Annas Burgous one of the K. Councell 1559. 3. The bloodie marriage of Margaret Sister to Charles the 9. anno 1572. Published by A. D.

All that will liue godlie in Jesus Christ, shall suffer persecution.

1 Tim. 3. 2.

Imprinted at London by Thomas Orwin for Thomas Man. 1589. 4to, pp. 84.

An oval woodcut on the title contains the printer's singular device, viz: a figure of Truth crowned, standing naked, with a scourge at her back, and around it the motto, "Virescit vulnere Veritas." On the reverse of the title are the arms of the Edgecombe family.

The work commences with a prose dedication "To the right worshipfull her louing Bro. Master Pearse Edgecombe, of Mount Edgecombe in Deuon, Esquier," dated from "Honiton, the 25. day of Julie 1589," and signed "Your louing Sister Anne Dowriche." This is followed by a very curious double, cr rather quadruple, acrostic, Pears Edgcomb, in Alexandrine verse, having two lines to each letter, and introduced with this anagram:

The sharpest Edge will soonest Pearse and Come unto An end,
Yet Dowt not, but be Riche in hope, and take that I doo send.

A. D.

The Verses of this acrostic are given at length in the Bibl. Ang. Poet., p. 91. The preliminary matter closes with a prose address "To the Reader," signed as before, and four lines "To the Reader that is frendlie to Poetrie." In the former the fair authoress states the three reasons why she has described these events in verse:

First, for mine owne exercise, being a learner in that facultie: Secondlie, to restore againe some credit if I can unto Pöetrie, hauing been defaced of late so many waies by wanton vanities: Thirdlie, for the more noveltie of the thing, and apt facilitie in disposing the matter, framed to the better liking of some men's fantasies, because the same storie in effect is alreadie translated into English prose. Many of these orations that are here fully and amplie expressed, were in the French Commentaries but onely in substance lightly touched, and the summe set downe without amplifying the circumstance, and yet heere is no more set downe, than there is signified. I haue also, for the more terror unto the wicked, diligentlie collected the great plagues and iust iudgements of God shewed against the persecutors in euery seuerall History, and haue set them downe so in order, and amplified them by the like iudgments against sinners out of the Word and other histories, that euerie proud persecutor may plainly see what punishment remaineth due unto their wicked tyrannie.

The work was written at a period of our history when from various causes and events the public feeling against the professors of the Roman Catholic religion was carried to an extreme excess. The numerous plots against the life of queen Elizabeth, the sudden rebellion in the North, the threatened invasion of the Spanish Armada, and other violent proceedings of the Papists, naturally increased the feelings of hatred with which they were viewed, and gave rise to many publications breathing a spirit of enmity against them, and of strong attachment to the principles of the Reformation. This was further increased by the barbarous atrocities of the Duke of Alva in the Low Countries, the proceedings of the Guises party in France, the persecution of the Protestants, and the murder of Admiral Coligni in the same country, which is described at length in the present poem. The author, in walking abroad, supposes that he meets with a godly French exile, driven from his country by religious persecution, with whom he enters into conversation, and who describes to him the cause of the Civil wars in France in the reign of Henry II., the persecution of the Protestants, the murder of Gaspar de Coligni, and other events.

The work is not remarkable for any particular ability or merit, but a strong vein of piety runs through the whole, and the comparisons and examples are chiefly drawn from the Scriptures, to which there are numerous references in the margins. It is written in the long or Alexandrine measure, and opens thus:

As walking on a daie, the woods and forrests nie :

In shrilling voyce, and mournfull tunes, methought I heard one crie.
Which sodaine feare so dasht my blood and senses all,

That as one in a traunce I staid to see what would befall.

A thousand thoughts opprest my fearfull wauering braine,

In musing what amid the woods that fearful voice shuld mean.

I feard least theeues had robd and cast some man aside:
Because it was the common waie where men did vse to ride.
Among the sauage beasts that in these woods remaine,

I doubted least some trauler stood in danger to be slaine.

But casting feare apart, I ranne toward the place

To see the wight that did lament, and waile his wofull case.
Alone, no perill nigh, within a bushie dale

A stranger sate: I got aside to heare his dolefull tale.

O noble France (quod he) that bor'st sometime the bell,
And for thy pleasure and thy wealth all nations didst excell!
How art thou now of late with mischiefe so possesst
That al the Realmes of Christendome thy falshoods do detest?

Where is thy vernant hiew? thy fresh and flow'ring fame?
What fell vnluckie spot is this, that so dooth stain thy name?
Where is thy mirth become? where is thy smiling cheere?
Where is thy ioiful peace, that erst did make thee shine so clear?
Where are thy youthlie troopes, the Nobles of thy Land?
Where is thy faith; without the which no realm can euer stand?
Where is the mutuall loue that Prince and people had?
Where is the noble vnion, that makes the Countrie glad?
Where is the due regard that Princes ought to have,
From all the bands of tyranuie their people for to save?
Where is thy pitie gone, where is thy mercie fled?
That Lion-like in everie place such Christian blood is shed?
But these of late to thee O France haue bid adieu,
That rigor reignes in mercies seate, alas! it is too true.
For hauing no remorse to heare thy childrens grone
Like as a widow comfortlesse thou shalt be left alone.
For they that feare the Lord, and haue for him a care,
Haue learnd too late the costlie wit thy treasons to beware.
Therefore thy children haue their natiue Coasts resignde,

With better hope in forrein Lands more mercie for to finde.

The woodcut figure of Truth is repeated on the last page, and is inscribed "Veritie purtraied by the French Pilgrime." Underneath are two stanzas descriptive of the motto, "Virescit vulnere Veritas." The volume is of great rarity, and sold in Reed's sale, No. 6741, for 5l. 158. The copy in the Bibl. Ang. Poet., No. 225, there priced at 251., was resold in Midgley's sale in 1818, No. 227, for 137. 2s. 6d., to Mr. Hibbert, and at his sale in 1829, No. 2847, it was bought for 31. 158. The present fine and beautiful copy belonged successively to Sir Mark M. Sykes, at whose sale in 1824, Pt. 1, No. 1005, it was purchased by Mr. Heber for 97. 98., exclusive of commission, and at the sale of the latter, ten years later, Pt. 4, No. 583, was again sold for 77. 17s. 6d., to Mr. Bright, and at his sale in 1845, No. 1829, brought the large sum of 147. We are not aware of any other than these two copies.

Bound in Olive Green Morocco, gilt leaves.

DRANT (THOMAS).-A Medicinable Morall, that is, the two Bookes of Horace his Satyres, Englyshed accordyng to the prescription of saint Hierome.

Episto: ad Ruffin.
Quod malum est, muta.
Quod bonum est, prode.

The Wailyngs of the Prophet Hieremiah, done into Englyshe verse.--Also Epigrammes.-T. Drant.

Antidotis salutaris amoror.

Perused and allowed accordyng to the Quenes Maiesties Iniunctions.

Imprinted at London in Fletestrete by Thomas Marshe. M.D.LXVI. 4to, blk. Lett., pp. 192.

Thomas Drant, the author of this first English metrical translation of Horace, a native of Hagworthingham in the county of Lincoln, and son of a person of the same name, was entered as a pensioner of St. John's College, Cambridge, March 18, 1557-8, became B.A. in 1561, and was admitted a Fellow in the same year. He took his degree of M.A. in 1564, and, on the Queen's visit to Cambridge in August that year, celebrated the event in some English, Latin and Greek verses, which he presented to her majesty, and which were afterwards printed, and may be seen in Nicholls' Progr. of Q. Eliz., vol. iii. p. 36. The great patron of Drant was Archbp. Grindall, who favoured him while he was a student at St. John's, and to whom he was domestic chaplain. He proceeded B.D. in 1569, and in that year was admitted a prebendary of St. Paul's by the patronage of Grindall, who also made him Divinity Reader there. Drant preached before the court at Windsor, January 8, 1569, and selected for his text, "They were both naked, Adam and Eve, and blushed not"; the chief subject of his discourse being the vain-glorious attire both of men and women. In 1569-70 he was admitted to the prebend of Firles, in the Cathedral Church of Chichester, and to the rectory of Slinfold in the county of Sussex, and was also made Archdeacon of Lewes. London not agreeing with his health, in 1570 he resigned his prebend at St. Paul's, and retired into the country for two years, but returned again at the end of that time to the metropolis, and preached at St. Mary's Spital, on Easter Tuesday, 1572, as he had done two years before in 1570. Drant's latest publication is dated in 1572. His death appears to have occurred in 1578, as the archdeaconry of Lewes was vacant at that time, but the exact date is not known. The editors of the. Ath. Cantabr. calculate that he was only about 37 years of age. He had begun a translation of the Iliad of Homer into English verse, but had gone no further than the 4th Book. He was a tolerably successful Latin poet, and translated the Book of Ecclesiastes into Latin hexameters, which were

printed in London in 1572, 4to, with some other pieces in Latin verse, and dedicated to Sir Thomas Heneage. Drant published two other works of Latin poetry, his Præsul Ejusdem Sylva, 4to, n.d., and Poemata varia et externa, 4to, printed at Paris. He wrote a version also of the Greek Epigrams of Gregory Nazianzen, 8vo, Lond. 1568; a version of the Psalms in English verse, and has short complimentary poems in Latin and English prefixed to several works by other writers.

Drant was a puritanical divine, and printed five or six sermons, which are now only valuable as curiosities, two of them preached at St. Mary's Spital, or Hospital. Dr. Dibdin has given some extracts from these in his Libr. Comp., vol. i. p. 75. One of these on almsgiving is dedicated to Sir Francis Knollys, Treasurer of the Household, and has verses at the beginning and end. Drant had opposed the new system introduced by Gabriel Harvey, and then become fashionable, of writing English verses in Latin hexameters, and Harvey in return in his Pierces Supererogation, 4to, 1593, speaks of rules for the Dranting of verses.

On the back of the title is a short dedicatory inscription, wanting in some copies, "To the Right Honorable my Lady Bacon, and my lady Cicell, sisters, fauourers of learnyng and vertue." The work commences with a prose address "To the Reader," in which, speaking of his author, he says:

His eloquence is somtyme to sharpe, and therfore I haue blunted it, and somtymes to dull, and therfore I haue whetted it: helpyng hym to ebbe, and helpyng hym to rise. I began this worke (a thyng of small accompt) two yeres agone, or more, and haue dispatched it by piece meale, or inche meale, with smal preiudice or none to my studie or profession. In the first and second Satire I haue taken it a note beyond the text: afterward plodded on much more precisely. At ye begynning he is loftie, but afterward wonderfully calmed. I dare not warraunt the Reader to understand him in all places, no more then he did me. Howbeit I haue made him more lightsom, well nie by the tone halfe (a small accomplishement for one of my continuance) and if thou canst not nowe in all points perceiue him (thou must beare with me) in soothe the default is thyne own. This is a true assertion: who so but knewe the least part of Horace his satyres, as they were before, may nowe understande them all in their new Englyshe liuerey.

The address concludes with a distich of Greek verses, and is followed by a poetical definition of a Satire, one page.

Drant's version of Horace is rather a paraphrase than a translation; and he confesses to the difficulty of the task, that Horace is hard, very hard; that he would sooner translate twelve verses out of Homer than six out of Horace, and that he had translated him sometimes at random. As a speci