carriage, he was freed out of that danger. The third step, which her Majestie did thinke good to observe was (upon returne into England) his comming unto her Court, where, on divers occasions, he bountifully feasted her Highnesse and her Nobles, and so he did to forren Ambassadors. At that time he entertained Musicians, the most curious which any where he could have, and therein his Lordship excelled unto his dying day. Then was his discourse judicious, but yet wittie and delightfull. Thus he was in his yoonger daies a scholar and a traveller, and a Courtier of speciall estimation." Afterwards Abbot mentions the well-known gift of a ring by King James (Cooper's Ath. Cantabr. II. 487); but the Archbishop had no reason to plume himself on his own knowledge, or on the accuracy of his information, for in the margin, opposite the words where he had applauded the Earl's "pregnancy" both in English and Latin, he placed this note: The Life of Tresilian in the Mirrour of Magistr.-Epist. prefix. Aulic. Barth. Clerke." Lord Dorset unquestionably had written a Latin letter prefixed to Bartholomew Clerke's Latin translation of Castiglione's Cortegiano, but George Ferrers was the author of the "Life of Tresilian" in the "Mirror for Magistrates," while the Earl, when Mr. Sackville, had written a much superior portion of that work, "the Complaint of the Duke of Buckingham." More than all, he contributed the famous "Induction" to that celebrated collection in 1563, which 66 Induction," it has been admitted by every body, displays consummate ability in abstract impersonation, a department in which even Spenser, many years afterwards, scarcely went beyond him. Sackville's English lines introductory to Hoby's version of the Cortegiano in 1561 were perhaps hardly worth mention (as indeed they have often been passed over), but Abbot says nothing of the authorship by the Earl of two entire acts in our earliest blank-verse tragedy "Gorboduc:" we believe that it arose from his ignorance of the important fact, and not because he thought it a topic unbecoming the pulpit. The drama was acted before Queen Elizabeth at Whitehall in 1561, and it was printed in 1565 with the names of Norton (the joint author) and Sackville on the title-page, but we do not recollect that it was ever spoken of as theirs by contemporaries; and when once Lord Dorset had entered on his public career, he seems not to have been fond of recurring to his youthful literary performances. Nevertheless, his "Induction" to the "Mirror for Magistrates," and his two acts of "Gorboduc," so memorable for the effect ere long produced on our national drama by the introduction of blank-verse, must give him a more permanent claim to admiration, than any of the great public duties in which he, for about half a century, was engaged. The last three leaves are filled by an extract from Lord Dorset's will. ABSOLOM.-A godly and profitable Treatise, intituled Absolom his fall, or the ruin of Roysters, &c. Imprinted at London by Thomas Orwin for N. L. and Iohn Busbie. 8vo. B. L. n. d. 44 leaves. This small work, cited by Prynne in his "Histriomastix," 4to. 1633, p. 198, is included in only one public catalogue (that of the Bodleian Library), and is not, as far as we know, in the possession of any private collector. No tract of the time (1589) gives so concise and singular an account of the dress, &c. of both sexes; and these peculiarities, or absurdities, excited so strongly the bile of the puritanical writer, that he found it impossible to keep his language within the bounds of moderation, almost of decency. It has no date, and only the initials of the author at the end of the dedication to Sir John Hart, Lord Mayor in 1589, in which W. T. calls upon him to exert his power for the correction of such gross abuses. He entitles his book "Absolom his Fall," because he especially directs his attack against "the vile and abominable abuse of curled long haire," which, if remedied, would happily be, in the words of his title, "the ruin of roysters." The subsequent specimen of his style refers to the ridiculous apparel of women: "As for their little copped crowne hats, which are so little and so light, that the smallest blast of winde would carie them away, which so artificially is, I thinke, pinned to their heads, or at least wise to the attire of their heads, are they not more comelie for little children, or babies that the children make, than for them? As for their deepe and great ruffes (wherein, I thinke, the diuell lieth in every set) are they not more fit for monsters and giants, than for such slender and tender creatures of God? As for their fardingales (which but for reverence sake we might otherwise term) which so like breeches stand about them, are they not better beseeming the state of fooles, than the corps of wise and discreete women? As for their truncke sleeves, made to their gownes, are not the sleeves thereof more fitter to weare in stead of men's Venetians, than the sleeves of women? And all this (for sooth) must be to preserue their tender carcasses from the weather." Men also wore "copped crowne hats," and they are doubtless what Shakespeare refers to in "The Taming of the Shrew," Act V. sc. 1. They continued long in fashion. The writer dwells likewise at considerable length, and with great animation, upon the pride and extravagance of servants, a point which till then had not attracted much attention. It was about this period that the old-fashioned blue coats, in which male attendants had usually been attired, began to be laid aside for varied and garded liveries. ACHELLEY, THOMAS.-A most lamentable and Tragicall historie, conteyning the outrageous and horrible tyrannie which a Spanishe gentlewoman named Violenta executed upon her lover Didaco, because he espoused another beyng first betrothed unto her. Newly translated into English meter, by T. A. 1576.-Imprinted at London by Iohn Charlewood for Thomas Butter dwelling in Paules Churchyarde neere to S. Austines gate at the Shippe. 1576. 8vo. 39 leaves. Although Achelley professes to have translated this story anew in 1576, there is little doubt from comparison, that in putting it into "English metre" he availed himself of the tale, not so much as we find it in Bandello, but as it appears in Paynter's "Palace of Pleasure," which had then been published nearly ten years. Paynter tells us, at his conclusion, that he had varied from his original in saving the life of the guilty servant Janique, whom Bandello had represented as suffering with her more guilty mistress, and Achelley adopts the improvement, by allowing her to escape from Valencia, where the whole scene is laid, to Africa. Whether Achelley had written anything in verse before this attempt we know not, but he displays considerable skill and freedom; and though, like Bandello, coarse in his epithets and strong in his expressions, he makes good use of his mother tongue, and displays more ease and variety than some of his contemporaries. In 1572 he had published a work that does not seem to have especially qualified him for his Italian task, since it consists merely of "prayers and meditations" under the title of "The Key of Knowledge." However, he was certainly a better versifyer than Lewicke or Partridge, although inferior, in some respects, to Garter and Brooke; but they all, though similar in style and subjects, wrote some years earlier than Achelley, and between 1562 and 1576 our language had made considerable advances. Watson printed his Exaтoμлadia in 1581, and Achelley was then of sufficient prominence to be called upon for commendatory verses, even of a poet whose reputation as a writer of sonnets became so distinguished. Watson's merits as a poet rest not so much upon the work we have named, as upon his Tears of Fancy" (see Watson, post) which did not come from the press until 1593. Thomas Achelley the elder, who was perhaps the father of Thomas Achelley the younger (see the next Art.) must be judged by the work under consideration. It is dedicated in prose "to the Right Worshipful Sir Thomas Gresham, Knight," and here the author, or translator, furnishes the argument of his work, upon which we need not enlarge, because the story will be gathered sufficiently from what follows. In imitation of the style of Bandello, Achelley talks of "the beastly Progne" and "the butcherly Medea," and subsequently opens his narrative, headed "The Tragicall Historie of Didaco and Violenta," with these lines : "Where Phoebus foming steedes Right there dooth lye a famous soyle, Here" doo ende," "doo wende," and "doo stand" give no favoura ble impression as to the writer's powers, merely eking out, as they do, the measure of his verse. By the above and some other similar lines he means to describe Spain, on the etymology of which name he is afterwards thus clumsily learned :— "Our former auncetors have tearmde The same Hesperia hight, But tract of time presound the name Both names, by great dexteritie Hispania; the same at last Was calde in Englishe Spaine." The "dexterity" and "judgment" which derived "Spain" from "Iberia" may not be very apparent; but the extravagant laudation of Spanish soldiers, whose bravery and skill could, if they had then lived, have saved Troy, and defeated "the raging Macedonian routs," would be better tolerated in England in 1576 than ten or twelve years afterwards. Didaco, we are told, was a most accomplished soldier of Valencia, who had never yet yielded to the weakness of love: "Enjoying still his libertie, Not knowyng Venus yoke, Such weaklinges he abhord; his mind However, while "walking in the Goldsmithes Row" in Valencia, he sees Violenta, the daughter of one of the shop-keepers; and Venus in a long speech to Cupid, who replies with about equal prolixity, induces her son to wound Didaco. The hero is, of course, instantly and furiously passionate, and consoles himself by recounting the great men and deities who have yielded to Cupid's power, according to the representations of the Poets : "Yes, sure, if credit ought be due To Poets learned lore; If that their volumes be perusde As gemmes of passing store," He is at first there could be no derogation in his submission. modestly put off by Violenta, to whom he had sent 500 ducats; but in the end he offers her marriage, she consents, and they are privately united, in order to keep the matter from the knowledge of his noble and wealthy relatives. After about a year, Didaco falls in love with another lady of great beauty, high birth, and large possessions, and, in spite of his former vows, marries her. Violenta hears of the event, and, among other things, exclaims : "O haples hap and dolefull chaunce, O caytife wretch! and can thine eyes These raging panges and marterdome Is this the guerdon of my fayth, She vows revenge, and accomplishes it in a very brutal manner with the assistance of her maid Janique (always mis-spelt Jamque, to the ruin of the measure), and sends Didaco a letter (given in plain prose) treacherously entreating him to visit her once more, and to spend the night in her company. He consents, and attempts to pacify her by telling her what, however, she does not believe, that he had married a second time by compulsion, and that ere long he would destroy the lady thus forced upon him by his kindred : "And when my practize once hath wrought The remnant of my vitall race With thee (my deare) Пle spend: And then, in tearme of further time, It plainely shall appeare How that Didaco is the knight That holdes thy love most deare." They go to bed, and Janique (who had previously fastened a rope which, when drawn tight, would keep Didaco from rising, and had |