I-ngens pererrat, tutus æquor Navit-A
A-urora lapsum, nec sequens flet Hespero-N
C-ur? NONNE FELICISSIMO rari tame-N
O-mnes TENORE EVI, atque FAMA REGI-A
B-RITANNICAS LONGUM, Britanniæ Juba-R
V-terque REX REGINA CURET impigr-E
S-urgens HABENAS? Impii terror Mago-G
R-uctantis et Neptunus augustus Sal-I
E-n Septicollis, ceu Pelasgus Ilio-N
X-erxis cremet Tarpæia fato Culmin-A

In the original, from which the above is taken, the Acrostics are inserted in two open columns, with a crown as a capital to each, and the capital letters are variously illuminated with gold and different colours.

The writer of the following letter to this same Monarch would not easily have believed, that the Prince his son would afterwards be expelled from his dominions, for his extravagant attachment to that same Babylonish strumpet, on a deliverance from which he thus congratulates the father.

The letter is in manuscript, and prefixed to some congratulatory verses addressed to James, and printed in London, in 1616.

Serenissime et Laudatissime Rex

Mundi hujus Ocelle clarissime,

QUOTIES varias Vari illius

Romani Scortiq. Babylonici machinationes, in

te unctum Domini, tam horrendis tamq. dolendis modis et modis non semel attentatas, fixius penitiusq. mecum repeto: toties, crede mihi Totus et obstupeo: Totus et obrigeo REGI REGUM, (in cujus manibus sortes nostræ fixæ stant, hærentque) eas quas intime pectoris mei thalami conciperé possunt, agens gratias, quod te Literarum Sydus, et jubar, a Progenie illa Viperarum, Locustarumq. ubiq. irrumpentium ictibus virulentissimis Sospitem hujusque et sine noxa incolumem conservare dignatus sit. Cumq. ex Divo Augustino instructus sciam piorum ayavarsupia ad Deum fusa nunquam fuisse irrita, nec gemitus bonorum qui illum pungunt lacrumas fidelium, quæ illum ungunt esse, vanas vel frustraneas: precibus meis toties reiteratis coram cœlica Majestate insto, ut te Communem Literatorum Patrem ac Patronum et subditis tuis paternis et nobis Exteris, qui Virtutum tuarum per Germaniam, Hungariam, Bohemiam, Moraviam, Silesiam, regionesq. longa ordine subsequentes, sumus admiratores ad Ecclesiæ et Reipubl. literariæ magnum incrementum clementer respiciat benigneq, tu

eatur.

Interim ut observantiam meam humilem et erga te non longe dissita regna jampridem conceptam ac circumportatam publice testatam faciam: en Augustissime Monarcha chartaceum hoc gratumq. animi mei grati Texnior, quod peregrinus ego partim à Turcica in Hungaria, Tyrannide

K 4

rannide omni alio inedio exhaustus, partim à Styrensi illa persecutione in vera veri Evangelii membra toties continuata, exacerbatus, studii mei in te sobolemq. tuam ad optima quæq. prognatam devotissimi arrham esse volui. Quod si tersissimo R. T. M. tis. Genio et ingenio non omnino ingratum fuisse senscro, et beatum me coram aliis prædicavero, et clementem R.T. M. tis adfectum is alwvas condignis laudum præconiis ad cœlum usq. evehere audivero.

His Rex inclute,

Vive, vale, flore, per secula longa superstes
Şi dignus vatem dilige quæso tuum

Serenissimæ M. tis Tuæ

Obsequentissimus,

FRADELIUS.

The following example of the double Acrostic is taken from Alexander Neville's Lacrymæ Academiæ Cantabrigiensis tumulo nobilissimi Equitis D. Philippi Sidneii sacratæ; a very curious and exceedingly rare tract,

PH-armaca mens spernens mediis stans dira trumphi-S
I-njicit in pectus Sidneii tela Philipp-I

L-ongius ergo fugis saccos O Anglia ? numqui-D
I-n cineres differs tua gaudia vertere? nemo-)
-N
P-loratum luget Comitem? cui nulla tuler-E
P-ace, fideque parem, permagni sæcula mund-I
V-i superans, virtute valens sui belliger ict-V
S-ternitur astra petens lenibus Sidneius ali-S

G. FAIRFAX.

ELEGIDIA.

ELEGIDIA

ET POEMATIA EPIDICTICA.

Una cum ad Vicum expressis Personarum iconibus, Impressa Upsaliæ, 1631.

THIS little volume, which is probably unique, contains a collection of very elegant Verses, descriptive of the several persons who then (1631) made a distinguished figure in Europe. Such, for example, as Ferdinand II., Emperor of the Romans; Frederic, Count Palatine; Christian, Duke of Brunswick; Ernest, Count Mansfeld; Sir Horace Vere, our countryman; James the First, of England, &c. &c.

The portraits of all these personages, some of which are remarkably well engraved, are annexed.

I select, as a pleasing specimen of the versification, the following verses, in which Europe is supposed to speak of her own distressed and agitated situation, and the resemblance which the description bears to the prezent condition of this quarter of the globe, is much too striking to escape the reader's observation.

EUROPA.

EUROPA.

Jupiter assumtâ fallacis imagine tauri
Me rapuit, quondam tactus amore mei.
Impositam dorso per vitrea marmora vexit,
In molli salvam deposuitq. toro;

Mox ubi se confessus erat, vultusque priores
Sumpsit gaudebam succubuisse Deo.

Me quoque blanditiis multoque affecit honore,

Utque suam dominam, mollis amavit amans,
Nunc iterum rapior, sed vi, sed sanguine volvens
Invita exosos cogor inire toros:

Qui rapit, hesperio prodit de cardine monstrum
Sævitiâ me, non motus amore rapit.
Humanos vultus, mentem nec induit unquam
Sed diri mores cum feritate manent.
Non nisi conscendit fœdatus sanguine lectum,
Nil nisi quam spirat, prælia, bella, neces;
Non mihi blanditias, non ullos reddit amores,
Et torquet Venerem, cæde, furore, minis.
Me

quoque servili vinclorum compede vinctam,
Ut vilem servam mancipiumque tenet.
Sic fuit Andromede famulis religata cathenis,
Sic fuit ad duram brachia vincta petram.
Ast illam potuit Perseus exsolvere vinclis,

Sed me, bis miseram, solvere nemo potest.

The following lines are descriptive of Sir Horace Vere, who commanded in the Netherlands, in the service of the States:

HORATIUS