sion thereof," and with a soldier-like protestation, that the production was entirely his own, though some malignant it seems had denied him the credit of producing it. Chute did not in his rival effort adopt the seven-line stanza of Churchyard, but many passages bear such partial resemblance, as a choice of the same personal history was likely to induce. A late reprint of the Mirror for Magistrates will give to many an opportunity of perusing Churchyard's work; but as that of Chute remains in an unique copy, I proceed to extract a few of the best stanzas. The ghost of Shore's Wife is made to narrate her own story, on the plan of Baldwin's heroes and heroines. The following lines express her compunction for having yielded to the criminal passion of Edward IV. Who sees the chast liv'd turtle on a tree In unfrequented groves sit and complaine her; Whether alone all desolate, poore shee, And for her lost love seemeth to restraine her; And there, sad thoughted, howleth to the ayre The excellencie of her lost-mate's fayre1: soule So I, when sinne had drown'd in badnesse, my Yet cannot this redeeme thy spotted name, Yet that is no priviledge, no sheeld to Now thou thyselfe hast drownd thyselfe therein, Thou art defam'd thyselfe, and so is hee: And though that kings commands have wonders wrought, Yet kings commands could never hinder thought. Say that a monarke may dispence with sin; The vulgar toung proveth impartiall still, And when mislike all froward shall begin, The worst of bad, and best of worst to ill, A secret shame in every thought will smother, For sinne is sinne in kinges, as well as other. I weepe alone, inforced to conceale it. Had I bin fayre, and not allur'd so soone, To that at which all thoughtes levell their sadnesse, My sunbright day had not bin set ere noone, The moral reflections of Chute will be found more meritorious than his poetic garniture, and this is a distinction of personal honour to the author; since, as Cowper cogently asks, "What the poet, if the man be naught?"-PARK.] 1 comeliness. SECTION LII. Richard Edwards. Principal poet, player, musician, and buffoon, to the courts of Mary and Elizabeth. Anecdotes of his life. Cotemporary testimonies of his merit. A contributor to the Paradise of Daintie Devises. His book of comic histories, supposed to have suggested Shakspeare's Induction of the Tinker. Occasional anecdotes of Antony Munday and Henry Chettle. Edwards's songs. IN tracing the gradual accessions of the MIRROur for Magistrates, an incidental departure from the general line of our chronologic series has been incurred. But such an anticipation was unavoidable, in order to exhibit a full and uninterrupted view of that poem, which originated in the reign of Mary, and was not finally completed till the beginning of the seventeenth century. I now therefore return to the reign of queen Mary. To this reign I assign Richard Edwards, a native of Somersetshire, about the year 1523. He is said by Wood to have been a scholar of Corpus Christi college in Oxford; but in his early years he was enployed in some department about the court. This circumstance appears from one of his poems in the PARADISE OF DAINTIE DEVISES, a miscellany which contains many of his pieces. In youthfull yeares when first my young desires began To pricke me forth to serve in court, a slender tall young man, Who blessing me with trembling hand, these wordes gan say to me, My sonne, God guide thy way, and shield thee from mischaunce, And make thy just desartes in court, thy poore estate to advance, &c.a In the year 1547, he was appointed a senior student of Christ-church in Oxford, then newly founded. In the British Museum there is a small set of manuscript sonnets signed with his initials, addressed to some of the beauties of the courts of queen Mary, and of queen Elizabeth". Hence we may conjecture that he did not long remain at the university. About this time he was probably a member of Lincoln's-inn. In the year 1561, he was constituted a gentleman of the royal chapel by queen Elizabeth, and master of the singing boys there. He had received his musical education, while at Oxford, under George Etheridge. a Edit. 1585. 4to. Carm. 7. "To b MSS. Cotton. Tit. A. xxiv. some court Ladies."-Pr. "Howarde is not hawghte," &c. [This MS. appears to be the fragment of a collection of original poetry, by different writers. In Ayscough's Catalogue, it is described as " Sonnets by R. E." but no sonnet occurs among the several pieces, and only four out of fourteen are signed R. E. The rest bear the signatures of Norton (the dramatic associate probably of Lord Buckhurst), Surre (i.e. Surrey), Va. When queen Elizabeth visited Oxford in 1566, she was attended by Edwards, who was on this occasion employed to compose a play called PALAMON AND ARCITE, which was acted before her majesty in Christchurch halld. I believe it was never printed. Another of his plays is DAMON AND PYTHIAS, which was acted at court. It is a mistake, that the first edition of this play is the same that is among Mr. Garrick's collection printed by Richard Johnes, and dated 1571. The first edition* was printed by William Howe in Fleet-street, in 1570, with this title, "The tragical comedie of DAMON AND PITHIAS, newly imprinted as the same was playde before the queenes maiestie by the children of her graces chapple. Made by Mayster Edward then being master of the childrenf." There is some degree of low humour in the dialogues between Grimme the collier and the two lacquies, which I presume was highly pleasing to the queen. He probably wrote many other dramatic pieces now lost. Puttenham having mentioned lord Buckhurst and Master Edward Ferrys, or Ferrers, as most eminent in tragedy, gives the prize to Edwards for Comedy and Interludes. The word Interlude is here of wide extent. For Edwards, besides that he was a writer of regular dramas, appears to have been a contriver of masques, and a composer of poetry for pageants. In a word, he united all those arts and accomplishments which minister to popular pleasantry: he was the first fiddle, the most fashionable sonnetteer, the readiest rhymer, and the most facetious mimic, of the court. In consequence of his love and his knowledge of the histrionic art, he taught the choristers over which he presided to act plays; and they were formed into a company of players, like those of St. Paul's cathedral, by the queen's licence, under the superintendency of Edwards h. of Trinity college in Oxford, to be admitted "He 1619. Pits adds, that he translated seve- The most poetical of Edwards's ditties in the PARADISE OF DAINTIE DEVISES is a description of Mayi: the rest are moral sentences in stanzas. His SOUL-KNELL, supposed to have been written on his deathbed, was once celebrated. His popularity seems to have altogether arisen from those pleasing talents of which no specimens could be transmitted to posterity, and which prejudiced his partial cotemporaries in favour of his poetry. He died in the year 15661. In the Epitaphs, Songs, and Sonets of George Turbervile, printed in [1567 and] 1570, there are two elegies on his death; which record the places of his education, ascertain his poetical and musical character, and bear ample testimony to the high distinction in which his performances, more particularly of the dramatic kind, were held. The second is by Turbervile himself, entitled, "An Epitaph on Maister Edwards, sometime Maister of the Children of the Chappell and gentleman of Lyncolnes inne of court." Ye learned Muses nine, And sacred sisters all; Now lay your cheerful cithrons downe, And to lamenting fall..... For he that led the daunce, The chiefest of your traine, I mean the man that Edwards height, Ye courtiers, chaunge your cheere, For now your Orpheus has resignde, O ruth! he is bereft, That, whilst he lived here, i Carm. 6. edit. 1585. It seems to have been a favourite, and is complimented in another piece, A reply to M. Edwardes May, subscribed M. S. ibid. Carm. 29. This miscellany, of which more will be said hereafter, is said in the title to "be devised and written for the most parte by M. Edwardes sometime of her maiesties Chappell." Edwards however had been dead twelve years when the first edition appeared, viz. in 1578. [It will be seen from Mr. Haselwood's careful reprint of Edwards's Metrical Miscellany, that the first edition appeared in 1576, and a second in 1577.-PARK.] It is mentioned by G. Gascoigne in his Epistle to the young Gentlemen, before his works, 1587. qu. [But it is only mentioned in derision, as a vulgar and groundless notion, to which those who gave credence are ridiculed for their absurdity.-PARK.] 1 Wood, Ath. Oxon. i. 151. See also, ibid. Fast. 71. m Shakspeare has inserted a part of Edwards's song In Commendation of Musicke, extant at length in the Paradise of Daintie Deuises, (fol. 34 b.) in Romeo and Juliet: "When griping grief," &c. act iv. sc. 5. In some Miscellany of the reign of Elizabeth, I have seen a song called The Willow-Garland, attributed to Edwards: As all the learned Greekes, And Romaines would repine, His verse with scornefull eine". And learned Terence wan, &e.° The other is written by Thomas Twyne, an assistant in Phaer's Translation of Virgil's Eneid into English verse, educated a few years after Edwards at Corpus Christi college, and an actor in Edwards's play of PALAMON AND ARCITE before queen Elizabeth at Oxford in 1566o. It is entitled, " An Epitaph vpon the death of the worshipfull Mayster Richarde Edwardes late Mayster of the Children in the queenes maiesties chapell." O happie house, O place Of Corpus Christi, thou That plantedst first, and gaust the root Plunge up a thousand sighes, for griefe Whilst court a court shall be ; and the same, I think, that is licensed to T. Colwell in 1564, beginning, "I am not the fyrst that hath taken in hande, The wearynge of the willowe garlande." This song, often reprinted, seems to have been written in consequence of that sung by Desdemona in Othello, with the burden, Sing, O the green willowe shall be my garland. Othell. act iv. sc. 3. See Register of the Stationers, A. fol. 119 b. Hence the antiquity of Desdemona's song may in some degree be ascertained. I take this opportunity of observing, that the ballad of Susannah, part of which is sung by Sir Toby in Twelfth Night, was licensed to T. Colwell, in 1562, with the title, "The godlye and constant wyfe Susanna." Ibid. fol. 89 b. There is a play on this subject, ibid. fol. 176 a. See Tw. N. act ii. sc. 3. and Collect. Pepysian. tom. i. p. 33. 496. P Miles Winsore of the same college was another actor in that play, and I suppose his performance was much liked by the queen for when her majesty left Oxford, after this visit, he was appointed by the university to speak an oration before her at lord Windsor's at Bradenham in Bucks; and when he had done speaking, the queen turning to Gama de Sylva, the Spanish ambassador, and looking wistly on Windsore, said to the ambassador, Is not this a pretty young man? Wood, Ath. Oxon. i. 151. 489. Winsore proved afterwards a diligent antiquary. q r Corpus Christi college at Oxford. bough, branch. s At Oxford. t While the royal chapel and its singing-boys remain. In a puritanical pamphlet without name, printed in 1569, and entitled, "The Children of the Chapel stript and whipt," among bishop Tanner's books at Oxford, it is said, "Plaies will neuer be supprest, while her maiesties unfledged minions flaunt it in silkes and sattens. They had as well be at their popish service, in the deuils garments," &c. fol. xii. a. 12mo. This is perhaps the earliest notice now to be found in print, of this young company of comedians, at least the earliest proof of their celebrity. From the same pamphlet we |