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period, propitious to the operations of original and true poetry, when the coyness of fancy was not always proof against the approaches of reason, when genius was rather directed than governed by judgement, and when taste and learning had so far only disciplined imagination, as to suffer its excesses to pass without censure or controul, for the sake of the beauties to which they were allied.

SECTION LXII.

MORE poetry was written in the single reign of Elisabeth, than in the two preceding centuries. The same causes, among others already enumerated and explained, which called forth genius and imagination, such as the new sources of fiction opened by a study of the classics, a familiarity with the French, Italian and Spanish writers, the growing elegancies of the English language, the diffusion of polished manners, the felicities of long peace and public prosperity, and a certain freedom and activity of mind which immediately followed the national emancipation from superstition, contributed also to produce innumerable compositions in poetry. In prosecuting my further examination of the poetical annals of this reign, it therefore becomes necessary to reduce such a latitude of materials to some sort of methodical arrangement. On which account,

I shall class and consider the poets of this reign under the general heads, or divisions, of SATIRE, SONNET, PASTORAL, and MISCELLANEOUS poetry. Spenser will stand alone, without a class, and without a rival.

Satire, specifically so called, did not commence in England till the latter end of the reign of queen Elizabeth. We have seen, indeed, that eclogues and allegories were made the vehicle of satire, and that many poems of a satirical tendency had been published, long ago. And here, the censure was rather confined to the corruptions of the clergy, than extended to popular follies and vices. But the first professed English satirist*, to speak technically, is bishop Joseph Hall, suc

* [Mr. Collier (in his Poetical Decameron) claims the distinction for Dr. Donne, on the authority of a MS. preserved in the British Museum, and thus

entitled," Ihon Dunne, his Satires, Anno Domini 1593." (Harl. MS. No. 5110.) See also note*, p. 339.]

cessively bishop of Exeter and Norwich, born at Bristow-park within the parish of Ashby de la Zouch in Leicestershire, in the year 1574, and at the age of fifteen, in the year 1588, admitted into Emanuel-college at Cambridge, where he remained about eight years. He soon became eminent in the theology of those times, preached against predestination before prince Henry with unrivalled applause, and discussed the doctrines of Arminianism in voluminous dissertations. But so variable are our studies, and so fickle is opinion, that the poet is better. known to posterity than the prelate or the polemic. His satires have outlived his sermons at court*, and his laborious confutations of the Brownists. One of his later controversial tracts is, however, remembered on account of the celebrity of its antagonist. When Milton descended from his dignity to plead the cause of fanaticism and ideal liberty, bishop Hall was the defender of our hierarchical establishment. Bayle, who knew Hall only as a theologist, seems to have written his life merely because he was one of the English divines at the Synod of Dort, in 1618. From his inflexible and conscientious attachment to the royal and episcopal cause under king Charles the First, he suffered in his old age the severities of imprisonment and sequestration; and lived to see his cathedral converted into a barrack, and his palace into an ale-house. His uncommon learning was meliorated with great penetration and knowledge of the world, and his mildness of manners and his humility were characteristical. He died, and was obscurely buried without a memorial on his grave, in 1656, and in his eighty-second year, at Heigham a small village near Norwich, where he had sought shelter from the storms of usurpation, and the intolerance of presbyterianism†.

I have had the good fortune to see bishop Hall's funeral

* [Since the decease of our poetical historian, this just reproach has been removed by a republication of the entire works of Bishop Hall.-PARK.]

[The following lines may serve in the way of epitaph. They occur in a poem, printed at the end of Whitefoote's funeral sermon upon the much lament

ed death of the reverend father Joseph,
late lord bishop of Norwich.
Maugre the peevish world's complaint,
Here lies a bishop and a saint:
Whom Ashby bred and Granta nurs'd,
Whom Halstead and old Waltham first

(To rouse the stupid world from sloth)
Heard thund'ring with a golden mouth:

sermon, preached some days after his interment, on the thirtieth day of September, 1656, at saint Peter's church in Norwich, by one John Whitefoote, Master of Arts, and rector of Heigham. The preacher, no contemptible orator, before he proceeds to draw a parallel between our prelate and the patriarch Israel, thus illustrates that part of his character with which we are chiefly concerned, and which I am now hastening to consider. "Two yeares together he was chosen rhetorick professor in the universitie of Cambridge, and performed the office with extraordinary applause. He was noted for a singular wit from his youth: a most acute rhetorician, and an elegant poet. He understood many tongues; and in the rhetorick of his own, he was second to none that lived in his timea." It is much to our present purpose to observe, that the style of his prose is strongly tinctured with the manner of Seneca. The writer of the satires is perceptible in some of his gravest polemical or scriptural treatises; which are perpetually interspersed with excursive illustrations, familiar allusions, and observations on life. Many of them were early translated into French; and their character is well drawn by himself, in a dedication to James the First, who perhaps would have much better relished a more sedate and profound theology. "Seldome any man hath offered to your royall hands a greater bundle of his owne thoughts, nor perhaps more varietie of discourse. For here shall your maiestie find Moralitie, like a good handmaid, waiting on Divinitie: and Divinitie, like some great lady, euery day in seuerall dresses. Speculation interchanged with experience, Positiue theology with polemicall, textuall with discursorie, popular with scholasticall "."

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At the age of twenty-three, while a student at Emanuelcollege, and in the year 1597, he published at London three Books of anonymous Satires, which he called Toothless SATYRS, poetical, academical, moral. They were printed by Thomas Creede for Robert Dexter, and are not recited in the registers of the Stationers of London. The following year, and licenced by the stationers, three more books appeared, entitled, "VIRGIDEMIARUM, The three last Bookes of Byting Satyres." These are without his name, and were printed by Richard Bradock for Robert Dexter, in the size and letter of the last d. All the six Books were printed together in 1599, in the same form, with this title, " VIRGIDEMIARUM, The three last Bookes of byting* Satyres corrected and amended with some additions by J. H. [John Hall.] LONDON, for R. Dexter, &c. 1599." A most incomprehensive and inaccurate title: for this edition, the last and the best, contains the three first as well as the three last Books. It begins with the first three books: then at the end of the third book, follow the three last, but preceded by a new title, "VIRGIDEMIARUM. The three last Bookes, of byting Satyres. Corrected and amended with some additions by J. H." For R. Dexter, as before, 1599. But the seventh of the fourth Book is here made a second satire to the sixth or last Book. Annexed are, "Certaine worthye manvscript poems of great antiquitie reserued long since in the studie of a

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