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refined, either to relifh or to produce, burlefque poetry. Harrifon, the author of the DESCRIPTION OF BRITAINE, pre

But I must not forget Chaucer's SIR THOPAS and that among the Cotton manufcripts, there is an anonymous poem, perhaps coeval with Chaucer, in the ftyle of allegorical burlefque, which defcribes the power of money, with great humour, and in no common vein of fatire. The hero of the piece is SIR PENNY. MSS. Cott. CAL. 7. A. 2.

INCIPIT NARRACIO DE DNO DENARIO.

In erth it es a littill thing,
And regnes als a riche king,
Whare he es lent in land;
SIR PENI es his name calde,
He makes both yong and alde
Bow untill his hand :

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Papes, kinges, and empoures, Bifchoppes, abbottes, and priowres, Perfon, preft, and knyght,

d

Dukes, erles, and ilk barowne,
To ferue him er thai ful boune",
Both biday and nyght.

SIR PENI chaunges man's mode,
And

gers them off do doun thaire hodef And to rife him agayne .

Men honors him with grete reuerence, Makes ful mekell obedience

Vnto that litill swaine.

In kinges court es it no bote,
Ogaines SIR PENI for to mote,
So mekill es he of myght,
He es fo witty and fo ftrang,
That be it neuer fo mekill wrang,
He will mak it right.

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With PENY may men wemen till k
Be thai neuer fo ftrange of will,
So oft may it be fene,

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Lang with him will thai noght chide,
For he may ger tham trayl fyde'
In gude karlet and grene.
He may by both heuyn and hell,
And ilka thing that es to fell.
In erth has he fwilk grace,
He may lefe" and he
may
bind.
The pouer er ay put bihind,
Whare he cumes in place.
When he bigines him to mell,
He makes meke that are was fell.
And waik P that bald has bene.
All ye nedes ful fone er fped 9,
Bath withowten borgh and wed",
Whare PENI gase bitwene'.

The domes men he mafe fo blind
That he may noght the right find
Ne the futh to fe.

8

For to gif dome w tham es ful lath *, 'Tharwith to mak SIR PENI wrath. Ful dere with tham es he,

Thare ftrif was PENI makes pese 2,
Of all angers he may relese,
In land whare he will lende,

Of fafe may he mak frendes fad,
Of counfail thar tham neuer be rad ",

That may haue him to frende.
That SIRE es fet on high defe",
And ferued with mani riche mese

At the high burde *.

The more he es to men plente,
The more zernid alway es he

Borrowing or pledging.

f Goes between.

• Judges.

↑ Monks.

Truth. w Judgement. x Loath. y Where.

z Peace. a Foes.

Void. < Sect. • Mefs. • High-table, $ Coveted.

And

fixed to Hollinfhed's Chronicle, has left a fenfible criticism on "One hath made a boke of the SPIDER AND

this poem.

And halden dere in horde.
He makes mani be forfworne,
And fum life and faul forlorne,
Him to get and wyn.

Other god will thai none haue,
Bot that litil round knaue,
Thaire bales for to blin 1.
On him halely thaire hertes fett,
Him for to luf1 will thai noght let TM,
Nowther for gude ne ill.

All that he will in erth haue done,
Ilka man grantes it ful fone,
Right at his awin will.

He may both lene and gyf;
both sla and lifo,

He may ger

Both by frith and fell.

PENI es a gude felaw,

Men welcums him in dede and saw 9.
Cum he neuer so oft,

He es noght welkumd als a geft,
Bot euermore ferued with the best,
And made at fit ful soft.
Who fo es fted in any nede',
With SIR PENI may thai fpede.
How fo euer they betyde.
He that SIR PENI es with all,
Sal haue his will in ftede and ftall.
When other er fet byfide",
SIR PENY gers, in riche wede,
Ful mani go and ride on stede,
In this werldes wide.

In ilka gamin and ilka play,
The mayftri es gifen ay
TO PENY, for his pride.

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SIR PENY over all gettes the gre,
Both in burgh and in cete2,
In caftell and in towre.
Withowten owther fpere or schelde",
Es he the best in frith or felde,
And ftalwortheft in ftowre b.
In ilka place, the futh es fene,
SIR PENI es ouer albidene,
Maister moft in mode.

And all es als he will cumand:
Ogains his ftevyn dar no man ftand,
Nowther by land ne flode..
SIR PENY mai ful mekill availe
To tham that has nede of cownfail,
Als fene es in afsize † :

He lenkethes & life and faues fro ded".
Bot luf it noght ouer wele I rede 1,
For fin of couaityse *.

If thou haue happ trefore to win,
Delite the noght to mekill tharin '.
Ne nything thareof be,

But fpend it als wele als thou can,
So that thou luf both god and man
In perfite charite.

God grante vs grace with hert and will,
The gudes that he has gifen vs till ",
Wele and wifely to spend.

And fo oure liues here for to lede, That we may haue his blis to mede ", Euer withowten end. Amen.

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"FLIE, wherin he dealeth fo profoundly, and beyond all mea"fure of skill, that neither he himself that made it, neither

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any one that readeth it, can reach unto the meaning thereof"." It is a proof of the unpopularity of this poem, that it never was reprinted. Our author's EPIGRAMS, and the poem of PROVERBS, were in high vogue, and had numerous editions within the year 1598. The most lively part of the SPIDER and FLIE is perhaps the mock-fight between the spiders and flies, an awkward imitation of Homer's BATRACHOMUOMACHY. The preparations for this bloody and eventful engagement, on the part of the spiders, in their cobweb-castle, are thus defcribed.

Behold! the battilments in every loope :

How th' ordinance lieth, flies far and nere to fach:
Behold how everie peace, that lieth there in groope,
Hath a spider gonner, with redy-fired match.
Behold on the wals, fpiders making ware wach:
The wach-fpider in the towre a larum to strike,
At aproch of any nomber shewing warlike.

f

Se th' enprenabill fort, in every border,
How everie spider with his wepon doth stand,
So thorowlie harnest, in so good order:
The capital fpider, with wepon in hand,
For that fort of fowdiers fo manfully mand,
With copwebs like cafting nets all flies to quell :
My hart shaketh at the fight: behold it is hell!

The beginning of all this confufion is owing to a fly entering the poet's window, not through a broken pane, as might be prefumed, but through the lattice, where it is fuddenly entangled in a cobweb *. The cobweb, however, will be allowed to be fuf

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ficiently defcriptive of the poet's apartment. But I mention this circumstance as a probable proof, that windows of lattice, and not of glass, were now the common fashion'.

John Heywood died at Mechlin in Brabant about the year 1565. He was inflexibly attached to the catholic caufe, and on the death of queen Mary quitted the kingdom. Antony Wood remarks", with his ufual acrimony, that it was a matter of wonder with many, that, confidering the great and usual want of principle in the profeffion, a poet should become a voluntary exile for the fake of religion.

1 See his EPIGRAMMES. Epig. 82. FIRST HUNDRED. And Puttenham's ARTE OF ENGLISH POESIE, Lib. i. c. 31. p. 49. One of Heywood's Epigrams is defcriptive of his life and character. FIFTE HUNDRED. Epigr. 100.

OF HEYWOOD.

Art thou Heywood with the mad mery wit?

Yea forfooth, mayfter, that fame is even hit.

Art thou Heywood that applieth mirth more than thrift?

Ye fir, I take mery mirth a golden gift. Art thou Heywood that hath made many mad Playes?

Yea many playes, few good woorkes in all my dayes.

Art thou Heywood that hath made men mery long?

Yea and will, if I be made mery longe. Art thou Heywood that would be made mery nowe?

Yea, fir, help me to it now I beseech yow.

In the CONCLUSION to the SPIDER and FLIE, Heywood mentions queen Mary and king Philip. But as most of his pieces

seem to have been written fome time before, I have placed him under Henry the eighth.

m ATн. OXON. i. 150.

SECT.

SE C T. Xxv.

I

KNOW not if fir Thomas More may properly be confidered as an English poet. He has, however, left a few obfolete poems, which although without any striking merit, yet, as productions of the restorer of literature in England, feem to claim fome notice here. One of thefe is, A MERY JEST how a SERGEANT would learne to play the FREERE. Written by Maister Thomas More in hys youth. The story is too dull and too long to be told here. But I will cite two or three of the prefatory ftanzas.

He that hath lafte" the Hofier's crafte,

And fallth to makyng fhone';
The smyth that shall to paynting fall,
His thrift is well nigh done.

A black draper with whyte paper,
To goe to writing fcole,

An old butler becum a cutler,

I wene fhal prove a fole.

And an old trot, that can, god wot,
Nothyng but kyffe the cup,

With her phificke will kepe one ficke,
Till the hath foused hym up.

A man of law that never fawe

The wayes to bye and fell,
Wenyng to ryfe by marchandyse,
I praye god fpede hym well!

WORKES, Lond. 1557. in folio. Sign. C. i.

N 2

bLeft.

c Shoes,

A marchaunt

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