degrees of men, which haue the highest But marke the chance, myself to vance, With REDFORD there, the like no where, From PAULES I went, to EATON sent, The fault but small, or none at all, TO LONDON hence, to CAMBRIDGE thence, That to thy HALL, so passinge all, At length he married a wife by the name of Moone, from whom, for an obvious reason, he expected great inconstancy, but was happily disappointed. Through Uenus' toies, in hope of ioies, I chanced soone to finde a Moone, Of cheerfull hew: Which well and fine, methought, did shine, Before I proceed, I must say a few words concerning the very remarkable practice implied in these stanzas, of seizing boys by a warrant for the service of the king's chapel. Strype has printed an abstract of an instrument, by which it appears, that emissaries were dispatched into various parts of England with full powers to take boys from any choir for the use of the chapel of king Edward the Sixth. Under the year 1550, says Strype, there was a grant of a commission "to Philip Van Wilder gentleman of the Privy Chamber, in anie churches or offices under the king in all this realme, shall greatly lacke the vse of singinge, preachers and lawyers, because they shall not, withoute this, be able to rule theyr BRESTES for euerye purpose," &c. fol. 8 b. Lond. 1571. 4to. bl. lett. Fol. 155. edit. 1586. See also The Authors Epistle to the late lord William Paget, wherein he doth discourse of his owne bringing up, &c. fol. 5. And the Epistle to Lady Paget, fol. 7. And his rules for training a boy in music, fol. 141. chappells within England to take to the king's use, such and as many singing children and choristers, as he or his deputy shall think good'." And again, in the following year, the master of the king's chapel, that is, the master of the king's singing-boys, has licence "to take up from time to time as many children [boys] to serve in the king's chapel as he shall think fit"." Under the year 1454, there is a commission of the same sort from king Henry the Sixth, De ministrallis propter solatium regis providendis, for procuring minstrels, even by force, for the solace or entertainment of the king: and it is required, that the minstrels so procured, should be not only skilled in arte minstrallatus, in the art of minstrelsy, but membris naturalibus elegantes, handsome and elegantly shaped". As the word Minstrel is of an extensive signification, and is applied as a general term to every character of that species of men whose business it was to entertain, either with oral recitation, music, gesticulation, and singing, or with a mixture of all these arts united, it is certainly difficult to determine, whether singers only, more particularly singers for the royal chapel, were here intended. The last clause may perhaps more immediately seem to point out tumblers or posturemasters. But in the register of the capitulary acts of York cathedral, it is ordered as an indispensable qualification, that the chorister who is annually to be elected the boy-bishop, should be competenter corpore formcsus. I will transcribe an article of the register, relating to that ridiculous ceremony. "Dec. 2. 1367. Joannes de Quixly confirmatur Episcopus Puerorum, et Capitulum ordinavit, quod electio episcopi Puerorum in ecclesia Eboracensi de cetero fieret de eo, qui diutius et magis in dicta ecclesia laboraverit, et magis idoneus repertus fuerit, dum tamen competenter sit corpore formosus, et quod aliter facta electio non valebit"." It is certainly a matter of no consequence, whether Dat. April. Strype's Mem. Eccl. ii. who rode before his majesty, and often fell from his horse, at which his majesty laughed heartily, de queux roy rya grantement. The laughter of kings was thought worthy to be recorded. 538. p. "Rym. Fod. xi. 375. • Even so late as the present reign of queen Mary, we find tumblers introduced for the diversion of the court. In 1556, at a grand military review of the queen's pensioners in Greenwich park, came a Tumbler and played many pretty feats, the queen and Cardinal [Pole] looking on; whereat she was observed to laugh heartily," &c. Strype's Eccl. Mem. iii. p. 312. ch. xxxix. Mr. Astle has a roll of some private expences of king Edward the Second; among which it appears, that fifty shillings were paid to a person who danced before the king on a table, "et lui st tres-grandement rire;" and that twenty shillings were allowed to another, P Registr. Archiv. Eccles. Ebor. MSS. In the Salisbury-missal, in the office of Episcopus Puerorum, among the suffrages we read, "Corpore enim formosus es, O fili, et diffusa est gratia in labiis tuis," &c. In further proof of the solemnity with which this farce was conducted, I will cite another extract from the chapter-registers at York. "xj febr. 1370. In Scriptoria capituli Ebor. dominus Johannes Gisson, magister choristarum ecclesiæ Eboracensis, liberavit Roberto de Holme choristæ, qui tunc ultimo fuerat episcopus puerorum, iij libras, xvs. jd. ob. de perquisitis ipsius episcopi per ipsum Johannem receptis, et dictus Robertus ad sancta Dei evangelia per ipsum corporaliter tacta juravit, quod nunquam molestaret dictum dominum Johannem de summa pecuniæ prædicta." Registr. Ebor. we understand these Minstrels of Henry the Sixth to have been singers, pipers, players, or posture-masters. From the known character of that king, I should rather suppose them performers for his chapel. In any sense, this is an instance of the same oppressive and arbitrary privilege that was practised on our poet. Our author Tusser wrote, during his residence at Ratwood in Sussex, a work in rhyme entitled A HUNdreth good poINTES OF HUSBANDRIE, which was printed at London in 1557. But it was soon afterwards reprinted, with additions and improvements, under the following title, "Five hundreth pointes of good Husbandrie as well for the Champion or open countrie, as also for the Woodland or Severall, mixed in euerie moneth with Huswiferie, ouer and besides the booke of HusWIFERIE. Corrected, better ordered, and newlie augmented a fourth part more, with diuers other lessons, as a diet for the farmer, of the properties of windes, planets, hops, herbs, bees, and approved remedies for sheepe and cattell, with manie other matters both profitabell and not vnpleasant for the Reader. Also a table of HUSBANDRIE at the beginning of this booke, and another of HUSWIFERIE* at the end, &c. Newlie set foorth by THOMAS TUSSER gentleman'." It must be acknowledged, that this old English georgic has much more of the simplicity of Hesiod than of the elegance of Virgil; and a modern reader would suspect, that many of its salutary maxims originally decorated the margins, and illustrated the calendars, of an ancient almanac. It is without invocations, digressions, and descriptions: no pleasing pictures of rural imagery are drawn from meadows covered with flocks and fields waving with corn, nor are Pan and Ceres once named. Yet it is valuable, as a genuine picture of the agriculture, the Quarto. bl. lett. [This edition differs very materially from those which succeeded it. A reprint of it was given in the Bibliographer.-PARK.] In 1557, John Daye has licence to print "the hundreth poyntes of good Husserie." Registr. Station. A. fol. 23 a. In 1559-60, jun. 20, T. Marshe has licence to print "the boke of Husbandry." Ibid. fol. 48 b. This last title occurs in these registers much lower. [The writer was Fitzherbert.-HERBERT.] * [In a tract entitled "Tom of all Trades," and printed in 1631, it is particularly recommended to women, to read the groundes of good Huswifery instead of reading Sir P. Sidney's Arcadia.PARK.] The oldest edition with this title which I have seen is in quarto, dated 1586, and printed at London, "in the now dwelling house of Henrie Denham in Aldersgate streete at the signe of the starre." In black letter, containing 164 pages. The next edition is for H. Yard ley, London 1593. bl. lett. 4to. Again at London, printed by Peter Short, 1597. bl. lett. 4to. The last I have seen is dated 1610. 4to. In the Register of the Stationers, a receipt of T. Hackett is entered for licence for printing "A dialoge of wyvynge and thryvynge of Tusshers with ij lessons for olde and yonge," in 1562 or 1563. Registr. Stat. Comp. Lond. notat. A. fol. 74b. I find licenced to Alde in 1565, "An hundreth poyntes of evell huswyfraye," I suppose a satire on Tusser. Ibid. fol. 131 b. In 1561, Richard Tottell was to print "A booke intituled one hundreth good poyntes of husboundry lately maryed unto a hundreth good poyntes of Huswiffry newly corrected and amplyfyed." Ibid. fol. 74 a. [This was put forth by Tottell in 1562 and 1570. Augmented editions appeared in 1573, 1577, 1580, 1585, 1586, 1590, 1593, 1597, 1599, 1604, 1610, 1630, 1672, 1692, 1710, 1744. All but the last in 4to. bl. lett.-PARK.] rural arts, and the domestic economy and customs, of our industrious ancestors. I must begin my examination of this work with the apology of Virgil on a similar subject, Possum multa tibi veterum præcepta referre, Ni refugis, tenuesque piget cognoscere curas. I first produce a specimen of his directions for cultivating a hopgarden, which may, perhaps not unprofitably, be compared with the modern practice. Whom fansie perswadeth, among other crops, Choose soile for the hop of the rottenest mould, This lesson well noted is meete to be knowne. The sun in the southe, or else southlie and west, Is ioie to the hop, as a welcomed guest; But wind in the north, or else northerlie east, Meet plot for a hop-yard, once found as is told, To this work belongs the well known old song, which begins, Thus setts foorth man in a glasse, &c." |