be but few yt. wyll repine agaynst my mind & sayinges. Ther be some kind of letters & writynges yt. pertayne only to adourne & increase eloquence withall; some to delite and please; some that make a man subtile and craftye; some to knowe naturall thynges, and to instruct and informe the mynde of man withall. The workes of poetes, the fables of Milesij, as that of the golden asse, and in a maner all Lucianes workes, and manye other which are written in the vulgar tongue, as of Trystram, Launcelot, Ogier, Amasus and of Artur, the whiche were written and made by suche as were ydle & knew nothinge. These bokes do hurt botli man & woman, for they make them wylye & craftye, they kyndle and styr vp couetousnes, inflame angre, & all beastly and filthy desyre. So much knowledge of naturall thynges, as suffiseth to rule & gouerne thys life with all, is sufficient for a woman."* Example forms a principal guide for the instruction Puttenham talks of "places of assembly, where the company shalbe desirous to heare of old aduentures & valiaunces of noble knights in times past, as are those of king Arthur and his knights of the round table, Sir Beuys of Southampton, Guy of Warwicke, and others like;" but M:res has a censure upon romances in the section of " a choice is to be had in reading of bookes."—" As the Lord de la Nouue in the sixe discourse of his politike and military discourses censureth of the bookes of Amadis de Gaule, which he saith are no lesse hurtfull to youth, then the workes of Machiauell to age; so these bookes are accordingly to be censured, of whose names follow; Beuis of Hampton; Guy of Warwicke; Arthur of the round table; Huon of Bordeaux; Oliuer of the castle; the foure sonnes of Aymon; Gargantua ; Gireleon; the Honour of Chiualrie; Primaleon of Greece; Palmerin de Oliua; the 7 Champions; the Myrror of Knighthood ; Blancherdine; Meruin; Howleglasse; the stories of Palladyne and Palmendos; the blacké Knight; the maiden Knight; the history of Cœlestina; the castle of Fame; Gallian of France; Ornatus and Artesia," &c. Wit's Commonwealth, ་ Part II. 268. of of a wife, supposed necessary to be given on the part of a husband. "Thou shalt not onely rehearse vnto her olde and aunciente names as Sara, Rebecca, Penelope, Andromacha, Lucretia, Colebolina, Hipparchia, Portia, Sulpitia, Cornelia, and of our sayntes, as Agnes, Catherine, Margaret, Barbara, Monica and Apollonia, but also those that [are] more fresher, as Catherin quene of England, Clara, Ceruerta, the wife of Vale learus, and Blanca Maroa, albet I doe feare to be reproued, that I doe thus commende my mother, geuynge my selfe to muche to loue and pitie, the which trulye doeth take muche place in me, but yet the trueth muche more. There can not lacke ru euerye nation and citye honest and deuoute matrones, by whose examples thei may be styrred and prouoked; but yet the familier examples, as of the mother, the beldame,* the aunt, the sister, the cosyn, or of some other kinswoman or frende, shoulde be of more force and value. why? suche examples as we do see, doe much moore mooue vs, and better we folowe theym then anye other." For The volume forms an amusing collection of moral precepts, and appears intended as a conclusion to the Instruction of a Christen Woman, noticed in CENSURA, Vol. IV. p. 348. Conduit street. J. H. ART. IV. The History of Great Britanie from the first peopling of this Iland to this presant raigne of ohapy & peaceful Monarke K. James, by Will. * This passage confirms the primary meaning of the word beldame as supposed by Steevens, who appears to have sought in vain for an authority. “Perhaps, he says, beldame originally meant a grandmother." Reed's Shak. Vol. xi. p. 318, note.3. Slatyer Slatyer. London: Printed by W. Stansby for Richd. Meighen, and are to be sold at his shop at St. Clement's Church. Fol. This is in the centre of an engraved title-page, or frontispiece, which is explained by a poem on the opposite leaf. Anthony Wood gives this work the date of 1621. The chronological table ends with the date of 1619. It appears by a marginal note to one of the prefatory poems, entitled Authoris Votum, that Slatyer was born at Tykenham in Somersetshire, not far from Bristol. His birth was about the year 1587, and in 1600, he became, at the age of thirteen, a member of Oxford" University. He took orders, and was beneficed as early as 1611. In 1625 he was presented to the rectory of Otterden in Kent, which he had a dispensation for holding with that of Newchurch. He was also treasurer of the cathedral church of St. David's in Wales. But by his own poem, just mentioned, it appears that he had preferment in both these situations before the publication of his book; and that he had already had a residence both in Wiltshire and London. After speaking of Oxford he goes on: * "Thence silver-founted christal Thames, Whom noblest nymphs, that haunt the place, * Rymer's Fad. XVIII. 647, 665. Hasted's Kent, II. 508. That That thee, dear DANIEL, so did bless, Did hear her tunes, and odes she ended Nam'd; west of London by fair Thames."+ He died Feb. 14, 1646, æt. 59, and was buried in Otterden church.§ The following poetical address is worth transcribing. "Poetarum facile Principi, ac Coriphao, Michaeli Drayton, Ar. περί της τω δε των Βιβλων Πολυ-Ολβίνοος και Παλαι-Αλβίνος προς άλληλες παρονομασίας Φιλικονδε και υπομνημονευτικόν. "Dear divine Drayton, I admire Thy lays inspir'd with Delphian fire, On whose plain song seld one more blest, "So Master Daniel writes of himself; and Wilton, of which Wilton, Wiltshire (alluded to by some from the wild plains, quasi Wilde-shire) takes her name; ubi in villa Bedwyn antiquitus totius Comitatus pæne nulli secundâ, nec satis ignobili, tam ob incolarum rusticitatem, quam ob suarum olim celebritatum jacturam, aliquandiu moram traxit." "Rhutupiæ, or the coasts of Dover and Sandwich east, and St. David's, called Menevia, in the west, are, and are ordinarily accounted the utmost limits, those ways, of Great Britain." "Chelsea College is King James's foundation, and in the patent so called of his name." § See Hasted ut supra-and Topographer, I. 406. A list of his other works may be found in Wood's Ath. II. 111. VOL, IX, Seld Seld one more seen in old Folk-mote, Do not envy me, though I sing My Pale Albion thus to write. Ken many a fair and happy day! Whiles Avon's clear source that hears thee sing, As she slides from her christal spring, Shall teach our Severn's banks to sound With echoes shrill to the sea-nymph round, Albion's chief pride, Thames and her Troy."* The author addresses a copy of Latin hexameters to his friend S. Purchas, (whose Collection of Voyages Among the commendatory verses are those in Latin of N. Gwin, Jo. Slatyer, his brother, and Tho. Newton. has |