not bene holpen. And therefore he woulde go seke hym at some other place, for he had hard some say sins he came that Sainct Albonys body shold be at Colon, and in dede such a contencion hath ther ben. But of troth, as I am surely informed, he lieth here at Saint Albonis, saving some reliques of him, which thei there shew shrined. But to tell you forth, whan the kyng was comen, and the towne full, sodaynlye thys blind man, at Saint Albonis shryne had his sight agayne, and a myracle solemply rongen, and Te Deum songen, so that nothyng was talked of in al the towne but this myracle, &c.

10. A Sonnet by Lord Surrey :-about 1545.1

Give place, ye lovers, here before,

That spent your boasts and brags in vain!

My lady's beauty passeth more

The best of yours, I dare well sayn,

Than doth the sun the candle-light,
Or brightest day the darkest night.

And thereto had a troth as just
As had Penelope the fair;
For what she saith, ye may it trust
As it by writing sealed were:
And virtues has she many mo

Than I with pen have skill to show.

'Thomas Howard, eldest son of the Duke of Norfolk, and the last victim of the tyranny of Henry VIII., was born 1516, and beheaded on Tower Hill, 1547. His poetry is melodious and polished, but not remarkable for depth either of intellect or feeling. He was the first to introduce the sonnet and blank verse into English poetry.

X

I could rehearse, if that I would,
The whole effect of Nature's plaint
When she had lost the perfit mould,

The like to whom she ne'er could paint:
With wringing hands, how she did cry,
And what she said, I know it, I.

I know she swore with raging mind,
Her kingdom only set apart,
There was no loss by law of kind

That could have gone so near her heart;
And this was chiefly all her pain,—
She could not make the like again.'

Since Nature thus gave her the praise

To be the chiefest work she wrought;
In faith, methink, some better ways

On your behalf might well be sought,
Than to compare, as ye have done,
To match the candle with the suu.

11. Extract from Latimer's third Sermon preached before Edward VI., at Westminster, 1549.1

(In the original spelling.)

Syr, what forme of preachinge would you appoynt me to preache before a Kynge? Wold you have me for to preache nothynge as concernyinge a Kynge in the Kynges sermon ? Have you any commission to

1 Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester, and the son of a farmer in Leicestershire, was born about the year 1472, and was burnt to death at the stake in 1555. His 'Sermons,' which were published at different times, are quaint and homely in expression, and familiar in illustration; but they contain no evidence of any great literary power.

appoynt me what I shall preache? Besydes thys I asked hym dyvers other questions, and he wold make no answere to none of them all. He had nothyng to say. Then I turned me to the Kyng, and submitted myselfe to his Grace, and sayed I never thoughte myselfe worthy, nor I never sued to be a preacher before youre Grace, but I was called to it, would be wylling (if you mislyke me) to give place to my betters. For I graunt ther be a great many more worthy of the roume than I am. And if it be your Grace's pleasure so to allowe them for preachers, I could be content to bere their bokes after theym. But if your Grace allowe me for a preacher I would desyre your Grace to geve me leve to discharge my conscience. Geve me leve to frame my doctrine accordyng to my audience. I had byne a very dolt to have preached so at the borders of your realm, as I preach before your Grace. And I thanke Almyghty God whych hath alwayes byne remedy that my sayinges were well accepted of the Kynge, for, like a gracious Lord, he turned into another communicacyon. It is even as the Scripture sayeth, Cor Regis in manu Domini, the Lorde dyrected the King's hart, &c.

The early part of the sixteenth century was distinguished for learning and intellectual activity in England, and a considerable improvement in our language took place during the reign of Henry VIII. We find, towards the close of this reign, innumerable complaints from writers, of the large number of words now introduced into English from foreign sources. But these new words, which were then probably necessary for the expression of the increased energy of the people, soon

became assimilated with the national tone of thought, and the English language was now fixed and consolidated. Whatever changes it may have undergone, either from the loss of obsolete words, or the introduction of new terms, it has, from this period, remained in the same state both as regards its idiomatic forms and structural character.

PERIOD OF MODERN ENGLISH.

A.D. 1550-1869, &c.

1. Extract from Sackville's 'Mirror for Magistrates."

1557.

In black all clad, there fell before my face
A piteous wight, whom woe had all forwast;
Forth from her eyen, the crystal tears outbrast,
And sighing sore, her hands she wrong and fold,
Tearing her hair, that ruth was to behold.

Her body small, forwithered and forspent,

As is the stalk with summer's drought opprest;
Her wealked face with woful tears besprent,
Her colour pale, and, as it seemed her best,
In woe and plaint, reposed was her rest;

1 Thomas Sackville, Earl of Dorset, was born in 1536 at Buckhurst, in Sussex, and died in 1608. His works are:-the

Tragedy of Ferrex and Porrex,' afterwards called 'Gorboduc;' and the 'Induction,' or Preface to the Mirror for Magistrates.' The Induction' is considered to possess great merit. The style is graphic in the portraiture of the allegorical personages introduced, and the language is stately and solemn. Spenser is said to have taken Sackville as a model on which to form his style.

And as the stone that drops of water wears,
So dented were her cheeks with fall of tears.

I stood aghast, beholding all her plight,

Tween dread and dolour, so distrained in heart
That, while my knees upstarted with the sight,
The tears outstreamed for sorrow of her smart;
But, when I saw no end that could apart
The deadly dole which she so sore did make,
With doleful voice, then thus to her I spake, &c.

2. From Roger Ascham's Schoolmaster' :-about 1563.1

Learning teacheth more in one year than experience in twenty; and learning teacheth safely when experience maketh miserable than wise. He hazardeth sore that waxeth wise by experience. An unhappy master he is that is made cunning by many shipwrecks; a miserable merchant that is neither rich nor wise but after some bankrouts. It is costly wisdom that is bought by experience. We know by experience itself that it is a marvelous pain, to find out but a short way by long wandering. And surely, he that would prove wise by experience, he may be witty indeed, but even like a swift runner that runneth fast

1 Roger Ascham was born in 1515, at Kirby Wiske, near North Allerton, in Yorkshire, and died on December 30, 1568. He was tutor to the Lady (afterwards Queen) Elizabeth. In 1563, he was invited by Sir Richard Sackville to write The Schoolmaster,' a treatise on education, which he completed, but did not publish. Dr. Johnson says that 'The Schoolmaster' contains the best advice that was ever given for the study of languages.