His “ book of poems, neatly written, bigger than those of Dr. Donne," which, as Wood tells us, was lent and lost by his son, Sir Benedict, has never, I believe, been recovered ; nor is it likely that any one will ever try to supply its place by collecting his scattered fragments.—Besides the share he may have had in this dialogue, and four lines which will be found in a later part of this volume, Hoskins is known as one of the contributors of verses prefixed to Coryate's Crudities, 1611 (Sign. e 6 and 7). Dr. Bliss has printed a poem consisting of eighty lines, under the title, “ Mr. Hoskins Dreame," from one of the Ashmole MSS. (781, p. 129); but it is seldom found in so complete a state. In two MSS. which I have seen, it is cut down to fifty-six lines ; * and in a third (MS. Malone 16, p. 20), it is unsparingly abridged to sir, a copy which must have been well known, since it is inserted in the Ashmole MS. (p. 131) immediately after the longer piece. This last is brief enough to quote. (I give it from the Malone MS.) VERSES PRESENTED TO YE KING BY M

RS

HOSKINS, IN THE
BEHALFE OF HER HUSBAND, PŘISONER.
“The worst is told, the best is hidd;
Kings know not all, I wonld they did;
What though my husband once have errd ?
Men more to blame haue beene preferrd.
Who hath not errd, be doth not liue;
Hee errd but once,- once, King, forgiue.

FFINIS."

Namely, in MS. Malone 19, pp. 61.63. Title, “Mr Hoskins his Dreame." And in a MS. belonging to Mr. Pickering, fol. 149, vo, Title, “ Mr John Hoskins bewaileing his owne, his wiues, his Mothers, and his Childrens woefull case, ye one borne, ye other yet vnborne."-Several other fragments by him, besides those given above, may be found in MS. Malone, 19, pp. 87, 140, 141, and in the Cheetham MS. 8012, pp. 76-79,157-159.— There is a jest of his in Mr. Thoms's Anecd. and Trad. p. 45.On a strange dance said to be given by him by Fuller, (Worthies, Introd. to Heref.) see Nichols's Progr. of James I. vol. i. p. xix.-His“ Rhetorick," illustrated from Sir Philip Sidney, was sold among Mr. B. H. Bright's MSS. No. 217.-I will only add, that Hoskins is supposed by Wood to have written some execrable verses, alluded to by Jonson (iv. 55, ed. Gifford) in a sufficienty disrespectful manner.

I will add two other short pieces, which, with several others, are ascribed to him in an old MS. Miscellany in the Cheetham Library at Manchester (8012, pp. 76, 158):

66

I.

“ OF y LOSSE OF TIME. Per J: HOSKINS.
“ If life be time ye here is [1]ent,*
And time on earth be cast away,
Who so bis time bath bere mispent
Hath hastned his owne dying day:
So it doth prove a killing crime
To massacre our living time.
“ If doing nought be like to death,
Of him yt doth, Camelion-wise,
Take only paines to draw his breath,
The passere by may pasquilize,

Not, here he liues; but, bere he dyes."

II. “AN EP: ON A MAN FOR DOINGE NOTHINGE.

“Here lyes the man was borne and cryed,
Tould three score yeares, fell sicke, and dyed.”

These fragments are about the best I could find. The second is also in Camden's Remaines (ed. Philipot, 1657, p. 399) with some variations, among a few conceited, merry, and laughing Epitaphes, the most of them composed by Master Iohn Hoskins when he was young.” It is copied in Fuller's Worthies of London, p. 202. Ben Jonson would have put the thought in rather a nobler way, thus :

“Repeat of things a throng,
To shew thou hast BEEN long,

Not Liv'D"

And again :

“The ignoble never Lived; they were awhile,

Like swive, or other cattle here on earth :
Their names are not recorded on the file

OF LIFE that fall so"

• The MS. has spent' - which seems to be erroneous.

Yet Aubrey could persuade himself that Hoskins “polished" Ben Jonson, and that Jonson himself confessed it! I believe Gifford's terse summary of Aubrey's character will stand for honest truth :—“ In short, Aubrey thought little, believed much, and confused every thing." (Life of Jonson, p. xx. note.) I

may mention here, that among Donne's Poems there is a somewhat similar Dialogue between himself and Wotton, p. 186, ed. 1669.]

N

Ho. OBLE, lovely, vertuous Creature,

Purposely so fram'd by Nature

To enthral your servants wits : Wo. Time must now unite our hearts, [5] Not for any my deserts,

But because (me thinks) it fits.

Ho. Dearest treasure of my thought,
And yet wert thou to be bought

With my life, thou wert not dear : [10] Wo. Secret comfort of my mind,

Doubt no longer to be kind,

But be so, and so appear.

[15]

Ho. Give me love for love again ;
Let our loves be clear and plain,-

Heaven is fairest, when 'tis clearest:
Wo. Lest in clouds, and in differring,
We resemble Seamen erring,

Farthest off, when we are nearest.

(20)

Ho. Thus, with numbers interchanged,
Wotton's Muse and mine have ranged;

Verse and Journey both are spent :
Wo. And if Hoskins chance to say,
That we well have spent the day,
I, for my part, am content.

H. W.

a

["Let not our readers mistake this excellent little poem for an effusion of the tender passion. [They would be very odd readers if they did.] Sir Henry Wotton was never accused of being a platonic lover, and at the time of its composition was a grave diplomatist of the age of fifty-two. It proceeded from a feeling of chivalrous loyalty; and when connected, as it always should be, with the anecdote of the jewel, forms altogether a trait in his character, which the mind may contemplate with unmixed delight.” (Freeman's Kentish Poets, i. 215.) The “anecdote of the jewel" is well-known to all Izaak Walton's readers. Many state-papers and similar documents, connected with Wotton's employments on the affairs of the Queen of Bohemia, are preserved in Rel. Wotton, as well as some of his letters to the Queen,-one of which begins as follows: “ Most resplendent Queen, even in the Darkness of Fortune. That was wont to be my Style unto Your Majesty, which you see I have not forgotten. For though I have a great while forborn to trouble You with any of my poor Lines; yet the Memory of Your sweet and Royal Vertues is the last thing that will die in me.” (p. 336.)