court. His favourite poetical device was to carry a single burden or refrain through a number of stanzas, each containing a different turn of thought; but he frequently amused the king and queen with personal satires on the courtiers, or with rapid sketches of scenes in actual life, which have all the character of improvisations.-COURTHOPE, W. J., 1895, A History of English Poetry, vol. 1, pp. 370, 371.

Endowed with an ever-ready mind and an unfailing power of invention, Dunbar, following his natural tastes, and wishing, at the same time, to imitate Chaucer, decks his pictures with glaring colours, and "out-Chaucers Chaucer." His flowers are too flowery, his odours too fragrant; by moments it is no longer a delight, but almost a pain. It is not sufficient that his birds should sing, they must sing among perfumes, and these perfumes are coloured.JUSSERAND, J. J., 1895, A Literary History of the English People, p. 511.

We gather, indeed, that Dunbar was recognised at once as the first poet of the age, and we may console ourselves by believing that in the ninety or a hundred poems of his which we are fortunate enough to possess, we hold the fine flower of Scotch Renaissance poetry. Dunbar, let it be plainly said, is the largest figure in English literature between Chaucer and Spenser, to each of whom, indeed, he seems to hold forth a hand.

In

reaching Dunbar we find that we have escaped from the dead air of the late Middle Ages. The poetry of this writer is defective in taste rhetorical, over-ornate; he delights to excess in such terms as "crystalline," "redolent," "aureate," and "enamelling." He never escapes and it is this which finally leads us to refuse the first rank to his gorgeous talent from the artificial in language. He

does not display any considerable intellectual power. But when all this is admitted, the activity and versatility of Dunbar, his splendid use of melody and colour, his remarkable skill in the invention of varied and often intensely. lyrical metres, his fund of animal spirits, combine to make his figure not merely an exceedingly attractive one in itself, but as refreshing as a well of water after the dry desert of the fifteenth century in England. . . . The analogy of Dunbar with Burns is very striking, and has often been pointed out; but the difference is at least that between a jewel and a flower, the metallic hardness of Dunbar being a characteristic of his style which is utterly out of harmony with the living sensitiveness of his greater successor. This metal surface, however, is sometimes burnished to a splendour that few poets have ever excelled. GOSSE, EDMUND, 1897, Short History of Modern English Literature, pp. 48, 50, 51.

A short, rather rotund figure, a face ruddy and stamped with evidences of the love of good cheer; eyes small, beady, and dark, twinkling at times with an everpresent sense of the humorous side of life, then anon blazing with a fierce, contemptuous scorn of meanness, hypocrisy, and injustice; a tongue as mellifluous in speech as his to whom was given the title. "Golden Mouth," yet betimes capable of a sardonic sarcasm that burned like an acid where it lighted, such is the portrait that has come down to us from various sources of that mighty genius, who, though, alas! all too little known among us of these latter days, has yet been adjudged by many of our most competent English critics to be the peer, if not in a few qualities the superior, of Chaucer and Spenser. SMEATON, OLIPHANT, 1898, William Dunbar, Famous Scots Series, p. 9.

Lord Berners,

FROISSART'S CHRONICLES

In imitating the style of his original, Lord Berners's translation becomes peculiarly valuable to an English reader. His version is faithful, but not servile; and he imitates the spirit and simplicity of the original, without allowing us to discover, from any deficiency in either of these particulars, that his own work is a translation.-UTTERSON, E. V., 1812, ed. Berners's Froissart's Chronicles

A soldier, a statesman, and a scholar, this nobleman was singularly well adapted for the task which he undertook. Indeed, considering the period of its completion, it was a sort of literary miracle.-DIBDIN, THOMAS FROGNALL, 1821, The Library Companion, p. 164.

The most important English work of the first quarter of the sixteenth century, whether as a philological monument, or as a production which could not have. failed to exert an influence on the tone of English literature. . The first really important work printed in the English language, relating to modern history. The extraordinary literary merit and the popular character of the work eminently fitted it, both to initiate Englishmen into a knowledge of some of the principal epochs of their own. national life, and to promote a taste for historical reading and composition. It must, therefore, independently of its philological worth, be considered as a work of great importance in English literary history, because it undoubtedly contributed essentially to give direction to literary pursuits in England, and thus to lay the foundation of an entire and very prominent branch of native literature.

. The translation is executed with great skill; for while it is faithful to the text, it adheres so closely to the English idiom that it has altogether the air of an original work, and, with the exception of here and there a single phrase, it would not be easy to find a passage which

exhibits decisive internal evidence of having been first composed in a foreign tongue.--MARSH, GEORGE P., 1862, The Origin and History of the English Language, etc., pp. 495, 497, 498.

It is one of the best translations ever made. BACKUS, TRUMAN J., 1875, Shaw's New History of English Literature. P. 57.

It is the best contemporary picture of feudalism and feudal manners in existence, and Lord Berners's translation retains, after the lapse of nearly four centuries, all its original interest and value. The quaintness of the English employed by the translator preserves to the reader of our own time the pleasing impression of the old-fashioned French in which the book was first written.-BALDWIN, JAMES, 1833, English Literature and Literary Criticism, Prose, p. 527.

Although Col. Johnes's translation of Froissart (1803-5) has now very generally superseded that of Berners, the later version is wanting in the literary flavour which still gives Berners's book an important place in English literature. LEE, SIDNEY, 1886, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. VI, p. 13.

Though a translation, was a masterpiece of idiomatic English prose. Lord Berners was inspired, no doubt, by the liveliness of his original in style and matter, but he so translated as to give his Froissart a lasting place among the classics of the English language. MORLEY, HENRY, 1891, English Writers, vol. VII, p. 281.

Berners was an industrious reader, and his chivalrous temperament was mainly attracted by historical works, whether true or fictitious, by accounts of great men, descriptions of battles, heroic deeds, and remarkable adventures. His acquaintance with the French language, together, perhaps, with some knowledge of Spanish, opened up to him many literary sources which were sealed to the majority

of his countrymen, and it was his wish to make at least some of these works accessible to the English barons and knights. That his choice should have first fallen upon Froissart, whose vivacious account centres finally upon the differences between England and France, was natural enough in a Governor of Calais. In translating the old Chronicler, Berners was at the same time complying with the wishes -nay, with the commands-of the King,

whose policy had meanwhile taken a direction antagonistic to France. Froissart's work was well adapted to stir up in the English people the old feelings of rivalry with France; and, by reminding them of their lost possessions there, and the glorious deeds of the Black Prince and other national heroes, aroused the English love of warfare.-TEN BRINK, BERNHARD, 1892, History of English Literature, (Fourteenth Century to Surrey) tr. Schmitz, p. 187.

John Fisher, you shall be led to the place from whence you came, and from thence again shall be drawn through the city to the place of execution at Tyburn, where your body shall be hanged by the neck; half alive you shall be cut down and thrown to the ground, your bowels to be taken out of your body before you, being still alive, your head to be smitten off, and your body to be divided into four quarters, and afterwards your head and quarters to be set up wheresoever the king shall appoint. And God have mercy upon your soul!-AUDLEY, SIR THOMAS, 1535, State Trials of Reign of Henry VIII.

In this realm no one man in wisdom, learning, and long approved vertue together, mete to be matched and compared with him.-MORE, SIR THOMAS, 1535? English Works, p. 1437.

Such a man for all purposes that the King of England had not the like of him. in his realm; neither was he to be matched throughout Christendom.-CHARLES V. OF FRANCE, 1535, Sir Thomas Eliot's Dispatches to Lord Cromwell.

If an ambassador had to be sent from earth to heaven there could not among all the bishops and clergy be found so fit a man as John Fisher; for what other man have you at present, nor for many years past, who can be compared with him

in sanctity, in learning, in zeal and careful diligence in the office and various duties of a bishop? Above all other nations we may justly rejoice in having such a man; and if all the parts of Christendom were searched there could not be found one man that in all things did accomplish the parts and the degrees of a bishop equal to John Fisher.-POLE, REGINALD, 1536, Pro Ecclesiastica Unitatis Defensione.

In stature Dr. Fisher was tall and comely, exceeding the middle sort of men; for he was to the quantity of six feet in height; and being very slender and lean, was nevertheless upright and well formed, straight-backed, big jaws, and strongly sinewed; his hair by nature. black, though in his latter days, through age and imprisonment, turned to white; his eyes large and round, neither full black nor full gray, but of a mixt color between both; his forehead smooth and large; his nose of a good and even proportion; somewhat wide mouth and bigjawed, as one ordained by nature to utter much speech, wherein was, notwithstanding, a certain comeliness; his skin somewhat tawny, mixed with many blue veins; his face, hands, etc., all his body, so bare of flesh as is almost incredible, which came by the great abstinence and

penance he used upon himself for many years, even from his youth. In speech he was mild, temperate, and kindly.-HALL, RICHARD (THOMAS BAYLY), 1604?1653, Life and Death of John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester.

He was a prelate remarkable for his private virtues, for his learning, and for a zealous discharge of the duties of his pastoral function. At a time when the lower order of the clergy were distinguished by their ignorance and debauchery, and the higher by a more refined luxury, and a turn for political intrigue, this bishop's conduct displayed the pure simplicity of a primitive Christian, and rigid morality of a Roman Stoic; plain, patient, and sincere, humble but courageous, mild though determined, his character has defied that oblivion, which commonly obscures the favourers of an exploded cause, and in the midst of our proud veneration for the Protestant Martyrs of the 16th century, we regret that he suffered for the contrary doctrine, and feel that the name of this good Catholic would have been a valuable addition to the glorious catalogue.-LODGE, EDMUND, 1792-1800, Imitations of Original Drawings by Hans Holbein with Biographical Tracts.

Fisher was a worthy, but not a strongminded man, and his literary works are of small value, and are now never, by any accident, consulted.-TURNER, SHARON, 1826, The History of the Reign of Henry the Eighth, vol. II, p. 394.

He neither flung away his life madly, nor preserved it basely. He was a martyr, if not to the truth that is recorded in the authentic book of Heaven, yet to that copy of it which he thought authentic, which was written on his heart in the antique characters of authoritative age. Those who think him right, justly hold him a martyr to the Faith; and we who think him mistaken, must still allow him to have been the martyr of Honesty. -COLERIDGE, HARTLEY, 1833, Biographia Borealis, p. 395.

A Yorkshire lad, born in the town of Beverley, though he went to Cambridge early, had not lost his northern grit and twang. His tones were rough, his phrases curt. What other men hardly dared to hint, Fisher would throw into the simplest words. He called a lie a lie, a knave a knave, not caring who might

take offence. This roughness of his speech, combined with his repute for piety and learning, took the world by storm. A thorough scholar, armed at every point, he feared no combat, and his nature was unyielding as a rock. DIXON, WILLIAM HEPWORTH, 1873-4, History of Two Queens, bk. xiii, ch. ii.

If bonus textuarius is indeed bonus theologus, Bishop Fisher may rank high among divines. He is at home in every part of scripture, no less than among the fathers. If the matter of his teaching is now for the most part trite, the form is always individual and life-like. Much of it is in the best sense catholic, and might be illustrated by parallel passages from Luther and our own reformers.—MAYOR, JOHN E. B., 1876, Preface to Fisher's English Works, p. xxii.

Dr. Fisher was not what the world might call a "great personage," but he was that which no sectarian prejudice, no sentiment that acknowledges virtue can deny a good and holy Christian and a just man. He had very few equals on the long roll of English prelates; he used no weapons to enforce his convictions but those supplied from the armory of prayer and kindly counsel.-BURKE, S. HUBERT, 1882, John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester Catholic World, vol. 34, p. 769.

Fisher shared with the composers of the English liturgy a peculiarity which greatly contributed to the richness and variety of their diction that coupling of the Saxon word with its classical synonym, which has become familiar to our ears through the Prayer Book. Fisher's prose style may, indeed, be considered as a corner-stone in the foundation of the best type of English pulpit eloquencesimple almost to an extreme, but yet instinct with earnestness and feeling, and at the same time with the balance that comes from careful scholarship and fastidious taste. CRAIK, HENRY, 1893, English Prose, vol. 1, p. 142.

He has already discovered, and deliberately experiments for, rhetorical effect with the peculiar resources provided by the double dictionary-Teutonic and Romance of English, as well as by the more general devices of cadence, parallelism, and the usual figures of speech.-SAINTSBURY, GEORGE, 1898, A Short History of English Literature, p. 210.