want no matter to make good sport, and for a need would dub him knight of the round table, or else prove him to be one of his kin, or else (which were much) prove him to be Arthur himself. And so likewise of other names merry panions1 would make mad pastime. Oftentimes the deformity of a man's body giveth matter enough to be right merry, or else a picture in shape like another man will make some to laugh right heartily, &c.

"This is no unpleasing image of the arts and accomplishments, which seasoned the mirth and enlivened the conversations of our forefathers. Their wit seems to have chiefly consisted in mimicry."

"He thus describes the literary and ornamental qualifications of a young nobleman, which were then in fashion, and which he exemplifies in the characters of his lamented pupils, Henry duke of Suffolk, and lord Charles Brandon, his brother."

I may commend him for his learning, for his skill in the French or in the Italian, for his knowledge in cosmography, for his skill in the laws, in

1 companions.

the histories of all countries, and for his gift of enditing. Again, I may commend him for playing at weapons, for running upon a great horse, for charging his staff at the tilt, for vauting, for playing upon instruments, yea, and for painting, or drawing of a plat, as in old time noble princes much delighted therein. And again, such a man is an excellent fellow, saith one, he can speak the tongues well, he plays of instruments few men better, he feigneth to the lute marvellous sweetly, he endites excellently: but for all this, the more is the pity, he hath his faults, he will be drunk once a day, he loves women well, &c.

"The following passage acquaints us, among other things, that many now studied, and with the highest applause, to write elegantly in English as well as in Latin.”

When we have learned usual and accustomable words to set forth our meaning, we ought to join them together in apt order, that the ear may delight in hearing the harmony. I know some Englishmen, that in this point have such a gift in the English as few in Latin have the like; and therefore delight the wise and learned so much with their pleasant composition, that many rejoice, when they may

1

hear such, and think much learning is got when they may talk with them.

"But he adds the faults which were sometimes now to be found in English composition, among which he censures the excess of alliteration."

Some will be so short, and in such wise curtail their sentences, that they had need to make a commentary immediately of their meaning, or else the most that hear them shall be forced to keep counsel, Some will speak oracles, that a man cannot tell

Some will be so fine and

which way to take them. so poetical withal, that to their seeming there shall not stand one heare1 amiss, and yet every body else shall think them meeter for a lady's chamber, than for an earnest matter in any open assembly.-Some use over much repetition of one letter, as pitiful poverty prayeth for a penny, but puffed presumption passeth not a point, pampering his paunch with pestilent pleasure, procuring his passport to post it to hell pit, there to be punished with pains perpetuat

"Others, he blames for the affectation of ending a word with a vowel and beginning the next with another. Some, he says, end

' hair.

their sentences all alike, making their talk' rather to appear rhymed metre, than to seem plain speech."

I heard a preacher delighting much in this kind of composition, who used so often to end his sentence with words like unto that which went before, that in my judgment there was not a dozen sentences in his whole sermon but they ended all in rhyme for the most part. Some, not best disposed, wished the preacher a lute, that with his rhymed sermon he might use some pleasant melody, and so the people might take pleasure divers ways, and dance if they list.

"Some writers, he observes, disturbed the natural arrangement of their words. Others were copious where they should be concise. The most frequent fault seems to have been, the rejection of common and proper phrases, for those that were more curious, refined, and unintelligible."

This work exhibits a favourable symptom of the dawn of reason. It was considered as an innovation so daring, that the author happening to visit Rome, was imprisoned by the

inquisitors of the holy see, as a presumptuous and dangerous heretic.

Wilson also translated seven orations of Demosthenes, which, in 1570, he dedicated to sir William Cecil; affording thereby another proof of his attention to the advancement of the English stile.

Warton likewise mentions a treatise of rhetoric, published in 1555, by Richard Sherry, schoolmaster of Magdalene College, Oxford. And speaks of William Fullwood, who—in his "Enemy of Idleness, teaching the manner and stile how to endite and write all sorts of epistles and letters, set forth in English by William Fullwood, merchant;" published in 1571, and written partly in prose and partly in verse-alludes in a respectful manner to Wilson's book. "Whoso (says he) will more circumspectly and narrowly entreat of such matters, let them read the rhetoric of master doctor Wilson, or of master Richard Rainold."-Moreover, in 1582, was published at London, a book entitled, "The first part of the Elementaire, which entreateth chiefly of the right writing of the English tongue, set forth by Richard Mulcaster, London, 1582. This book contains many judicious criticisms and