therof shal remayne, so long shal the honorable fame and prayses of hys grace be fresshe and grene in al true Englyshmens hartes. Whych I speke, nöt sẽ moche for the syngular benefytes by your grace ex tendyd too me prevayle as for the greate wealth and commodyte redoundyng to al men unyversally. Wherfore devysyng wyth my selfe in what wyse I myghte showe my selfe thankful, or at the least not unmyndfull of so ample merytes, me thought I could do nothyng, eyther more gratefull to your grace, or more profytable to my countree, than to helpe forward in this cause of relygyon, and seing the manyfold errour and confusyon heretofore sproyng in this realme, by reason that the true dyfference betwene the power regal [and] ecclesiastycal was eyther not wel knowen or not wel defyned, I bethought me of a boke lent me by my frend Master Morison writon in the Laten tongue, wherin the dyfference of those two powers, with the lymytes of eyther of them, is so playnly set oute, so pureli explaned, and so dystinctlye dysclosed by Scriptures, as no man (I suppose) oneles he be to 3 fer drowned in the dregges of popery and superstytion, can be in ony doubt of the throuth; the utylyte of whych worke wel weyed with the late controversy about the same matter, moeved me fyrst to the translation therof; marvaylynge that a matter so prouffytable and necessary to be knowen, shold be so longe suppressed, or that the hygher powers had not in so longe tyme provyded to set hit abrode, as well

[in] the Englyshe tongue as it is in the Latyn. Never the lese, rather than my countre shuld be utterly frustrate of so great fruyte as myght growe by redynge therof, I thought it a well bestoed labour to turn it into Englyshe, the translacion wherof I submyt to the indyfferent judgement of al lerned reders; requeri [n]g theyr ayde where eyther I have erred or else not parfytly rendred the sentence of the autor. Wherfore pondryng my weykenes and want of connyng, I praye ayde of your grace, to whome for my better defence, I dedycate my labours, that they may passe forth under your protection; of whome yf in stead of praise I receive pardon of my boldnes, it shalbe to my suffycyent recompence. Almyghty God long preserve your grace, to the advauncement of his glory, to the honoure of the kynges magesty, and prouffyt of his people. Amen.”

Bale says of this noble writer, that he was "vir multarum rerum ac disciplinarum notitia ornatus," and that he died in 15584. From Baldwin's Dedication to the Nobilitie, &c. we learn that the first part of the Mirror for Magistrates was licensed through the means of Henry lord Stafford, and part of it imprinted in the reign of queen Mary; "since whych time," says the dedicator," although I have wanted such helpe as before, yet the said good lorde Stafford hath not ceased to call upon me to publishe so much therof as I had gotten at other mens handes, so that thorough his lordships earnest meanes I have nowe

* De Script. Brit. p. 112.

set foorth another part, conteininge as much as I could obtaine at the handes of my frendes 5." For lord Stafford's fautorial protection of such a work, every poetic reader will feel grateful to his memory, since, as Warton observes, although not fully completed, it is a work "which illuminates with no common lustre. that interval of darkness which occupies the annals of English poetry from Surrey to Spenser "." The only shred that remains of his lordship's own poesy is not very ornate, but as a fraternal tribute of affection it is at least entitled to preservation. Aubrey describes it at the east end of the north aisle, called Howard's chapel, in Lambeth church, upon an old table in black letters:

6

"GOOD

DUTCHESSE OF NORFOLKE, THE LORD HAVE MERCY UPON THEE; WHO DYED AT LAMBETH, THE LAST OF NOVEMBER.

Farewell, good ladye and sister deare,

In earth we shall never meet heare;

But

yet I trust with Godis grace,
In heaven we shall deserve a place:
Yet thy kyndnesse shall never departe,
During my lyfe, out of my heart.
Thou wast to me, both farre and neare,
A mother, a sister, a frende most dere;
And to all thy frendes most sure and fast,
When Fortune had soundyd his froward blast:

• Edit. 1575.

• Hist. of E. P. vol. iii. p. 209.

And, to the poore, a very mother,
More then was known to any other;
Which is thy treasure at thys day,
And for thy soule they hertily pray;
So shall I do that here remayne:
God thy soule preserve from payne!

"By thy most bounden brother,
" HENRY LORD STAFFORD"."]

'Aubrey s Surrey, vol. v. p. 236.

FRANCIS HASTINGS,

EARL OF HUNTINGDON,

WAS the second earl of this illustrious blood", to which he added new dignity, not only by marrying one of the princesses of the line of Clarence, but by his own services and accomplishments. At the coronation of Anne Boleyn he was made knight of the bath, and of the garter, by Edward the sixth, from whom he obtained license to retain an hundred gentlemen and yeomen over and above those of his family3. He was sent the same year with considerable forces to dislodge the French, who had planted themselves between Boulogne and Calais, when in the possession of the English. He sat on the trial of the protector; and in the first of queen Mary, being lord lieutenant of Leicestershire, raised forces against the insurrection of the duke of Suffolk, and brought him prisoner from Coventry to the Tower. At the request of cardinal Pole, his uncle-in-law, he translated

[From whom, says Collins, the present family of Huntingdon are descended. Peerage, vol. v. p. 113.]

• Dugdale, vol. i. p. 588.