HENRY HOWARD, EARL OF SURREY 121

HY. HOWARD, EARL OF SURREY (15175-47)

THE MEANS TO ATTAIN HAPPY LIFE

MARTIAL, the things that do attain —
The happy life be these, I find:
The richesse left, not got with pain ;-
The fruitful ground, the quiet mind;

The equal friend; no grudge, no strife;
No charge of rule, nor governance ;
Without disease, the healthful life;
The household of continuance;

The mean diet, no delicate fare;
True wisdom join'd with simpleness;

The night dischargèd of all care,

Where wine the wit may not oppress.

The faithful wife, without debate;
Such sleeps as may beguile the night:
Contented with thine own estate

Ne wish for death, ne fear his might.

VIRGIL, ÆNEID II1

AND first the walls and dark entry I sought
Of the same gate whereat I issued out :-
Holding backward the steps where we had come
In the dark night looking all round about.

In

every place the ugsome sights I saw : The silence self of night aghast my sprite. From hence again I pass'd unto our house, 1 The earliest blank verse in English.

If she by chance had been returned home.
The Greeks were there and had it all beset :
The wasting fire blown up by drift of wind,
Above the roof the blazing flame sprang up,
The sound whereof with fury pierc'd the skies.
To Priam's palace, and the castle then
I made; and there at Juno's Sanctuary
In the void porches, Phoenix, Ulysses eke,
Stern guardians stood, y-watching of the spoil.
The riches here were set, rest from the brent
Temples of Troy: the table of the Gods,
The vessels eke that were of massy gold :
And vestures spoil'd were gathered all in heap:
The children orderly and mothers pale for fright
Long rangèd on a row stood round about.
So bold was I to show my voice that night
With clepes and cries, to fill the street throughout
With Creüse name in sorrow, with vain tears :
And often sithes the same for to repeat.

The town restless with fury as I sought

Th' unlucky figure of Creüsa's ghost

Of stature more then wont, stood 'fore mine eyen.
Abashèd then I woxe: therewith my hair

Can start right up: my voice stack in my throat :
When with such words she gan my heart remove.
"What helps, to yield unto such furious rage,

Sweet spouse?" quoth she, " Without will of the Gods
This chancèd not: ne lawful was for thee
To lead away Creüsa hence with thee.
The king of the high heaven suff'reth it not.
A long exile thou art assign'd to bear,
Long to furrow large space of stormy seas:
So shall thou reach at last Hesperian land
Where Lidian Tiber with his gentle stream
Mildly doth flow along the fruitful fields.
There mirthful wealth; there kingdom is for thee;
There a king's child, prepar'd to be thy make.
For thy beloved Creüsa stint thy tears :

For now shall I not see the proud abodes

JOHN FOXE

Of Myrmidons, nor yet of Dolopes:
Ne I, a Trojan lady, and the wife

Unto the son of Venus, the Goddess,

Shall go a slave to serve the Greekish dames.
Me here the God's great mother holds-
And now farewell; and keep in father's breast
The tender love of thy young son and mine."

This having said she left me all in tears,
And minding much to speak; but she was gone,
And subtly fled into the weightless air.

Thrice raught I with mine arms t' accoll her neck
Thrice did my hands' vain hold th' image escape
Like nimble winds, and like the flying dream.
So night spent out, return I to my feres.

JOHN FOXE
(1516-87)

THE BURNING OF CRANMER

123

BUT when he came to the place where the holy bishops and martyrs of God, Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, were burnt before him for the confession of the truth, kneeling down, he prayed to God; and not long tarrying in his prayers, putting off his garments to his shirt, he prepared himself to death. His shirt was made long, down to his feet. His feet were bare; likewise his head, when both his caps were off, was so bare, that one hair could not be seen upon it. His beard was long and thick, covering his face with marvellous gravity. Such a countenance of gravity moved the hearts both of his friends and of his enemies.

Then the Spanish friars, John and Richard, of whom mention was made before, began to exhort him, and play their parts with him afresh, but with vain and lost labour. Cranmer, with steadfast purpose abiding in the profession of his doctrine, gave his hand to certain old men, and others that stood by, bidding them farewell.

And when he had thought to have done so likewise to Ely, the said Ely drew back his hand, and refused, saying it was not lawful to salute heretics, and specially such a one as falsely returned unto the opinions that he had forsworn. And if he had known before, that he would have done so, he would never have used his company so familiarly and chid those sergeants and citizens which had not refused to give him their hands. This Ely was priest lately made, and student in divinity, being then one of the fellows of Brasenose.

Then was an iron chain tied about Cranmer, whom when they perceived to be more steadfast than that he could be moved from his sentence, they commanded the fire to be set unto him.

And when the wood was kindled, and the fire began to burn near him, stretching out his arm, he put his right hand into the flame, which he held so steadfast and immovable (saving that once with the same hand he wiped his face), that all men might see his hand burned before his body was touched. His body did so abide the burning of the flame with such constancy and steadfastness, that standing always in one place without moving his body, he seemed to move no more than the stake to which he was bound; his eyes were lifted up into heaven, and oftentimes he repeated "his unworthy right hand," so long as his voice would suffer him; and using often the words of Stephen "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," in the greatness of the flame he gave up the ghost.

Acts and Monuments.

WILLIAM CECIL, LORD BURLEIGH 125

WM. CECIL, LORD BURLEIGH

(1520-98)

TEN PRECEPTS

SON ROBERT-The virtuous inclinations of thy matchless mother, by whose tender and godly care thy infancy was governed, together with thy education under so zealous and excellent a tutor, puts me in rather assurance than hope, that thou art not ignorant of that summum bonum which is only able to make thee happy as well in thy death as life; I mean the true knowledge and worship of thy Creator and Redeemer; without which all other things are vain and miserable so that thy youth being guided by so sufficient a teacher, I make no doubt but he will furnish thy life with divine and moral documents; yet that I may not cast off the care beseeming a parent towards his child; or that you should have cause to derive thy whole felicity and welfare rather from others than from whence thou receivedst thy breath and being; I think it fit and agreeable to the affection I bear thee, to help thee with such rules and advertisements for the squaring of thy life, as are rather gained by experience, than much reading; to the end that entering into this exorbitant age, thou mayest be the better prepared to shun those scandalous courses whereunto the world and the lack of experience may easily draw thee. And because I will not confound thy memory, I have reduced them into ten precepts; and next unto Moses' tables, if thou imprint them in thy mind, thou shalt reap the benefit, and I the content; and they are these following:

I

When it shall please God to bring thee to man's estate, use great providence and circumspection in choosing thy wife; for from thence will spring all thy future good or