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UNCERTAIN AUTHORS.

Among the uncertain authors, whose works are subjoined to Lord Surrey's Poems, are to be classed (says Mr. Warton) Sir Francis Bryan, and Lord Rochford.

Sir Francis Bryan, (nephew to Bourchier lord Berners, the translator of Froissart) was the friend of Sir Thomas Wyatt, and knighted by Thomas earl of Surrey, during the expedi tion to Brittany. His wit and accomplishments procured him the post of gentleman of the privy chamber to Henry VIII. and he was afterwards promoted to more important employments, and died chief-justiciary of Ireland, 1548. George Boleyn, viscount Rochford, brother to queen Anne Boleyn, with whom he was most unjustly accused of a criminal intimacy, was beheaded on this suspicion in May, 1536. He was the idol of the ladies at Henry's court, and wrote several songs and sonnets. The following, which, by the editor of lord Surrey's Poems, is placed among the works of Sir Thomas Wyatt, is, in the Nuga Antiquæ, ascribed to Lord Rochford.

My lute awake, perform the last

Labour that thou and I shall waste,
And end that I have now begun :
And when this song is sung and past,
My lute be still, for I have done.-

The rocks do not so cruelly
Repulse the waves continually,
As she my suit and affection:
So that I am past remedy,
Whereby my lute and I have done.

Proud of the spoil which thou hast got
Of simple hearts through love's shot,
By whom (unkind!) thou hast them won,
Think not he hath his bow forgot,
Although my lute and I have done.

Vengeance shall fall on thy disdain
That makest but game on earnest pain :
Think not alone under the sun

Unquit to cause thy lover's plaine,
Although my lute and I have done.

May chance thee lie withered and old
In winter nights that are so cold,
Plaining in vain unto the moon ;
Thy wishes then dare not be told,
Care then who list, for I have done.

And then may chance thee to repent
The time that thou hast lost and spent,

To cause thy lover's sigh and swoon;
Then shalt thou know beauty but lent,
And wish and want as I have done.

Now cease my lute: this is the last
Labour that thou and I shall waste,
And ended is that we begun;

and past,

Now is this song both sung
My lute be still, for I have done.

That each thing is hurt of itself.

WHY fearest thou thy outward foe,
When thou thyself thy harm dost feed?

Of grief or hurt, of pain or woe,
Within each thing is sown the seed.

So fine was never yet the cloth,

No smith so hard his iron did beat, But the one consumed was with moth, Th' other with canker all to-fret.

The knotty oak, and wainscot old,
Within doth eat the silly worm:
Even so, a mind in envy roll'd,
Always within itself doth burn.
F

VOL. II.

Thus every thing that nature wrought
Within itself his hurt doth bear:

No outward harm need to be sought
Where enemies be within so near.

The Lover in liberty smileth at them in thraldom, that sometimes scorned his bondage.

[Abridged from 24 lines.]

AT liberty I sit, and see

Them that have erst laugh'd me to scorn, Whip'd with the whip that scourged me; And now they ban that they were born!

I see them sit full soberly,

And think their earnest looks to hide; Now in themselves they cannot spy, That they, ere this, in me have spied!

I see them sitting all alone,

Marking the steps, each word, and look, And now they tread where I have gone! The painful path that I forsook.-—

1 Curse.

I see them wander all alone,

And tread full fast, in dreadful doubt, The self-same path that I have gone! Blessed be hap that brought me out!

At liberty all this I see;

And say no word but erst among
Smiling at them that laugh'd at me;
Lo such is hap! mark well my song!

The Lover in despair, lamenteth his case. ADIEU desert, how art thou spent!

Ah dropping tears how do ye waste, Ah scalding sighs how be ye spent, To prick them forth that will not haste! Ah pained heart thou gap'st for grace Even there where pity hath no place!

As easy 'tis the stony rock

From place to place for to remove, As by thy plaint for to provoke

A frozen heart from hate to love: What should I say! such is thy lot To fawn on them that force thee not.

■ I do not understand this expression.

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