distinguished talents and great virtues, who watched over his early years with no ordinary care, and whose chief delight was in directing his studies and regulating his amusements. He repaid their anxious solicitude by exhibiting in his childhood and youth one of the most striking examples on record of filial love and gratitude. Dr. Drake, after quoting Camden's flattering encomiums on Sidney's character, closes his review of his life as follows:-"After such an eulogy, and from such a quarter, I know not that any thing material can be added, except what shall result from a more extended consideration of that beautiful feature in the character of Sir Philip Sidney with which this essay opened, his love for his sister; an attachment which, as exclusively founded on the singular piety, virtue, and talents of that celebrated lady, tends not only to throw a lustre of the most endearing and fascinating kind over the literary and chivalric laurels which so conspicuously bind the brow of Sidney, but to envelop with peculiar strength and clearness his social, moral, and devotional feelings."

After his death, a metrical version of the Psalms, commenced by himself, but finished by his sister, was published. This joint production has been justly regarded as one of the strongest proofs of their genius, mutual attachment, and devotional taste. Hallam, though more moderate in his praise of Sidney as an author, than many others who have criticised his works, is of opinion that he was one of the greatest writers of the Elizabethan age, and that his prose compositions, especially his famous romance of the "Arcadia," and the "Defence of Poesy," "have shown the capacity of the English language for spirit, variety, graceful idiom, and masculine firmness." The beauty and richness in the style of these celebrated works, display a highly poetical imagination. Cowper evinced accuracy of judgment when he designated Sir Philip Sidney a "warbler of poetic prose." To adopt his own polished language, when describing the principles of chivalry, he had "high thoughts seated in a heart of courtesy."

ROBERT SOUTHWELL.

BORN, 1560; DIED, 1595.

ROBERT SOUTHWELL'S life was a brief and eventful one. He was one of the most pleasing poets of the age of Elizabeth, and was born at St. Faith's, in Norfolk, in the year 1560. He received his early education in the English college at Douay; and at the age of sixteen was received into the Society of Jesuits at Rome. He finished his novitiate, and went through his philosophical and sacred studies with great credit. He was then made Prefect of the English College at Rome. Desirous of propagating the religious opinions which he had adopted from the strongest conviction of their truth, he returned to his native country in 1584, as a missionary priest, and vainly endeavoured, by his influence and writings, to arrest the progress of the Reformation. He boldly avowed, says his biographer, that "he was a priest and a Jesuit; that he came into England to preach the Catholic religion, and was prepared to lay down his life in the cause." It was not to be expected, that at a period when penal statutes of the most severe and intolerant character were in force against the professors of the Roman Catholic faith, so faithful and courageous an advocate of its doctrines, should escape from the cruelty of the laws then in force. He was accordingly arrested, in the year 1592, on a charge of sedition, and committed to a dungeon in the Tower, so noisome and filthy, that when he was brought out for examination, he was covered with vermin.

The remaining part of his mournful history is told in the following words by an able writer in Chambers's "Cyclopedia of English Literature":"Upon this his father, a man of good family, presented a petition to Queen Elizabeth, begging, that if his son had committed any thing for which, by the laws, he had deserved death, he might suffer death; if not, as he was a gentleman, he hoped her Majesty would be pleased to order him to be treated as a gentleman. Southwell was, after this, somewhat better lodged, and allowed to have access to the only books he asked for, the Bible and

the works of St. Bernard; but an imprisonment of three years, with ten inflictions of the rack, wore out his patience, and he entreated to be brought to trial. Cecil is said to have made the brutal remark, that 'if he was in so much haste to be hanged, he should quickly have his desire.' Being at his trial found guilty, upon his own confession, of being a Roman Catholic priest, he was condemned to death, and executed at Tyburn accordingly, with all the horrible circumstances dictated by the old treason laws of England."

Several interesting particulars of his trial and death are given in a sketch of his life, published in the fourth volume of "The Retrospective Review," from which the principal facts, narrated in Chambers's "Cyclopedia," appear to have been taken. The morning after his trial, he was drawn through the streets on a sledge to Tyburn, where a great concourse of people had assembled to witness his execution. "He confessed," says his biographer, "that he was a priest of the society of Jesus; but again denied that he had ever combined or imagined any evil against the Queen, for whom and for his country he offered up his prayers. The cart was then drawn away, but the unskilful hangman had not applied the noose to the right place, so that he several times made the sign of the cross while he was hanging, and was some time before he was strangled. He was afterwards cut down, bowelled, and quartered. Throughout all the severe trials he had to encounter, he behaved with a mild fortitude, which nothing but a highly regulated mind and satisfied conscience could have prompted. "The life of Southwell, as we have seen, though short, was full of grief. The prevailing tone of his poetry is, therefore, that of religious resignation to severe trials. His two longest productions, St. Peter's Complaint,' and Mary Magdalene's Funeral Tears,' the latter written in prose, were, like many other works of which the world has been proud, written in prison. It is remarkable that, though composed while suffering under persecution, no trace of angry feeling against any human being, or any human institution, occurs in these poems. After experiencing great popularity in their

own time, insomuch that eleven editions were printed between 1593 and 1600, the poems of Southwell fell, like most of the other productions of that age, into a long-enduring neglect. Their merits have been again acknowledged in our own day, a complete reprint of them having appeared in 1818, under the editorial care of Mr. W. Joseph Walter." In Ellis's "Specimens of the Early English Poets" there are several of his most beautiful productions. The majority of them are upon sacred subjects, and bear the impress of a mind deeply impressed with the truths of religion. S. C. Hall, in his "Book of Gems," has observed, with truth, that Southwell, "though because of his excessive zeal, during a season of strong excitement and general agitation, was considered dangerous, and doomed to perish in the prime of his life, his biographer must nevertheless bear testimony to the holiness of his thoughts, the purity of his life, and the kindliness and benignity of his nature." In Willmott's "Lives of the Sacred English Poets," full justice is done to the merits of this pious author. "If the moral tone of Southwell remind us of Goldsmith," says that sound critic, "his serious and unornamental strains of devotion present an equal resemblance to the Canticles of Racine. In the dedication of St. Peter's Complaint, he objects to the idle fancies' of poets, and limits his ambition to the weaving a new web in his own loom,' for which purpose he laid a few coarse threads together.' Some of these threads have wound themselves round the heart. Johnson expressed to Drummond of Hawthornden his admiration of Southwell, and preferred the Burning Babe to many of his own compositions."

All Southwell's writings are distinguished by the purest morality. This is strongly exemplified in his beautiful lines on "Conscience," inserted in our poetical Selections. His compositions seem to have been written solely with a desire to give vent to his pious feelings, or to inculcate some moral duty. It is to be lamented, that so good and conscientious a man should have fallen a victim to the severe penal laws of England in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

JOSHUA SYLVESTER.

BORN, 1563; DIED, 1618.

THE impressive poem, called the "Soul's Errand,” or, as it is sometimes designated, the "Lie," which is usually selected as a favourable specimen of this author's poetical talents, has been attributed to Sir Walter Raleigh, and to several other writers. Campbell is of opinion, that no satisfactory evidence has been adduced to identify the writer. Ellis, in his "Specimens of the Early Poets," assigns the merit of composing it to Joshua Sylvester. In the last edition of Campbell's "Biographical and Critical Notices of the British Poets," the editor states, that in an answer to the "Soul's Errand," written at the time, and which has been recently discovered in the Cheltenham library, at Manchester, it is ascribed to Sir Walter Raleigh, and that, therefore, no reasonable doubt can now be entertained as to the ownership of this striking piece.

Joshua Sylvester was born about the year 1563, and was much esteemed for his writings, which were published about the end of the reign of Elizabeth, and the commencement of that of James. He was engaged in mercantile pursuits during the early part of his life, and travelled in various countries in Europe, where he acquired a knowledge of the French, Italian, Dutch, and Spanish tongues. He did not receive a collegiate education, though he had the reputation of being a tolerable Latin scholar. He was more successful as a translator than as an original poet, and was extremely popular among his contemporaries, who gave him the title of the "Silver-tongued Sylvester." He was a favourite of Henry, Prince of Wales, son of James I., who made him poet-pensioner to the court. He died in comparative poverty, at Middleburgh, in Holland, in 1618.

Sylvester's celebrity as a poet rests principally on his translation of the works of Du Bartas, and of other foreign authors. In original composition his reputation does not stand so high, though it cannot be questioned that his writings are distinguished by an original cast