SIMON WASTELL, A native of Westmoreland, entered of Queen's College, Oxford, in 1580, and afterwards became master of the free school at Northampton. Vide Athen. Oxon. i. 486. The following specimens are taken from the "Microbiblion," 1629. UPON THE IMAGE OF DEATH. BEFORE my face the picture hangs But yet, alas! full little I Do think hereon, that I must die. I often look upon the face Most ugly, grisly, bare, and thin; Where eyes and nose had sometime been; I read the label underneath, That telleth me whereto I must: I see the sentence eke, that saith "Remember, man, that thou art dust." But yet, alas, but seldom I Do think indeed, that I must die. Continually, at my bed's head An hearse doth hang, which doth me tell That I, ere morning, may be dead, Though now I feel myself full well: But yet, alas, for all this, I Have little mind that I must die. The gown which I do use to wear, All these do tell me I must die, My ancestors are turn'd to clay, If none can scape death's dreadful dart, OF MAN'S MORTALITY. LIKE as the damask rose you see, The gourd consumes, and man he dies. Like to the grass that's newly sprung, Or like an hour, or like a span, Even such is man: who lives by breath, ROBERT DEVEREUX, EARL OF ESSEX, Born in 1567. The political character of this inconsiderate and presumptuous, but honest and heroic favourite of Queen Elizabeth, has no connection with this work: but as he was the generous patron of literature, and the unceasing object of poetical adulation, the reader will perhaps be glad to see a specimen of his poetry. The following " • Verses, "written in his trouble," were extracted from a MS. in the British Museum, 4128-6, Art. Cat. THE ways on earth have paths and turnings known, A way more hard than these I needs must take, Where none can teach, nor no man can direct; Where no man's good for me example makes; But all men's faults do teach her to suspect. Her thoughts and mine such disproportion have, All strength in love is infinite in me: |