The style of Peacham in the treatment of his subject is simple and agreeable, and distinguished by strong good sense, as will be seen by the introduction of one or two of his emblems to the notice of our readers.

Nusquam tuta.

The silly Hind among the thickets greene,
While nought mistrusting did at safetie goe,
His mortall wound receiv'd, with arrow keene
Sent singing from the Sheepeheard's secret bowe;
And deadly peirc'd, can in no place abide
But runnes about with arrow in her side.
So oft we see the man whome Conscience bad
Doth inwardly with deadly torture wound,
From place to place to range with Furie mad,
And seeke his ease by shifting of his ground

The meane neglecting which might heale the sinne,
That howerly ranckles more and more within.

Doctrina.

Heere Learning sits, a comely Dame in yeares,
Vpon whose head, a heavenly dew doth fall:
Within her lap, an open book appeares :

Her right hand shewes, a sunne that shines to all;

Blind Ignorance, expelling with that light

The Scepter shewes, her power and soveraigne might.

Her out spread Armes, and booke her readines,
T'imbrace all men, and entertaine their loue:
The shower, those sacred graces doth expresse
By Science, that do flow from heauen aboue.
Her age declares the studie, and the paine
Of many yeares, ere we our knowledge gaine.
Vos vobis.

The painefull Bee, when many a bitter shower
And storme had felt, farre from his hive away,
To secke the sweetest Honey-bearing flower,
That might be found and was the pride of May :
Heere lighting on the fair'st he might espie,
Is beate by Drones, the waspe and butterflie.
So men there are sometimes of good desert,
Who painfully haue labour'd for the hiue,
Yet must they with their merit stand apart,
And giue a farre inferior leaue to thriue:
Or be perhaps (if gotten into grace)
By waspish Envie, beaten out of place.

Peacham appears to have partaken of some advantages from Oxford, as well as from his own university of Cambridge, which he expresses in the following emblem:

Divinitus.

To the thrice famous and farre renowned Vniversitie of Oxford.

Deare Sister of my euer-loued *Mother,
From whome this little that I haue I draw,
Ingratefully greate light I cannot smother,
Some lesser sparkes, which I deriu'd from you,
Which first enflam'd to this, my duller spright,
And lent in darke, my Muse her candle light.
Faire Arcademe, whome Fame and Artes conspire
To make thee mirror to all mortall eine :
Within our Sphoere, that Europe may admire
The gracious Lampe that on thy brow doth shine:
And shewes the TRVTH around by land and sea,
Directing thousandes erring, in their way.

*Cambridge and reard in Trinitie Colledge

Peacham was endued with a true poetical mind, and, when not confinde by the trammels of his subject, could give expression to its feeling. Some of his stanzas on the ensuing motto may be quoted as instances of that manly simplicity and freshness of poetical expression in which many of our early writers abound.

Rura mihi et silentium.

Wert thou thy life at libertie to choose,
And as thy birth, so hadst thy being free,
The Citie thou shouldst bid adieu, my Muse,
And from her streetes, as her infection flee :
Where Chaos and Confusion wee see

As well as language, as of differing heartes,
A bodie seuered in a thousand parts.

Thy solitarie Academe should be

Some shadie grove, vpon the Thames faire side,
Such as we may neere princely Richmond see,
Or where along doth siluer Severne slide,

Or Avon courtes faire Flora in her pride :

There should'st thou sit at long desired rest,
And thinke thy selfe, aboue a Monarch blest.

There moughtst thou sing thy sweete Creator's praise
And turne at quiet o're some holy booke;
Or tune the accent of thy harmlesse laies
Vnto the murmur of the gentle brooke :

Whiles round about thy greedie eie doth looke,
Observing wonders in some flower by,

This bent, that leafe, this worme, that butterflie.
Where mightst thou view at fall the Hemisphære
On some faire Mountaine, in a Summer's night,
In spangles there embroudered is the Beare,
And here the Fish, there Theseus louer bright,
The watry Hyads, here deceive our sight,
Eridanos, and there Orion bound,
Another way the silver Swanne is found.
Or wouldst thou Musick to delight thine eare,
Step but aside into the neighbour spring,
Thou shalt a thousand wing'd Musitians heare,
Each praising in his kind the heavenly King:
Here Philomel doth her shrill Treble sing,
The Thrush & Tenor, off a little space,

Some matelesse Dove, doth murmur out the Base.

Nor Princes richest Arras may compare

With some small plot, where Nature's skill is shown
Perfuming sweetely all the neighbour aire,
While thousand collours in a night are blowne:
Here's a light Crimson, there a deeper one,

A Maidens blush, here Purples, there a white,
Then all commingled for our more delight.

For the same reason as before stated we give a few of the opening stanzas from "The Author's Conclusion," with which the volume closes.

Flora sometime a famous Harlot in Rome, and after a Goddess of flowers, in whose honour they kept their feastes called Floralia.

As then the Skie was calme and faire,

The Windes did cease, and Cloudes were fled,

Aurora scattered Phoebus haire,

New risen from her rosie bed:

At whose approach the *Harlot strew

Both meade and mountaine with her flowers:
While Zephyre, sweetest odours threw
About the fieldes, and leavie bowers.

The Woods and Waters left their sound,
No tend'rest twigge, was seene to moove,
The Beast lay couched on the ground,
The winged People perch'd above,
Save Philomel, who did renew
Her wonted plaintes vnto the Morne,
That seem'd indeede, her state to rue
By shedding teares vpon the Thorne.

When I as other taking rest,

Was shew'd (me thought) a goodlie plaine
With all the store of Nature blest,

And situate within the Maine,
With Bocks about environ'd quite,

But inward round, in rowes there stood

As well for profit, as delight,

The Trees of Orchard, and the Wood.

The builder Akorne long agoe
To Dodonaan Iove adioin'd,

And there the loftie Pine did grow,

That winged flies before the Wind:
Leucothoe that wounded bleedes,

Nor wanting was, nor that same Tree
That beares the staine, in fruite and seedes,
Of Thisbes woefull Tragœdie.

Within there was a Circlet round
That rais'd it selfe, of softest grasse,
No Velvet smoother spred on ground,
Or Em'rald greener euer was:
In mid'st there sate a beauteous Dame
(Not Paphos Queene, so faire a wight,)
For Roses by, did blush for shame,
To see a purer, red and white.

In Robe of woven Silver fine

And deepest Crimson she was clad :
Then diaper'd with golden twine

Aloft a Mantle greene she had,

Whereon were wrought, with rarest skill

Faire Cities, Castles, Rivers, Woods,

And here and there, emboss'd a hill

With Fountaines, and the Nymphes of Floods.

A massie Collar set with stones,

Did ouer all, it selfe extend,

Whereon in sparkling Diamonds

Saint George, her Patrone did depend :

A Crowne Imperial on her head,

One hand a bright drawne sworde did hold,

The other (most that made her dread)
Three Scepters of the finest Gold.

While proudly vnderfoote she trod
Rich Trophies, and victorious spoiles,
Atchieued by her might abroad:

Her name is Empresse of the Isles:
There Chariots were, that once she wanne
From Cæsar, ere she was betrai'd

With Standards gat from Pagans, whan

She lent the Holy Land her aide, &c.

Peacham, as we have seen, was the son of Mr. Henry Peacham of Leverton, in the County of Lincoln, but was born, as he himself informs us, at North Mimms near St. Alban's, and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took his degree of M.A. He resided for a considerable time in Italy, where he studied music with Orazio Vecchi, and was intimate with many of the great masters of the time both at home and abroad. He appears also to have had some skill in painting, and likewise in engraving. From his Art of Drawing, published in 1606, and again in 1612, 4to, we learn that he was engaged in the tuition of young gentlemen in the Latin and Greek languages, and assisted afterwards in educating the children of the Earl of Arundel, whom he accompanied to the Low Countries. In the advertisement by William Lee the publisher, at the end of Peacham's Worth of a Penny, 1664, 4to, he speaks of "a friend of his that knew bim well in the Low Countrys, when he was tutor to the Earl of Arundell's children." And in the Relation of Affairs of Cleve and Gulick, 1615, 4to, the dedication to which is dated from Breda in Brebant, Peacham speaks of having been an eye witness of the events recorded, when with the army before Rees. In the Art of Drawing, 1612, 4to, he says that he translated King James's Basilikon Doron into emblems and Latin verses, presenting the same afterwards to Prince Henry. He also published in 1615, Prince Henry revived: or a Poem upon the birth of Henry Frederic, Heir apparent to Frederic, Count Palatine of the Rhine. Peacham was the author of several other works, both in prose and poetry, all of them distinguished by good taste and acute observation, and obtaining much popularity during the seventeenth century. Copies of most of these, uniformly bound in Russia, are in the editor's possession, with the exception of his Thalias Banquet, 1620, sm. 8vo, the rarest of all. The one by which he is best known, is his Complete Gentleman, 1622, 4to, and frequently reprinted. This work has been much commended by Dibdin in his Bibliomania, p. 370, who has given some quotations from it. All his works possess considerable merit, and contain much useful information on the subjects of education, the value of money, and other matters of interest.