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Some, that in presence of thy livelihed

Lurked, whose breasts envy with hate had swoln."

'Some, that watched with the murderer's knife,
With eager thirst to drink thy guiltless blood,
Whose practice brake by happy end of life,
With envious tears to hear thy fame so good."

"But I," the Earl adds,

knew what harbour'd in that head;

What virtues rare were temper'd in that breast."

Wyatt retired to his seat at Allington soon after this affair, and there can be little doubt that it was at this time he wrote the satires, addressed to his friend, John Pointz, in which he draws so pleasing a picture of the advantages of retirement over the dangers of a public life. Many lines of those pieces may be received as a faithful description of his own feelings; and he points out the security and happiness of his home, with similar sensations to those of the mariner, who finds himself safely anchored in his destined port, after a tempestuous and dangerous voyage. In this production he confesses that his love of fame had seduced him from a more philosophic estimate of life,

"I grant, sometime of Glory that the fire

Doth touch my heart."

He then mentions the various base qualifications

Surrey's Poems, page 60.

necessary for a courtier, and admits his deficiency therein :

"My Poins, I cannot frame my tune to feign,
To cloak the truth, for praise without desert
Of them that list all vice for to retain.
I cannot honour them that set their part
With Venus, and Bacchus, all their life long;
Nor hold my peace of them, although I smart.
I cannot crouch nor kneel to such a wrong;
To worship them like God on earth alone,
That are as wolves these sely lambs among.
I cannot with my words complain and moan,
And suffer nought; nor smart without complaint:
Nor turn the word that from my mouth is gone.
I cannot speak and look like as a saint;
Use wiles for wit, and make deceit a pleasure;
Call craft counsel, for lucre still to paint.

I cannot wrest the law to fill the coffer."

After proceeding in a similar strain for some time, he thus concludes:

"This is the cause that I could never yet

Hang on their sleeves that weigh, as thou mayst see,
A chip of chance more than a pound of wit:
This maketh me at home to hunt and hawk;
And in foul weather at my book to sit;

In frost and snow, then with my bow to stalk;
No man doth mark whereso I ride or go:
In lusty leas at liberty I walk;

And of these news I feel nor weal nor woe:"

"Nor I am not, where truth is given in prey
For money, poison, and treason; of some
A common practice, used night and day.

But I am here in Kent and Christendom,

Among the Muses, where I read and rhyme ;

Where if thou list, mine own John Poins, to come,
Thou shalt be judge how I do spend my time."

In this peaceable and happy manner Wyatt passed the winter of 1541, and the spring and summer of 1542; and during this period he composed the seven penitential psalms, an employment indicative of the serious nature of his thoughts, rather than, as Dr. Nott has imagined, of remorse or even regret for his previous career. Part of his leisure was also given to the care and education of his nephew, Henry Lee; and he bestowed much of his time in improving his mansion and estate of Allington. Leland says, that about this period Sir Thomas commanded one of the ships of Henry's navy, but the statement is not corroborated by any other writer.

On the arrival of ambassadors from the Emperor, in the autumn of 1542, the King commanded Wyatt to meet them at Falmouth, and conduct them to London; but the execution of this mandate cost him his life. The weather was extremely unfavourable for travelling, and having over-heated himself by his journey, he was seized with a fever at Sherborne. Horsey, one of his intimate friends, who lived in the neighbourhood of that town, hastened to his aid, but his kindness proved unavailing. After lingering a few days under a malignant fever, his constitution

gave way, and he expired on the 10th or 11th of October, 1542, in his thirty-ninth year. Horsey performed the last offices of friendship, by closing Wyatt's eyes, and attending his remains to their final resting place, in the family vault of the Horsey family, in the great church of Sherborne, but no inscription marks the spot where he was interred.

Few men ever possessed a more unblemished reputation, or died more sincerely regretted and esteemed than Sir Thomas Wyatt. His talents and accomplishments, great as they undoubtedly were, yielded even to the higher qualities of frankness, integrity, and honour, in obtaining him the approbation and love of his contemporaries; and to judge from the numerous elegies by which minds of kindred excellence sought to commemorate his worth, Wyatt possessed the advantage of being appreciated by those whose praise is fame. His poems sufficiently attest the variety and scope of his abilities; and, like those of his friend Surrey, they are free from the slightest impurity of thought or expression. He spoke several languages, and was so richly stored with classical literature, that the erudite Camden he was says splendide doctus." prose is forcible and clear, and occasionally animated and eloquent. He excelled on the lute, and was eminent for his conversational powers; but all these merits were exceeded by the agree

His

able qualities of his private character. In person Wyatt was eminently handsome. Tall, and of a commanding presence, elegantly formed, and gifted with a countenance of manly beauty.

Dr. Nott has collected many of Wyatt's witticisms, or rather " sayings," which will be introduced in that learned person's own words:

"One day as the King was conversing with Wyatt on the suppression of monasteries, he expressed his apprehension on the subject, saying, he foresaw it would excite general alarm should the crown resume to itself such extensive possessions as those belonging to the church. True, Sire,' replied Wyatt! but what if the rook's nest were buttered?' Henry understood the force and application of the proverb, and is said from that moment to have formed the design of making the nobility a party in the transaction, by giving to them a portion of the church lands.

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"At a still earlier period of the business, Henry, who passionately desired the divorce, had expressed some scruples about urging it from the opposition raised by the Pope. Wyatt, who witnessed the King's perplexity, is said to have exclaimed in his hearing; Heavens! that a man cannot repent him of his sins without the Pope's leave.' This speech, as was designed, sunk deep into the King's mind; and disposed him the more readily to adopt the measure proposed by Cranmer of consulting the universities.