THE RE-CURED LOVER EXULTETH IN HIS FREEDOM, AND VOWETH TO REMAIN FREE UNTIL DEATH. I am as I am, and so will I be; But how that I am none knoweth truly. I lead my life indifferently; I mean nothing but honesty; And though folks judge full diversely, I do not rejoice, nor yet complain, Both mirth and sadness I do refrain, Divers do judge as they do trow, But since judgers do thus decay, Who judges well, will God them send; Yet some there be that take delight, To judge folk's thought for envy and spite; I am as I am, and so do I write. Praying you all, that this do read, Ye know no more than afore ye knew, Yet I am as I am, whatever ensue. And from this mind I will not flee, But to you all that misjudge me, I do protest as ye may see, That I am as I am, and so will be. THAT PLEASURE IS MIXED WITH EVERY PAIN. Venomous thorns that are so sharp and keen, Bear flowers, we see, full fresh and fair of hue, Poison is also put in medicine, And unto man his health doth oft renew. The fire that all things eke consumeth clean, THOMAS TUSSER, another poet of the age of Henry the Eighth, though in genius much inferior to either the Earl of Surrey or Sir Thomas Wyatt, was of an ancient family, and was born 1523, but at what place is unknown. He received a liberal education, and commenced life at court, under the patronage of Lord Paget; but not being adapted to a court life, he turned his attention to farming, and for a number of years pursued that course of life, successively in Sussex, Ipswich, Essex, Norwich, and other places. Not succeeding in that calling, he left it and followed other occupations, among which was that of a chorister, and it is said, a fiddler. As might be expected of one so inconstant, he did not prosper in the world, but died poor in London, 1580, in the fifty-eighth year of his age. Tusser's poem, entitled a Hundreth Good Points of Husbandrie, which was first published in 1557, contains a series of practical directions for farming, expressed in simple and inelegant, though not always, dull verse. It has, however, the honor of being the first regular didactic poem in the language. From this poem we select the two following extracts : HOUSEWIFELY PHYSIC. Good huswife provides, ere a sickness do come, All such with good pot herbs, should follow the plough. And others the like, or else lie like a fool. Conserves of barbary, quinces and such, Though thousands hate physic, because of the cost, Good broth, and good keeping, do much now and than: Good diet, with wisdom, best comforteth man. In health, to be stirring shall profit thee best; In sickness, hate trouble; seek quiet and rest. MORAL REFLECTIONS ON THE WIND. Though winds do rage as winds were wood,1 And trees, at spring, doth yield forth bud, It is an ill wind turns none to good. ANDREW BOURD, physician to Henry the Eighth, was contemporary with Tusser, and was the author of the following lines, which form an inscription under the picture of an Englishman, naked, with a roll of cloth in one hand, and a pair of scissors in the other. The poem is chiefly valuable at the present time as indicating the English spirit of that age. CHARACTERISTIC OF AN ENGLISHMAN. I am an Englishman, and naked I stand here, All new fashions be pleasant to me, I will have them whether I thrive or thee: Now I am a fisher, all men on me look I will have a garment reach to my tail. For I will go to learning a whole summer's day; I will learn Latin, Hebrew, Greek and French, I overcome my adversaries by land and by sea: I had no peer if to myself I were true; No man shall let me, but I will have my mind, And to wear them my thrift I will sell. In all this world I shall have but a time: Hold the cup, good fellow, here is thine and mine! 1 Mad. We shall conclude our remarks upon the English poets and poetry of the period extending from Chaucer to Elizabeth, by the introduction of a few miscellaneous poems, written, in all probability, during the reign of Henry the Eighth, and that of his son and successor Edward the Sixth. The first two of these poems are remarkable for being among the earliest verses in which the metaphysical refinements, so manifest in the subsequent period, are discerned. The first is a poet's praise of his lady, but of the writer we have no knowledge. A PRAISE OF HIS (THE POET'S) LADY. Give place, you ladies, and be gone. The virtue of her lively looks I wish to have none other books In each of her two crystal eyes It would you all in heart suffice I think nature hath lost the mold, So fair a creature make. O Lord, it is a world to see Truly she doth as far exceed How might I do to get a graff Of this unspotted tree? For all the rest are plain but chaff, This gift alone I shall her give: The second of these poems, Amantium Iræ amoris redintegratio est, was written by RICHARD EDWARDS, a court musician and poet, who was born 1523, and died 1566; but no farther information of him has been left on record. AMANTIUM IRÆ AMORIS REDINTEGRATIO EST. In going to my naked bed, as one that would have slept, Then did she say, 'Now have I found the proverb true to prove, Then took I paper, pen, and ink, this proverb for to write, As she proceeded thus in song unto her little brat, * * * * 'I marvel much, pardie,' quoth she, 'for to behold the rout, Some stand aloof at cap and knee, some humble and some stout, The third of these poems is the far famed Nut-Brown Maid. With regard to the date and author of this poem, no certainty exists. Prior, who |