The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) - Theophilus Cibber
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Some time after his condemnation Mr. secretary Cromwel waited on Sir
Thomas, and entreated him to accept his Majesty's pardon, upon the
condition of taking the oath, and expressed great tenderness towards
him. This visit and seeming friendship of Cromwel not a little
affected him, he revolved in his mind the proposal which he made,
and as his fate was approaching, perhaps his resolution staggered
a little, but calling to mind his former vows, his conscience, his
honour, he recovered himself again, and stood firmly prepared for his
fall. Upon this occasion it was that he wrote the following verses,
mentioned both by Mr. Roper and Mr. Hoddeson, which I shall here
insert as a specimen of his poetry.
Ey flattering fortune, loke thou never so fayre,
Or never so pleasantly begin to smile,
As tho' thou would'st my ruine all repayre,
During my life thou shalt not me begile,
Trust shall I God to entre in a while
His haven of heaven sure and uniforme,
Ever after thy calme loke I for a storme.
On the 6th of July, 1534, in the 54th year of his age, the sentence of
condemnation was executed upon him on Tower Hill, by severing his head
from his body. As he was carried to the scaffold, some low people
hired by his enemies cruelly insulted him, to whom he gave cool and
effectual answers. Being now under the scaffold, he looked at it with
great calmness, and observing it too slenderly built, he said merrily
to Mr. Lieutenant, "I pray you, Sir, see me safe up, and for my
coming down let me shift for myself." When he mounted on the
scaffold, he threw his eyes round the multitude, desired them to pray
for him, and to bear him witness that he died for the holy catholic
church, a faithful servant both to God and the King. His gaiety and
propension to jesting did not forsake him in his last moments; when he
laid his head upon the block, he bad the executioner stay till he
had removed aside his beard, saying, "that that had never committed
treason." When the executioner asked his forgiveness, he kissed him
and said, "thou wilt do me this day a greater benefit than any mortal
man can be able to give me; pluck up thy spirit man, and be not afraid
to do thy office, my neck is very short, take heed therefore that thou
strike not awry for saving thy honesty."
Thus by an honest but mistaken zeal fell Sir Thomas More; a man of wit
and parts superior to all his contemporaries of integrity unshaken;
of a generous and noble disposition; of a courage intrepid; a
great scholar and a devout christian. Wood says that he was but an
indifferent divine, and that he was very ignorant of antiquity and the
learning of the fathers, but he allows him to be a man of a pleasant
and fruitful imagination, and a statesman beyond any that succeeded
him.
His works besides those we have already mentioned are chiefly these,
A Merry Jest, How a Serjeant will learn to play a Friar, written in
verse.
Verses on the hanging of a Painted Cloth in his Father's House.
Lamentations on Elizabeth Queen of Henry VII, 1503.
Verses on the Book of Fortune.
Dialogue concerning Heresies.
Supplication of Souls, writ in answer to a book called the
Supplication of Beggars.
A Confutation of Tindal's Answer to More's Dialogues, printed 1533.
The Debellation of Salem and Bizance, 1533.
In answer to another book of Tindal's.
Treatise on the Passion of Chrift.
----Godly Meditation.
------Devout Prayer.
Letters while in the Tower, all printed 1557.
Progymnasmata.
Responsio ad Convitia Martini Lutheri, 1523.
Quod pro Fide Mors fugienda non est, written in the Tower 1534.
Precationes ex Psalmis.
* * * * *
HENRY HOWARD, Earl of SURRY
Was son of Thomas, duke of Norfolk, and Elizabeth, daughter of Edward,
duke of Buckingham. The father of our author held the highest places
under King Henry VIII, and had so faithfully and bravely served him,
that the nobility grew jealous of his influence, and by their united
efforts produced his ruin. After many excellent services in France, he
was constituted Lord Treasurer, and made General of the King's whole
army design'd to march against the Scots: At the battle of Flodden,
in which the Scots were routed and their Sovereign slain, the earl of
Surry remarkably distinguished himself; he commanded under his father,
and as soon as the jealousy of the Peers had fastened upon the one,
they took care that the other should not escape. He was the first
nobleman (says Camden) that illustrated his high birth with the beauty
of learning; he was acknowledged by all, to be the gallantest man,
the politest lover, and the most compleat gentleman of his time. He
received his education at Windsor with a natural son of Henry VIII,
and became first eminent for his devotion to the beautiful Geraldine,
Maid of Honour to Queen Catherine; the first inspired him with poetry,
and that poetry has conferred immortality on her: So transported was
he with his passion, that he made a tour to the most elegant courts
in Europe, to maintain her peerless beauty against all opposers,
and every where made good his challenge with honour. In his way
to Florence, he touched at the emperor's court, where he became
acquainted with the learned Cornelius Agrippa, so famous for magic,
who shewed him the image of his Geraldine in a glass, sick, weeping on
her bed, and melting into devotion for the absence of her lord; upon
sight of this he wrote the following passionate sonnet, which for
the smoothness of the verse, the tenderness of expression, and the
heartfelt sentiments might do honour to the politest, easiest, most
passionate poet in our own times.
All soul, no earthly flesh, why dost thou fade?
All gold; no earthly dross, why look'st thou
pale?
Sickness how darest thou one so fair invade?
Too base infirmity to work her bale.
Heaven be distempered since she grieved
pines,
Never be dry, these my sad plaintive lines.
Pearch thou my spirit on her silver breasts,
And with their pains redoubled musick beatings,
Let them toss thee to world where all toil rests,
Where bliss is subject to no fears defeatings,
Her praise I tune, whose tongue doth tune
the spheres,
And gets new muses in her hearers ears.
Stars fall to fetch fresh light from the rich eyes,
Her bright brow drives the fun to clouds beneath.
Her hair reflex with red strakes paints the skyes,
Sweet morn and evening dew flows from her
breath:
Phoebe rules tides, she my tears tides forth
draws.
In her sick bed love fits, and maketh laws.
Her dainty lips tinsel her silk-soft sheets,
Her rose-crown'd cheeks eclipse my dazled sight.
O glass with too much joy, my thoughts thou
greets,
And yet thou shewest me day but by twilight.
I'll kiss thee for the kindness I have felt.
Her lips one kiss would into nectar melt.
From the emperor's court he went to the city of Florence, the pride
and glory of Italy, in which city his beauteous Geraldine was born,
and he had no rest till he found out the house of her nativity,
and being shewn the room where his charmer first drew air, he was
transported with extasy of joy, his tongue overflowed with her
praises, and Winstanly says he eclipsed the sun and moon with
comparisons of his Geraldine, and wrote another sonnet in praise
of the chamber that was honoured (as he says) with her radiant
conception; this sonnet is equally amorous and spirited with that
already inserted. In the duke of Florence's court he published a proud
challenge against all comers, whether Christians, Turks, Canibals,
Jews, or Saracens, in defence of his mistress's beauty; this challenge
was the better received there, as she whom he defended was born in
that city: The duke of Florence however sent for him, and enquired of
his fortune, and the intent of his coming to his court; of which when
the earl informed him, he granted to all countries whatever, as well
enemies and outlaws, as friends and allies, free access into his
dominions unmolested till the trial were ended.
In the course of his combats for his mistress, his valour and skill
in arms so engaged the Duke to his interest, that he offered him the
highest preferments if he would remain at his court. This proposal
he rejected, as he intended to proceed thro' all the chief cities in
Italy; but his design was frustrated by letters sent by King Henry
VIII. which commanded his speedy return into England.
In the year 1544, upon the expedition to Boulogne in France, he was
made field marshal of the English army, and after taking that town,
being then knight of the garter, he was in the beginning of September
1545 constituted the King's lieutenant, and captain-general of all his
army within the town and county of Boulogne[1]. During his command
there in 1546, hearing that a convoy of provisions of the enemy was
coming to the fort at Oultreaw, he resolved to intercept it; but
the Rhinegrave, with four thousand Lanskinets, together with a
considerable number of French under the de Bieg, making an obstinate
defence, the English were routed, Sir Edward Poynings with divers
other gentlemen killed, and the Earl himself obliged to fly, tho' it
appears, by a letter to the King dated January 8, 1548, that this
advantage cost the enemy a great number of men. But the King was
so highly displeased with this ill success, that from that time he
contracted a prejudice against the Earl, and soon after removed him
from his command, and appointed the Earl of Hertford to succeed him.
Upon which Sir William Page wrote to the Earl of Surry to advise him
to procure some eminent post under the Earl of Hertford, that he might
not be unprovided in the town and field. The Earl being desirous in
the mean time to regain his former favour with the King, skirmished
with the French and routed them, but soon after writing over to the
King's council that as the enemy had cast much larger cannon than had
been yet seen, with which they imagined they should soon demolish
Boulogne, it deserved consideration whether the lower town should
stand, as not being defensible; the council ordered him to return to
England in order to represent his sentiments more fully upon those
points, and the Earl of Hertford was immediately sent over in his
room. This exasperating the Earl of Surry, occasioned him to let fall
some expressions which favoured of revenge and dislike to the King,
and a hatred of his Councellors, and was probably one cause of his
ruin, which soon after ensued. The Duke of Norfolk, who discovered the
growing power of the Seymours, and the influence they were likely
to bear in the next reign, was for making an alliance with them; he
therefore pressed his son to marry the Earl of Hertford's daughter,
and the Dutchess of Richmond, his own daughter, to marry Sir Thomas
Seymour; but neither of these matches were effected, and the Seymours
and Howards then became open enemies. The Seymours failed not to
inspire the King with an aversion to the Norfolk-family, whose power
they dreaded, and represented the ambitious views of the Earl of
Surry; but to return to him as a poet.
That celebrated antiquary, John Leland, speaking of Sir Thomas Wyat
the Elder, calls the Earl, 'The conscript enrolled heir of the said
Sir Thomas, in his learning and other excellent qualities.' The author
of a treatise, entitled, 'The Art of English Poetry, alledges, that
Sir Thomas Wyat the Elder, and Henry Earl of Surry were the two
chieftains, who having travelled into Italy, and there tasted the
sweet and stately measures and stile of the Italian poetry, greatly
polished our rude and homely manner of vulgar poetry, from what it had
been before, and therefore may be justly called, The Reformers of our
English Poetry and Stile.' Our noble author added to learning, wisdom,
fortitude, munificence, and affability. Yet all these excellencies of
character, could not prevent his falling a sacrifice to the jealousy
of the Peers, or as some say to the resentment of the King for his
attempting to wed the Princess Mary; and by these means to raise
himself to the Crown. History is silent as to the reasons why the
gallantries he performed for Geraldine did not issue in a marriage.
Perhaps the reputation he acquired by arms, might have enflamed
his soul with a love of glory; and this conjecture seems the more
probable, as we find his ambition prompting him to make love to
the Princess from no other views but those of dominion. He married
Frances, daughter to John Earl of Oxford, after whose death he
addressed Princess Mary, and his first marriage, perhaps, might be
owing to a desire of strengthening his interest, and advancing his
power in the realm. The adding some part of the royal arms to his own,
was also made a pretence against him, but in this he was justified by
the heralds, as he proved that a power of doing so was granted by some
preceeding Monarchs to his forefathers. Upon the strength of these
suspicions and surmises, he and his father were committed to the Tower
of London, the one by water, the other by land, so that they knew
not of each other's apprehension. The fifteenth day of January next
following he was arraigned at Guildhall, where he was found guilty by
twelve common jurymen, and received judgment. About nine days before
the death of the King he lost his head on Tower-Hill; and had not that
Monarch's decease so soon ensued, the fate of his father was likewise
determined to have been the same with his sons.
It is said, when a courtier asked King Henry why he was so zealous in
taking off Surry; "I observed him, says he, an enterprizing youth; his
spirit was too great to brook subjection, and 'tho' I can manage him,
yet no successor of mine will ever be able to do so; for which reason
I have dispatched him in my own time."
He was first interred in the chapel of the Tower, and afterwards in
the reign of King James, his remains were removed to Farmingam in
Suffolk, by his second son Henry Earl of Northampton, with this
epitaph.
Henrico Howardo, Thomae secundi Ducis Norfolciae filio primogenito.
Thomae tertii Patri, Comiti Surriae, & Georgiani Ordinis Equiti Aurato,
immature Anno Salutis 1546 abrepto. Et Franciscae Uxoris ejus, filiae
Johannis Comitis Oxoniae. Henricus Howardus Comes Northamptoniae filius
secundo genitus, hoc supremum pietatis in parentes monumentum posuit,
A.D. 1614.
Upon the accession of Queen Mary the attainder was taken off his
father, which circumstance has furnished some people with an
opportunity to say, that the princess was fond of, and would have
married, the Earl of Surry. I shall transcribe the act of repeal as I
find it in Collins's Peerage of England, which has something singular
enough in it.
'That there was no special matter in the Act of Attainder, but only
general words of treason and conspiracy: and that out of their care
for the preservation of the King and the Prince they passed it, and
this Act of Repeal further sets forth, that the only thing of which he
stood charged, was for bearing of arms, which he and his ancestors had
born within and without the kingdom in the King's presence, and sight
of his progenitors, as they might lawfully bear and give, as by good
and substantial matter of record it did appear. It also added, that
the King died after the date of the commission; likewise that he only
empowered them to give his consent; but did not give it himself; and
that it did not appear by any record that they gave it. Moreover, that
the King did not sign the commission with his own hand, his stamp
being only set to it, and that not to the upper part, but to the
nether part of it, contrary to the King's custom.'
Besides the amorous and other poetical pieces of this noble author, he
translated Virgil's AEneid, and rendered (says Wood) the first, second,
and third book almost word for word:--All the Biographers of the
poets have been lavish, and very justly, in his praise; he merits the
highest encomiums as the refiner of our language, and challenges the
gratitude and esteem of every man of literature, for the generous
assistance he afforded it in its infancy, and his ready and liberal
patronage to all men of merit in his time.
[Footnote 1: Dugdale's Baronage.]
* * * * *
Sir THOMAS WYAT.
Was distinguished by the appellation of the Elder, as there was one of
the same name who raised a rebellion in the time of Queen Mary. He
was son to Henry Wyat of Alington-castle in Kent. He received the
rudiments of his education at Cambridge, and was afterwards placed at
Oxford to finish it. He was in great esteem with King Henry VIII. on
account of his wit and Love Elegies, pieces of poetry in which he
remarkably succeeded. The affair of Anne Bullen came on, when he made
some opposition to the King's passion for her, that was likely to
prove fatal to him; but by his prudent behaviour, and retracting
what he had formerly advanced, he was restored again to his royal
patronage. He was cotemporary with the Earl of Surry, who held him in
high esteem. He travelled into foreign parts, and as we have observed
in the Earl of Surry's life, he added something towards refining the
English stile, and polishing our numbers, tho' he seems not to have
done so much in that way as his lordship. Pitts and Bale have entirely
neglected him, yet for his translation of David's Psalms into English
metre and other poetical works, Leland scruples not to compare him
with Dante and Petrarch, by giving him this ample commendation.
Let Florence fair her Dantes justly boast,
And royal Rome, her Petrarchs numbered feet,
In English Wyat both of them doth coast:
In whom all graceful eloquence doth meet.
Leland published all his works under the title of Naenia. Some of his
Biographers (Mrs. Cooper and Winstanley) say that he died of the
plague as he was going on an embassy to the Emperor Charles V. but
Wood asserts, that he was only sent to Falmo by the King to meet the
Spanish ambassador on the road, and conduct him to the court, which it
seems demanded very great expedition; that by over-fatiguing himself,
he was thrown into a fever, and in the thirty-eighth year of his age
died in a little country-town in England, greatly lamented by all
lovers of learning and politeness. In his poetical capacity, he does
not appear to have much imagination, neither are his verses so musical
and well polished as lord Surry's. Those of gallantry in particular
seem to be too artificial and laboured for a lover, without that
artless simplicity which is the genuine mark of feeling; and too
stiff, and negligent of harmony for a His letters to John Poynes and
Sir Francis Bryan deserve more notice, they argue him a man of great
sense and honour, a critical observer of manners and well-qualified
for an elegant and genteel satirist. These letters contain
observations on the Courtier's Life, and I shall quote a few lines as
a specimen, by which it will be seen how much he falls short of
his noble cotemporary, lord Surry, and is above those writers that
preceded him in versification.
The COURTIERS LIFE.
In court to serve decked with fresh araye,
Of sugared meats seling the sweet repast,
The life in blankets, and sundry kinds of playe,
Amidst the press the worldly looks to waste,
Hath with it joyned oft such bitter taste,
That whoso joys such kind of life to holde,
In prison joys, fetter'd with chains of golde.
* * * * *
THOMAS SACKVILLE, Earl DORSET
Was son of Richard Sackville and Winifrede, daughter of Sir John
Bruges, Lord of London.[1] He was born at Buckhurst in the parish of
Withiam in Suffex, and from his childhood was distinguished for wit
and manly behaviour: He was first of the University of Oxford, but
taking no degree there, he went to Cambridge, and commenced master of
arts; he afterwards studied the law in the Inner-Temple, and became a
barrister; but his genius being too lively to be confined to a dull
plodding study, he chose rather to dedicate his hours to poetry and
pleasure; he was the first that wrote scenes in verse, the Tragedy of
Ferrex and Perrex, sons to Gorboduc King of Britain, being performed
in the presence of Queen Elizabeth, long before Shakespear appeared[2]
on the stage, by the Gentlemen of the Inner-Temple, at Whitehall the
18th of January, 1561, which Sir Philip Sidney thus characterises: "It
is full of stately speeches, and well founding phrases, climbing to
the height of Seneca's stile, and as full of notable morality, which
it doth most delightfully teach, and so obtain the very end of
poetry." In the course of his studies, he was most delighted with the
history of his own country, and being likewise well acquainted with
antient history, he formed a design of writing the lives of several
great personages in verse, of which we have a specimen in a book
published 1610, called the Mirror of Magistrates, being a true
Chronicle History of the untimely falls of such unfortunate princes
and men of note, as have happened since the first entrance of Brute
into this Island until his own time. It appears by a preface of
Richard Nicolls, that the original plan of the Mirror of Magistrates
was principally owing to him, a work of great labour, use and beauty.
The induction, from which I shall quote a few lines, is indeed a
master-piece, and if the-whole could have been compleated in the same
manner, it would have been an honour to the nation to this day, nor
could have sunk under the ruins of time; but the courtier put an end
to the poet; and one cannot help wishing for the sake of our national
reputation, that his rise at court had been a little longer delayed:
It may easily be seen that allegory was brought to great perfection
before the appearance of Spencer, and if Mr. Sackville did not
surpass him, it was because he had the disadvantage of writing first.
Agreeable to what Tasso exclaimed on seeing Guarini's Pastor Fido; 'If
he had not seen my Aminta, he had not excelled it.'
Our author's great abilities being distinguished at court, he was
called to public affairs: In the 4th and 5th years of Queen Mary we
find him in parliament; in the 5th year of Elizabeth, when his
father was chosen for Sussex, he was returned one of the Knights of
Buckinghamshire to the parliament then held. He afterwards travelled
into foreign parts, and was detained for some time prisoner at Rome.
His return into England being procured, in order to take possession of
the vast inheritance his father left him, he was knighted by the duke
of Norfolk in her Majesty's presence[3] 1567, and at the same day
advanced to the degree and dignity of a baron of this realm, by the
title of lord Buckhurst: He was of so profuse a temper, that though he
then enjoyed a great estate, yet by his magnificent way of living he
spent more than the income of it, and[4] a story is told of him, 'That
calling on an alderman of London, who had got very considerably by the
loan of his money to him, he was obliged to wait his coming down
so long, as made such an impression on his generous humour, that
thereupon he turned a thrifty improver of his estate.' But others
make him the convert of Queen Elizabeth, (to whom he was allied, his
grandfather having married a lady related to Ann Bullen) who by her
frequent admonitions diverted the torrent of his profusion, and then
received him into her particular favour. Camden says, that in the 14th
of that Princess, he was sent ambassador to Charles IX King of France,
to congratulate his marriage with the Emperor Maximilian's daughter,
and on other important affairs where he was honourably received,
according to his Queen's merit and his own; and having in company
Guido Cavalcanti, a Gentleman of Florence, a person of great
experience, and the Queen-mother being a Florentine, a treaty of
marriage was publickly transacted between Queen Elizabeth and her
son the duke of Anjou. In the 15th of her Majesty he was one of the
peers[5] that sat on the trial of Thomas Howard duke of Norfolk,[6]
and on the 29th of Elizabeth, was nominated one of the commissioners
for the trial of Mary Queen of Scots, and at that time was of the
privy council, but his lordship is not mentioned amongst the peers
who met at Fotheringay Castle and condemned the Queen; yet when the
parliament had confirmed the sentence, he was made choice of to convey
the news to her Majesty, and see their determination put in execution
against that beauteous Princess; possibly because he was a man of fine
accomplishments, and tenderness of disposition, and could manage so
delicate a point with more address than any other courtier. In the
succeeding year he was sent ambassador to the States of the United
Provinces, upon their dislike of the earl of Leicester's proceedings
in a great many respects, there to examine the business, and compose
the difference: He faithfully discharged this invidious office, but
thereby incurred the earl of Leicester's displeasure; who prevailed
with the Queen, as he was her favourite, to call the lord Buckhurst
home, and confine him to his house for nine months; but surviving
that earl, the Queen's favour returned, and he was elected the April
following, without his knowledge, one of the Knights of the most noble
Order of the Garter. He was one of the peers that sat on the trial of
Philip Howard, earl of Arundel. In the 4th year of the Queen's reign
he was joined with the Lord Treasurer Burleigh, in promoting a peace
with Spain; in which trust he was so successful, that the High Admiral
of Holland was sent over by the States, of the United Provinces, to
renew their treaty with the crown of England, being afraid of its
union with Spain. Lord Buckhurst had the sole management of that
negotiation (as Burleigh then lay sick) and Concluded a treaty with
him, by which his mistress was eased of no less than 120,000 l. per
annum, besides other advantages.