commended by Edmund Bolton and Antony Wood. See the new and much-enriched edition of Phillips's Theatrum Poetarum Anglicanorum, 1800, p. 228, 268. Wood relates further, that Conftable" has alfo feveral Sonnets extant, written to Sir P. Sydney, fome of which are fet before the Apology for Poetry, written by the faid knight."-But by the preceding writers no mention is made of Conftable's Sonnets, as a complete publication, or as unconnected with other works. I have been induced to fay fo much of Conftable, because I poffefs a very curious little volume, in manufcript, of feveral Sonnets, Satires, Epigrams, &c. written by different poets in the reign of Elizabeth; among which are Conftable's "Sonets," commencing with a poetical addrefs "To his Miftreffe." Then follows in profe "The order of the booke."

"The fonets following are divided into 3 parts, each parte contayning 3 feverall arguments, and every argument 7 fonets.

"The first parte is of variable affections of loue, wherein the first 7 be of the beginning and byrth of his loue; the second 7 of the prayfe of his Miftreffe; the thyrd 7 of feuerall accidents hapning in the tyme of his loue.

"The second is the prayfe of perticulars, wherein the first 7 be of the generall honours of this Ile, through the prayfes of the heads thereof, the Q. of England and K. of Scotts; the second 7 celebrate the memory of perticular Ladies whome the author most honoureth; the third 7 be to the honour of perticulars, prefented vpon feuerall occafions.

"The thyrd part is tragicall, conteyning only lamentations, wherein the first 7 be complaynts onlye of misfortunes in loue; the fecond 7 feuerall fonets of the death of perticulars; the last 7 of the end and death of his loue."-The Sonnet to the King of Scots, before-mentioned, is the fifth in the fecond part, and is infcribed "To the K. of Scots touching the fubiect of his poems dedicated wholie to heauenly matters.

"When others hooded with blind loue doe flye, &c." As this Sonnet is fo well known, I will exhibit the Sonnet preceding it in the manufcript, which is alfo addreffed "To the K. of Scots whome as yet he had not feene."

"Bloome of the rofe! I hope thofe hands to kiffe,

"Which, yonge, a fcepter, which, olde, wifdome bore; "And offer vp joy-facrifice before

"Thy altar throne for that receiued bliffe.

"Yet, prince of hope! fuppofe not for all this,
"That I thy place and not thy guifts adore;
"Thy scepter? no, thy pen I honour more;
"More deare to me than crowne thy garland is,
"That laurell garland, which (if hope fay true)
"To thee for deeds of proweffe shall belong;
"And now allreadie vnto thee is due,

"As to a Dauid, for a kinglie throne,

"The pen wherewith thou doft so heauenly finge,
"Made of a quill pluckt from an Angells winge.”

At the conclufion of the third part are the following words: "When I had ended this last fonet, and found that fuch vayne poems, as I had by idle houres writ, did amounte iuft to the diametricall number 63; me thought it was high tyme for my follie to die, and to employe the remnant of wit to other calmer thoughts leffe fweete and leffe bitter." Then follow three Sonnets, the two last of which are by another poet, as perhaps the first alfo may be, which is infcribed " To the diuine protection of the Ladie Arbella the author commendeth both his Graces honoure and his Mufes æternitye." The fecond "To H. C. Vpon occafion of his two former Sonets to the K. of Scots." The laft "To H. C. Vpon occasion of leauing his countrye, and sweetnesse of his Verfe." There is an elegance in this Sonnet with which the reader will be pleased:

"Englands fweete nightingale! what frights thee so,
"As over fea to make thee take thy flight,

"And there to liue with natiue countreyes foe,
"And there him with thy heauenly fongs delight?

"What, did thy fifter fwallowe thee excite

"With her, for winters dread, to flye away? "Who is it then hath wrought this other spite, "That when as she returneth thow shouldst stay? "As foone as fpring begins, the cometh ay:

"Returne with her; and thow like tidings bring: "When once men fee thee come, what will they say? "Loe, now of English po'efie comes the Spring! "Come, feare thow not the cage, but loyall be,

"And ten to one thy foveraigne pardons thee."

This Sonnet confirms Dr. Birch's conjecture, that Henry Conftable was the fame perfon who fled from his country, on account

of his attachment to the Popish religion. Whether the collection, of which I have given an account, ever reached the prefs, I have been unable to difcover. However, if published (which I doubt), it has been little known, and hitherto undefcribed. Mr. Malone has, in his collection, a very rare little book, containing Sonnets by Conftable, entitled "Diana. Or The excellent conceitful Sonnets of H. C. Augmented with diuers Quatorzains of honorable and learned perfonages. Deuided into viij. Decads." But this is not the fame work. I must not omit to mention, that I am indebted to the courtesy of Mr. Alderman Briftow, book feller in Canterbury, for the manufcript.

From Constable I proceed to the elegant poet Drummond, whofe Sonnets &c. were firft published in 1616, and, as Dr. J. Warton has obferved, are exquifitely beautiful and correct. That Milton read and admired him, may appear by feveral paffages, which have been cited from his Sonnets, Madrigals, and other pieces, in the pages of these volumes.

Dr. J. Warton, fpeaking of the measure obferved in the Sonnet, fays, that it is a measure which the great number of fimilar terminations renders easy in the Italian, but difficult in our language. And Dr. Johnson remarks, that, for this reafon, the fabrick of the regular Sonnet has never fucceeded in English. But it may be answered, in the words of a lady; whofe opinion coincides with that of Mr. T. Warton, and whofe own Sonnets eminently confirm the obfervation, that "the fallacy of this remark is proved by the great number of beautiful legitimate Sonnets, which adorn our national poetry, not only by Milton, but by many of our modern poets." Pref. to Original Sonnets, &c. by Anna Seward, 1799, p. v.

The following unpublished Sonnet, addreffed to a friend by the late Benjamin Stillingfleet, Efq., and for which I am obliged. to the prefent bishop of Rochefter, will prove alfo how attentively, and how fuccessfully, Milton was ftudied, and imitated in this fpecies of compofition more than half a century fince. It is dated in 1746.

When I behold thee, blameless Williamfon,

Wreck'd like an infant on a favage shore;

While others round on borrow'd pinions foar,
My bufy fancy calls thy thread mifspun;

Till Faith inftructs me the deceit to fhun,

While thus the fpeaks: "Those wings that from the store "Of virtue were not lent, howe'er they bore

"In this grofs air, will melt when near the fun. "The truly ambitious wait for nature's time, "Content by certain though by flow degrees. "To mount above the reach of vulgar flight: "Nor is that man confin'd to this low clime, "Who but the extremeft skirts of glory fees, "And hears celestial echoes with delight."

The character of the Italian Sonnet has been given b Henry, join, from the preface to Mifs Seward's Sonnets, Mr. White's mafterly definition of the nature and perfection of this kind of verfe in our own language.

"Little Elegies, confifting of four stanzas and a couplet, are no more Sonnets than they are Epick poems. The Sonnet is of a particular and arbitrary conftruction; it partakes of the nature of blank verfe, by the lines running into each other at proper intervals. Each line of the first eight, rhymes four times; and the order in which thofe rhymes fhould fall is decifive. For the enfuing fix there is more licence; they may, or may not, at pleafure, close with a couplet. Of Milton's English Sonnets, only that to Oliver Cromwell ends with a couplet, but the fingle inftance is a fufficient precedent; however, in three out of his five Italian ones, the concluding lines rhyme to each other.

"The style of the Sonnet should be nervous, and, where the fubject will with propriety bear elevation, fublime; with which, fimplicity of language is by no means incompatible. If the fubject be familiar and domestick, the style should, though affectionate, be nervous; though plain, be energetick. The great models of perfection, for the fublime and domeftick Sonnet, are thofe of Milton's, To the Soldier to Spare his dwelling-place, and To Mr. Lawrence. The Sonnet is certainly the most difficult fpecies of poetick compofition; but difficulty, well fubdued, is excellence. Mrs. Smith says, she has been told that the regular Sonnet fuits not the nature or genius of our language. Surely this affertion cannot be demonftrated, and therefore was not worth attention.

"Out of eighteen English Sonnets, written by Milton, four are bad. The rest, though they are not free from certain hard

neffes, have a pathos and greatness in their fimplicity, fufficient to endear the legitimate Sonnet to every reader of just taste. They poffefs a characteristick grace, which can never belong to three elegiack stanzas, clofing with a couplet."

The concluding lines of our ancient Sonnets, however, often rhyme to each other. I muft alfo obferve that fome of Conftable's Sonnets confist of lines of fix feet, but with the usual order of rhymes; as in a Sonnet "To his Miftreffe, &c."

"Miracle of the world, I never will denye

"That former poets prayfe the beauties of theyre days; "But all those beauties were but figures of thy prayse, "And all those poets did of thee but prophecye. "Thy coming to the world hath taught us to defcrie "What Petrarch's Laura meant, &c." Todd.