The Re-cured Lover exulteth in his Fre-dom, and voweth to remain Free until Death.

I am as I am, and so will I be,
But how that I am none knoweth truly
Be it ill, be it well, be I bond, be I free,
I am as I am, and so will I be.

I lead my life indifferently;
I mean nothing but honesty;

And though folks judge full diversely,
I am as I am, and so will I die.

I do not rejoice, nor yet complain,
Both mirth and sadness I do refrain,
And use the means since folks will feign;
Yet I am as I am, be it pleasant or pain.

Divers do judge as they do trow,
Some of pleasure and some of woe,
Yet for all that nothing they know;
But I am as I am, wheresoever I go.

But since judges do thus decay,
Let every man his judgment say;
I will it take in sport and play,
For I am as I am, whosoever say nay.

Who judgeth well, well God them send;
Who judgeth evil, God them amend;
To judge the best therefore intend.
For I am as I am, and so will I end.

Yet some there be that take delight,
To judge folk's thought for envy and
spite;

But whether they judge me wrong or
right,

I am as I am, and so do I write.

To trust it as you do your creed;
Praying you all that this do read,
And not to think I change my weed,
For I am as I am, however I speed.
But how that is I leave to you;
Judge as ye list, false or true,
Ye know no more than afore ye knew,
Yet I am as I am, whatever ensue.

And from this mind I will not flee,
But to you all that misjudge me.
I do protest, as ye may see,

That I am as I am, and so will be.

That Pleasure is mixed with every Pain.

Venomous thorns that are so sharp and keen

Bear flowers, we see, full fresh and fair of hue,
Poison is also put in medicine,

And unto man his health doth oft renew.
The fire that all things eke consumeth clean,
May hurt and heal; then if that this be true,
I trust some time my harm may be my health,
Since every woe is joined with some wealth.

The Courtier's Life.

In court to serve decked with fresh array,
Of sugared meats feeling the sweet repast,
The life in banquets and sundry kinds of play;
Amid the press the worldly looks to waste;
Hath with it joined oft-time such bitter taste,
That whoso joys such kind of life to hold,
In prison joys, fettered with chains of gold.

Of the Mean and Sure Estate.
Stand whoso lists upon the slippery wheel
Of high estate, and let me here rejoice,
And use my life in quietness each deal,
Unknown in court that hath the wanton joys.
In hidden place my time shail slowly pass,
And when my years be passed without annoy
Let me die old after the common trace,
For grips of death do he too hardly pass
That known is to all, but to himself, alas!
He dieth unknown, dazed with dreadful face.

LORD VAUX-NICHOLAS GRIMOALD--RICHARD

EDWARDS--WILLIAM

HUNNIS- SIR F. BRYAN-VISCOUNT ROCHFORT.

·

THOMAS, LORD VAUX, was born about 1510, and died in the reign of Queen Mary. He was captain of the isle of Jersey under Henry VIII. Poems by Vaux are in 'Tottel's Miscellany,' and no less than thirteen short pieces of his composition are in a second miscellany, (prompted, no doubt, by the unexempled success of Tottel's collection), entitled 'The Paradise of Dainty Devices, 1576.'-NICHOLAS GRIMOALD (circa 1520-1563), a rhetorical lecturer in Oxford University, has two translations from the Latin of Philip Gaultier and Beza in Tottel's Miscellany,' both of which are in blank verse. He wrote also several small poems.*-RICHARD EDWARDS (circa 15231566) was the most valuable contributor to the Dainty Devices.' He was master of the singing-boys of the royal chapel, and is known as a writer of court interludes and masks. His verses, entitled 'Amantium Iræ,' are among the best of the miscellaneous poems of that age. WILLIAM HUNNIS, who died in 1568, was also attached to Edward VI.'s chapel, and afterwards master of the boys of Queen Elizabeth's chapel. He translated the Psalms, and wrote some religious treatises and scriptural interludes. Mr. Hallam considers that Hunnis should be placed as high as Vaux or Edwards, were his productions all equal to one little piece (a song which we subjoin); but too often,' adds the critic, he falls into trivial morality and a ridiculous excess of alliteration." These defects characterise most of the minor poets of this period-Drayton, in one of his poetical epistles, mentions SIR FRANCIS BRYAN, nephew to Lord Berners, the translator of Froissart, as a contributor to Tottel's Miscellany;' and GEORGE BOleyn, VISCOUNT ROCHFORT (brother of Anne Boleyn), has been named as another contributor. The contemporary impression of their talents was great, and both were almost adored at court, though Boleyn was sacrificed by Henry VIII. on a revolting and groundless charge. We may mention, as illustrating the popularity of the first English 'Miscellany' (that of Tottel), that it appears to have caught the attention of Shakspeare, who has transplanted some lines from it into his Hamlet,' and that it soothed the confinement of Mary Queen of Scots, who is said to have written two lines from one of the poems with a diamond on a window in Fotheringay Castle. The lines are:

And from the top of all my trust,
Mishap hath thrown me in the dust.

* In a sonnet by Sir Egerton Brydges on the death of Sir Walter Scott, is a fine line often quoted : The glory dies not, and the grief is past.

The same sentiment had been thus expressed by Grimoald:

In working well if travel you sustain.
Juto the wind shall lightly pass the pain,
But of the deed the glory shall remain.

On a Contented Mind.- By Lord Vaux.-From the Paradise of

Devices, 1576.

Companion none is like

Unto the mind alone;

For many have been harmed by speech;
Through thinking, few or none.
Fear oftentimes restraineth words,
But makes not thought to cease;
Aud he speaks best that hath the skill
When for to hold his peace.

Our wealth leaves us at death;
Our kinsmen at the grave;
But virtues of the mind unto
The heavens with us we have.
Wherefore, for virtue's sake.
I can be well content,
The sweetest time of all my life
To deem in thinking spent.

Amantium Ira Amoris Redintegratio Est.-By Richard Edwards.

From the same.

In going to my naked bed, as one that would have slept,
1 heard a wife sing to her child, that long before had wept.
She sighed sore, and sang full sweet, to bring the babe to rest,
That would not cease, but cried still, in sucking at her breast.
She was full weary of her watch, and grieved with her child;
She rocked it, and rated it, until on her it smiled;

Then did she say: 'Now have I found the proverb true to prove,
The falling out of faithful friends renewing is of love.'

Then took I paper, pen, and ink, this proverb for to write,

In register för to remain of such a worthy wight.

As she proceeded thus in song unto her little brat,

Much matter uttered she of weight in place whereas she sat;
And proved plain, there was no beast, nor creature bearing life,
Could well be known to live in love without discórd and strife;
Then kissed she her little babe, and sware by God above,

"The falling out of faithful friends renewing is of love.'

·

[smile,

'I marvel much, pardie,' quoth she, for to behold the rout,
To see man, woman, boy and beast, to toss the world about;
Some kneel, some crouch, some beck, some check, and some can smoothly
And some embrace others in arms, and there think many a wile.

Some stand aloof at cap and knee, some humble, and some stout,

Yet are they never friends indeed until they once fall out.
Thus ended she her song, and said, before she did remove:
"The falling out of faithful friends renewing is of love.'

Song.-By William IIunnis.-From the Same.

When first mine eves did view and mark
Thy beauty fair for to behold,

And when mine ears 'gan first to hark

The pleasant words that thou me told,

I would as then I had been free

From ears to hear and eyes to see.

And when in mind I did consent
To follow thus my fancy's will,
And when my heart did first relent
To taste such bait myself to spill,
I would my heart had been as thine,
Or else thy heart as soft as mine.

O flatterer false! thou traitor born

What mischief more might thou devise
Than thy dear friend to have in scorn,
And him to wound in sundry wise,
Which still a friend pretends to be,
But art not so by proof, I see-
Fie, fie upon such treachery!

A Praise of his Lady.-Said to be by George Boleyn, beheaded in 1536. Also claimed for John Heywood.--From Totteľ's Miscellany.

THOMAS TUSSER.

THOMAS TUSSER, author of the first didactic poem in the language, was born about 1515, of an ancient family, had a good education, and commenced life at court, under the patronage of Lord Paget. Afterwards he practised farming successively at Ratwood in Sussex, Ipswich, Fairsted in Essex, Norwich, and other places; but not succeeding in that walk, he betook himself to other occupations, amongst

which were those of a chorister and, it is said, a fiddler. As might be expected of one so inconstant, he did not prosper in the world, but died poor in London, in 1580.

Tusser's poem, entitled a 'Hondreth Good Points of Husbandrie,' which was first published in 1557, is a series of practical directions for farming, expressed in simple and inelegant, but not always dull verse. It was afterwards expanded by other writers, and published under the title of Five Hundreth Points of Good Husbandrie:' the last of a considerable number of editions appeared in 1710. Directions for Cultivating a Hop-garden.

Whom fancy persuadeth, among other crops,
To have for his spending sufficient of hops,
Must willingly follow, of choices to choose,
Such lessons approved, as skilful do use.

Ground gravelly, sandy, and mixed with clay,
Is naughty for hops, any manner of way,
Or if it be mingled with rubbish and stone,
For dryness and barrenness let it alone.

Choose soil for the hop of the rottenest mould,
Well dunged and wrought, as a garden-plot should;
Not far from the water, but not overflown,
This lesson, well noted, is meet to be known.

The sun in the south, or else southly and west,
Is joy to the hop, as a welcome guest;
But wind in the north, or else northerly east,
To the hop is as ill as a fay in a feast.

Meet plot for a hop-yard once found as is told,
Make thereof account, as of jewel of gold;
Now dig it, and leave it, the sun for to burn,
And afterwards fence it, to serve for that turn.
The hop for his profit I thus do exalt,
It strengtheneth drink, and it favoureth malt;
And being well brewed, long kept it will last,
And drawing abide-if ye draw not too fast.

Housewifely Physic.

Good huswife provides, ere a sickness do come,
Of sundry good things in her house to have some.
Good Aqua composita, and vinegar tart,

Rose water, and treacle, to comfort thine heart.
Cold herbs in her garden, for agues that burn,
That overstrong heat to good temper may turn.
White endive, and succory, with spinach enow;

All such with good pot-herbs, should follow the plough.)
Get water of fumitory, liver to cool,

And others the like or else lie like a fool.
Conserves of barbary, quinces, and such,
With syrups that easeth the sickly so much.
Ask Medicus' counsel, ere medicine ye take,
And honour that man for necessity's sake.

Though thousands hate physic, because of the cost,
Yet thousands it helpeth, that else should be lost,