Where that great Persian bear, whose swelling pride The lion's self tore out with ravenous jaw? Or note of these great monarchies we find : And empty name in writ is left behind : Did all the world with hideous shape affiay; And trod down all the rest to dust and clay: O'ershadows half the earth, whose dismal sight Already stoops, and flags with weary flight: WILLIAM HABINGTON. 1605—1654. WILLIAM HABINGTON was born at the country seat of his ancestors in Worcestershire, called Hindlip, in 1605, the year of the famed gunpowder plot, the discovery of which is said to have come from his mother. They were a wealthy family, and were Papists. William was educated in the Jesuits' College in St. Omers, and afterwards at Paris, in the hope that he migbt enter into that society. But he preferred a wiser and happier course of life, and returning to his own country, married Lucy, daughter of William Herbert. In 1635 he published a volume of poems entitled “Castara," under which name he celebrates his wife, a kind of title fashionable in that day. He died when he had just completed his fiftieth year, and was buried in the family vault at Hindlip. But little is known of Habington's history. He appears to have been dis. tinguished for connubial felicity, for a love of retirement and study, and for the dignity and moral beauty of his sentiments. “His poems possess much elegance, much poetical fancy, and are almost everywhere tinged with a deer moral cast, which ought to have made their fame more permanent.”? 1 The Mohammedan Empire. 2 See “Censura Literaria," vili. 227 and 387; and “Retrospective Review," xii. 274; also, "Yadlam's Literature," &c., fi. 181. a TO CASTARA, Do not their profane orgies hear THE VANITY OF AVARICE. Hark! how the traitor wind doth court The sailors to the main; A tempest checks the fond disdain; And while proud billows rise Our love's so sacred mysteries ; Where's now my pride t'extend my fame Wherever statues are? In the smooth court or rugged war? Unmark'd in th' shaded vale, Are breathed forth by an angry gale; Castara, what is there above The treasures we possess? Like stars in th' orb of happiness. He was JOSEPH HALL. 1574-1656. Few names in our language have united in a greater degree the character of an instructive prose writer and a vigorous poet, than Joseph Hall. born at Briston Park, in Leicestershire, in 1574, and after taking his degree at Cambridge, he rose through various church preferments to be Bishop of Exeter, and subsequently, in 1641, to be Bishop of Norwich. In the same year he joined with the twelve prelates in the protestation of all laws made during their forced absence from Parliament. In consequence of this, he, with the rest, was sent to the Tower, and was released only on giving £5000 bail. Two years after, he was among the number marked out for sequestration. After suffering extreme hardships, he was allowed to retire on a small pittance, to Higham, near Norwich, where he continued, in comparative obscurity, but with indefatigable zeal and intrepidity, to exercise the duties of a pastor, till he closed his days, in the year 1636, at the venerable age of eighty-two. As a poet, Bishop Hall is known by his « Bookes of byting Satyres." These were published at the early age of twenty-three. They are marked, says Warton,' with a classical precision to which English poetry had yet rarely attained. They are replete with animation of style and sentiment. The characters are delineated in strong and lively coloring, and their discriminations are touched with the masterly traces of genuine humor. His chief fault is obscurity, arising from a remote phraseology, constrained combinations, un familiar allusions, and abruptness of expression. But it must be borne in mind that he was the first English satirist. Pope, on presenting Mr. West with a copy of his poetical works, observed that he esteemed them the best poetry and the truest satire in the language. THE ANXIOUS CLIENT AND RAPACIOUS LAWYER. The crouching client, with low-bended knee, 1 A masterly analysis of these satires may be found in Warton's "History of English Poetry," VOL 1v., sections 62, 63, and 64. Tells on his tale as smoothly as him list; THE DOMESTIC TUTOR. A gentle squire would gladly entertain THE RUSTIC WISHING TO TURN SOLDIER. The sturdy ploughman doth the soldier sce 1 Yet even. 2 Pull them out of his purse. • 8 Or, a table-chaplain. In the same sense we have "troncher-knight" in "Love's Labor Lost." We still too often see, as did Hall, the depressed state of modest, but true genias; we still see the learned pate duck to the golden fool;" we still see "pastors and teachers" court and fatter men who have little else than their money to recommend them. 4 Pronounced as in four syllables, con-di-ti-ons. 6 This indulgence allowed to the pupil is the reverse of a more ancient rulc at Oxford, by which the scholars are ordered "to sleep respectively under the beds of the Fellows, in a truckle bed, (Troody Leddys, vulgariter nuncupati,) or small bed shifted about upon wheels." 6 In Hall's day the table was divided into the upper and lower messes, by a huge salt-cellar, and the rauk and consequence of the visitors were marked by the situation of their seats above or below the salt-cellar. 7 Lashes. 8 A kind of forester's green cloth, so called from Kendal, Westmoreland county, which was famous for its manufacture 9 "A kind of rustic high shoes or hall boots. Jo That is, to them who have never seen the time when, &c. THE FASHIONABLE BUT FAMISHED BEAU. Seest thou how gayly my young master goes, Like a broad shake-fork with a slender steel. As a prose writer, Hall was known in his day as a most able champion in controversial theology, being one of the antagonists of Milton, and writing with great learning, as well as with a most excellent spirit, in favor of the esta. blished church. But his numerous tracts on this subject are now but little read. Not so, however, with his “Contemplations on the principal Passages of the Holy Story," and his “Occasional Meditations." These are replete with fine thoughts, excellent morality, and sterling piety. He has been styled the Christian Seneca, from his sententious manner of writing, and from the peculiar resemblance of his « Meditations" to " Seneca's Morals.''3 dined. 1 A proverbial phrase for going without a dinner, arising from the circumstance of St. Paul's, where Duke Humphrey's tomb was supposed to stand, being the common resort of loungers who had no: 9 Long or low. $ “ Poetry was the occupation merely of his youth, the vigor and dceline of his days being employed in the composition of professional works, calculated, by their piety, eloquence, and originality, to promote, in the most powerful manner, the best interests of morality and religion.”-- Drake. |