Ere there was mountain made or hill,

Or earth, and all abroad,

From age to age, and ever still,

For ever thou art God:

Thou bringest man through grief and pain

To death and dust, and then, And then thou sayest, return again,

Again, ye sons of men.

The lasting of a thousand year

What is it in thy sight?

As yesterday it doth appear,

Or as a watch by night:

Whene'er thy judgements come on men,
Then is their life soon done;

All as a sleep, or like the grass,
Whose beauty soon is gone,

Which in the morning shines most bright,

But fadeth bye and bye,

And is cut down e're it be night,

All withered dead and dry.

So through thy wrath our days soon waste, Till nought thereof remain,

Our years consume as words or blaste,

And ne'er return again.

Our age is three score years and ten,

That we the sun behold,

Four score if any see, yet then

We count them wondrous old;
And all this time our strength and life,
Which we thus count upon,
Are little else but painfull strife,

Untill our breath be gone.

Instruct us then, O Lord, to know

How long our days remain,

That we may now our thoughts apply,
True wisdom to attain." &c.

I have removed two or three vulgar expressions for such as are less exceptionable, lest tbey should depreciate the rest; but they might not have had that vulgarity in the age of Elizabeth; and the common Editions have in like manner changed some obsolete words; yet none of these affect the meritorious part of the Version, which otherwise exhibits the true state of the English language in that reign, as it subsisted in the ordinary mode of composition; and on this account, at least, may deserve a place among the other remains of that age; while at the same time the use of a few obscure or insipid words may be rather the fault of the age than the author; excepting the removal of which, not the least other alteration is made, in order that, he may speak for himself whether he ought to be altogether excluded from among the relics of what is called poetry in that reign. The new Version of this psalm can bear no comparison with that of Sternhold. S.

ART. XX. "Songes and Sonnetes of Henry Earle of Surry" and others. "Imprinted at London, in Fletestrete, within Temple barre, at the signe of the Hand and Starre by Richard Tottel, the fifte day of June, An. 1557. Cum privilegio ad imprimendum solum."-Sixteens. Frequently reprinted; viz. 1565, 1567, 1569, 1574, 1585, 1587,* and afterwards;-yet very scarce.+

*The Bodleian Catalogue says, "Lond. by R. Robinson, 1587, 8vo." + Herbert II. 812. Warton, III. 11, 12, 60, 69.

"Poems of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, who flourished in the reign of Henry the Eighth. Printed from a correct copy. With the Poems of Sir Thomas Wiat, and others his famous cotemporaries. To which are added some Memoirs of his Life and Writings. London, Printed for W. Meares at the Lamb, and J. Brown at the Black Swan, without Temple Bar. 1717." 8vo. With a Preface by George Sewell, M. D.

"Songes and Sonettes written by the Right Honour

able Lord Henry Haward, late Earle of Surrey. Imprinted at London in Fletestrete, within Temple Barre, at the signe of the Hand and Starre, by Richard Tottell. Anno 1567. Cum privilegio. Reprinted by E. Curll. Anno 1717." Svo.

Advertisement to Curll's Edition.

"In order to give the publick as correct an Edition as I could of these valuable Poems, I procured among my friends these several editions, printed in the years 1565, 1567, and 1569, all which I found very full of typographical errors; but the most correct was that of 1567, from which this Edition is printed, and to which the folios numbered by numeral figures in the margin refer. When I had made the edition of 1567 as correct as I could from the other two, I heard of another copy* in the Bodleian Library in Oxford, among Mr. Selden's books, wherein were many considerable amendments, supposed to be made by that eminent person which I got collated by a learned gentleman there. So that I hope it will appear I have given my

*There was another edition printed Anno 1585.

1

Lord Surrey's Poems in their antique dress,in as careful and accurate a manner as possible: and if these admirable Songes and Sonettes meet with a reception equal to their merit, they shall be immediately followed by the remainder, in the same volume, written by himself, and his intimate friend Sir Thomas Wiatt the elder; to which will be subjoined a very full and particular account of these noble authors, who have hitherto been undeservedly deny'd the justice due to their memories."

"London, April 13, 1717.

"Vale."

Curll's Edition ends with the poems of Sir Thomas Wyatt, and totally omits the poems of " Uncertain Authors" which are entirely reprinted in the other edition of the same year (1717).

The Original Preface.

"To the Reader.

"That to have wel written in verse, yea, and in small parcelles, deserveth great prayse, the workes of dyvers Latines, Italians, and other, doe prove sufficiently; that our Tong is able in that kynde to dooe as prayse worthely as the rest, the honourable style of the noble Earle of Surrey, and the weightinesse of the deep witted Syr Thomas Wyat the elder's verse, with several graces in sundry good English writers, doe shew abundantly. It restethe nowe, gentle reader, that thou thynke it not evil done, to publish to the honour of the Englysh Tong, and for the profite of the Studiouse of Englysh eloquence, those woorkes which the ungentle horders up of such treasure have heretofore envyed thee; and for this point, good reader, thyne owne profite and pleasure in these presently,

and in mo hereafter shall auns were for my defence. If perhappes some myslyke the statelinesse of style removed from the rude skyll of common eares, I ask helpe of the learned to defende thyre learned frends the authors of this woorke; and I exhorte the unlearned by reading to learne to be more skyllfull, and to purge that swinelike grossenesse that maketh the sweet Majerome not to smell to theyr delight.'

The Editor of the Republication by Meares and Brown, after giving a short account of Lord Surry's life, adds: "For the beauties of his poetical vein, I chuse rather to appeal to the judgment of others, than endeavour to impose my own on the reader. He was intimate with Sir Thomas Wyat and Sir Francis Brian his cotemporaries, who were far the best judges and poets of those days. And as for those who succeeded him, if it is a true observation, that those who deserve best themselves are the forwardest to do justice to others, there was hardly a poet of note since this nobleman's time, who has not paid some respect to his memory. Sir Philip Sidney, whose praise itself were a sufficient honour, where he recounts those few of our own nation, who had written, as he speaks, with poetical sinews, takes notice, "that in the Earl of Surrey's Lyrics there were many things tasting of a noble birth, and worthy of a noble mind." And afterwards by finding fault with the bare rhimers of the age, who laid down no plan in their poems, he gives a backward glance to our author, whose subjects are always finely chosen, and the same scheme justly pursued, without the feeble help, as Sir Philip says, of one lame verse begetting another.