out cause; and I think thee happy to be so well rid of the court, and be so void of care.

"Thou sayest banishment is bitter to the free born, and I deem it the better if thou be without blame. There be many meats that be sour in the mouth, and sharp in the maw, but if thou mingle them with sweet sauces, they yield both a pleasant taste, and wholesome nourishment. Divers colours offend the eyes, yet having green among them, whet the sight. I speak this to this end, that though thy exile seem grievous to thee, yet, guiding thyself by the rules of philosophy, it shall be more tolerable. He that is cold doth not cover himself with care, but with clothes; he that is washed in the rain drieth himself by the fire, not by his fancy; and thou that art banished oughtest not with tears to bewail thy hap, but in wisdom to heal thy hurt.

"Nature hath given to no man a country, no more than she hath houses, or lands, or livings. Socrates would neither call himself an Athenian, neither a Grecian, but a Citizen of the World. Plato would never account him banished, that had the sun, air, water, and earth, that he had before; where he felt the winter's blast and the summer's blaze, where the same sun and the same moon shined: whereby he noted that every place was a country to a wise man, and all parts a palace to a quiet mind.

* * * *

*

“And surely, if conscience be the cause thou art banished the court, I account thee wise in being so precise, that by the using of virtue thou mayst be exiled the place of vice. Better it is for thee to live with honesty in the country, than with honour in the court,

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and greater will thy praise be in flying vanity, than thy pleasure in following trains. Choose that place for thy palace which is most quiet, custom will make it thy country, and an honest life will make it a quiet living. Philip falling in the dust, and seeing the figure of his own shape perfect in shew; "Good God," said he, desire the whole earth, and see how little serveth." "Zeno hearing that his only bark wherein all his wealth was shipped, had perished, cried out, "Thou hast done well fortune, to thrust me into my gown again to learn philosophy." Thou hast therefore, in my mind, great cause to rejoice that God by punishment hath compelled thee to strictness of life, which by liberty might have been grown to lewdness. When thou hast not one place assigned therein to live, but one forbidden thee, which thou mayst leave, then thou being denied but one, that excepted, thou mayst choose any. Moreover thus dispute with thyself,-I bear no office whereby I either should for fear please the noble, or for gain oppress the needy, I am no arbiter in doubtful cases, whereby I should either pervert justice, or incur displeasure. I am free from the broils of the strong, and the malice of the weak.

I am out

of the injuries of the seditious, and have escaped the threats of the ambitious. But as he that having a fair orchard, seeing one tree blasted, recounteth the discommodity of that, and passeth over in silence the fruitfulness of the others: so he that is banished, doth always lament the loss of his house, and the shame of his exile, not rejoicing in the liberty, quietness, and pleasure he enjoyeth by that sweet punishment.

"The Kings of Persia were deemed happy in that they passed their winter in Babylon, in Media their

P

summer, and the spring in Susis. And certainly, the exile in this may be as happy as any king of Persia, for he may at his leisure, begin his own pleasure, lead his winter in Athens, his summer in Naples, his spring in Argos. But if he have any business in hand, he may study without trouble, sleep without care, and wake at his will without controulment.

"But thon sayest that banishment is shameful,-No truly, no more than poverty to the content, or grey hairs to the aged. It is the cause that maketh the shame; if thou wert banished upon choler, greater is thy credit in sustaining wrong, than thine enemies in committing injury and less shame it is to thee to be oppressed by might, than their's that wrought it for malice. But thou fearest thou shalt not thrive in a strange nation, certainly thou art more afraid than hurt. The pine tree groweth as soon in Pharos as in Ida; the nightingale singeth as sweet in the desart as in the woods of Crete; the wise man liveth as well in a far country, as in his own home. It is not the nature of the place, but the disposition of the person, that maketh life pleasant. Seeing therefore, Botonio, that all the sea is apt for any fish; that it is a bad ground where no flower will grow; that to the wise man all lands are as fertile as his own inheritance; I desire thee to temper the sharpness of thy banishment with the sweetness of the cause, and to measure the clearness of thine own conscience with the spite of thine enemies' quarrel; so shalt thou avenge their malice with patience, and endure thy banishment with pleasure."*

*Lilly is said to have published some anonymous works; mong others, one levelled at the Puritans, with the following

As a dramatist, Lilly attained great popularity in his day, and he has been fortunate enough to receive more justice in this department of literature from modern criticism. Mr. Campbell, after applying his predecessor's phrase of "jargon" to Euphues, allows that his dramas exhibit traits of genius, and that he has several graceful interspersions of "sweet lyric song." The truth is, that there is no perceptible difference between his plays and his novel; the style is exactly similar, and they are both carried on almost entirely in dialogue. Lilly wanted the principal requisites for a successful dramatist, invention of character and of incident. All his personages hold the same lofty language, and tropes and metaphors are banded about by gods and serving men, heroes and artisans. The same poverty of invention is also exhibited in the conduct of his plots, which display all the absurdities of his contemporaries, without any of their wild originality or artful intricacy. The gods and goddesses of the pantheon are assembled in the fens of Lincolnshire, and classic incidents are strangely blended with modern customs. Lilly was a learned man, and when he undertook to write plays for the amusement of his learned mistress, he naturally reverted to the authority of classic models. His comedies very much resemble those of antiquity: much

strange title:-" Pap with a hatchet; alias a fig for my godson; or crack me this nut; or a country cuff; that is, a sound box on the ear for the ideot Martin to hold his peace. Written by one that dares call a dog, a dog." Isaac Walton remarks that publications of this kind from Lilly, Nash, Green, and others, effected more purpose in opposing the Martinists, than the grave and formal replies of the numerous divines engaged in the controversy. Titles similar to the above, were applied in ridicule of the uncouth phrases used by the Puritanic writers.

of the plots is carried on by the agency of servants, old men dispute respecting the disposal of their children, exhibit much fatuity and suffer themselves to be duped by artful knaves. There is the same catalogue of seniors and juniors, parasites, serving men, matrors and har lots, which has, in the pages of Terence, served to try the patience and corrupt the morals of our school boys from generation to generation. Most of Lilly's plays were written designedly for the ear as well as the eye of Queen Elizabeth, and are consequently dashed with an ample portion of court flattery, To effect this purpose, some of the common tales of classic lore are strangely wrested from their course. In "Endimion" Diana is converted into an earthly sovereign, and so is the Grecian poetess in Sappho and Phaon:"-in Galathea," we have Diana again, with all her attributes, holding Cupid captive, and defying his power: and in "Alexander" conquering his affection, the prototype is visible.

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Lilly's plays were collected and published after his death, by Edward Blount, in one volume, with the following title :—“Six Court Comedies, often presented and acted before Queen Elizabeth by the children of her majesty's chapel, and the children of Paul's. Written by the only rare poet of that time, the witty, comical, facetiously-quick, and unparalleled John Lilly, Master of Arts. Decies repetita placebunt. London, printed by William Stanley, for Edward Blount, 1632." This editor appears to have been a disciple of our courtly bard, and exhibits the perfection of his style in the following neat dedication" to Richard Lord Lumley of Waterford," and "Address to the Reader."