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the Love of Alexis." It must be owned, that the selection of this particular eclogue, from all the ten, for an English verfion, is somewhat extraordinary.* FRAUNCE alfo tranflated into English hexameters the beginning of Heliodorus's Ethiopics, Lond. 1591, 80. * Fraunce is also the writer of a book, with the affected, and unmeaning title of "The Arcadian Rhetoricke, or the Preceptes of Rhetoricke made plain by examples, Greeke, Latyne, Englifhe, Italyan, and Spanishe." It was printed in 1588; and is valuable for its English examples.+

It will be fufficient barely to mention here Spencer's Culex, which is a vague and arbitrary paraphrafe of a poem, not properly belonging to Virgil.+

ARTHUR GOLDING was of a gentleman's family, a native of London, and lived with Secretary Cecil at his houfe in the Strand, in 1563; and in the parish of All Saints, London wall, 1577. Amongst his patrons, as we may collect from his dedications, were, Sir Walter Mildmay, William Lord Cobham, Henry Earl of Huntingdon, Lord Leicester, Sir Chriftopher Hatton, Lord Oxford, and Robert Earl of Effex. He was connected with Sir Philip

Warton, ut fupra. Ibid. p. 406.

Sydney:

Sydney: for he finished an English translation of Philip Mornay's Treatife in French, on the Truth of Chriftianity, which had been begun by Sydney, and was published in 1587. He enlarged our knowledge of the treasures of antiquity by publishing English translations of Juftin's History in 1564; of Cæfar's Commentaries in 1565, 12mo. (a tranflation as far as the middle of the fifth book by John Brend, had been put into his hands; he therefore began at that place, but afterwards, for uniformity, retranflated the whole himself:) of Seneca's Benefits in 1577; and of the Geography of Pomponius Mela, and the Polyhistory of Solinus,in 1587, 1590. He has left verfions of many modern Latin writers, which then had their use, and fuited the condition and opinions of the times; and which are now forgotten by the introduction of better books, and the general change of the fyftem of knowledge. Warton thinks his only original work is an account of an Earthquake in 1580. Of his original poetry, nothing more appears than an encomiaftic copy of verfes prefixed to Baret's Alvearie in 1580. It may be regretted that he gave fo much of his time to translation.

He tranflated the four firft books of Ovid's Metamorphofis, in 1565, and in 1575 printed the whole XV books. It is dedicated to Ro

bert

bert Earl of Leicefter. His ftyle is poetical and fpirited, and his verfification clear his manner ornamental and diffufe; yet with a fufficient obfervance of the original. On the whole, Warton thinks him a better poet and better tranflator than Phayer.*

It appears from Coxeter's notes, that The "Fafti" were tranflated into English verfe, before 1570.

THOMAS PEEND, or DE LA PEEND, tranflated into English, the fable of Salmacis from the fourth book of the Metamorphofis, Lond. 1565, 8. It is dedicated to Nicholas St. Leger, Efq. from the writer's ftudy in Serjeant's Inn in Chancery Lane.†

The fable of Narciffus was tranflated in 1560 by T. H.

THOMAS UNDERDOWNE, fon of Stephen, a native of Oxford, tranflated Ovid's Ibis, and illuftrated it with notes, Lond. 1569, 1577, 8°. with a dedication to Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurft. He opened a new field of Romance, which feems partly to have suggested Sir Philip Sydney's Arcadia, by translating into English profe the ten books of Heliodorus's Ethiopic Hiftory, Lond. and 1577, 4to. This book, the beginning of which was after

*Warton, III. p. 410. † Warton, ut fup. p. 416-Tanner's Bibl. p. 587. .

wards

wards verfified by Abraham Fraunce in 1591, is dedicated to Edward, Earl of Oxford. He also published "An excellent History of Thefeus and Ariadne," Lond. 1566, 12m0.*

CHRISTOPHER MARLOW.

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Christopher Marlow, a kind of a second Shakefphear (whofe contemporary he was) not only becaufe like him he rofe from an "actor to be a maker of plays, though infe"rior both in fame, and merit; but also be"caufe in his begun poem of Hero and Lean"der, he seems to have a refemblance of that "clean, and unfophifticated Wit, which is na"tural to that incomparable poet; this poem "being left unfinished by Marlow, who in "fome riotous fray came to an untimely and "violent end, was thought worthy of the

finishing hand of Chapman; in the perfor"mance whereof neverthelefs he fell fhort of "the fpirit and invention with which it was begun. Of all that he hath written to the

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Warton, P. 419, 420-Tanner, p. 741--Wood's Ath. I. p. 187.

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"ftage his Dr. Fauftus hath made the greatest "noife with its Devils, and fuch like tragical "sport, nor are his other two tragedies to be "forgotten; namely, his Edward the Second "and Maffacre at Paris, befides his Jew of "Malta, a tragi-comedy, and his tragedy of "Dido, in which he was joined with Nash."

CHRISTOPHER MARLOw was educated at Cambridge, and afterwards became a player, cotemporary with Shakespeare, and one of the most distinguished tragic poets of his age.* In 1587 he tranflated Coluthus's Rape of Helen into English rhyme. He alfo tranflated the Elegies of Ovid, which book was ordered to be burnt at Stationer's Hall, 1599, by command of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bishop of London. Before 1598, appeared Marlowe's tranflation of "The Loves of Hero and Leander," the elegant prolufion of an unknown fophift of Alexandria, but commonly ascribed to the ancient Mufæus. It was left unfinished by Marlow's death; but what was called a fecond part, which is nothing more than a continuation from the Italian, appeared by one Henry Petowe, in 1598. Another edition was published, with the first book of Lucan, tranflated alfo by Marlow,

*Warton, III. p. 433. † Ibid. Ibid. p. 420.

and

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