same.

for his fame. Nowe, if any stationer shall finde faulte that his coppies are robd by any thing in this Collection, let me aske him this question-Why more in this, then in any diuine or humaine authour? From whence a man (writing of that argument) shal gather any saying, sentence, similie, or example, his name put to it who is the authour of the This is the simplest of many reasons that I could vrdge, though perhaps the neerest his capacitie, but that I would be loth to trouble my selfe to satisfie him. Further, if any man whatsoeuer, in prizing of his owne birth or fortune, shall take in scorne, that a far meaner man in the eye of the world shal be placed by him: I tell him plainly whatsoeuer so excepting, that, that mans wit is set by his, not that man by him. In which degree, the names of poets (all feare and dutie ascribed to her great and sacred name) haue beene placed with the names of the greatest princes of the world, by the most autentique and worthiest iudgements, without disparagement to their soueraigne titles: which if any man taking exception thereat, in ignorance know not, I hold him vnworthy to be placed by the meanest that is but graced with the title of a poet. Thus gentle reader I wish thee all happines.

L. N.

[Then follow the Poems, without any Table of Contents.]

INTRODUCTION.

Ir was the intention of the admirable historian of English Poetry, had he lived to complete his fourth. volume, to have classed or considered the numerous "poets of Queen Elizabeth's reign under the general heads or divisions of SATIRE, SONNET, PASTORAL, and MISCELLANEOUS poetry." Spenser would have stood "alone without a class, and without a rival."

The volume now reprinted contains the best, if not the only collection of the third, or PASTORAL division. And it will be difficult to account for the work having so long remained locked up in the repositories of the curious; such being its scarcity, that of the only two editions which have hitherto passed the press the most diligent investigation can very rarely procure the sight of a copy.

The first edition was in 1600, printed by I. R. for John Flasket, 4to. The second edition was in 1614, printed for Richard More, 8vo.

But if its rarity were all the volume has to recommend it, perhaps there might, in the eye of reason, be some pretence for condemning the wonder that it has not hitherto been rendered more accessible to modern readers by a re-impression. It is true that Dr. Percy, Mr. Geo. Ellis, and Mr. Malone, have gathered a few of its still flourishing flowers. Yet if it shall appear that the greater portion of its contents possess real merit, ought it to have remained so long a sealed treasure?

Towards the close of that century, at the commencement of which this work appeared, it was still considered as the chief collection in its day of its own class of poetry, as is evident from several passages of Phillips in his Theatrum Poetarum, 1675.

Of Dr. THOMAS LODGE he speaks as "a physician, who flourished in Queen Elizabeth's reign, and was one

of the writers of those pretty, old Songs and Madrigals, which were very much the strain of those times."

Of THOMAS STORER, as one of the writers of Queen Elizabeth's times, of those pastoral airs and madrigals, of which we have a collection in a book called Eng 'and's. Helicon."

Of THOMAS WATSON, as "a cotemporary imitator of Sir Philip Sidney, together with Bartholomew Young, Doctor Lodge, and several others, in that pastoral strain of poetry in Sonnets and Madrigals already mentioned."

Of NICHOLAS BRETON, as a writer of poetical Sonnets, canzons and Madrigals, in which kind of writing he keeps company with several other cotemporary imitators of Spenser and Sir Philip Sidney in a published collection of selected Odes, of the chief pastoral sonnetteers, &c. of that age."

Of ROBERT GREENE, as "one of the pastoral sonnet makers of Queen Elizabeth's time, contemporary with Dr. Lodge, with whom he was associated in the writing of several comedies, namely, the Laws of Nature; Lady Alimony; Liberality and Prodigality; and a Masque called Luminalia; besides which he wrote alone the comedies of Friar Bacon, and Fair Emme."

Of GEORGE PEELE as "a somewhat antiquated English Bard of Queen Elizabeth's date, some remains of whose pretty pastoral poetry we have extant in a collection entitled England's Helicon.”

Of RICHARD BARNFIELD as "one of the same rank in poetry with Doctor Lodge, Robert Greene, Nicholas Breton, and other contemporaries already mentioned in the foregoing treatise of the moderns."

Of MICHAEL DRAYTON, as contemporary of Spenser and Sir Philip Sydney, and for fame and renown in poetry, not much inferior in his time to either: however he seems somewhat antiquated in the esteem of the more curious in these times, especially in his Polyolbion, the old fashioned kind of verse whereof seems somewhat to diminish that respect which was formerly paid to the subject as being both pleasant and elaborate; and thereupon thought worthy to be commented upon by that once walking library of our nation, Selden. His

England's

iii

England's Heroical Epistles are more generally liked; and to such as love the pretty chat of nymphs and shepherds, his nymphals and other things of that nature cannot be unpleasant

Of SIR WALTER RALEIGH, as "a person both sufficiently known in history, and by his History of the World; and seems also by the character given him by the author of the Art of English Poetry, to have expressed himself more a poet than the little we have extant of his poetry seems to import: for ditty and amorous ode, saith he, I find Sir Walter Raleigh's vein most lofty insolent and passionate."

Of SIR EDWARD DYER, as "a person of good account in Queen Elizabeth's reign, poetically addicted, several of whose pastoral Odes and Madrigals are extant in a printed Collection of certain choice pieces of some of the most eminent poets of that time."

66

If we examine these poems with the acuteness of criticism directed by taste and tempered by candour, we shall find much to commend and admire; and perhaps more than a little which derives its only value from its antiquity. Hume has with the soundest judgment spoken of an elegant simplicity as the last attainment of good writing. He speaks of the glaring figures of discourse, the pointed antithesis, the unnatural conceit, the jingle of words" as being "seized with avidity by a bad taste; and even perhaps by a good taste ere surfeited by them: they multiply every day more and more in the fashionable compositions; nature and good sense are neglected: laboured ornaments are studied and admired: and a total degeneracy of style and language prepares the way for barbarism and ignorance."-" On the revival of letters, when the judgment of the public is as yet raw and unformed, this false glitter catches the eye, and leaves no room either in eloquence or poetry for the durable beauties of solid sense and living passion.""It was not till late that observation and reflection gave rise to a more natural turn of thought and composition among the

See Puttenham's Art of Poetry, edited by Mr. HASLEWOOD, 1811, 4to. p. 51.