temporaries, if indeed they ought to be looked upon as his contemporaries. When this book was printed I apprehend that Lord Morley must have been far advanced in life: he was a very voluminous author, and the scribbling mania long continued upon him; agro in corde senescit. In the dedication to young Lord Matravers, son to the Earl of Arundel, he states that he translated it first for Henry VIII., who expressed himself highly pleased with it. It is worth while to note that he here speaks of Henry VIII. as then dead, though Wood erroneously says that Lord Morley himself died in the latter end of the reign of that king. The book in question has no date; but John Cawood, whose colophon is given at the end, printed no work that is known before 1550.

ELLIOT. Though not perhaps printed until after 1550, if he translated it for Henry VIII. it does not at all follow that Lord Morley was an old man when he undertook it.

BOURNE. It also appears from the dedication, that the first copy which he gave to Henry VIII. he could not recover, and consequently that he had translated it anew in its present form.

MORTON. If you have nothing more to remark by way of introduction, let us now examine the book itself.

BOURNE. If you please only first we ought to hear what the author himself says regarding the difficulties with which he had to contend. He ob

serves, that if he could get the copy he gave to Henry VIII. into his hands again, "I thynke I could well amende it, albeit that I professe, I haue not erred moche from the letter, but in the ryme, whiche is not possible for me to folow in the translation, nor touche the least poynt of the elegancy that this elegant Poete hath set forth in his owne maternall tongue."

MORTON. There is a passage in Ascham's Schoolmaster, which expressly alludes to the admirers and imitators of Petrarch, and is, according to Lord Morley's own account, very applicable to him. "Some (he says) that make Chaucer in English, and Petrarch in Italian, their gods in verses, and yet be not able to make true difference what is a fault and what is a just praise in those two worthy wits, will much mislike this my writing. But such men be even like followers of Chaucer and Petrarch, as one here in England did follow Sir Thomas More; who being most unlike him in wit and learning, nevertheless in wearing his gown awry upon one shoulder, as Sir Thomas More was wont to do, would needs be counted like unto him."

BOURNE. Your sarcastic quotation is hardly fair against Lord Morley, who speaks so diffidently of his success in this attempt: but you shall see a specimen of his skill as a versifier taken from "the excellent Tryumphe of Fame." It opens thus:

"After that deathe had triumphed in that face, Which often of me had tryumphed in lyke case,

VOL. I.

G

And that the sonne of our world was dead and past,
This ougly and dispytefull beaste at the last

Pale and horrible and proude for to se
With hyr blacke baner awaye goeth she;
When that she had extincte out quyte,
Of perfyt beutye the very clere lyght,
Then as I dyd loke about on euery part
Commyng towardes me there I dyd aduert
Hyr that mans lyfe for euer doth saue
And pulleth hym out alyue from his graue.
This gloryous fayre Lady muche lyke was she
Vnto that bryght starre that goeth, trust me,
In the orient, or the cleare day appeare,

Euen in lyke maner was this Ladyes chere:
So that there is no mayster in no Scole
Can take vpon them to descrybe that sole,
That I go aboute with symple wordes to tell;
So muche great in glory ths Lady dyd excell,
That all the element about her dyd shyne,
Not as a mortall but lyke a thyng deuyne."

ELLIOT. He might well assert that he could not equal the elegancy of his original, but he has not even been faithful in his translation: he has omitted the whole sentiment of Petrarch's lines;

Qual in su'l giorno l'amorosa stella

Suol venir d'oriente inanzi sole,

Che s'accompagna volontier con ella.

Besides, there is no sufficient authority for the poeti

cal flourish in the last two lines you read. But go on.

BOURNE. It is a little too much to follow him so exactly with the book in your hand: it is as unfair as criticising a portrait while the person represented is close to it. Lord Morley proceeds thus:

"Grauen in theyr foreheades were the names
Of the honorable people whose hyghe fames
By valure and vertue can neuer dye :
Folowynge this noble fame there sawe I
Manye of those whyche I tofore haue rehersed
That by loue (as sayd is) were sore oppressed.
On her ryght hand there fyrst in my syght
Was Cesar and Scipion, that honorable knyghte;
But which of them twayne next to fame was
I do not remember, but there they both dyd pas:
The tone in vertue the tother in loue

Was taken though he semed somewhat aboue;
And then forthwith was shewed vnto me,
After these twayne captaynes that so excellent be
Men of hyghe valure armed full bryght
As vnto the capitall they went full ryghte,
By that selfe waye that sacra called was
Or by via lata, wherevnto they dyd passe.
They came in suche an honest ordre as saye
And had wrytten and graued, this is no nay,
Theyr excellent names in theyr foreheads on hie."

MORTON. Perhaps we have had enough of that part.

BOURNE. I was about to stop, because the author then arrives at a long enumeration of the persons whom he saw following Fame. This is not so interesting as applied to men, but from the second chapter I will make a quotation regarding the women who distinguished themselves of old, that you will not object to hear.

ELLIOT. We leave it entirely to your discretion. BOURNE. We need read no more of it than we find to our purpose.

My desyre with seyng all these noble men
Was well nere satisfyed there and then,
When that sodenly I dyd there espye
Of worthy ladyes a more gorgeous company,
That pleased my syght as much or more
As all the syght that I had sene before.
There sawe I goyng together in a bande
Antiope and Arithia well armyd stand,
And fayre swete Ipolita sory and sadde,
Because that no comforth of her sonne she had :

And Manylipe that vanquished Hercules,

And her Suster alsowas there in prese;

The tone Hercules toke vnto hys wyfe,
The tother with Theseus led her lyfe.
There folowed the hardy wydowe that did se
Hyr dere sone slayne most constantly,
And reuenged his death vpon kyng Cyrus:
It was a noble hardy acte and valerouse ;