Page images
PDF
EPUB

appear to have been six in number, all separately stated and exposed in the tract, followed by an account of "the meeting of our English Navie and the Spanish fleete, and the order of our encounter"; and this again by "Thomas Baskervile, Knight, his approbation to this Booke," where he maintains the truth of all that Savile had written, and challenges the Spaniard to single combat, if he persevered in his falsehood.

The Spaniard in his printed letter had stated, among other things, that Sir Francis Drake had died "for grief that he had lost so many barks and men." Savile denies that he had lost more than one small pinnace, and thus proceeds: "This, I think, in wise men's judgements, will seeme a seely cause to moove a man [to] sorrowe to death. For true it is, Sir Fraunces Drake dyed of the Flixe, which hee had growne uppon him eight daies before his death, and yeelded up his spirite, like a Christian, to his creatour quietly in his Cabbin. And when the Generall shall survey his losses, he shall finde it more then the losse of the English, and the most of his destroyed by the bullet: But the death of Sir Fraunces Drake was of so great comfort unto the Spaniard, that it was thought to be a sufficient amendes, although their whole fleete had been utterly lost."

As to the place where Drake expired, Savile says, just before the above, in answering the first lie: "For it had been sufficient · to have said that Fraunces Drake was certainly dead, without publishing the lye in print by naming Nombre de Dios: for it is most certaine Sir Fraunces Drake dyed twixt the Island of Scouda and Porte-bella. But the Generall being ravished with the suddaine joy of this report, as a man that had escaped great daunger of the enemie, doeth breake out into an insolent kind of bragging of his valour at Sea, and heaping one lye upon another, doth not cease untill he hath drawne them into sequences, and so doth commende them unto Peter, the Doctor, as censour of his learned worke."

The pamphlet does not seem a very successful answer; and Savile commits the error of magnifying the Spanish misstatements into needless importance. The letter of Don Bernaldino, which is given in Spanish and English, seems, in our day, hardly worth the notice that is taken of it; but at that date the death of Drake,

and the real cause of it, were attracting unusual interest and attention. Sir John Hawkins had been treasurer of the Navy, and several of his official letters are extant; one of them, dated 1583, is before us.

SAVIOLO, VINCENTIO. Vincentio Saviolo his Practise. In two Bookes. The first intreating the use of the Rapier and Dagger. The second, of Honor and honorable Quarrels. Both interlaced with sundrie pleasant Discourses, not unfit for all Gentlemen and Captaines that professe Armes. At London, Printed for William Mattes, &c. 1595. 4to. 4to. 152 leaves.

This is the work to which Touchstone, in "As you like it,” Act V. sc. 4, makes such obvious allusion, his reference being to that division which is headed, "Of the manner and diversitie of Lies.” These are, "Lies certaine," "conditional lies," "lies in general," "lies in particular,” and “foolish lies.”

It appears that Saviolo was an Italian fencing-master, born at Padua, patronized and employed by Lord Essex. In the address "to the Reader," which succeeds the dedication, he speaks of his foreign birth and travels. "The first book," which is conducted in dialogue, is furnished with a number of woodcuts, perhaps from Italian designs, to illustrate the employment of the rapier and dagger.

The whole is dedicated to the Earl of Essex, the author professing to have been "bound by the bounty" of "the English Achilles." He laments that he had not "copie [i. e. plenty] of English to have expressed his meaning as he would.”

"The second book” has a separate preface, in which the author apologizes for his insufficiency, and it bears the date of 1594, the year, perhaps, in which it was originally intended to bring out the whole work. The last chapter relates to "the nobility of Women,” which no doubt was introduced for the sake of the panegyric upon Queen Elizabeth, with which it enabled Saviolo to conclude.

SAXONY, THE Duke of.— A Defiance to Fortune. Proclaimed by Andrugio, noble Duke of Saxony, declaring his miseries, and continually crossed with unconstant Fortune, the banishment of himselfe, his wife and children. Whereunto is adjoyned the honorable Warres of Galastino, Duke of Millaine, in revenge of his wrongs, upon the trayterous Saxons. Wherin is noted a myrrour of noble patience &c. Written by H. R. Printed at London for John Proctor, and are to be sold at his shop upon Holborne bridge. 1590. 4to. B. L. 16 leaves.

What is most remarkable about this romance, is, that the narrative is very continuous, regular, and not uninteresting. The adventures of the hero are not extravagant, nor improbable, and the story has no connection with celestial or diabolical agency. In fact, it is a mere prose novel, not ill calculated to give entertainment to the readers of such incidents. At the same time the style offers nothing noticeable, and we have no suggestion to make as to the ownership of the initials H. R. upon the titlepage, and at the end of the dedication "to the worshipful William Borough, Esquire, comptroller of her Majesties Navy." He had been an officer of distinction in the Queen's Fleet, and in 1583 had been very successful against the pirates who at that date infested the English seas. Stow's Ann., edit. 1605, p. 1175.

H. R. tells the "courteous Reader" that he had published his work, most unwillingly, at the instance of friends, who made him seem as bold as the craven, in one of the battles of Edward III., whose courageous horse, against the will of the rider, carried him into the thickest of the encounter. Here H. R., nevertheless, promises to finish the subject he had thus commenced; but we never hear more of Andrugio, Duke of Saxony, the hero, or of his wife Susania, the daughter of a miller, who had tended him when wounded and left for dead by banditti. The writer is an imitator of Greene, especially in the extemporal invention of stones, birds, fishes, &c., that would answer his purpose in a simile. Thus we have "the stone quacious that freeseth within when it fryeth without," and "the hawke that will never be called to that

lure, wherein the pennes of a Camelion are pricked." It is the first and only time we hear that a chameleon was then clothed with feathers.

It is useless to pursue in any detail the progress of the story; but after Andrugio has fallen in love with Susania, he is sent by his father to the University of Sienna, where he forms a friendship with the heir to the Duke of Milan. And here we may remark upon the utter disregard of geographical correctness, for Saxony, to the Dukedom of which Andrugio soon succeeds, is represented as contiguous to the Dukedom of Milan; and when the hero is expelled from his territory by two usurpers, those usurpers are overthrown and suppressed by Galastino of Milan, Andrugio's faithful friend. Galastino also preserves the lives of Andrugio's wife and children, and after various adventures conquers the Dukedom of Saxony for Alphonsus, the son of Andrugio and Susania. The author hardly supports the dignity of his hero, for he makes him fly from his enemies, and hide from them in a wood for the space of thirteen years, while his wife is lamenting his loss, and while his son Alphonsus is making rapid progress to manhood. This part of the narrative ends with the restoration of Susania and Alphonsus, before anything has been heard of the retreat of Andrugio, who has taken upon himself the life, if not the habit, of a hermit. The following passage, where the Duchess Susania is watching and waiting for the preparations of Galastino for the recovery of Saxony, may be taken as a fair specimen of the writer's style as a novelist: —

"The Duchesse, for whose sake those preparations were made, conceived such joy at the same, that she thought every moneth a yeare and every day a moneth, until she saw to what happy end the Dukes pretended jorney would happen unto, often commending in her heart the faithfulnesse of the Duke of Millaine to his friend. In recounting whereof she shed mony bitter teares for Andrugio, her beloved lord and husband, somtime exclaiming against the Gods and men for his losse who so dearely she loved. The remembrance of whom was likely divers times to bereave her of life; yet in the midst of her sorrowes, when she beheld the yoong Prince, a lively picture of the exiled Duke, how often with sweet imbracings woulde she kisse the tender youth, bathing his tender cheeks with teares, distilling in aboundance thorow extreame griefe of heart from her eies, hoping yet, before death should shut those eyes of hers, to see him and once again to injoy his companie."

The story, as far as it goes, may be said to be divided into two portions: 1. that part of it which relates to the early life of Andrugio and the usurpation of his dukedom; 2. that which belongs to the wars of Galastino, entirely undertaken to revenge his friend upon his triumphant enemies. In the latter the hero has nothing to do; but we may more than guess that in the sequel of the narrative (which has not reached us, if it were ever printed) Andrugio came forth from his solitude, and, while disguised and unknown, importantly contributed to the victory which restored him, in the end, to his dukedom. The great fault of the piece is the tedious length of some of the speeches, but this was a defect belonging to all romance-writers of the period. They caught it chiefly from the old "Amadis de Gaule"; but it is nowhere more apparent than in some of Robert Greene's pieces, where the characters patiently argue every question, pro and con, and, even then, sometimes arrive at no conclusion.

SCHOOL OF SLOVENRY. The Schoole of Slovenrie: or Cato turnd wrong side outward. Translated out of Latine into English verse, to the use of all English Christendome, except Court and Cittie. By R. F. Gent.

London Printed by Valentine Simmes &c. 1605. 4to. 79 leaves.

Very few copies of this translation exist; but one, we are informed, bears the date of 1604. Of the translator nothing is known but what he himself tells us in his Epistle "To all that can write and reade and cast accompt," which follows the title-page. "In the minority of my grammar-schollership," he states, “I was induced by those, whom dutie might not withstand, to unmaske these Roman manners, and put them on an English face. The truth is, this translation was halfe printed ere I knew who had it so that, quo fata trahunt, without prevention or correction, the fooles bolt must needes be shot." Afterwards he excuses himself further by stating, that "it is a punies translation only"; and soliciting indulgence for the species of verse he chose, namely, lines of fourteen syllables each, and supporting himself by

« PreviousContinue »