superadded rhyme, which in his time began to be the general practice. See an Essay on this very peculiar kind of metre, prefixed to Book III. in this Series.

IN december, when the dayes draw to be short, After november, when the nights wax noysome and long;

As I past by a place privily at a port,

I saw one sit by himself making a song: His last talk of trifles, who told with his tongue That few were fast i' th' faith. I 'freyned + that freake, [wrong. Whether he wanted wit, or some had done him He said, he was little John Nobody, that durst not speake.

John Nobody, quoth I, what news? thou soon note and tell

What maner men thou meane, thou are so mad.
He said, These gay gallants, that wil construe the
gospel,

As Solomon the sage, with semblance full sad;
To discusse divinity they nought adread;
More meet it were for them to milk kye at a fleyke.
Thou lyest, quoth I, thou losel, like a leud lad.

He said he was little John Nobody, that durst not speake.

Its meet for every man on this matter to talk,

And the glorious gospel ghostly to have in mind;
It is sothe said, that sect but much unseemly skalk,
As boyes babble in books, that in scripture are blind :
Yet to their fancy soon cause will find;

As to live in lust, in lechery to leyke:
Such caitives count to be come of Cains kind‡;
But that I little John Nobody durst not speake.

For our reverend father hath set forth an order,
Our service to be said in our seignours tongue;
As Solomon the sage set forth the scripture;
Our suffrages, and services, with many a sweet song,
With homilies, and godly books us among,
That no stiff, stubborn stomacks we should freyke :
But wretches nere worse to do poor men wrong;
But that I little John Nobody dare not speake.

For bribery was never so great, since born was our Lord, [rowed hel, And whoredom was never les hated, sith Christ harAnd poor men are so sore punished commonly through the world, [tel.

That it would grieve any one, that good is, to hear For al the homilies and good books, yet their hearts be so quel, [wreake; That if a man do amisse, with mischiefe they wil him The fashion of these new fellows it is so vile and fell:

But that I little John Nobody dare not speake. Thus to live after their lust, that life would they And in lechery to leyke al their long life; [have, For al the preaching of Paul, yet many a proud

knave

[wife Wil move mischiefe in their mind both to maid and To bring them in advoutry or else they wil strife, And in brawling about baudery, Gods commandments breake: [thrife; But of these frantic il fellowes, few of them do Though I little John Nobody dare not speake.

If thou company with them, they wil currishly carp, and not care [naught: According to their foolish fantacy; but fast wil they Prayer with them is but prating; therefore they it forbear: [thought: Both almes deeds, and holiness, they hate it in their Therefore pray we to that prince, that with his bloud

us bought,

[freyke

That he wil mend that is amiss: for many a manful Is sorry for these sects, though they say little or nought; [speake.

And that I little John Nobody dare not once

Thus in No place, this NOBODY, in no time I met, Where No man, 'ne*' NOUGHT was, nor NOTHING did appear;

Through the sound of a synagogue for sorrow I swett, That Aeolus t' through the eccho did cause me to hear.

Then I drew me down into a dale, whereas the dumb deer [freyke: Did shiver for a shower; but I shunted from a For I would no wight in this world wist who I were, But little John Nobody, that dare not once speake.

V.

The original of this Ballad is found in the Editor's folio MS. the breaches and defects in which, rendered the insertion of supplemental stanzas necessary. These it is hoped the Reader will pardon, as indeed the completion of the story was suggested by a modern ballad on a similar subject.

From the Scottish phrases here and there discernible in this poem, it would seem to have been originally composed beyond the Tweed.

The Heir of Linne appears not to have been a Lord of Parliament, but a Laird, whose title went along with his estate.

His father had a keen stewàrde,

And John o' the Scales was called hee: But John is become a gentel-man, And John has gott both gold and fee.

Sayes, Welcome, welcome, Lord of Linne,
Let nought disturb thy merry cheere;
Iff thou wilt sell thy landes soe broad,
Good store of gold Ile give thee heere

My gold is gone, my money is spent,
My lande nowe take it unto thee:
Give me the golde, good John o' the Scales,
And thine for aye my lande shall bee.

Then John he did him to record draw,
And John he cast him a gods-pennie
But for every pounde that John agreed,

The lande, I wis, was well worth three.

10

15

20

For when I was the Lord of Linne,

20

25

i. e. earnest-money; from the French Denier à Dieu.' At this day, when application is made to the Dean and Chapter of Carlisle to accept an exchange of the tenant under one of their leases, a piece of silver is presented by the new tenant, which is still called a God's-penny.

To beg my bread from door to doo
1 wis, it were a brenning shame
To rob and steal it were a Sione:
To worke my limbs I cannot frame.

Ver. 63, 4, 5, &c. Sic MS.

Some time a good fellow thou hast been
And sparedst not thy gold and fee;
Therefore lle lend thee forty pence
And other forty if need bee.

And ever, I pray thee, John o' the Scales,
To let him sit in thy companie:

For well I wot thou hadst his land,
And a good bargain it was to thee.

Up then spake him John o' the Scales,
All wood he answer'd him againe :
Now Christs curse on my head, he sayd,
But I did lose by that bargaine.

I drawe you to record, lords, he said. With that he cast him a gods pennie. Now by my fay, sayd the heire of Linne, And here, good John, is thy money.

And he pull'd forth three bagges of gold,
And layd them down upon the bord:
All woe begone was John o' the Scales,
Soe shent he cold say never a word.

He told him forth the good red gold,
He told it forth mickle dinne.
The gold is thine, the land is mine,

And now Ime againe the Lord of Linne.

105

110

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 aniversities, 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, intitled, 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 rather in 1577, if he is the person meant in an old tract, intitled, "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." 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 t." (the Dodsley's Miscellany of those times) will hardly be found one rough, or inharmo

Ver. 34, of Part I. and 102, of Part II. cast is the reading of the MS.

• Observation on the Faerie Queen, Vol. II. p. 168. + Printed in 1578, 1596, and perhaps oftener, in 4to. blackletter

nious line: 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 intitled, "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 printer's epist. to the reader, it appears to have been published in 1572, or 3. The other is intitled, "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'st 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 seme other title page containing the same device, suggested to Rubens that well-known design of a similar kind, which he has introduced into the Luxemburgh gallery, and which has been so justly censured for the unnatural manner of its execution.

Most of the circumstances in this popular story of King Henry II. and the beautiful Rosamond have been taken for fact by our English Historians; who, unable to account for the unnatural conduct of Queen Eleanor in stimulating her sons to rebellion, have attributed it to jealousy, and supposed that Henry's amour with Rosamond was the object of that passion.

Our old English annalists seem, most of them, to have followed Higden the monk of Chester, whose account, with some enlargements, is thus given by Stow.

"Rosamond the fayre daughter of Walter Lord Clifford, concubine to Henry II. (poisoned by Queen Elianor, as some thought) ayed at Woodstocke [A. D. 1177.] where King Henry had made for her a house of wonderfull working; so that no man or woman might come to her, but he that was

instructed by the King, or such as were right secret with him touching the matter. This house after some was named Labyrinthus, or Dedalus worke, which was wrought like unto a knot in a garden, called a Maze; but it was commonly said, that lastly the Queene came to her by a clue of thridde, or silke, and so dealt with her, that she lived not long after but when she was dead, she was buried at Godstow in an house of nunnes, beside Oxford with these verses upon her tombe: "Hic jacit in tumbâ, Rosa mundi, non Rosa munda. Non redolet, sed olet, quæ redolere solet

Ver. 62, In cradel of hir kind: i. e. in the cradle of her family. See Warton's Observations, vol. II, p. 137.

• Consisting of vaults under ground, arched and walled with brick and stone, according to Drayton. See note on his Epistle of Rosamond.