His retreat at Antwerp was hidden for some time from those who had marked him for their prey. But at length, in 1534, he was betrayed by the spies employed by Henry VIII., and imprisoned. Every thing was done by the English merchants at Antwerp to release him, and one of them, by the name of Thomas Pointz, was so ardent in his cause, that he went to England in person, to exert what influence he could in his favor. In the mean time the noble martyr was not inactive, but while in prison prepared another edition of the Testament, peculiarly adapted to the agricultural laborers; thus fulfilling his pledge that the "ploughboys" should have it for themselves.

But his invaluable life was now drawing to a close. The formalities of a trial were gone through; he was condemned for heresy; and in September, 1536, he was brought out of prison to suffer the dreadful sentence,-burning at the stake. In that appalling moment he exhibited the firmness and resig nation only to be found in the certain confidence of having his portion with those "shining ones" (in Bunyan's phrase) who had come out of great tribulation, and who had

for Jesus' sake,

Writhed on the rack, or blacken'd at the stake.

While the horrid preparations of death and of burning were going on in full view around him, his last thoughts were turned upon the welfare of that country which had driven him forth a fugitive; and his dying voice was that of intercession for his royal persecutor. "O Lord, open the King of England's eyes," were his well-known last words at the stake.

Rome thunder'd death, but Tyndale's dauntless eye

Look'd in death's face and smiled, death standing by.

In spite of Rome, for England's faith he stood,

And in the flames be seal'd it with his blood.

It rests on indubitable evidence that Tyndale's voice was hardly hushed in death, before his last prayer was answered in a remarkable manner; for that capricious tyrant soon issued an injunction, ordering that the Bible should be placed in every church for the free use of the people.

out.

Tyndale's translation of the New Testament is admirable both for style and accuracy; and our present version has very closely followed it throughTo use the words of a profound modern scholar, "It is astonishing how little obsolete the language of it is, even at this day; and, in point of perspi cuity and noble simplicity, propriety of idiom, and purity of style, no English version has yet surpassed it." The following is a fair specimen of this translation.

And marke's A Certayne Lawere stode vp' and tempted hym sayinge: Master what shall I do' to inheret eternall lyfe? He sayd vnto him: What ys written in the lawe? Howe redest thou? And he answered and sayde: Thou shalt love thy lorde god' wyth all thy hert' and wyth all thy soule' and with all thy strengthe' and wyth all thy mynde: and thy neighbour as thy sylfe. And he sayd vnto hym: Thou hast answered right. This do and thou shalt live. He willynge to iustifie hym sylfe' sayde vnto Jesus: Who ys then my neighbour?

1 Dr. Geddes.

2 See a beautiful edition of Tyndale's Testament, by Rev. J. P. Dabney, with an interesting memoir, published at Andover, Mass. 8 Behold.

Jesus answered and sayde: A certayne man descended from Jerusalem into Jericho' And fell into the hondes off theves' whych robbed hym off his rayment and wonded hym' and departed levynge him halfe deed. And yt chaunsed that there cam a certayne preste that same waye' and sawe hym' and passed by. And lyke wyse a levite' when he was come neye to the place' went and loked on hym and passed by. Then a certayne Samaritane as he iornyed cam neye vnto hym and behelde hym and had compassion on hym and cam to hym and bounde vppe hys wondes and poured in wyne and oyle and layed him on his beaste and brought hym to a common hostry1 and drest him." And on the morowe when he departed he toke out two pence and gave them to the host and said vnto him, Take care of him and whatsoever thou spendest above this when I come agayne I will recompence the. Which nowe of these thre thynkest thou was neighbour unto him that fell into the theves hondes? And he answered: He that shewed mercy on hym. Then sayd Jesus vnto hym, Goo and do thou lyke wyse.

SIR THOMAS WYATT. 1503-1542.

SIR THOMAS WYATT, whose poems are generally published with those of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, as they were contemporaries and warm personal friends, as well as among the first improvers of the English language, was born in Allington Castle in Kent, in 1503, and educated at Cambridge. He was early distinguished as a polite and elegant scholar, and was remarkable alike for his uncommon beauty of person, for his dexterity and address in arms, and for his superior attainments in all the softer arts of peace. To a critical knowledge of the ancient classics, he added the French, Italian, and Spanish, which he spoke with fluency and elegance. But what distinguished him most was, his reputation as a poet, and the charm of his conversation. His wit is said to have been inexhaustible, and his readiness at repartee such as astonished every one who heard him.

Possessed of these advantages, it was no wonder that Wyatt should ingratiate himself with the king, and become a very general favorite at court. Ho was sent on some important foreign missions, and acquitted himself with great honor. The last, however, proved fatal to him: for having been sent by the king to Falmouth to conduct the ambassador of the Emperor Charles V. to court, he rode too fast, took ill of a fever, and died in October, 1542, in the thirty-ninth year of his age.

He was a man in every respect entitled to more than common admiration; and he obtained the praise of uniting in his character things in themselves seemingly discordant; brilliant wit and purity of thought; the ease of the

1 See the admirable edition of the "Works of Surrey and Wyatt," by George . Nott, D. D., twu volumes, quarto, London, 1816.

courtier and the gravity of the Christian. But what distinguished him more than even his talents or the powers of his wit, was a certain generous contempt of vice and an exalted love of virtue, which seem to have been the great bond of union between the noble-hearted Surrey and himself. These were not with him qualities merely speculative; they were vital principles, perpetually pressing forward into action. "God and goodness," to use his own expression, "were ever the foundation of his conduct;" so that it was not possible to know him, and converse with him, without feeling the same magnanimous longing after moral excellence by which he himself was animated. Thus he ennobled learning, and rendered poetry and polite attainments honorable, by making them subservient to the cause of Virtue and Religion.

THE LOVER COMPLAINETH THE UNKINDNESS OF HIS LOVE.

My lute, awake! perform the last
Labor, that thou and I shall waste,
And end that I have now begun;
For when this song is sung and past,
My lute! be still, for I have done.

As to be heard where ear is none;
As lead to grave in marble stone,2

My song may pierce her heart as soon:
Should we then sing, or sigh, or moan?
No, no, my lute! for I have done.

The rock doth not so cruelly
Repulse the waves continually,

As she my suit and affection;
So that I am past remedy;

Whereby my lute and I have done.

Proud of the spoil that thou hast got
Of simple hearts, thorough Love's shot,
By whom unkind thou hast them won;
Think not he hath his bow forgot,

Although my lute and I have done.

Vengeance may fall on thy disdain,
That makest but game of earnest pain.
Trow not alone under the sun,
Unquit to cause thy lover's plain,
Although my lute and I have done.

May chance thee lie wither'd and old,
The winter nights that are so cold,
Plaining in vain unto the moon:
Thy wishes then dare not be told;

Care then who list! for I have done.

This poem is of singular merit, and as Dr. Todd remarks, "is one of the most elegant amatory Daes in our language." The lute corresponded nearly to the modern guitar, and every person of good education played upon it.

2 That is, it would be more easy for lead, which is the softest of metals, to engrave characters on hard marble, than it is for me to make impression on her obdurate heart. To grave-to make an Impression upon.

And then may chance thee to repent
The time that thou hast lost and spent,

To cause thy lovers sigh, and swoon:
Then shalt thou know beauty but lent,

And wish and want, as I have done.

Now cease, my lute! this is the last
Labor, that thou and I shall waste,
And ended is that I begun;
Now is this song both sung and past:
My lute! be still, for I have done.

THE LOVER PRAYETH NOT TO BE DISDAINED, REFUSED, MISTRUSTED,
NOR FORSAKEN.

Disdain me not without desert,

Nor leave me not so suddenly;
Since well ye wot that in my heart
I mean ye not but honestly.

Refuse me not without cause why,
Nor think me not to be unjust;

Since that by lot of fantasy,

This careful knot needs knit I must

Mistrust me not, though some there be

That fain would spot my steadfastness.
Believe them not, since that ye see
The proof is not as they express.

Forsake me not, till I deserve;

Nor hate me not, till I offend,
Destroy me not, till that I swerve;

But since ye know what I intend.'

Disdain me not, that am your own;
Refuse me not, that am so true;
Mistrust me not, till all be known;
Forsake me not now for no new.2

A DESCRIPTION OF SUCH A ONE AS HE WOULD LOVE.

A face that should content me wond'rous well,
Should not be fair,3 but lovely to behold;
With gladsome chere, all grief for to expell;
With sober looks so would I that it should

1 Dr. Nott says that but in this line means "unless," without at all explaining its whole difficulty. Dut, in old writers, is used in the sense of without, and since, or seethan as they spelled it, in the sense of seeing that, for which it is a contraction: the full meaning of this line, in connection with the other, I take to be, "Unless you destroy me, seeing that or after that you know my honest inten

tions."

An ellipsis, for no new lover.

3 "Fair" here means regularly beautiful. The sense is, "The face that is to captivate me must nor be regularly beautiful, but one that has a lovely turn of expression."

Speak without words, such words as none can tell;
The tress also should be of crisped' gold.
With wit, and these, might chance I might be tied,
And knit again the knot that should not slide.

OF THE MEAN AND SURE ESTATE.

Stand whoso list, upon the slipper top
Of high estate; and let me here rejoice,
And use me quiet without let or stop,

Unknown in Court, that hath such brackish joys.
In hidden place so let my days forth pass;

That when my years be done withouten noise,

I may die aged, after the common trace:

For him death grip'th right hard by the crop,
That is much known of other, and of himself, alas!
Doth die unknown, dased with dreadful face.

OF HIS RETURN FROM SPAIN.

Tagus, farewell! that westward with thy streams
Turns up the grains of gold already tried; 2
With spur and sail, for I go seek the Thames,

Gainward the sun that sheweth her wealthy pride;
And to the town which Brutus sought by dreams,$
Like bended moon, doth lend her lusty side,
My King, my Country, alone for whom I live,
Of mighty Love the wings for this me give.4

What little prose Sir Thomas Wyatt has left us, consists chiefly of letters. The following extract from a letter to his only son presents, in its elevated sentiments and uncompromising spirit of Christ'an purity, a beautiful view of a true Christian father:

MY DEAR SON,-Inasmuch as now ye are come to some years of understanding, and that you should gather within yourself some fame of Honesty, I thought that I should not lose my labor wholly if now I did something advertise you to take the sure foundations and stablished opinions that leadeth to honesty.

And here, I call not Honesty that, men commonly call Honesty, as reputation for riches, for authority, or some like thing; but that Honesty, that I dare well say your grandfather had rather left to me than all the lands he did leave me; that was, Wisdom,

1 "Crisped" means short curling ringlets, which were artificially produced by curling irons. Pore does not introduce these in his description of the toilet in the "Rape of the Lock,"

"Puffs, powders, patches, Bibles, billet-doux."

We rather smile now at the taste for "golden" colored hair.

2 "Gold already tried," pure gold.

8 This alludes to the old story, that Brutus, the third in descent from Æneas, on quitting his native land, sailed for parts unknown, landed at Albion, proceeded inland, and founded London on the north side of the Thames, which he called Troynovante, as many early English writers call it.

4 The meaning of this is, "The love I bear my king and my country, give me wings for my jour

Dev."