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

After our author had fpent two years in the ftudy of divinity amongft the priests, he was fent to Diling in Switzerland, where he continued about seventeen years, in explaining and difcuffing controverted questions, 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 miffion. 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 esteemed 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 furnish 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 prison, 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, faving hay and wood.

He afterwards went to Rome, and at last settled 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.

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 close 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 univerfity. 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 feveral pieces of his own writing (as Hora Subfecivæ, his Microcofmography, &c.) and who publifhed fix of thefe plays, in his title page ftiles him, the only rare poet of that time, the witty, comical, facetioufly 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 ftrings:' 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 first that language, and all our ladies were then his fcholars, and that beauty in court who could not read Euphifm, was as little regarded, as the who now fpeaks not French. This extraordinary Romance I acknowledge I have not read, fo cannot from myself give it a character, but I have fome 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 compófition, than "almost any fince) became miferably infected, "and greatly help'd to let in all the vile pedan"try of language in the two following reigns; "fo much mischief the most ridiculous inftrument may do, when he propofes to improve on the "fimplicity of nature."

66

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 Majefty's children, and the children of St. Paul's, and afterwards at the Black Fryars;

printed,

printed in 12mo. London, 1632. The ftory of Alexander's beftowing Campafpe, in the enamoured Apelles, is related by Pliny in his Natural Hiftory. Lib. xxxv. L. x.

Endymion, a Comedy, prefented before Queen Elizabeth, by the children of her Majefty's chaple, printed in 12mo. 1632. The ftory of Endymion's being beloved by the moon, with comments upon it, may be met with in moft of the Mythologists. See Lucian's Dialogues, between Venus and the Moon. Mr. Gambauld has writ a romance called Endymion, tranflated into English, 8vo. 1639.

Galathea, a Comedy, played before the Queen at Greenwich on New year's day, at night, by the children of St. Paul's, printed in 12mo. London, 1632. In the characters of Galathea and Philidia, the poet has copied the ftory of Iphis and Ianthe, which the reader may find at large in the ninth book of Ovid's Metamorphofis.

Maid's Metamorphofis, a Comedy, acted by the children of St. Paul's, printed in 12mo. 1632.

Mydas, a Comedy, played before the Queen on Twelfth-night, printed in izmo. London, 1632. For the ftory, fee the xith book of Ovid's Metamorphofis.

Sappho and Phaon, a Comedy, played before the queen on Shrove-Tuesday, by the children of Paul's, and afterwards at Black-Fryars, printed in Twelves, London 1632. This ftory the reader may learn from Ovid's Epiftles, of Sappho to Phaon, Ep. 21.

Woman in the Moon, prefented before the Queen London 1667. Six of thefe plays, viz. Alexander and Campaipe, Endymion, Galathea and Mydas, Sappho and Phaon, with Mother Bombie, aComedy, by the fame author, are printed together under the title of the Six Court-Comedies, 12mo, London 1632, and dedicated by Mr. Blount, to the lord viscount Lumly of Waterford; the other two are

printed

printed fingly in Quarto.He also wrote Loves Metamorphofis, a courtly paftoral, printed 1601."

Sir THOMAS OVERBURY

WAS

AS fon of Nicholas Overbury, Efq; of Burton in Gloucestershire, one of the Judges of the Marches +. He was born with very bright parts, and gave early discoveries of a rifing genius. In 1595, the 14th year of his age, he became a gentleman commoner in Queen's-College in Oxford, and in 1598, as a 'fquire's fon, he took the degree of batchelor of arts; he removed from thence to the Middle-Temple, in order to ftudy the municipal law, but did not long remain there *. His genius, which was of a sprightly kind, could not bear the confinement of a ftudent, or the drudgery of reading law; he abandoned it therefore, and travelled into France, where he fo improved himself in polite accomplishments, that when he returned he was looked upon as one of the most finished gentlemen about court.

Soon after his arrival in England, he contracted an intimacy, which afterwards grew into friend-fhip with Sir Robert Carre, a Scotch gentleman, a favourite with king James, and afterwards earl of Somerfet. Such was the warmth of friendship in which thefe two gentlemen lived, that they were infeparable. Carre could enter into no fcheme, nor purfue any measures, without the advice and concurrence of Overbury, nor could Overbury enjoy any felicity but in the company of him he'

↑ Wood Athen. Oxon.

*Winft. ubi fupra.