In 1839, a complete edition of the works of Donne, including sermons, devotions, poems, letters, &c., was published in six volumes, edited by the Rev. Henry Alford, afterwards Dean of Canterbury. JOSEPH HALL. 6 JOSEPH HALL, born at Bristow Park, in Leicestershire, in 1574, and who rose through various church preferments to be bishop of Norwich, is distinguished as a satirical poet, whose works have been commended by Pope and Warton, and often reprinted. His satires, which were published under the title of Virgidemiarum,' in 1597-8, refer to general objects, and present some just pictures of the more remarkable anomalies in human character: they are also written in a style of greater vigour and volubility than most of the compositions of this age. His chief defect is obscurity, arising from remote allusions and elliptical expression. Bishop Hall died in 1656, at the age of eighty-two. Selections from Hail's Satires. A gentle squire would gladly entertain Ever presume to sit above the sait. Third, that he never change his trencher twice. How many jerks he would his breech should line. Seest thou how gaily my young master goes," * And pranks his hand upon his dagger's side; Than stake his twelvepence to a meaner host. This is the portrait of a poor gailant of the days of Elizabeth. In St. Paul's Cathedral, then an open public place, there was a tomb, erroneously supposed to be that of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. which was the resort of gentlemen upon town in that day who had occasion to look cut or a dinner. When unsuccess. ul in getting an invita tion, they were said to dine with Duke Humphrey. An allusion to the church-servi. to be heard near Duke Humphrey's tomb. He touched no meat of all this livelong day; So little in his purse, so much upon his back? What needed he fetch that from farthest Spain, His hair, French-like, stares on his frighted head, As if he meant to wear a native cord, If chance his fates should him that bane afford. Close notched is his beard, both lip and chiu; Whose thousand double turnings never met: Like a broad shake-fork with a slender steel. MARSTON CHURCHYARD-TUBERVILLE-WATSON-CONSTABLE. Nearly contemporary with Hall's satires were those of JOHN MARSTN, the dramatist, known for his subsequent rivalry and quarrel with Ben Jonson. Marston, in 1598, published a small volume, Certayne Satires,' and in 1599 The Scourge of Villany,' &c. He survived till 1634. Little is known of this English Aretine,' but all his works are coarse and licentious. Ben Jonson boasted to Drummond that he had beaten Marston and taken his pistol from him. If he had sometimes taken his pen, he would have better served society. Among the swarm of poets ranking with the earlier authors of this period, we may note the following as conspicuous in their own times. THOMAS CHURCHYARD (1520-1604) wrote about seventy volumes in prose and verse. He served in the army, trailed a pike 'in the reigns of Henry VIII., Mary, and Elizabeth, and received from Elizabethwhom he had propitiated by complimentary addressesa pension of eighteen-pence a day, not paid regularly. Churchyard is supposed to be the Palamon of Spenser's Colin Clout, That sang so long until quite hoarse he grew. 1 Long, or Low. -GEORGE TUBERVILLE (circa 1530-1594) was secretary to Randolph, Queen Elizabeth's ambassador at the court of Russia. So early as 1568, he had published songs and sonnets; but some of his worksas his Essays' and 'Book of Falconry' --were not published till after his death.-THOMAS WATSON (circa 1557-1592) was author of 'Hecatompathia, or Passionate Century of Love' (1582), a series of sonnets of superior elegance and merit; also 'Amyntas,' 1585, &c.— HENRY CONSTABLE (circa 1560-1612) was author of a great number of sonnets, partly published in 1592 under the title of Diana.' Almost every writer of this time ventured on a sonnet or translation. Some settled down into dramatists, and as such will be noticed hereafter; others became best known as prose writers. Dr. Drake calculates that there were about two hundred poets in the reign of Elizabeth! This is no exaggeration; but it is to the last decade of the century that we must look for its brighest names. Sonnets by Thomas Watson. When May is in his prime, and youthful Spring And lovely Nature smiles and nothing lowers; With night-complaints, and sits in little rest. To whom fond Love doth work such wrongs by day, Time wasteth years, and months, and hours; Time turneth oft our pleasure into pain; Time causeth wars and wrongs to be forgot; NICHOLAS BRETON. NICHOLAS BRETON (1558-1624) was a prolific and often happy writer, pastoral, satirical, and humorous. His Works of a Young Wit' appeared in 1577; and a succession of small volumes proceeded from his pen; eight pieces with his name are in England's Helicon' -a valuable poetical miscellany published on 1600, including contributions from Sidney, Spenser, Raleigh, Lodge, Marlowe, Watson, Greene, &c. Of Breton, little personally is known, but he is supposed to have been the son of a Captain Nicholas Breton of Tamworth, in Staffordshire, who had an estate at Nortou, in Northamptonshire. A Pastoral.-From England's Helicon. On a hill there grows a flower, Fair befall the dainty sweet! In that bower there is a chair, Fringed all about with gold, Where doth sit the fairest fair That ever eye did yet behold. It is Phillis, fair and bright, From Who would not this face admire ? Who would not this saint adore? O fair eyes, yet let me see Thou that art the shepherd's queen, Farewell to Town.' Thou gallant court, to thec, farewell! Now longer near to thee to dwell. And next, adieu, you gallant dames, That I am banished from your sight, Now next, my gallant youths, farewell; To think that I must from you part. And now, you stately stamping steeds, To think that I must part with you; And now, farewell, both spear and shield, See, see, what sighs my heart doth yield, And you, farewell, all gallant games, Wherewith I used, with courtly dames, To pass away the time withal; And now, farewell, each dainty dish, To please this dainty mouth of mine! And now, all orders due, farewell! My dainty dinners all are done; And farewell all gay garments now, I must go range in woodman's wise; What shall I say, but bid adieu LODGE-BARNFIELD. 6 · a THOMAS LODGE, one of the most graceful and correct of the minor poets and imaginative writers of this period, appeared as an authōr in 1580. He then published a' Defence of Stage Plays in Three Divisions,' to which Stephen Gosson replied by a work quaintly styled 'Plays Confuted in Five Actions.' Gosson speaks of Lodge as vagrant person visited by the heavy hand of God.' Of the nature of this visitation we are not informed, but Lodge seems to have had a very varied life. He was of a respectable family in Lincolnshire, where he was born about 1556, and entered Trinity College, Oxford, as a servitor, under Sir Edward Hobby, in 1573. After leaving college, he is supposed to have been on the stage. But he afterwards joined in the expeditions of Captains Clarke and Cavendish, and wrote his 'Rosalynde' to beguile the time during his voyage to the Canaries. He next appears as a law-student. In his 'Glaucus and Scilla' (1589), 'Catharos Diogenes' (1591), and 'A Fig for Comus' (1595), he styles himself of Lincoln's Inn, Gent. His next work, A Margarite of America' (1596), was written, he says, 'in those straits christened by Magellan, in which place to the southward, many wondrous isles, many strange fishes, many monstrous Patagons, withdrew my senses.' From the law, Lodge turned to physic. He studied medicine, Wood says, at Avignon, and he practised in London, being much patronised by Roman Catholic families, till his death by the plague in 1625. Lodge wrote several pastoral tales, sonnets, and light satires, besides two dramas; one of them in conjunction with Greene His poetry is easy and polished, though abounding in conceits and gaudy ornament. His Rosalynde: Euphues Golden Legacie,' contains passages of fine description and delicate sentiment, with copies of verses interspersed. From this romantic little tale Shakspeare took the incidents of his As You Like It,' following Lodge with remarkable closeness. The great dramatist has been censured for some anachronisms in hig exquisite comedy--such as introducing a lioness and palm tree into his forest of Arden; but he merely copied Lodge, who has the lion, the myrrh-tree, the fig, the citron, and pomegranate. In these romantic and pastoral tales, consistency and credibility were utterly disregarded. RICHARD BARNFIELD (born about 1570) resembled Lodge in the |