A Bibliographical and Critical Account of the Rarest Books in the English Language: Sabie-Zepheria. Index

"Yet then in these limn'd lines enobled more

Thou shalt survive richer accomplisht than before.

How he proposed to read the last line, so as to make it measure, we cannot pretend to determine. His best praise is that he was less of a plagiary than several sonnetteers who wrote better

verses.

For instance, B. Griffin, whose "Fidessa," 1596, has been reprinted in modern times, and who stole a whole sonnet (with some variations) from Shakspeare. His thefts from Daniel and others have not been remarked upon, because they are not quite so barefaced, but they are quite as certain: compare Griffin's

"Care-charmer sleepe, sweet ease in restles miserie,"

with Daniel's

"Care-charmer sleepe, sonne of the sable night;"

and Griffin's,

"I have not spent the Aprill of my time,"

with Daniel's

"The starre of my mishappe impos'd this payning,

To spend the Aprill of my yeers in wayling."

All the thoughts and images used by Griffin, in his sonnet beginning

"My Ladies haire is threads of beaten gold,"

are borrowed from Daniel, and almost in the same words; thus, for

"Her blush Aurora or the morning skye"

of Griffin, we read in Daniel

"Restore thy blush unto Aurora bright;"

and for

"Her feete faire Thetis praiseth evermore "

of Griffin, Daniel has

"To Thetis give the honour of thy feete,"

and many more almost identical imitations, if we may so call

them. However the most glaring plagiarism, after that from Shakspeare, is from an older poet, Gascoigne. In Griffin it begins with these lines:

“Arraign'd, poore captive, at the barre I stand,

The barre of Beautie, barre of all my joyes,
And I hold up my ever-trembling hand.”

Gascoigne commences thus, without Griffin's paltry pun :

"At Beautyes barre as I did stand,

When false Suspect accused mee,

George, (quoth the Judge) holde up thy hande," &c.

Griffin, as he proceeds, spoils various points in Gascoigne's spirited lyric; and throughout "Fidessa" he lays other poets under contribution, whenever their thoughts or language suit his purpose. We do not wish to press this matter further, but when we see a man thus unconscientiously (certainly not unconsciously) begging, borrowing, and stealing from his contemporaries, in order to make up a small volume of poor sonnets, we need not hesitate long in deciding that Griffin was indebted to Shakspeare and not Shakspeare to Griffin, although the latter appeared in print in 1596, and Shakspeare's sonnet was, probably, not in print (though this is doubtful) until it came out in "The Passionate Pilgrim," in 1599.

We may add that the reprint of Griffin's "Fidessa," in 1815, is one of the most accurate that has fallen in our way; but it has this singular defect, that the list of "Faults escaped " of the old edition is omitted, while the blunders it was intended to set right are carefully preserved in the text. Thus, the author is made to speak more nonsense than need be attributed to him, and his corrections are nowhere to be found.

Of B. Griffin, his occnpation, birthplace or acquirements, nothing is known; and if (as some have conjectured) his "Fidessa," of 1596, followed an earlier impression of "The Passionate Pilgrim" than any that has come down to us, it is most likely that his sonnet

"Venus and yong Adonis sitting by her," &c.,

was copied from that earlier impression; if not, Griffin must have seen it in manuscript. Daniel's "Delia," from which, unquestionably, Griffin derived much assistance, had been twice published as early as 1592. (See Vol. I. p. 210.)

INDEX.

Abbot, George, Sermon on the death
of the Earl of Dorset, i. 1.
Absolom his Fall, by W. T., i. 3.
Achelley, Thomas, History of Di-
daco and Violenta, 1576, i. 4; Key
of Knowledge, 1572, i. 5, note;
Massacre of Money, 1602, i. 9.
Achelley, Achlow and Ach, Thomas,
in England's Parnassus, 1600, i. 11.
Acolastus, his Afterwit, 1600, by
Samuel Nicholson, iii. 58, note.
Actors, male, of female parts in
1640, i. 148; old, lent their names
as authors of ballads, &c., ii. 215.
Adagia Scotica, by R. B. 1608, i.
11; in Latin and English, 1622,
translated from Erasmus, i. 11.
Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough and
William of Cloudeslie, a ballad, i.
13; gross misprints in various edi-
tions of it, i. 13.
Adam's Complaint, &c. 1566, by
Francis Sabie, iv. 1.
Addition to the Bishop of Durham's
Sermon on the burning of St.
Paul's Church, iii. 164.
Eneas Epistle to Dido, her Answer,
1600, iii. 98.

Ethiopian History, translated by
Thomas Underdowne, 1587, iv.
185.

Affectionate Shepherd, 1594, by
Richard Barnfield, iii. 203.
Affrican and Mensola, a Romance,
by Jo. Goubourne, 1597, i. 15.
Ages of Sin, a series of engravings
so called, i. 16.

Aggas, Edward, or Edward Alde,
the translator of part of Sylvain's
Orator, 1596, iii. 209.
Aimon, History of the Four Sons of,
a Romance, i. 17.
Alabaster, William, his perversion
to Popery, and Sonnet, i. 20; Rac-

ster's Answer to his Seven Mo-
tives, 1598, i. 19; Alabaster's
Sonnets, i. 21, note.

Alarum against Usurers, 1584, by
Thomas Lodge, ii. 245.

Alba, the Month's Mind of a Lover,
1598, by Robert Tofte, iv. 159.
Albion's England, 1586, by W. War-
ner, iv. 213; continuance of, 1606,
iv. 216.

Alcilia, Philoparthen's Loving Folly,
1613, by John Chalkhill, i. 145,
145, note.

Alexander and Lodowick, an old
play on the story of, ii. 211.
Allerton, Ralph, his poem on his
sufferings as a martyr, ii. 327.
All for Money, an interlude by Thos.
Lupton, 1578, ii. 287.

Allot, Robert, his concern in Eng-
land's Parnassus, iii. 135; Weav-
er's Epigram to, iv. 230.
Almanacks, W. P.'s exposure of
their false prognostications, i. 21.
Amorose Songs, Sonnets, &c., by

Alex. Craige, 1606, i. 199.
Amyntas, the Lamentations of, by

Abraham Fraunce. 1587, ii. 35.
Amyot, James, his Plutarch, i. 22.
Anagrammata Regia, &c., i. 25.
Anatomy of Absurdity, by Thomas
Nash, 1589, iii. 1.

Anatomy of Abuses, by Philip
Stubbes, 1583, iv. 106; the Second
Part of, iv. 112; differences in
editions of, iv. 107, 115.

Anatomy of the World, 1611, poems
by Dr. Donne, i. 26.
Andrugio and Susania, a Romance,
by H. R., iv. 21.
Anglorum Lachrymæ, by Richard
Johnson, 1603, ii. 176.
Answer to the Rebels of the North,
by William Seres, i. 28.

Apollonius of Tyre, translated by

Lawrence Twyne, iv. 181; iv. 180.
Apology of Pierce Penniless, by
Thomas Nash, 1593, iii. 12.
Apology of Richard Vennar, or Ven-
nard, 1614, iv. 193.
Apolonius and Silla by Barnabe
Rich, 1581, iii. 302.
Apparel, ridiculousness of the Eng-
lish in the choice of, i. 4.
Aqua-Musæ, by John Taylor, the
water-poet, iv. 144.
Arbasto, King of Denmark, by Rob-
ert Greene, 1617, ii. 44.
Arcadia, the, by Sir Philip Sidney,
1590, iv. 50; entry of it at Sta-
tioners' Hall, iv. 52; when it was
first published, iv. 51.
Arcadian Princess, by Richard
Brathwaite, 1635, i. 97.
Ariosto, translated by Sir J. Har-
ington, 1591, ii. 252; in colors,
intended to be published in 1593,
ii. 252, note.
Ariosto's Seven Satires, by Robert
Tofte, iv. 160.

Armada, Spanish, old tapestry rep-
resenting it, iv. 41.
Armado, or Navy of 103 ships, by
John Taylor, 1627, iv. 139.
Armin, Robert, his Discourse re-
garding Elizabeth Caldwell, 1604,
I. 35; his characters as an actor
in Shakspeare's pylas, i. 36.
Arnalte and Lucinda, by Leonard
Lawrence, ii. 235.

Arnold, Clinton and Purser, the
pirates, Verses by, i. 179.
Arnold's Chronicle, contents of, i.
37.

Ars Adulandi, the first part, by Ul-
pian Fulwell, 1579, ii. 37.
Arthur, the romance of, printed by
Thomas East, i. 38.
Arthur, King, Martin Parker's His-
tory of, 1660, iii. 125; iii. 126;

Epitaph upon, iii. 126; Life and
Death of, iii. 295; of Brytayn,
translated by Lord Berners, i. 81.
Arthur o' Bradley, great antiquity
of the ballad, i. 32; mentioned by
Richard Brathwaite, i. 97.

Art of Longevity, by Edmund Gay-
ton, 1659, ii. 53.

Ass, Nobleness of the, 1595, by A.
B., i. 40; imputed by T. Nash to
John Lyly, iii. 24.

Astionax and Polixena, by John
Partridge, 1566, iii. 147.
Astrophel and Stella, by Sir P. Sid-
ney, T. Nash's edition of, 1591, i.
42; two editions of, in 1591, i. 43;
misprints in all editions, i. 44.
Atropoion Delion, 1603, falsely im-
puted to Thomas Newton, iii. 34.
Aurorata, poems by Thomas Pru-
jean, 1644, iii. 247.

Avale, Lemeke, Commemoration,
&c., of Bishop Bonner, 1569, i. 46.
Avale, John, mentioned, i. 47.

Babel's Balm, by John Vicars, 1624,
iv. 200.

Babington, Anthony, his Corre-

spondence with the Queen of
Scots, iii. 254.

Bachelor's Banquet, by Thomas
Dekker, i. 257.

Bacon, Lord, Psalms, translated by,
1625, i. 49; his Letters to Lord
Ellesmere on a proposed History
of England, i. 50.
Bacon, History of Friar, 1629, i. 52.
Baldness, the defence of, translated

by Abraham Fleming, ii. 27.
Baldwin, William, his Beware the
Cat, 1584, i. 54; his Funerals of
Edward VI., i. 54; Ballad against
the Papists, i. 56; his contribu-
tions to the Mirror for Magis-
trates, i. 54.

Bale, John, Barnabe Googe's Epi-
taph upon, 1563, ii. 66.
Ballads, the singing of, in the streets,
ii. 214; popular Tunes enumerated
in 1605, ii. 231; by Thomas Jor-
dan, founded upon Plays, ii. 187;
upon Page of Plymouth, iii. 103.
Banquet of Jests, 1630, iv. 37; iv.
38, note.

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