Anne Askewe (1520-46), daughter of Sir William Askewe, who accepted the Reformed doctrines, and suffered death for her opinions in the truest spirit of a martyr, wrote some lines after her last examination at Newgate, from which I take the following

verses :

Like as the arméd knight
Appointed to the field,
With this world will I fight,
And faith shall be my shield.

Faith is that weapon strong
Which will not fail at need ;
My foes, therefore, among
Therewith will I proceed.

As it is had in strength

And force of Christian way,
It will prevail at length,

Though all the devils say nay.

Faith in the fathers old
Obtained righteousness,
Which makes me very bold
To fear no world's distress.

I now rejoice in heart,

And hope bids me do so,
For Christ will take my part,

And cure me of my woe.

And, finally, she concludes that for no passing gale should her ship drop timidly its anchor :

I am not she that list
My anchor to let fall,
For every drizzling mist,
My ship substantiall.1

John Croke was a serjeant-at-law in the reign of Henry VIII. and Edward VI., and died in 1554. He was a very rich man, a Master in Chancery, the owner of estates in Buckinghamshire, and in 1547 member of Parliament for Chippenham. His translations into

1 From The Female Poets of Great Britain, by Frederic Rowton, 1848, p. 8.

verse of thirteen Psalms and of part of Ecclesiastes have been published by the Percy Society. It will be enough to quote three verses from Psalm li. :

With hyssop-bitter tears, I mean-
Sprinkle me oft, my faults to know :
Then, if that Thou wilt wash me clean,
I shall be whiter than the snow.
Unto mine ears, within short space,

Of joy or bliss shall come the choice.
The bones that bowed to Thee for grace-
Shall in Thy mercy then rejoice.

Offer we must for sacrifice

A troubled mind, with sorrow's smart.
Canst Thou refuse? Nay, nor despise
The humble and the contrite heart.1

Miles Coverdale (1488-1569), translator of the Bible, was brought up in the monastery of the Augustines at Cambridge, under the care of Dr. Barnes, who afterwards perished at the stake for his adherence to the Reformed doctrines. He received priest's orders in 1515, and quickly became prominent among the leaders of the Reformation. His Bible, from which comes the Prayer-Book version of the Psalms, was published in 1535; a later edition-the 'Great Bible'-in 1539, and his second 'Great Bible,' or 'Cranmer's Bible,' in 1540. After the execution of his constant patron, Thomas Cromwell, he went abroad. At Edward the Sixth's accession he returned to England, and was consecrated Bishop of Exeter in 1551. When Mary succeeded he was deprived and placed under arrest, but was suffered to leave the country at the earnest intercession of the King of Denmark. He took refuge at Geneva, and became so much influenced by the opinions prevalent there that, on his return to England in 1559, although he continued to preach, and subscribed himself to the last Bishop of Exeter, he declined holding any definite

John Croke's Thirteen Psalms,' ed. by Dr. Bliss; Percy Soc. vol. xi. The Psalm begins: 'All myghty God, Lord Eternall.

office in the English Church. Among his other works is a collection of Goostly Psalmes and Spirituall Songs. His metrical psalms are very rude and unadorned. The simplicity of his paraphrases of the Credo and PaterNoster compensates for many defects. I quote, retaining the original spelling, his version of the PaterNoster:

O oure Father celestiall,

Now are we come to praye to The.

We are Thy chyldren, therefore we call ;
Hear us, Father, mercifully.

Now blessed be Thy godly name,

And ever among us sanctified:
There is none other but this same

Wherby mankynde must be saved.

Kirieleyson.

Thy kyngdome come: reigne Thou in us,
For to expell all synne awaye ;
Let not Sathan dwell in thy house,
To put The forth by nyght nor day.
Fulfilled be Thy godly wyll
Among us all, for it is ryght;
As they in heaven do it fulfyll,
So let us do both daye and nyght.

Kirieleyson.

Our dayly bred geve us this daye ;
And let us never perysh for nede.
The litle byrdes Thou fedest alwaye ;
Thyne own chyldren than must Thou fede.
Our dettes are great; forgeve us, Lorde,
As we our detters all forgeve,

And let us alwaye be restored

To Thy mercy, that we may live.

Tentacyon is sore in use

Kirieleyson.

And strongly now are we proved;

Good Lorde, Thou mayst us not refuse,
We praye The with us to abyde:
Not that alone, but helpe us out
From parels all and ioperdy;
Let not evell sprete put us in doute
Of Thy favour and great mercy.

Kirieleyson.1

1 Remains of Myles Coverdale, ed. for Parker Soc. by G. Pearson, p. 549.

The following are a few lines from an Easter Song:

It was a marvelous great thynge
To se how death with death dyd fyght:
For the one death gat the wynnynge,
And the other death lost his myght.

Alleluya.1

Sir Thomas Wyat, the Elder, and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, are names which are frequently coupled together. They were intimate friends. Both were great personages in court; both held high office; both were talented, witty, and accomplished; both wrote verses full of love and sentiment, in a style formed in great measure upon the model of the Italian poets. Wyat was the elder by several years. He was born in 1503, and died in 1541. Surrey was charged with high treason, and beheaded a few days before the death of Henry VIII., in 1547. The general resemblance between the two friends is remarkably and pathetically carried out in their religious verses. For in either case these compositions touchingly illustrate the emptiness, as compared with the deeper needs of human nature, of all that the world most values. Men said, admiringly, of Wyat, that in him were combined the wit of Sir Thomas More and the wisdom of Sir Thomas Cromwell. He gave splendid entertainments, and his acquaintance was everywhere courted. He was ambassador to the Emperor an office for which he was well fitted by his intimate knowledge of the political relations of the country. He was accounted also a discerning and generous patron of learned men. Surrey had held the jousts at Westminster against all comers, had been Field-Marshal in France, and had distinguished himself at Flodden Field. Meanwhile, in their religious meditations, we find Surrey dwelling on those passages in Ecclesiastes which tell of the vanity of all human pomps, and both Wyat and him humbling themselves before their Maker in the contrite outpourings of the Peni

1 Remains of Myles Coverdale, p. 564.

tential Psalms. The following is a part of Sir Thomas Wyat's version of the Sixth Psalm :

O Lord, I dread; and that I did not dread

I me repent, and evermore desire

Thee, Thee to dread. I open here and spread
My faults to Thee; but Thou, for Thy goodness,
Measure it not in largeness nor in breadth.
Punish it not, as asketh the greatness
Of thy furor, provoked by mine offence:
Temper, O Lord, the harm of my excess
With mending will, which I for recompense
Prepare again; and rather pity me,

For I am weak, and clean without defence:
More is the need I have of remedy.

For of the whole the leech taketh no cure [care];

The sheep that strayed the shepherd seeks to see:

I, Lord, am strayed, and sick without recure [recovery].1

The Earl of Surrey has left some verses in praise of these Psalms of Sir Thomas Wyat:

Where he doth paint the lively faith and pure,

The steadfast hope, the sweet return to grace,
Of just David, by perfect penitence.

They were quite in harmony with his own thoughts during his later days; as also were the words of the Preacher:

The world is false, man he is frail, and all his pleasures pain. Alas! what stable fruit may Adam's children find,

In that they seek by sweat of brow, and travail of their mind? We that live on the earth, drawn toward our decay

Our children fill our place awhile, and then they fade away.2

The following is from his paraphrase of the fourth chapter of Ecclesiastes :

In humble spirit is set the temple of the Lord;

Where entering, look thy mouth and conscience may accord ; Whose Church is built of love, and decked with hot desire And simple faith.

1 Wyat's Poems; Chalmers' English Poets :

O Lord, I dreade, and that I did not dreade

I me repente, and euermore desyre.

2 Surrey's Poems; Chalmers' English Poets :

The world is false, man he is frayle, and all his pleasures payne.
Alas! what stable frute may Adam's children fynde.