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'Yet whilst wee wretched liue with cares opprest'-B.-11. 'bee but'-B. 'only' omitted in B C.-13. 'parts are'-AC. 'parts bee'-B. to a Denn'-C.-15. 'from all vice'-A C. that Citty'-B.-16. May not be called'-B.-17. afflicts'-B C. and Rel. Wotton. eds. 1651-4.-18. In Rel. Wotton. ed. 1672, it is 'pain'—; but the word 'Cares' in the preceding line would lead us to expect the plural; and 'pains' is found in A B C. as well as in Rel. Wotton. eds. 1651-4.-19. 'They that'—C.-21. "Some would'-A B. Some wish for children, they yt haue them, moane'-C. 'mone' also in A B.-In Rel. Wotton. and MS. Ashm. 'none.'-24. 'double life'—C.-26. 'That's a'—B.-27. 'sea'—A.-28. ‘perills'—A.—29.'affrights'-C. and 'us' omitted. -31. 'but mortall men may crye'-B.-32. 'Not to be borne, or being borne to dye'-A B C. Birkhead has an odd note on the line, pointing out that the author should have said, 'Not to have been borne' &c. Perhaps Walton thought so too, and therefore altered it.]

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[The signature Ignoto has, of course, brought this piece also into the editions of Sir Walter Raleigh's Poems (Lee Priory ed. p. 18. Oxford ed. viii. 704). Brydges remarks;

"These lines are quaint; but contain a powerful com pression of thought. Unfortunately, they recall to us Shakespeare's celebrated passage on the same subject." (p. 66.) In this case, as in those already mentioned, we must have better evidence before Raleigh's claim can be allowed. Mr. Freeman thought them " decidedly in Wotton's style." (p. 257.)

A similar piece is ascribed to Raleigh in Mr. Pickering's MS. (fol. 113, v.) which it may be right to quote, although it has been in print before ;*

"What is our Life? the play of passion;-
Our mirth, the Musick of Diuision ;-

Or Mothers wombes the Tyreing houses be,
Where we are drest for liues short comedie;
The Earth ye Stage,-Heauen the Spectator is,
Who sitts and veiwes, whosoere doth Act amiss;

The graues, which hyde vs from ye scorching Sunn,

It is imperfectly printed in Cens. Lit. ii. 103, second ed., from Gib bons's "First set of Madrigals and Mottets," &c. 1612.

G

Are like drawne Curtaines [when+] ye play is done;
Thus playeing post wee to or latest rest;

And then we die in earnest, not in Jest.

Sr W: R:"

The authority of a single MS. is scarcely sufficient to prove that Raleigh wrote these lines; but it is at least more weighty evidence than the word Ignoto.]

AN'S Life's a Tragedy:-his Mother's

M

Womb

(From which he enters) is the tiring Room; This spacious Earth the Theater; and the

Stage

That Countrey which he lives in :-Passions, Rage,
Folly, and Vice are Actors:-The first cry
The Prologue to th' ensuing Tragedy:
The former Act consisteth of dumb shows;
The second, he to more Perfection grows;
I' th' third he is a Man, and doth begin
To nurture vice, and act the deeds of sin;
I' th' fourth declines; I' th' fifth, Diseases clog
And trouble him :-then Death's his Epilogue.

IGNOTO.

+ So the copy in Cens. Lit.—In MS. ' till.'—The curtains were formerly suspended from an iron rod, and opened in the centre. They were therefore drawn apart for the performance, and drawn together at its close.

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F breath were made for every man to buy,

not die

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[INSERTED for the first time in ed. 1672.-Hoskins wrote his advice in a Latin couplet, as well as in these English lines; and the two are sometimes found together;

66

AD FILIOLUM SUUM BENIAMIN.

Dum puer es, vanæ nescisq; incommoda vocis,
Vincula da linguæ, vel tibi lingua dabit."*

His imprisonment, which has been alluded to above (pp. 6,8,) was caused by a violent speech against the Scots, which he delivered in the short Parliament of 1614. From Wotton's account of the affair, we should conclude that he fully

* From Mr. Pickering's MS. fol. 151, and MS. Malone, 19, p. 141, both with the English,-which occurs without the Latin in MS. Rawl. Poet. 117. The variations in these copies of the English verses (marked A B C in the order in which they have been named) are so considerable, as to shew that Hoskins gave out different editions of them. The second line of the Latin is quoted, as written by Hoskins, in one of Howell's Letters.In MS. Mal. 19, there is another Latin couplet, which "Mr Hoskins wrott in the Windowe when he came out of the Tower," p. 140. The son of Hoskins who is most frequently mentioned was called Benedict, or Bennet.

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