SPENSER, EDMUND. Foure Hymnes, made by Edm. Spenser. - - London, Printed for William Ponsonby. 1596. 4to. 23 leaves. These hymns" Of Love," " Of Beauty," "Of heavenly Love," and "Of heavenly Beauty," are dedicated to the Countesses of Cumberland and Warwick, the dedication being dated, "Greenwich, this first of September, 1596." Respecting them, see "The Life of Spenser," 1862, p. cxxiv. "Daphnaida," an elegy on the death of "the noble and vertuous Douglas Howard, daughter and heire of Henry Lord Howard, Viscount Byndon, and wife of Arthur Gorges Esquire," is appended to most copies of this volume. SPENSER, EDMUND. - The Shepheards Calendar. Conteining twelve Aeglogues proportionable to the twelve Monethes. Entituled to the noble and vertuous Gentleman most worthie of all titles, both of learning and chivalry, Maister Philip Sidney. London Printed by John Windet for John Harrison the yonger &c. 1591. B. L. 4to. 56 leaves. This is the fourth, or perhaps the fifth, edition of "The Shepherd's Calendar," which originally appeared in 1579, dedicated, as above, to "Maister Philip Sidney." The favorable acceptance of it perhaps encouraged Stephen Gosson, in the same year, to dedicate to Sidney a work of a very different kind, "The School of Abuse," which was scornfully repudiated by Sir Philip. See "The Life of Spenser," 1862, pp. xxxi, lxxvi. SPENSER, EDMUND.-Certaine worthye Manuscript Poems of great Antiquitie Reserved long in the Studie of a Northfolke Gentleman. And now first published by J. S. The statly tragedy of Guistard and Sismond. The Northren Mothers Blessing. The way to Thrifte. Imprinted at London for R. D. 1597. 8vo. 38 leaves. This little volume has been reprinted within the present century, but we notice it under the heading of our great romantic poet, because it is dedicated to him, "To the worthiest Poet Maister Ed. Spenser,” — and because there is a circumstance connected with one of the three pieces it contains that has not hitherto attracted attention. It may be that the scarcity of the book has led to the non-detection of the fact, that "The Northren Mothers Blessing," which comes second on the title-page, is the very poem which Sir F. Madden printed in 1838, as from a manuscript once belonging to Dr. Adam Clarke, and afterwards the property of Mr. Loscombe of Corsham, Wiltshire. Sir F. Madden mentions one other MS. of the same production, in the library of Trin. Coll. Cambridge; but besides the printed copy of 1597 now before us, there is a third and well-known MS. of it in the Lambeth Library, No. 853, where it bears the title "How the Goodwife taught her Daughter." Considering that the reprint was made as long since as 1812, it is singular that it should have been unknown in 1838; and in his Introduction to his "Sir Gawayne," in the next year, Sir F. Madden still only speaks of it as a MS., as if not aware that it had been in print in our language for more than two centuries. "The Northren Mothers Blessing" is a didactic poem of thirty-three stanzas, in which a Goodwife instructs her daughter in the ways of the world, and in the manner in which she ought to carry herself. We are not about to criticise or to make extracts from it, further than is necessary for the purpose of showing the identity between the MS. used by Sir F. Madden and the printed copy of 1597. The MS. used by Sir F. Madden must have wanted the introductory stanza, which stands thus in the old printed copy in our hands: : "God wold that every wife that wonnyth in this land Wold teach her doughter as ye shal understand, As a good wife did of the North countré, How her doughter should lere a good wife to bee: Makes the doughter of evill living, My leve dere child." If Sir F. Madden had seen this stanza, or the name of the poem as reprinted in 1812, or as printed in 1597, he could not have said, "the locality of its composition it is not easy to determine; it contains some traces of a northern dialect," because the Mother is expressly called "northren," with the addition that she was "of the north countré." He was quite right in assigning the original MS. to about the reign of Henry VI., but in the impression of 1597 the language (and especially the spelling) is somewhat modernized. The first stanza in Mr. Loscombe's MS., Sir F. Madden tells us, runs as follows: · "Doughter zif thou wilt ben a wif, & wiseliche werche Loke yt thou love welle god, & holy cherche: Go to cherche when thou mygthe, lette for no reyne Alle the day thou farest the bette that thou hast god yseyne. The second stanza in the printed copy of 1597 is this, showing that the poems are identical: "My doughter gif thou be a wife, wisely thou werke, Looke ever thou love God and the holy Kirke: Go to Kirke when thou may, and let for no rayne, And then shall thou fare the bet, when thou God has sayn. Full well may they thrive That serven God in their live, Here "leve dere" is merely pleonastic, the Saxon word "leve" signifying dear; and here we may remark that there is a misprint in the heading of Sir F. Madden's printed copy of 1838, where "fele tyme & ofte" (unless our exemplar differ from others) is misprinted "sele tyme & ofte": "fele tyme & ofte of course is many a time and oft, A. S. fela; a fact of which we cannot suppose Sir F. Madden to have been ignorant, though it is possible that his printer mistook the ƒ for the long s. However, in an important point, relating to the life of Sir Thomas Gresham, he certainly mistook the letter T for G, and thus confounded Sir Thomas Tresham with Sir Thomas Gresham ; - "Sir Frederick Madden has cited a manuscript which states that Queen Mary was proclaimed at Northampton by Sir Thomas Gresham, with the ayd and helpe of the towne, being borne amongst them." Here for Sir Thomas Gresham (who was born in London) we ought to read Sir Thomas Tresham, who was born at Northampton, (Cooper's Ath. Cantabr. II. 415.) Sir F. Madden misread the MS. and strangely confounded the two old capital letters which begin the names of Tresham and Gresham. It would indeed have been a curious and novel incident in Sir Thomas Gresham's life, if it could have been shown that he assisted at the proclamation of Queen Mary when she came to the throne.1 We need not doubt that the author of "The Northren Mothers Blessing" was in the Church, if only for the emphasis with which he makes the matron enjoin her daughter to pay her tithes cheerfully : "Gladly give thou thy tithes and thine offrings both;" which in Mr. Loscombe's MS. stands thus, the word "blethely" (i. e. blithely) being used for "gladly": "Blethely zeve thi tythys & thin offerynges bothe." It was clearly an original old English poem, which J. S. here and there modernized; and the same may be said of "The Way to Thrift," while it seems equally certain that "The statelie Tragedie of Guistard and Sismond" was not from the Italian of Boccaccio (Day IV. Nov. 1). Tancredi Prence di Salerno uccide l'amante della figliuola, & mandale il cuore in una coppa d'oro, laquale messa sopr' esso acqua avelenata, quella si bee, & cosi It first appeared in our language through the medium of muore. a French version.2 1 And, moreover, that Sir Thomas Gresham was born at Northampton and not in London. We have quoted the Athena Cantabrigienses for this correction of Sir F. Madden, not being ourselves aware of the particular publication where the strange error was committed, -so strange indeed that we cannot help thinking that the printer, as in the case of "sele" for fele, must have been in fault. Our reference to the Ath. Cantabr. ought to have been to the first instead of to the second volume of that valuable work. 2 This was not the only poem that William Walter translated from the Italian, "through the medium of a French version." He also rendered into English the story of Titus and Gesyppus: they were printed by Wynkyn de Worde, the first in 1532, and the last without date. Dr. Dibdin, (Typ. Ant. II. 338,) making a quotation from Walter's "Spectacle of Lovers," misprints "Endever thy selfe" "And ever thy selfe," making the passage nonsense. 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 |