Oxonienses. There is likewise in the Ashmolean Museum a poem by him, entitled "A Description of Friendship."

Sir Edward Dyer studied chemistry, and is considered to have been infected with the folly of the day, by believing in astrological predictions and in the transmutations of metals; for, according to his own statement, he saw, whilst in Bohemia, Dr. Dee and Edward Kelly, the well-known astrologers, put base metal into a crucible, and after it was set on the fire and stirred with a piece of wood, it came forth in great proportion perfect gold! +

Of Dyer's character we have little information beyond what is afforded by his letters, and by finding some Odes addressed to him by his contemporaries. Both these sources are undoubtedly objectionable; the former because the picture they exhibit is drawn by himself; and the latter, because no one would trust to the evidence of merit afforded by a complimentary poetical address. These considerations, however, though just to a great extent, are by no means conclusive; for a man's correspondence often affords traits of his heart and motives which cannot be mistaken ; and the individual who was frequently the object of the admiration of poets, must either be endowed with influence, or with sterling merit. Dyer, ever a dependant himself, could scarcely have had any parasites of his own; and moreover, some of those who thus complimented him moved in too elevated a sphere to flatter him from interested feelings. Another criterion by

cester.

which to estimate his character, and which, according to the well-known Spanish adage, is an infallible one, is the friendships which he formed. For the purpose of ascertaining his moral worth, it would be idle to speak of the existence of such a sentiment in relation to Hatton, or others of the court, or to adduce the good opinin entertained of him by Burleigh or LeiThe friendship of courtiers is proverbially hollow and insincere, and he was removed at too great a distance from either of those noblemen for the existence of an intimate association. But there is one individual whose esteem the biographer of Dyer may with confidence cite, as evidence of his virtues-one who was too elevated in soul and in situation, to applaud him from unworthy motives, and whose regard was of that ennobling description that it conferred honour upon its object. Of the whole court of Elizabeth during her long reign, there was but one person to whom this description can apply; who, standing alone in that hemisphere of fraud and baseness, served to prove to his contemporaries that there might be splendid virtue without one counterbalancing vice. In this description every one must recognize Sir Philip Sydney: and to say that Sir Edward Dyer was his intimate friend and chosen companion; that he mentions him with peculiar kindness in his Odes; that between him and Sir Fulke Greville he orders in his will that his books-the most cherished gift which one literary man can confer upon another-shall be divided, seems to supply the most satisfactory proof

of Dyer's merit. Indeed so strong was the intimacy which subsisted between these individuals, that they were denominated the Castor and Pollux of Poetry! Spenser styles them "the two very diamonds of Her Majesty's Court ;" and we likewise possess the great Lord Bacon's testimony of Dyer's abilities, who speaks of him as 66 a grave and wise gentleman.'

His talents may be fairly judged of from the letters now printed, and from his Poems. It is not too much to attribute to him a superior understanding; for he was evidently shrewd, calculating, and prudent. His judgment appears to have been sound and penetrating; and the perspicuity with which he conveys to others the opinions he had formed, as well as the reasons upon which they were founded, display no common ability. His advice to Hatton on the subject of his conduct towards the Queen, is not overrated, if it be described as a master-piece of policy. With proofs then, that Dyer possessed the favour of his sovereign, and the good opinion of her two most powerful ministers; that he was esteemed by Sir Philip Sydney, and on friendly terms with most of his fellow-courtiers; that he was considered in a respectable light as a poet; that he occasionally filled confidential offices, and was in every respect looked upon as deserving of all which he acquired, it is not too high an eulogium of his character to conclude this account of him by saying, that he was equal in talents, attainments, and moral worth, to most, and superior to many of his contemporaries.

Zouch's Life of Sydney, p. 328.

SIR FULKE GREVILLE.

THOUGH an accomplished courtier and a respectable poet, SIR FULKE GREVILLE, afterwards LORD BROOKE, is chiefly known as the friend of Sir Philip Sydney. His lineage is too well ascertained to require any more notice being taken of it here than to observe, that he was the kinsman, as well as the chosen associate of Sydney, both being descended from Sir Edward Grey, the father of John Lord Grey of Groby; and that, though this relationship was exceedingly distant, still, as the claims of kindred were admitted when much farther removed than they would be at the present day, it is not impossible that it strengthened their friendship. Greville was introduced at court at a very early age, and was so fully possessed with the chivalrous desire of distinguishing himself, that he incurred Queen Elizabeth's displeasure by going abroad with the hope of being present at a battle between Henry III. of France and the King of Navarre, for which offence he was banished the royal presence for six months. His ardour was not, however, extinguished by this check; for when Sir Philip Sydney meditated joining Sir Francis Drake's expedition, Sir Fulke, as he expresses it himself, "having been brought up with him from his youth, was chosen

to be his loving and beloved Achates in this voyage;" but being discovered by her Majesty, they were compelled, by the menace of her severest displeasure, to return to the Court.

It was about this period of his life that he became inspired with a taste for poetic composition, of which several specimens are extant. On the death of Sir Philip Sydney he became his biographer, and solaced his grief for his loss by delineating his character and virtues. During the latter part of the reign of Elizabeth he held several honourable offices, and at her death was Treasurer of the Navy, a situation which he had filled for some years; and was created a Knight of the Bath at James's coronation, 15th July, 1603, shortly after which event he was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, and admitted into the Privy Council. In right of his grandmother he was one of the coheirs of the barony of Willoughby de Broke, a dignity now vested in the representative of his sister Margaret, who married Sir Richard Verney, Knight. By letters patent, dated 19th January, 1620-1, Sir Fulke Greville was created a peer by the title of Baron Brooke, of Beauchamp's Court, in the County of Warwick, with limitation of that honour, failing his issue male, to his kinsman, Robert Greville, Esq. the ancestor of the present Earl and Baron Brooke, and Earl of Warwick. On being raised to the Peerage he resigned the Chancellorship of the Exchequer, and was constituted one of the Gentlemen of the King's Bedchamber. He was never married; and wishing to perpetuate the