left it without a degree and travelled abroad. On his return, having the character of a wellbred man, he was taken into the fervice of the Court. He now obtained confiderable celebrity as a poet, and was a chief contributer to the Collection of Choice Flowers and Defcriptions," which were published about the beginning of James's reign. Queen Elizabeth had a great respect for his abilities, and employed him in feveral embaffies, particularly to Denmark in 1589; and on his return from thence, conferred on him the Chancellorship of the Garter, on the death of Sir John Wolley, 1596, and at the fame time fhe knighted him.† But, like other courtiers, he fometimes experienced the Queen's caprice. "She took offence fo eafily, and forgave fo difficultly," fays Hurd," that even her principal Minifters could hardly keep their ground, and were often obliged to redeem her favour by the lowest fubmiffions. When nothing elfe would do, they ficken'd and were even at death's door; from which peril however she would sometimes relieve them, but not till he had exacted from them in the way of penance, a courfe of the

*Wood's Ath. I. p. 322. See the lift of Elizabeth's Knights, No. 227, at the end of "Reflections on the late Increase of the Peerage," Lond. 8°. 1798, for Debrett. Dialogues, Mor. and Pol. II, p. 38.

L

moft

moft mortifying humiliations." Something f milar to this happened in the cafe of our author in 1573. Gilbert Talbot, in a letter to his father* the Earl of Shrewsbury, has the following paffage. Hatton is ficke ftill: it is thought he will very hardly recover his disease, for it is doubted it is in his kidneis: the Queene goeth almost every every day to see how he dothe. Now in thefe devices (chefely by Lecefter, as I fuppofe, and not withoute Burghley his knowledge) how to make Mr. Edward Dier as great as ever was Hatton; for now, in this tyme of Hatton's fickness, the tyme is convenient: It is brought thus to paffe, Dier lately was ficke of a confumcion, in great daunger; and as yo' Lo. knoweth he hath bene in difpleafure thefe 11 yeares, it was made the Quene beleve that his ficknes came because of the continiaunce of hir difpleasure. towards him, fo that unles fhe would forgyve him he was licke not to recover; and heruppon" hir Matie hathe forgyven him, and fente unto him a very comfortable meffage; now he is recovered agayne, and this is the beginning of this device."

Sir Edward studied chymistry, and was

* From Lodge's Illuftrations of British History, II. p. 101. † Sir Christopher.

thought

1

thought to be a Rofi-crufian, and a dupe of Dr. Dee, and Edward Kelly, those celebrated aftrologers, of whom he has recorded, that in Bohemia he faw them put base metal into a crucible, and after it was fet on the fire, and ftirred with a stick of wood, it came forth in great proportion perfect gold.*

He wrote Paftoral Odes, and MadrigalsSome of these are in the Collection beforementioned. Alfo a Defcription of Friendship; a poem in the Ashmole Musæum, No, 781, p. 139.

He died fome years after James came to the throne, and was fucceeded in his Chancellorship of the Garter by Sir John Herbert, Kt. principal Secretary of State.+

*Wood's Ath. I. p. 323.

+ Cotemporary with Sir Edward Dyer was Puttenham, one of the Gentlemen Penfioners to Q Elizabeth, the author of the "Art of English Poefie," accounted in its time an elegant, witty, and ingenious book, in which are preferved fome of the Verfes made by Q Elizabeth-Wood's Ath. I. p. 323.

EDMUND SPENSER.

"Edmund Spencer, the firft of our English "Poets that brought heroic poefy to any per"fection, his Fairy Queen' being for great "invention, and poetic heighth, judg'd little "inferior, if not equal to the chief of the an"cient Greeks and Latins, or modern Italians, "but the first poem that brought him into "efteem was his Shepherd's Calendar,' which "fo endeared him to that noble patron of all "Vertue and Learning Sir Philip Sydney, "that he made him known to Queen Eliza"beth, and by that means got him preferred.

to be Secretary to his brother,* Sir Henry "Sidney, who was fent Deputy into Ire

land, where he is faid to have written "his Faerie Queen, but upon the return of "Sir Henry, his employment ceafing, he also "return'd into England, and having loft his great friend Sir Philip fell into poverty,

Should be father."

"yet

yet made his last refuge to the Queen's "bounty, and had 500l. ordered him for his "fupport, which nevertheless was abridged "to 100%. by Cecil, who hearing of it, and

owing him a grudge for fome reflections in "Mother Hubbard's Tale, cry'd out to the "Queen, What, all this for a Song? This he "is faid to have taken fo much to heart, that "he contracted a deep melancholy, which foon "after brought his life to a period: So apt is "an ingenious spirit to resent a flighting, even from the greatest perfons; and thus much I "must needs say of the merit of fo great a

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poet from fo great a Monarch, that as it is "incident to the best of poets fometimes to "flatter fome royal or noble patron, never did

any do it more to the height, or with greater "art or elegance, if the highest of praises at"tributed to fo heroic a princess can justly be "termed flattery."

SPENSER, the glory of English Poetry, claims to have been allied to the noble family of Spencer, of Althorpe in Northamptonshire; and it is certain that he reflects more honour on it, than he derives from it. "The nobility of the Spencers," fays the elegant Gibbon, "has been illustrated and enriched by the trophies of Marlborough; but I exhort them to confider L 3

the