Page images
PDF
EPUB

Sith Nature thus gave her the praise
To be the chiefest work she wrought;
In faith, methink! some better ways

On your behalf might well be sought,
Than to compare, as ye have done,
To match the candle with the sun.

DESCRIPTION OF SPRING.1

The soote2 season, that bud and bloom forth brings,
With green hath clad the hill, and eke the vale.
The nightingale with feathers new she sings;
The turtle to her make3 hath told her tale.
Summer is come, for every spray now springs;
The hart hath hung his old head on the pale,
The buck in brake his winter coat he flings;
The fishes flete with new repaired scale;
The adder all her slough away she flings;

The swift swallow pursueth the flies smale;
The busy bee her honey now she mings;7

Winter is worn that was the flowers' bale.
And thus I see among these pleasant things
Each care decays, and yet my sorrow springs.

OF THE HAPPY LIFE AND THE MEANS TO ATTAIN IT.

MARTIAL, the things that do attain
The happy life, be these, I find;
The riches left, not got with pain;
The fruitful ground, the quiet mind:
The equal friend, no grudge, no strife;
No charge of rule, nor governance;
Without disease, the healthful life;

The household of continuance:8

The mean diet, no delicate fare;

True wisdom join'd with simpleness;

The night discharged of all care,

Where wine the wit may not oppress:

The faithful wife, without debate;

Such sleeps as may beguile the night.
Content thee with thine own estate;

Ne wish for Death, ne fear his might.

[ocr errors]

1 "This sonnet is perhaps the most beautiful specimen of descriptive poetry in our language."—

Dr. Nott.

2 "Soote" was continued in use long after its substitute weet was introduced.

8" Make," synonymous with mate.

4 The uneasiness experienced by this animal before he sheds his horns, leads him to rub his forehead against the paling of the park.

5 "Flete" is not fleet, to "pass rapidly by," but nearer to our "float," except that it means what swims through the water as well as on its surface.

• This was not only the old way of spelling small, but also of pronouncing it, with the long a, as in hate. 7 Mingles.

8 This line probably means, a "household" or family that is not of recent establishment, and promises to be of duration.

[blocks in formation]

HIGH LATIMER, bishop of Worcester, was born about the year 1475. Being an only son, and of quick parts, his father, a respectable yeoman, resolved to make him a scholar, and after due preparation he entered Cambridge. He was a zealous papist till the age of thirty, when he was converted by Thomas Bilney, and began with great zeal to propagate the opinions of the reformers. During the reign of Edward VI., (1547-1553,) he was pre-eminent among his zealous contemporaries in spreading the doctrines of the Reformation, and, in conjunction with Cranmer, was one of the principal instruments in effecting its establishment. But in the persecutions of Mary, he was singled out as one of the most desired victims of popish vengeance. He might have made his escape, and the opportunity which was given him seems to have been designed; but Latimer had the true spirit of a martyr, and determined to remain at his post of duty. As he passed through Smithfield on his way to London after his arrest, he exclaimed, "This place has long groaned for me." After a tedious imprisonment he persisted in refusing to subscribe to certain articles which were submitted to him, and he was led forth to his horrid death, October 16, 1555.

With a staff in his hand, a pair of spectacles hanging at his breast, and a Bible at his girdle, he walked to the place of execution, with his fellow martyr, Nicholas Ridley, bishop of London. On their way Ridley outwent Latimer some way before; but he, looking back, espied Latimer coming after, and said to him, "O be ye there?" "Yea," said Latimer, "have after as fast as I can follow." Ridley first entered the lists, dressed in his clerical habit; and soon after, Latimer, as usual, in his prison garb. Latimer now suffered the keeper to pull off his prison-garb, and then he appeared in a shroud. Being ready, he fervently recommended his soul to God, and then delivered himself to the executioner, saying to Ridley these prophetical words: "Be of good cheer, master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day kindle such a torch in England as I trust in God shall never be extinguished." Two bags of gunpowder were fastened under his arms, the explosion of which instantaneously deprived him of life. At this moment a quantity of blood seemed to gush from his heart, as if all the blood in his body had been there collected. But poor Ridley was less fortunate. His extremities were consumed to the trunk before the fire affected his vitals, and he died in lingering anguish.2

A YEOMAN OF HENRY SEVENTH'S TIME.

My father was a yeoman, and had no lands of his own, only he had a farm of 31. or 41. by year at the uttermost, and hereupon he tilled so much as kept half a dozen men. He had walk for an

1 At first himself also a Romish priest; but he was afterwards burnt for heresy.

2 "Nor were the labors and constancy of our reformers at all inferior to those of the early propagators of the Gospel. Whoever has admired the faith and heroic sufferings of Ignatius or Polycarp, must look with no less satisfaction on those of Ridley, Latimer, Cranmer, and Hooper. It is impos sible not to venerate their glowing piety, their profound humility, their patience under sufferings, their praises of God under distresses and privations of every kind, their prayers for their persecutors, their exemplary and triumphant death."-Lectures on Paganism and Christianity compared, by John Ireland, D. D.-a most admirable work.

hundred sheep, and my mother milked 30 kine. He was able, and did find the king a harness, with himself and his horse, while The came to the place that he should receive the king's wages. I can remember that I buckled his harness when he went to Blackheath field. He kept me to school, or else I had not been able to have preached before the king's majesty now. He married my sisters with 51. or 20 nobles apiece, so that he brought them up in godliness and fear of God. He kept hospitality for his poor neighbours. And some alms he gave to the poor, and all this did he of the said farm. Where he that now hath it, payeth 167. by the year, or more, and is not able to do any thing for his prince, for himself, nor for his children, or give a cup of drink to the poor.

In my time my poor father was as diligent to teach me to shoot, as to learn me any other thing, and so I think other men did their children: he taught me how to draw, how to lay my body in my bow, and not to draw with strength of arms as divers other nations do, but with strength of the body. I had my bows bought me according to my age and strength; as I increased in them, so my bows were made bigger and bigger, for men shall never shoot well, except they be brought up in it: it is a worthy game, a wholesome kind of exercise, and much commended in physic.

HIS EXAMINATION BEFORE THE BISHOPS.

I was once in examination before five or six bishops, where I had much turmoiling; every week thrice I came to examination, and many snares and traps were laid to get something. Now God knoweth, I was ignorant of the law, but that God gave me answer and wisdom what I should speak. It was God indeed, for else I had never escaped them. At the last I was brought forth to be examined, into a chamber hanged with arras, where I was wont to be examined, but now at this time the chamber was somewhat altered. For whereas before there was wont ever to be a fire in the chimney, now the fire was taken away, and an arras hanging hanged over the chimney, and the table stood near the chimney's end: so that I stood between the table and the chimney's end. There was among these bishops that examined me, one with whom I have been very familiar, and took him for my great friend, an aged man, and he sate next the table's end.

Then among all other questions he put forth one, a very subtle and crafty one, and such a one indeed as I could not think so great danger in. And I should make answer: I pray you, master Latimer, saith he, speak out: I am very thick of hearing, and here be many that sit far off. I marvelled at this, that I was bid. den speak out, and began to misdeem, and gave an ear to the chimney. And, sir, there I heard a pen walking in the chimney

behind the cloth. They had appointed one there to write all my answers, for they made sure work that I should not start from them: there was no starting from them.

God was my good Lord, and gave me answer; I could never else have escaped it. The question was this: Master Latimer, do you not think on your conscience, that you have been suspected of heresy? A subtle question, a very subtle question. There was no holding of peace would serve. To hold my peace had been to grant myself faulty. To answer it was every way full of danger. But God, which alway had given me answer, helped me, or else I could never have escaped it, and delivered me from their hands.

CAUSE AND EFFECT.

Here is now an argument to prove the matter against the preachers. Here was preaching against covetousness all the last year, and the next summer followed rebellion: Ergo, preaching against covetousness was the cause of the rebellion-a goodly argument. Here now I remember an argument of master More's which he bringeth in a book that he made against Bilney; and here by the way I will tell you a merry toy. Master More was once sent in commission into Kent, to help to try out (if it might be) what was the cause of Goodwin Sands, and the shelf that stopped up Sandwich haven. Thither cometh master More, and calleth the country afore him, such as were thought to be men of experience, and men that could of likelihood best certify him of that matter concerning the stopping of Sandwich haven. Among others came in before him an old man, with a white head, and one that was thought to be little less than a hundred years old. When master More saw this aged man, he thought it expedient to hear him say his mind in this matter, (for being so old a man, it was likely that he knew most of any man in that presence and company.) So master More called this old aged man unto him, and said: Father, (said he,) tell me, if you can, what is the cause of this great arising of the sands and shelves here about this haven, the which stop it up, that no ships can arrive here? Ye are the eldest man I can espy in all this company, so that if any man can tell any cause of it, ye of likelihood can say most to it, or at leastwise, more than any man here assembled. Yea forsooth, good master, (quoth this old man,) for I am well nigh a hundred years old, and no man here in this company any thing near unto mine age. Well then, (quoth master More,) how say you in this matter? What think you to be the cause of these shelves and flats that stop up Sandwich haven? Forsooth sir, (quoth he,) I am an old man; I think that Tenterton-steeple is the cause of Good

win Sands. For I am an old man, sir, (quoth he,) and I may remember the building of Tenterton-steeple, and I may remember when there was no steeple at all there. And before that Tenterton-steeple was in building, there was no manner of speaking of any flats or sands that stopped the haven; and therefore I think that Tenterton-steeple is the cause of the destroying and decay of Sandwich haven. And so to my purpose, is preaching of God's word the cause of rebellion, as Tenterton-steeple was cause that Sandwich haven was decayed.

SIR JOHN CHEKE. 1514-1557.

In the year 1540, Henry VIII. founded a Greek professorship at Cambridge, of which Cheke was elected the first professor, when only twenty-six years of age; so early was he distinguished for his classical attainments. In 1544 he was appointed tutor to Prince Edward,' who, on his accession to the throne, rewarded him with a pension of a hundred marks and a grant of several lands and manors; and in 1551 conferred on him the honor of knighthood. Sir John was a zealous protestant; in consequence of which he was severely persecuted by the bigoted Mary, twice imprisoned in the Tower, stript of his whole substance, and ultimately reduced to that dilemma which tried the stoutest hearts" Either turn or burn." His religious zeal was not proof against this fiery ordeal, and he recanted. His property was now restored; but his recantation was followed by such bitterness of remorse, that he survived it but a short time, dying in 1557, at the early age of forty-three. The period in which Cheke flourished is highly interesting to letters. His influence was very great in promoting a taste for classical and philological learning. He introduced a new method of pronouncing Greek, which, not withstanding the violent fulminations of the papal clergy, ultimately prevailed and still prevails. We are also very much indebted to him for the improvement of our own language. He recommended and practised a more minute attention to the meaning of words and phrases, and adopted a more skilful arrangement of them in composition. Before him, the sentences were long, and often involved. He used short sentences, and wrote with greater precision, perspicuity, and force of style than his predecessors.

His works were numerous, but they chiefly consisted of Latin translations from the Greek. Almost his only English work extant is his tract, entitled "The Hurt of Sedition." In the summer of 1549 a formidable rebellion broke out in many of the counties in England. The rebels in the western part favored the papal religion, which they were desirous to restore. These Sir John addresses thus:

1 To this Milton alludes in one of his sonnets:.

"Thy age like ours, O soul of Sir John Cheke,

Hated not learning worse than toad or asp,

When thou taught'st Cambridge and King Edward Greek."

« PreviousContinue »