The subjoined two stanzas on the word ever are powerfully written, and will merit quotation:

O how it ought to make flesh freeze with feare,

Or flame in all deuotion of the sp'rite,
Sith the word EVER euer doth appeare
So bottomlesse! in length so infinite!
Euer in vtter darkenesse! neuer light!
Ah! this is it, that's able to dissolue
Both Soule and Body with eternall fright!
And yet to sinne some euer do resolue;
And, EVER, neuer in their thoughts reuolue.

Euer to die, and neuer to be dead;

Euer to bee, and neuer be at rest;
Euer in fire; yet neuer minished
Which, (EVER) Patience neuer can digest:
Sith its most bad when it is at the best!

If euer we did thinke aright of this,

This Fire would neuer cease to moue, at least,

And if we be not mou'd with endlesse Blisse :
Such paines will moue aright; or most amisse.

A notice of the dreadful Plague of 1603 which so devastated London, about four years before the publication of this work, will form a short and suitable extract from the Poem, and will close our quotations from it.

When I behold a Towne (erst fairely built)

Which Time (dismantling) doth in heapes confuse

Thus say

I to myself; Here, Men haue dwelt ;

And, where Men dwell, there Syn to raigne doth vse :

And where Syn raignes Confusion still ensues!

Thus, from beginning to the end, I fall

Of this rude CHAOS, (whereon moues my Muse)
And all the way I see Sinne ruin'd all;
So Synn's the Soule of Ills in generall.

The Plague (which late our Mother Citty scour'd
And erst the Kingdome made halfe desolate!)
The Heauens (through aire contagious) on it pour'd
For odious Syns which them exasperate,

For which they oft dissolue the Crownes of State,
Likewise the Deluge (that did rince this Round)
Came (sith foule Synne did it contaminate)
To make it cleane and so to keepe it sound,
Else filthy Synne that Ball would cleane confound.

Then, ô how blest are they that dye to Sinne,
And liue to neuer dying Righteousnesse !
They, in this Sea of Misery, begin

To enter in the Hau'n of happinesse

Though ouerwhelm'd the while with all distresse.
For in a Calme we fall to frolike it;

Or sleepe secure in Pleasures idlenesse ;

Which doth peruert the Wil, corrupt the Wit

Vntill our Stearne be torne, and Keele be split.

At the end of the Poem of Summa Totalis, on a separate leaf, Sig. K 2, with which the volume closes, are two Sonnets, the first on the text, "He that loueth purenesse of hart for the grace of his lippes, the King shall be his Friend."-Prov. xiii. 11. And the second, which we quote, on

Blessed be the mercifull: for they shall obtaine mercy.-Matt. v. 7.

What wit hath Man to leaue that Wealth behind
Which he might carry hence when hence he goes?
What Almes he giues aliue, he, dead, doth find:
But what he leaues behind him, he doth lose.
To giue away then, is to beare away:

They most do hold, who haue the openest hands:

To hold too hard makes much the lesse to stay:

Though stay there may more than the hand commands.
The Beggers Belly is the hatful'st Ground

That we can sow in: For it multiplies

Our Faith and Hope, and makes our Love abound:

And what else Grace, and Nature deerely prize :

So thus, may Kings be richer in their Graue

Then in their Thrones; though all the world they haue.

See a notice of this work in Collier's Bridg. Cat. p. 88, in which, however, it is wrongly stated that the book contains forty-two leaves, the real number being thirty-eight; the copy in Lord Ellesmere's library having, as the Editor himself remarks, a duplicate sheet G. It sold in Sir F. Freeling's sale, No. 1036, for 17. 5s.; Gordonstoun ditto, No. 757, 27. 12s. 6d.; Perry's ditto, pt .i. No. 1691, 27. 19s.; Bright's ditto, No. 1629, 31. 15s.; Chalmers's ditto, pt. i. No. 1241, 167.; and Bibl. Ang. Poet., No. 212, 77. 78. Collation: Sig. A to K 2, in fours.

Beautiful copy. Bound by Charles Lewis.

In Purple Morocco, gilt leaves.

DAVIES, (JOHN.) - Humours Heau'n on Earth; With the Ciuile Warres of Death and Fortune. As also the Triumph of Death: or, The Picture of the Plague, according to the Life; as it was in Anno Domini 1603. By Iohn Davies of Hereford.

O! 'tis a sacred kinde of Excellence,

That hides a rich truth in a Tales pretence!

Printed at London by A. I. 1609. 8vo, pp. 160.

Another, and perhaps with the single exception of Wittes Pilgrimage, one of the rarest of the publications of this writer. It is inscribed in a metrical address "To the right Noble, Algernon, Lord Percy, sonne and heire apparent to the right Honorable Henry Earle of Northumberland," who was one of the many among the Nobility who were pupils of Davies in the art of writing, and who afterwards became the tenth earl of Northumberland. This is followed by another of the same kind from "their unworthie Tutor," "To the no lesse high in Birth, then honorable in Disposition (right noble in either) the Ladie Dorothie, and Ladie Lucy Percies." To these succeed complimentary verses by Edw: Sharphell, Ro: Cox, and Anth: Greys. The first Poem of Humours Heaven on Earth is written in 246 octave Stanzas, and is of an allegorical nature, describing, under names derived from the Greek, Poliphagus the Glutton, Epithymus the Lecher, and Hyselophronus the vain and ambitious, aided by Phusis Nature and Praxis Custom, as being opposed in argument by Logus Reason, chief guide of Psyche the Soul, assisted by Aletheia Truth; and although of a somewhat more descriptive kind in its personification of the various passions and affections in comparison with some of his other metaphysical poems, the whole is written in a desultory and confused manner, and with a want of clearness, which is the usual fault of this author's works.

We now present our readers with a description of the proud ambitious man's apparel, as a short specimen of the poem:

But Hyselophronus vnlike to him

Was richly clad, but much more graue it was;
For he could not endure such colours trim,
Yet vs'd trimme colours to bring drifts to passe:
A Backe too bright, doth argue Braines too dim:
For, no such Asse as is the golden Asse:
But he that state to catch, doth know the knacke,
Hides all his haughtie thoughts in humble blacke.

• Blacke.

His Hat was Beauer of a middle size,
The Band, silke-sipers foure-fold wreath'd about:
A shallow Cambricke Ruffe, with Sets precise,
Clos'd with a button'd string, that still hung out;
Wherewith he plai'd, while he did Plottes deuise
To gull the Multitude, and rule the Rout:
His Sute was Satten, pinckt, and laced thicke,
As fit, as faire, without each peeuish tricke.
His Cloke cloth-rash with veluet throughly lin❜d,
(As plain as Plainenesse) without welt, or garde,
To seeme thereby, to be as plaine in mind;
For, he to seeme good, still had good regarde :
His rapier hilts were blackt, which brightly shin'd,
A veluet Scabbard did that weapon warde:
The Hangers and the Girdle richly wrought,
With Silke of *poorest colour, deerely bought.
His Stockings (sutable vnto the same)
Were of blacke silke, and crosse-wise gartered:
The Knot whereof a Rose's forme did frame,
Which neare the ham the sable leaues did spred.
His Shooes were veluet, which his foote became,
Thus was he clad, from foote vnto the head:
Who still was still, as one of iudgement staid,
Before he heard, and poiz'd, what others saide.

The following description of Psyche on the Soul may also be selected for quotation:

But Psyche (whom she guided) like a Queene
Was richly deckt, with ornaments divine:
Who liu'd so closely that she scarce was seene,
Yet through her Pallace did her glory shine,
As if at least she had a Goddesse beene
Whose virtues were apparant to the eine:
Her Ornaments were Wit, Will, Memory,
Which richly roab'd her with Regality.

Vpon her sacred Head she ware a Crowne
(Like that of Ariadnes) all of Starres

To light her feete in darke waies, and vnknowne,
And keepe the safest way in Passions warres;
Those Starres were royall vertues of her owne
(Which some call Cardinall) her gard in Iarres:
Who was deckt inly with Pow'r, Grace, and Arte,
Being wholy in the whole, and in each Part.

Her Vnderstandings Pow'r that Pow'r did line,
Which Heau'n and Earth religiously adore;
And in her Will she ware Grace most diuine,
But in her Memory she Artes did store;
That made the whole most gloriously to shine,
But most diuinely did those three decore:
Affects and Fantasies her Seruants were,

Which were all cloakt with Good, how ill so ere.

Hir pricely train, which was of works wel wrought,
Was borne by Iudgement her chiefe Officer:

Then Contemplation held her, as she ought,

By the right Arme, so that she could not steere

Frō those right waies, whereon before she thoght:

And double-Diligence before did cleere :

The outward Senses her Purueiours were,

To whom the Common-sense was Treasurer.

There are other descriptions of Father Chronus (Time) and of his man Thanatus (Death)

who riddes away

That which his Master bringeth to decay

of Nosus (Sickness) and of the houses of Chronus and Thanatus. There is also a long and painful account of Hell, and of the torments of the damned, who still are dying, and yet never dead: but these are much too long and too horrible for quotation.

The second tale, which contains 109 octave stanzas, is a contention between Death and Fortune, who meet at a marriage feast, as to their respective powers, Jupiter being appointed the Arbiter between them. In this contest Death first travels through the world among all classes, searching to find one person that would willingly go with him, but in vain and to no purpose.

But by this Time, the Time prefixt by Ioue
Expired was and Fortune with her brought
A world of people following her in loue,
Who, willingly, for Fortune long had sought:
These, as she moued, with hir still did moue,
Because she rais'd them higher then she ought

In which respect she had more followers

Then Sol (that lights Heau'ns lamps) had waiting Stars.

Among these followers of Fortune who are described are Usurers, Soldiers, Knights, Scholars, Mathematicians, Magicians and Conjurors, Sophis

VOL. III. PART I.

M