But who had seen him sobbing, how he stood Unto himself, and how he would bemoan

His youth forpast, as though it wrought him good
To talk of youth all were his youth forgone,
He would have mus'd and marvell'd much whereon
This wretched Age should life desire so fain,
And knows full well life doth but length his pain.

Crookback'd he was, tooth-shaken, and blear-eyed,
Went on three feet, and sometime crept on four,
With old lame bones that rattled by his side,
His scalp all pill'd,' and he with eld forlore;
His wither'd fist still knocking at Death's door,
Fumbling and drivelling as he draws his breath;
For brief, the shape and messenger of Death.

And fast by him pale Malady was plac'd,
Sore sick in bed, her colour all forgone,
Bereft of stomach, savour, and of taste,

Ne could she brook no meat, but broths alone:
Her breath corrupt, her keepers every one
Abhorring her, her sickness past recure,2
Detesting physick and all physick's cure.

But, oh, the doleful sight that then we see!
We turn'd our look, and, on the other side,
A grisly shape of Famine might we see,

With greedy looks, and gaping mouth, that cried And roar'd for meat, as she should there have died;

Her body thin, and bare as any bone, Whereto was left nought but the case alone.

And that, alas! was gnawn on everywhere,
All full of holes, that I ne might refrain
From tears, to see how she her arms could tear,
And with her teeth gnash on the bones in vain,
When, all for nought, she fain would so sustain
Her starven corpse, that rather seem'd a shade
Than any substance of a creature made.

Great was her force, whom stone wall could not stay,3
Her tearing nails snatching at all she saw;
With gaping jaws, that by no means ymay
Be satisfied from hunger of her maw,
But eats herself, as she that hath no law:
Gnawing, alas! her carcass all in vain,
Where you may count each sinew, bone, and vein.

On her while we thus firmly fix'd our eyes,
That bled for ruth of such a dreary sight,

Lo, suddenly she shright in so huge wise,
As made hell-gates to shiver with the might:
Wherewith, a dart we saw, how it did light

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And, by and by, a dumb dead corpse we saw,
Heavy, and cold, the shape of Death aright,
That daunts all earthly creatures to his law;
Against whose force in vain it is to fight:
Ne peers, ne princes, nor no mortal wight,
No towns, ne realms, cities, ne strongest tower,
But all, perforce, must yield unto his power.

His dart anon out of the corpse he took,
And in his hand (a dreadful sight to see)
With great triúmph eftsoons the same he shook,
That most of all my fears affrayéd me:
His body dight with nought but bones, pardé,
The naked shape of man there saw I plain,
All save the flesh, the sinew, and the vein.

Lastly, stood War, in glittering arms yclad,
With visage grim, stern looks, and blackly hued;
In his right hand a naked sword he had,
That to the hilts was all with blood imbrued;
And in his left (that kings and kingdoms rued)
Famine and fire he held, and therewithal
He razed towns, and threw down towers and all.

Cities he sack'd, and realms (that whilom flower'd
In honour, glory, and rule, above the best)
He overwhelm'd, and all their fame devour'd,
Consum'd, destroy'd, wasted and never ceas'd,
Till he their wealth, their name, and all oppress'd:
His face forhew'd' with wounds, and by his side
There hung his targe, with gashes deep and wide.

In midst of which, depainted there, we found
Deadly Debate, all full of snaky hair
That with a bloody fillet was ybound,
Out breathing nought but discord everywhere:
And round about were portray'd, here and there,
The hugy hosts, Darius and his power,
His kings, princes, his peers, and all his flower

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CA

recedy worthiest of them all,

hx force is now for nought.
a.se is no boot but bale,6
within thy walls is brought;

cv ti", thy knights, that whilom fought
sued the field, are slain in bed,

gy, goda de il d, and all thy honour dead.

Teas upspring, and cruelly they creep Pea wall to roof, till all to cinders waste:

ve the houses where the wretches sleep, Ya tush in here, some run in there as fast; Ta very where or sword or fire they taste:

the walls are torn, the tow'rs whirl'd to the ground;
There is no mischief, but may there be found.

Candis yet there saw I how they haled
From Pallas' house with spercled7 tress undone,
Ila wrists fast bound, and with Greeks' rout empaled: 8
And Priam eke, in vain how he did run

To arms, whom Pyrrhus with despite hath done

To cruel death, and bath'd him in the bayne
Of his son's blood before the altar slain.

But how can I describe the doleful sight,
That in the shield so livelike fair did shine?
Nith in this world, I think was never wight
Could have set forth the half, not half so fine:

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We stayed us straight, and with a rueful fear
Beheld this heavy sight, while from mine eyes
The vapour'd tears down stilléd 16 here and there,
And Sorrow eke, in far more woeful wise,
Took on with plaint, upheaving to the skies

Her wretched hands, that, with her cry, the rout

Gan all in heaps to swarm us round about.

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10 Gledes, glowing embers, coals of fire. First English "gléd,” a livə coal, a burning.

11 Sielth, dead matter.

12 Tide (First English "tíd "), time.

13 While ("hwil"), space of time.

14 Peas'd, became quieted, appeased. 15 Yfere, together.

16 Stilled, dropped (Latin “stillare," to drop). From the condensing of the vapour formed into drops are derived the words still, distin, distillery, &c.

"Lo here," quoth Sorrow, " princes of renown,
That whilom sat on top of Fortune's wheel,
Now laid full low; like wretches whirléd down
Ev'n with one frown, that stay'd but with a smile:
And now behold the thing that thou erewhile

Saw only in thought; and, what thou now shalt hear,
Recount the same to kesar, king, and peer."

Then first came Henry, Duke of Buckingham,
His cloak of black all pill'd, and quite forworn,
Wringing his hands, and Fortune oft doth blame,
Which of a duke hath made him now her scorn:
With ghastly looks, as one in manner lorn,

Oft spread his arms, stretch'd hands he joins as fast,
With rueful cheer and vapour'd eyes upcast.

His cloak he rent, his manly breast he beat,
His hair all torn, about the place it lay;
My heart so molt to see his grief so great,
As feelingly, methought, it dropt away:
His eyes they whirl'd about withouten stay,
With stormy sighs the place did so complain,
As if his heart at each had burst in twain.

Thrice he began to tell his doleful tale,
And thrice the sighs did swallow up his voice,
At each of which he shrieked so withal,
As though the heavens rivéd with the noise:
Till at the last, recovering his voice,

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Supping the tears that all his breast berained, On cruel Fortune, weeping, thus he plained.

ing a prose introduction, setting forth that Richard Baldwin took the place of Boccaccio, to whom the complaints of the unfortunate had been addressed in the book on "The Falls of Princes;" that certain friends "took upon themselves every man for his part to be sundry personages;" that as Boccaccio— and therefore Lydgate-left off at a time corresponding to the end of our Edward III.'s reign, they would carry on the series from that date, beginning with Richard II.'s reign; and as Boccaccio forgot among his miserable princes such as were of our own nation, in this Mirror which was to be held up for the admonition of England, all the examples should be drawn from English history. The series was then opened by George Ferrers with the tragedy of

1579.

CONSTRUING

TRESILIAN,

The printing of a "Mirror for Magistrates," so introduced, was begun under Queen Mary, in 1555, but stopped by Stephen Gardiner, who was then Chancellor. The accession of Elizabeth made its appearance possible, and the book was first issued in 1559, edited by William Baldwin and George Ferrers, both poets, one a printer's son, bred as an ecclesiastic, and the other bred to law. Sackville's contribution, which appeared in the second part, published in 1563, was introduced with this information about it :-Baldwin says to his fellowworkers, "I have here the Duke of Buckingham, King Richard's chief instrument, written by Master Thomas Sackville." "Read it, we pray you," said hey. "With a good will," quoth I, “but first you hall hear his preface or induction." "Hath he nade a preface?" quoth one. "What meaneth he hereby, seeing that none other hath used the like rder?" "I will tell you the cause thereof," quoth

"which is this. After that he understood that ome of the Council would not suffer the book to be rinted in such order as we had agreed and deterined, he purposed with himself to have gotten at y hands the Tragedies that were before the Duke Buckingham's, which he would have preserved in e volume, and from that time backward, even to e time of William the Conqueror, he determined continue and perfect all the story himself, in such der as Lydgate (following Bochas) had already ed. And therefore, to make a meet Induction into e matter, he devised this poesy; which, in my dgment, is so well penned that I would not have y verse thereof left out of our volume."

As first issued in 1559, the "Mirror for Magistes contained nineteen tragedies in verse, follow

From Lyly's Euphues,

HE FALL OF ROBERT
CHIEF JUSTICE OF ENGLAND, AND
OTHER HIS FELLOWS, FOR MIS-
THE LAWS, AND
EXPOUNDING THEM ΤΟ SERVE
THE PRINCE'S AFFECTIONS, ANNO
1388.1

In the sad register of mischief and mishap,
Baldwin we beseech thee with our names to begin,
Whom unfriendly Fortune did train unto a trap,
Whenas we thought our state most stable to have bin.
So lightly lose they all, which all do ween to win.

1 In 1386, the chief favourites of Richard II.-then twenty years old-were Sir Michael de la Pole, whom the King had just made Earl of Suffolk, and Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, who had been created Marquis of Dublin. His uncle Thomas, whom he had at the same time created Duke of Gloucester, headed an opposition to misgovernment by profligate advisers. De la Pole was impeached by the House of Commons, fined, and imprisoned; and in November the authority of the king was superseded by a Commission of Regency that was to reform the state during its year of power. Richard consulted secretly with Robert Tresilian, his Chief Justice of the King's Bench, and other of his judges, who told him that the abettors of the Commission were traitors; and he resolved, if he could secure a majority in the next Parliament, to bring them to trial before these judges, who had already pronounced against them. But the Duke of Gloucester and those who acted with him were informed of the king's plans. They raised a force, followed Richard to London, were joined at Waltham Cross by the Earls of Derby and Warwick, and there, on the 14th of November, 1387, before a Commission of State that went out to meet them, they "appealed," or challenged, the chief advisers of the king as traitors. On the following Sunday, the lords appellant, backed by strong military force, came in full armour, but with all outward show of homage, before the king in Westminster Hall, to tell him that they sought to remove the traitors who were about him, and that these were Alexander Nevile, Archbishop of York; Robert de Vere, Duke of Ireland; Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk; Robert Tresilian, false judge; and Sir Nicholas Bramber, false knight, of London. The king promised to call a Parliament to decide the quarrel. Meanwhile the threatened men escaped. De Vere raised 5,000 men in Lancashire, Cheshire, and Wales, but was defeated at Radcot Bridge, on the 20th of December. Six days afterwards the lords appellant were at Clerkenwell with 40,000 men. Lord Mayor gave up to them the keys of the City; the King gave up to them the keys of the Tower. When Parliament met there was but one possible result of the impeachment of the Archbishop of York, Vere, De la Pole, Tresilian, and Bramber. They were impeached as traitors who had conspired for the overthrow of the Commission and the destruction of its members, and "by falsehood induced the king to give them his love, trust, and credence; making him hate his faithful lords and lieges, by whom he ought of right rather to be governed." All the accused were found guilty, and Tresilian was one of those who were immediately executed. The other judges, who are supposed to appear with him in the poem-Lockton, Holt, Belknap, &c.-were banished,

The

The Laws we did interpret and statutes of the land,
Not truly by the text, but newly by a glose:

And words that were most plain, when they by us were scanned.
We turnéd by construction to a Welchman's hose,"
Whereby many a one both life and land did lose:

Yet this we made our mean to mount aloft on mules, And serving times and turns, perverted laws and rules. Thus climbing and contending alway to the top, From high unto higher, and then to be most high, The honey dew of Fortune so fast on us did drop, That of King Richard's counsel we came to be most nigh: Whose favour to attain we were full fine and sly. Alway to his profit where anything might sound, That way (all were it wrong) the laws we did expound.

exile." George Ferrers then took for his theme the deposition of Richard II. in 1399 and his murder in prison the year following. The next theme was Owen Glendower, represented by Thomas Phaer, a Welshman, who, after studying at Oxford and Lincoln's Inn, became first a lawyer and afterwards a physician. Phaer wrote on law and physic, and when he contributed this tragedy to "The Mirror for Magistrates" he was earning fame in literature as a translator of Virgil's "Eneid." His "Seven First Books of the Eneidos of Virgil" appeared in May, 1558, six months before Elizabeth's accession, and he had made his way into the tenth book when he died in 1560. Thus Phaer tells "How Owen Glendower, seduced by False Prophesies, took upon him to be Prince of Wales, and was by Henry Prince of England chased to the Mountains, where he miserably died for lack of food, an. 1401."

The favour of a Prince is an untrusty stay,
But Justice hath a fee that shall remain alway.

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Italian Initial, 1563.2

end

May teach a man his vicious life

to fly.

O Fortune, Fortune, out on thee
I cry:

My lively corps thou hast made lean and slender
For lack of food, whose name was Owen Glendour.
A Welchman born, and of the Trojan blood,
But ill brought up, whereby full well I find,
That neither birth nor linage make us good,
Though it be true that cat will after kind.
Flesh gendreth flesh, but not the soul or mind,
They gender not, but foully do degender,
When men to vice from virtue them surrender.

Each thing by nature tendeth to the same
Whereof it came, and is disposéd like:
Down sinks the mould, up mounts the fiery flame,
With horn the hart, with hoof the horse doth strike,
The wolf doth spoil, the subtle fox doth pike,3
And to conclude, no fish, flesh, fowl or plant,
Of their true dame the property doth want.
But as for men, sith severally they have
A mind whose manners are by learning made,
Good bringing up all only doth them save
In honest acts, which with their parents fade:
So that true gentry standeth in the trade

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20

1 Owen Glendour. Passages in this poem recall scenes in Shakespeare's "First Part of King Henry IV."

2 This little concert of flute, viol, and voices, is a Venetian example of the printers' initial letters, that in the 16th century replaced the old MS. illumination. In the earliest printed books spaces were left for the insertion of these decorated letters by hand. English examples of such printers' ornament have been given from the unique copy of the first edition of Euphues. This Italian specimen is from the Letters of Marsilio Ficino, in a Venetian edition of the year 1563. The same book in earlier editions, as in one printed at Florence in 1494, had blanks left by the printers for illumination of hand-drawn initials.

3 Pike, pick, steal.