stop their course to hear him complain, and the grass weeps in dew. These thoughts are common and fantastic. But he adds an image which is new, and has much nature and sentiment, although not well expressed.

The hugy okes have rored in the winde,

Eche thing, methought, complaining in theyr kinde.

This is a touch of the pensive. And the apostrophe which follows is natural and simple.

Ah stony hart, who hath thus framed thee

So cruel, that are clothed with beautic! [fol. 24.]

And there is much strength in these lines of the lover to his bed.

The place of slepe, wherein I do but wake,

Besprent with tears, my bed, I thee forsake! [fol. 25.]

But such passages as these are not the general characteristics of Wyat's poetry. They strike us but seldom, amidst an impracticable mass of forced reflections, hyperbolical metaphors, and complaints that move no compassion.

But Wyat appears a much more pleasing writer, when he moralises on the felicities of retirement, and attacks the vanities and vices of a court, with the honest indignation of an independent philosopher, and the freedom and pleasantry of Horace. Three of his political epistles are professedly written in this strain, two to John Poines', and the other to sir Francis Bryan: and we must regret, that he has not left more pieces in a style of composition for which he seems to have been eminently qualified. In one of the epistles to Poines on the life of a courtier, are these spirited and manly reflections.

Myne owne John Poines, since ye delite to know
The causes why that homewarde I me drawe,

And flee the prease [press] of courtes, where so they go2;
Rather than to live thrall under the awe

Of lordly looks, wrapped within my cloke;

To will and lust learning to set a law:

It is not that, because I scorne or mocke

The power of them, whom Fortune here hath lent

Charge over us, of Right [justice] to strike the stroke

But true it is, that I have alwayes ment

Lesse to esteeme them, (than the common sort)

Of outwarde thinges that judge, in their entent,
Without regarde what inward doth resort.
I graunt sometime of glory that the fire
Doth touch my heart. Me list not to report3
Blame by honour, nor honour to desire.

But how can I this honour now attaine,

1 He seems to have been a person about the court. LIFE of Sir Tho. Pope, p. 46. 2 The court was perpetually moving from one palace to another.

3 To speak favourably of what is bad.

650

WYAT'S EXECRATION OF FLATTERY AND COURTIERS.

That cannot die the colour black a liar?

My Poines, I cannot frame my tune to faine,

To cloke the truth, &c.

In pursuit of this argument, he declares his indisposition and inability to disguise the truth, and to flatter, by a variety of instances. Among others, he protests he cannot prefer Chaucer's TALE of SIR THOPAS to his PALAMON AND ARCITE.

Prayse SIR THOPAS for a noble tale,

And scorne the STORY that the KNIGHT tolde;
Praise him for counsell that is dronke of ale:
Grinne when he laughes, that beareth all the sway;
Frowne when he frownes, and grone when he is pale:
On others lust to hang both night and day, &c.

I mention this circumstance about Chaucer, to shew the esteem in which the KNIGHT'S TALE, that noble epic poem of the dark ages, was held in the reign of Henry VIII., by men of taste.

The poet's execration of flatterers and courtiers is contrasted with the following entertaining picture of his own private life and rural enjoyments at Allingham-castle in Kent.

This is the cause that I could never yet

Hang on their sleeves, that weigh, as thou maist se,

A chippe of chaunce more than a pounde of wit:
This maketh me at home to hunt and hawke,
And in fowle wether at my booke to sit;

In frost and snowe then with my bow to stalke;
No man doth marke whereso I ride or go:

In lusty leas' at liberty I walke:

And of these newes I fele no weale nor wo :
Save that a clogge doth hange yet at my hele2;
No force for that, for it is ordered so,

That I may leape both hedge and dike ful wele.
I am not now in Fraunce, to judge the wine, &c.
But I am here in Kent and Christendome,

Among the Muses, where I reade and rime;
Where if thou list, mine owne John Poines to come,

Thou shalt be judge how do I spende my time. [Fol. 47.]

In another epistle to John Poines, on the security and happiness of a moderate fortune, he versifies the fable of the City and Country Mouse with much humour.

My mother's maides, when they do sowe and spinne,
They sing a song made of the feldishe mouse, &c.

This fable appositely suggests a train of sensible and pointed observations on the weakness of human conduct, and the delusive plans of life.

1 In large fields. Over fruitful grounds.

2 Probably he alludes to some office which he still held at court; and which sometimes re called him, but not too frequently, from the country.

Alas, my Poines, how men do seke the best,
And finde the worse by errour as they stray:
And no marvell, when sight is so opprest,
And blindes the guide: anone out of the way
Goeth guide and all, in seking quiet lyfe.

O wretched myndes! There is no golde that may
Graunt that you seke: no warre, no peace, no strife:
No, no, although thy head were hoopt with golde:
Serjaunt at mace, with hawbert', sworde, nor knife,
Cannot repulse the care that folow shoulde.
Eche kinde of life hath with him his disease:
Live in delites, even as thy lust would,

And thou shalt finde, when lust doth most thee please,
It irketh strait, and by itself doth fade.

A small thing is it, that may thy minde appease?
None of you al there is that is so madde,

To seke for grapes on brambles or on breeres;

Nor nonne, I trowe, that hath a wit so badde,
To sett his hay for conneyes oer riveres.
Nor yet set not a drag net for a hare :

And yet the thing that most is your desire

You do misseke, with more travell and care.

Make plaine thine hart, that it be not knotted

With hope or dreade: and se thy will be bare [free]

From all affects [passions], whom vice hath never spotted.
Thyself content with that is thee assinde; [assigned]

And use it wel that is to the allotted.

Then seke no more out of thyself to fynde,

The thing that thou hast sought so long before,

For thou shalt feele it sticking in thy mynde.

These Platonic doctrines are closed with a beautiful application of virtue personified, and introduced in her irresistible charms of visible beauty. For those who deviate into vain and vicious pursuits,

None other paine pray I for them to be,

But when the rage doth leade them from the right,

That, loking backwarde, VIRTUE they may se

Even as she is, so goodly faire and bright! [Fol. 45, 46,]

With these disinterested strains we may join the following single stanza, called THE COURTIERS LIFE.

In court to serve, decked with freshe aray,
Of sugred meates feeling the swete repaste;
The life in bankets, and sundry kindes of play,
Amid the prease of worldly lookes to waste :
Hath with it joinde oft times such bitter taste,

That whoso joyes such kind of life to hold,

In prison joyes, fettered with chaines of gold. [Fol. 44.]

Wyat may justly be deemed the first polished English satirist. I

1 Halbert A parade of guards, &c. The classical allusion is obvious.

652 WYAT'S TRANSLATION OF THE SEVEN PENITENTIAL PSALMS.

am of opinion, that he mistook his talents when, in compliance with the mode, he became a sonnetteer; and, if we may judge from a few instances, that he was likely to have treated any other subject with more success than that of love. His abilities were seduced and misapplied in fabricating fine speeches to an obdurate mistress. In the following little ode, or rather epigram, on a very different occasion, there is great simplicity and propriety, together with a strain of poetic allusion. It is on his return from Spain into England.

Tagus farewel, that westward with thy stremes

Turnes up the graines of gold al redy tride! [Pure gold]
For I with spurre and sayle go seke the Temes, [Thames]
Gainward the sunne that shewes her welthy pride:
And to the town that Brutus sought by dremes1,
Like bended moone2 that leanes her lusty3 side;
My king, my countrey I seke, for whom I live:

O mighty Jove, the windes for this me give. [Fol. 44.]

Among Wyat's poems is an unfinished translation, in Alexandrine verse, of the Song of Iopas in the first book of Virgil's Eneid. [Fol. 49.] Wyat's and Surrey's versions from Virgil are the first regular translations in English of an ancient classic poet and they are symptoms of the restoration of the study of the Roman writers, and of the revival of elegant literature. A version of David's Psalms by Wyat is highly extolled by lord Surrey and Leland. But Wyat's version of the PENITENTIAL PSALMS seems to be a separate work from his translation of the whole Psaltery, and probably that which is praised by Surrey, in an ode above quoted, and entitled, Praise of certain Psalmes of David, translated by Sir T. Wyat the elder. [Fol. 16.] They were printed with this title, in 1549. 'Certaine Psalmes chosen out of the Psalmes of David commonly called vij penytentiall Psalmes, drawen 'into Englishe meter by sir Thomas Wyat knyght, whereunto is 'added a prolog of the aucthore before every Psalme very pleasant and profettable to the godly reader. Imprinted at London in Paules Churchyarde at the sygne of the starre by Thomas Raynald and 'John Harryngton, cum previlegio ad imprimendum solum, MDXLIX.' Leland seems to speak of the larger version.

Transtulit in nostram Davidis carmina linguam,
Et numeros magna reddidit arte pares.

Non morietur OPUS tersum, SPECTABILE, sacrum.

But this version, with that of Surrey mentioned above, is now lost1: and the pious Thomas Sternhold and John Hopkins are the only immortal translators of David's Psalms.

A similarity, or rather sameness of studies, as it is a proof, so per

A tradition in Geoffrey of Monmouth.

2 The old city from the river appeared in the shape of a crescent.

3 Strong, flourishing, populous, &c.

4 Hollinshed CHRONICLE iii. p. 978. col. a.

haps it was the chief cement, of that inviolable friendship which is said to have subsisted between Wyat and Surrey. The principal subject of their poetry was the same: and they both treated the passion of love in the spirit of the Italian poets, and as professed disciples of Petrarch. They were alike devoted to the melioration of their native tongue, and an attainment of the elegancies of composition. They were both engaged in translating Virgil, and in rendering select portions of Scripture into English metre.

SECTION XXXIX.

To the poems of Surrey and Wyat are annexed, as I have before hinted, in Tottel's editions, those of uncertain authors'. This latter collection forms the first printed poetical miscellany in the English language: although very early MSS. miscellanies of that kind are not uncommon. Many of these pieces are much in the manner of Surrey and Wyat, which was the fashion of the times. They are all anonymous; but probably, sir Francis Bryan, George Boleyn earl of Rochford, and lord Vaulx, all professed rhymers and sonnet-writers, were large contributors.

Drayton, in his elegy To his dearly loved friend HENRY REYNOLDS OF POETS AND POESIE, seems to have blended all the several collections of which Tottell's volume consists. After Chaucer he says,

They with the Muses who conversed, were
That princely Surrey, early in the time
Of the eighth Henry, who was then the prime
Of England's noble youth. With him there came
Wyat, with reverence whom we still do name
Amongst our poets: Bryan had a share
With the two former, which accounted are
That time's best Makers, and the authors were
Of those small poems which the title bear

Of Songes and Sonnetts, wherein oft they hit
On many dainty passages of wit2.

Sir Francis Bryan was the friend of Wyat, as we have seen; and served as a commander under Thomas carl of Surrey in an expedition into Brittany, by whom he was knighted for his bravery. [Dugd. BAR. ii. 273. a.] Hence he probably became connected with lord Surrey the poet. But Bryan was one of the brilliant ornaments of the court of Henry VIII. which at least affected to be polite and from 1 They begin at fol. 50.

2 WORKS, vol. iv. p. 1255. edit. Lond. 1759. 8vo.