Fuller adds, that the queen having rigorously de manded the payment of some arrears, which sir Christopher did not hope to have remitted, but did only desire to be forborne, and failing in his expectation, it went to his heart, and cast him into a mortal disease. The queen afterwards endeavouring to recover him, brought (as some say) cordial broths unto him with her own hands; but all would not do. He died November 205, 1591, at the age of fifty-one, and was buried under a stately monument in the quire of St. Paul's. Soon after, says Wood, came out a little book of verses made on his death, by several hands, entitled Musarum Plangores.

Beside the productions mentioned by lord Orford, Mr. Warton thinks he was undoubtedly the writer of "the fourth act in the tragedy of Tancred and Gismund;" which bears at the end, Composuit Ch. Hat. The play was the joint production of five students of the Inner Temple, and was acted at that society before the queen in 1568, but not printed till 15927.

As the original drama is of singular rarity, the following extract from it may gratify the curious, though reprinted in the 2d edition of Dodsley's Collection of old Plays. It is the chorus which concludes act iv.

5 So says Wood; but, according to lord Burleigh's Diary, Sept. 20.

• Hist. of E. P. vol. iii. p. 376.

'It was founded on a stcry in Boccace, which is related by Dryden in his Fables under the title of Sigismunda and Guiscardo. Mrs. Centlivre took the same story for the basis of her tragedy called The cruel Gift. Biog. Dram. vol. ii. p. 363.

CHORUS I.

Who doth not know the fruits of Paris love,
Nor understand the end of Helen's joy;
He may behold the fatall overthrow

Of Priam's house, and of the towne of Troy :
His death at last, and her eternal shame,
For whom so many a noble knight was slaine;
So many a duke, so many a prince of fame
Bereft his life, and left there in the plaine.
Medea's armed hand, Eliza's sword,
Wretched Leander drenched in the floud;
Phillis, so long that waited for her lord:

All these, too dearly bought their loves with bloud.

CHORUS II.

But he in vertue that his lady serves,
Ne wils but what unto her honor longs,
He never from the rule of reason swarves;
He feeleth not the pangs, ne raging throngs,
Of blind Cupid: he lives not in despaire
As done his servants, neither spends his daies
In joy, and care, vaine hope, and throbbing feare;
But seekes alway what may his soveraine please
In honor: he that thus serves, reapes the fruite
Of his sweet service; and no jelous dread
Nor base suspect of ought to let his sute
(Which causeth oft the lover's hart to bleed)
Doth fret his mind, or burneth in his brest:
He wayleth not by day, nor wakes by night,
When every other living thing doth rest;
Nor findes his life or death within her sight.

CHORUS III.

Remember thou in vertue serve therfore
Thy chast lady: beware thou do not love,
As whilom Venus did the faire Adonne,
But as Diana lov'd the Amazon's sonne;
Through whose request the gods to him alone
Restorde new life: the twine that was undone
Was by the sisters twisted up againe.
The love of vertue in thy ladies lookes,
The love of vertue in her learned talke,
This love yeelds matter for eternall bookes :
This love intiseth him abroad to walke,
There to invent and write new rondelaies
Of learn'd conceit, her fancies to allure
To vaine delights, such humors he allaies,
And sings of vertue and her garments pure.

CHORUS IV.

Desire not of thy soveraigne the thing
Whereof shame may ensue by any meane:
Nor wish thou ought that may dishonor bring.
So whilom did the learned Tuscan serve

His faire lady; and glory was their end.

Such are the praises lovers done deserve
Whose service doth to vertue and honor tend.

In the British Museum is

"A Treatise concerning Statutes or Acts of Parliament; and the Exposition thereof. Written by Sir Christopher Hatton, late Lord Chancellour of England." Lond. 1677. 8vo.

The book has neither dedication nor preface.

Two letters by sir Christopher Hatton to lord Burleigh and the earl of Essex, occur in the Murdin Collection of State Papers, and three others among the Harl. MSS. (6993 and 4) to the lord treasurer, to queen Elizabeth, and Mr. Sergeant Puckering: the former of these has been transcribed from its original.

"I most humbelye thank your good lordship for your honorable advertisment towchynge the comynge in of this great personage. Hir majestie defferithe all hir directions for order too receve him, untill she be moore fullye enformed bothe of his qualitey and occasion of accesse. She semithe too dowght that he departithe from his prince as a man in displeasure, because in one sentence of his lettre too hir majestie he callithe hir the refuge of the disconsolate and afflyctid and worthe. My man, that brought her letters, is not here; nether doo I know wher to fynd him: soo as I know not howe too learne what informacion I might give the queene in this matter; onelye I must stay untill the retourne of my lord of Leycester, and then I hope her majestie will resolve. Hir majestie acceptithe, in most gracius and good kind

"This was Albert Alasco, a noble Pole, a learned man of grave aspect, with a long beard, comely and decently apparelled; who came to see the queen. She entertained him with great respect, and so did the nobility and the upersity of Oxon. But after four months, running far into debt, withdrew himself secretly out of the kingdom." MS. note, apparently by lord Burleigh.

parte, the offer of your lordships howse; unto the which (altho yet she will give us noo order too large in her expressions) I assuredlye thynk she will com in the Esterweeke; but as I learne the moore certentie; so will I redilye advertise your good lordship.

2 My lord of Oxford his cause standithe but in slow course of proceadynge too his satisfaction: but yet for my owne parte, I have sum better hope then heretofore, wherin as a preservative, you must all use pacience for a while. His lordship wrott too me a very wise lettre in this case of his; the report wherof her majestie tooke in resonable good gracius parte. By the next messanger I will breafflelye wright him the

answere.

"I pray God blesse your lordship with all his hevenlye graces. Last from the court at Richmond, this xixth of Marche, 1582.

"CHR. HATTON."

Sir Christopher's kinsman, lord Hatton, who alone had any apparent title to be admitted as a noble author, was of Jesus college, Oxford, and became L. L. D. in 16423, created baron Hatton of Kirby in Northamptonshire, by Charles the first, was made a privy counsellor and governor of Guernsey by Charles the

"This cause was his claim to the forest of Waltham, and his desiring leave of the queen to try his title with her at the common law. Which matter hanging for ten or eleven years, she referred, in the year 1593, to this sir Chr. Hatton, then lord chancellor." MS. note. The earl of Oxford was son-inlaw to lord Burleigh.

• Vid. Fasti Oxon. vol. ii. col. 24.