1634. Died, GEORGE CHAPMAN, a poet and dramatist, in the 77th year of his age. He was the author of sixteen plays, and is also distinguished as the first translator of Homer into English verse. He has a high philosophical vein in his tragedies, and a very lively humour in his comedies, but wants passion and imagination. His All Fools, Widows' Tears, and Eastward Hoe, are his most esteemed plays of the latter kind; the last contains the first idea of Hogarth's Idle and Industrious Apprentices. The following is an abstract from one of his plays, describing

AN AUTHOR'S VANITY.

the foolish poet, that still writ

All his self-loved verse in paper royal,

Or parchment ruled with lead, smooth'd with the pumice,

Bound richly up, and strung with crimson strings;
Never so blest as when he writ and read
The ape-loved issue of his brain; and never
But joying in himself, admiring ever.

1634. A convocation met at Dublin, in which the importance of communicating the scriptures and liturgy to the natives of Ireland, in their own tongue, was the subject of much debate. Two canons were passed under the authority of archbishop Usher and Dr. Bedell ; the first, that where most of the people were Irish, the churchwardens should provide, at the charge of the parish, a bible and two common prayer books, in the Irish tongue:" the other, that, "where the minister was an Englishman, such a clerk might be chosen as should be able to read those parts of the service, which should be appointed to be read in Irish." The design of translating the bible met with violent opposition, not only from the catholics but many protestants;

All Fooles, a Comedy, presented at the Black Friers and lately before His Majestie. Written by George Chap

man. At London: printed for Thomas Thorpe. 1605.

Eastward Hoe. As it was playd in the Black-friers, by

the Children of her Majesties Revels. Made by Geo. Chapman, Ben Jonson. Joh. Marston. At London: printed for William Aspley. 1605. King James was so fispleased with this performance, on account of some castical remarks upon the Scotch, that both the writer

und printer were nigh being imprisoned.

magh. In his high station he conducted himself with

: William Bedell, D.D., was born at Black Notley, in ex, in 1570, and studied at Cambridge. In 1627 he was lected provost of Trinity college, Dublin, and two years Serwards was raised to the united sees of Kilmore and hat propriety which his private character had given reason expect; and his conciliatory procedure so won the warts of the catholics, that in the rebellion of 1641, his a Englishman that remained unviolated. He died Feb. He was buried in the church-yard of Kilmore, days after his death, when his remains were accomumed to the place of interrment by the rebel forces with anval honours. His manuscripts, of which there was large trunk full, fell into the hands of the Irish. ng the books carried off by them was his valuable ebrew manuscript bible, which is now in the library of Bannel college, Cambridge, and which was happily prefred by an Irish servant. This bible, which is in three Bo volumes, is said to have been presented to Emanuel leze, by the bishop. It has two columns in a page; the ital letters large, and decorated; an illumination round e first page of each volume; some letters gilt. It has @ vowel points, and the Masora. It was purchased of chief Chacam of the synagogue at Venice. Sir Henry otton gave for it its weight in silver.

ace in the county of Cavan, was the only habitation of 1642.

The new testament, and such passages of the old as nserted in the book of common prayer.

and the troubles which then raged in Ireland put a stop to all exertions; and the types which had been used for the printing of the new testament, and other books, after passing through several hands, were procured by the jesuits, and carried over to Douay, for the express purpose of extending their own principles in Ireland, through the medium of the vernacular tongue.

1634, June 25. Died, JOHN MARSTON, a poet and dramatist, whose forte is not sympathy with either the softer or stronger emotions, but an impudent scorn and bitter indignation against the vices and follies of men. He was rather more of a satirist than a dramatist.-Chambers.

Marston was the author of eight plays, and was concerned in two others. The whole of the quarto editions are very scarce indeed; and of these the Garrick collection possesses seven.

1635. It having been noticed that some of the assistants, and others of the livery, of the stabands, doublets slashed and cut, or other indetioners' company, came to the hall in falling cent apparel, not suitable to the habit of citizens; it was ordered that the assistants do come to the hall on court days in ruff bands.

1636. Mr. ROBERT ALLOTT gave £10 to the poor, and £10 for a dinner for the stationers'

company.

1536, Feb. 9. Died, PHILEMON HOLLAND, an industrious writer, who was a descendant of an ancient family of the Hollands, of Lancashire, and was the son of the Rev. John Holland, a pious divine, who, in queen Mary's days, was obliged to go abroad on account of his religion. He afterwards returned, and became pastor of Great Dunmow, where he died in 1578.

Philemon was born at Chelmsford, about the latter end of the reign of Edward VI.; and after some initiatory instruction at the grammar school of that place, was sent to Cambridge. his degree of M.A., in which he was incorporated He was admitted fellow of his college, and took

at Oxford in 1587.

Having left the university, he was appointed head master of the free-school of Coventry, in which laborious station he not only assiduously attended to his duties, but served the interests of learning, when learning was scantily dispensed, by those numerous translations which gained him the title of "Translator-general of the age." He likewise studied medicine, and practised with considerable reputation in his neighbourhood; and, when in his fortieth year, took his degree of M.D. at Cambridge.

He was a peaceable, quiet, and good man in all the relations of life; and, by temperate habits, attained his eighty-fifth year, without diminution of faculties or sight. He continued to translate till his eightieth year; and his translations, though devoid of elegance, are accounted faithful and accurate. His translation of Livy is said to have been written with one pen, which a lady of his acquaintance so highly prized that she had it embellished with silver, and kept it as a great curiosity. His other translations were Pliny's Natural History; Plutarch's Morals;

Philemon with translations does so fill us,
He will not let Suetonius be Tranquillus.

Dr. Holland was buried in St. Michael's church, at Coventry. He married a Staffordshire lady, by whom he had a large family. One of his sons, Henry, appears to have been a bookseller in London, and was editor of that valuable collection of portraits and lives, entitled Heroologia Anglicana. These portraits, sixtyfive in number, were chiefly engraved by the family of Pass, and many of them are valued as originals, having never been engraved since but as copies from these. When he died is not mentioned.

1636, April 5. Died, BONHAM NORTON, of Church-Stretton, in the county of Salop, esq. stationer, and sometime alderman of the city of London. See page 416, ante.

1636. The indefatigable Butter published No. 1, of the Principal Passages of Germany, Italy, France, and other places; all taken out of good originals, by an English Mercury. It is not ascertained whether William Watts was this English Mercury.

1636, Aug. 10. The patronage afforded by archbishop Laud to learning in general, and especially to oriental pursuits, claims our grateful recollection. During a period of uncommon agitation, in the affairs both of church and state, the archbishop constantly endeavoured to promote the cultivation of the oriental languages; he founded an Arabic lecture at Oxford, which began to be read upon this day, by the celebrated Dr. Edward Pocock, the first professor; he erected a library adjoining the Bodleian, with other elegant buildings. His enemies were irritated by his violent high church principles, which at length brought him to the block.

1636. The Book of Common Prayer and administration of the sacraments and other rites and ceremonies of the Church of England. London, imprinted by Robert Barker. Folio.

At the end of the Psalms, are certain godly prayers to be used for sundry purposes, in two sheets. And these are followed by the form and manner of making and consecrating bishops, priests, and deacons; with which this edition concludes.

1636. Through the liberality of Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, printing had been introduced into the town of Strengnes, an ancient episcopal town of Sweden, in order that Laurentius Paulinus, bishop of that town, might have his own works, On the christian Ethics, printed with less expense and delay than at Stockholm. The first production of this press was his Loimoscopia, executed by Olaus Olai Enæus, a printer brought from Stockholm, in the year 1623. Another work of this bishop, viz., Histore arctöa libri tres, may be seen in the Bodleian and Fagel

et impensis authoris, excudebat Johannes L. Barkenius, anno 1636. It is a quarto volume, of which both paper and press-work are very in different. Paulus subsequently becoming bisho of Upsal, carried thither his printing establish ment; but after a continuance there of two years it was reconveyed to its old abode.

1637, Feb. JOHN LILBURNE, who had serve an apprenticeship to the bookbinding business was found guilty of printing and publishing several seditious books, particularly News from Ipswich,* a production of Prynne's. He wa condemned to be whipped at the cart's tail from the Fleet-prison to Old Palace-yard, Westmin ster; then set in the pillory there for two hours afterwards to be carried back to the Fleet, the to remain till he conformed to the rules of th court; also to pay a fine of £500 to the king lastly, to give security for his good behaviou He underwent the sentence with undismay obstinacy, uttering many bold speeches again the bishops, and dispersing many pamphl from the pillory, where, after the star chamb then sitting had ordered him to be gagged, || stamped with his feet. The spirit he show upon this occasion procured him the nicknar of "Freeborn John" among the friends to t government, and among his own party the ti of Saint Wood characterizes him as a pers "from his youth much addicted to contenti novelties, opposition of government, and violent and better expressions." "The root the factious people;" naturally a great tresh world in all the variety of governments a hel podge of religion, the chief ring-leader of || levellers, a great proposal maker, a modeller state, publisher of several seditious pamphl and of so quarrelsome a disposition that it appositely said of him (by judge Jenkins) t "if there was none living but he, John would against Lilburne and Lilburne against Juh He died August 29, 1657.

1637, June. WILLIAM PRYNNE, author of Histriomastix, or Player's Scourge, which c tains all that was written against plays and pl ers, published in 1633, one thousand 4to. pag Dr. Burton; and Dr. Bastwick, author of Si Plea, which severely lashes the dignified cle and court vices, was condemned in the chamber to lose their ears, to pay a fine of £ each to the king, and to be imprisoned for in the castles of Carnarvon, Cornwall, and I caster. Sir John Finch brutally said, “Is

discovering certaine detestable practises of some domine * It is in quarto, and bears for title, Newes from Isn lordly prelates, &c. Printed at Ipswich. No da printer. The title-page has at the lower part a rude w leaves only, and is signed" Matthew White." The graphical execution of it is indifferent. June, MDCXXXVII. at the censure of John Bastwick, B + A speech delivered in the Starr-chamber the 14 Burton, and William Prinn; concerning pretended vations in the church. By William (Laud) abp. of terbury. 4to. London: printed on vellum by Ri Badger. A reprint of this work was executed unde directions of Dr. Rawlinson.

cut of Death, and another figure. The tract consists

Mr. Prynne? I had thought Mr. Prynne had no ears; but methinks he hath ears, and it is fit the court should take order that their decrees should be better executed,* and see whether Mr. Prynne hath ears or no." Prynne being conveyed through Chester to be imprisoned in Carnarvon he was met on his approach by numbers of the citizens, who paid so much respect to the sufferer for the liberty of conscience, as to give offence to the government. Many of them were therefore fined, some £500, £300, and £250. Mr. Peter Ince, a stationer, and one of the offenders, made a public recantation before the bishop, in the cathedral. In the following year, (1634,) four portraits of Prynne, painted in Chester, were buried at the High Cross, in the presence of the magistracy; but at the inning of the civil wars, they were triumplantly brought to London.

Prynne was an arrogant bigot, who wrote a kin barbarous taste; moreover, he loved Reither power nor the trappings of royalty; inged himself in unseemly invectives, and nifested altogether a most unmanageable traper. But Prynne was a brave and conscienas bigot, and his honest endeavours, in afterfe, to save king Charles from the block, should, augh it was late and unavailing, be admitted evidence in his favour. Remembering, too, the savage treatment he had experienced at the ads of Charles's ministers, his conduct deves to be called generous; for he wrote on the ag's behalf when so to write involved personal Prynne has written a library, amounting, haps, to nearly two hundred books. Our unky author, whose life was involved in authorp, and his happiness, no doubt, in the habitual lerance of his pen, seems to have considered he being debarred from pen, ink, and books, ing his imprisonment, as an act more barbas than the loss of his ears. The extraordiary perseverance of Prynne in this fever of the appears in the following title of one of his straordinary volumes, Comfortable Cordials ainst discomfortable Fears of Imprisonment; ntaining some Latin Verses, Sentences, and of Scripture. Written by Mr. William yane on his Chamber Walls, in the Tower of ion, during his imprisonment there; transi by him into English verse, 1641. Prynne eally verified Pope's description:

Is there, who, lock'd from ink and paper, scrawls, With desperate charcoal round his darkened walls. William Prynne took upon himself the office correct every enormity in church and state. * wrote against bishops, players, long hair and e-locks; and was in consequence dignified by party with the appellation of Cato: he was Ban of great reading; and Mr. Wood supthat he wrote a sheet for every day of his e, computing from the time of his arrival at n's estate. He says, "His custom was, when studied, to put on a long quilted cap, which

* According to a former sentence.

came an inch over his eyes, serving as an umbrella to defend them from too much light; and seldom eating a dinner, would, every three hours or more, be maunching a roll of bread, and now and then refresh his exhausted spirits with ale. He gave his works, in forty volumes folio and quarto, to the Society of Gray's Inn. There is a catalogue of them in the Athena Oxonienses. He died Oct. 23, 1666, and was buried in Lincoln's Inn chapel.

We have also a catalogue of printed books written by William Prynne, esq., of Lincoln's Iun, in these classes,

with this motto, "Jocundi acti labores," 1643. The secret history of this voluminous author concludes with a characteristic event: a cotemporary who saw Prynne in the pillory at Cheapside, says, that while he stood there they burnt his huge volumes under his nose, which had almost suffocated him."

Another sufferer for conscience sake was a

clergyman named Leighton, who, in a book entitled An Appeal to Parliament, or Sion's Plea against Prelacy, used language so inflammatory as to attract the notice of Laud. He him to undergo the following extraordinary was brought before the peers, who adjudged punishment: he was degraded from the ministry, was publicly whipped in the palace-yard, stood two hours in the pillory, and had an ear cut off, a nostril slit open, and a cheek branded with S. S. to denote a sower of sedition. At the end of one week Leighton had a second whipping, and was again placed in the pillory; he then lost the other ear, had the other nostril slit, and was branded on the other cheek. Thus degraded and mutilated, he was conducted back to prison; and, not finding mercy from Charles, he remained in confinement ten years, and was then liberated by the parliament when it was in arms against the king.

1637. Thieves falling out True-men come by their Goods, or the Bel-man wanted a Clapper. A Peele of new villanies rung out, being musicall to gentlemen, lawyers, farmers, and all sorts of people that come up to the tearme. Shewing that the villanies of lewd women by many degrees excell those of men. By Robert Greene.

Goe not by me, but by me, and get by me.

Printed for Henry and Moses Bell.

1637. A collection of the best Latin poetical compositions of Scotchmen which had appeared in this and the preceding century, was printed at Amsterdam, entitled Delita Poetarum Scotorum, 2 vols. Dr. Johnson says this work reflects great credit on the country. Latin poetry was more extensively cultivated in Scotland than either English or Scotch. The principal poets За

1637, Aug. 6. Died, BENJAMIN JONSON, a distinguished comic poet. He was born at Westminster, July 31, 1574. His father was a clergyman, and died about a month before the birth of our poet, who received his education at Westminster school; but his mother marrying again, his father-in-law, who was a bricklayer, compelled him to work at his business. On this he listed for a soldier, and went to the Netherlands, where he distinguished himself by his courage. After his return he went to St. John's college, Cambridge, but did not remain there long, owing to his extreme poverty. He then turned his attention to the stage, and became a player and dramatic writer, with indifferent success, till Shakspeare gave him his assistance. His first printed play was his comedy of Every Man in his Humour, produced at the Rose Theatre, Nov. 25, 1596, after which he produced a new piece* annually for several years. He engaged with Chapman and Marston in writing a comedy called Eastward Hoe, which heing deemed a satire on the Scotch nation, had nearly brought the authors to the pillory. On the death of Samuel Daniel, in 1619, he was made laureate; and the university of Oxford conferred on him the degree of M. A.

All the dramatic writings of Jonson are deficient in passion and sentiment, and his genius seems to have been upon the whole best fitted for the production of those classic idealities which constituted the masque. For these reasons, though the great reputation attained by Ben Jonson in his own time still affects our consideration of him, he is not now much read, and Every Man in his Humour is the only one which how continues to be occasionally performed. The following Song is taken from the Queen's Masque, performed in 1605:

SONG.

So beauty on the waters stood,

When love had severed earth from flood;
So when he parted ayre from fire,
He did with concord all inspire;
And there a matter he then taught,
That elder then himself was thought;
Which thought was yet the child of earth,
For love is older than his birth.

On the death of Jonson, the king, who was competent judge of poetry, wished to confer he vacant wreath on Thomas May, afterwards historian of the Long Parliament; but the

Been obtained it for her favourite bard William

Davenant, author of Gondibert, a heroic poem, ad of a great number of plays. The office and ension were given to Davenant in December, 638, sixteen months after the death of Jonson;

• The Garrick copy of this Masque was the presentation py of Ben Jonson to the queen, and has this inscription the poet's own writing :-"D. Annæ M. Britanniarum 3. Hib. &c. Reginæ Feliciss. Formosiss. Musæo S. S. fane librum vovit Famæ et honori ejus Servientiss. imo ddictissimus. BEN. JONSON."

Victurus Genium debet habere liber.

* The Sejanus; the Alchymist; the Silent Woman; and tragedy of Volpone were entered on the book of the tationers' company, October 3, 1600.

66

the delay having probably been occasioned by the dispute which had broken out in the interval, between the king and his Scottish subjects. The character given of him by Drummond is worth copying, if not for its justice, at least for its force: he was a great lover and praiser of himself; a contemner and scoffer of others; rather given to lose a friend than a jest; jealous of every word and action of those about him, especially after drink, which was one of the elements in which he lived; a dissembler of the parts which reign in him; a bragger of some others that he wanted-thinking nothing well done but what he himself, or some of his friends, had said or done."

a

Tradition has sent down to us several tavern tales of "Rare Ben." A good humoured one has been preserved of the first interview between bishop Corbet,* when a young man, and our great bard. It occurred at a tavern where Corbet was sitting alone. Ben, who had probably just drank up to the pitch of good fellowship, desired the waiter to take to the gentleman quart of raw wine; and tell him," he added, I sacrifice my service to him."—" Friend," replied Corbet, "I thank him for his love; but tell him from me that he is mistaken; for sacrifices are always burnt." This pleasant allusion to the mulled winet of the time, by the young wit, could not fail to win the affection of the master wit himself.—Harleian manuscripts,6 ,6395.

66

It is related, that when Jonson was on his death-bed the king sent him ten pieces. Ben remarked, "he sends me this trifle because I am poor and live in ally: but go back and tell him that his soul lives in an alley." He was buried in Westminster abbey.

1638. Printing introduced into CAMBRIDGE, in Massachusetts, a large town in Middlesex county. As this settlement was the cradle of the art of printing throughout the vast continent of North America, and many volumes of considerable interest have issued from its presses, the reader will perhaps be gratified with the following detailed account, taken from Thomas's History of Printing; Thomas himself being a native of that colony, and having investigated the history of its early typography with considerable care.

"The founders of the colony of Massachusetts consisted of but a small number of persons, who arrived at the town of Salem in 1628; a few more joined them in 1629; and governor Winthrop, with the addition of 1500 settlers, arrived

divine, born at the close of the sixteenth century, and was * Richard Corbet was a facetious poet and distinguished educated at Christ church, Oxford. He rose rapidly in the church. He was bishop of Oxford in 1629, and in 1632 was translated to Norwich. He died July 28, 1635, and was buried in the cathedral of Norwich.

+ It appears that at this time, wine was sent as a complimentary present from persons in one room in a tavern to those in another. It was a polite form of introduction, as appears from Shakspeare's Merry Wives of Windsor, where Bardolph says:-"Sir John, there's Master Brook below would fain speak with you, and would be acquainted with you, and hath sent your worship a morning's draught of sack." To which, by the way, sir John rejoins with ad. mirable punning pleasantry, "that such Brooks are welcome to him that o'erflow such liquor."