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She thinks of Eden-life; and no rough wind,
In their pacifique sea shall wrinkles make;
That still her lowliness shall keep him kind,
Her cares keep him asleep, her voice awake.
She thinks, if ever anger in him sway

(The youthfull warriour's most excus'd disease)
Such chance her tears shall calm, as showres allay
The accidental rage of winds and seas.

She thinks that babes proceed from mingling eyes,
Or heav'n from neighbourhood increase allows,

As Palm and the Mamora fructifies ;

Or they are got by close exchanging vows.

But come they (as she hears) from mother's pain,
(Which by th' unlucky first-maid's longing, proves
A lasting curse) yet that she will sustain,

So they be like this heav'nly man she loves.

Thus to herself in day-dreams Birtha talks:

The duke (whose wounds of war are healthfull grown)
cure Love's wounds, seeks Birtha where she walks ;
Whose wand'ring soul seeks him to cure her own.
Yet when her solitude he did invade,

Shame (which in maids is unexperienc'd fear)
Taught her to wish night's help to make more shade,
That love (which maids think guilt) might not appear.

And she had fled him now, but that he came
So like an aw'd and conquer'd enemy,
That he did seem offenceless, as her shame;
As if he but advanc'd for leave to flie.

First with a longing seaman's look he gaz'd,

Who would ken land, when seas would him devour;

Or like a fearfull scout, who stands amaz'd

To view the foe, and multiplies their pow'r."

It will have been observed, that the author has made use of one piece of machinery, by introducing the ring which had the magical property of indicating the constancy or inconstancy of the donor. With this exception, he has relied on the fertile resources of his own mind, and, because he has dared to be original, he has been sneered at by those who start at innovation, as children at imaginary phantoms. His poem is full of most delectable teachings, and must be studied and not skimmed over as some poems may be, which, like the flute, give out a

sweet tone, and yet are empty. The longer we dwell upon this noble, but unfinished, monument of the genius of Sir William Davenant, the more does our admiration of it increase, and we regret, that the unjust attacks which were made against it (or whatever else was the cause) prevented its completion. It might then, notwithstanding the prophetical oblivion to which Bishop Hurd has, with some acrimony, condemned it, have been entitled to a patent of nobility, and had its name inscribed on the roll of epic aristocracy.

ART. VIII. The Informacyon for pylgrymes unto the holy lande. That is to wyte to Rome, to Iherusalem and to many other holy places. Imprynted at London in the Fletestrete at the signe of ye sonne by Wynkyn de Worde. The yere of God. m.cccc and xxiiii. the xxvi day of Julii, Reg. R. H. viiii. xvi. [This is copied from the Colophon, the title page of the copy before us being wanting.] BLACK LETTER. 4to.

Such is the extreme rarity of this singular little work, that we consider ourselves particularly fortunate in being enabled to give an account of its contents. It is mentioned both by Herbert and Mr. Dibdin;* who, neither of them having seen the book, are indebted to Ames for their scanty notice of it; and if we may form a conclusion from the mistakes into which Ames appears to have fallen, it was perhaps never submitted even to his inspection. It is entitled, judging from the Colophon, Informacyon, and not Instructions, for Pilgrims, and is not written by one John Moreson, as he states. This John Moreson being a marchaunte of Venyce," who was the owner of the ship in which the pilgrims sailed, whose journal is here given. After the title, there commences a table of routes and distances, measured in leagues and miles, to all those places to

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* Dibdin's Typ. Ant. vol. 2, page 254.

345.-Instruction for pilgrims to the Holy Land, Imprynted, &c. viii. Hen. viii. M.CCCC. xxiiii. 26th July, quarto.

"It is a pity that Ames, from whom Herbert and myself borrow our meagre accounts of this volume, has not given a more particular description of a work, in all probability as curious and interesting as it is rare. According to Ames it is " a description of a voyage to Jerusalem by one John Moreson;" a traveller who has escaped Boucher in his" Bibliothèque Universelle des Voyages.'

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which pilgrimages were usually made. After which comes an account of the course of exchange, called "chaunge of moneye fro Englande to Rome, and to Venyse;" which is succeeded by some three or four pages of general hints, concerning provisions, conveyances, compacts with captains, &c. and a complete list of the havens to be touched at between Venice and Jaffa. A list of fees, or tributa in terra sancta," next occurs; after which the regular journal thus commences.

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"In the seven and twenty day of the moneth of June, there passed fro Venyse under sayle out of the haven of Venyse, at the sonne goinge downe certayne pilgrymes towarde Jherusalem in a shyppe of a merchante of Venyce, called Johan Moreson. The patrone of the same shyppe was called Luke mantell. To the nombre of lx. and syxe pylgrimes every man paynge some more some lesse as they myght accorde with the patrone. Some that might paye well payed xxxii. ducates, and some xxvi. and xxiiii. for meet and drynke and passage to port Jaffe, and from thens to Venyse agayne."

The journal then proceeds to mention briefly the places which the pilgrims visited until their arrival at Jerusalem, when an enumeration is given of all the traces which remained, or which were said to remain, of the remarkable spots mentioned by the evangelists. After the reliques of the holy city itself have been carefully reckoned up, a number of paragraphs occur, each containing a "pilgrimage" into other celebrated districts of the holy land. These are, the "Pylgrymages in the vale of Josephat; of the mount Olyvete; in the vale of Syloe; of mount Syon of the Bethleem; in Bethany; of flume Jordan; in Nazaret." And here the writer changes his language from English to Latin, and proceeds in his enumeration, without assigning any reason for the alteration, or appearing to think that any was necessary. Though he speaks in a different language, his style is, however, preserved precisely the same. He goes on with Peregrinationes Damasci, Montis Sinai, terre Egypti," until he comes to the chapter, entitled "Reditus et reversio dictorum peregrinorum versus Angliam." The next paragraph consists of a few lines "de brevitate et unitate hujus mundi;" after which, "Here foloweth the langage of Moreske withe other also:" and there does follow, a list of the numbers in figures, up to xl. with their names in " Moreske," and a few of the commonest words and phrases in use, such as "bread, wine, ye be welcome, what tidings," &c. explained in the same language, but in the old black letter character. After which, there is a similar account of "Greke," and "The nombres of the language of Turky." There next succeeds a list of the "Stationes in Roma," and the tract concludes with a "Nota de significatione singulorum membrorum ecclesie."

The edition before us is doubtless the one to which Warton referred, and it is not improbable, that we have the same copy before us which Farmer had read. This curious volume consists of 164 full pages, in a close and beautiful black letter type. After the words Gesta Romanorum, on the title page, is a woodcut of an emperor, with a crown and sceptre; and on the reverse, a device of the same emperor, with a youth kneeling to him, behind whom stands a female, apparently in the act of introducing him; two guards are seen in the back ground. The same devices occur again in various parts of the "boke," accompanied with others, alluding to and illustrating some of the Gesta. There are forty-three Gesta, or stories, each of which is followed by the moralization. We give the following story as a specimen; it is the fifth of the deeds of the Emperours of Rome.

"Sometyme there reygned, in ye cyte of Rome, a myghty Emperoure, and wyse, named Frederyk, whiche had onely but one sone, whom he loved moche. This Emperoure, whan he lay in the poynte of deth, he called unto hym his sone, and sayd, Drede sone, I have a balle of golde, whiche I gyve the, upon my blessynge, that you, anone, after my deth, shall gyve it to the moost fole that you mayest find. Than sayd his sone, My lorde, without doubt, thy wyll shall be fulfylled. Anone, this yonge lorde, after the dethe of his fader, wente and sought in many realmes, and founde many foles richeles, bycause he wolde satysfye his fader's wyll, laboured ferther, tyll he came into a realme, where the lawe was suche, that every yere a newe kynge sholde be chosen there, and this kynge hath only the gydynge of that realme but a yere's ende, he shall be deposed and put in exyle, in an ylonde whereas he sholde wretchedly fynyshe his lyf. Whan th'emperoure's sone came unto this realme, the newe kynge was chosen with grete honoure, and al maner of mynstralsie wente afore hym, and brought him with grete reverence and worship unto his regal sete; and whan the Emperour's sone saw that, he came unto hym, and salued him reverently, and sayd, My lorde, lo, I give to ye this balle of golde on my fader's behalfe. Than sayd he, I praye the tell me the cause why thou gyvest me this ball? Than answered this yonge lorde, and said thus, My father, quod he, charged me, in his deede bedde, under payne of his blessynge, that I sholde gyve this balle to the moost fole that I coulde finde, wherefore I have sought many realmes, and have found many foles, nevertheless, a more fole than thou arte founde I never, and therefore this is the reason. It is not unknown to the that thou shalt reygne but a yere, and at the yere's ende thou shalt be exyled into suche a place, where as thou shalt dye a myschevous deth, wherefore I holde the for the moost fole that ever I founde, that for the lordshyp of a yere thou woldest so wylfully lese thyself, and therefore, before all other, I have gyven to thee this balle of golde. Than sayd ye kynge, without doute, thou sayeth me sothe, and, therefore, whan I am in full power of this realme, I shall send before me grete treasoure and rychesse, wherwith I may lyve and save myself from myschevous deth whan that I shall be exyled and put doune; and so it was done: wherefore, at the yeere's ende, he was

exyled, and lyved there in pease, upon suche goodes as he had sent before, and he deyed afterwards a good dethe.-Dere frendes, this Emperour is the fader of heven, &c.'

The signatures run from A to M inclusive, 8 and 4 alternately, with N 6, O 4; and on the reverse of O 4 is the Colophon.

ART. X.

Remains of Sir Walter Raleigh. London, 1675; 24mo. pp. 396.

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In this collection of the Remains of Sir Walter Raleigh, there are some pieces well worthy of perusal. They are all in prose, with the exception of his Pilgrimage,' a few verses found in his Bible, and the two lines written the night before his execution; and are composed in the spirit which might have been expected from the character of their extraordinary author. Sir Walter Raleigh, in a life of adventure and of peril, became learned in the ways of the world-Possessing a keen and penetrating mind,

"He was a deep observer, and he look'd
Quite through the deeds of men."

Nature made him acute-misfortune, cautious--and experience, wise; but his wisdom rather resulted from distrust than confidence. He had naturally "high thoughts seated in a heart of courtesy," but care fretted against it and wore away its softer fibres. His wariness was, indeed, warranted by the events of his life, and it is no wonder that his feelings retired into the centre of his own heart, as the flower which expands in the sunshine of a fair day, closes its bosom at night-fall when the air breathes cold and chill. Hence his wisdom is rather calculated to teach us how to eschew evil, than to sail placidly into the haven of felicity.

Sir Walter Raleigh's thoughts are astute, and his language pregnant and expressive. There is something captivating in the mixture we find, in his writings, of forcible and uncommon thought and striking metaphor, which are so amalgamated as to be inseparable. The one is not appended to the other for the sake of ornament, but is its natural language; and is as necessary to its existence as the bark to the tree.

His Advice to his Son on the Choice of a Wife is so excellent in its kind, that we shall introduce the whole of it; though, to say the truth, it betrays almost as much cunning as wisdom.

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