With eyes cast up unto the Maiden's tower,' The dances short, long tales of great delight; Of pleasant plaint, and of our ladies' praise; Where we did chase the fearful hart of force. The pleasant dreams, the quiet bed of rest; The wanton talk,13 the divers change of play; Give me account, where is my noble fere?14 1 "Maiden's tower," that part of the castle where the ladies of the court had their apartments. 2 Such looks and entreaties as might have moved tigers to pity. a "Palme-play," a game played with a ball and hand, so called because the ball was hit with the palm: it was also played with the bat, and similar to tennis. 4 "Despoiled," stripped for the game. 5 "To bait," to allure, to attract. 6 "Which kept the leads above." The word "lead" is used by old writers for a flat roof covered with lead, and the plural “leads” is therefore probably used for the walks or galleries (covered with lead) around the upper stories of the building, where the ladies might sit and see the game played in safety. 7 "The gravel'd ground," the space enclosed, made level with fine gravel. 8 It was a general practice among ancient knights to tie to their helmets a sleeve or glove, received from their lady-love, which they wore not only in tilts and tournaments, but even in battle. 9 "Chere" is used by all the old poets for the look, the expression of the countenance. 10" The clothed holts with green," the high hills clothed with verdure. 11 "Reins availed," mean slackened, so as to allow the horse to go at full speed. 12" Void walls," the walls of those chambers now desolate, which were wont each night to receive us. 13"Wanton talk," playful conversation. The word "wanton" was used by early writers as descriptive of the sportiveness and innocence of infancy. 14 "Fere," companion. 15 "Lief," spelled also leef and leve, is an adjective, meaning "dear." The person here alluded to oy Surrey was probably his sister, the Lady Mary who was married to the Duke of Richmond. THE FRAILTY AND HURTFULNESS OF BEAUTY. Brittle beauty, that Nature made so frail, Whereof the gift is small, and shorter is the season; Tickle' treasure, abhorred of reason: Dangerous to deal with, vain, of none avail; Hard to obtain, once gotten never geason;3 Ah! bitter sweet, infecting as the poison, IN PRAISE OF HIS LADY-LOVE COMPARED WITH ALL OTHERS.5 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 say'n, Than doth the sun the candle light, And thereto hath a troth as just As had Penelope the fair; I could rehearse, if that I would, The whole effect of Nature's plaint, I know she swore with raging mind, There was no loss by law of kind That could have gone so near her heart; And this was chiefly all her pain; 1 "Tickle," having no foundation, liable to sudden downfall. 2 "Peason," the plural of peas. 3 The word "geason," of which the derivation is unknown, is used by the old writers with differ ent shades of meaning. Spenser employs it in the sense of "rare and uncommon." Here it seems to mean "something worth possessing :" for the sense of the passage is "once gotten not worth pos**esing." "Jewel of jeopardy;" that is, a jewel which there is much danger of losing. Warton says that this ode "possesses almost the ease and gallantry of Waller; the versification correct, the language polished, and the modulation musical." "gay'n" for say, often thus used by the old writers. 7 To "paint" in Surrey's age mcant to mould, to form or fashion as the sculptor does. Sith Nature thus gave her the praise On your behalf might well be sought, DESCRIPTION OF SPRING.1 The soote2 season, that bud and bloom forth brings, The swift swallow pursueth the flies smale; Winter is worn that was the flowers' bale. OF THE HAPPY LIFE AND THE MEANS TO ATTAIN IT. MARTIAL, the things that do attain The happy life, be these, I find; The equal friend, no grudge, no strife; The mean diet, no delicate fare; True wisdom join'd with simpleness; The night discharged of all care, Where wine the wit may not oppress: The faithful wife, without debate; Such sleeps as may beguile the night. Ne wish for Death, ne fear his might. 1 "This sonnet is perhaps the most beautiful specimen of descriptive poetry in our language.”— Dr. Nott. 2 "Soote" was continued in use long after its substitute noeet was introduced. 3 "Make," synonymous with mate. 4 The uneasiness experienced by this animal before he sheds his horns, leads him to rub his forebead against the paling of the park. "Flete" is not fleet, to "pass rapidly by," but nearer to our "float," except that it means what swims through the water as well as on its surface. 6 This was not only the old way of spelling small, but also of pronouncing it, with the long a, as in hate. 7 Mingles. This line probably means, a "household" or family that is not of recent establishment, and promises to be of duration. HUSH LATIMER, bishop of Worcester, was born about the year 1475. Being an only son, and of quick parts, his father, a respectable yeoman, resolved to make him a scholar, and after due preparation he entered Cambridge. He was a zealous papist till the age of thirty, when he was converted by Thomas Bilney, and began with great zeal to propagate the opinions of the reformers. During the reign of Edward VI., (1547—1553,) he was pre-eminent among his zealous contemporaries in spreading the doctrines of the Reformation, and, in conjunction with Cranmer, was one of the principal instruments in effecting its establishment. But in the persecutions of Mary, he was singled out as one of the most desired victims of popish vengeance. He might have made his escape, and the opportunity which was given him seems to have been designed; but Latimer had the true spirit of a martyr, and determined to remain at his post of duty. As he passed through Smithfield on his way to London after his arrest, he exclaimed, "This place has long groaned for me." After a tedious imprisonment he persisted in refusing to subscribe to certain articles which were submitted to him, and he was led forth to his horrid death, October 16, 1555. With a staff in his hand, a pair of spectacles hanging at his breast, and a Bible at his girdle, he walked to the place of execution, with his fellow martyr, Nicholas Ridley, bishop of London. On their way Ridley outwent Latimer some way before; but he, looking back, espied Latimer coming after, and said to him, "O be ye there?" "Yea," said Latimer, «have after as fast as I can follow." Ridley first entered the lists, dressed in his clerical habit; and soon after, Latimer, as usual, in his prison garb. Latimer now suffered the keeper to pull off his prison-garb, and then he appeared in a shroud. Being ready, he fervently recommended his soul to God, and then delivered himself to the executioner, saying to Ridley these prophetical words: "Be of good cheer, master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day kindle such a torch in England as I trust in God shall never be extinguished." Two bags of gunpowder were fastened under his arms, the explosion of which instantaneously deprived him of life. At this moment a quantity of blood seemed to gush from his heart, as if all the blood in his body had been there collected. But poor Ridley was less fortunate. His extremities were consumed to the trunk before the fire affected his vitals, and he died in lingering anguish.2 A YEOMAN OF HENRY SEVENTH'S TIME. My father was a yeoman, and had no lands of his own, only he had a farm of 31. or 41. by year at the uttermost, and hereupon he tilled so much as kept half a dozen men. He had walk for an 1 At first himself also a Romish priest; but he was afterwards burnt for heresy. 2 "Nor were the labors and constancy of our reformers at all inferior to those of the early propagators of the Gospel. Whoever has admired the faith and heroic sufferings of Ignatius or Polycarp, must look with no less satisfaction on those of Ridley, Latimer, Cranmer, and Hooper. It is impos sible not to venerate their glowing piety, their profound humility, their patience under sufferings, their praises of God under distresses and privations of every kind, their prayers for their persecutors, their exemplary and triumphant death."—Lectures on Paganism and Christianity compared, by John Ireland, D. D.-a most admirable work. hundred sheep, and my mother milked 30 kine. He was able, and did find the king a harness, with himself and his horse, while he came to the place that he should receive the king's wages. I can remember that I buckled his harness when he went to Blackheath field. He kept me to school, or else I had not been able to have preached before the king's majesty now. He married my sisters with 51. or 20 nobles apiece, so that he brought them up in godliness and fear of God. He kept hospitality for his poor neighbours. And some alms he gave to the poor, and all this did he of the said farm. Where he that now hath it, payeth 167. by the year, or more, and is not able to do any thing for his prince, for himself, nor for his children, or give a cup of drink to the poor. In my time my poor father was as diligent to teach me to shoot, as to learn me any other thing, and so I think other men did their children: he taught me how to draw, how to lay my body in my bow, and not to draw with strength of arms as divers other nations do, but with strength of the body. I had my bows bought me according to my age and strength; as I increased in them, so my bows were made bigger and bigger, for men shall never shoot well, except they be brought up in it: it is a worthy game, a wholesome kind of exercise, and much commended in physic. HIS EXAMINATION BEFORE THE BISHOPS. I was once in examination before five or six bishops, where I had much turmoiling; every week thrice I came to examination, and many snares and traps were laid to get something. Now God knoweth, I was ignorant of the law, but that God gave me answer and wisdom what I should speak. It was God indeed, for else I had never escaped them. At the last I was brought forth to be examined, into a chamber hanged with arras, where I was wont to be examined, but now at this time the chamber was somewhat altered. For whereas before there was wont ever to be a fire in the chimney, now the fire was taken away, and an arras hanging hanged over the chimney, and the table stood near the chimney's end: so that I stood between the table and the chimney's end. There was among these bishops that examined me, one with whom I have been very familiar, and took him for my great friend, an aged man, and he sate next the table's end. Then among all other questions he put forth one, a very subtle and crafty one, and such a one indeed as I could not think so great danger in. And I should make answer: I pray you, master Latimer, saith he, speak out: I am very thick of hearing, and here be many that sit far off. I marvelled at this, that I was bid. den speak out, and began to misdeem, and gave an ear to the chimney. And, sir, there I heard a pen walking in the chimney |