care he took of his nephew's education, amply prove. He lived in the best society, and selected his friends from among the most eminent men of his age. His premature death was universally lamented as a national loss, and few men have enjoyed in a greater degree, the envied distinction of being praised by those whose praise is fame-landari a laudatis.

Sir Thomas Wyatt, by the accounts of his contemporaries, was remarkably handsome in his person. His friend, the Earl of Surrey, describes him to have had “a visage stern but mild," and "a form where force and beauty met,"-Leland confirms this description in the following lines,

"Addidit huic faciem qua non formosior altra
Læta serenatæ subfixit lumina fronti

Lumina fulgentes radiis imitantia stellis."

Holbein, Dr, Nott informs us, has left two portraits of him. From one of these Dr. Nott has given us an engraving, but it is to be feared that the draughtsman has not done justice to the original. The other, a drawing in his Majesty's collection, represents him as a young man with a countenance of great beauty and sweetness of expression.

As a poet, Sir Thomas Wyatt must be content to hold an inferior, though a respectable rank. In every thing that constitutes the claim to distinction, he was surpassed by his friend and contemporary, the celebrated Earl of Surrey. He was deficient in invention, in harmony, and in grace. Few of his pieces are original, and his translations frequently degrade the subjects from which they are taken. In his more elaborate compositions he is less happy than in those of slighter fabric, and like many other artists, his smaller works are his

best. Many of his poems are written in the rythmical measure, and cannot be read as verse without a due attention to the peculiarity of their construction. In his choice of words he has frequently selected a bad one where a better was at hand, and his pieces are much deformed by redundancies, and the frequent recurrence of monosyllables. French accentuation, whether his words were of French origin or not, which was excusable in his own time when it was the common practice, but materially injures the effect of his poems at the present day. His metaphors are strained, harsh, and ill-selected. He seldom affords any description of natural scenery, although we are assured he loved the country, and admired the beauties of nature. His conceptions which are frequently beautiful, are too commonly shrouded in language uncongenial and deficient in the qualities of dignity and of grace. These are his defects. His. merits are considerable. He is the first English poet, Chaucer not excepted, whose works may be read at the present day without disgust. He is also the first of our poets who attempted a great variety of metre ; in this attempt for a beginner he was eminently successful, and has left but little for future inventors. In the various productions of his muse, we may trace a cultivated mind, extreme good sense, and intimate knowledge of the human heart. He is free from pedantry, in a degree unknown to the writers of the Elizabethan age, though his learning is always conspicuous. His poems display strong, correct, and manly feeling. In many of them there is a striking character of moral dignity, often better imagined than expressed, indicating a well exer

He indulged in the use of the

cised, profound, and powerful intellect. He was certainly the first English satirist, and it is much to be regretted that he has left so little in that department of literature, what he has accomplished being excellent. He had a talent for description, and if he had cultivated the dramatic muse, would probably have excelled in comedy. He frequently reminds us of Shakespeare, and many of his lighter pieces, composed to be sung to the lute, would not have disgraced the hand of that great master of song.

The poems of Sir Thomas Wyatt were first collected and published in 1559. They were afterwards reprinted by Dr. Sewell, in 1717, and were admitted for the first time into a collection of English poetry, by Dr. Anderson, in 1793. Of late they have attracted the notice of a very indefatigable and distinguished editor in Dr. Nott, from whose ample volume published in 1816, the following extracts are taken.

The Lover complaineth of the unkindness of his Love.
My lute awake! perform the last
Labour that thou and I shall waste,

And end that I have now begun ;
For when this song is sung and past,
My lute! be still, for I have done.

As to be heard where ear is none;
As lead to grave in marble stone,

My song may pierce her ears as soon:
Should we then sing, or sigh, or moan?
No, no, my lute! for I have done.

The rock doth not so cruelly
Repulse the waves continually,
As she my suit and affection;
So that I am past remedy:

Whereby my lute and I have done.

Proud of the spoil that thou has got,
Of simple hearts, thorough love's shot
By whom, unkind, thou hast them won;
Think not he hath his bow forgot,
Although my lute and I have done.

Vengeance may fall on thy disdain,
That maketh game of earnest pain!
Trow not alone under the sun,
Unquit to cause thy lovers's plain,
Although my lute and I have done

May chance thee lie withered and old ;
The winter nights that are so cold,

Plaining in vain unto the moon :
Thy wishes then dare not be told ;

Care then who list, for I have done.

And then may chance thee to repent
The time that thou hast lost and spent,

To cause thy lovers sigh and swoon:
Then shalt thou know beauty but lents
And wish and want, as I have done.

Now cease my lute! this is the last
Labour, that thou and I shall waste,
And ended is that I begun;
Now is this song both sung and past :
My lute! be still, for I have done,

"This," says Dr. Nott, "is one of the most beautiful Odes in our language. It is as beautifully arranged in all its parts as any of the odes of Horace. The lute, to which the Ode is addressed, corresponded nearly to the modern guitar. It was the instrument to which almost all the amatory compositions of our early Poets were sung; whence they are properly called songs, corresponding to the Italian cantata. Every person of good education played upon the lute. It was the lover's constant companion; and to its strings he attempered all his hopes and fears, his joys and sorrows."

He ruleth not, though he reign over realms, who is subject to his own lusts.

If thou wilt mighty be, flee from the rage

Of cruel will; and see thou keep thee free
From the foul yoke of sensual bondage.

For though thy empire stretch to Indian sea,
And for thy fear trembleth the farthest Thulé,
If thy desire have over thee the power,
Subject then art thou, and no governor!

If to be noble and high, thy mind be moved,
Consider well thy ground and thy beginning;
For he that hath each star in heaven fixed,

And gives the moon her horns and her eclipsing,
Alike hath made thee noble in his working;
So that wretched no way may thou be.
Except foul lust and vice do conquer thee.

All were it so, thou had a flood of gold,
Unto thy thirst yet should it not suffice;
And though with Indian stones, a thousand fold
More precious than can thyself devise:
Y-charged were thy back, thy covetice
And busy biting yet should never let
Thy death, nor do thy wretched life profet.