Now by my fay, sayd the heire of Linne, And he pull'd forth three bagges of gold, He told him forth the good red gold, Sayes, Have thou here, thou good fellòwe, And forty pounds I will give thee. Ile make thee keeper of my forrest, I wis, good fellowe, I were to blame. Now well-aday! sayth Joan o' the Scales: Yesterday I was lady of Linne, Now Ime but John o' the Scales his wife. 105 110 115 120 V. 34. of part i., and 102 of part ii., cast is the reading of the MS. GASCOIGNE'S PRAISE OF THE FAIR BRIDGES. 145 Now fare thee well, sayd the heire of Linne; 125 In the present edition of this ballad, several ancient readings are restored from the folio MS. VI. Gascoigne's Praise of the Fair Bridges, ON HER HAVING A SCAR IN HER FOREHEAD. GEORGE GASCOIGNE was a celebrated poet in the early part of Queen Elizabeth's reign, and appears to great advantage among the miscellaneous writers of that age. He was author of three or four plays, and of many smaller poems; one of the most remarkable of which is a satire in blank verse, called the Steele-glass, 1576, 4to. Gascoigne was born in Essex, educated in both universities, whence he removed to Gray's-inn; but, disliking the study of the law, became first a dangler at court, and afterwards a soldier in the wars of the Low Countries. He had no great success in any of these pursuits, as appears from a poem of his, entitled, "Gascoigne's Wodmanship, written to Lord Gray of Wilton." Many of his epistles dedicatory, are dated in 1575, 1576, from "his poore house in Walthamstoe:" where he died a middle-aged man in 1578, according to Anth. Wood; or VOL. II. L rather in 1577, if he is the person meant in an old tract, entitled, "A Remembrance of the well employed Life and Godly End of George Gascoigne, Esq. who deceased at Stamford in Lincolnshire, Oct. 7. 1577, by Geo. Whetstone, gent. an eye-witness of his godly and charitable end in this world," 4to. no date.-[From a MS. of Oldys.] Mr. Thomas Warton thinks "Gascoigne has much exceeded all the poets of his age in smoothness and harmony of versification 1." But the truth is, scarce any of the earlier poets of Queen Elizabeth's time are found deficient in harmony and smoothness, though those qualities appear so rare in the writings of their successors. In the Paradise of dainty Devises, (the Dodsley's Miscellany of those times,) will hardly be found one rough or inharmonious line 3: whereas the numbers of Jonson, Donne, and most of their contemporaries, frequently offend the ear, like the filing of a saw.—Perhaps this is in some measure to be accounted for from the growing pedantry of that age, and from the writers affecting to run their lines into one another, after the manner of the Latin and Greek poets. The following poem (which the elegant writer above quoted hath recommended to notice, as possessed of a delicacy rarely to be seen in that early state of our poetry) properly consists of Alexandrines of twelve and fourteen syllables, and is printed from two quarto black-letter collections of Gascoigne's pieces; the first entitled, "A hundreth sundrie flowres, bounde up in one small posie, &c. London, imprinted for Richarde Smith :" without date, but from a letter of H. W. (p. 202), compared with the 1 Observations on the Faerie Queen, vol. ii. p. 168. 2 Printed in 1578, 1596, and perhaps oftener, in 4to., blackletter. 3 The same is true of most of the poems in the Mirrour of Magistrates, 1563, 4to., and also of Surrey's Poems, 1557. printer's epist. to the reader, it appears to have been published in 1572, or 3. The other is entitled, "The Posies of George Gascoigne, Esq. corrected, perfected, and augmented by the author, 1575.-Printed at London, for Richard Smith," &c. No year, but the epist. dedicat. is dated 1576. In the title-page of this last (by way of printer's, or bookseller's device) is an ornamental wooden cut, tolerably well executed, wherein Time is represented drawing the figure of Truth out of a pit or cavern, with this legend, Occulta Veritas Tempore patet, [R. s.] This is mentioned, because it is not improbable but the accidental sight of this, or some other title-page containing the same device, suggested to Rubens that well-known design of a similar kind, which he has introduced into the Luxemburg Gallery 5, and which has been so justly censured for the unnatural manner of its execution. The device above mentioned, being not ill adapted to the subject of this volume, has, with some small variations, been copied ; and, to satisfy the curiosity of the reader, was prefixed to book iii. IN court whoso demaundes What dame doth most excell; For my conceit I must needes say, Faire Bridges beares the bel. Upon whose lively cheeke, To prove my judgment true, The rose and lillie seeme to strive For equall change of hewe: 4 Henrie Binneman. 5 Le Tems découvre la Vérité. 5 No frowning cheere dare once presume Although some lavishe lippes, Will say, the blemishe on hir browe Thereto I thus replie; God wotte, they little knowe The hidden cause of that mishap, 10 15 It lyked hir so well: Lo here, quod she, a peece For perfect shape, that passeth all This bayt may chaunce to catche The greatest God of love, 25 30 Or mightie thundring Jove himself, That rules the roast above. |