A square in verse of a 100 monosyllables only: describing the cause of England's happinesse. After the 200 sonnets follow 66 Sundry affectionate sonets of a feeling conscience," 100 in number, (with an epilogue-sonnet.) "An Introduction to peculiar prayers." 20 Son nets; with a prefatory and concluding sonnet. Sonnets of the Author to divers, collected by the printer; and thus severally addressed, To the Abp. of Canterbury. To Sir Tho. Egerton, Ld. Keeper. To Ld. Burghley, Ld. High Treasurer. To the Earl of Essex, Great Master of the Horse. To Ld. Cha. Howard of Effingham, Ld. High Admiral. To Ld. Cobham, Ld. Chamberlaine of the Household. To Ld. North, Treasurer of the Household. To Ld. Buckhurst. To Sir Wm. Knowles, Controller of the Household. To Sir John Fortescue, Chancellor of the Exche quer. To Sir Robt. Cecil, Knt. Principal Secretary. To the E. of Oxford, Ld. Great Chamberlain of England. To the Earle of Northumberland. To the E. of Shrewsburie. To the E. of Cumberland. To the E. of Sussex. To the E. of Southampton. To the Ld. Zouch. To Ld. Willoughbie of Eresbie. To Ld. Burrowes. To Ld. Mountjoy. To the Ld. of Hunsdon. To Toby [Mathews,] Bp. of Duresme. To Sir John Popham, Knt. Ld. Chief Justice of England. To Sir Edmund Anderson, Knt. Ld. Ch. Just. of the Common Pleas. To Sir Wm. Perram, Knt. Ld. Chief Baron of the Exchequer. To Sir. Wm. Russell, Ld. Deputie of Ireland. To Sir Francis Veare. To Sir John Stanhop, Treasurer of the Chamber to her Majesty. To Sir Edw. Dyer, Chr. of the order of the Gar ter To Sir Hen. Killegrew. To Robt. Bowes, Esq. Embassadour to Scotland. To Fulke Greville, Esq. (afterwards Lord Brooke.) To the Rev. Dr. Andrews, Professor in Divinitie, To Richd. Carew* of Anthony, Esq. To Robt. Moyle of Bake, Esq. To Lady Marquisse of Northampton. *This gentleman, in his Survey of Cornwall, 1602, seems to speak of Henry under the name of Michael Lock, who he says-" addicteth himselfe to an ecclesiastical life, and therein joyning poetry with divinity, endeavoureth to imitate the holy prophet David, whose psalmes of his translation into English metre receive the general applause," &c. T. P.-But see Excerpta Tudoriana. (Editor.) To the Countess of Cumberland. To the Countess of Essex. To Lady Scroope. To Lady Rich.* To the Lady of Hunsdon.' To Mrs. Eliz. and Anne Russel. To Lady Southwell. To Lady Cecill. To Lady Hobbye. To Lady Woollie. To Mrs. E. Bowes. To the Ladies Attendants in the Court. A single specimen of these plausive sonnettings is likely to suffice: and the following has been chosen, as it is particularly specified by our poetical historian,* and quoted by Mr. Todd in his edition of Spenser. + "To the Right Honorable the Lord of Buckhurst. As you of right impart, with peeres in sway, Of common weale, wherein by you we rest; That due, the which my powre affoordeth best. * Vol. III. p. 445. + Vol. II. p. ccxiii. I feare your daintie eare can ill digest The harsh-tun'd notes, which on my pipe I sing. Yet since the ditties of so wise a king, Can not so lose their grace, by my rude hand, I you beseech blame not (though you not prayse) Wood+ terms Henry Lok, "a divine poet;" from the portions of scripture, doubtless, which he undertook to paraphrase; but Warton, with more philological propriety, denominated him the Mævius of his age.‡ "Lok however (he candidly adds) applied the sonnet to a spiritual purpose, and substituting christian love in the place of amorous passion, made it the vehicle of humiliation, holy comfort, and thanksgiving." So, it may be observed, did Barnes in a century of sonnets, printed in 1595, already noticed at p. 78 of this volume. In a dramatic satire on the poets of the time, entitled "The Return from Parnassus," Lok is thus coupled with Hudson, a partial translator of Du Bartas, and a panegyrist of Scottish poets; § "Locke and Hudson, sleep you, quiet shavers, among the shavings of the press, and let your books lie in some old nook amongst old boots and shoes: so, you may avoid my censure." Wood informs us, that Lok having either taken a degree, or had it conferred at Oxford, retired to the court, and was received into the patronage of a * Solomon. Athe. Oxon. I. 289. Hist. of E. P. IV. 9. § See the early poetry of K. James, and Leyden's edition of Scottish descriptive poems lately published. noble Mecænas. In this courtly retirement probably it was, and under the roof of his noble Mecænas, that he placed the Calendarium regis, or red-book for 1597, before his tranced eyes, and addressed a presentation sonnet to every person of distinction, who attended at the royal levee. This is fairly supposable from the list already displayed: but even for this, Warton has offered the following graceful apology. "It was then a common practice, by unpoetical and empty panegyrics, to attempt to conciliate the attention and secure the protection of the great; without which it was supposed to be impossible for any poem to struggle into celebrity. Habits of submission, and the notions of subordination, now prevailed in a high degree: and men looked up to peers, on whose smiles or frowns they believed all sublunary good and evil to depend, with a reverential awe. Chapman closed his translation of the Iliad with sixteen sonnets, addressed to the chief nobility; Lok on the same plan, subjoined a set of secular sonnets to his paraphrase of Ecclesiastes; and, not to multiply more instances, Spenser (in compliance with a disgraceful custom, or rather in obedience to the established tyranny of patronage) prefixed to the Fairy Queen fifteen of these adulatory pieces, which in every respect are to be numbered among the meanest of his compositions."* T. P. ART. XCII. Devoreux. Vertues Teares for the losse of King Henry III. of Fraunce, and the death of *Hist. of E. P. III. 445. Ritson considered Lok as author of the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, 1597, by H. L. but the poem seems superior to Lok's capability. |