In exemplyfieing

Great Alexander the king,
In writing as we find,
Which, of his royal mind,
And of his noble pleasure,
Transcending out of measure,
Thought to do a thing
That pertaineth to a king,
To make up one of nought,
And made to him be brought
A wretched poor man,
Which his living wan,
With planting of leeks,
By the days and by the weeks;
And of this poor vassal,
He made a king royal,

And gave him a realm to rule,
That occupied a showel,
A mattoke, and a spade,
Before that he was made
A king, as I have told,
And ruled as he wold;
Such is a king's power,
To make within an hour,
And work such a miracle,
That shall be a spectacle
Of renown and worldly fame,
In likewise now the same
Cardinal is promoted,

Yet with lewd conditions noted,
As hereafter been noted.

Presumption and vain glory, Envy, wrath, and lechery, Covetess, and gluttony, Slothful to do good,

Now frantick, now stark wode:

Should this man of such mode

Rule the sword of might,

How can he do right,

For he will as soon smite

His friend as his foe,

A proverb long ago.

Set up the wretch on high,

In a throne triumphantly,

Make him a great estate,

And he will play checkmate
With royal majesty ;
Count himself as good as
A prelate potential,
To rule under Belial,
As fierce and as cruell
As the fiend of hell;
His servants meniall
He doth revile and brawl,
Like Mahound in a play:
No man dare withsay.
He hath despite and scorn
At them that be well born,
He rebukes them and rails,
Ye whorsons, ye vassals,
Ye knaves, ye churls' sons,
Ye ribands, not worth two plums,
Ye rain-beaten beggars rejagged,
Ye recrayed ruffins all ragged;
Thou peevish pie-pecked,
Thou losel long-necked,
Thus daily they be decked,
Taunted and checked,

That they are so woe,

They wot not whither to go.

No man dare come to the speech,

Of this gentle jack-breech,

Of what estate he be,

Of spiritual dignity,

Nor duke of high degree,
Nor marquess, earl, nor lord,
Which shrewdly doth accord.

Thus he, born so base,
All noblemen should outface,
His countenance like a Cæsar,

My lord is not at leisure;

Sir, ye must tarry a stound (hour)

Till better leisure be found;

And, sir, ye must dance attendance,

And take patient sufferance,

For my lord's grace

Hath now no time nor space

To speak with you as yet,

And thus they shall sit,
Chuse them sit or Alit,
Stand, walk, or ride,

And his leisure abide
Perchance half a year,
And yet never the near.

This dangerous dowsipere,
Like a king's peer,

And within this sixteen year,

He would have been right fain
To have been a chaplain,

And have taken right great pain
With a poor knight,
Whatsoever he hight,

The chief of his own counsel,

They cannot well tell

When they with him should mell,

He is so fierce and fell:

He rails and he rates,

He calleth them doddy-pates;
He grins and he gapes,
As it were Jack Napes,
Such a mad bedlem
For to rule this realm,
It is a wondrous case
That the king's grace
Is toward him so minded,
And so far blinded,
That he cannot perceive
How he doth him deceive;
I doubt lest by sorcery,
Or such other loselry,
As witchcraft, or charming,
For he is the king's darling,

And his sweet hart-root,

And is governed by this mad koot:

For what is a man the better

For the king's letter?

For he will tear it asunder,

Whereat much I wonder

How such a hoddy-poll

So boldly dare controul,
And so malapertly withstand
The king's own hand,

And sets not by it a mite;

He saith the king doth write,

And writeth he wot not what,

And yet for all that

The king his clemency

Dispenseth with his demensy."

This is certainly a sufficient specimen of this extraordinary versifier-both as to matter and manner. The talents of John Skelton are easily estimated. With strong sense, a vein of humour, and some imagination, he had a wonderful command of the English language. His rhymes are interminable, and often spun out beyond the sense in the wantonness of power. In judging of this old poet, we must always recollect the state of poetry in his time and the taste of the age, which being taken into the account, we cannot help considering Skelton as an ornament of his own time, and a benefactor to those which came after him. Let him be compared to a fine old building, which once glittered in a wanton lavishment of ornament, and revelled in the profusion of its apartments, and in the number of its winding passages, is now grown unfit for habitation, and only remains as a model of the architecture of past times, and a fit subject for the reverence and the researches of the antiquarian.

ART. X.-The complete Angler, or Contemplative Man's Recreation; being a Discourse on Rivers, Fish-ponds, Fish, and Fishing in two Parts; the first written by Mr. Isaac Walton: the second by Charles Cotton, Esq.; with the Lives of the Authors, and Notes historical, critical, and explanatory. By Sir John Hawkins, Knt. 1764. First edition, 1653.

Our nation, from the earliest times, has been remarkable for a fondness for field sports. Hunting and hawking formed the chief recreation of our kings and barons; and if the equipments of our ancient nobles, when on a hunting expedition, were inferior in splendour to the pavilioned field and turbaned array of an eastern Omrah, or even to the half-martial appointments of our European neighbours, yet in enthusiastic love of these sports, in the skill and intelligence displayed in conducting them, in the breeding and training of our hawks and dogs, in the completeness of our sporting implements, and in our

adroitness in using them, we have unquestionably excelled

them all.

As the choice of games and modes of playing at them strongly indicate the dispositions and capacities of children, so the sports and exercises of a people are equally illustrative of their national characteristics. Our field sports strikingly exhibit that energizing union of action and thought-that quick sense of fair play, and independent self-reliance, which, when directed to higher objects, have exalted and established the moral character of our nation. Much of the parade of the chace, we undoubtedly derived from our Norman ancestors; but all those feudal regulations, not essential to the success and conduct of the sport, have disappeared with the system which produced them. Our sportsmen assemble not merely to swell the train of the leader of the day, but each for his own exercise and recreation. Every one is equally interested in the success of the business before him; and although the huntsman is, ex officio, the most important and obstinate personage in the field, and his veto is always definitive against any casual votes of the democracy, nevertheless each member of known experience delivers his opinion, with a consciousness that its weight will be duly appreciated by his compeers, and if, when in council at a fault, he carry the majority with him-or, better still, if he be seconded by the sure double of old Rockwood-the cry of That's good! carries the motion by acclaim, and the sovereignty of the huntsman merges constitutionally in the decision of the general voice. Thus, in doubtful cases, opinion has its due authority; but the fundamental code of the chace is inviolable. The creature pursued must be allowed its fair lawthe destruction of the animal is never the sole object contemplated its wiles and powers of escape are nicely balanced with the skill and sagacity of its pursuers. We do not defend the humanity of this equilibrium of exertion and suffering; but, as the object of the hunter is to prolong the chace to the utmost possible extent, without diminishing its spirit, and as his pleasure consists in surmounting, by his skill and the sagacity of his dogs, the impediments opposed to him, we adduce it as exemplary of that just adaptation of means to their end, of that hardihood and perseverance which courts and delights in difficulty and danger, and that love of method and order, which even in their sports is prevalent in the minds of our countrymen, and which, when exerted on nobler occasions, has enabled them to rival whatever human nature hath ever achieved, either of physical or mental energy. Our less vehement rural recreations are governed by rules as exact, and discover as much of system, of natural knowledge, and of mechanical contrivance and application, as hunting. If a philosopher