band were made captives. Of this, Whetstone speaks in his "Remembrance of the well-employed life and godly end of George Gascoigne, Esquire," from his own information, in the following terms.

Well placed at length among the drunken Dutch,

(Though rumours lewd impaired my desert,)

I boldly vaunt the blast of fame is such,
As proves I had a froward sours heart.

My slender gain a further witness is,

For worthiest men the spoils of war do miss.

Even there the man, that went to fight for pence,
Caught by sly hap, in prison vile was popt;

Yea, had not words fought for my life's defence,
For all my hands, my breath had there been stopt;
But I, in fine, did so persuade my foe,

As (set free) I was homewards set to go.

On his return to England he gave himself up to the Muses, and in the summer of 1575, accompanied Queen Elizabeth in one of her stately progresses, during which he composed a sort of mask, entitled, "The Princely Pleasures of Kenilworth Castle," reprinted in Nichols's Progresses, and also, very lately, in a separate form. He afterwards settled at Walthamstow, where he wrote his "Steele-Glas of Government," and

other principal works, and died, according to Whetstone, at Stamford, in Lincolnshire, Oct. 7, 1577. His works went through two editions in his life-time, and a third a few years after his death. These are all very scarce: of the first, indeed, only two perfect copies are known; it contains only his earlier productions, and was printed in 1572. The second is, also, by no means complete.

Mr. Alexander Chalmers has reprinted part of Gascoigne in his "Collection of the English Poets," from which we copy, both as a specimen of his style and of English blank verse prior to Shakspeare, the following severe satire on the Vices of the Clergy, which forms a part of his "Steele Glas." This was a favourite subject with our early satirists, for the vast power then engrossed by the priesthood naturally engendered all manner of corruptions.

"Lo! these, my Lord, be my good praying priests, Descended from Melchizedic by line,

Cousins to Paul, to Peter, James, and John; These be my priests, the seasoning of the Earth, Which will not lose their savouriness, I trow. Not one of these, for twenty hundred groats, Will teach the text which bids him take a wife, VOL. III.

K

And yet he cambered with a coucubine:
Not one of these will read the holy writ
Which doth forbid all greedy usury,
And yet receive a shilling for a pound :
Not one of these will preach of patience,
And yet be found as angry as a wasp:
Not one of these can be content to sit
In Taverns, Inns, or Alehouses, all day,
But spends his time devoutly at a book :
Not one of these will rail at rulers' wrongs,
And yet be bloated with extortion :

Not one of these will point out worldly pride,
And he himself as gallant as he dare:
Not one of these rebuketh avarice,
And yet procureth proud pluralities:
Not one of these reproveth vanity,

While he himself, his hawk upon his fist
And hounds at heel, doth quite forget his text :
Not one of these corrects contentions

For trifling things, and yet will sue for tithes :
Not one of these, not one of these, my Lord,
Will be ashamed to do e'en as he teacheth.
My priests have learned to pray unto the Lord,
And yet they trust not in their lip-labour :
My priests can fast and use all abstinence
From vice and sin, and yet refuse no meats :
My priests can give, in charitable wise,
And love also to do good almes-deeds,
Although they trust not in their own deserts :
My priests can place all penance in the heart,

Without regard of outward ceremonies.

My priests can keep their temples undefiled,
And yet defy all superstition.

Lo! now, my Lord, what think you of my priests ?

GEORGE FREDERICK PALMER.

THIS young man, who was a favorite of the Muses, entered into the naval service when very young, in 1807; and had scarcely made two voyages during the late war, when the vessel (Flora frigate) was wrecked off the Texel, on the coast of Holland. The crew were all made prisoners, with the exception of nine, who met a watery grave. Owing to the difficulties that then prevailed with the two governments in settling the exchange of prisoners, Palmer was detained a considerable period ere he was released.

It was during his confinement that he cultivated a taste for poetry. The pieces he wrote were generally of a transient nature, and were destroyed almost immediately after they were written. The walls of the different prisons in which he was confined (the French government seldom permitting the English prisoners to remain long in one place) contained many of his verses. The only poem of any note which reached his friends in England, is "The

Evening's Contemplation in a French Prison," (Valenciennes,) in imitation of Gray's "Elegy:" and it is but truth to state that its composition would have been no discredit to some of our more able poets.

Palmer had contracted a disease during his long confinement, which never forsook him. At the invasion of France by the Allies, the English prisoners were removed from depôt to depôt, lest they should fall into the hands of the conquering Powers, and be released. The repeated harassing marches Palmer underwent on these occasions, added to his already weak state of body, considerably hastened his decease. His severe illness prevented his removal to England for some time after the conclusion of the Peace. He died shortly after arriving in his native country, in the Naval Hospital at Deal, June 9th, 1814, after an absence of seven years.

For the gratification of our readers, we subjoin a few verses from the " Elegy" in ques

tion ; scene is a French prison, and that the Poet is a British Sailor.

the reader must bear in mind, that the

"Perhaps in 'durance vile' here may be plac'd

Some heart susceptive of poetic fire;