Monkish clergy, began to be more generally diffused, and to find its way into the company of the laity in general, but most especially of thofe of the highest rank and confideration. Henry the Eighth, our author obferves, was for those times a man of by no means a poor literary tafte. With the Italian manners and customs Henry introduced into his court their language, and the fpirit of their poetry. The ruder genius of our own mufe foon began to take a polish in the hands of Lord Surrey, who at once tranfplanted into it all the grace and sweetness of the Italian. He was the most graceful courtier, the moft refined poet, and the moft gallant foldier of this reign. He had formed himself upon the model of Petrarch, and in our author's opinion confiderably improved upon him. His own words are," In the fonnets of Surrey, we are furprised to find nothing of that metaphyfical caft which marks the Italian poets, his fuppofed mafters, efpecially Petrarch. Surrey's fentiments are for the most part natural and unaffected; arifing from his own feelings, and dictated by the prefent circumstances. His poetry is alike unembarraffed by learned allufions, or elaborate conceits. If our author copies Petrarch, it is Petrarch's better manner: when he defcends from his Platonic abftractions, his refinements of pasfion, his exaggerated compliments, and his play upon oppofite fentiments, into a track of tenderness, fimplicity, and nature. Petrarch would have been a better poet had he been a worse scholar. Our author's mind was not too much overlaid by learning. The following is the poem above mentioned, in which he laments his imprisonment in Windfor-castle. But it is rather an elegy than a fonnet. So cruel prifon, how coulde betyde, alas, Where eche sweete place returnes a taste full sower: The * How could the ftately caftle of Windfor become so miferable a prison? + In unrestrained gaiety and pleasure. + With the young Duke of Richmond. To hover, to loiter in expectation. So Chaucer, TROIL. Cress. B 5.. ver. 33. But at the yate there fhe fhould outride Swift's joke about the maids of honour being lodged at Windfor in the round tower, in Queen Anne's time, is too well known and too indelicate to be repeated here. But in the prefent inftance, Surrey speaks loosely and poetically The stately feates, the ladies bright of hewe, The palme-play (6), where, difpoyled for the game (c), To bayte (e) her eyes which kept the leads above (f). The fecret groves, which ofte we made refounde With cally in making the MAIDEN-TOWER, the true reading, the refidence of the women. The maiden-tower was common in other caftles, and means the principal tower, of the greatest strength and defence. MAIDEN is a corruption of the old French Magne, or Mayne, great. Thus Maidenhead (properly Maydenhithe) in Berkshire, fignifies the great port or wharf on the river Thames. So alfo, Mayden Bradley in Wiltshire is the great Bradley. The old Romancampnear Dorchester in Dorfetshire, a noble work, is called Maiden caffle, the capital fortrefs in those parts. We have Maiden-down in Somerfetfhire with the fame fignification. A thoufand other inftances might be given. Hearne, not attending to this etymology, abfurdly fuppofes, in one of his Prefaces, that a strong bastion in the old walls of the city of Oxford, called the MAIDEN-TOWER, was a prifon for confining the proftitutes of the town. (b) At ball. (c) Rendered unfit or unable, to play. (e) To tempt, to catch. (a) Pity The ladies were ranged on the leads or battlements, of the castle to fee the play. (g) The ground, or area, was frown with gravel, where they were trained in chivalry. (b) At tournaments they fixed the fleeves of their mistreffes on fome part of their armour. (1) Looks. (m) Or, fuccefs. (*) Destroy. (1) Favour with his mistress. (2) The holtes, or thick woods, clothed in green. So in another place he fays, fol. 3. My fpecled cheeks with Cupid's hue. That is, "Cheeks fpeckled with, &c." () With loosened reins. So in his fourth Eneid, the fleet is "ready to avale." That is, to loofen from fhore. So again, in Spencer's FEBRUARIE. 02 They With crie of houndes, and merry blastes betwene The wide vales (a) eke, that harbourd us ech night, The fweete accorde! Such flepes as yet delight: The fecret thoughtes imparted with fuch truft ; And with this thought the bloud forfakes the face; "O place of bliffe, renewer of my woes! They wont in the wind wagge their wriggle tayles « Avayle their tayles,” to drop or lower. So also in his DECEMBER, His wearie waine, And in the Faerie Queene, with the true spelling, i. 1. 21. Of Nilus. But when his latter ebbs gins to AVALE. To VALE, or avale, the bonnet, was a phrafe for lowering the bonnet, or pulling off the hat. The word occurs in Chaucer, TR. CRESS. iii. 627. That fuch a raine from heaven gan AVAILE. And in the fourth book of his BOETHIUS, "The light fire arifeth inte "height, and the hevie yerthes AVAILEN by their weightes." pag. 394. col. 2. edit. Urr. From the French verb AVALER, which is from their adverb AVAL, downward. See alfo Hearne's GLOSS. ROB. BR. p. 524. Drayton ufes this word, where perhaps it is not properly understood. ECL. iv. p. 1404. edit. 1753. With that, fhe gan to VALE her head, Her cheeks were like the roses red, But not a word she faid, &c. That is, fhe did not veil, or cover, but valed, held down her head for fhame. (a) Probably the true reading is wales or walls. That is, lodgings, apartments, &c. Thefe poems were very corruptly printed by Tottel. (b) Companion. (c) We fhould read, dids. Dear to others, to all. Eccho, Eccho, alas, that doth my forrow rew (a), With Lord Surrey flourished Sir Thomas Wyatt; a man of very extenfive knowledge and great acquirements, but as a poet, in our author's opinion, much inferior to the former. The limits of this fhort account will not allow us to speak of all the various writers, who, according to Mr. Warton, were in efteem about this time. Moft of their works are contained in a mifcellaneous collection, of which he gives a particular account. However, for the following reafons, which our author himself gives, it may Pity. not be thought improper to infer here the first English paftoral. He fays, "From the fame collec. tion, the following is perhaps the first example in our language now remaining, of the pure and unmixed paftoral and in the erotic fpecies, for ease of numbers, elegance of rural allution, and fimplicity of imagery, excels every thing of the kind in Spenfer, who is erroneoufly ranked as our earliest English bucolic. I therefore hope to be pardoned for the length of the quotation. Phyllida was a faire mayde, Whom Harpalus the herdman prayde Harpalus and eke Corin Were herdman both yfere (c): And thereto fing full clere. But Phyllida was all too coy For Harpalus to winne; For Corin was her only joy Who forst her not a pinne (d). How often would the flowers twine? How often garlandes make Of couflips and of columbine? And al for Corin's fake. But Corin he had hawkes to lure, And forced more the fielde (e); For once he was begilde (ƒ), (b) Fol. 6. 7. Harpalus prevailed nought, For he was fardeft from her thought, Therefore waxt he both pale and leane, His flee it was confumed cleane, His beard it had not long be fhave, His heare hong all unkempt (b); Whom fpitefull love had spent. His eyes were red, and all forewatched (e), His face befprent with teares; It femde Vnhap had him long hatched In mids of his difpaires. His clothes were blacke and also bare, As one forlorne was he: Upon his head alwayes he ware A wreath of wyllow tree. His beaftes he kept upon the hyll And thus with fighes and forrowes fhryll "O Harpalus, thus would he fay, "The caufe of thine unhappy day "By love was first begunne! "For thou wentst first by fute to feke "A tigre to make tame, "That fettes not by thy love a leeke, "But makes thy grief her game. "As eafy it were to convert "The froft into the flame, "As for to turne a froward hert "He eates the frutes of thy redreffe (d), "My beaftes, awhile your foode refraine, "And hark your herdfmans founde; |