frendshipe, and intreate for my deliveraunce; as then not sufficientlye ponderinge nor debatinge with my self, that a prynce offended hathe none redresse upone his subjecte, but condinge punyshement, with owt respect of the persone. Yet, lett my youthe, unpractysed in duraunce, optayne pardone; althoughe for lacke of strengthe yt yelde not ytselfe wholye to his gentell chastysement; whiles the herte is resolved with paciens to passe over the same in satysfaction of myne errors. And, my good lords, yf yt were lawfull to perswade by the president of other younge men reconsiled, I wolde affyrme that this myght sounde to me a happy fawte; by so gentell a warninge to lerne howe to brydle my heddye will, which in youthe is rarely attayned with owt adversyte.

"Wheare myghte I, with owte vaunte, lay before you the quyet conversation of my passed lyf, which (undestayned with anye unhonest touche, unsemynge in suche a man as hathe pleased God and the kynge to mayke me) myght perfectly promyse newe amendement of myne offence; whearof yf you dowght in anye poynt, I shall humbly desyer you, that duringe my affliction (in which tyme malyce is most redye to sclaunder the innocent) ther may be made a hole examynation of my lyf; wysshyng that for the better tryall therof, rather to have the tyme of my duraunce redubeled, and so declared and well tryed as unsuspected, by your medytations to be restored to the kyngs favour, then condemned in your grave heads, with owt aunswere or farther examynacion, to be quiclye delivered this heynus offence, always unexcused; whear

upone I was commytted to this so noysum a prysone, whose pestilent ayers ar not unlyke to brynge sum alteration of healthe. Whearfore, yf your good lordships judge me not a membre rather to be cleane cutt away then reformed, yt may please you to be suters to the kyngs majeste on my behalffe, as well for his favor as for my liberte: or els, at the lest, yf his pleasure be to punnyshe this oversyghte with the forberinge of his presens unto everie lovinge subjecte, specially unto me, which from a prynce cañe not be les counted then a lyvinge deathe) yet yt wolde please hym to commaunde me into the countrie to sum place of open ayer, with lyk restraint of libertie, there to abyde his graces pleasure.

5

Finally: albeyt no parte of this my tresspas in my wayght to do me good, I shulde yet judge me happie yf yt shulde please the kyngs majeste to thynke that thys symple bodye, rashelye aventuryd in the revenge of his owne quarrell, shalbe with owt respecte alwayes reddie to be employed in his service; trustinge ons so to redouble this error, which may be well repeted but not revoked: desyeringe your good lordshipps, that lyke as my offence hathe not byne, my submyssion may lyke wyse appere, which is all the recompence; that I that I may well thynke my doings aunswere not your grave heads, shulde ye consyder that nether am I the fyrst younge man that, governed by furie, hathe enterprysed suche thyngs as he hathe afterwarde repented; nether am I so wede to my

5 Sic MS.

owne wyll, that I had rather with favorable surmyses obstynatly to stande to the defence of my follye, then umbly to confesse the same, infected wythe anye suche spote as He knowethe to whom ther is nothynge unknowne, whoe preserve you to his pleasure! Amen."

6

As bishop Percy's edition of the Sonnets of lord Surrey is likely very soon to be in the hands of poetical readers, a single specimen of his lordship's versification may suffice; in which the measure is correct, the language polished, and the modulation musical.7

A PRAISE OF HIS LOVE,

WHEREIN HE REPROVETH THEM THAT COMPARE THEIR LADYES WITH HIS.

Give place, ye lovers, here before

That spent your bostes and bragges in vaine:
My ladie's bewty passeth more

The best of yours, I dare wel saine,

Than doth the sunne the candle light,
Or brightest day the darkest night:

6 [This edition had the fatality to perish, in the destructive fire which took place at Mr. Nichols' printing office, and four or five copies only were preserved from the wreck, by previous presentation. For one of these the present editor is indebted to the kindness of bishop Percy. Dr. Nott has supplied a valuable substitution for this mischance.]

7 See Warton, ut sup.

And thereto hath a troth as just

As had Penelope the faire;
For what she sayth, ye may it trust
As it by writing sealed were:
And vertues hath she many moe
Than I with pen have skil to showe.

I could reherse, if that I would,

The whole effect of Nature's plaint, When she had lost the perfite mould,

The like to whom she could not paint: With wringyng handes how she did cry! And what she said, I know it, I.

I knowe she swore with ragyng minde,
Her kingdom only set apart,
There was no losse by lawe of kinde

That could have gone so neare her hart:

And this was chefely all her paine,
She could not make the like againe.

Sith Nature thus gave her the praise

To be the cheifest worke she wrought: In faith, me thinke, some better ways On your behalf might well be sought, Than to compare, as ye have done, To match the candle with the sun.]

EDMUND,

LORD SHEFFIELD.

Or this lord little is recorded. He was made a baron by Edward VI., and had his brains knocked out by a butcher at an insurrection in Norfolk, to quell which, he attended the marquis of Northampton. Falling into a ditch near Norwich, and raising his helmet to show the rebels who he was, he was dispatched.

To this little, Bale has added (what obliges us to give him a place in this catalogue), that he wrote

"A Book of Sonnets, in the Italian Manner."

[To lord Orford's brief account of the catastrophe which befel this nobleman, the following poetic illustration cannot fail to be generally acceptable. I have

2 [Of Butterwicke in Lincolnshire, 1547. See Beatson's Political Index, vol. i. p. 61.]

3

9 [A paper of directions from the lords of the council to the earl of Shrewsbury, Aug. 3, 1549, records this event, and says, "the lord Sheffeld, sir John Cleere, and another gentilman named Cornwales, were slayn in a skirmish with the rebells about Norwich." Lodge's Illustrations, vol. i. p. 133.]