Alfo in his Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchefter. With thee there clad in radiant SHEEN. * As Milton is fingular in the ufage of SHEEN, the word SHEEN used as a fubftantive in a fonnet fuppofed by Dr. Birch to be written by Milton, ought to be admitted as an internal argument in favour of that hypothefis. B. iv. c. iv. f. xii. Against the turneiment which is not long. The fame mode of speaking occurs in the verse which is the burthen of the fong in the Prothalamion. Against the bridale day which is not long. 66 i. e. " approaching, near at hand." B. iv. c. viii. f. xxix. More hard for hungry steed t' abstaine from pleasant lare. LARE fignifies a bed. Junius interprets it cubile cervi; and the LAIR of a deer, is a term of hunting ftill known and ufed. Thus Drayton, Now when the hart doth heare The often-bellowing hounds to vent [fcent] his fecret LEYRET. Life of Milton, prefixed to his Profe Works. vol. 1. Polyolb. Song. 13. It is used by Milton, Out of the ground uprofe, As from his LAIR, the wild beaft, where he wons In foreft wild, in thicket, &c*. So again Yet it here feems to be used for pafture or grass; This giant's fonne that lies there on the LAIRE B. iv. c. ix. ARG. The SQUIRE OF LOWE DEGREE releast The Squire of Lo Degree, is the title of an old romance, mentioned together with Sir Huon of Bordeaux; which, as we remarked before, is fpoken of among a catalogue of antient books, in the letter concerning queen Elizabeth's entertainment at Kenelworth. It seems to have been a phrafe commonly known and used about this time, by the following fpeech of Fluellen in Shakespeare. "You called me yesterday *Paradife Loft. 7. 457. "Mountain "Mountain-fquire; but I will make you to day a On ftately pillours framd afer the doricke guife. Although the roman, or grecian architecture, did not begin to prevail in England till the time of Inigo Jones, yet our communication with the italians, and our imitation of their manners, produced fome fpecimens of that ftyle much earlier. Perhaps the earliest is Somerset-houfe, in the Strand, built about the year 1549, by the duke of Somerfet, uncle to Edward VI. The monument of bishop Gardiner in Winchester cathedral, made in the reign of Mary, about 1555, is decorated with ionic pillars. Spenfer's verfes here quoted, bear an allufion to fome of these fashionable improvements in building, which, at this time, were growing more and more into esteem. Thus alfo bifhop Hall, who wrote about the fame time, viz. 1598. There findeft thou fome stately doricke frame, But these ornaments were often abfurdly introduced * K. Hen. V. a&t. 5. sc. 1. † B. 5. f. 2. into the old gothic ftyle; as in the magnificent portico of the schools at Oxford, erected about the year 1613, where the builder, in a gothic edifice, has affectedly difplayed his universal skill in the modern architecture, by giving us all the five orders together. However, most of the great buildings of queen Elizabeth's reign have a ftyle peculiar to themselves, both in form and finishing; where, though much of the old gothic is retained, and great part of the new tafte is adopted, yet neither predominates; while both, thus indiftinctly blended, compofe a fantastic fpecies, hardly reducible to any class or name. One of it's characteristics is the affectation of large and lofty windows; where, fays Bacon," you fhall have sometimes faire houfes, "fo full of glass, that one cannot tell where to be66 come, to be out of the fun, &c *." After what has been here incidentally faid on this fubject, it may not be amifs to trace it higher, and to give fome obfervations, on the beginning and progreffive ftate of architecture in England, down to the reign of Henry VIII. A period, in which, or thereabouts, the true gothic ftyle is supposed to have expired. The normans, at the conqueft, introduced arts and civility. The churches, before this, were of VOL. II. ESSAYES, xii. timber, timber, or otherwife of very mean conftruction. The conqueror imported a more magnificent, though not a different, plan, and erected feveral ftately churches and caftles *. He built more than thirty monafteries, among which were the noble abbies of Battel and Selby. He granted a charter to Mauritius, bishop of London, for rebuilding St. Paul's church with ftone brought out of Normandy. He built the white tower, in the Tower of London. The ftyle then used, confifted of round arches, round-headed windows, and round maffy pillars, with a fort of regular capital and base, being an adulteration, or a rude imitation, of the genuine grecian or roman manner. This has been named the Saxon Stile, being the national architecture of our faxon ancestors, before the conqueft: for the normans, only extended its proportions, and enlarged its scale. But I suppose, at that time, it was the common architecture of all Europe. Of this ftyle many fpecimens remain: the tranfept of Winchester cathedral, built 1080: the two towers of Exeter cathedral, 1112: Chrift-church cathedral at Oxford, 1180: the nave of Glocefter cathedral, 1100: with many others. The most com * Videas ubique in villis ecclefias, in vicis et urbibus monafteria, NOVO EDIFICANDI GENERE exfurgere." Will, Malmesbur. Rex Willbelmus. De Geft. Reg. Ang. 1. 3. P. 57. fol, Lond. 1596. ed. Savil. plete |
