A company of us rode in certain ground, Where we well nigh an impassable slough found. Their horses, ere they enter'd, began to stay; Every one's horse giving an other the way; Of good manner, as it were:-and, more and more Each horse gave back to set his better before, Save this rude, rusty, bold, blind Bayard of mine, As rashly as rudely, chopt forth: and, in fine, Without any courtesy, ere any man bids, Blindly and boldly he lept into the mids: And look, how boldly the mids he lept intill, Even with like boldness in the mids he lay still. And, trow you, the jade, at the best men's words there, Would stir one joint ?-Nay; not the breadth of an hair! But stared on them, with as bold a countenance, As that hole had been his by inheritance! He having no more to do there than had I. But straight, there cometh a cart-wear1 of good hors by, By force whereof, and help of all that rout, Blind Bayard and I were drawn together out. I A team. 2 A contraction for horses. Rather than ride so, I will afoot take pain; Blind bold Bayard shall not thus bear me again. [3d. cent. epig. 101.] The time of Heywood's birth is uncertain: he is supposed to have died at Mechlin in 1565; having, after the death of Queen Mary, become a refugee on account of his religion. 66 About 1542, a printer of the name of Robert Wyer published an anonymous satire against women, entitled "The Scole-howse, wherein every man may rede a goodly prayse of the condycyons of From this work Mr Warton has extracted the following epigrammatic stanza, which, in point of taste and spirit, nearly resembles the poetry of Heywood. "women. Truly some men there be, That live always in great horroùr, And say, it goeth by destiny To hang or wed: both hath one hour. Sooner done, and shorter pain. The minor poets of this reign were, ANDREW BOORD, or BORDE, a whimsical physician, who is mentioned by the ingenious editor of "the Muses' Library," with much more praise than he seems to deserve; JOHN BALE, the biographer; BRIAN ANSLAY, author of "The boke of the Cyte of La¦ dyes," 1521 (probably a translation of the "Tre66 sor de la cité des dames" by Christian of Pisa); ANDREW CHERTESEY, another translator; WILFRIDE HOLME, author of "The fall and evill successe of Rebellion ;"* (1572, 4to.) CHARLES BANSLEY, a rhyming satirist; CHRISTOPHER GOODWIN, author of "The Maiden's Dreme" (1542, 4to.); THOMAS FEYLDE, author of " A lytel trea66 tyse called the Contraverse betwene a Lover and 66 a Jaye," in six-line stanzas (4to. W. de Worde, n. d.); and WILLIAM Bloomfield, a monk of Bury, and chemical writer. These deserve no farther notice but it would be unpardonable to omit the mention of two anonymous compositions, THE TOURNAMENT OF TOTTENHAM, and THE NUTBROWN MAID; both of which are, by Mr Warton, ascribed to this reign. By referring to the second volume of Percy's Reliques (P. 13 and 29), where they are inserted, the reader will perceive that the first is anterior to the accession of Henry VIII. by at least half a century, and that the date of the second is still uncertain, though the circumstance of its having originally appeared in Arnold's chronicle (first printed about 1521) is favourable to the conjecture of Warton and Capell. The poetical merit of both pieces is unquestionable. * Written in 1537. At the head of the Scotish poets of this period stands SIR DAVID LINDSAY, of the Mount, near Coupar, in Fife; born, as Mr Pinkerton supposes, about the year 1490. He was (says this editor,) descended of an ancient family; was educated at St Andrew's; afterwards travelled through England, France, Italy, and Germany, and returned to Scotland about 1514. Soon after his return he became one of the gentlemen of the king's chamber, and had the charge of superintending the education of the young prince, afterwards king James V. In 1536 he was employed by that monarch as his ambassador to the emperor Charles V. and also to France, to negotiate the king's marriage a proof that he possessed much of his master's confidence; which, indeed, he seems to have merited by the affection with which he served him, and by the honest and wise counsels which he never failed to offer. But the only permanent establishment which he ever gained at court was the post of lion king at arms; an office of more honour than emolument. After the death of James V. in 1542, he is said to have enjoyed a degree of favour with the earl of Arran; but having been deprived of this by means of a court intrigue, he retired to his country seat, where he lived tranquil and respected till the end of 1553, when he died. In the works of Sir David Lindsay we do not often find either the splendid diction of Dunbar, or the prolific imagination of Gawin Douglas. Perhaps, indeed, the Dream is his only composition which can be cited as uniformly poetical: but his various learning, his good sense, his perfect knowledge of courts and of the world, the facility of his versification, and, above all, his peculiar talent of adapting himself to readers of all denominations, will continue to secure to him a considerable share of that popularity, for which he was originally indebted to the opinions he professed, no less than to his poetical merit. "In fact," says Mr Pinkerton, "Sir David was more the reformer "of Scotland than John Knox; for he had pre66 pared the ground, and John only sowed the "seed." This, though it has greatly increased his posthumous reputation, was a considerable impediment to his advancement during life, as it was not till 1560 that the reformation was established in Scotland; and his works being so odious to the clergy that, by an act of assembly in 1558, they were ordered to be publicly burned, there is perhaps not one of the numerous editions through which they have passed that preserves the genuine text of the author. The earliest, and probably the best of these, is that of 1568; the last (which is very paltry and incorrect) is that of 1776. |