"Whoe list at whome at cart to drudge "If Iasonn of that mynd had bine, Grinfilldes Farwell." There are about five or six other stanzas which precede what I have read, and in an opposite column, by a different hand, is inserted an answer to them. In the first line of the last stanza, bine is most likely a mistake of the transcriber's for toylde, to rhyme with foylde in the next line but one. ELLIOT, It does not seem to merit much critical comment, and the author is called Grinfillde not Grenville. BOURNE. The variation of the name is no disproof of the authorship: we have already seen it spelt four different ways-Grinuile by Jervis Markham, Greenvill by Camden, Grinvil by Fitzgeffrey, and Grenuile by the author of the prose pamphlet; and there were at that time no fixed rules of orthography, especially in names. I interrupted you when you were going to ask a question about old Churchyard. ELLIOT. It regarded a work, attributed to him by Mr. Chalmers, which I apprehend must be very interesting. I mean "A praise of poetry, some notes thereof drawn out of the Apologie the noble-minded knight, Sir Philip Sidney wrote." The date given is 1596. BOURNE. It would not by any means come up to your expectations, as there is little or nothing in it original: but you may satisfy your curiosity by referring to Censura Literaria, where the tract is reviewed. Your mention of Sir P. Sidney here brings us to something I had intended to postpone, but which cannot perhaps be more properly introduced than here; I allude to four sonnets by Henry Constable (a poet of very considerable note, author of "Diana," 1594), prefixed to the very rare edition of Sidney's "Apologie of Poetrie," 4to. 1595. They have never been reprinted. MORTON. Few of the minor poets of that day seem to have enjoyed a higher reputation. BOURNE. He may fairly be ranked with Watson, whose sonnets Mr. Steevens contended were equal to those of Shakespeare: as I told you, I cannot agree with him, nor do I believe that any man who knows the one and the other, and has a particle of taste, will concur. Constable's Sonnets are the following, and are thus rather singularly entitled: "Foure Sonnets Written by Henrie Constable to Sir Phillip Sidneys soule. Giue pardon (blessed Soule) to my bold cryes Giue pardon eake (sweete Soule) to my slow cries, I stood amaz'd when others teares begun, Sweet Soule which now with heau'nly songs doost tel Long time before thy fayre and glittering rayes When thou didst on the earth sing Poet-wise, And now thou sing'st with Angels in the skies And to thy name shall not their works giue fame, When as their works be sweetned by thy name? Even as when great mens heires cannot agree, So eu'ry vertue now for part of thee doth sue, Courage prooues by thy death thy hart to be his due, Eloquence claimes thy tongue, and so doth cour tesy; Inuention knowledge sues, Iudgment sues memory, Each saith thy head is his, and what end shall ensue Of this strife know I not, but this I know for true, That whosoeuer gaines the sute the losse haue wee; Wee (I meane all the world) the losse to all pertaineth, Yea they which gaine doe loose and onely thy soule gaineth, For loosing of one life, two liues are gained then: Honor thy courage mou'd, courage thy death did giue, Death, courage, honor makes thy soule to liue, Thy soule to liue in heau'n, thy name in tongues of men. Great Alexander then did well declare How great was his united Kingdomes might, When eu'ry Captaine of his Army might After his death with mighty Kings compare: So now we see after thy death, how far Thou dost in worth surpasse each other Knight, When we admire him as no mortal wight, In whom the least of all thy vertues are: One did of Macedon the King become, Another sat on the Egiptian throne, But onely Alexanders selfe had all : So curteous some, and some be liberall, Some witty, wise, valiant, and learned some But King of all the vertues thou alone. Henry Constable." ELLIOT. The thought in the last of these sonnets is happy, and happily applied. MORTON. And the lines run with much harmony and facility. BOURNE. If they do not add to, they at least do not detract from the fame of their author, MORTON. They are undoubtedly well worthy of revival, not merely as curious relics. But did not Lord Thurlow, a few years since, publish a reprint of Sidney's "Apology of Poetry?" If so, I should have taken it for granted that he did not omit these sonnets. BOURNE. He would not have omitted them had he been aware of their existence, but his reprint is made from an edition comparatively modern, and |