JOHN NORDEN.

THIS old English Poet is mentioned by Ritson; but I never saw any specimen of his performance, and know of no other copy of the work below described, but that in the British Museum.

"The Labyrinth
Of Mans Life,

or

Vertues Delyght and Envies Opposite,
By Jo. Norden.

Virtus abunde sui est præmium quicunque sequatur Eventus.

Printed at London, for John Badge, and are to be sold at the Great South Doore of Paules, and at Brittaines Bursse. 1614."

It is dedicated to "the Right Honourable Sir Robert Carr, Knight, Baron of Branspeth, Vicqunte Rochester, Earle of Somersett, of His Majesties most honorable Privie Counsell, Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter, and Lord High Treasurer of Scotland."

The dedication is in that style of fulsome panegyric, which distinguished and disgraced similar addresses at this period of our history,

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and

and was perhaps never more misapplied. Se veral complimentary verses to the author are prefixed.

The following is as favorable a specimen of the Author's talents as can be given:

The Bramble and the Cedar neighbours bee,
And farre the stronger is the Cedar tree;

The Bramble bends, breaks not, when tempests rise,
That soonest falls that is of greatest sise.
Vnder the Cedars on a mountain set;

The lower trees and shrubs there shelter get,
But when the tempest tumbles downe the tree,
They bend or breake that vnder shelter bee;
Her stature tall, her massie bodie teares,
And breake the branches which the bodie beares.
And vnderlings which Cedars shelters have
Doe bow or bruse or others shelters crave.
High Cedar falling hath no meanes of stay,
His fall affrights, and makes whole woods dismay.
The mountaine whereon Cedar firmely stands,
And woods, when Cedars flourish, clap their hands.

Can Honour wake, and will fowle Enuic sleep?
If Vertue rise, will Enuie silence keep?
Who then can see, though Vertue be his guide;
What may within this Labyrinth, betide,
Wherein the wisest, oft amazed stand;
For best successe, to turne on whither hand.

The highest of the highest rancke is set,
To tread this maze, not free from counterlet.
For, Enuie bandes, and doth oppose her skill,
To circumvent as well the good as ill.

Whom

Whom she detracteth, be he hye or low,

Receiues a wound, before he feeles the blow.

But, who pursues, another, in despite,
Hurts more himselfe, then him he aymes to smite.

" ANNALIA DUBRENSIA.

UPON the yeerely celebration of Mr. Robert Dovers Olimpick Games upon Cotswold Hills. Written by

London.

Printed by Robert Raworth, for Mathewe

This Poem has been reprinted by Pinkerton. Pinkerton says the Authoress was not the Mother of Colvill the Poet. Ritson makes it clear, that she was from Douglases Peerage. p. 146. The first edition was printed at Edinburgh, 1603,

JOHN DAVIES.

AS this personage has been frequently confounded with Sir John Davies, and the works of the one erroneously ascribed to the other, I mention him here, and give a lowing work of his, which I

seen.

place to the fol

have no where

The period at which it was written, and the scarcity of the tract, seem to justify a specific account and extract.

"Humours Heavn on Earth,
With

The Civili Warres of Death and Fortune,
As also

The Triumph of Death,

or

The Picture of the Plague, according to the Life, as it was in Anno Domini 1603.

By John Davies, of Hereford.

O'tis a sacred kind of excellence.

That hides a rich truth in a tales pretence.

Printed at London, by A. T. 1605.”· The Poem is dedicated "To the Right Noble Algernon, Lord Percy, Sonne and Heire Apparen to the Right Honorable Henry, Earle of Northumberland."

The author was a Writing Master, who calls the Ladie Dorothie and Ladie Lucy Percies, his pupils,

The following short extract may

suffice.

À DESCRIPTION OF THE WANTONS

APPARRELL.

Epithymus the wanton on his crowne

A crowne of roses wore lasciviously,

A falling band of cutworke richly sowne,

Did his broad shoulders quite ore-canopy;

A waste-coate wrought with floures as they had growne, In coloured silke lay open to the eie;

And as his bosome was unbuttoned quite,

So were his points untrusst for ends too light.

His doublet was carnation cut with greene'
Rich taffetae quite through in ample cuttes.
That so his wastcoate might ech where be seene,
When lusty dames should eie this lusty guttes,
And many favours hung the cuttes betweene,
And many more more light in them he shuttes;
So that a vacant place was hardly found,
About this fancy so well favourd round.
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This