Then to conclude, the country life And here I could both live and die." These lines have some poetical merit, and place Fleckno in a better light than he has hitherto appeared in. July 28, 1812. B. I Sivqila. Too good to be true. Omen. Though so at a wewe, Yet all that I tolde you, Is true, I opholde you: Nowe cease to aske why? For I cannot lye. Herein is shewed by way of Dialogue, the wonderful maners of the people of Maugsun, with other talke not friuolous. Seen and allowed, &c. Printed in Thames Streate, neere onto Baynards Castell, 1580. [Back of title "the armes of Sir Chr. Hatton." Colophon,] At London Imprinted by Henry Binneman, dwelling in Thames Streete neere onto Baynardes Castle. 1580. pp. 178. Quarto. This work was followed, in the next year, by "The "second part and knitting up of the Boke entituled "Too good to be true. Wherein is continued the dis"course of the wonderful Lawes, commendable cus"tomes, and strange manners of the people of Maugsun. "Newly penned and published by Tho. Lupton. "Printed 1581. 4to."-Few readers are unacquainted with the Utopia of Sir Thomas More; this dialogue describes an imaginary commonwealth, and is imitative of that fanciful and visionary work; it contains much good sense, but is decidedly inferior to its elegant prototype. The following extract is not inapposite, even at the present enlightened period. "There is not one dicer nor yet carder in all our coun trey. Oure Rulers, Lordes, Knightes, and Gentlemen, (wishing rather to profite other, than to fill their purses wyth other mens pence, and to solace their wearyed mindes The interlocutors are Sivqila a stranger, and Omen an inhabitant of Maugsun. "There by honest pastimes, than to get greedie gain by diuelish and. detestable diceplaye) doe use divers times (when they doe playe) to playe at Chesse, the Astronomers game, and the Philosophers game, whiche whettes their wittes, recreates their minde, and hurtes nobody in the meane season. * Sivqila. These games you speake of are too busie for manye of oure heades: and many of our heades are other. wise too busie to followe your good orders. Dice-playe is so commonlye used with us, that many boyes, serving men, and other, are more experte in playing at dice, than in Dauid's Psalmes. Omen. Haue you no lawes againste suche unlawfull games? Sivqila. Yes, we haue lawes to forbid them, and licences to allowe them.t Omen. That is as thoughe a father shoulde commaunde his sonne to goe to schoole, and immediatly give him leave to playe the trewant. Those lawes shal never be wel kepte, that are licensed to be broken.-Nay, if we have lawes, we keepe lawes." The general discussion of the work is often relieved by "pleasaunte" narrations, amongst which is the well known tale of Androcles and the Lion.I Bristol. J. F. A Swete and devovte Sermon of holy saynt Ciprian of mortalitie of man. The rules of a Christian lyfe made by Picus erle of Mirandula, Bothe translated into englyshe by syr Thomas Elyot knyghte. Londini in aedibus Tho. Bertheleti. Colophon, Thomas Berthelet regius impressor excudebat. An. 1534. Cum privilegio. Several of the curious tracts published by this worthy knight have already been noticed in the pages of the Bibliographer, and the present may assist in a completion of the list. The dedication is, To my ryghte worshypfull suster dame Suzan Kyngestone, and prays her to communicate it with our two susters religi ouse Dorothe and Alianour.' Bristol. J. F. *The exercise of the higher sorte. Margin. † Marke well. ib. This has very lately been elegantly modernised from the Gesta Romanorum by Mr. Elton (the translator of Hesiod) in his Tales of Romance. Flowres of Epigrammes out of sundrie the most singular authors, selected, &c. by Timothie Kendall, late of the vniuersitie of Oxford, now of Staple Inn. London, 1577. [Sixteens, containing S. in eights.] Kendall's poems are of extreme rarity, nor can I, at the present moment, call to mind more than two other copies; one in the collection of the late Mr. Malone, the other (and that imperfect) in the library of George Mason. The copy now before me wants the title-page, but I have transcribed it from Herbert's AMES, vol. ii. page 1115, for the sake of rendering the present account more perfect. On sign. A ij. is the epistle dedicatory, "to the right honourable the lorde Robert Dudley, earle of Leycester, baron of Denbigh, master of the queenes maiesties horse, knight of the noble order of the garter, cheefe chaunceler of the uniuersitie of Oxford, and one of her highnes moste honourable priuie counsell" [to whom]" Timothe Kendall wisheth happy health, with increase of honour." Of the author little is now known.* He was a native of the county of Oxford, and, although he has escaped the researches of the Oxford biographer, became a member of that university, having previously received a school education at Eton. From thence he removed to Staples inn, London, and here all traces of his life, for the present, remain. The volume is divided into two parts, 1. Flowers of Epigrams out of sundrie the moste singular authors selected, containing 112 folios, ending at sign. O 8. 2. Trifles by Timothe Kendal, deuised and written (for the moste part) at sundrie tymes in his yong and tender age. The latter, although foliated anew, begin at sign. P. On the last leaf the following colophon, Imprinted at London in Paules churche yarde, at the signe of the Brasen Serpent by Jhon Shepperd Anno 1577, with the singular device of a swan performing on a violin, with a scroll of music before it, and represented as singing the following lines from Martial beneath, For some notices of the family of Kendal, who were distantly related to Sir Aston Cockain, see the Topographer, vol. ii. 158, and vol. iv. 112. " Dulcia "Dulcia defecta modulatur carmina lingua, So much for the typographical description of this volume. I wish I could add, that its literary merit was at all equal to its rarity, but this, perhaps, were too much to expect, for had it possessed more intrinsic value it would have been more carefully preserved; as it is there are not, in all probability, six copies in existence. Immediately following the epistle before mentioned is the author's preface" to the courteous and frendly reader," part of which I transcribe. "Hauyng enured my selfe in my greene and growyng yeares to readyng of poetrie (an arte in my mind and censure both princely and pleasant) in riper yeares I could neither by faire meanes be allured, nor foule mines procured, from embracying thereof, so greatly therewith was I linked in loue."-Now (courteous reader) of all sorts of poems and poesies, none (mee thinketh) are more pithie and pleasant, than pretty, shorte, witty, quicke and quippyng epigrammes; in the which kind of writyng Marcus Valerius Martialis is counted cheefly to excell. Wherfore out of him (as sundrie other most singular au. thors) haue I translated and taken sundrie short, propper, pithie and pleasant verses and epigrammes for thy no little profite and great delectation: marrie, this I must let thee vnderstand, that as well out of Martial as the rest, I haue left the lewde, I haue chosen the chaste; I haue weeded away all wanton and woorthlesse woordes; I haue pared away all pernicious patches; I haue chipt and chopt of all beastly boughes and braches, all filthy and fulsom phrases. Which I thinke none will mutter at and mislike, but suche as delight more to drawe of the dregs, than drinke of the deli cate liquour." He then promises, "if thou shalt thinke well of mee and thanke mee, I shall (God willyng,) shortly as conuenient leisure shall serue, either augment these, or publish more for thy delight and profite. In the meane tyme, take these in good part (I beseech thee) whiche were made of mee, Cum mihi vernarent dubia lanugine malæ. Warton (Hist. Eng. Poetry, vol. iii. p. 432) justly observes: "It is charitable to hope, that our translator Timothy Kendall wasted no more of his time at Staples Inn in culling these fugitive blossoms. Yet he has annexed to these versions his Trifles, or Juvenile Epigrams, which are dated the same year." It seems, however, that his contemporaries were of a contrary opinion, since W. Seymour, Gentleman, of Gray's Inn, George Whetstones, E. G. (probably Edward Guilpin,) Abraham Fleminge, A. W. (perhaps Andrew Willet,) and G. L. wrote commendatory verses on the volume. The latter two copies in Latin, one in hexameter and pentameter lines, the other a Sapphick ode. Although Kendall professes to have translated the greater part of his epigrams from Martial, he has by no means confined himself to that author. Some are from Pulix, Pictorius, Dardanius, Angelus Politianus, Textor, Balbus, Erasmus, Ausonius, and others; some from the Greek Anthologia, Beza, Sir Thomas More, Pontanus, Buchanan, Haddon, Parkhurst, and Ascham. From his translations it will not be necessary to give any long extracts; for Kendall's sole aim appears to have been, an exact version, line for line, from the Latin into his native tongue; nor has be evinced the slightest idea of retaining the terseness and point of his original author. Perhaps the two following are among the best specimens of this part of the volume. MARTIAL. To hymselfe. "Martial, the thinges that do attaine Content |