"Now let us use no cushions, but faire hearts: A certain turn of phrase, even in these two lines, directed the attention of the present writer to the speech and the rest of the verse in the Entertainment, from which some passages may be cited as samples. For instance, in the opening speech the poet says to the Queen: "Behold, on thee how each thing sweetly smiles, After the oration is a song in rhyme, which is set out with other songs praising the Queen, at page 66 of the same volume, and is there signed "Thomas Watson." But this article is concerned with the blank verse only. In the second day's entertainment there is an elaborate device, and Nereus, swimming forward with Triton, delivers an oration and bears a gift. He introduces himself and his sea god, "And with me came gould-breasted India, For hym that under you doth hold this place. See where her ship remaines, whose silke-woven takling . . And in this barke, which gods hale neare the shore, Whitefooted Thetis sends her musicke maydes, To please Elisae's eares with harmony." Passing over a pretty song "sung dialogue wise, everie fourth verse answered with two Echoes," we come to an oration of Sylvanus. "Sylvanus comes from out the leavy groves, To honor her whom all the world adores, An oration of Neæra in blank verse follows, and the "Three Men's Song, sung the third morning under hir Majestie's Gallerie Window," which is in rhyme, and is known to have been composed by Nicholas Breton. After it blank verse-the speech of the Fairy Quene to hir Majestie. "I that abide in places underground, Aureola, the Quene of Fairyland, That every night in rings of painted flowers And humbly to salute you with this chaplet, After this speech the Fairy Queen and her maids danced about the garden singing a song very complimentary to "Elisa." "This spectacle and musicke so delighted hir Majesty, that she commanded to heare it sung and to be danced three times over" . . . . Within an hour she departed. "It was a most extreame rain and yet it pleased hir Majesty to behold and hear the whole action." Nereus, Sylvanus, the Graces and Hours lamented her leaving, and "the poet" made her a short oration, from which a verse may be extracted. "See where those Graces and those Hours of Heaven And smoothed the way, and strewed it with sweet flowers Least of thine absence the years pride decay : For how can Summer stay, when Sunne departs ?" After this, as she passed through the Park gate, there was a consort of musicians hidden in a bower, to whose playing a ditty of "Come again" was sung, "with excellent division by two that were cunning." The writer has not had an opportunity of referring to the tract itself, but from the transcript of it in Nichol's Progresse, no hint as to its authorship or the identity of "the poet" can be got. Both the prose description and the blank verse are remarkable for their style. It is unnecessary to point out to the readers of BACONIANA that the verse is poetry, or to expatiate on its quality. It is all eulogy of Elizabeth. Let it be compared with the vast quantity of adulatory verse addressed to her which is still extant, and it will be found superior. Further, if the question were asked of any chance group of educated persons, "Who wrote this blank verse?" can we doubt that the majority would say, "Shakespeare"? And it would be amusing to watch the efforts of the authorities in the literary world to demonstrate that he did not; for, of course, they would try. An experiment with their foot-rule failing them, the critics would probably declare, "these verses have never been previously attributed to Shakespeare," therefore they cannot be by him. Well, then, who else wrote them? To what other poet could be ascribed such lines as— ... "The crooked-winding kid trips on the lawns.". or the melodious cadence of "The running brookes with sweet and silver sound," or the fine epithets, "gold-breasted" India, "Whitefooted Thetis sends her music maids," or the idea, plagiarised two centuries afterwards, of Nature, "straight admiring what her skill had wrought she broke the mould"; or the exquisite compliment, "For how can Summer stay when Sun departs?" There has been of late years much examination of Elizabethan verse, and surely some of the examiners can suggest an author for this! Perhaps among the Hertford family papers there may be a clue to him. Pending some suggestions from the orthodox, let us point out that the entertainment at Elvetham was in the long vacation of 1591, and an adept at revels, devices and conferences of pleasure was then disengaged from law. Moreover, as he dined in the Hall of his Inn of Court during the terms immediately preceding and succeeding that vacation, his health does not seem to have been so indifferent as it was in the following year, when he had to refuse Lady Hoby's invitation to attend the Queen at her Progress to Bisham, where, bye the way, an entertainment of a decidedly inferior kind to that at Elvetham was presented to her. J. R., of Gray's Inn. 242 LITERAL TRANSLATION OF THE "MANES VERULAMIANI" (Continued from page 151). 5. MEMORIE MERITISQUE HONORATISSIMI D. FRANCISCI D. VERULAMII, VICE-COMITIS SANCTI ALBANI. LUGETE fletu turbulenta flumina, Sub calce nata Pegasi, Rivoque nigrum vix trahente pulverem Viridisque Daphnes decidens ramis honos Quorsum Camænæ laureas inutiles Mæsti colatis hortuli? Quin vos severis stipitem bipennibus Vivos reliquit, cui solebat unico Divum potitus arce Verulamius Stellas videre cernuus: Sophiam qui sede cælitum reconditam Aggressus orbi redditam cultu novo Quo nemo terras incolens majoribus Nec ullus æquè graviter superstitum In laude totam fudit eloquentiam, POSUI WILHELMUS BOSWELL. |