Porto (L da) Rime e Prosa-cioé la Giulietta Novella. 8vo. Venice. 1539.

Di Gran Rarita. Pinelli, 57. 58.

This is the earliest novel upon the unhappy loves of Romeo and Juliet, printed several years prior to that of Bandello on the same subject.

There is a translation of it in the Res Literaria, noticed in the Gentleman's Magazine, Dec, 1, 1822.

Clizia L'Infelice Amore di Giulia e Romeo, in ottava rima. Svo. Venet. Giolito. 1553.

Molini, Florence, 1807, 33 francs.

Bandello's History of Romeo and Juliet was metrically paraphrased by Arthur Brooke, and printed by R. Tothill, 1562. Brydges, in Phillips's Theatrum Poetarum, 8vo. Canterbury, 1800, p. 128, says, "the Editors of Shakspeare have discovered this to have been the original of Shakspeare's Romeo and Juliet.

Borde (Andrew.) A Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge, the which doth teache a man to speake part of all maner of languages, and to know the usage and fashion of all maner of countries, and for to know the most part of all maner of coins of money. 4to. Black letter. Imprint by William Copland. Without date.

Dedicated to the Lady Mary, daughter of King Henry the Eighth-which dedication is dated from Mountpelyer, May 3,

1542.

Pearson, 1788, 47. 15s. to Mr. Bindley.

This book is partly written in verse and partly in prose, contained in 39 chapters, before each of which are wood cuts with representations of men. Before the first chapter, in which he has characterized an Englishman, is the print of a naked man, with a piece of cloth lying on his right arm, and a pair of sheers in his left hand, under which is an inscription in verse, of which the following are the four first lines :

"I am an English Man, and naked I stand here,

Musing in my mind what rayment I shall were :

For now I will were thys, and now I will were that,

And now I will were I cannot tell what," &c.

Before the 7th Chapter is the portrait of the Author himself, standing in a pew with a canopy over it, habited in a loose gown with wide sleeves, and on his head a chaplet of laurel, with a book before him on a desk, with the following title of the said chapter beneath :

"The VII Chapyter sheweth how the auctor of this Boke had dwelt in Scotland and other Ilands, and did go thorow and round about Christendom and out of Christendom declaring the Properties of all the Regions, Countries, and Provinces, the which he did Travel thorow."

This Portrait, according to Herbert's Memoranda, served also for a Portrait of Skelton, Poet Laureat. See Dibdin's Ames, vol. iii. p. 160.

Mr. Upcott edited a re-print of 100 copies of this curious tract, with wood-cuts, one of which is in Rivington's Catalogue for 1824, marked at 17. 11s. 6d. The cut of the Englishman from this reprint is given in Dibdin's account of it, who says of it in conclusion, "this is probably the most curious and interesting volume ever put forth from the press of Copland."

Andrew Borde was a whimsical being, and said by Granger to have been Physician to Henry VIIIth; whether from his facetious mode of practice according to Phillips, or from the Harlequinism of his pursuits and writings, he gave rise to the name and character of MERRY ANDREW, seems uncertain: he appears to have applied his mind to many subjects, and, like most quacks, to have been equally confident in all.

The Book of Knowledge,

The Breviary of Health,

The Dietary of Health,

Merry Tales of the Mad Men of Gotham,

Merry History of the Mylner of Abington,
Book of Prognostics,

Urines,
Roads,

are specimens of what he aimed at.

"It was

According to Wood's Athenæ, vol. i. p. 61, folio, Borde's practice, when living at Winchester, where, as at other places, it was his custom to drink water three days in a week, to wear constantly a shirt of hair, and every night to hang his shroud and socking, or burial sheet, at his bed's feet, according as he had done, as I conceive, while he was a Carthusian.

"He always professed celibacy, and did zealously write against such Monks, Priests, and Friars, that violated their vow by marriage, as many did when their respective houses were dissolved by Henry VIII."

This zeal caused his opponents to promulgate various scandalous stories, to the discredit of the Doctor's continence-for which see Athena Oxoniensis. "But letting these matters pass, I cannot otherwise but say," continues Wood, "that our

author Borde was esteemed a noted poet, a witty and ingenious person, and an excellent Physician of his time; and that he is reported by some to have been, not only Physician to King Henry 8th, but also a Member of the College of Physicians at London, to whom he dedicated his

Breviarie of Health. 4to. 1552.

A Merie Jest of a Man that was called Howleglas, and of many marveylous Thinges and Jests that he dyd in his lyfe. 4to. With a rude Title-page, representing two mean people, one of whom is a Peasant, holding a pitchfork in his hand, addressing a Prince with a crown on his head and a sceptre in his hand. Printed by Wyllyam Copland.

An imperfect copy was in the Duke of Roxburghe's collection, and sold for 147. 58. and is now, I believe, in Mr. Heber's possession.

Mr. Beloe, in his Anecdotes of Literature, vol. i. p. 407, &c. has enumerated the marveylous things and jests of this Mister Howleglass, from the table of contents, of a perfect copy in the Garrick Collection; and has a specimen at length of how this Howleglas cheated some milk-maids of their cream; as also a "Dialogue between Howleglas and a Scholar."

It should seem that this Howleglas was a sort of Lazarillo or Scapin, and that the book is a translation from the Dutch language, wherein he is named Ulenspiegle.

Percy, in his "Essay on the Origin of the English Stage,' &c. Relics, vol. i. p. 126, quotes this old novel to show how our ancient mysteries were represented in their most simple form.

"It is well known," says Percy, "that Dramatic Poetry in this and most other nations of Europe owes its origin, or at least its revival, to those religious shows, which in the dark ages were usually exhibited on the more solemn festivals. At those times they were wont to represent in the Churches the lives and miracles of the Saints, or some of the more important stories of Scripture. And as the most mysterious subjects were frequently chosen, such as the Incarnation, Passion, and Resurrection of Christ, &c. these exhibitions acquired the general name of Mysteries. At first they were probably a kind of dumb shews, intermingled, it may be, with a few short speeches; at length they grew into a regular series of connected Dialogues, formally divided into acts and scenes. Specimens of these in their most improved state (being at best but poor artless compositions) may be seen among Dodsley's Old Plays, and in the Harleian Miscellany." How they were exhibited in their most simple form, we may learn from a " A merye Jest of a man that was called Howleglas," whose waggish tricks are the subject of the book at the head of the present article. After many adventures, he comes to live with a Priest, who makes him his Parish Clerk. This Priest is described as keeping a Leman, or Concubine, who had but one eye, to whom Howleglas owed a grudge, for revealing his rogueries to his master. The story thus proceeds: "And than in the meane season, while Howle

glas was Parysh Clarke, at Easter they should play the resur"rection of our Lorde: and for because than the men wer not I learned, nor could not read, the Priest toke his Leman, and

put her in the grave for an Aungell: and this seing, Howle

glas toke to hym iij of the symplest persons that were in the "towne, that played the iij Maries; and the Person (i. c. Par