fal grief of the nation, for which he had spent his ftrength, and for whofe intereft, in a very immediate manner, he may be justly said to have fallen a facrifice. Of all our court poets he feems to have united the greatest induftry and variety of genius: It is feldom found, that the fons of Parnaffus can devote themselves to public bufinefs, or execute it with fuccefs. I have already ob. ferved, that the world has loft many excellent works, which no doubt this cultivated genius would have accomplished, had he been lefs involved in court-affairs but as he acted in fo public a fphere, and difcharged every office with inviolable honour, and confummate prudence, it is perhaps fomewhat felfish in the lovers of poetry, to wish he had wrote more, and acted lefs. From him is defcended the prefent noble family of the Dorfets; and it is remarkable, that all the defcendants of this great man have inherited his tafte for liberal arts and sciences, as well as his capacity for public bufinefs. An heir of his was the friend and patron of Dryden, and is ftiled by Congreve the monarch of wit in his time, and the present age is happy in his illuftrious pofterity, rivalling for deeds of honour and renown the most famous of their ancestors. INDUCTION to the MIRROR of MAGISTRATES. The wrathful winter haft'ning on apace, With bluftring blafts had all ybard the treene, And old Saturnus with his frofty face With chilling cold had pearft the tender greene: The foil that erft fo feemly was to feen, And And foote fresh flowers (wherewith the fummers queen, Had clad the earth, new Boreas blasts down blew And small fowls flocking in their fongs did rew The winter's wrath, wherewith each thing defafte, In woeful wife bewailed the fummer past. Ο THOMAS CHURCHYARD, * NE of the affiftants in the Mirror of Magiftrates. He was born in the town of Shrewsbury as himself affirms in his book made in verfe of the Worthiness of Wales. He was equally addicted to arts and arms; he had a liberal education, and inherited fome fortune,real and perfonal; but he foon exhausted it, in a tedious and unfruitful attendance at court, for he gained no other equivalent for that mortifying dependance, but the honour of being retained a domeftic in the family of lord Surry: during which time by his lordship's encouragement he commenced poet. Upon his master's death he betook himself to arms; was in many engagements, and was frequently wounded; he was twice a prifoner, and redeemed by the charity of two noble ladies, yet still languishing in diftrefs, and bitterly complaining of fortune Neither of his employments afforded him a patron, who would do justice to his obfcure merit; and unluckily he was as unhappy in his amours as in his circumftances, fome of his mifreffes treating his addreffes with contempt, perhaps, * Winft. 61. on on account of his poverty; for tho' it generally happens that Poets have the greatest power in courtship, as they can celebrate their miftreffes with more elegance than people of any other profeffion; yet it very feldom falls out that they marry fuccefsfully, as their needy circumstances naturally deter them from making advances to Ladies of fuch fashion as their genius and manners give them a right to addrefs. This proved our author's cafe exactly; he made love to a widow named Browning, who poffeffed a very good jointure; but this lady being more in love with money than laurels, with wealth than merit, rejected his fuit; which not a little difcouraged him, as he had spent his money in hopes of effecting this match, which, to his great mortification, all his rhimes and fonnets could not do. He dedicated his works to Sir Chriftopher Hatton; but addreffes of that nature don't always imply a provision for their author. It is conjectured that he died about the eleventh year of Queen Elizabeth, and according to Mr. Wood was buried near Skelton in the Chancel of St. Margaret's, Westminster. By his writings, he appears a man of fenfe, and fometimes a poet, tho' he does not feem to poffefs any degree of invention. His language is generally pure, and his numbers not wholly inharmonious. The Legend of Jane Shore is the moft finished of all his works, from which I have taken a quotation. His death, according to the moft probable conjecture, happened in 1570. Thus like a ftone (fays Winstanley) did he trundle about, but never gathered any mofs, dying but poor, as may be feen by his epitaph in Mr. Camden's Remains, which runs thus: Come Alecto, lend me thy torch To find a Church-yard in a Church-porch; His His works according to Winftanley are as follow : The Siege of Leith. A Farewell to the world. A feigned Fancy of the Spider and the Gaul. A lamentable Defcription of the Wars in Flanders in profe, and dedicated to Walfingham secretary of state. A light Bundle oflively Difcourfes, called Churchyard's Charge 1580, dedicated to his noble patron the Earl of Surry. A Spark of Friendship, a treatife on that writer, addrefs'd to Sir Walter Raleigh. A Defcription and Difcourfe on the use of paper, in which he praises a paper-mill built near Darthfend, by a German called Spillman. The Honour of the Law 1596. Jane Shore, miftrefs to King Edward IV. A Tragical Difcourfe of the unhappy Man's Life. A Difcourfe of Virtue. Churchyard's Dream. A Tale of a Fryar and a Shoemaker's Wife, Queen Elizabeth's reception into Bristol. These twelve feveral pieces he bound together, calling them Churchyard's Chips, which he dedicated to Sir Chriftopher Hatton. He wrote befide, The Tragedy of Thomas Moubray Duke of Norfolk. JANE JANE SHORE. Among the reft by fortune overthrowne, Who can forget a thing thus done fo late? JOHN HEYWOOD, NE of the first who wrote English plays, was a noted jefter, of fome reputation in poetry in his time. Wood fays, that notwithstanding he was ftiled Civis Londinenfis, yet he laid a foundation of learning at Oxford, but the severity of an academical life not fuiting with his airy genius, he retired to his native place, and had the honour to have a great intimacy with Sir Thomas More. It is faid, that he had admirable skill both in inftrumental and vocal mufic, but it is not certain whether he left any compofitions of that fort behind him. He found means to become a favourite with King Henry VIII. on account of the quickness of his conceits, and was well rewarded by that Monarch. * After the acceffion of Queen Mary to the throne, he was equally valued by her, and was admitted into the most intimate converfation with her, in diverting her by his merry stories, which he did, even when *Wood Athen. Oxon. the |