We ought to add that the poem called "The Northren Mothers Blessing" has a separate title-page, (wanting in a copy of the volume of 1597, which was formerly in our hands,) and that it is in these terms: "The Northren Mothers Blessing. The way of Thrift. Written nine yeares before the death of G. Chaucer.— London, Printed by Robert Robinson for Robert Dexter. 1597.” The dedication to Spenser, at the back of the first general titlepage, which has no printer's name at the bottom of it, is in this form: "To the worthiest Poet Who J. S., the dedicator, may have been, is unknown. Stafford, W. — A compendious or briefe examination of certayne ordinary complaints, of divers of our country men in these our dayes: which although they are in some part unjust and frivolous, yet are they all by way of dialogues thoroughly debated & discussed. By W. S. Gentleman. Imprinted at London &c. by Tho. Marshe. 1581. B. L. 4to. 59 leaves. This tract was reprinted in 1751, accompanied by a preface to prove that it was written by Shakspeare, a position which the date alone ought to have refuted. Shakspeare did not come to London until 1586 or 1587; but a passage in the dedication to the Queen, wherein W. S. (i. e. W. Stafford, as has since been ascertained) expresses his gratitude to her Majesty "in pardoning certayne my undutifull misdemeanour," was easily perverted (supposing time of no consequence) into an allusion to Shakspeare's offence as a deer-stealer, and the mere mention of a "venison pasty," in the first dialogue, would have been enough to afford a confirmation. The work is divided into three parts or dialogues between a Knight, a Doctor, a Merchant, and a Capper: the first adverts to the complaints and "griefs" of the country; the second to the causes of them, and the third to the remedies for them. It shows that the writer was a man of considerable learning, much knowledge of the state of affairs, and of great judgment and acuteness of observation. Regarding him, nothing has reached our day, but possibly he was father to the author of the next article. STAFFORD, ANTHONY.-Staffords Heavenly Dogge: or the life and death of the Cynicke Diogenes, whom Laertius stiles Canem Coelestem, the Heavenly Dogge, by reason of the Heavenly precepts he gave. Taken out of the best Authors &c. London, Printed by George Purslowe for John Budge, and are to be sold at the great South-doore of Paules, and at Brittain es Burse. 1615. 12mo. 67 leaves. This zealous and eloquent author's earliest work was called after himself, "Stafford's Niobe, or his Age of Teares," which came out in 1611, although the writer was then an extremely young man, for in 1608 he was only seventeen, and a commoner of Oriel College. It has been noticed by bibliographers that "Stafford's Niobe" arrived at a second edition in the same year in which it was originally published; and it was followed immediately by "Stafford's Niobe dissolv'd into a Nilus," also with the date of 1611: to it was appended, with fresh pagination, “An Admonition to a discontented Romanist," so little reason was there for the suspicion of the Puritans that Stafford meant to encourage popery. Of this "Admonition" no account has been given, nor has it, we believe, been anywhere mentioned, yet all through Stafford assails the Roman Catholics without reserve or moderation. In one place he remarks, "I doe not clearelie see in what the Pope doth imitate Peter, except it bee in his deniall of Christ. Peter sought to convert both Jewes and Gentiles: the Pope studieth how to couzen Christians. Peter offered a piece of.silver for tribute to Cæsar: the Pope sendeth a piece of steele to Princes. Peter willeth the People to pray for their Princes: the Pope not only willeth, but hireth slaves and rascalls to raile against their Soveraignes." Reading the two parts of Stafford's "Niobe," a general invective against vice and a laudation of virtue, it seems difficult to extract from them anything sectarian, and least of all anything papistical. Although the Puritans found fault with the work, and wrote against it, there is much in it that is favorable to their habits and tenets. The writer was an enthusiast, and did not always weigh nicely the import of his language; and among other things he gravely tells us of an interview with which he was favored by the spirit of Sir Philip Sidney. All, or nearly all, he produced was in prose, and he strongly censures poets who "disguise their lasciviousnesse under a veile of smooth running words." The only scrap of verse he has left behind him, as far as we know, is the following brief translation from that "everlasting Worthy of the French, divine du Bartas, Peu je regretteroy la perte de leurs ans," &c. "Yet would I grieve their losse of time the lesse Quaffe down with breathless draughts, and love's hot wine On such ill meates as no good humours breed.” In fact, in the small work immediately under notice, devoted to the praise rather than to the biography of the Cynic Diogenes, Stafford refers, without much respect, to such persons as "read ballads and books balladical," as if there really were nothing of greater worth in poetry. His "Niobe" he dedicated to the Earl of Salisbury; but his "Heavenly Dog" to Sir John Wentworth, in terms of the warmest friendship. The greater part of the tract consists of a long speech by Diogenes, in which he enforces his own doctrines and principles, and represents himself as much more of a braggart, especially in the company of Alexander, than was becoming the real character of the philosopher. Diogenes exclaims in one place, "I need not blush at any one of my actions: I make the people my spectators and judges. I approve myself to God; the censures of men I regard not, nor care I if all my thoughts were registered. What is good I applaud, what is evill I reprehend in whome soever I finde it. Thus it often falls that my patients beate me, and will not attend the cure of their bad affections. My mind alters not, notwithstanding their stubbornenesse; but I still endeavour to teach those that correct me, and with the fondnesse of a father love them." It is singular to find a scholar, like Stafford, making Diogenes talk of the two hemispheres of the globe, and of Alexander conquering the one by means of the other, about 2000 years before the western world was discovered. He says little or nothing regarding the life of the Cynic, and thus ends his tract regarding his death: "The sunne in the spane of twelve houres saw Diogenes die with the courage of a man, and Alexander with the pusillanimity of a pesant of Babylon. Thus did one day finish the dayes of the worlds terrour and the worlds wonder." Stafford introduces his "Niobe" by an address "to the longeared Reader,” but his Diogenes, with more humility, "to the modest Reader." To the last tract is prefixed a very neat engraving of Diogenes in his book-furnished tub. STAGE-PLAYERS. - The Stage-players Complaint. In a pleasant Dialogue betweene Cane of the Fortune, and Reed of the Friers. Deploring their sad and solitary condition for the want of Imployment in this heavie and contagious time of the Plague in London. - London, Printed for Tho: Bates, and are to be sold at his shop in the Old Bailey, &c. 1641. 4to. 4 leaves. Only two copies of this tract, relating to the Stage and Drama, just before the closing of theatres by the Puritans, are known. The plague was prevailing in London at the time it was written, and the enemies of Plays and Players availed themselves of the visitation, as if it were sent by heaven as a punishment for indulging in such profanations. There are woodcuts of two male figures on the title-page, one much larger than the other; and which was intended for Andrew Cane (or Kane), and which for Immanuel Reed, does not appear: the first, in 1641, was a famous comedian at the Fortune Theatre in Golden Lane, Cripplegate, and the second quite as celebrated a performer at the Blackfriars Theatre. The reputation of Cane long survived him; and in a tract by Henry Chapman, printed in 1673, on the virtues of the Bath waters, we read as follows: “Without which a pamphlet now a days finds as small acceptance, as a Comedy did formerly at the Fortune Play-house without a Jig of Andrew Keins into the bargain." Regarding Reed, we may quote the following lines from "The Careless Shepherdess," printed fifteen years after the date of the tract before us: "There is ne'er a part About him but breaks jests. I never saw Reade peeping through the curtain, In our Stage-Players Complaint" they are brought together conversing in the street about their misfortunes, and the dialogue commences thus: "Cane. Stay Reed! Whither away so speedily? What! you goe as if you meant to leape over the moone. Now, what's the matter? "Reede. The matter is plaine enough: You incuse me of my nimble feet; but I thinke your tongue runnes a little faster, and you contend as much to out-strip facetious Mercury in your tongue, as [I do] lame Vulcan in my feete." The piece is wretchedly printed, and even at the very commencement we find "incuse " put for accuse, and the words I do, absolutely necessary to the sense, entirely omitted. In the next speeches, and for the rest of the dialogue, Cane is called Quick in the prefixes, and Reed Light, which probably gives us the appellations by which they were then popularly known. They continue: "Quick. Me thinks you're very eloquent. Prithee tell me, don't Suada, and the Jove-begotten braine Minerva lodge in your facundious tongue ? You have, without doubt, some great cause of alacrity, that you produce such eloquent speeches now. Prithee, what is it? "Light. How! Cause of alacrity? S'foot I had never more cause of sorrow in my life. And dost thou tell me of that? Fie, fie! "Quick. Prithee why? I did but conjecture out of your sweet words. "Light. Well; I see you'le never be hanged for a Conjurer. Is this a world to be merry in? Is this an age to rejoyce in? Where one may as soone find honesty in a Lawyer's house as the least cause of mirth in the |