DESCRIPTION OF BRITAINE, prefixed to Hollinshed's Chronicle, has left a sensible criticism on this poem. "One hath made a booke of the SPIDER AND THE FLIE, wherein he dealeth so profoundlie, and be nuscripts, there is an anonymous poem, perhaps coeval with Chaucer, in the style of allegorical burlesque, which describes the power of money, with great humour, and in no common vein of satire. The hero of the piece is Sir Penny. Cott. Galba, E. 9. DNO MSS. INCIPIT NARRACIO DE DNO DENARIO, In erth it es a littill thing, Papes, kinges, and emperoures, SIR PENI chaunges man's mode, Men honors him with grete reuerence, Vnto that litill swaine. In kinges court es it no bote, With PENY may men wemen till 10 So oft may it be sene, In gude skarlet and grene. In erth has he swilk grace, 2 old. 3 unto. 8 use. are. When he bigines him to mell 14, And waik 15 that bald has bene. 9 dispute. For to gif dome 22 tham es ful lath 23, Tharwith to mak SIR PENI wrath, Ful dere with tham es he. Thare 24 strif was PENI makes pese 25, Of all angers he may relese, In land whare he will lende, And halden dere in horde. 29 Thaire bales 33 for to blin 34. All that he will in erth haue done, Right at his awin will. He may both lene 38 and gyf; PENI es a gude felaw, Men welcums him in dede and saw 41. Cum he neuer so oft, He es noght welkumd als a gest, 1 as. 5 ready. 6 makes, causes, compels. 7 against, before. 10 approach, gain. 11 make them walk. [He may enable them to wear long sweeping dresses. A "trayl-syde gown," says Dr. Jamieson, "is so long as to trail upon the ground."] 12 buy. 13 loose. 14 meddle. 15 weak. 16 all you want is soon done. 17 borrowing goes between. 19 judges. 20 makes. 18 24 where. 25 or pledging. [surety and pledge.] 28 seat. [the dais.] 29 peace. 26 foes. 31 coveted. 32 despise, quit. 36 love. 37 never cease. 41 doing and speaking. 27 void. [lose.] 88 lend. 42 to sit. yond all measure of skill, that neither he himselfe that made it, neither anie one that readeth it, can reach unto the meaning thereof." It is a proof of the unpopularity* of this poem, that it never was reprinted. Our author's EPIGRAMS, and the poem of PROVERBS, were in high vogue, and had numerous editions before the year 1598 †. The most lively part of the SPIDER AND FLIE is perhaps the mock-fight between the spiders and flies, an awkward imitation of Homer's BATRACHOMUOMACHY. The preparations for this bloody and eventful engagement, on the part of the spiders, in their cobweb-castle, are thus described. Who so es sted in any nede 49, SIR PENY gers, in riche wede, In ilka 47 gamin and ilka play, To PENY, for his pride. SIR PENY over all gettes the gre 48, In castell and in towre. In ilka place, the suth es sene 52, Maister most in mode. SIR PENY mai ful mekill availe 54 He lenkithes 56 life and saues fro ded 57. If thou haue happ tresore to win, God grant vs grace with hert and will, 54 be of much power. judicature, or, in passing sentence. money not too much, I advise. 59 56 lengthens. nyding. Be not too careless [niggardly] of it. 55 45 despised. 48 degree, pre-eminence. as appears in the place of 62 to us. 60 too much therein. 63 our reward. Behold! the battilments in every loope: How th' ordinance lieth, flies far and nere to fach: Se the enprenabill fort, in every border, The beginning of all this confusion is owing to a fly entering the poet's window, not through a broken pane, as might be presumed, but through the lattice, where it is suddenly entangled in a cobweb. The cobweb, however, will be allowed to be sufficiently descriptive of the poet's apartment. But I mention this circumstance as a probable proof, that windows of lattice, and not of glass, were now the common fashion.1 Art thou Heywood with the mad mery wit? Yea forsooth, mayster, that same is even hit. Art thou Heywood that applyeth mirth more than thrift? Yes, sir, I take mery mirth a golden gift. Art thou Heywood that hath made many mad Playes? Yea, many playes, few good woorkes in all my dayes. Art thou Heywood that hath made men mery long? Yea, and will, if I be made mery among. Art thou Heywood that would be made mery now? Yea, sir, helpe me to it now I beseech yow. In the Conclusion to the Spider and Flie, Heywood mentions queen Mary and king Philip'. But as most of his pieces seem to have been written some time before, I have placed him under Henry the Eighth. [The following doubtless was composed on the spousals of Philip and Mary: “A balade specifienge partly the maner, partly the matter, in the most excellent meetyng and lyke mariage betwene our soveraigne Lord and our soveraigne Lady, the kynges and queenes highnes. Pende by John Heywood." Herb. p. 800. Oldys says he had seen "A briefe balet touching the trayterous takynge of Scarborow castle," subscribed J. Heywood, and printed in b. l. Mention is made of these at p. 85. note. The first of them is allegorically figurative, and begins: The Egles byrde hath spred his wings light; Till on the Rose, both red and whight, 1 [Mr. Warton must have read the Conclusion of Heywood very cursorily, says Herbert, or he would not have been at such a loss for the intention of his poem of the Spider and the Flie.-PARK.] John Heywood died at Mechlin in Brabant about the year 1565*. He was inflexibly attached to the catholic cause, and on the death of queen Mary quitted the kingdom. Antony Wood remarks", with his usual acrimony, that it was a matter of wonder with many, that, considering the great and usual want of principle in the profession, a poet should become a voluntary exile for the sake of religion. SECTION XLIII. Sir Thomas More's English Poetry. Tournament of Tottenham. Its age and scope. Laurence Minot. Alliteration. Digression illustrating comparatively the language of the fifteenth century, by a specimen of the Metrical Armoric Romance of Ywayn and Gawayn. I KNOW not if sir Thomas More may properly be considered as an English poet. He has, however, left a few obsolete poems, which although without any striking merit, yet, as productions of the restorer of literature in England, seem to claim some notice here. One of these is, A MERY JEST how a SERGEANT would learne to play the FREERE. Written by Maister Thomas More in hys youth. The story is too dull and too long to be told here. But I will cite two or three of the prefatory stanzas. He that hath lafte1 the Hosier's crafte, And falleth to making shone; A blacke draper with whyte paper, An olde butler becum a cutler, Fuller speaks of a book written by Heywood entitled "Monumenta Literaria," which are said to be non tam labore condita, quam lepore condita. Worthies of London, p. 221. Lord Hales pointed out a few lines in The Evergreen as the composition of Heywood, but they prove to be one of his Epigrams Scoticised. See Cent. i. p. 25.-PARK.] [An epilogue or conclusion to the works of Heywood in 1587, by Thomas Newton the Cheshire poet, thus notices his decease : In these lines, which are intended to illustrate, by familiar examples, the absurdity of a serjeant at law assuming the business of a friar, perhaps the reader perceives but little of that festivity, which is supposed to have marked the character and the conversation of sir Thomas More. The last two stanzas deserve to be transcribed, as they prove, that this tale was designed to be sung to music by a minstrel, for the entertainment of company. This piece is mentioned, among other popular story-books in 1575, by Laneham, in his ENTERTAINment at Killingworth CASTLE in the reign of queen Elisabeth. In CERTAIN METERS, written also in his youth, as a prologue for his BOKE OF FORTUNE, and forming a poem of considerable length, are these stanzas, which are an attempt at personification and imagery. FORTUNE is represented sitting on a lofty throne, smiling on all man |