1613, excepting that it has been reprinted in The Harleian Miscellany with some few notes, Vol. II. P. 418. P. B. ART. IX. A Disputacion of Purgatorye made by Jhon Frith is deuided into thre bokes. The fyrst boke is an answer vnto Rastell, which goeth aboute to proue purgatorye by naturall Phylosophye, The seconde boke answereth unto Sir Thomas More, which laboureth to proue purgatorye by scripture. The thyrde boke maketh answere unto my lorde of Rochestre which moost leaneth vnto the doctoures. "Beware lest any man come and spoyle you thorow phylosophye and deceytfull vanite, thorow the tradicions of men, and ordinacions after the worlde, and not after Christ. Collos. ii." 12mo. black letter. ART. X. An other boke against Rastel named the subsedye or bulwark to his fyrst boke, made by Jhon Frithe presoner in the Tower. "Awake thou that slepeste and stonde vppe from deeth, and Chryste shall geue the lyght. Ephesians v." 12mo black letter. To the above very curious books are neither date, place, or printer's name. I conceive however that they must have appeared either in 1529 or 1530, as in 1531, the author suffered at Smithfield, through the means of Sir Thomas More, Lord Chancellor, with whom he had continual controversies on theological subjects. subjects. In Clark's Marrow of Ecclesiastical Historie, London, 1650," 4to. is a short account of Frith, from which I shall extract one anecdote. "Having som business in Reading, hee was there taken for a vagabond, and set in the stocks: there hee sate till he was almost pined with hunger, and then desiring to speak with the schoolmaster of the town, when hee came to him, Frith in Latine bewailed his captivitie to him: the schoolmaster being overcom with his eloquence, began exceedingly to affect and pittiė him, the rather when hee spake in Greek to him also, and repeted divers verses out of Homer: whereupon the schoolmaster repaired speedily to the magistrates and procured his enlargement." So imperfectly does Wood mention both of these works, that I am tempted to suppose he never was able to procure a sight of them: nor have I ever heard of or seen any other copies than those from which the above titles are given. P. B. ART. XI. Winter. A Poem. By James Thomson. The Second Edition. 1726. [CONCLUDED FROM VOL. II. P. 353.] Clear frost succeeds, and thro' the blue serene, For sight too fine, th' ætherial nitre flies, Mean Mean while, the orient, darkly red, breathes forth Arrests the bickering stream. The nightly sky, The pendant isicle, the frost-work fair, * Where fancy'd figures rise; the crusted snow, On blithsome frolicks bent, the youthful swains, Rush o'er the watry plains, and, shuddering, view Distress the feathery, or the footed game. Muttering, the winds, at eve, with hoarser voice, Blow, blustering, from the south-the frost subdu'd, Gradual, resolves into a trickling § thaw. Spotted, the mountains shine: loose sleet descends, Thousand. 1st edit. +Added in the 2d edit. But hark! the nightly winds with hollow voice. 1st edit. § Weeping thaw. ast edit. Added in the zdedit. But, But, rousing all their waves, resistless heave,- While Night o'erwhelms the sea, and Horror looks Th' assembled mischiefs that besiege them round: The roar of winds, and waves, the crush of ice, More to embroil the deep, Leviathan, And his unwieldy train, in horrid sport, Tempest the loosen'd brine; while, thro' the gloom, At once is heard th' united, hungry howl, † Of all the fell society of night. Yet, Providence, that ever-waking eye, Looks down, with pity, on the fruitless toil Thro' all this dreary labyrinth of fate. 'Tis done!-Dread WINTER has subdu'd the Year And reigns, tremendous, o'er the desart Plains! How dead the vegetable kingdom lies! How dumb the tuneful! Horror wide extends *Troubled sky. 1st edit. The lyon's rage, the wolf's sad howl is heard. 1st edit. Thy Thy flowering Spring; thy short-liv'd Summer's strength And pale, concluding Winter shuts thy scene, . Which sight could never trace, nor heart conceive, VOL. III. Ye |