me if I changed my thought, and concluded him some desperate cutler. But why his scornful Muse could never abide with tragick shoes her ancles for to hide, the pace of the verse told me, that her mawkin knuckles were never shapen to that royal buskin. And turning by chance to the sixth [seventh] Satyr of his second Book, I was confirmed: where having begun loftily in heaven's universal alphabet, he falls down to that wretched poorness and frigidity as to talk of Bridgestreet in heaven, and the ostler of heaven; and there wanting other matter to catch him a heat, (for certain he was on the frozen zone miserably benummed,) with thoughts lower than any beadle's, betakes him to whip the sign-posts of Cambridge alehouses, the ordinary subject of freshmens tales, and in a strain as pitiful. Which, for him who would be counted the FIRST ENGLISH SATYRIST, to abase himselfe to, who might have learned better among the Latin and Italian Satyrists, and in our own tongue from the VISION AND CREEDE OF PIERCE PLOWMAN, besides others before him, manifested a presumptuous undertaking with weak and unexamined shoulders. For a Satyr is as it were born out of a Tragedy, so ought to resemble his parentage, to strike high, and adventure dangerously at the most eminent vices among the greatest persons, and not to creep into every blind taphouse that fears a constable more than a satyr. But that such a poem should be TOOTHLESS, I still affirm it to be a bull, taking away the essence of that which it calls itself. For if it bite neither the persons nor the vices, how is it a satyr? And if it bite either, how is it toothless? So that TOOTHLESS SATYRS, are as much as if he had said TOOTHLESS TEETH," &c.

With Hall's SATIRES should be ranked his MUNDUS ALTER ET IDEM, an ingenious satirical fiction in prose, where under a pretended description of the TERRA AUSTRALIS, he forms a pleasant invective against the characteristic vices of various nations, and is remarkably severe on the church of Rome. This piece was written about the year

Or scoure the rusted swordes of elvish knights,

Bathed in pagan blood: or sheathe them

new

In mistie moral types: or tell their fights,
Who mighty giants, or who monsters slew;
And by some strange inchanted speare
and shield,

Vanquish'd their foe, and won the doubt-
ful field.

May be she might, in stately stanzas, frame
Stories of ladies, and aduenturous knights;
To raise her silent and inglorious name
Vnto a reachlesse pitch of praise's hight:
And somewhat say, as more vnworthy
done',

Worthy of brasse, and hoary marble stone.

a B. i. 1.

b Hall supposes, that the twelve signs of the zodiac are twelve inns, in the highstreet of heaven,

With twelve fayre signes Euer well tended by our star-divines.

Of the astrologers, who give their attendance, some are ostlers, others chamberlains, &c. The zodiacal sign, Aquarius, he supposes to be in the Bridge-street of heaven. He alludes to Bridge-street at Cambridge, and the signs are of inns at Cambridge.

Apology for Smectyninuus, Milton's Prose-works, vol. i. p. 186. edit. Amst. 1698. fol. See also p. 185. 187. 191.

iThat is, have done.

Her lids like Cupid's bow-case, where he hides
The weapons which do wound the wanton-ey'd."

One is surprised to recollect, that these satires are the production of a young man of twenty-three. They rather seem the work of an experienced master, of long observation, of study and practice in composition.

They are recited among the best performances of the kind, and with applause, by Francis Meres, a cotemporary critic, who wrote in 15981. But whatever fame they had acquired, it soon received a check, which was never recovered. They were condemned to the flames, as licen tious and immoral, by an order of bishop Bancroft in 1599. And this is obviously the chief reason why they are not named by our author in the SPECIALITIES of his Life, written by himself after his preferment to a bishoprick. They were, however, admired and imitated by Oldham; and Pope, who modernised Donne, is said to have wished he had seen Hall's satires sooner. But had Pope undertaken to modernise Hall, he must have adopted, because he could not have improved, many of his lines. Hall is too finished and smooth for such an operation. Donne, though he lived so many years later, was susceptible of modern refinement, and his asperities were such as wanted and would bear the chisel

I was informed, by the late learned bishop of Glocester, that in a copy of Hall's Satires in Pope's library, the whole first satire of the sixth book was corrected in the margin, or interlined, in Pope's ow hand; and that Pope had written at the head of that satire, OPTI’*

SATIRA.

Milton, who had a controversy with Hall, as I have observed in remonstrance called an APOLOGY FOR SMECTYMNUUS, publish 1641, rather unsuitably and disingenuously goes out of his way tack these satires, a juvenile effort of his dignified adversary, and u every consideration alien to the dispute. Milton's strictures sarcastic than critical; yet they deserve to be cited, more espe they present a striking specimen of those awkward attempts. and raillery, which disgrace his prose-works.

"Lighting upon this title of ToOTHLESS SATYRS, I will ye what I thought, readers, that sure this must be some who might have done better to have used his coral. of breeding ere he took upon him to wield a satyr I heard him talk of scouring the shields of elvish k

B. vi. Pontan here mentioned, I presume, is Jovinianus Pontanus, an elegant Latin amatorial and pastoral poet of Italy, at the revival of learning.

* Wit's Treas. f. 282. It is extrao

nary, that they should not have a any choice flowers to England's printed in 1600.

y Shaking of the Olive

1600, before he had quitted the classics for the fathers, and published some years afterwards, against his consent. Under the same class should also be mentioned his CHARACTERISMES OF VERTUES, a set of sensible and lively moral essays, which contain traces of the satires.

I take the opportunity of observing here, that among Hall's proseworks are some metaphrastic versions in metre of a few of David's Psalms, and three anthems or hymns written for the use of his cathedral. Hall, in his satires, had condemned this sort of poetry.

An able inquirer into the literature of this period has affirmed, that Hall's Epistles, written before the year 1613, are the first example of epistolary composition which England had seen. "Bishop Hall, he says, was not only our first satirist, but was the first who brought epistolary writing to the view of the public; which was common in that age to other parts of Europe, but not practised in England till he published his own Epistles 8." And Hall himself in the Dedication of his Epistles to Prince Henry observes," Your grace shall herein perceiue a new fashion of discourse by EPISTLES, new to our language, vsuall to others: and, as nouelty is neuer without plea of vse, more free, more familiarh."

The first of our countrymen, however, who published a set of his own Letters, though not in English, was Roger Ascham, who flourished about the time of the Reformation; and when that mode of writing had been cultivated by the best scholars in various parts of Europe, was celebrated for the terseness of his epistolary style. I believe the second published correspondence of this kind, and in our own language, at

dWorks ut supr. p. 171. Under the Character of the Hypocrite, he says, "When a rimer reads his poeme to him, he begs a copie, and perswades the presse," &c. p. 187. Of the Vaine-glorious : "He sweares bigge at an Ordinary, and talkes of the Court with a sharp voice. He calls for pheasants at a common inne.-If he haue bestowed but a little summe in the glazing, pauing, parieting, of gods house, you shall find it in the church window.' [See Sat. B. iv. 3.] "His talke is, how many mourners he has furnished with gownes at his father's funerals, what exploits he did at Cales and Newport," &c. p. 194, 195. Of the Busie Bodie: "If he see but two men talke and reade a letter in the streete, he runnes to them and askes if he may not be partner of that secret relation; and if they deny it, he offers to tell, since he cannot heare, wonders; and then falls vpon the report of the Scottish Mine, or of the great fish taken vp at Linne, or of the freezing of the Thames," &c. p. 188. Of the Superstitious : "He never goes without an Erra Pater in his pocket.-Every lanterne is a ghost, and every noise is of chaines," &c.

p. 189. These pieces were written after the Gunpowder-plot, for it is mentioned, p. 196.

* Works, ut supr. p. 151. In the Dedication he says, "Indeed my Poetry was long sithence out of date, and yelded her place to grauer studies," &c. In his Epistles, he speaks of this unfinished undertaking. "Many great wits haue vndertaken this task.-Among the rest, were those two rare spirits of the Sidnyes; to whom poesie was as natvrall as it is affected of others: and our worthy friend Mr. Sylvester hath shewed me how happily he hath sometimes turned from his Bartas to the sweet singer of Israel.—— There is none of all my labours so open to all censures. Perhaps some think the verse harsh, whose nice eare regardeth roundnesse more than sense. I embrace smoothness, but affect it not." Dec. ii Ep. v. p. 302. 303. ut supr. f See Works, ut supr. p. 275. * See Whalley's Inquiry into the Learning of Shakspeare, p. 41.

h Works, ut supr. p. 172.

The reader

of Hall's Satires is referred to Dec. vi. Epist. vi. p. 394.

least of any importance after Hall, will be found to be EPISTOLÆ HOELIANE, or the Letters of James Howell, a great traveller, an intimate friend of Jonson, and the first who bore the office of the royal historiographer, which discover a variety of literature, and abound with much entertaining and useful information.

SECTION LXV.

Marston's Satires. Hall and Marston compared.

IN the same year, 1598, soon after the appearance of Hall's Satires, John Marston, probably educated at Cambridge, a dramatic writer who rose above mediocrity, and the friend and coadjutor of Jonson, published “The metamorphosis of Pigmalion's image. And Certaine Satyres. By John Marston. At London, printed for Edmond Matts", and are to be sold at the signe of the hand and plough in Fleetstreete, 1598." I have nothing to do with PIGMALION'S IMAGE, one of Ovid's transformations heightened with much paraphrastic obscenity. The Satires here specified are only four in number. In Charles Fitzgeoffry's AFFANIÆ, a set of Latin epigrams, printed at Oxford in 1601, he is not inelegantly complimented as the second English Satirist, or rather

"Epistolæ Hoelianæ, Familiar Letters, Domestic and Foreign, divided into sundry sections partly historical, political, and philosophical.' Lond. 1645, 4to. They had five editions from 1645 to 1673, inclusive. A third and fourth volume was added to the last impression.

I must not dismiss our satirist without observing, that Fuller has preserved a witty encomiastic English epigram by Hall, written at Cambridge, on Greenham's Book of the Sabbath, before the year 1592. Church-History, B. ix. Cent. xvi. §. vii. p. 220. edit. 1655. fol. I find it also prefixed to Greenham's Works, in folio, 1601.

The Colophon at the end of the book, is "At London printed by James Roberts, 1598."

b In duodecimo. With vignettes. Pages 82. They are entered to Matts, May 27, 1598. Registr. Station. C. f. 36 b. Hall's Satires are entered only the thirtieth day of March preceding.

Of this piece I shall say little more, than that it is thought by some, notwithstanding the title-page just produced, not to be Marston's. But in his Scourge of