THOMAS GOFFE. [Born, 1592. Died, 1627.] THIS writer left four or five dramatic pieces, of very ordinary merit. He was bred at Christ's Church, Oxford. He held the living of East Clandon in Surrey, but unfortunately succeeded not only to the living, but to the widow of his predecessor, who, being a Xantippe, contributed, according to Langbaine, to shorten his days by the “violence of her provoking tongue." He had the reputation of an eloquent preacher, and some of his sermons appeared in print. SCENE FROM GOFFE'S TRAGEDY OF "AMURATH, OR THE COURAGEOUS TURK." ALADIN, husband to the daughter of AMURATH, having rebelled against his father-in-law, is brought captive before him. Enter at one door, AMURATH with Attendants; at the other door, ALADIN, his Wife, two Children, in white -they kneel to AMURATH. Amur. OUR hate must not part thus. I'll tell thee, prince, That thou hast kindled Etna in our breast! His blood whose hasty and rebellious blast Alad. Why then, I'll, like the Roman Pompey, My dying sight, scorning imperious looks Amur. What, still stiff-neck'd? Is this the Sprinkled before thy face, those rebel brats And prove more hot unto the Turkish Empery Alad. Wife. Dear father, let thy fury rush on me! Within these entrails sheath thine insate sword! And let this ominous and too fruitful womb Be torn in sunder! for from thence those babes Took all their crimes; error (hath) made them guilty 'Twas nature's fault, not theirs. O if affection For my dear babes and husband-husband! father! Which shall I first embrace? Victorious father! Alad. Wife. Dear father! leave such harsh similitudes. By my deceased mother, to whose womb Amur.Yes; to have them collect a manly strength, And their first lesson that their dad shall teach them, Shall be to read my misery. Alad. Stern conqueror! but that thy daughter shows There once dwelt good in that obdurate breast, If not on me, have mercy on my babes, Whose horns are yet scarce crept from out his front, Thus learn of me to weep-of me to kneel. Frolics so much, he makes his father yield. Alad. Wife. Alas, these infants !-these weak-sinew'd hands Beg, infants-beg, and teach these tender joints Put from your thoughts all memory of descent; 1st Child. Good grandsire, see-see how my father cries! Wife. Good father, hear-hear how thy daughter prays. Thou that know'st how to use stern warrior's arms, Learn how to use mild warrior's pity too. . Amur. Rise, my dear child! as marble against rain, So I at these obedient showers melt. Thus I do raise thy husband-thus thy babes, Freely admitting you to former state. Be thou our son and friend. A CLIMBING height it is, without a head, IMAGINATION. Knowledge's next organ is imagination, REASON. The last chief oracle of what man knows Some ruinous notions which our nature shows Nor in a right line can her eyes ascend, INSUFFICIENCY OF PHILOSOPHY. Then what is our high-praised philosophy, For, as among physicians, what they call SONNET FROM LORD BROOKE'S CAELICA. MERLIN, they say, an English prophet born, When he was young, and govern'd by his mother, Took great delight to laugh such fools to scorn, As thought by nature we might know a brother. His mother chid him oft, till on a day Merlin laughs out aloud, instead of crying; Good manners doth make answer unto passion. The child (for children see what should be This man no part hath in the child he sorrows, SIR JOHN BEAUMONT. [Born, 1583, Died, 1628.] SIR JOHN BEAUMONT, brother of the celebrated dramatic poet, was born at Grace Dieu, the seat of the family in Leicestershire. He studied at Oxford, and at the inns of court; but, forsaking the law, married and retired to his native seat. Two years before his death he was knighted by Charles the First. He wrote the Crown of Thorns, a poem, of which no copy is known to be extant; Bosworth Field; and a variety of small original and translated pieces. Bosworth Field may be compared with Addison's Campaign, without a high compliment to either. Sir John has no fancy, but there is force and dignity in some of his passages; and he deserves notice as one of the earliest polishers of what is called the heroic couplet*. RICHARD BEFORE THE BATTLE OF BOSWORTH. THE duke's stout presence, and courageous looks, swords Are sharp, and need not whetting by my words, [name. And if I now in action teach the same, [* "The commendation of improving the rhythm of the couplet is due also to Sir John Beaumont, author of a short poem on the Battle of Bosworth Field. In other respects it has no pretensions to a high rank."-HALLAM'S Lit. Hist., vol. iii. p. 499. The poem, though a posthumous publication, was not without its prefatory commendations: This book will live; it hath a genius; this MICHAEL DRAYTON. [Born, 1570? Died, 1631.] MICHAEL DRAYTON was born in the parish of Atherston, in Warwickshire. His family was ancient, but it is not probable that his parents were opulent, for he was educated chiefly at the expense of Sir Godfrey Godere. In his childhood, which displayed remarkable proficiency, he was anxious to know what strange kind of beings poets were, and on his coming to college he importuned his tutor, if possible, to make him a poet. Either from this ambition, or from necessity, he seems to have adopted no profession, and to have generally owed his subsistence to the munificence of friends. An allusion which he makes, in the poem of "Moses's Birth and Miracles," to the destruction of the Spanish Armada, has been continually alleged as a ground for supposing that he witnessed that spectacle in a military capacity; but the lines, in fact, are far from proving that he witnessed it at all. On the accession of King James the First, he paid his court to the new sovereign, with all that a poet could offer, his congratulatory verses. James, however, received him but coldly, and though he was patronised by Lord Buckhurst and the Earl of Dorset *, he obtained no situation of independence, but continued to publish his voluminous poetry amidst severe irritations with his booksellers +. Popular as Drayton once was in comparison of the present neglect of him, it is difficult to conceive that his works were ever so profitable as to allow the bookseller much room for peculation. He was known as a poet many years before the death of Queen Elizabeth. His Poly-olbion, which the learned Selden honoured with notes, did not appear till 1613. In 1626 we find him styled poet laureate; but the title at that time was often a mere compliment, and implied neither royal appointment nor butt of canary. The Countess of Bedford supported him for many years. At the close of his life we find him in the family of the Earl of Dorset, to whose magnanimous countess the Aubrey MSS. ascribe the poet's monument over his grave in Westminster Abbey. cuous. The language of Drayton is free and perspiWith less depth of feeling than that which occasionally bursts from Cowley, he is a less excruciating hunter of conceits, and in harmony of expression is quite a contrast to Donne. A tinge of grace and romance pervades much of his poetry and even his pastorals, which [* Lord Buckhurst and the Earl of Dorset,-the poet and lord high treasurer,-are one and the same person.] [ He received a yearly pension of ten pounds from Prince Henry, to whom he dedicated his Poly-olbion.] exhibit the most fantastic views of nature, sparkle Purpureus latè qui splendeat unus et alter, In In we unhappily exchange only the geographer for the chronicler. On a general survey, the mass of his poetry has no strength or sustaining spirit adequate to its bulk. There is a perpetual play of fancy on its surface; but the impulses of passion, and the guidance of judgment, give it no strong movements nor consistent course. scenery or in history he cannot command selected views, but meets them by chance as he travels over the track of detail. His great subjects have no interesting centre, no shade for uninteresting things. Not to speak of his dull passages, his description is generally lost in a flutter of whimsical touches. His muse had certainly no strength for extensive flights, though she sports in happy moments on a brilliant and graceful wing*. [*"Drayton's Poly-olbion is a poem of about 30,000 lines in length, written in Alexandrine couplets, a measure, from its monotony, and perhaps from its frequency in doggrel ballads, not at all pleasing to the ear. It contains a topographical description of England, illustrated with a prodigality of historical and legendary erudition. Such a poem is essentially designed to instruct, and speaks to the understanding more than to the fancy. The powers displayed in it are, however, of a high cast. Yet perhaps no English poem, known as well by name, is so little known beyond its name."-HALLAM, Lit. Hist., vol. iii. p. 496-7. MORTIMER, EARL OF MARCH, AND THE QUEEN, SURPRISED BY EDWARD III. IN NOTTINGHAM CASTLE. FROM "THE BARONS' WARS," BOOK VI. WITHIN the castle hath the queen devised An orbal form with pillars small composed, In their corporeal shapes with stars inchased, About which lodgings, tow'rds the upper face, As equal 'twixt the high'st point and the base, Here Phoebus clipping Hyacinthus stood, So mix'd together in a little flood; The pretty wood-nymphs chafing him with balm, With the god's lyre, his quiver, and his bow, By which the heifer Io, Jove's fair rape, Swift Mercury, like to a shepherd's boy, And ciffy Cynthus with a thousand birds, The rock so lively done in every part, The naked nymphs, some up and down descending, There comes proud Phaeton tumbling through the clouds, Cast by his palfreys that their reins had broke, Drawn with such life, as some did much desire The river Po, that him receiving burn'd, And to this lodging did the light invent, |