But let the night's black misty mantles rise, By him lay heavy SLEEP, the cousin of Death, And next in order sad, OLD-AGE we found: There heard we him with broke and hollow plaint Crook-back'd he was, tooth-shaken, and blear-eyed; And fast by him pale MALADY was placed: Ne could she brook no meat but broths alone; But, oh, the doleful sight that then we see! A grisly shape of FAMINE mought we see: And that, alas, was gnawen every where, When, all for nought, she fain would so sustain Great was her force, whom stone-wall could not stay Where you may count each sinew, bone, and vein. Lastly, stood WAR, in glittering arms yclad, He razed towns and threw down towers and all: Cities he sack'd, and realms (that whilom flower'd SIR THOMAS OVERBURY. 1581-1613. SIR THOMAS OVERBURY, a miscellaneous writer, and "one of the most finished gentlemen about the court" of James I., is well known by the tragic circumstances of his death. Born of an ancient family in Glouces tershire, after taking his degree at the University of Oxford, he entered the Middle Temple as a law student. But his inclinations turning more to polite literature, he made an effort to advance his fortune at the court, and was successful. But opposing the infamous Countess of Essex in one of her criminal schemes, he was, by her influence, thrown into the Tower, and was soon after taken off by poison administered to him by her means, with the knowledge of her husband. The murder, though committed on the 13th of September, 1613, was not discovered till two years after, when all was brought to light, and four of the parties concerned were executed. But James, to his lasting disgrace, pardoned the two principals, the Countess of Essex and her husband, that base favorite of James, the Earl of Somerset. The murder of this accomplished man is one of the most disgraceful passages in the history of England, and the sympathy which his fate excited is demonstrated by the many elegies and tributes of grief which were poured forth from all quarters "on the untimely death of Sir Thomas Overbury, poysoned in the Tower." Sir Thomas is known in letters, both as a poet and prose writer. In the former character, his chief productions are hi once famous poem called "The Wife," and a smaller one called "The Choice Two verses will of a Wife." The "Wife" is didactic in its nature, and though containing Give me, next good, an understanding wife, They are most firmly good that best know why. Woman's behavior is a surer bar Than is their no; that fairly doth deny Safe ev'n from hope-in part to blame is she, But as a prose writer, Sir Thomas Overbury takes higher rank. His Cha racters or Witty Descriptions of the Properties of Sundry Persons," deplay the fertile and ingenious character of his mind. Of the following beautiful picture of "A Fair and Happy Milkmaid," a judicious critic remarks: "We hardly know any passage in English prose which inspires the mind of the reader with so many pleasing recollections, and which spreads so calm and purifying a delight over the spirit, as it broods over the idea of the innocent girl whose image Sir Thomas has here bodied forth It will scent all the year long of June, like a new-made hay-cock.'" A FAIR AND HAPPY MILKMAID Is a country wench, that is so far from making herself beautiful by art, that one look of hers is able to put all face-physic out of countenance. She knows a fair look is but a dumb orator to commend virtue, therefore minds it not. All her excellencies stand in her so silently, as if they had stolen upon her without her knowledge. The lining of her apparel, which is herself, is far better than outsides of tissue; for though she be not arrayed in the spoil of the silkworm, she is decked in innocence, a far better wearing. She doth not, with lying long in bed, spoil both her complexion and conditions: nature hath taught her too, immoderate sleep is rust to the soul; she rises therefore with Chanticlere, her dame's cock, and at night makes the lamb her curfew. In milking a cow, and straining the teats through her fingers, it seems that so sweet a milk-press makes the milk whiter or sweeter; for never came almond-glore or aromatic ointment on her palm to taint it. The golden ears of corn fall and kiss her feet when she reaps them, as if they wished to be bound and led prisoners by the same hand that felled them. Her breath is her own, which scents all the year long of June, like a new-made haycock. She makes her hand hard with labor, and her heart soft with pity; and when winter evenings fall early, sitting at her merry wheel, she sings defiance to the giddy wheel of fortune. She doth all things with so sweet a grace, it seems ignorance will not suffer her to do ill, being her mind is to do well. She bestows her year's wages at next fair, and in choosing her garments, counts no bravery in the world like decency. The garden and bee-hive are all her physic and surgery, and she lives the longer for it. She dares go alone and unfold sheep in the night, and fears no manner of ill, because she means none; yet, to say truth, she is never alone, but is still accompanied with old songs, honest thoughts, and prayers, but short ones; yet they have their efficacy, in that they are not palled with ensuing idle cogitations. Lastly, her dreams are so chaste, that she dare tell them; only a Friday's dream is all her superstition; that she conceals for fear of anger. Thus lives she, and all her care is, she may die in the spring-time, to have store of flowers stuck upon her winding-she-t. WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE. 1564-1616. Far from the sun and summer gale, What time, where lucid Avon stray'd, To him the mighty mother did unveil Her awful face: the dauntless child Stretch'd forth his little arms and smiled. "This pencil take," she said, "whose colors clear Richly paint the vernal year: Thine too these golden keys, immortal Boy! This can unlock the gates of joy; Of horror that, and thrilling fears, Or ope the sacred source of sympathetic tears." GRAY'S PROGRESS OF POEST. WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE,1 the great dramatic poet, not of England only, but of the world, was born at Stratford on the Avon, in the county of Warwick, April 23, 1564. Of his early life, of his education, of his personal appear ance, manners, and habits, we know scarcely any thing. "No letter of his writing," says Hallam, "no record of his conversation, no character of him drawn with any fulness by a contemporary, can be produced." He was sent for a short period to the free-school at Stratford, where, in the language of Ben Jonson, "he acquired small Latin and less Greek." But that he was early a 1 Read-Drake's "Shakspeare and his Times," full of most instructive and interesting matterJohnson's "Preface to Shakspeare," Hazlitt's "Characters of Shakspeare's Plays," Campbell's "Essay on English Poetry," Richardson's "Analysis of Shakspeare," Schlegel's "Lectures on Dramatic Litera ture," Pope's "Preface to Shakspeare," Dodd's "Beauties," Price's "Wisdom and Genius of Shaks peare." The best family edition is Bowdler's "Family Shakspeare," 8 vols. 8vo, recently printed in one large octavo. The best critical edition is the variorum of Isaac Reed, London, 1813, 23 vols.. with the Prolegomena and Addenda. "The proof-sheets of this edition were corrected by Mr. Har ris, Librarian of the Royal Institution."-Lowndes. Especially, read Mrs. Jameson's "Characteristica of Women, moral, political, and historical," the most tasteful and discriminating analysis of Shakspeare's female characters ever written. The preliminary remarks to each play, and the notes in Knight's "Pictorial Shakspeare," are also replete with instruction. very earnest, though, it may be, an irregular student, no one can doubt: the numerous felicitous allusions, throughout his dramas, to the history and mytho logy of the ancients, prove that, if not a critical scholar, he was deeply imbued with the true spirit of classical literature, and possessed a most discriminating taste to seize upon their beauties, and make them his own. In 1582, when but eighteen years of age, he married Anne Hathaway, a farmer's daughter, who was seven years older than himself, and who resided near Stratford. In this place he continued for a few years, probably engaged in the business of his father, that of a woolstapler; but an increasing family and pressing wants? obliged him to move beyond the limits of Stratford for subsistence and for fame; and, accordingly, in 1586 or 1587 he removed to London.3 On his arrival at London, his first employment was that of an actor, a profession which he continued to exercise more or less for at least seventeen years. He soon, however, began to write for the stage, his first effort, "Pericles, Prince of Tyre," being written about 1590; and such was the unexampled success of his unequalled dramas, that he soon became proprietor of several theatres, 1 "If it were asked from what sources Shakspeare drew his abundant streams of wisdom, carrying with their current the fairest and most unfading flowers of poetry, I should be tempted to say, that he had what would now be considered a very reasonable portion of Latin; he was not wholly ignorant of Greek; he had a knowledge of French so as to read it with ease, and I believe not less of the Italian. He was habitually conversant in the chronicles of his country. He lived with wise and bighly cultivated men; with Jonson, Essex, and Southampton, in familiar friendship. HE HAD DEEPLY IMBIBED THE SCRIPTURES: and his own most acute, profound, active, and original genius must take the lead in the solution." Croft's Preface to his "Aphorisms from Shakspeare." 2 I have said nothing of the traditional story of his deer-stealing, because there is not a particle of historical evidence of its truth. 3 "It is impossible to contemplate Shakspeare's removal from his native town, without pausing to reflect upon the consequences that followed that event. Had he not left his humble occupation in Warwickshire, how many matchless lessons of wisdom and morality, how many unparalleled dis plays of wit and imagination, of pathos and sublimity, had been buried in oblivion; pictures o emotion, of character, of passion, more profound than mere philosophy had ever conceived, more impressive than poetry had ever yet embodied." Drake's "Shakspeare and his Times," i. 412. 4 The following is a chronological list of his plays, taken from Drake's "Shakspeare and his Times," omitting of course Titus Andronicus: Though Titus Andronicus is bound up in all the editions of Shakspeare, yet there is no probability that he wrote it. Drake says it should be expunged from every edition of the great bard. |