was educated at Eton and Cambridge, and published his tranflation of Ariofto before he was thirty. He was one of thofe Knights, by whofe creation 1590, Lord Effex fo offended the Queen, as having incroached upon her prerogative.* King James created him a Knight of the Bath. He died 1612, aged 51.

"In 1599," fays Warton, "Sir John Harington exhibited an English version of Ariofto's Orlando Furiofo: which, although exe cuted without fpirit or accuracy, unanimated and incorrect, enriched our poetry by a communication of new ftores of fiction and imagi nation, both of the romantic and comic fpecies, of gothic machinery and familiar manners."+

fingle trees, extends to the river, which here forms a fine curve through one of the richeft vales in the world, and is then loft to the eye under the hanging woods, which veft the declivity of the hill to the south and weft-The old houfe built by John, and finished by his fon Sir John, was conftructed as a proper reception for Q. Eliza beth during a fummer's excurfion, who here vifited her godfon in her way to Oxford, 1591. Collinfon ut fupra.

* Reflections on the Pecrage ut fupra, p. 124, in the list of Knights, No. 361. Hift. of Poetry, III, p. 485.

EDMUND

EDMUND FAIRFAX.

"Edmund Fairfax, one of the most judi"cious, elegant, and haply in his time, moft "approved of English Tranflatours, both for "his choice of fo worthily extoll'd a heroic

poet as Torquato Taffo; as for the exactness " of his version, in which he is judg❜d by some "to have approved himself no less a poet than "in what he hath written of his own genius."

FAIRFAX was a fon, by fome faid to be a natural fon, of Sir Thomas Fairfax of Denton, in Yorkshire. His elder brother was afterwards created a Scotch Peer, and was a wellknown General. While his brothers were engaged in active and honourable employments abroad, an invincible modefty, and love of a retired life made our author prefer the fhady groves and natural cafcades of Denton, and the foreft of Knaresborough, before all the diverfions of court or camp. He was very young, when he tranflated Taffo's "Godfrey of Bulloign" out of Italian into smooth and excellent English verse, He died about 1632, at his house,

called

called New-hall, in the parish of Fuyftone, between Denton and Knaresborough, and lies under a marble ftone. He wrote the hiftory of Edward the Black Prince, and certain Eclogues, which Mrs. Cooper (in her "Mufes Library") tells us are yet in MS, "though," says fhe, "by the indulgence of the family; I am "permitted to oblige the world with a speci66 men of their beauties." He also wrote a book called "Dæmonologie," in which he fhews a great deal of ancient reading and knowledge. It is ftill in MS, and in the beginning he gives this character of himself. "I am in

religion neither a fantastic Puritan, nor fu"perftitious Papist, but fo fettled in con"fcience, that I have the fure ground of God's "word to warrant all I beleive, and the com"mendable ordinances of our English church, "to approve all I practice; in which courfe "I live a faithful chriftian, and an obedient, "and fo teach my family."* He had several children, fons, and daughters, of whom William was a fcholar, of the fame temper with his father, but more cynical. He tranflated "Diogenes Laertius, the lives of the old Philofophers," out of Greek into English.+

* Cibber's Lives, I, p. 224, 225. + Bishop Atterbury's "Epif, tolary Correspondence,” in a narrative from Bryan Fairfax, F. A. S. Biogra. Brit. V.-New and Gen. Biogra. Di&t, 1798, VI, p. 61.

Dryden

Dryden introduces Spenfer and Fairfax almost on a level as the leading authors of their times; and feems even to give the preference to the latter in point of harmony. And Waller confeffed he owed the mufic of his numbers to him.

King James valued his Taffo above all other English poetry, and King Charles in the time of his confinement ufed to divert himself by reading it.

ROBERT GREEN.

"Robert Green, one of the paftoral Sonnet"Makers of Q. Elizabeth, cotemporary with "Dr. Lodge, with whom he was affociated "in the writing of feveral Comedies, namely, "the Laws of Nature,' C Lady Alimony,' "Liberality and Prodigality, and a Mafque "called Luminalia;' befides which, he wrote "alone the comedies of Friar Bacon and Fair "Emme."

GREEN took his degree of A. M. at Cambridge, and afterwards at Oxford.*"He was

at this time," fays Wood, "a paftoral fonnetmaker and author of feveral things which were pleafing to men and women of his time. They made much sport and were valued among scholars, but fince they have been moftly fold on ballad-mongers ftalls."* He was among the first of our poets, who made a trade of literature, and wrote for his bread. He did not want wit or humour, but prostituted his talents. to the purposes of vice and obfcenity, and was a libertine not only in theory, but practice. After many years spent in riot and debauchery, he fell at last into the most abject penury, difeafe, and self-condemnation. Cibber has inferted from his "Groatsworth of Wit," the letter of remorset which he latterly fent to his illufed and deferted wife. He died 5 Sept. 1592, of a furfeit, taken by eating pickled. herrings, and drinking rhenish wine with them, at a banquet, at which was prefent Thomas Nash, who was his cotemporary at Cambridge, and rallies him in his "Apology of Pierce Pennylefs."§

Of his numerous works, Tanner enumerates the following titles, (befides those abovemen

*Wood's f. I. p. 135. † But this letter is afferted by Nash, in his "Apology of Pierce Pennylefs, 1593, to be a forgery, Biog. Dram. I. p. 493. Steevens's Shakesp. 1778, pref. p. 278-Wood's f. I. p 137. § Cibber's Lives, I. p. 91.

tioned,