he was educated in grammar and logic. In 1553 he took a degree in Arts, and was immediately elected Probationer fellow of Merton College, where he gained a fuperiority over all his fellow ftudents in difputations at the public school. Wood informs us, that upon a third admonition, from the warden and fociety of that houfe, he refigned his fellowship, to prevent expulfion,,, on the 4th of April, 1558; he had been guilty of feveral mifdemeanors, fuch as are peculiar to youth, wildnefs and rakifhnefs, which in those days it feems were very feverely punished. Soon after this he quitted England, and entered himself into the fociety of Jefus at St. Omer's +; but before he left his native country, he writ and tranflated (fays Wood) thefe things following,

Various Poems and Devices; fome of which are printed in a book called the Paradife of Dainty Devices, 1574, 4to.

Hercules Furens, a Tragedy, which fome have imputed to Seneca, and others have denied to be his, but it is thought by most learned men to be an imitation of that play of Euripides, which bears the fame name, and tho, in contrivance and oeconomy, they differ in fome things, yet in others they agree, and Scaliger fcruples not to prefer the Latin to the Greek Tragedy *.

Troas, a Tragedy of Seneca's, which the learned Farnaby, and Daniel Heinfius very much commend; the former ftiling it a divine tragedy, the other preferring it to one of the fame name by Euripides, both in language and contrivance, but efpecially he fays it far exceeds it in the chorus. In this tragedy the author has taken the liberty of adding feveral things, and altering others, as think

Langb. Lives of the Poets, p. 249. *Langb. ubi fupr

ing the play imperfect: First as to the additions, he has at the end of the chorus after the first act, added threefcore verfes of his own invention: In the beginning of the fecond act he has added a whole fcene, where he introduces the ghoft of Achilles rifing from hell, to require the facrifice of Polyxena! to the chorus of this act he added three ftanza's. As to his alterations, instead of tranflating the chorus of the third act, which is wholly taken up with the names of foreign countries, the tranflation of which without notes he thought would be tirefome to the English reader, he has fubftituted in its ftead another chorus of his own invention. This tragedy runs in verfes of fourteen fyllables, and for the moft part his chorus is writ in verfe of ten fyllables, which is called heroic.

Thyeftes, another tragedy of Seneca's, which in the judgment of Hienfius, is not inferior to any other of his dramatic pieces. Our author tranflated this play when he was at Oxford; it is wrote in the fame manner of verfe as the other, only the chorus is written in alternate rhime. The tranflator has added a scene at the end of the fifth act, fpoken by Thyeftes alone; in which he bewails his mifery, and implores Heaven's vengeance, on Atreus. Thefe plays are printed in a black letter in 4to. 1581.

Langbain obferves, that tho' he cannot much commend the verfion of Heywood, as poetically elegant, as he has chofen a measure of fourteen fyllables, which ever founds harsh to the ears of those that are used to heroic poetry, yet, fays he, I must do the author this juftice, to acquaint the orld, that he endeavours to give Seneca's fense, d likewife to imitate his verfe, changing his afure, as often as his author, the chorus of each being different from the act itself, as the reader

may

may obferve, by comparing the English copy with the Latin original.

After our author had fpent two years in the 'ftudy of divinity amongst the priests, he was fent to Diling in Switzerland, where he continued about feventeen years, in explaining and difcuffing controverted queftions, among thofe he called Heretics, in which time, for his zeal for the holy mother, he was promoted to the degree of Dr. of Divinity, and of the Four Vows. At length pope Gregory XIII. calling him away in 1581, he fent him, with others, the fame year into the mission of England, and the rather because the brethren there told his holiness, that the harvest was great, and the labourers few t. Being fettled then in the metropolis of his own country, and efteemed the chief provincial of the Jefuits in England, it was taken notice of, that he affected more the exterior fhew of a lord, than the humility of a prieft, keeping as grand an equipage, as money could then furnifh him with. Dr. Fuller fays, that our author was executed in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; but Sir Richard Baker tells us, that he was one of the chief of those 70 priests that were taken in the year 1585; and when fome of them were condemned, and the reft in danger of the law, her Majefty caufed them all to be fhipp'd away, and fent out of England. Upon Heywood's being taken and committed to prifon, and the earl of Warwick thereupon ready to relieve his neceffity, he made a copy of verfes, mentioned by Sir John Harrington, concluding with these two;

-Thanks to that lord, that wills me good; For I want all things, saving hay and wood.

He afterwards went to Rome, and at last fettled in the city of Naples, where he became famili† Athen. Oxon.

arly

arly known to that zealous Roman Catholick, John Pitceus, who fpeaks of him with great refpect.

It is unknown what he wrote or published after he became a Jefuit. It is faid that he was a great critic in the Hebrew language, and that he digefted an eafy and fhort method, (reduced into tables) for novices to learn that language, which Wood fuppofes was a compendium of a Hebrew grammar. Our author paid the common debt of nature at Naples, 1598, and was buried in the college of Jefuits there.

**

1

A

JOHN LILLY,

Writer who flourished in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; he was a Kentish man, and in his younger years educated at St. Mary Magdalen College in Oxon, where in the year 1575 he took his degree of Mafter of Arts. He was, fays Langbaine, a very clofe ftudent, and much addicted to poetry: a proof of which he has given to the world, in thofe plays which he has bequeathed to pofterity, and which in that age were well efteemed, both by the court, and by the university. He was one of the first writers, continues Langbain, who in those days attempted to reform the language, and purge it from obfolete expreffions. Mr. Blount, a gentleman who has made himself known to the world, by several pieces of his own writing (as Hora Subfecivæ, 'his Microcofmography, &c.) and who published fix of thefe plays, in his title page ftiles him, the only rare poet of that time, the witty, comical, facetiously quick, and unparallell'd John Lilly. Mr. Blount further fays, That he fat

at

at Apollo's table; that Apollo gave him a wreath of his own bays without fnatching; and that the Lyre he played on, had no borrowed strings:' He mentions a romance of our author's writing, called Euphues; our nation, fays he, are in his debt, for a new English which he taught them; Euphues, and his England began firft that language, and all our, ladies were then his fcholars, and that beauty in court who could not read Euphism, was as little regarded, as the who now speaks not French. This extraordinary Romance I acknowledge I have not read, fo cannot from myfelf give it a character, but I have some reason to believe, that it was a miferable performance, from the authority of the author of the British Theatre, who in his preface thus fpeaks of it; "This Romance, fays he, fo fashionable for its wit; fo "famous in the court of Queen Elizabeth, and “is faid to have introduced fo remarkable a change in our language, I have feen, and read. "It is an unnatural affected jargon, in which the "perpetual ufe of metaphors, allufions, allegories, "and analogies, is to pafs for wit, and ftiff bom. "baft for language; and with this nonfenfe the "court of Queen Elizabeth (whofe times afford"ed better models for ftile and compofition, than "almost any fince) became miferably infected, "and greatly help'd to let in all the vile pedantry of language in the two following reigns; "fo much mifchief the most ridiculous inftrument may do, when he proposes to improve on the "fimplicity of nature.'

66

Mr. Lilly has writ the following dramatic pieces;

Alexander and Campafpe, a tragical comedy; play'd before the Queen's Majefty on twelfth-night, by her Majesty's children, and the children of St. Paul's, and afterwards at the Black Fryars;

printed,