wrote it is believed about the year 1690; nor could her name be Elizabeth Melvil." This doubt of Mr. Pinkerton, was strongly opposed by Ritson, who declared "it was absolutely certain Lady Culros was the mother of Colvil the poet, and that her name was Elizabeth Melvill." The positivity of this declaration he grounded on Douglas's Peerage, p. 146. But it has since been questioned by Mr. Irving, whether this female author (who by courtesy was styled Lady Culros) is likely to have been the mother of Colvil, as he flourished at the distance of nearly eighty years.* "To the faithfull and vertuous Ladie Elizabeth Melvill," Alexander Hume inscribed his Hymnes or Sacred Songs in 1599, and eulogized her compositions as copious, pregnant, and spiritual. Lady Culros's Dream, one of these compositions, (says Dr. Leydent was long popular among the Scotish presbyterians; and Armstrong relates in his Essays, that he recollected having heard it sung by the peasants to a plaintive air." What air it could be, which was applied by the Scotish peasantry to so unlyrical a composition, it may now be difficult to decide: but a few stanzas will shew that no metrical production could be less adapted to vocal recitation. The whole poem indeed is a gloomy religious vision, dull as it is dismal, and dismal as an ascetic could devise in the cell of a devotee. The author holds discourse with her Saviour during this day-dream, and in the following passage is led to make inquiry concerning the purgatory of the Romanists. * See Lives of the Scotish Poets, ii. 299. + See Scotish Descriptive Poems, p. 198. "I luikit* down and saw ane pit most black, Most full of smuke, and flaming fyre most fell: That uglie sicht maid mee to flie aback; I feirit to heir so manie shout and yell; I him besocht that hee the treuth wold tell : The braine of man maist warliet did invent To say, that saulles in torment mon remaine Till gold and gudes releif them of thair paine. O spytfull spreits, that did the same begin! O blindit beists, your thochts ar all in vaine! This pit is hell; quhairthrow thou now mon go: How can I cum among that bailfull band: Oft haue I heard, that thay that enters thair, In this greit golfe, sall never cum againe:' Curage, (said hee) have I not bocht thee deir ? My precious blude it was nocht shed in vaine : Or ever I went into my father's gloir. Throw mon thou go; but thou sall not remaine Thou neids not feir; for I sall go before." * Looked. T.P. + Worldly. ART. DCCCXLIV. The Bible-bearer. By A. N. sometimes of Trinity College, in Oxford. De Hipocritis hæc Discutatis est: Qui mihi irasci voluerit, ipse de se, quod talis sit, confitebur. Ierom. de vita Clerec. Printed at London by W. I. for I. C. and are to be sold at the North Doore of Paules. 1607. 4to. b. l. 23 leaves. By the index to the Athenæ Oxoniensis the above initials do not refer to any writer recorded by the indefatigable Wood. The dedication is "to the right worshipfull, maister Hugh Browker, one of the prothonotories of his Maiesties court of Common Pleas," then a preface to the reader. The work is written in dialogue between Theotimvs and Poliphemvs, of whose theological disputation the following may suffice: Poli. Leaving to be thus criticall, doe you condemne them which beare the bible about them. Theo. No, but as he that did beare Christ was called Christofer; so you of bearing your byble, shall be called Bibliofer a bible-bearer. Poli. Do you not thinke it then an holy thing to carry the bible? Theo. No, unlesse you will confesse that asses bee holy. Poli. Why so? Theo. For one asse will carry 500 such bookes, and I think you are as well able to carry as many, beeing as well bridled, and sadled, and spurred forward as commonly an asse is. Poli. Yet is it no absurdity, to attribute holynesse to the asse which carried Christ. Theo. I do not envy you this holinesse, if therefore you will, I will giue you a relique of the same asse. Poli. You give at mee, yet your gift should not displease me, for that asse by touching Christ, was consecrated and made holy. Theo. Then belike they were holy that buffetted him, for no doubte they toucht him. Poli. But iest not; is it not a holy thing to beare about one the bible or god's holy word. Theo. It is, if be truly done, without HypocriseIf you carry on your shoulders a bottle of good rhenish wine, or swete muscadine, what other is it than a burthen? Poli. Nothing els. Theo. If you hold it in your mouth, and presently spit it out, what then? Poli. It doth no good. Theo. But if you drink well of it? Poli. There can be nothing more heavenly, or better. Theo. It warmes your bodie, cheeres your countenance, and makes you merry, and ioyfull, doth it not? Poli. It doth so. Theo. Such is the gospel or godsworde, for being once digested it changeth the whole habit of a man, and reuiveth, or rather reneweth him. ART. DCCCXLV. Newes from Italy of a second Moses, or the life of Galeacios Caracciolos the noble Marquesse of Vico. Containing the story of his admirable conversion from popery, and his forsaking of a rich Marquessedome for the Gospels sake. Written first in Italian, thence translated into Latin by Reuerend Beza, and for the benefit of our people put into English: and now published by W. Crashavo Batcheler in Diuinitie, and Preacher at the Temple. In memoria sempiterna erit Iustus. Psalme 112. The iust shall be had in euerlasting remembrance. Printed by H. B. for Richard Moore, and are to be sold at his shop in Saint Dunstans Church-yard in Fleete streete. 1608. 4to. pp. 82. THIS translation is by WILLIAM CRASHAW, a learned divine, and father of the poet. It is dedicated to Edmund Lord Sheffield, the Lady Dowglasse his mother, and Lady Vrsula his wife; and commences with a short relation of the tenor of the work. "Give me leave (right honourable), to put you all in one Epistle, whom God and nature haue linked so well together: Nature in the neerest bond, and God in the holiest religion. For a simple newyeares gift, I present you with as strange a story, as (out of the holy stories) was euer heard. Will your Honoures have the whole in briefe afore it be laid down at large? Thus it is. Galeacius Caracciolus, sonne and heire apparent to Calantonius, Marquesse of Vicum in Naples, bred, borne [Jan. 1517] and brought vp in Popery, |