So goodly as she dresses,
So properly she presses,
The bryght golden tresses
Of her heare so fyne
Lyke Phebus beames shyne.
Where to should I disclose
The garteryng of her hose?
It is for to suppose
Howe that she can weare
Gorgiouslye her geare;
Her freshe habilementes,
With other implementes
To serue for all ententes.
Lyke dame Flora, queene
Of lusty somer grene,
This moste goodly flour,

This blossome of freshe coloure,

So Jupiter me succoure,

She florysheth new and new
In beauty and vertew;
Hac claritate gemina,
O gloriosa fœmina,

Clamavi in toto corde exaudi me.

O gloriosa fœmina.

mine,

With this psalm, Domine probasti me,

Shall saile ouer the sea,
With tibi domine commendamus,
On pilgrimages to sainct Jamys,
For shrympes, and for pranes,
And for stalkynge cranes;
And wher my pen hath offended
I pray you it may be amended
By discrete consideration
Of your wise reformacion;
I haue not offended I trust,
If it be sadly discust.
It were no gentle guyse
This treatise to dispise
Because I haue writen and sayd
Honour of this fayre mayd;
Wherfore should I be blamed,
That I Jane named,

And famously proclamed?
She is worthy to be enrold
With letters of golde.

Car elle vault.

PER me laurigerum Britonum

Skeltonida vatem

No man can let me thinke,
For thought hath liberti,
Thought is franke and free;
To thynke a mery thought
It cost me litle or nought.
Wold God mine homely stile
Were pollished with the file
Of Ciceros eloquence,
To prayse her excellence;
The most goodlye floure,
This blossome of freshe coloure,
So Jupiter me succoure,
She florysheth new and new
In beauty and vertue;
Hac claritate gemina,
O gloriosa fœmina,
Principes persecuti sunt me gratis,
Omnibus consideratis. Paradisus
voluptatis, hæc virgo est
dulcissima.

Mr pen it is vnable, My hand it is vnstable; My reason rude and dull To prayse her at the full; Goodly maistres Jane, Sobre, demure Diane; Jane this maistres hight, The lode star of delight; Dame Venus of all pleasure, The wel of worldly treasure; She doth excede and passe In prudence dame Pallas;

demita puella est

Or Onocentaures, Or Hipocentaurius,

By whose might and mayne
An hart was slayne
With hornes twayne
Of glittering gold;
And the appels of gold
Of Hesperides withhold,
And with a dragon kept,
That neuer more slept;
By marcial strengthe
He wan at length,
And slue Gerion

With three bodies in one;
With mighty corage
Avaunted the rage
Of a lyon sauage;
Of Dyomedes stable
He brought out a rable
Of coursers and rounses
With leapes and bounses.

And with mighty lugging,
Wrestlyng and tuggyng,
He plucked the bul
By the horned skul,

And offred to Cornucopia,
And so forth, per cetera.
Also by Ecates bower,
In Plutus gastly tower,

sior ulla est;

Formosam potius, quam commendaret Homerus ;

Sic juvat interdum rigidos recreare labores

Nec minus hoc titulo tersa Minerva mea est.

Rien que plaisere.

Thus endeth the boke of Philip Sparow, and here foloweth an adicion made by master Skelton.

THE gyse now a dayes
Of some ianglyng iayes,
Is to discommend
That they cannot amend,
Though they wold spend
All the wyttes they have.
What ayle them to depraue
Phillip Sparowes graue
His dirige: her commendacion
Can be no derogacion,
But myrth and consolacion,
Made by protestacion;
No man to miscontent
With Phillippes enterement.

Alas that goodly mayd,
Why should she be afrayd;
Why should she take shame
That her goodly name

That neuer haue rest nor ease.

By the venemous serpent
That in hel is neuer brente,
In Lerna, the Grekes fen,
That was engendred then.
By Chemeras flames,
And all deadly names
Of infernal posty
Where soules fry and rosty.
By the stigial flood,
And the streames wood
Of Cocitus botumles wel;
By the feryman of hel,

Caron, with his beard hore,
That roweth with a rude ore,
And with his fore top
Gideth his bote with a prop;
I coniure Philip, and cal
In the name of king Saul,
Primo regum expresse;
He had the Phitonesse,
To wytchecraft her to dres;
And by her abusions
And damnable illusions
Of merueylous conclusions,
And by her supersticions
And wonderful condicions,
She raysed vp in that stede
Samuel that was deade.

But whether it were so He were, idem in numero,

76

LITTLE addition was made to English poetry, and no improvement, for more than a century after Chaucer's death. The cloister was not a school for it, but leisure was no where else to be found during the long civil wars; and the men who were disposed as well as able to have acquired honours for themselves, while they benefited their country, by promoting literature, were engaged and sacrificed in the tremendous struggle. At the close of that struggle, Stephen Hawes flourished. He was a native of Suffolk, and may, probably, have known Lydgate, whose poems, as well as those of the earlier worthies, it is said that he could recite; a talent whereby he recommended himself to Henry the Seventh's favour. But he had other and better claims, for he had profited well by good opportunities,

having been educated at Oxford, travelled in France, and studied with diligence and success the French and Italian poets. Little more is known of his life than that he was Groom of the Privy Chamber, and is said to have confuted a Lollard in a public disputation at Canterbury.

The Temple of Glass, which has sometimes been ascribed to Hawes, is Lydgate's composition. The Pastime of Pleasure, as it is the best English poem of its century, so is it the best of a kind which was cultivated more successfully in Scotland than in England. It is said to have been composed in 1506, and was printed in 1517, 1554, and 1555. There has been no later edition.

Neither the year of his birth nor of his death is known.

THE HISTORIE OF GRAUNDE AMOURE AND LA BELL PUCEL, CALLED

THE PASTIME OF PLESURE,

COTEINING THE KNOWLEGE OF THE SEVE SCIENCES AND THE COURSE OF MANS LIFE IN THIS WORLDE. INVENTED BY STEPHEN HAWES, GROME OF KING HENRY THE SEVENTH HIS CHAMBER.

Newly perused and imprinted by IOHN WAYLAND, aucthorised a Prynter, by the Queenes Highnes most gracious Letters Patentes.

THE CONTENTES OF THIS BOKE.

How Graunde Amoure walked in a medowe, and met with Fame enuyroned with tongues of fyre ca. i. Of the swete report of Fame, of the fayre ladye La bell Pucell, in the tower of Musike ca. ii. How Fame departed from Graunde Amoure, and left him Gouernauce and Grace, and how he wente to the tower of Doctrine ca. iii. How he was let in by Countenauce the portresse, and of the marueylous building of the same tower ca. iiii. How Science sent him first to Gramer, where he was receiued by dame Congruitie How he was receiued of Logyke

ca. v.

ca. vi,

Nor hyde my matter, with a misty smoke
My rudenes cunnyng, dothe so sore consume
Yet as I may, I shall blowe out a fume
To hyde my mynde, vnderneth a fable
By couert coloure, well and probable.

Besechyng your grace, to pardon mine ignoraunce
Whiche this fayned fable, to eschue idlenes
Haue so compiled, nowe without doubtaunce
For to present, to your hye worthines
To folowe the trace, and all the perfitenes
Of my master Lydgate, with due exercise
Suche fayned tales, I do fynde and deuise.

For vnder a coloure, a truthe may arise
As was the guise, in olde antiquitye
Of the poetes olde, a tale to surmise
To cloke the trouthe, of their infirmitye
Or yet on ioye to haue moralitye
I me excuse, if by necligence

That I do offende, for lacke of science.

Your graces most boūden seruaūt, Stephen Hawes, one of the gromes of your maiesties chamber, the. xxi. yeare of your prosperous raygne.

HOWE GRAUND AMOUR WALKED IN A MEDOWE, AND
MET WITH FAME, ENUIRONED WITH TONGUES OF
FIRE. CHAP. I.

WHEN Phoebus entred was, in Geminy
Shinyng aboue, in his fayre goldē spere
And horned Dyane, then but one degre
In the Crabbe had entred, fayre and cleare
When that Aurora, did well appeare

In the depured ayre, and cruddy firmament
Forthe then I walked, without impediment

In to a medowe bothe gaye and glorious
Whiche Flora depainted with many a colour
Like a place of pleasure most solacious
Encensyng out, the aromatike odoure

Of Zepherus breathe, whiche that euery floure
Throughe his fume, dothe alwaie engender
So as I went among the floures tender

By sodaine chaunce, a faire pathe I founde
On whiche I loked, and right oft I mused
And then all about, I behelde the grounde
With the faire pathe, whiche I sawe so vsed
My chaunce or fortune, I nothing refused
But in the pathe, forth I went a pace
To knowe whither, and vnto what place

It woulde me bryng, by any similitude
So forth I went, were it ryght or wrong
Tyll that I sawe, of royall pulcritude
Before my face, an ymage fayre and strong
With two fayre handes, stretched out along
Unto two hye wayes, there in particion
And in the right hande, was this description

This is the strayght waye of contemplacion
Unto the ioyfull tower perdurable
Who that wyll walke, vnto that mancion
He must forsake, all thynges variable
With the vayne glory, so muche deceyuable
And though the way, be hard and daūgerous
The last ende thereof, shal be ryght precious.

And in the other hande, ryght fayre wrytten was
This is the waye, of worldly dignitye

Of the actiue lyfe, who wyll in it passe
Unto the tower, of fayre dame Beautye
Fame shal tell hym, of the way in certaintye
Unto La bell Pucell, the fayre lady excellent
Aboue all other, in cleare beauty splendent

I behelde ryght well, bothe the wayes twayne
And mused oft, whyche was best to take
The one was sharpe, the other was more plaine
And vnto my selfe, I began to make
A sodayne argument, for I myght not slake
Of my great musyng, of this royall ymage
And of these two wayes, so much in vsage

For thys goodly picture was in altitude,
Nyne fote and more, of fayre marble stone
Ryght well fauored, and of great altitude
Though it were made, full many yeres agone
Thus stode I musynge, my selfe all alone
By right long tyme, but at the last I went
The actyue way, with all my whole entent

Thus all alone, I began to trauayle
Forthe on my waye, by long continuaunce
But often times, I had great maruayle
Of the by pathes, so full of pleasaunce
Whiche for to take, I had great doubtaunce
But euermore, as nere as I myght

I toke the waye, whiche went before me right

And at the laste, when Phebus in the west
Gan to auayle, with all his beames merye
When cleare Dyana, in the fayre southest
Gan for to ryse, lightyng our emispery
With clowdes cleare, wythout the stormy pery
Me thought afarre, I had a vysyon
Of a picture, of marueylous facyon.

To whiche I went, without lenger delaye
Beholdyng well, the right faire portrayture
Made of fine copper, shydyng faire and gaye
Full well truely, accordyng to measure
And as I thought, nine fote of stature
Yet in the breast, with letters fayre and blewe
Was written, a sentence, olde and true

This is the waye, and the sytuacion
Unto the toure, of famous Doctrine
Who that will learne, must be ruled by Reason
And with all his diligence, he must encline
Slouthe to eschue, and for to determine
And set his hert, to be intelligible
To a willyng herte, is nought impossible

Beside the ymage, I adowne me sette
After my laboure, my selfe to repose
Till at the last, with a gasping nette

Slouth my head caught, with his whole purpose
It vayled not, the bodye for to dispose

Againste the heade, when it is applied
The heade must rule, it can not be denied

Thus as I satte, in a deadly slomber
Of a great horne, I hearde a royall blast
With which I awoke, and had a great wonder
From whence it came, it made me sore agast
I loked about, the night was well nere past
And fayre golden Phebus, in the morow graye
With clowdes redde, began to breake the daye