Sound sleep by night; study and ease,
Together mixt; sweet recreation :
And innocence, which most does please,
With meditation.

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown,

Thus unlamented let me die,

Steal from the world, and not a stone

Tell where I lie.

Pope also is reported to have said, "I wrote things, I am ashamed to say how soon: part of my epic poem 'Alcander' when about twelve."

Congreve wrote "The Old Bachelor" when he was only nineteen.

Other instances of such precocity could be cited, but I have perhaps said enough to place it within the region of possibility that the poems we are considering were the work of a young boy. The poems themselves contain strong internal evidence of such an origin. Take the following specimen from the 1569 collection:

Then did appeare to me a sharped spire
Of diamant, ten feete eche way in square,
Justly proportionde up unto his height,

So hie as mought an Archer reache with sight.
Upon the top therof was set a pot

Made of the mettall that we honour most.

And in this golden vessell couched were
The ashes of a mightie Emperour.
Upon foure corners of the base there lay,
To beare the frame, foure great Lions of golde.
A worthie tombe for such a worthie corps.
Alas, nought in this worlde but griefe endures.
A sodaine tempest from the heaven, I saw,
With flushe stroke downe this noble monument.

This was revised as follows in the collection of 1591:

Then did a sharped spyre of Diamond bright,
Ten feete each way in square appeare to mee,
Justly proportion'd up unto his hight,

So far as Archer might his level see:

The top thereof a pot did seeme to beare,

Made of the mettall, which we most do honour ;
And in this golden vessel couched weare
The ashes of a mightie Emperour :

Upon foure corners of the base were pight,
To beare the frame, foure great Lyons of gold;
A worthy tombe for such a worthy wight.
Alas, this world doth nought but grievance hold!
I saw a tempest from the heaven descend,
Which this brave monument with flash did rend.

There are other interesting examples of what are evidently primitive attempts of the author in verse translation, amended later by himself. Take, for example, the following rendering of Marot's verse in the Visions of Petrarch included in the Complaints of 1591:

After, at sea a tall ship did appeare,

Made all of Heben and white Yvorie;

The sailes of golde, of silke the tackle were :
Milde was the winde, calme seem'd the sea to bee,
The skie eachwhere did show full bright and faire :
With rich treasures this gay ship fraighted was :
But sudden storme did so turmoyle the aire,
And tumbled up the sea, that she (alas)

Strake on a rock, that under water lay,

And perished past all recoverie.

O, how great ruth, and sorrowfull assay,

Doth vex my spirite with perplexitie,

Thus in a moment to see lost and drown'd,
So great riches as like cannot be found!

The last five lines have been extended from three lines in the Theatre for Worldlings, which are as follow:

O great misfortune, O great griefe, I say,
Thus in one moment to see lost and drownde
So great riches, as lyke can not be founde.

In the 1591 edition the Visions of Petrarch end with the following stanza :

When I behold this tickle trustles state
Of vaine worlds glorie, flitting too and fro,
And mortall men tossed by troublous fate
In restles seas of wretchednes and woe;
I wish I might this wearie life forgoe,
And shortly turne unto my happie rest,
Where my free spirite might not anie moe
Be vext with sights, that doo her peace molest.

And ye, faire Ladie, in whose bounteous brest

All heavenly grace and vertue shrined is,

When ye, these rythmes doo read, and vew the rest,
Loath this base world, and thinke of heavens blis :

And though ye be the fairest of Gods creatures,

Yet thinke, that death shall spoyle your goodly features.

It is not surprising to find that this is not in the Theatre for Worldlings. Instead of it are the following

lines :

These are follows:

My Song thus now in thy Conclusions,
Say boldly that these same Six Visions
Do yelde unto thy lorde a sweete request,
Ere it be long within the earth to rest.

a bald translation of Marot's French, as

O chanson mienne, en tes conclusions
Dy hardiment: Ces six grans visions

A mon seigneur donnent un doulx desir
De briefvement soubz la terre gesir.

The attraction of thoughts and subjects of a serious and religious cast for a precocious child is, I believe, very common, and in Bacon's case the instruction of his mother, who was a woman of strong religious feeling, must have had an influence in this direction. She was a Protestant of the Geneva School, and an interesting light is thrown on her by the writer of an attack on Burghley's Government from the Catholic camp published anonymously in Cologne in 1592 under the title "A Declaration of the True Causes of the great troubles presupposed to be intended against the realme of England." From the style and matter I take it to have been written by a member, or advocate, of the English Catholic aristocracy, and it was considered by the Government of sufficient importance to be answered by a formal manifesto. This was written by Francis Bacon, and is perhaps

of the most brilliant of his shorter writings.1 In this book ("A Declaration," etc.) Cecil is described 1 Spedding, Life, i. 146: Observations on a Libel.

P

as a "sly sicophant," who induced Queen Elizabeth to change the old religion :

He then promoted unto authoritie one Nicolas Bacon, with whom before he was lynked in bonds of affinitie, who being also of meane birth, but of an exceding craftie witt, was the more fitt to be joined with himself in the menaging of the new Governement.

Aided by Nicholas Bacon, and their respective wives, the writer says that Cecil set up a church of his own invention :

The apologie of this Church was written in Latin, and translated into English by A. B. with the commendacio of M. C., which twain were sisters, and wives unto Cecill and Bacon, and gave their assistance and helping hands, in the plot and fortification of this new erected synagog.1

Naturally the influence of Bacon's mother would appear most strongly in his early writings, and would give direction to his ideas on subjects associated with religious thought. An example is to be found in the attempts to versify some of the passages in the Revelation of St. John, which are included in the Theatre for Worldlings, where the writer says "the Holy Ghost by S. John setteth him [Anti-christ] out in his colours." I select one out of four :

I saw new Earth, new Heaven, sayde Saint John.
And loe, the sea (quod he) is now no more.
The holy Citie of the Lorde, from hye
Descendeth garnisht as a loved spouse.

A voice then sayde, beholde the bright abode
Of God and men. For he shall be their God,
And all their teares he shall wipe cleane away.
Hir brightnesse greater was than can be founde,
Square was this Citie, and twelve gates it had.
Eche gate was of an orient perfect pearle,
The houses golde, the pavement precious stone.
A lively streame, more cleere than Christall is,

Ranne through the mid, sprong from triumphant seat.
There growes lifes fruite unto the Churches good.

I think it was Bacon's habit from his earliest age to

1 Ann Bacon and Mildred Cecil, daughters of Sir Anthony Cooke. The book referred to is Bishop Jewel's Apologia pro Ecclesia Anglicana, 1562.

turn his reading (which must have been incessant) into verse-that is to say, anything which specially appealed to his fancy and was within his powers or to store it up in his capacious memory for future use. Reminiscent, I think, of these early experiments in Biblical paraphrase is the following passage in one of Harvey's letters to "Immerito" published in 1580 in Three proper and wittie familiar Letters, etc. (the writer here on both sides being, in my opinion, either wholly or mainly, the same person):

I hearde once a Divine, preferre Saint Johns Revelation before al the veriest Metaphysicall Visions, and jollyest conceited Dreames or Extasies, that ever were devised by one or other, howe admirable, or super excellent soever they seemed otherwise to the worlde. And truely I am so confirmed in this opinion, that when I bethinke me of the verie notablest, and moste wonderful Propheticall, or Poeticall Vision, that ever I read, or hearde, me seemeth the proportion is so unequall, that there hardly appeareth anye semblaunce of Comparison: no more in a maner (especially for Poets) then doth betweene the incomprehensible Wisdome of God, and the sensible Wit of man.

Such being this writer's early performance, it may be regarded as certain that other writings, even if none were extant, continued to flow from his pen. But such writings do, in fact, exist, as I shall hope to be able to show from internal evidence, though, as always in this case, they are concealed under the names of other men. The first of these "impersonations" is, in my belief, the poet Gascoigne, whose works, together with the relevant circumstances of his life, I will now proceed to examine.

George Gascoigne is supposed to have been born about the year 1525; he was the son of Sir John Gascoigne of Bedfordshire; was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and left without taking a degree; is said to have entered the Middle Temple before 1548; was of an irregular disposition, and, according Whetstone's Remembrance, was disinherited by his father on account of his extravagance. In 1555 he became a student of Gray's Inn, and subsequently

to