Two bravely in the battle fell and died,a
Upbraiding rebels' arms, and barbarous pride:
And two that would have fall'n as great as they,
The Belgic fever ravished away.

Thou, that art all their valour, all their spirit,
And thine own goodness to encrease thy merit,
Than whose I do not know a whiter soul,
Nor could I, had I seen all nature's roll,
Thou yet remain'st, unhurt in peace or war,
Though not unprov'd; which shews thy fortunes

are

Willing to expiate the fault in thee,

Wherewith, against thy blood, they' offenders be.

the reader will find subjoined, and which may be counted among the best of this polished and amiable man.

ON A FAMILY PICTURE.

"When pensive on that portraiture I gaze,

Where my four brothers round about me stand,
And four fair sisters smile with graces bland,
The goodly monument of happier days;

And think how soon insatiate death, who preys

On all, has cropt the rest with ruthless hand;
While only I survive of all that band,
Which one chaste bed did to my father raise :

It seems that like a column left alone,

The tottering remnant of some splendid fane,
Scaped from the fury of the barbarous Gaul,
And wasting time which has the rest o'erthrown,
Amidst our house's ruins I remain

Single, unpropt, and nodding to my fall."

It is melancholy to add to the little history of Sir J. Radcliffe's family, that this "column" also, this "great mark of virtue," fell, not many years afterwards, like "the rest." That valiant and generally beloved gentleman (Weever says,) sir John Radcliffe, lieutenant colonell, was slaine fighting against the French in the isle of Rhee, the 29th of October, in the year of our Lord, 1627. a In Ireland.

XCIV.

TO LUCY COUNTESS OF BEDFORD, WITH MASTER
DONNE'S SATIRES.8

UCY, you brightness of our sphere, who are,
Life of the Muses' day, their morning star!
If works, not authors, their own grace should
look,

Whose poems would not wish to be your book?
But these, desired by you, the maker's ends
Crown with their own: Rare poems ask rare
friends.

Yet satires, since the most of mankind be
Their unavoided subject, fewest see;

For none e'er took that pleasure in sin's sense,
But, when they heard it tax'd, took more offence.
They then, that living where the matter's bred,
Dare for these poems yet both ask, and read,
And like them too; must needfully, though few,
Be of the best, and 'mongst those best are you :
Lucy, you brightness of our sphere, who are
The Muses' evening, as their morning star!

8 Daniel, who has a poem addressed to the countess, terms her 'learned;" undoubtedly she was a most accomplished lady, and skilled in a variety of arts, not much studied by the females of those days. Sir Thomas Roe has a letter to her, in which he speaks of her proficiency in the knowledge of ancient medals; and sir William Temple mentions her with applause in his Essay on the gardens of Epicurus, for "projecting the most perfect figure of a garden that he ever saw." Granger attempts to be severe on her bounty to the poets; but as Drayton, Donne, Daniel, and our author were among the number, her liberality seems to be nearly as secure from censure as her judgment.

It is pleasing to mark the habitual kindness with which Jonson recommends his friend's works, and the ingenious mode in which he compliments his patroness for desiring to have a copy of the Satires.

XCV.

TO SIR HENRY SAVILE.

, my religion safe, I durst embrace
That stranger doctrine of Pythagoras,
I should believe, the soul of Tacitus
In thee, most weighty Savile lived to us :
So hast thou render'd him in all his bounds,
And all his numbers, both of sense and sounds.
But when I read that special piece restored,
Where Nero falls, and Galba is adored,
To thine own proper I ascribe then more,
And gratulate the breach I griev'd before;
Which fate, it seems, caus'd in the history,
Only to boast thy merit in supply.

O, would'st thou add like hand to all the rest!
Or, better work! were thy glad country blest,
To have her story woven in thy thread;"
Minerva's loom was never richer spread.

To have her story woven in thy thread.] It was then imagined, that sir Henry Savile intended to have compiled a general history of England; but he gave over the design, and engaged in the excellent edition of Chrysostom, which he afterwards published. WHAL.

There is no date to this epigram; but it must have been written after 1604, as he did not receive the honour of knighthood till that year, and before 1613, in which year his magnificent edition of Chrysostom's Works, 8 vol. fol. appeared, which Jonson would not have omitted to mention. Sir Henry was one of the most learned men of that learned age, and published many valuable works, which raised his reputation no less abroad than at home. The translation of which Jonson speaks was published long before the death of Elizabeth, to whom it was dedicated: to this he appended a large body of notes, in which the breaks in the original are occasionally supplied with great ingenuity. He was admirably skilled in the history of this country, and collected and printed the tracts of many of the best ancient writers on the subject; if, therefore,

For who can master those great parts like thee,
That liv'st from hope, from fear, from faction free?
Thou hast thy breast so clear of present crimes,
Thou need'st not shrink at voice of after-times ;
Whose knowledge claimeth at the helm to stand;
But wisely thrusts not forth a forward hand,
No more than Salust in the Roman state :
As then his cause, his glory emulate.
Although to write be lesser than to do,
It is the next deed, and a great one too.
We need a man that knows the several graces
Of history, and how to apt their places;
Where brevity, where splendor, and where height,
Where sweetness is required, and where weight;
We need a man can speak of the intents,'
The councils, actions, orders, and events
Of state, and censure them; we need his pen
Can write the things, the causes, and the men :

he really designed, as Whalley says, to compile a general history of England, we have to lament that one so well qualified for the task found cause to lay it aside.

Sir Henry was warden of Merton College, Oxford, and provost of Eton. Aubrey says that he was a severe governour, and that the scholars hated him for his austerity: but all governors were severe in those days. The worst of him was that "he could not abide witts:"—"If a young scholar was recommended to him for a good witt, Out upon him! he would say, I'll have nothing to do with him—if I wold look for witts I wold go to Newgate, there be the witts." Letters by Eminent Persons, vol. ii. p. 525.

Aubrey has other complaints; but his idle stories are the mere gossip of the day.-Sir Henry Savile was, after all, every thing that Jonson describes him to be; and we may securely acquiesce in the opinion of bishop Montague, that he was "a magazine of learning, whose memory will be honourable amongst not only the wise, but the righteous for ever."

1 We need a man can speak of the intents,

The councils, actions, orders, and events, &c.] These are the essentials of history, and are laid down by Cicero (de Oratore, lib. ii,) as what a good historian should be capable of treating this sentiment is taken from thence. WHAL.

But most we need his faith (and all have you,)
That dares not write things false, nor hide things true."

XCVI.

TO JOHN DONNE.

HO shall doubt, Donne, whêre I a poet be,3
When I dare send my Epigrams to thee?
That so alone canst judge, so alone dost make :
And in thy censures, evenly, dost take
As free simplicity, to disavow,

As thou hast best authority t' allow.
Read all I send; and if I find but one
Mark'd by thy hand, and with the better stone,
My title's seal'd. Those that for claps do write,
Let pui'nees', porters', players' praise delight,
And till they burst, their backs, like asses, load :
A man should seek great glory, and not broad.

XCVII.

ON THE NEW MOTION.

EE you yond' Motion? not the old fa-ding, Nor captain Pod, nor yet the Eltham thing;* But one more rare, and in the case so new: His cloak with orient velvet quite lined through;

2 That dares not, &c.] This is the primary feature of a good historian, according to Cicero: "Ne quid falsi dicere audeat, ne quid veri non audeat."

3 Who shall doubt, Donne, whêre I a poet be.] This contraction of the interrogative whether, seems peculiar to the poet. WHAL. Whalley is greatly mistaken; it is common to them all. Jonson has no peculiarities.

Nor captain Pod, nor yet the Eltham thing.] Pod has been mentioned before as the master of a puppet-show: the Eltham