which, as King James VI. recorded, poets were to use "in materis of love." Take one of Watson's for example— "Tully, whose speech was bold in ev'ry cause, If he were here to praise the saint and serve, Watson's "Passionate Centurie of Love" includes in a dozen of its English pieces imitations of passages in the "Strambotti" of Serafino, besides imitations of Petrarch, of Politian, and other Italians, and of Ronsard and Etienne Forcadel (Forcatullus), a French lawyer-poet who died in 1573. Watson shows himself to have been very well read in the poets of his time. Amyntas." In 1585 appeared Watson's Latin poem, "Amyntas," which Abraham Fraunce translated, and from which his fellow poets took the name they gave to Watson in their rhymes. In 1595 — after "Italian Madrigals Englished" and other works -appeared his sonnets entitled "Teares of Fansie; or, Love Disdained." "Teares of Fansie. The sonnets of the "Teares of Fansie were not eighteen-lined like those of "The Passionate Centurie," but fourteen-lined poems consisting of three fourlined stanzas, each with its own separate alternate rhymes and at the close a couplet, as in the sonnets of Shakespeare. The best English poets and scholars of his time were among the friends of Thomas Watson, who himself united a fine scholarship with skill in verse. He had been with Walsingham in Paris, and published in 1590, under the name of "Melibæus.' "" Eglogue vpon the death of the Right Honourable Sir Francis Walsingham, Late principal Secretarie to her Maiestie, and of her moste Honourable Priuie Councell. Written first in latine by Thomas Watson, Gentleman, and now by himselfe translated into English," wherein he explains to the reader that "I figure England in Arcadia; Her Maiestie in Diana; Sir Francis Walsingham in Melibus, and his Ladie in Dryas; Sir Philippe Sidney in Astrophill, and his Ladie in Hyale, Master Thomas Walsingham in Tyterus, and my selfe in Corydon." When Watson draws this poem to a close with praises of the queen, he breaks from his own song of to exclaim "Diana, holy both in deed and will, Diana, whose just praises have no end," "Yet lest my homespun verse obscure hir worth, Or haply, if that word be all too base, Thou art Apollo, whose sweet honey vein Amongst the Muses hath a chiefest place.” Let Spenser, therefore, comfort the queen. Let him tell her forthwith, for well she likes his vein, "That though great Melibous be away, Yet like to him there manie still remain Praises then follow of Damcetas, who is Hatton; Damon, who is Cecil; Ægon, who is Howard, and the piece comes to its pastoral close. It may be added that among the poems in Watson's "Passionate Centurie " there are two or three acrostics, and there is an example of the shaped verses which were at this time beginning to come into fashion in England, and which seem to have had their Shaped inspiration from the scissor work of the Italian tailors. Watson's attempt in this direction is called "a Pasquin Pillar erected in the despite of Love," and has in it five several mechanical ingenuities, besides that of the shape in which it is printed. Pasquino, in whose name the piece is given, was really a Roman tailor of the close of the fifteenth century, with reputation for keen wit. After his death a fragment of a statue, supposed to represent Menelaus supporting the dead body of Patroclus, was dug up opposite his shop, set up by the Braschi Palace, and named after him. Then arose the practice of fixing jests against Pope, cardinal, or anybody else, upon this statue, and calling them Pasquinades. So Watson called the pillar carrying his verses "in despite of Love" a Pasquin Pillar. Ancient authority was cited for the tasteless ingenuities of shaped verse that were now beginning to find favour. Twenty verses, so arranged that each pair was shorter than the pair before it, were said to depict the ten reeds of the Pan's pipe, and to form the Syrinx of Theocritus. The egg-shaped poem was said to come from Anacreon, and the general invention of shaped verses was ascribed to Simmias of Rhodes, and placed as far back as the close of the fourth century before Christ. It was not until the time of the Stuarts that this fashion, which began to find its way into England in the latter part of the reign of Elizabeth, was widely followed. It was said of a small English poet in the reign of Charles II., "as for altars and pyramids in poetry he has outdone all men that way: for he has made a gridiron and a frying pan in verse, that besides the likeness in shape, the very tone and sound of the words did perfectly represent the noise that is made by those utensils." Thomas Howell wrote many small pieces of verse in which honest commonplaces of the poets were skilfully set forth in a variety of metres. He pub- Howell. lished three collections of his poems, and in the Thomas third collection a few of his earlier pieces were repeated with some revision. The first collection was made in his youth, and was called "The Arbor of Amitie, wherein is comprised "The Arbor of Amitie." Keper. وو pleasant poems and pretie Posies, set forth by Thomas Howell Gentleman. Anno 1568. Imprinted at London by Henry Denham, dwelling in Pater noster Rowe at the sign of the Starre." Howell's chief friend in "The Arbor of Amitie was John Keper, who wrote preliminary praise, and with whom in John all his books he interchanged verses. Keeper, or Keper, studied at Oxford, was of Hart Hall, and graduated as B.A. in 1568. If their friendship was a college friendship, Howell and not Hall must be meant by a Thomas Haull who was admitted to his B.A. in 1567. From a poem in "The Arbor of Amitie," published in 1568, it is to be inferred that Thomas Howell was of Dunster, Somerset, and its dedication shows that he was in the service of George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, or of his counAnother small collection of Howell's must have been tess. Howell's "Newe Sonets." published nearly at the same time. There is no date on the title-page, but the book was licensed in 1567-8 to Thomas Colwell, who published it as "Newe Sonets and pretie Pamphlets. Written by Thomas Howell, Gentleman. Newly augmented, corrected and amended." The third and last of his little books of verse, published by H. Jackson in 1581, is entitled, "H, His Devises for his owne exercise, and his Friends pleasure." This is dedicated to Sir Philip Howell's Sidney's sister, the Lady Mary, Countess of Pembroke, as "this slender worke of your seruant, which as I did wryte at ydle times in your house to auoyde greater ydlenesse or worse businesse: so I present it humbly unto you, as a testimony of my bounden dutie." Of each of these little books only one copy has come down to us, and the only reprint of them has been in an edition limited to fifty copies.* Humphrey Gifford There remains also but a single copy of Humphrey Gifford's poems, published in 1580 as a "Posie of Gilleflowers," which has been reprinted by Dr. Grosart in an edition limited to forty copies. Little is known of Humphrey Gifford but that Dr. Grosart has shown him to be the son of Anthony Gifford, who was of a family long settled at Halsbury, in Devonshire. Anthony Gifford married Dorothy Wykes, and had four sons, of whom Humphrey was the third. This Humphrey Gifford is to be distinguished from another of the same name, who in his days held some office in London at the Compter, or debtors' prison, in the Poultry. Humphrey Gifford, the poet, was in the service of Edward—afterwards Sir Edward -Cope, of Eden, in Northamptonshire, a magistrate wno `avoured Puritan preachers, and to him Gifford dedicated his "Posie." Humphrey Gifford married into the Cope family and had five children-two sons, Anthony and Dolorus, with three daughters, Katherine, Agnes, and Elizabeth. No more is known of him beyond his book, which was entitled "A Posie of Gilleflowers, eche differing from other in colour and odour, yet all of Gillesweete. By Humfrey Gifford, Gent. Imprinted at London for Iohn Perin, and are to be solde at his shop in Paules Churchyard at the signe of the Angell. "A Posie flowers." "The Poems of Thomas Howell (1568-1581). Edited, with Introduction and Notes and Illustrations, by the Rev. Alexander Grosart, LL.D., F.S.A. Part I., The Arbor of Amitie, Part II., Newe Sonets and Pretie Pamphlets, His Devises. Introduction and Notes." Of each Part Fifty Copies only. Printed for the Subscribers. 1879. Dr. Grosart edited in the same manner "The Complete Poems and Translations in Prose of Humfrey Gifford, Gentleman (1580)." Forty Copies only. Printed for the Subscribers. 1875. |