For it were ruthe, that, for your truthe, Whan men wyll breke promyfe, they speke The wordés on the splene. Ye fhape fome wyle me to begyle, And ftele from me, I wene : Than, were the cafe worse than it was, 330 HE. Ye fhall nat nede further to drede; I wyll nat dysparàge You, (God defend!) fyth ye defcend Of fo grete a lynàge. Nowe undyrftande; to Weftmarlande, Which is myne herytage, I wyll you brynge; and with a rynge, 340 345 "Here may ye fe, that women be In love, meke, kynde, and stable: 359 Late never man reprove them than, Or call them variable; But, rather, pray God, that we may To them be comfortable; Which fometyme proveth fuch, as he loveth, 355 Yf they be charytable. For fyth men wolde that women sholde Be meke to them each one; Moche more ought they to God obey, And ferve but hym alone. Ver. 340. grete lynyage. Prol. 360 VII. A Ver. 347. Then have. Prol. V. 352. This line wanting in Prol. loveth. Camb. V. 357. Forfoth. Prol. VII. A BALET BY THE EARL RIVER S. The amiable light, in which the character of Anthony Widville the gallant Earl Rivers has been placed by the elegant Author of the Catal. of Noble Writers, interefts us in whatever fell from his pen. It is prefumed therefore that the infertion of this little Sonnet will be pardoned, tho' it should not be found to have much poetical merit. It is the only original Poem known of that nobleman's; his more voluminous works being only tranflations. And if we confider that it was written during his cruel confinement in Pomfret caftle a fhort time before his execution in 1483, it gives us a fine picture of the compofure and fteadiness with which this flout earl beheld his approaching fate. The verfes are preferved by Rouse a contemporary hifterian, who feems to have copied them from the Earl's own hand writing. In tempore, Says this writer, incarcerationis apud Pontem-fractum edidit unum BALET in anglicis, ut mihi monftratum eft, quod fubfequitur fub his verbis: Sum what muspng, &c. "Roffi Hift. 8vo. 2 Edit. p. 213." The 2d Stanza is, notwithstanding, imperfect, and we have inferted afterifks, to denote the defect. This little piece, which perhaps ought rather to have been printed in ftanzas of eight fhort lines, is written in imitation of a poem of Chaucer's, that will be found in Urry's Edit. 1721. pag. 555. beginning thus, "Alone walkyng, In thought plainyng, "Me remembrying Of my livyng My death wifhyng Bothe erly and late. "Infortunate Is fo my fate "That wote ye what, Out of mesure "My life I hate; Thus defperate "In fuch pore eftate, Doe I endure, &c." SUM SUM UMWHAT mufyng, and more mornyng, This world being of fuch whelyng, I fere dowtles, remediles, Is now to fefe my wofull chaunce. Lo 'is' this traunce now in substaunce, *** fuch is my dawnce. Wyllyng to dye, me thynkys truly Bowndyn am I, and that gretly, to be content: 10 Seyng playnly, that fortune doth wry All contrary from myn entent. My lyff was lent me to on intent, But I ne went thus to be fhent, But fho hit ment, fuch is hur won. 15 5. Ver. r. 7. in this. Roffi Hift. Ver. 15. went, i. e. weened, VIII. CU VIII. CUPID's ASSAULT: BY LORD VAUX. The Reader will think that infant Poetry grew apace between the times of RIVERS and VAUX, tho' nearly contempor aries; if the following Song is the compofition of that Sir NICHOLAS (afterwards Lord) VAUX, who was the fhining ornament of the court of Henry VII. and died in the year 1523. And yet to this Lord it is attributed by Puttenham in his Art of Eng. Poefie, 1589. 4to." a writer commonly well informed: : take the pallage at large. "In this figure [Counterfait Action] the L rd NICHOLAS VAUX, a "noble gentleman and much delighted in vulgar making, "and a man otherwife of no great learning, but having "berein a marvelous facilitie, made a dittie reprefenting the Battayle and Afault of Cupide, fo excellently well, as for "the gallant and propre application of his fiction in every part, I cannot choose but fet downe the greatest part of his ditty, for in truth it cannot be amended. WHEN CUPID 66 SCALED, Jc." p. 200.- For a farther account of Nicholas Lord Vaux fee Mr. Walpole's Noble Authors, Vol. 1. The following Copy is printed from the firft Edit. of Surrey's Poems, 1557, 4to. See another Song of Lord Vaux's in the preceding Vol. Book II. No. II. WHEN Cupide fcaled firft the fort, Wherin my hart lay wounded fore; The batry was of fuch a fort, |