myserable servytude and subiection, I meane that antechrist and head of all abhomination the bisshop of Rome; whose bondage and thraldom that we be now delyvered and made fre [from]. The hole cause and benefyte is to be ascrybed to the illustration and setting furth of Goddes holy worde. And as the thanke therof is geven to almyghtye God, who admytteth no parteners of his glori; so next unto hym, above all mortal men, are we bound to the worthy prynce of eternall memory kynge Henri the eyght: who, puttyng on the armour of Gods worde, drove out of this realme the wronge usurper of hys power and auctoryte regall, and delyvered his people fro the captyvyte wherin the byshops of Rome hadde longe tyme kept them. Yet lyke as the temple of God in Hierusalem, was begon by Davyd, and fynyshed by Salomon, so many kindes of supersticion wer abolished by the sayd good kyng, and no fewer left to be reformed by hys graeyous and most lawful sonne, oure new soveraygne lorde, kynge Edward the syxt. By whose happy and blyssyd procedynge hytherto, it is evydent to the world that God is his guyd, directyng his passage to the parfectyon of al vertue and godlynes. A notable experyment wherof we have, by the holsom and holy lawes that proceede from his grace in thys hys mynoryte and chyldhed, to the advauncement of Goddes worde and extyrpatyon of al hypocrisy and fals religyon. For the whyche benefyte howmoche the realme of Englande is bounden to hys magesty, my pen cannot suffycyentlye set it furth. But thys must al men confesse, that as long as the memory BA 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, not so moche for the syngular benefytes by your grace extendyd 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: GOOD DUTCHESSE OF NORFOLKE, THE LORD HAVE MERCY UPON THEE; WHO DYED AT LAMBETH, THE LAST OF NOVEMBER. Farewell, good ladye and sister deare, • Edit. 1575. Hist. of E. P. vol. iii. p. 209. |