F breath were made for every man to buy,

not die

JOHN HOSKINS TO HIS LITTLE CHILD
BENJAMIN FROM THE TOWER.

[INSERTED for the first time in ed. 1672.-Hoskins wrote his advice in a Latin couplet, as well as in these English lines; and the two are sometimes found together;

AD FILIOLUM SUUM BENIAMIN.

Dum puer es, vanæ nescisq; incommoda vocis,
Vincula da linguæ, vel tibi lingua dabit."*

His imprisonment, which has been alluded to above (pp. 6,8,) was caused by a violent speech against the Scots, which he delivered in the short Parliament of 1614. From Wotton's account of the affair, we should conclude that he fully

From Mr. Pickering's MS. fol. 151, and MS. Malone, 19, p. 141, both with the English,-which occurs without the Latin in MS. Rawl. Poet. 117. The variations in these copies of the English verses (marked A B C in the order in which they have been named) are so considerable, as to shew that Hoskins gave out different editions of them. The second line of the Latin is quoted, as written by Hoskins, in one of Howell's Letters.In MS. Mal. 19, there is another Latin couplet, which "Mr Hoskins wrott in the Windowe when he came out of the Tower," p. 140. The son of Hoskins who is most frequently mentioned was called Benedict, or Bennet.

t

deserved his punishment; and we have Raleigh's authority
(as well as his own) for adding, that it led to his hearty
repentance.+]

WEET Benjamin, since thou art young,
And hast not yet the use of Tongue,
Make it thy slave, while thou art free;
Imprison it, lest it do thee.

[VARIATIONS.-1. 'My little Ben, nowe thou'-C.

whilst

A. 'while'-B.-2. 'And knowst not yet'-A B.-3, 4. 'Keepe it in thrall, while it is free; Imprison it, or it will thee.'—A B. (except 'whilst'-A.)—' Imprison it, whilst thou art free; Least that, as myne, imprison thee'-C.]

+ See Rel. Wotton. pp. 432-4-8, (followed by Wood, Lingard, and others) and Raleigh's Works, viii. 162, 211, Oxford edit.-Sir C. Cornwallis, who was implicated by Hoskins, and imprisoned a few days after him, addressed an Apologetic Letter to the King (preserved among both the Ashm, and Tann. MSS. and printed in Gutch's Collect. Cur. i. 161-7,) in which he seems anxious to deny any connection with him. A similar speech is said to have been delivered by a different person in an earlier Parliament. (See Heylin, Exam. Hist. ii. 71, and Foulis, Hist. Plots, &c. p. 65; but as a reference to Cobbett's Parl. Hist. i. 1097, will prove that part of their account is erroneous, we cannot be certain about the rest.) It is supposed that Wotton sat in the Parliament of 1614 as member for Hastings. (In 1625, he was member for Sandwich.) Hoskins sat for the city of Hereford, as before in 1603, and afterwards in 1628. See Not. Parl. sub annis.