P, 255. See also Bibl. Ang. Poet., p. 597, and Dibdin's Liter. Reminisc., p. 931, who is, however, wrong in stating there are only five leaves, the total number being seven. It sold at the Roxburge sale, No. 3335, for 6l.; Bibl. Ang. Poet., No. 597, for 25l.; Midgley's in 1818, No. 711, 117. 118.; Sir Mark M. Sykes's, pt. iii, No. 257, 127.; Sir F. Freeling's, No. 1966, 97. 188.

The present copy is from the Roxburghe and Sykes collections, and is Bound in Orange Morocco, gilt leaves,

With the Roxburghe Crest on the sides.

RALEIGH, (GEORGE.)

Christ on his Cross, or the Holy Lambes

Funerall. By George Raleigh Esquire.

At London Printed by George Purslow for Edward Black: and are to bee sold at his Shop at the Great South Doore of S. Pauls 1624. Sm. 8vo, pp. 56.

Dr. Watt, in his Bibliotheca Britanica, does not take any notice of this very rare poem, and Lowndes is also unable to cite any copy as having occurred for public sale. The rich collection of old English poetry in the Bodleian library, also numbers this amongst its desiderata. It is written in six-line stanzas, and has a short dedication in prose prefixed, addressed "To the Vertuous and Worthy Gentlewoman Mrs. Anne Monson, Daughter to that truely Noble Knight Sir William Monson of Kenersley in Surrey." The subject of the poem is the Scripture account of the last days of the Saviour, from the time of his betrayal by Judas Iscariot to the taking down of his body from the cross. It is written in a style rather above mediocrity, and without aspiring to any high flight of fancy, which the painful nature of the subject would not admit of, and without much force or originality; the language is flowing and easy, although we hardly know whether the following stanzas, selected at random, will be thought to bear out this opinion :

O heavenly goodnesse sweet alluring grace,

Diuinest comfort to repentant eares:

Good God, what honor's hence to Adam's race?
O pleasant Fountaine of Soule-cleansing teares :
Might still my mind be rauisht vp on high
To heare the tones of this deare Harmonie.

But woe alas my Muse recants her song,
And 'gins to mutter in a humming base:
What heauy chances cloud themselues among
The fair beginning of a comely race;

From Peace to War to broiles from quiet rest,
Thus she conuerts the Tenor of her breast.

The Barke which sometimes smoothly sailed on,
Led by a gale of the calme breathing wind;
Now lost with mounting waues the Rocks vpon
In narrow limits cannot be confin'd,

When surging billowes (take what helpe she can)
Make her a wracke of the great Ocean.

The glorious Sunne in his late shining carre,
Which seem'd so much in brightnesse to excell,
Hauing lost its course, wanders now neere, now far,
Nor can the cloudy Sea-borne mists expell;

Which durst oppose his counter-checking raies,
And stop the passage of their streaming waies.
Where earst within the compasse of a wood,
On shadie boughes the chirping birds did sing,
And warbled diuers notes in prettie moode,
So that the vallies with their noise did ring;
Now rauens with their ecchoes harsh rebound,
And hellish iarring take up all the sound.

Yea, all things which before laught at the state
Which they receiued from a pleasant spring,
Whiles frosty winter makes a new debate,
Now spend their growth in helplesse vanishing:
When God himselfe, now God and Man become,
Must needs be subiect to a mortall doome.

Him now I waile, of whom so late I sung

In the light Meeter of a ioyfull brest,

And that sweet Peale which I so gladly rung,

Must in a sound of much confusion rest;

Whiles that those helpes, to which our hopes did bend

(The Iews I meane) gaue to the same an end,

These councell take, and all combin'd in one,
To worke his death, do meetings often make,
Plodding together, and sometimes alone,
How they the Iust may in their nettings take.
He must be caught, and had in any wise,
Nought but his bloud their hunger satisfies.

From the last verse but one here quoted, it seems not altogether improbable that the author had previously written some other poem on the same sacred person, although we are not aware of the existence of any other work from his pen. In the sale of Mr. Nassau's library, pt. ii, No. 923, occurred a work, Albania; or Certain Concernments of Great Britany, with an explication of the present state thereof, truely represented under the faigned person of Albania. By George Raleigh. London 1641, 4to. Dedicated to Charles I. It is a political pamphlet in prose, and consists of sixty pages. We cannot find any allusion in it which exhibits him as the writer of Christ on his Cross.

Whether they were both written by the same person we are unable to state, nor have we been able to discover anything more relating to this writer, or of his connection (if any) with his namesake, the great circumnavigator and poet.

The present copy of this rare poem, which unfortunately is not in good state, being close-cropped in the fore edges and water stained, was obtained at the sale of Mr. B. H. Bright's library in 1845, and is bound up with The Levites Revenge, by R. Gomersall. London 1628, 8vo.

RHODES, (HUGH.)- The Boke of Nurtur for men seruauntes, and children, with Stans puer ad mensam, newelye corrected, verye utyle and necessarye unto all youth.

[Colophon.] Imprinted by me Thomas Colwell: Dwellynge in the House of Robert Wyer beside Charing Crosse. No date [but circa 1560]. 4to, pp. 26, blk. lett.

The first part of this work, which is in black letter, is written in prose but the greater portion, viz., the last twenty pages, is in verse. It is divided into parts or chapters as follows:

1. The Boke of Nurtur for men seruauntes and children, with Stans puer ad mensam, newelye corrected, verye utyle and necessarye unto all youth.

2. The maner of seruing a knight, squire, or gentleman.

3. Howe to ordre your maisters chamber, at night to be bed warde. 4. Here foloweth the booke of nurture of good maners for man and childe. The first in verse.

5. For the waytyng seruaunt.

At the end are four sets of proverbs or apothegms consisting of four lines each, after which is the colophon, "Thus endeth the booke of Nurture, or gouernaunce of youth, with Stant puer ad mensam. Compyled by Hughe Rodes of the Kynges Chappell. Imprinted by me Thomas Colwell; Dwellynge in the House of Robert Wyer beside Charing Crosse." With some rude ornaments, and a fleur-de-lys on the last page and one of the former

ones.

Warton says of this work, "In the preceding reign of King Edward the sixth, Hugh Rhodes, a gentleman or musician of the royal chapel," meaning probably that of King Henry the eighth, published an English poem, with the title, "The Boke of Nurtur for men servants and children, or of the gouernaunce of youth, with Stans puer ad mensam," 4to, black letter; and says further, "In the following reign of Mary, the same poet printed a poem consisting of thirty-six octavo stanzas, entitled, "The Song of the Chyld Byshop, as it was songe before the queenes maiestie in her privie chamber at her manour of saynt James in the feeldes on saynt Nicholas day and Innocents day this yeare nowe present, by the chylde bysshope of Poules churche with his compony, 4to, black letter, Londini in ædibus Johannis Cawood, typographi reginæ 1555." Of this latter work no copy seems to be known, and Dibdin has inserted it in his Typog. Antig., vol. iv, p. 394, solely on the authority of Warton. Ritson also seems to think that its existence "requires some further authority." See Warton's Hist. Eng. Poet., vol. iv, p. 146, 8vo edition; and Ritson's Bibl. Poet., p. 314.

The present work is full of wise sayings and rules for the cultivation of good manners; and from the following passage, with which the portion in verse commences, it appears that the author was a native of Devonshire:

Al ye that wolde learne, and wolde be called wise
Obedience learne in youth, in age it wil avoid vice
I am blind in Poets art, therof I can no skyl
Al eloquence I put a part, folowe mine owne wyl

Corrupt in speche my breues and longes to know
Borne and bred in Deuonshyre, my termes wil wel show,
Take the best, leaue the worst, of truth I meane no yll
The matter not curious, but thentent good, marke it well
Pardon I aske; if I offend, thus boldly to wryte
To maister, seruaunt, yong, or olde, I do me submit
Reforming both youth and age, if any do amis
To you I show my mynde, amende where nede is
Set your yonge people good maners for to learne.
To your elders be gentell, do nor say no harme
Yf youth do euyll, theyr parents are reported sone
They shuld teach other good, by lyke themselues can none
A good father makes good childrē, grace being the within
For as they be used in youth, in age they wyll begin.

There was an earlier edition of this work in 4to, without date, printed by Thomas Petyt, which is described in Dibdin's Typog. Antiq., vol. iii, p. 515, of which a copy, wanting the title, was in the library of the late Mr. Douce, and is now, by his bequest, in the Bodleian Library. It was also again reprinted in sm. 8vo, black letter, by H. Jackson, 1577, which last edition is described by Mr. Park in the Cens. Liter., vol. v, p. 350; and in the Bibl. Ang. Poet., No. 620, where a copy is priced at 157.; and another of this edition sold in Steeven's sale, No. 1060, for 21. 2s. There is also a copy in Malone's collection in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.

There is no doubt that there were other editions of this work, though unknown to bibliographers, and that it was, from its popular nature, frequently reprinted. It would seem from Mr. Collier's first volume of Extracts from the Registers of the Stationers' Company, printed for the Shakespeare Society, that John Walley or Waley, and John Kyng, had both licence to print impressions, though no copies from their press are known to be in existence; and another very rare edition by Abraham Veale will be noticed in the next article.

The present edition appears to be entirely unknown to bibliographers, and is not mentioned by Ritson, Herbert, Dibdin, or, in later days, by Lowndes or Watt. The book has no regular title-page, but commences after the heading as given above. It appears, however, to have been so printed, from the circumstance of having the author's name at the end, and also from beginning on sig. A.1.; and in this opinion several competent judges coincide. It was probably printed soon after 1560, though Colwell continued to print as late as 1575. The present copy has the last leaf but one misplaced. Bound by Murton. Dark Green Morocco, gilt leaves.

VOL. V. PART I.

A A