More sweet, thou saydst, then combe or honey both, Chose he not thee his tender lambes to keepe, Ultimately David, having "warbled out an ode,” repents, and the last stanza is, "Thus did the Psalmist warble out his plaints, Some SACK-FULL OF NEWS. The Sackfull of News This is a reimpression of an old jest-book, certainly in existence anterior to the year 1575, when we find it mentioned by Langham in his "Letter from Kenilworth," as part of the library of Captain Cox, "the Churl and the Burd, the seaven wise Masters, the wife lapt in a Morels skin, the sak full of nuez, the Seargeaunt that became a Fryar,” &c.; (see Vol. II. p. 228.) It had been entered in the Stationers' Registers, and no doubt printed, almost at the commencement of the existence of the Company, in the following terms, the date being 1557-58: "To John Kynge these bokes folowynge, called a nose gaye; the scole howse of women; and also a sacke full of newes xijd." Again, in the year 1581-82, on the 15th January, we find John Charlwood paying for the registration of a number of works, including “A pennyworth of witte; A hundred merry tales; Adam Bell; The banishment of Cupid; Crowley's Epigrams; A Fox Tale; Kinge Pontus; Robin Conscience; A proude wyves p[ate]r n[oster; A Sackefull of newes; Sr. Eglamore," &c. There was, it is true, an early drama so named, which a company of players was prevented from acting on the 5th of September, 1557, (Hist. Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage, I. 162,) but it is quite clear, from the company in which the "Sack-full of News" was placed by Kynge, as well as Charlwood, that they entered the Jest-book and not the Drama. Five years afterwards, 5th September, 1587, it was entered to Edward White in this form: "Edward White. Rd of him for a sackfull of newes, being an old copie, which the said Eward is ordered to have printed by Abell Jeffes vjd." It was, in all probability, called "an old copy," because it was to be a reimpression of the work that had been licensed to Kynge in 1558, and to Charlwood in 1582. How many reimpressions it went through between 1557 and 1673 it is vain to speculate; but at the latter date it still bore the title of "The Sack-full of Newes," although the second part of the title, as we find it in 1640, in the edition under consideration, was dropped. It was probably meant, in the poetical license of popular literature of the reign of Charles I., that "news" and "truths" should be taken as rhymes; and whether such was the title it anciently bore must remain uncertain, until, by some chance, a copy of an earlier date than the one we have used be discovered. We take it for granted that the number and character of the jests were the same in all editions. We are sure that they are the same in the only two known impressions of 1640 and 1673, without even a verbal variation. Differences of spelling were of course to be expected, but even these are few, and in no respect change the meaning of a single sentence. The main discordance is, that in the copy of 1640 the jests are numbered, while in that of 1673 they are not numbered. We quote the second as one of the shortest, and certainly one of the best. It speaks of times anterior to the Reformation, thus affording some proof of the antiquity of the collection. "2. Another. "There was a fryer in London which did use to goe often to the house of an old woman, but ever when he came to her house she hid away all the meate she had. On a time this Fryer came to her house bringing certain companie with him, and demaunded of the wife if she had any meat? And she said nay. Well, quoth the fryer, have you not a whetstone? Yea, quoth the woman, what will you do with it? Mary, qd he, I would make meate thereof. Then she brought the whetstone. He asked her likewise if she had not a frying pan? Yea, said she; but what the divell will you do therewith? Mary, said the Fryer you shall see by and by what I will doe with it. And when he had the pan, he set it on the fire, and put the whetstone therein. Cocks body, said the woman, you will burn the pan. No, no, quod the fryer; if you will give me some eggs it will not burn at all. But she would have had the pan from him when that she saw it was in danger; yet he would not let her, but still urged her to fetch him some eggs, which she did. Tush! said the Fryer, here are not enow: go fetch me ten or twelve. So the good wife was constrayned to fetch more for feare lest the pan should burn: and when he had them he put them in the pan. Now, qd he, if you have no butter the pan will burn and the eggs to[o]. So the good wife being very loth to have her pan burnt and her egges lost, she fetcht him a dish of butter, the which he put into the pan, and made good meate thereof, and brought it to the table, saying much good may it doe you, my masters; now may you say you have eaten of a buttered whetstone. Whereat all the company laughed, but the woman was exceeding angrie because the Fryer had subtilly beguiled her of her meate." Another very ancient jest in this little volume is the 13th, which may carry us as far back as to the year 1537, when the interlude of "Thersites " was written, though it was not printed until between the years 1550 and 1563. We quote the punning jest first from "the Sack-full of News": "13 Another. "A man there was that had a child borne in the north Countrey, and upon a time this man had certain guests, and he prepared sallets and other meate for them; and bid his boy go into the cellar and take the sallet there (meaning the herbs) and lay them in a platter, and put vineger and oile thereto. Now the boy had never seen a sallet eaten in his Countrey; but he went, and looking about the cellar at last he espied a rusty sallet of steel sticking on the wall, and said to him selfe, What will my master doe with this in a platter? So downe he took it, and put it into a platter and put oile and vineger unto it, and brought it to the table. Why, thou knave (quoth his master) I bid thee bring the herbes which we call a sallet. Now, by my sires sawle (said the boy) I did never see such in my countrey. Whereat the guests laughed heartily." This equivoque is more humorously and pointedly put in "Thersites,” in a dialogue between the hero and Mulciber, whom Thersites employs to make him a new suit of armor. "Thersites. Nowe, I pray to Jupiter that thou dye a cuckolde: I meane a sallet with which men doe fight. Mulciber. It is a small tastinge of a mannes mighte That he shoulde, for any matter, Fyght with a few herbes in a platter: No greate laude shoulde folowe that victorye. Thersites. Goddes passion, Mulciber, where is thy wit and memory? I wold have a sallet made of stele. Mulciber. Whye, syr, in your stomacke longe you shall it fele, For stele is harde to digest." Thus we see how curiously, and appositely, one old book sometimes illustrates another. The whole number of jests in the edition of 1640 is twenty-two, and they were not increased in 1673. Of the drama of "The Sack-full of News," which the players at the Boar's Head in Aldgate were anxious to represent in the reign of Queen Mary, we can give no account, as it is not now in existence: the copy used by the actors was seized by the Lord Mayor of that day, and forwarded immediately to the Privy Council. As there is nothing dramatic in the Jest-book, we may presume that the similarity was only in the popular name. SAKER, AUSTen. Narbonus. The Laberynth of Libertie. Very pleasant for young Gentlemen to peruse, and passing profitable for them to prosecute. Wherein is contained the discommodities that insue by following the lust of a mans will in youth: and the goodnesse he after gayneth, being beaten with his owne rod, and pricked with the peevishnesse of his owne conscience in age. Written by Austen Saker of New Inne. Imprinted at London by Richard Jhones, and are to be solde at his shop overagainst S. Sepulchres Church without Newgate. 1580. 4to. B. L. 135 leaves. We never saw or heard of more than a single copy of this unrecorded romance. It was entered at Stationers' Hall on the 8th March, 1579-80, in a peculiar manner, and the clerk obviously could not read or understand the hard word with which the title commences. The form was this: "viij die Marcij. "Richard Jones. Lycenced unto him a booke intituled the of lib ertye, written by Augustine Saker, gent. upon the said Richard Jones his promise to bringe the wholle impression thereof into the hall, in case it be disliked when it is printed. By me Richarde Jones. In the margin a note is added stating that "this book is intituled the Labirinth of Libertye," and hitherto all that has been known of it was derived merely from the entry; (Herbert, Typ. Ant. p. 1053.) It is in two parts, each, perhaps for the sake of speed, by a different printer. We have given the general titlepage above, and the title-page of Part II. runs in these explanatory terms: "Narbonus. The seconde parte of the Lust of Libertie. Wherin is conteyned the hap of Narbonus, beeing a Souldioure his returne out of Spayne, and the successe of his love betweene him and Fidelia. And lastly his life at the Emperoures Court, with other actions which happenned to his friend Phemocles. By the same Authour. A. S. A. S.-Imprinted at London by Willyam How for Richard Johnes. 1580." The probability therefore is, that Jones, wishing to publish the work in a hurry, would not wait until his own types were disengaged from the first part, and employed How to print the second part for him. In the dedication of four pages to Sir Thomas Parrat, Knight, the author speaks of himself as a young man, or at all events as a young author, but we know no more of him : Expect not, then, I beseech you, of this plant, but of two yeares grafting, so much fruite as from the tree of twentie yeares growing; for the apprentice must cast any bill before he keepe his maisters booke; and the shoemaker must learne to fashion a latchet before he sowe on a laste. So this simple author must lie in Diogenes tub before his writing like his owne fantasye, and put on Socrates gowne before his dooings please all favours." Afterwards he terms himself “a rusticall writer," perhaps living in the country, and is not sparing of alliteration, which he clearly considered a valuable. ornament of style. "No marveile," he observes, "if amongst many |