Yet had he great wants, fit to be forgiven,
in so reverent antiquity. I account the _Mirror of Magistrates_
[Footnote: A long series of Poems, published in the early part of
Elizabeth's reign. The two first, and best, pieces in it--The
_Induction_ and _Complaint of the Duke of Buckingham_--were by
Sackville, joint-author of the earliest English Tragedy, _Gorboduc_.]
meetly furnished of beautiful parts; and in the Earl of Surrey's
_Lyrics_, many things tasting of a noble birth, and worthy of a noble
mind. The _Shepherd's Calendar_ hath much poetry in his eclogues:
indeed worthy the reading, if I be not deceived. That same framing of
his style to an old rustic language I dare not allow, sith neither
Theocritus in Greek, Virgil in Latin, nor Sannazar in Italian, did
affect it. Besides these, do I not remember to have seen but few (to
speak boldly) printed, that have poetical sinews in them: for proof
whereof, let but most of the verses be put in prose, and then ask the
meaning; and it will be found that one verse did but beget another,
without ordering at the first, what should be at the last: which becomes
a confused mass of words, with a tingling sound of rhyme, barely
accompanied with reason.
Pages:
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224