I. Of the twenty-three poems placed in the first class, nine are found in the Lee Priory edition; nine among the Additional Poems in the Oxford edition; and five in the concluding numbers of the list, which have never been collected by the editors of Raleigh. 1. The nine in the Lee Priory edition are, Nos. iii, vi, xii, xvi, xx, xxi, xxii, xxvii, and xxviii. Seven of these having been reprinted elsewhere in this volume, it is only necessary to add the other two, viz. Nos. xvi and xxii. No. xvi is the piece in commendation of George Gascoigne's Steele-Glass, 1576:-t WALTER RAWELY OF THE MIDDLE-TEMPLE IN COMMENDATION OF THE STEELE-GLASSE. "Swete were the sauce would please ech kind of tast: For who so reapes renowne aboue the rest, From prince to poore, from high estate to lowe. As for the verse, who list like trade to trye, I feare me much, shal hardly reache so high." No. xxii is the second poem on Spenser's Faery Queen (see p. 116). As it is tolerably certain, both from the initials appended to these verses, and from their position in the original edition of Spenser, that they were really written by Sir Walter Raleigh, they may be used as an additional argument to corroborate his claim to the lines on Gascoigne. See the references on p. xxvi, note *. + The controversy on this poem has been stated above, pp. xxVİ-XXVİİ. -The piece is here printed from ed. 1587. For though internal evidence, as we have seen, is but a doubtful guide, when we are dealing with such scanty materials, it can scarcely be denied, that the commendation of the Steele-Glass, which has just been quoted, and this second commendation of the Faery Queen, bear a very close resemblance to each other, in the quaint judicial gravity with which the writer in each case sums up the merits of the work before him, and then delivers his "censure" according to the law he has laid down:-* "ANOTHER OF THE SAME. "The prayse of meaner wits this worke like profit brings, Vertue her selfe can best discerne, to whom they writen bin: Behold her Princely mind aright, and write thy Queene anew. Whose vertne can not be exprest, but by an Angels quill. Of me no lines are lou'd, nor letters are of price, Of all which speak our English tongue, but those of thy deuice. W. R." 2. The following are the nine pieces admitted to this class from the Oxford edition :-Nos. xxix, xxx, xxxi, xxxii, xxxiv, xxxv, xxxvii, xxxviii, and xxxix. They have been much • The lines on Gorges' Lucan (above, p. xxxviii) are of a similar character; but they are less quaint, and are written in a graver spirit, with a still more pointed application.—It should be remembered, that the name and initials, by which these Commendatory poems are recognized as Raleigh's, receive strong confirmation from his intercourse with the persons so commended. Oldys, at least, thought that he had found "the links, if not the perfect chain, of some acquaintance" between Raleigh and Gascoigne :of his friendship with Spenser, there are ample records--and Sir Arthur Gorges was Raleigh's kinsman; had been captain of Raleigh's own ship in the Island voyage, when he was wounded by his side in the landing at Fayall; and has left a history of that expedition, which is of material importance in the Biography of Raleigh. (See Oldys's Life of Raleigh, pp. 267-306; and for a further account of Gorges, see Malone's Shakesp. by Bosw. ii. pp. 245-248; Mitford's Life of Spenser, p. xxviii, note.) less fully represented in this volume than those in the Lee Priory edition, partly because the evidence, in regard to most of them, is very unsatisfactory, and partly because their merit is more slender. But as we must be content to take both evidence and merit as we find them, I will add some further specimens. * The most important of them is No. xxxii, which, as we have seen, was quoted as Raleigh's by Puttenham in 1589. The earliest complete copy of it which I have met with in print appeared in 1593, in a Miscellany called "The Phoenix Nest" (p. 72); but it is anonymous. The following is the text which Oldys printed : "THE EXCUSE. WRITTEN BY SIR WALTER RALEGH IN HIS YOUNGER YEARS. "Calling to mind, my eyes went long about To cause my heart for to forsake my breast, What could they say to win again my grace?— "Another time, my heart I call'd to mind, "At last, when I perceiv'd both eyes and heart I found myself the cause of all my smart, The only evidence which justifies us in assigning to • See above, pp. xxxv-xxxvi.-The evidence for Raleigh, in addition to Puttenham's citation, is the name given in Oldys's MS., in MS. Ashm. 781, and (a testimony of much less consequence) in Wit's Interpreter. The copy in MS. Rawl. Poet. 85 is anonymous, like that printed in the Phoenix Nest. Most of these old copies differ materially from that which is given above; but some parts of that printed in the Oxford ed. are made quite unintelligible by one or two unlucky mistakes. Raleigh No. xxix, xxx, and xxxi, consists in the initials "W. R." annexed to them in a small collection of poems printed in 1660;* for though much older copies of all three poems are still in existence, they have no author's name subjoined. The text of N°. xxix which is preserved in the Oxford ed. seems to have been taken by the editor of Le Prince d'Amour from a copy in the Phoenix Nest, 1593 (p. 71); but it was printed more at length in Davison's Poeticall Rhapsodie, 1602; and is now reprinted from the fourth ed. of that Miscellany (1621, p. 144):— "IN THE GRACE OF WIT, OF TONGUE, AND FACE.+ "Her face, her tongue, her wit, so faire, so sweet, so sharpe, No. xxx was also printed in the Phoenix Nest (p. 70); and the text of that volume is adopted here: See above, p. xxxv, note ‡.--I am inclined to regard this evidence as peculiarly doubtful. + It has been remarked before, that there are three titles to this poem; viz. "A Reporting Sonnet," in Dav. eds. 1602 and 1608; that given above in Dav. eds. 1611 and 1621; and "The Lover's Maze" in Le Prince d'Amour. The copies in the Phoenix Nest and Le Prince d'Amour are arranged so as to set forth more plainly the intricacies of the poem; but four of the lines in Davison are altogether omitted, and there are considerable variations throughout. These readings Title in Le Prince d'Amour," Farewell to the Court." In the Phoenix Nest there is none. The copy in Le Pr. d'Am. is rather inutilated: thus, in line 10, it has I onely wait the wrongs'-; in line 11, whose sound well nigh is done'-in line 13, ere care or Winters cold'. are retained in the Oxford edition.-Oldys thought that " from the subject" of this and the next piece "especially," they were "manifestly" written by Raleigh,-" the one just before his first Guianian expedition; the other to the lady that was his wife." "Like truthles dreames, so are my ioyes expired, "My lost delights, now cleane from sight of land, "As in a countrey strange without companion, I onely waile the wrong of deaths delaies, Whose sweete spring spent, whose sommer wel nie done; "Whom care forewarnes, ere age and winter colde, No. xxxi consists of three stanzas, of which I shall subjoin the first and second,—following, in this case, the text of Le Prince d'Amour : "THE ADVICE. "Many desire, but few or none deserve For this be sure, the fort of fame once won, "Many desire, but few or none deserve For this be sure, the flower once pluckt away, N°. xxxv is printed in this volume (p. 122); and it seems needless to add anything to what has been elsewhere said of No. xxxiv (p. 121, note), of No. xxxvii (p. 96), and of N°. xxxviii (p. 122, note): but I will insert Manningham's version of No. xxxix from Mr. Collier, who remarks, however, that it "does more credit to his adversary than to Sir W. Raleigh, but not much to either":-→ • See above, p. xxxv, note +.-The judgment passed on such trifles as these depends very much on the persons to whom they are ascribed. Wal |