comfort in sickness, keep thy mind and body free, save thee from many perils, relieve thee in thy-elder years, relieve the poor and thy honest friends, and give means to thy posterity to live, and defend themselves and thine own fame. Where it is said in the Proverbs, That he shall be sore vexed that is surety for a stranger, and he that hateth suretyship is sure;' it is further said, "Th. poor is hated even of his own neighbour, but the rich have many friends.' Lend not to him that is mightier than thyself, for if thou lendest him, count it but lost; be not surety above thy power, for if thou be surety, think to pay it. RICHARD GRAFTON. his trade, and his studies were suspended till the bounty of Dr Parker, archbishop of Canterbury, enabled him again to prosecute them. In 1565 he published his Summary of English Chronicles, dedicated to the Earl of Leicester, at whose request the work was undertaken. Parker's death, in 1575, materially reduced his income, but he still managed to continue his researches, to which his whole time and energies were now devoted. At length, in 1598, appeared his Survey of London, the best known of his writings, and which has served as the groundwork of all subsequent histories of the metropolis. There was another work, his large Chronicle, or History of England, on which forty years' labour had been bestowed, which he was very desirous to pubWe now revert to a useful, though less brilliant, lish; but of this he succeeded in printing only an class of writers, the English chroniclers; a continu- abstract, entitled Flores Historiarum, or Annals of ous succession of whom was kept up during the England (1600). A volume published from his papers period of which we are now treating. The first who after his death, entitled Stow's Chronicle, does not attracts our attention is RICHARD GRAFTON, an contain the large work now mentioned, which, though individual who, in addition to the craft of author- left by him fit for the press, seems to have somehow ship, practised the typographical art in London in gone astray. In his old age he fell into such poverty, the reigns of Henry VIII. and three succeeding as to be driven to solicit charity from the public. monarchs. Being printer to Edward VI., he was Having made application to James I., he received employed, after the death of that king, to prepare the the royal license to repair to churches, or other proclamation which declared the succession of Lady places, to receive the gratuities and charitable beneJane Grey to the crown. For this simply profes-volence of well-disposed people.' It is little to the sional act he was deprived of his patent, and osten- honour of the contemporaries of this worthy and insibly for the same reason committed to prison. While there, or at least while unemployed after the loss of his business, he compiled An Abridgment of the Chronicles of England, published in 1562, and of which a new edition, in two volumes, was published in 1809. Much of this work was borrowed from Hall; and the author, though sometimes referred to as an authority by modern compilers, holds but a low rank among English historians. JOHN STOW. His contemporary, JOHN STоw, enjoys a much higher reputation as an accurate and impartial recorder of public events. This industrious writer was born in London about the year 1525. Being the son of a tailor, he was brought up to that business, but early exhibited a decided turn for antiquarian research. About the year 1560, he formed the design of composing annals of English history, in consequence of which, he for a time abandoned his trade, and travelled on foot through a considerable part of England, for the purpose of examining the historical manuscripts preserved in cathedrals and other public establishments. He also enlarged, as far as his pecuniary resources allowed, his collection of old books and manuscripts, of which there were many scattered through the country, in consequence of the suppression of monasteries by Henry VIII. Necessity, however, compelled him to resume Stow's Monument in the church of St Andrew under dustrious man, that he should have been thus lite- * Vast numbers of books were at this period wantonly destroyed. A number of them which purchased these superstitious mansions,' says Bishop Bale, reserved of those library books some to serve their jakes, some to scour their candlesticks, and some to rub their boots, and some they sold to the grocers and soap-sellers, and some they sent over sea to bookbinders, not in small numbers, but at times whole ships full. Yea, the universities are not all clear in this detestable fact; but cursed is the belly which seeketh to be fed with so ungodly gains, and so deeply shameth his native country. I know a merchantman (which shall at this time be nameless) that bought the contents of two noble libraries for forty shillings price: a shame it is to be spoken. This stuff hath he occupied instead of grey paper, by the space of more than these ten years, and yet hath he store enough for as many years to come.'-patched up with remnants of the most valuable manuscripts Bale's Declaration, &c., quoted in Collier's Eccles. Hist.' ii. 166. Another illustration is given by the editor of Letters written by Eminent Persons, in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centu on vellum, and that the bakers had not even then consumed the stores they had accumulated, in heating their ovens !' (Vol. i., p. 278.) age of eighty years. His works, though possessing few graces of style, have always been esteemed for accuracy and research. He often declared that, in composing them, he had never allowed himself to be swayed either by fear, favour, or malice; but that he had impartially, and to the best of his knowledge, delivered the truth. So highly was his accuracy esteemed by contemporary authors, that Bacon and Camden took statements upon his sole credit. The following extract is taken from the 'Survey of Lon don:' [Sports upon the Ice in Elizabeth's Reign.] When that great moor which washeth Moorfields, at the north wall of the city, is frozen over, great companies of young men go to sport upon the ice; then fetching a run, and setting their feet at a distance, and placing their bodies sidewise, they slide a great way. Others take heaps of ice, as if it were great mill-stones, and make seats; many going before, draw him that sits thereon, holding one another by the hand in going so fast; some slipping with their feet, all fall down together: some are better practised to the ice, and bind to their shoes bones, as the legs of some beasts, and hold stakes in their hands headed with sharp iron, which sometimes they strike against the ice; and these men go on with speed as doth a bird in the air, or darts shot from some warlike engine: sometimes two men set themselves at a distance, and run one against another, as it were at tilt, with these stakes, wherewith one or both parties are thrown down, not without some hurt to their bodies; and after their fall, by reason of the violent motion, are carried a good distance from one another; and wheresoever the ice doth touch their head, it rubs off all the skin, and lays it bare; and if one fall upon his leg or arm, it is usually broken; but young men greedy of honour, and desirous of victory, do thus exercise themselves in counterfeit battles, that they may bear the brunt more strongly when they come to it in good earnest. RAPHAEL HOLINSHED-WILLIAM HARRISON-JOHN HOOKER-FRANCIS BOTEVILLE. Among all the old chroniclers, none is more frequently referred to than RAPHAEL HOLINSHED, of whom, however, almost nothing is known, except that he was a principal writer of the chronicles which bear his name, and that he died about the year 1580. Among his coadjutors were WILLIAM HARRISON, a clergyman, JOHN HOOKER, an uncle of the author of the Ecclesiastical Polity,' and FRANCIS BOTEVILLE, an individual of whom nothing has been recorded, but that he was a man of great learning and judgment, and a wonderful lover of antiquities.' John Stow, also, was among the contributors. Prefixed to the historical portion of the work is a description of Britain and its inhabitants, by William Harrison, which continues to be highly valued, as affording an interesting picture of the state of the country, and manners of the people, in the sixteenth century. This is followed by a history of England to the Norman Conquest, by Holinshed; a history and description of Ireland, by Richard Stauihurst; additional chronicles of Ireland, translated or written by Hooker, Holinshed, and Stanihurst; a description and history of Scotland, mostly translated from Hector Boece, by Holinshed or Harrison; and, lastly, a history of England, by Holinshed, from the Norman Conquest to 1577, when the first edition of the 'Chronicles' was published. In the second edition, which appeared in 1587, several sheets containing matter offensive to the queen and her ministers were omitted; but these have been restored in the excellent edition in six volumes quarto, published in London in 1807-8. It was from the translation of Boece that Shakspeare derived the ground-work of his tragedy of Macbeth.' As a specimen of these chronicles, we are tempted to quote some of Harrison's sarcastic remarks on the degeneracy of his contemporaries, their extravagance in dress, and the growth of luxury among them. Ilis account of the languages of Britain, however, being peculiarly suited to the object of the present work, and at the same time highly amusing from the quaintness and simplicity of the style, it is here given in preference to any other extract. [The Languages of Britain.] The British tongue called Cymric doth yet remain in that part of the island which is now called Wales, whither the Britons were driven after the Saxons had made a full conquest of the other, which we now call England, although the pristine integrity thereof be not a little diminished by mixture of the Latin and Saxon speeches withal. Howbeit, many poesies and writings (in making whereof that nation hath evermore delighted) are yet extant in my time, whereby some difference between the ancient and present language may easily be discerned, notwithstanding that among all these there is nothing to be found which can set down any sound and full testimony of their own original, in remembrance whereof their bards and cunning men have been most slack and negligent. Next unto the British speech, the Latin tongue was brought in by the Romans, and in manner generally planted through the whole region, as the French was after by the Normans. Of this tongue I will not say much, because there are few which be not skilful in the same. Howbeit, as the speech itself is easy and delectable, so hath it perverted the names of the ancient rivers, regions, and cities of Britain, in such wise, that in these our days their old British denominations are quite grown out of memory, and yet those of the new Latin left as most uncertain. This remaineth, also, unto my time, borrowed from the Romans, that all our deeds, evidences, charters, and writings of record, are set down in the Latin tongue, though now very barbarous, and thereunto the copies and court-rolls, and processes of courts and leets registered in the same. The third language apparently known is the Scythian,* or High Dutch, induced at the first by the Saxons (which the Britons call Saysonacc,+ as they do the speakers Sayson), a hard and rough kind of speech, God wot, when our nation was brought first into acquaintance withal, but now changed with us into a far more fine and easy kind of utterance, and so polished and helped with new and milder words, that it is to be avouched how there is no one speech under the sun spoken in our time that hath or can have more variety of words, copiousness of phrases, or figures and flowers of eloquence, than hath our English tongue, although some have affirmed us rather to bark as dogs than talk like men, because the most of our words (as they do indeed) incline unto one syllable. This, also, is to be noted as a testimony remaining still of our language, derived from the Saxons, that the general name, for the most part, of every skilful artificer in his trade endeth in here with us, albeit the be left out, and er only inserted, as, scrivenhere, writehere, shiphere, &c. for scrivener, writer, and shipper, &c.; beside many other relics of that speech, never to be abolished. After the Saxon tongue came the Norman or French *It is scarcely necessary to remark, that this term is here misapplied. The Highlanders of Scotland still speak of the English 98 Sassenach (meaning Saxons). PROSE WRITERS. ENGLISH LITERATURE. language over into our country, and therein were our Our children, also, laws written for a long time. were, by an especial decree, taught first to speak the same, and thereunto enforced to learn their constructions in the French, whensoever they were set to the grammar-school. In like sort, few bishops, abbots, or other clergymen, were admitted unto any ecclesiastical function here among us, but such as came out of religious houses from beyond the seas, to the end they should not use the English tongue in their sermons to the people. In the court, also, it grew into such contempt, that most men thought it no small dishonour to speak any English there; which bravery took his hold at the last likewise in the country with every ploughman, that even the very carters began to wax weary of their mother-tongue, and laboured to speak French, which as then was counted no small token of gentility. And no marvel; for every French rascal, when he came once hither, was taken for a gentleman, only because he was proud, and could use his own language. And all this (I say) to exile the English and British speeches quite out of the country. But in vain; for in the time of king Edward I., to wit, toward the latter end of his reign, the French itself ceased to be spoken generally, but most of all and by law in the midst of Edward III., and then began the English to recover and grow in more estimation than before; notwithstanding that, among our artificers, the most part of their implements, tools, and words of art, retain still their French denominations even to these our days, as the language itself is used likewise in sundry courts, books of record, and matters of law; whereof here is no place to make any particular rehearsal. Afterward, also, by diligent travail of Geoffrey Chaucer and John Gower, in the time of Richard II., and after them of John Scogan and John Lydgate, monk of Bury, our said tongue was brought to an excellent pass, notwithstanding that it never came unto the type of perfection until the time of Queen Elizabeth, wherein John Jewel, bishop of Sarum, John Fox, and sundry learned and excellent writers, have fully accomplished the ornature of the same, to their great praise and immortal commendation; although not a few other do greatly seek to stain the same, by fond affectation of foreign and strange words, presuming that to be the best English which is most corrupted with external terms of eloquence and sound But as this excellency of the of many syllables. English tongue is found in one, and the south part of this island, so in Wales the greatest number (as I said) retain still their own ancient language, that of the north part of the said country being less corrupted than the other, and therefore reputed for the better in their own estimation and judgment. This, also, is proper to us Englishmen, that since ours is a middle or intermediate language, and neither too rough nor too smooth in utterance, we may with much facility learn any other language, beside Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, and speak it naturally, as if we were home-born in those countries; and yet on the other side it falleth out, I wot not by what other means, that few foreign nations can rightly pronounce ours, without some and that great note of imperfection, especially the Frenchmen, who also seldom write anything that savoureth of English truly. But this of all the rest doth breed most admiration with me, that if any stranger do hit upon some likely pronunciation of our tongue, yet in age he swerveth so much from the same, that he is worse therein than ever he was, and thereto, peradventure, halteth not a little also in his own, as I have seen by experience in Reginald Wolfe, and others, whereof I have justly marvelled. The Cornish and Devonshire men, whose country the Britons call Cerniw, have a speech in like sort of their own, and such as hath indeed more affinity with the Armorican tongue than I can well discuss of. Yet in mine opinion, they are both but a corrupted kind The Scottish-English hath been much broader and RICHARD HAKLUYT. RICHARD HAKLUYT is another of the laborious com pilers of this period, to whom the world is indebted 251 Pre been largely indebted. In the explanatory catalogue prefixed to Churchill's Collection of Voyages,' and of which Locke has been said to be the author, Hakluyt's collection is spoken of as valuable for the good there to be picked out: but it might be wished the author had been less voluminous, delivering what was really authentic and useful, and not stuffing his work with so many stories taken upon trust, so many trading voyages that have nothing new in them, so many warlike exploits not at all pertinent to his undertaking, and such a multitude of articles, charters, privileges, letters, relations, and other things little to the purpose of travels and discoveries.** The work having become very scarce, a new edition, in five volumes quarto, was published in 1809. Hakluyt was the author, also, of translations of two foreign works on Florida; and, when at Paris, published an enlarged edition of a history in the Latin language, entitled De Rebus Oceanicis et Orbe Novo, by Martyr, an Italian author; this was afterwards translated into English by a person of the name of Lok, under the title of The History of the West Indies, containing the Acts and Adventures of the Spaniards, which have Conquered and Peopled those Countries; enriched with Variety of Pleasant Relation of Manners, Ceremonies, Laws, Governments, and Wars, of the Indians. In 1601 Hakluyt published the Discoveries of the World, from the First Original to the Year of our Lord 1555, translated, with additions, from the Portuguese of Antonio Galvano, governor of Ternate, in the East Indies. At his death, in 1616, his papers, which were numerous, came into the hands of SAMUEL PURCHAS, another English clergyman, who made use of them in compiling a history of voyages, in four volumes, entitled Purchas his Pilgrims. This appeared in 1625; but the author had already published, in 1613, before Hakluyt's death, a volume called Purchas his Pilgrimage; or, Relations of the World, and the Religions Observed in all Ages and Places Discovered from the Creation unto this Present. These two works (a new edition of the latter of which was published in 1626) form a continuation of Hakluyt's collection, but on a more extended plan. The publication of this voluminous work involved the author in debt: it was, however, well received, and has been of much utility to later compilers. The writer of the catalogue in Churchill's collection says of Purchas, that he has imitated Hakluyt too much, swelling his work into five volumes in folio;' yet, he adds, 'the whole collection is very valuable, as having preserved many considerable voyages that might otherwise have perished. But, like Hakluyt, he has thrown in all that came to hand, to fill up so many volumes, and is excessive full of his own notions, and of mean quibbling and playing upon words; yet for such as can make choice of the best, the collection is very valuable.' Among his peculiarities is * Churchill's Collection, vol. i., p. xvii. The contents of the different volumes are as follow:Vol. I. of the Pilgrims' contains Voyages and Travels of Ancient Kings, Patriarchs, Apostles, and Philosophers; Voyages of Circumnavigators of the Globe; and Voyages along the coasts of Africa to the East Indies, Japan, China, the Philippine Islands, and the Persian and Arabian Gulfs. Vol. II. contains Voyages that of interlarding theological reflections and discussions with his narratives. Purchas died about 1628, at the age of fifty-one. His other works are, Microcosmus, or the History of Man (1619); the King's Tower and Triumphant Arch of London (1623); and a Funeral Sermon (1619). His quaint eulogy of the sea is here extracted from the Pilgrimage : [The Sea.] As God hath combined the sea and land into one globe, so their joint combination and mutual assistance is necessary to secular happiness and glory. The sea covereth one-half of this patrimony of man, whereof God set him in possession when he said, Replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.' Thus should man at once lose half his inheritance, if the art of navigation did not enable him to manage this untamed beast, and with the bridle of the winds and saddle of his shipping to make him serviceable. Now for the services of the sea, they are innumerable: it is the great purveyor of the world's commodities to our use; conveyer of the excess of rivers; uniter, by traffick, of all nations: it presents the eye with diversified colours and motions, and is, as it were, with rich brooches, adorned with various islands. It is an open field for merchandise in peace; a pitched field for the most dreadful fights of war; yields diversity of fish and fowl for diet; materials for wealth, medicine for health, simples for medicines, pearls, and other jewels for ornament; amber and ambergrise for delight; the wonders of the Lord in the deep' for instruction, variety of creatures for use, multiplicity of natures for contemplation, diversity of accidents bodies healthful evacuation, to the thirsty earth fertile for admiration, compendiousness to the way, to full moisture, to distant friends pleasant meeting, to weary minds a map of knowledge, mystery of temperance, persons delightful refreshing, to studious and religious exercise of continence; school of prayer, meditation, devotion, and sobriety; refuge to the distressed, portage to the merchant, passage to the traveller, customs to the prince, springs, lakes, rivers, to the earth; it hath on it tempests and calms to chastise the sins, to exercise the faith, of seamen; manifold affections in itself, to affect and stupify the subtlest philosopher; sustaineth moveable fortresses for the soldier; maintaineth (as in our island) a wall of defence and watery garrison to guard the state; entertains the sun with vapours, the moon with obsequiousness, the stars also with a natural looking-glass, the sky with clouds, the air with temperateness, the soil with suppleness, the rivers with tides, the hills with moisture, the valleys with fertility; containeth most diversified matter for meteors, most multiform shapes, most various, numerous kinds, most immense, difformed, deformed, unformed monsters; once (for why should I longer detain you?) the sea yields action to the body, meditation to the mind, the world to the world, all parts thereof to each part, by this art of arts, navigation. JOHN DAVIS. Among the intrepid navigators of Queen Elizaluyt, one of the most distinguished is JOHN DAVIS, beth's reign, whose adventures are recorded by Hakfollowing years, made three voyages in search of a a native of Devonshire, who, in 1585, and the two north-west passage to China, and discovered the well-known straits to which his name has ever since been applied. In 1595 he himself published a small Pilgrimage, a Theological and Geographical History of Asia, and now exceedingly rare volume, entitled The and Relations of Africa, Ethiopia, Palestine, Arabia, Persia, and other parts of Asia. Voi. III. contains Tartary, China, Russia, North-West America, and the Polar Regions. Vol. IV. contains America and the West Indies. Vol. V. contains the World's Hydrographical Description, wherein,' as we are told in the title-page, is proued not onely PROSE WRITERS. ENGLISH LITERATURE. by aucthoritie of writers, but also by late experience | Dartmouth. And acquainting master Secretory with the rest of the honorable and worshipfull adventurers [Davis's Voyages in Search of the North-West Passage.] 253 |