it is clear that the definite period of " twelve years entire," which he "wasted in this war; twelve years of" his "most happy younger days" (p. 36), must be reckoned from the beginning of his court favour, about 1580, which brings us to the same year, 1592, for its close. From that great check he had now passed, he tells us, into a state of hopelessness, which he describes under a variety of images; amongst which, the complaint that he has now 66 no feeding flocks, no shepherd's company" (p. 33), reminds us of the days when he talked of Cynthia and her flock with Spenser, under "the green alders by the Mulla's shore." When he tells us that the "memory of the queen, "more strong than were ten thousand ships of war," had nearly brought him back from his voyage towards "new worlds in search of gold, and praise, and glory (p. 34), we are reminded that, on his Panama expedition in 1592, she sent after him a more potent summons than her "memory," in the shape of a recall. The images of warmth lingering in the corpse, and heat in winter, and motion in the arrested wheel, are meant to illustrate the tenacity of hope which made him write on, even "in the dust," after his disgrace; and the reality mingles with the figure when he speaks, in almost the very language of the preface to his History, of the cheerless work of beginning, by the fading light of life's evening, "to write the story of all ages past" (p. 36). The distraction which he describes on p. 37 could be paralleled from his correspondence. "The tokens hung on breast and kindly worn (p. 41), may b refer to the interchange of toys between the queen and her courtiers; as when she sent to Sir H. Gilbert " a token from her Majesty, an anchor guided by a lady," with a request for his picture in return. A "ring with a diamond which he weareth on his finger, given him by the late Queen," was among the jewels found on Raleigh's person after his execution. It would be possible, but precarious, to trace a reference in other passages to the loss of Sherborne, and to the disappointed expectations which had so often attracted him towards the western world. His closing words are simple and touching (p. 50):"Thus home I draw, as death's long night draws on; Yet every foot, old thoughts turn back mine eyes: Constraint me guides, as old age draws a stone Against the hill, which over-weighty lies For feeble arms or wasted strength to move: My steps are backward, gazing on my loss, My mind's affection and my soul's sole love, Not mixed with fancy's chaff or fortune's dross. To God I leave it, who first gave it me, And I her gave, and she returned again, As it was hers; so let His mercies be Of my last comforts the essential mean. But be it so or not, the effects are past; With the poems of Raleigh and Wotton I have now combined what may be accepted, I hope, as a fairly representative collection of the minor poetry of those " courtly makers," who kept up the succession to Surrey and Wyatt through the eventful century, which intervened between the death of Henry VIII. and the execution of Charles I. They are strictly the Courtly Poets of England, though 1 the line ends with a famous Scottish name, which forms the more appropriate conclusion to the series, because it is known that Raleigh's History of the World was one of the favourite studies which moulded the boyhood of Montrose. There are scarcely half-a-dozen pieces in this volume which we owe to poets by profession. Most of these poems are little more than the comparatively idle words of busy men, whose end was not writing, even while they wrote;" those occasional sayings in which the character often reveals itself more clearly than in studied language. There is a special charm in compositions which have amused the leisure of distinguished persons, who have won their spurs in very different fields; of statesmen, soldiers, students and divines, who have used metre as the mere outlet for transitory feelings, to give grace to a compliment, or terseness to the expression of a sudden emotion, or point and beauty to a calm reflection. To a great extent, such poems are likely to be imitative; and in that aspect they form a curiously exact measure of the influence exerted by a style or fashion. But several of the pieces which are brought together here may claim a higher rank than this. Raleigh himself was a man of marked original power, which has left its record in his poems, as well as in his larger works, and in the varied achievements of his chequered life. He wrote a sonnet which Milton did not disdain to imitate. The Archbishop of Dublin says that "there have been seldom profounder thoughts more perfectly expressed " than in part of his 66 Poesy to prove Affection is not Love." His poem called "The Lie" is probably the best instance of a poetical outburst of anger and scorn, which we can find throughout the minor literature of the proud and hasty Tudor times. His "Pilgrimage," with all its quaintness, is perhaps the most striking example of so-called death-bed verses. His reply to Marlowe remains even yet unrivalled, as the retort of polished common-sense to the conventionalities of pastoral poetry. Even when tested by this higher standard, the other courtiers whose verses are here represented are not unworthy to take their places by the side of Raleigh. But their poetry will also render us the minor service of enabling us to trace the changes in the tone of English society from one critical period to another; through intervals of gloom under Mary, and boundless energy under Elizabeth, and suspense under James, till the light-hearted gaiety of older England revived amidst the waning fortunes of Charles's cavaliers. By the side of much formal adulation, we can trace a vein of that manly self-respect, which has always formed the mainstay of our public life; and a strong under-current of that religious feeling, which the darkest days could never hide. And we can also trace a deepening range of thought, and a richer harmony of verse, and a growing smoothness and facility of language, which bear witness to the influence of those greater writers, who sustain the main weight of the reputation of the Elizabethan age. Trinity College, Glenalmond, J. H. APPENDIX A. EARLY EXTRACTS ON RALEIGH'S POETRY AND LIFE. 1. THE CRITICS. 1. OR ditty and amorous ode, I find Sir Walter Poesy," 1589, p. 51. 2. Francis Meres mentions Sir Walter Raleigh as one of " the most passionate among us to bewail and bemoan the perplexities of love."-" Palladis Tamia," 1598, p. 154, repr. 3. Edmund Bolton speaks of his prose works, "Guiana, and his prefatory epistle before his mighty undertaking in the History of the World," as "full of proper, clear, and courtly graces of speech;" and couples his English poems with those of Donne, Holland, and Lord Brooke as not easily to be mended."- Hypercritica," circ. 1610, pp. 249, 251, repr. 66 4. Gabriel Harvey is said, in some MS. notes on Chaucer, to have called Raleigh's "Cynthia" "a fine and sweet invention." Malone's "Shakespeare," by Boswell, ii. 579. 5. "He who writeth the Art of English Poesy praiseth much Raleigh and Dyer; but their works are so few that are come to my hands, I cannot well say anything of them." -Drummond of Hawthornden, "Works," 1711, p. 226. 6. "Sir Walter Raleigh, a person both sufficiently known in history, and by his History of the World,' seems also by the character given him by the author of the Art of English Poetry' [Puttenham, as above], to have expressed |