66 END OF CERTANE TYRANE PRINCIS. AND SPECYALLYE THE BEGYNNARIS OF THE FOUR MONARCHIES." THE princes of thir four great monarchies, Behald how God, ay sen the warld began, Gane is the golden warld of Assyrians, Now is the warld of iron mixt with clay," Tokens of dearth, hunger, and pestilence, 1 Emperors. 2 Trusting; see note 5, p. 36. 3 Seats. 4 Relatives and adjectives do not now take the sign of the plural; imperials above may be reckoned an adjective, like inobedients. Finished to perform; completed the execution of; (French, parfournir.) For the allusions in this stanza, see Daniel ii. For the pagan fable of the four ages, see Ovid, Met. i. 89-150. The iron mixed with clay," (Daniel ii. 33,) is commonly interpreted as descriptive of the medieval kingdoms that sprung from the ruins of the Roman empire. The government of the infinitive by the generic verb do is assigned as the origin of the infinitive sign to. Men in all ages of Christianity have been fond of viewing the remarkable phenomena of the period in which they lived as indications of the approaching judgment. Whilk signifies the last day is at hand.1 CHRIST COMING TO JUDGMENT. As fireflaucht hastily glancing, Descend shall the maist heavenly King. Lightens in haste the occident, In his presence there shall be borne Appear shall, in his hands and feet And in his side, the print complete Shining like rubies radious. 1 Matth. xxiv. 6, 7: Luke xxi. 10, 11. Lyndsay had seen the great wars of Charles V. and Francis I.; the distractions of the reformation; and the quarrels with England. 2 A meteor. 3 Scholars (Lat. clericus, an ecclesiastic). Scholarship in the dark ages was always associated solely with the clerical character; hence the phrase "be nefit of clergy," implying the exemption of a criminal from punishment if he could read and write; the clergy claiming independence of civil tribunals. Luxuriant; see note 19, p. 11. 5 This valley, on the east of Jerusalem, which our Saviour overlooked when, from Mount Olivet, he made the revelation to his disciples of the final doom of the world, was regarded as the destined seat of the last judgment. Even the Mahometans point to the stone on the western side of the valley on which the prophet is to sit when he performs this high function. "Dionysius the Areopagite, and others, have divided the angels into nine orders, and those they have reduced into three hierarchies.-Spencer speaks of the angels singing in their 'trínal triplicities.' Faery Queen, i. xii. 30.-Milton, perhaps, is the last poet who has used this popular theory. Parad. Lost, v. 748."-Warton. Angels were favourite subjects of speculation with the scholastic philosophers. 1 Torment; Ang.-Sax. derian, to hurt. HENRY HOWARD, EARL OF SURREY. (1516-1547.) THE merit of Lydgate has been vindicated; Occleve was esteemed down to the age of Elizabeth and James, but the interval between Chaucer and Henry VIII. is in general a dreary poetical void. In "Anderson's British Poets," the Earl of Surrey immediately follows Chaucer as the first name in an interval of about a century and a-half that deserves a place among the "classical poetry" of England. The son of the Duke of Norfolk, the victor of Flodden in 1513, he was from his youth associated with the court of Henry VIII. in the capacity of companion to the Duke of Richmond, a natural son of that prince. He had imbibed all the romance of the chivalric character which the courts of Henry and Francis I. were destined to be the last to display. His travels on the continent have all the features of the wanderings of a Paladin. The lady of his devotion, whom he celebrates under the appellation of the "Fair Geraldine," is said to have been the daughter of Fitzge rald, Earl of Kildare. Excited by a magical representation of his love by the adept Cornelius Agrippa, he triumphed in a tournament at Florence, in which he had challenged "all who could handle a lance, Turk, Saracen, or cannibal, who should presume to dispute the superiority of Geraldine's beauty." He was subsequently employed by the king in high military commands. But the whole family of Howard fell under Henry's hatred, after the execution of Queen Catharine, Surrey's sister. He and his father were thrown into the tower, and condemned on frivolous accusations. Surrey was executed in 1547: the Duke of Norfolk narrowly escaped the same fate by the death of the tyrant. Surrey and Sir Thomas Wyatt,' with whom his name is often associated, are sometimes ranked as the first who polished the English language to the elegance it has since worn. Surrey is deeply imbued with the manner of Petrarch. His pieces are full of natural and beautiful feeling, without any of the affectation of his age. His language is plaintive and musical. He was the first writer of blank verse in English in the translation of a portion of the Æneid. "He also wrote the first English sonnets."-Southey. SURREY'S REFLECTIONS ON HIS IMPRISONMENT IN WINDSOR CASTLE. 2 3 So cruel prison how could betide, alas, Where each sweet place returns a taste full sour, 1 The son of the Sir Thomas Wyatt executed in the beginning of the reign of Mary. Warton calls him "the first polished English satirist." 2 He had been condemned to this imprisonment for eating flesh in Lent. Henry VIII.'s theology often reduced his subjects to worse straits. 3 Be my lot. Innate delight. The word has been noticed above. It runs through many applications in many languages, from the Greek lao, downwards. 5 The Earl of Richmond. A passage in the Iliad, xxiv. 260, seems to imply the gormandizing propensities of Priam's sons. 7 Hover. With eyes cast up into the Maiden's Tower,1 The stately seats; the ladies bright of hue, The palm-play, where, despoiléd1 for the game, The gravels ground, with sleeves tied on the helm,' The wild forest, the clothed holts10 with green, NO AGE CONTENT WITH HIS OWN ESTATE. LAID in my quiet bed, in study as I were, I saw, within my troubled head, a heap of thoughts appear. That now I sighed, and then I smiled, as cause of thoughts did rise. I saw the little boy, and thought how oft that he Did wish of God, to 'scape the rod, a tall young man to be. The rich old man, that sees his end draw on so sore, 1 "Maiden, a corruption of the old French magne or mayne, great. Thus Maidenhead (properly Maiden hythe) in Berkshire, is the great port on the river Thames."-Warton. Mai dun are two ancient British words, signifying great hill. Thus the Maiden Castle (Edinburgh), is not castra puellarum, but a castle on a high hill."-Ritson. This is in the style of the exaggerated gallantry of the period; rue, pity; hence ruth, ruthless. 5 Dazzled. At ball with the palm of the hand. 4 Rendered unfit. 7 "The ladies were ranged on the leads or battlements of the castle to see the play."-Warton. The area of the training lists was strewed with gravel. The sleeves or gloves of their mistresses were tied on the helmets of the champions. "And in my helmet wear her glove When gallants ride the ring."-Poems by a Family Circle. See Shakesp. Henry V. Act iv. Sc. i. vii. viii. 10 See p. 2, note 4. 11 Loosened: from avaller, to cast; to fell down: Barb. Lat. avallare; which, according to Menage, is formed from ad, to, and vallis, a valley: as monter is formed from mons, a mountain.-Richardson. Whereat full oft I smiled, to see how all those three, From boy to man, from man to Loy, would chop and change degree. And, musing thus, I think the case is very strange, That man from wealth to live in woe, doth ever seek to change. Thus thoughtful as I lay, I saw my withered skin, How it doth show my dented chewes; the flesh was worn so thin. And eke my toothless chaps, the gates of my right way," "Bids thee lay hand and feel them hanging on thy chin, Whereat I sighed, and said, "Farewell, my wonted Toy, SPRING. THE Sweet season, that bud and bloom forth brings, 1 Or chaws, now written jaws; dented, indented. Shed their horns. 2 True philosophy. Used like the Scripture phrase, "stricken in years." • Mingles: see note 3, p. 38; and note 14, p. 11, |