William Winstanley

“ In the same his Poem of the Ruins of Time, you may see what account he makes of the World, and of the immortal Fame gotten by Poesie.
In vain do earthly Princes then, in vain,
Seek with Pyramids to Heaven aspir'd;
Or huge Collosses, built with costly pain;
Or brazen Pillars never to be fir'd,
Or Shrines, made of the metal most desir'd,
To make their Memories for ever live,
For how can mortal immortality give?
For deeds do die, however nobly done,
And thoughts of men do in themselves decay,
But wise words taught in numbers for to run,
Recorded by the Muses, live for aye ”

“ She interprets all she hears in the worse sense, and supplies the defect of real affronts with jealous suspicions. She is more captious, than capable of offence; and all her neighbours bless themselves from her, wishing this Quotidiano fever of her tongue cured with a razor. Yet is not that her only weapon; for she has hands to clap with, and nails to scratch with, and teeth to bite with, and much more furniture for war; so that being looked upon as invincible, her bad humour gets her a privilege: for wherever she comes, she may be sure to have the room to herself ”

“ Oldham, the glory of our late Age, in one of his Satyrs, makes the renowned Spenser's Ghost thus speak to him, disswading him from the Study of Poetry.
Chuse some old English Hero for thy Theme,
Bold Arthur, or great Edward's greater Son,
Or our fifth Henry, matchless to renown;
Make Agin-Court, and Crescy-fields out-vie
The fam'd Laucinan-shores, and walls of Troy;
What Scipio, what Mæcenas wouldst thou find;
What Sidney now to thy great project kind?
Bless me! how great a Genius! how each Line
Is big with Sense! ”

“ JOHN QUARLES.
John Quarles, Son to Francis Quarles, Esq; may be said to be born a Poet, and that his Father's Genius was infused into him; nor was he less Loyal in his Principles to his Prince, writing besides several other Works, an Elegy on the Lord Capell, and A Curse against the Enemies of Peace; of which I remember those were the two last lines.
That all the world may hear them hiss and cry,
Who loves no peace, in peace shall never die. ”

“ But what estate on earth is so firm, that is not changeable, or what friendship is so constant, that is not dissolvable? Who would imagine this Viscount should be instrumental to his death, who had done him so faithful service, and to whom he had embosom'd his most secret thoughts? Yet so it was, for Sir Thomas, out of an unfeigned affection which he bare to the Viscount, diswaded him from a motion of a Marriage which was propounded betwixt him and the Lady Francis Howard, who was lately divorced from the Earl of Essex, as a Match neither for his credit here, nor comfort hereafter. ”

“ She makes such a pattering with her lips when she walks the streets, as if she were possessed; and so indeed she is, with the spirit of contention. The dog-days, with her, continue all the year round; nor can she possibly take cold: for she is ever in a heat, and holds neither pox nor plague so grievous a disease, as being tongue-tied. ”

“ The Muses Works Stone-Monuments outlast.
'Tis Wit keeps Life, all else Death will down cast.
Now though it is the desire of all Writers to purchase to themselves immortal Fame, yet is their Fate far different; some deserve Fame, and have it; others neither have it, nor deserve it ”

“ Indeed such Pedlars to the Muses, whose Verse runs like the Tap, and whose invention ebbs and flows as the Barrel, deserve not the name of Poets, and are justly rejected as the common Scriblers of the times: but for such who fill'd with Phebean-fire, deserve to be crowned with a wreath of Stars; for such brave Souls, the darlings of the Delian Deity, for these to be scorn'd, contemn'd, and disregarded, must needs be the fault of the times; I shall only give you one instance of a renowned Poet, out of the same Author. ”

“ John Lilly, a famous Poet for the State in his time, as by the Works which he left appears, being in great esteem in his time, and acted then with great applause of the Vulgar, as such things which they understood, and composed chiefly to make them merry. Yet so much prized as they were Printed together in one Volume, namely, Endymion, Alexander and Campasoe, Galatea, Midas, Mother Boniby, Maids Metamorphosis, Sapho and Phao, Woman in the Moon, Comedies; and another Play called A Warning for fair Women; all which declare the great pains he took, and the esteem which he had in that Age. ”

“ This pleasant Poet, painful Preacher, and pious Person, was born in London, of wealthy Parents, who took such care of his Education, that at nine years of Age he was sent to study at Hart-Hall in Oxford, having besides the Latine and Greek, attained to a knowledge in the French Tongue. Here he fell into acquaintance with that great Master of Language and Art, Sir Henry Wootton; betwixt whom was such Friendship contracted, that nothing but Death could force the separation. ”

“ He was one of a quick wit and fluent language, whose Poems coming forth above thirty years ago, under the Title of Castara, gained a general fame and estimation, and no wonder, since that human Goddess by him so celebrated, was a person of such rare endowments as was worthy the praises bestowed upon her, being a person of Honour as well as Beauty, to which was joyned a vertuous mind, to make her in all respects compleat. ”

“ Besides, should we have mentioned none but those who upon a strict scrutiny the Name of Poet doth belong unto, I fear me our number would fall much short of those which we have written; for as one writes, There are many that have a Fame deservedly for what they have writ, even in Poetry itself, who, if they come to the test, I question how well they would endure to open their Eagle-eyes against the Sun. ”

“ This Michael Blaunpayn, otherwise sirnamed the Cornish Poet, or the Rymer, was born in Cornwall, and bred in Oxford and Paris, where he attained to a good proficiency in Learning, being of great fame and estimation in his time, out of whose Rymes for merry England as Cambden calls them, he quotes several passages in that most excellent Book of his Remains. It hapned one Henry of Normandy, chief Poet to our Henry the Third, had traduced Cornwall, as an inconsiderable Country, cast out by Nature in contempt into a corner of the land. ”

“ Thus you see, that though Ease be the Nurse of Poesie, the Muses are also Companions to Mars, as may be exemplified in the Lives of the Earl of Surrey, Sir Philip Sidney, and this Sir Falk Grevil.
I shall only add a word or two of his death, Which was as sad as lamentable. He kept a discontented servant, who conceiving his deserts, not soon or well enough rewarded, wounded him mortally; and then (to save the Law a labour) killed himself. Verifying therein the observation, That there is none who never so much despiseth his own life, but yet is master of another mans. ”

“ Bred in Christ's Church in Oxford, (Cambridge being nevertheless so happy to have a Colledge of his name) where he so profited in the Arts and Liberal Sciences, that after an incredible proficiency in all the Species of Learning, he left the Academical Life, for that of the Court, invited thither by his Uncle, the Earl of Leicester, that great Favourite of Queen Elizabeth. Here he so profited, that he became the glorious Star of his Family, a lively Pattern of Vertue, and the lovely Joy of all the learned sort. ”

“ A Book (saith Dr. Heylin) which, besides its excellent Language, rare Contrivances, and delectable Stories, hath in it all the strains of Poesie, comprehendeth the whole art of speaking, and to them who can discern and will observe, affordeth notable Rules of Demeanour, both private and publick; and though some men, sharp-witted only in speaking evil, have depraved the Book, as the occasion that many precious hours are spent no better, they consider not that the ready way to make the minds of Youth grow awry, is to lace them too hard, by denying them just and due liberty. ”

“ Scholars none can deny them both: The one Celebrated his Mistress under the bright name of Stella, the other the Lady Regent of his Affections, under the Banner of Lucasta, both of them endued with transcendent Sparks of Poetick Fire, and both of them exposing their Lives to the extreamest hazard of doubtful War; both of them such Soldiers as is expressed by the Poet.
Undaunted Spirits, that encounter those
Sad dangers, we to Fancy scarce propose.
To conclude, Mr. Lovelace's Poems did, do, and still will live in good Esteem with all knowing true Lovers of Ingenuity. ”

“ This Honourable Person, for his eminent Services to his Prince and Country, preferred from Earl to Duke of New-Castle; was a Person equally addicted both to Arms and Arts, which will eternize his Name to all Posterity, so long as Learning, Loyalty, and Valour shall be in Fashion. He wrote a splendid Treatise of the Art of Horsemanship, in which his Experience was no less than his Delight; as also two Comedies, The Variety, and the Country Captain. ”

“ There are two things which very much discourage Wit; ignorant Readers, and want of Mecænasses to encourage their Endeavours. For the first, I have read of an eminent Poet, who passing by a company of Bricklayers at work, who were repeating some of his Verses, but in such a manner as quite marred the Sence and Meaning of them; he snatching up a Hammer, fell to breaking their Bricks; and being demanded the reason thereof, he told them, that they spoiled his Work, and he spoiled theirs. And for the second; what greater encouragement to Ingenuity than Liberality? ”

“ This Gentleman was one, who may well be stil'd the glory of our Nation, both of the present and past ages, whole early Muse began to dawn at the Thirteenth year of his age, being then a Scholar at Westminster-School which produc'd two little Poems, the one called Antonius and Melida, the other Pyramus and Thisbe; discovering in them a maturity of Sence far above the years that writ them; shewing by these his early Fruits, what in time his stock of worth would come to. ”

“ To which the Library oweth much of its Learning, the Chapel much of its pious Decency, and the Colledge much of its Renown.
He was (saith Dr. Fuller) a general Artist, pure Latinist, exquisite Orator, and (which was his Master-Piece) eminent Poet; whose verses in the time of the Civil War begun to be in great request, both for their Wit and Zeal to the King's Cause, for which indeed he appeared the first, if not only Champion in verse against the Presbyterian party. ”

“ William Brown was a Gentleman (as I take it) of the Middle Temple, who besides his other ingenious Employments, had his excursions to those sweet delights of Poetry, writing a most ingenious Piece, entituled, Britain's Pastorals, it being for a Subject of an amorous and rural Nature, worthily deserving commendations, as any one will confess who shall peruse it with an impartial eye. ”

“ Randolphs Poems (one of as high a tow'ring Wit as most in that age;) yet is well known to be Mr. Clevelands; it being not only made after Mr. Randolph's death, but hath in it the very vein and strain of Mr. Cleveland's Writing, walking from one height to another, in a constant Level of continued Elevation. And indeed so elaborate are all his other pieces of Poetry, as to praise one were to detract from the rest, and are not to be the less valued by the Reader, because most studyed by the Writer: Take but a taste of the Loftiness of his stile, in those verses of his called Smectymnuus. ”

“ His admirable knowledge in good Arts, made him famous throughout England, France, Italy, yea and the whole World, and that with incredible admiration, that he was called Miraculum ingenij, the Wonder and Miracle of Wit and Sapience. He was an exact Philosopher, and excellent Divine, an accurate Rhetorician, and an admirable Poet, as did appear by many his Writings which he left to posterity, some of which are mentioned by Bale. ”

“ To bear such monstrous Wights, the earth did grone and quake.
These pestred most the Western Tract; more fear made thee agast,
O Cornwall, utmost door that art to let in Zephyrus blast. JOHN GOWER.
John Gower, whom some make to be a Knight, though Stow, in his survey of London, unknighteth him, and saith he was only an Esquire; however he was born of a knightly Family, at Stitenham in the North-Riding in Bulmore-Wapentake in Yorkshire. ”

“ In the mean time I should think my self much beholding to those persons who would give me any intelligence herein, it being beyond the reading and acquaintance of any one single person to do it of himself.
And yet, let me tell ye, that by the Name of Poet, many more of former times might have been brought in than what I have named, as well as those which I have omitted that are now living, namely, Sir Walter Rawleigh, Mr. John Weever, Dr. Heylin, Dr. Fuller, &c. ”