I
observe that a William Basse (or _Bas_, as the name is there spelt)
printed in 1602, 4to., a tract called _Sword and Buckler, or Serving
Man's Defence_; but I know no more of it than that it was sold in
Stevens's sale; and among the MSS. of the late Mr. Heber was a volume
of poems called _Polyhymnia_, apparently prepared for the press, and
dedicated by William Basse to Lady Lindsey, which contained an "Elegie
on a rare Singing Bull-finch," dated 19th June, 1648; so that he was
still living nearly half a century after he had printed his earliest
known performance.
The production that Izaac Walton refers to must be the ballad preserved
in the Pepys Collection at Cambridge, under the heading "Maister
Basse his Careere, or the new Hunting of the Hare. To a new Court tune;"
and beginning--
"Long ere the morne expects the returne."
It was "Printed at London by E.A.," i.e. Edward Allde, without date; and
it may have been duly noticed by the last editor of _The Complete
Angler_. However, neither this nor Heber's MS. throw any new light upon
the small tract (in 8vo., and of perhaps not more than two sheets) with
the title of which I commenced, and regarding which I request
information. It is a poem in eight-line stanzas, and it is dedicated, at
the back of the title-page, "To his honourable Master, Sir Richard
Wenman, Knight," without another word addressed to his patron.
My fragment of four leaves, or half an 8vo.
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