SIR THOMAS WYATT, the contemporary and intimate friend of the Earl of Surrey, was born at Arlington Castle, in Kent, in 1503. His family was respectable but not distinguished; and as he early evinced more than ordinary talents, his education soon became a matter of parental solicitude. In 1518, he entered St. John's College, Cambridge, but eventually left that seat of learning to enjoy the superior advantages in classical studies that the university of Oxford at that time afforded. Wyatt was graduated at the latter institution in 1523, immediately after which he turned his attention to the careful study of modern languages; and before he had reached the twenty-fourth year of his age, he was critically familiar with the French, the Italian, and the Spanish. To these intellectual attainments he added all those personal accomplishments for which the Earl of Surrey was so much celebrated; and it was not surprising, therefore, that he should have become, almost immediately after he was presented at court, a recipient of royal confidence and favor. Wyatt was knighted by Henry the Eighth, and for a number of years almost constantly employed by that monarch upon foreign embassies. He thus enjoyed the opportunity of commingling with the more refined courts and courtiers of the continent. In 1541, he was ordered by the king to re pair to Falmouth, there to meet the ambassador of Charles the Fifth of Spain, and conduct him to the English court. Anxious to execute this mission with the greatest possible celerity, he overheated himself on the way, and thus brought on a fever of which he soon after died, being in the thirty-ninth year of his age. The traits of similarity in genius and character between Wyatt and the Earl of Surrey were so striking that a learned critic has, in contemplating them, indulged in the following strain :-- They were men whose minds may be said to have been cast in the same mould; for they differ only in those minuter shades of character which must always exist in human nature. In their love of virtue, and their instinctive hatred and contempt of vice ;uin their freedom from personal jealousy; in their thirst after knowledge and intellectual improvement; in nice observation of nature, promptitude to action, intrepidity, and fondness for romantic enterprise; in magnificence and liberality; in generous support of others, and high-spirited neglect of themselves; in constancy and friendship, and tender susceptibility of affections of a still warmer nature, and in every thing connected with sentiment and principle, they were one and the same; but when these qualities branch out into particulars, they will be found in some respects to differ. . In Wyatt's complaints, we hear a strain of manly grief which commands attention; and we listen to it with respect for the sake of him that suffers. Surrey's distress is painted in such natural terms, that we make it our own, and recognize in his sorrows, emotions which we are conscious of having felt ourselves.'* The Songs and Sonnets of Wyatt, though somewhat conceited, are not * Dr. Nott. without refinement, and a very considerable share of poetic feeling; and he has the honor to be the first writer who attempted to turn the Psalms of David into English metre. His poems were originally published in 1565, along with those of the Earl of Surrey; and from this copy we select the following songs, and the stanza which follows them: THE LOVER'S LUTE CAN NOT BE BLAMED, THOUGH IT SING OF HIS LADY'S UNKINDNESS. Blame not my Lute! for he must sound Of this or that as liketh me; For lack of wit the Lute is bound To give such tunes as pleaseth me; My Lute, alas! doth not offend, Though that perforce he must agree To sing to them that heareth me; My Lute and strings may not deny, Spite asketh spite, and changing change, Blame but thyself that hath misdone, Change thou thy way, so evil begone, And then my Lute shall sound that same; But if till then my fingers play By thy desert their wonted way, Blame not my Lute! Farewell! unknown; for though thou break Blame not my Lute! THE RE-CURED LOVER EXULTETH IN HIS FREEDOM, AND VOWETH TO REMAIN FREE UNTIL DEATH. I am as I am, and so will I be; But how that I am none knoweth truly. I lead my life indifferently; I mean nothing but honesty; And though folks judge full diversely, I do not rejoice, nor yet complain, Both mirth and sadness I do refrain, And use the means since folks will feign; Divers do judge as they do trow, But since judgers do thus decay, For I am as I am, whosoever say nay. Who judges well, will God them send; Yet some there be that take delight, Praying you all, that this do read, But how that is I leave to you; Ye know no more than afore ye knew, Yet I am as I am, whatever ensue. And from this mind I will not flee, But to you all that misjudge me, I do protest as ye may see, That I am as I am, and so will be. THAT PLEASURE IS MIXED WITH EVERY PAIN. Venomous thorns that are so sharp and keen, Bear flowers, we see, full fresh and fair of hue, Poison is also put in medicine, And unto man his health doth oft renew. The fire that all things eke consumeth clean, pa THOMAS TUSSER, another poet of the age of Henry the Eighth, though in genius much inferior to either the Earl of Surrey or Sir Thomas Wyatt, was of an ancient family, and was born in 1523, but at what place is unknown. He received a liberal education, and commenced life at court, under the tronage of Lord Paget; but not being adapted to a court life, he turned his attention to farming, and for a number of years pursued that course of life, successively in Sussex, Ipswich, Essex, Norwich, and other places. Not succeeding in that calling, he left it and followed other occupations, among which was that of a chorister, and it is said, a fiddler. As might be expected of one so inconstant, he did not prosper in the world, but died poor in London, in 1580, in the fifty-eighth year of his age. Tusser's poem, entitled a Hundreth Good Points of Husbandrie, which was first published in 1557, contains a series of practical directions for farming, expressed in simple and inelegant, though not always, dull verse. It has, however, the honor of being the first regular didactic poem in the language. From this poem we select the two following extracts :—— HOUSEWIFELY PHYSIC. Good huswife provides, ere a sickness do come, All such with good pot herbs, should follow the plough. And others the like, or else lie like a fool. Conserves of barbary, quinces and such, Though thousands hate physic, because of the cost, Good diet, with wisdom, best comforteth man. In health, to be stirring shall profit thee best; In sickness, hate trouble; seek quiet and rest. MORAL REFLECTIONS ON THE WIND. Though winds do rage as winds were wood,1 And trees, at spring, doth yield forth bud, It is an ill wind turns none to good. ANDREW BOURD, physician to Henry the Eighth, was contemporary with Tusser, and was the author of the following lines, which form an inscription under the picture of an Englishman, naked, with a roll of cloth in one hand and a pair of scissors in the other. The poem is chiefly valuable at present time as indicating the English spirit of that age. CHARACTERISTIC OF AN ENGLISHMAN. I am an Englishman, and naked I stand here, All new fashions be pleasant to me, I will have them whether I thrive or thee: Now I am a fisher, all men on me look I will have a garment reach to my tail. For I will go to learning a whole summer's day; I will learn Latin, Hebrew, Greek and French, I overcome my adversaries by land and by sea: I had no peer if to myself I were true; And meddle with no matters but to me pertaining, In all this world I shall have but a time: Hold the cup, good fellow, here is thine and mine! 1 Mad. |