Ah! beauty Syren, fair inchanting good, More than the words or wifdom of the wife; Within a brow ; the key which paffions move, 3. Hymen's Triumph, a Paftoral Tragi-Comedy prefented at the Queen's Court in the Strand, at her Majefty's entertainment of the King, at the nuptials of lord Roxborough, London, 1623, 4to. It is introduced by a pretty contrived Prologue by way of dialogue, in which Hymen is oppofed by avarice, envy and jealoufy; in this piece our author fometimes touches the paffions with a very delicate hand. 4. The Queen's Arcadia, a Paftoral Tragi-Comedy, prefented before her Majefty by the univerfity of Oxford, London 1623, 4to. 5. The Vifion of the Twelve Goddesses, presented in a Mafque the 8th of January at HamptonCourt, by the Queen's most excellent Majefty and her Ladies. London 1604, 8vo. and i623, 4to. It is dedicated to the Lady Lucy, countess of Bedford. His defign under the fhapes, and in the perfons of the Twelve Goddeffes, was to fhadow out the bleffings which the nation enjoyed, under the peaceful reign of King James I. By Juno was reprefented Power; by Pallas Wisdom and Defence; by Venus, Love and Amity; by Vesta, Religion; by Diana, Chastity; by Proferpine, Riches; by Macaria, Felicity; by Concordia, the Union of Hearts; by Aftræa, Juftice; by Flora, the Beauties of the Earth; by Ceres, Plenty; and by Tathys, Naval Power. 6. The Tragedy of Philotas, 1611, 8vo. it is dedicated to the Prince, afterwards King Charles I. H 2 This This play met with fome oppofition, because it was reported that the character of Philotas was drawn for the unfortunate earl of Effex, which obliged the author to vindicate himself from this charge, in an apology printed at the end of the play; both this play, and that of Cleopatra, are written after the manner of the ancients, with a chorus between each act. 7. The Hiftory of the Civil Wars between the Houfes of York and Lancaster, a Poem in eight books, London, 1604, in 8vo. and 1623, 4to. with his picture before it. 8. A Funeral Poem on the Death of the Earl of Devonshire, London, 1603, 4to. 9. A Panegyric Congratulatory, delivered to the King at Burleigh-Harrington in Rutlandshire, 1604. and 1623, 4to. 10. Epiftles to various great Perfonages in Verfe, London, 1601 and 1623, 4to. 11. The Paffion of a Diftreffed Man, who being on a tempeft on the fea, and having in his boat two women (of whom he loved the one who difdained him, and fcorned the other who loved him) was, by command of Neptune, to caft out one of them to appease the rage of the tempeft, but which was referred to his own choice. If the reader is curious to know the determination of this man's choice, it is fummed up in the concluding line of the poem. She must be caft away, that would not fave. 12. Mufophilus, a Defence of Learning; written dialogue-wife, addreffed to Sir Fulk Greville. 13. Various Sonnets to Delia, 57 in number. 14. An Ode. 15. A Paftoral. 16. A Defcription of Beauty. 17. To the Angel Spirit of Sir Philip Sidney. 18. A Defence of Rhime. All thefe pieces are published together in two vo lumes, lumes, izmo. under the title of the poetical pieces of Mr. Samuel Daniel. But however well qualified our author's genius was for poetry, yet Langbain is of opinion that his hiftory is the crown of all his works. It was printed about the year 1613, and dedicated to Queen Anne. It reaches from the state of Britain under the Romans, to the beginning of the reign of Richard II. His hiftory has received enco miums from various hands, as well as his poetry : It was continued by John Truful, with like brevity and candour, but not with equal elegance, 'till the reign of Richard III. A. D. 1484. Mr. Daniel lived refpected by men of worth and fashion, he paffed through life without tafting many of the viciffitudes of fortune; he feems to have been a fecond rate. genius, and a tolerable verfifier; his poetry in fome places is tender, but want of fire is his characteristical fault. He was unhappy in the choice of his fubject of a civil war for a poem, which obliged him to defcend to minute defcriptions, and nothing merely narrative can properly be touched in poetry, which demands flights of the imagination and bold images. B Sir JOHN HARRINGTON, ORN at Kelfton near the city of Bath, was the fon of John Harrington efquire, who was imprisoned in the Tower in the reign of Queen Mary, for holding a correfpondence with the Lady Elizabeth; with whom he was in great favour after her acceffion to the crown, and received many H 3 tefti teftimonies of her bounty and gratitude. Sir John, our author, had the honour to be her god-fon, and both in refpect to his father's merit, and his own, he was fo happy to poffefs her efteem to the laft . He had the rudiments of his education at Eaton; thence removing to Cambridge, he there commenced mafter of arts, and before he arrived at his 30th year, he favoured the world with a tranflation of the Orlando Furiofo of Ariofto, by which he acquired fome reputation. After this work, he compofed four books of epigrams, which in thofe times were received with great applaufe; several of thefe mention another humorous piece of his called Mifacmos Metamorphofis, which for a while exposed him to her Majefty's refentment, yet he was afterwards received into favour. This (fays Mrs. Cooper) is not added to the reft of his works, and therefore fhe fuppofes was only meant for a Court amufement, not the entertainment of the public, or the increase of his fame. In the reign of King James I. he was created Knight of the Bath, and prefented a manufcript to Prince Henry, called a Brief View of the State of the Church of England, as it ftood in Queen Elizabeth and King James's reign in the year 1608. This piece was levelled chiefly against the married bishops, and was intended only for the private ufe of his Highnefs, but was fome years afterwards published by one of Sir John's grandfons, and occafioned much difpleafure from the clergy, who did not fail to recollect that his conduct was of a piece with his doctrines, as he, together with Robert earl of Leicester, fupported Sir Walter Raleigh in his fuit to Queen Elizabeth for the manor of Banwell, belonging to the bishopric of Bath and Wells, on the prefumption that the right reverend incumbent had incurred a Premunire, by marrying a fecond wife. Mufes Library, p. 296, * Ubi fupra. Sir Sir John appears to be a gentleman of great pleafantry and humour; his fortune was eafy, the court his element, and which is ever an advantage to an author, wit was not his business, but diverfion: 'Tis not to be doubted, but his tranflation of Ariofo was published after Spenfer's Fairy Queen, and yet both in language and numbers it is much inferior, as much as it is reafonable to fuppofe the genius of Harrington was below that of Spenfer. Mrs. Cooper remarks, that the whole poem of Orlando is a tedious medley of unnatural characters, and improbable events, and that the author's patron, Cardinal Hippolito De Efte, had fome reason for that fevere queftion, Where the devil, Signior Ludovico, did you pick up all thefe dainned lies? The genius of Ariofto feems infinitely more fit for fatire than heroic poetry; and fome are of opinion, that had Harrington wrote nothing but epigrams, he had been more in his own way. We cannot certainly fix the time that Sir John died, but it is reasonable to fuppofe that it was about the middle, or rather towards the latter end of James I's reign. I fhall fubjoin an epigram of his as a fpecimen of his poetry. IN CORNUTU M. What curl'd-pate youth is he that fitteth there, H-4 THOMAS |