The whole is a mere piece of Skeltonical drollery, calculated to please the frequenters of the fair; and it goes through the process of the mock funeral with spirit and vivacity, but with no great coherency or distinctness of purpose. We have stated that the fragment is unfinished, for although the word Finis is appended at the bottom of p. 12, it is very evident that it was not printed from types of the time, but is a comparatively modern insertion, to make some incautious buyer believe that the piece was perfect. The last line "With bromestalkes and bay berries, the Divell and all," has in fact nothing to rhyme with it, and the sense is left incomplete. We believe the above to be unique; but such is not the case with the quarto sheet, the title of which we have placed at the head of this article, but which title Lowndes, and his successor, (edit. 1834, p. 120, edit. 1857, p. 124) have divided into two, as if the first portion belonged to one tract, and the last to another. They are in fact one and the same, as we have given them, with a woodcut in the centre of a conjuror about to swallow a serpent. It goes into a general description of the fair and of all that belonged to it in 1641, observing, "Bartholomew Fair begins on the twenty fourth day of August, and is then of so vast an extent, that it is contained in no lesse then foure severall parishes, namely, Christ Church, Great and Little Saint Bartholomewes, and Saint Sepulchres." Stow tells us that it was originally confined to the churchyard of St. Bartholomew, "closed in with walls, and gates locked every night, and watched for safety of men's goods and wares." ("Survey," 1599, p. 309.) We will only quote from the pamphlet before us what the anonymous writer says regarding the portion of the fair held in Smithfield: it is not deficient in humour: "Let us now make a progresse into Smithfield, which is the heart of the Faire, where, in my heart I thinke, there are more motions in a day to be scene, then are in a terme in Westminster Hall to be heard. But whilst you take notice of the severall motions there, take this caution along with you : let one eye watch narrowly that no one's hand make a motion into your pocket, which is the next way to move you to impatience. The Faire is full of gold and silver drawers. Just as Lent is to the Fishmonger, so is Bartholomew Faire to the Pick-pocket. It is his high harvest, which is never bad, but when his cart goes up Holborne." i. e. on its way from Newgate to Tyburn. About this date, we may observe, that the word "pick-pocket" was superseding its equivalent cut-purse; for people began to carry their money in their pockets, instead of wearing their purses at their girdles. Both these tracts contain much that illustrates Ben Jonson's "Bartholomew Fair," which was acted in the interval between the publication of the one in 1607, and of the other in 1641. BASKERVILLE AND SAVILE.-A Libell of Spanish Lies: Found at the Sacke of Cales; discoursing the fight in the West Indies, twixt the English Navie, being fourteene Ships and Pinasses, and a fleete of twentie saile of the king of Spaines; and of the death of Sir Francis Drake. With an answere briefely confuting the Spanish lies, and a shorte Relation of the fight according to truth, written by Henrie Savile Esquire, employed Captaine in one of her Majesties Shippes in the same service against the Spaniard. And also an Approbation of this discourse by Sir Thomas Baskervile, then Generall of the English fleete in that service: Avowing the maintenance thereof, personally in Armes, against Don Bernaldino, if hee shall take exceptions to that which is heere set downe, touching the fight twixt both Navies, or justifie that which he hath most falsely reported in his vaine Printed letter. Proverb 19, ver. 9, &c.-London Printed by John Windet, dwelling by Pauls Wharfe at the signe of the Crosse Keyes, and are there to be solde. 1596. 4to. 27 leaves. This is a very long title to a short widely printed pamphlet, of great rarity and of much historical importance. It relates to the voyage of Drake and Hawkins to the West Indies in 1595, during which they both died. Afterwards the command seems to have devolved upon Sir Thomas Baskerville, who had been appointed only "General at land." During the attack upon Cadiz, under the Earl of Essex and others, a printed letter from Don Bernaldino Dalgadillo de Avellaneda fell into the hands of the British forces: Don Bernaldino had commanded a Spanish fleet in the West Indies, while the English ships were there; and claiming a victory, or at least the merit of putting the fleet, then under Baskerville, to flight, he wrote to that effect to a friend in Spain, Don Pedro Florez, commencing with a statement which he had obtained, as he said, from an Indian, of the death of Drake of grief and disappointment at Nombre de Dios. Now, it happened that Drake died off Portobello, of a flux (or flixe, as Savile spells it) which "had growne uppon him eight days before" it proved mortal. This letter of Don Bernaldino was most joyfully welcomed in Spain, and instantly printed; and coming to the knowledge of Captain Savile, who had commanded the Adventure in the West Indian voyage, he undertook to answer it, point by point, beginning with the false statement of the cause and place of death of Drake, and insisting farther, that the Spanish ships of war were 20, while the force of the English was far inferior, and that the latter had compelled the former to sheer off, and to avoid an action, which the English challenged. At the back of the title is a wood-cut of a sphere, and then comes a brief address "to the courteous Reader." Next we have an introduction, on one page, to a reprint of the letter of Don Bernaldino in Spanish, informing us that it had been "found at the sacking of Cales." The Spanish original fills eight pages, and its translation as many; and to them (after a page of farther explanation) is subjoined Savile's brief answers to each of the six Spanish lies. A narrative headed, "The Meeting of our English Navie and the Spanish fleete, and the order of our encounter," follows upon seven pages, subscribed Henrie Savile; and the last four pages consist of "Thomas Baskervile, Knight, his approbation to this Booke." This last is a composition of a singular character, and not inconsistent with the chivalrous nature of some of the incidents of warfare in those times; for, after Baskerville has borne testimony to the truth of Savile's representation, he ends with a challenge of Don Bernaldino to a personal encounter" I then saye (he observes) that hee falsely lyed; and that I will maintain against him, with whatsoever Armes he shall make choyce of," in any "indifferent kingdom." Baskerville adds that if he should be employed by the Queen in France, he sees no reason why Don Bernaldino should not meet him there to settle the question. This is signed " Finis. Tho. B.," and a ship of war in full sail fills up a blank near the bottom of the last page. 66 We have described this historical tract the more minutely, because we are not aware that the contents of it have been previously noticed -certainly not in the ordinary biographies of Drake and Hawkins. BASSE, WILLIAM.-Great Brittaines Sunnes-set, bewailed with a shower of Teares. By William Basse.-At Oxford, Printed by Joseph Barnes. 1613. 8vo. It is singular that a man who wrote lines on the death of Shakespeare (not however printed in the folio 1623, as Dr. Bliss erroneously states in his edit. of Wood's Ath. Oxon. iv. 222), who put forth the above poem on the demise of Prince Henry, who contributed verses in the Annalia Dubrensia, 1636, and made a MS. collection of his poems under the title of “Polyhymnia,” intending them for the press, should not have attracted more attention from bibliographers: even the title of his "Great Brittaines Sunnes-set" has been absurdly misquoted, and called "Summerset," as if the island had taken to vaulting on the death of Prince Henry. Wood informs us that Basse was "sometime a retainer to the Lord Wenman of Thame Park," Oxfordshire, and his poem, the title of which is at the head of the present article, is inscribed "to his honourable Master S Richard Wenman, Knight." It is merely a fragment, consisting of eight pages, but it is the whole that has been preserved: it is in what the Italians call ottava rima, only a single stanza on each page numbered 5, 6, 7, 8, 13, 14; but with the peculiarity, that the two lines which conclude the octave consist of twelve syllables each: thus, in st. 8 we read as follows, where Basse calls his Muse "young," as if he were inexperienced in poetry, though his lines are smooth enough : "Here then run forth, thou river of my woes, In cease lesse currents of complaining verse; And as when happy earth did here enclose His heav'nly minde, his fame then Heav'n did pierce; In fact, tolerably easy versification, with thoughts naturally becoming the subject, but without any great originality, are all we can discover in the relic before us, which terminates with this stanza : "Like a high Pyramis, in all his towers Finish'd this morning, and laid prostrate soone; Like as some strange change in the heav'nly powers So He his daies, his light, and his life here expir'd, New built most sun-like bright, ful man and most admir'd." The preceding stanza, we are inclined to think, is about the worst of those that here remain to us. We have mentioned above that Basse collected some of his scattered pieces-apparently for the press, because they were regularly dedicated in MS. to Lady Bridget Countess of Lindsey, under the title of "Polyhymnia." This must have been late in Basse's life, as one of the poems is dated June 19, 1648, and another is addressed to Lady Falkland on her journey into Ireland. The volume was lent to us nearly forty years ago by its then owner, Mr. Heber, but it contained no production of any great merit or interest. The longest was a species of unexplained allegory, entitled "The Youth in the Boat," and what seemed its purpose was set out in the three following introductory stanzas : "When we our young and wanton houres Have spent in vaine delight, To shew you how celestiall powers "How they can frame our mindes unfixt When waveringly we reele betwixt "How fatall it may sometimes prove Unto our frayle estate, Vainely to hate what we should love, And love what we should hate." The sonnet to Lady Falkland on her going to Ireland is ingenious, but far below excellence: it is this: "What happy song might my Muse take in hand, That held you first, and holds you still so deare? Since whence you ride you cannot part away, And may performe your voyage, though you stay." This production savours more of an age of conceit than of genius, and the style is nearer the time of Charles II., than of Elizabeth. Basse seems to have been of a sporting, rather than of a sportive turn of mind, and he has several pieces of a racing character, both of bipeds and quadrupeds: one is upon a contention between two Irish footmen, who executed twenty-four miles in three minutes less than three hours. In other poems, upon horse-racing, or horse-coursing, as it was then called, he mentions the names of many favourites of that day-Crop-ear, Friskin, Kill-deer, Herring, Pegabrig, etc. He bears testimony to the pains, even then, taken with the breeding of horses :— "These prov'd themselves from Pegasus derived: Greene earth with purple staynes of bestiall pride." |