[INSERTED among Sir Walter Raleigh's Poems, in the Lee Priory edition, pp. 6, 7, on the evidence of the signature Ignoto; and with the following remark: "This Dialogue betwixt God and the Soul stands on the authority of Isaac Walton, as Editor of the Reliquia Wottoniana.' Its absurdity needs not be pointed out." (p. 65.) The Oxford editors of Raleigh's Works have rejected it in their reprint of the Lee Priory Collection, and in so doing, they were certainly correct. It is, however, the only instance in which they have exercised this discretion, which might have been employed in other cases also with advantage. The "absurdity" of the piece, great as it is, is not so obvious as its irreverence; and we have no right to talk of Izaak Walton's "authority," unless we can prove that he regarded Ignoto as a signature peculiar to Sir Walter Raleigh.

On a translation of this ode by Ben Jonson (Works, ix.

142), Gifford has this note: "This little piece has always been a favourite. Granger, whose knowledge of our old writers did not extend much beyond their portraits, tells us,* that the first English version of this Ode was made by Herrick. The Hesperides were not published till 1648, and to say nothing of the translation before us, a dozen, perhaps, had appeared before that period. I have one by Francis Davison as early as 1608, but neither is this the first :-the matter, however, is of no great moment."]

Soul.

HILST my Souls eye
light,

beheld no

But what stream'd from thy gracious sight,

To me the Worlds greatest King

Seem'd but some little vulgar thing.

[5] God. Whil'st thou prov'dst pure, and that in thee I could Glass all my Deity;

[10]

How glad did I from Heaven depart,
To find a Lodging in thy Heart!

S. Now Fame and Greatness bear the sway;
('Tis they that hold my Prisons Key:)
For whom my Soul would die, might she
Leave them her Immortality.

Viz. Biogr. Hist. ii. 309, 4th ed. But Gifford states Granger's mistake too strongly; for he speaks very doubtfully about it; and though Herrick's Hesperides were not published till 1648, this Dialogue is expressly said to have been "Translated anno 1627." p. 76. Davison's Translation is in the Poet, Rhaps. p. 94, ed. Nicolas.

[15]

[20]

G. I, and some few pure

Souls conspire,

And burn both in a mutual Fire,
For whom I'll die* once more, ere they
Should miss of Heavens eternal day.

S. But, Lord, what if I turn again,

And, with an Adamantine Chain,
Lock me to thee? What if I chase
The World away to give thee place?

G. Then, though these Souls, in whom I joy,
Are Seraphims,-Thou but a toy,
A Foolish Toy,-yet once more I

Would with thee live, and for thee die.

IGNOTO.

* Ild dy'―eds. 1651 and 1654, and Brydges, I'd die.'—In ed. 1672, the title is, Imitatio Horatiana Odes 9'-&c. In line 21, those souls'— ed. 1651. In line 4, 'a little'-Brydges.

[THE full name of the writer is preserved in an old MS. Collection belonging to Mr. J. P. Collier, with the loan of which he favoured me some time since. The piece is there entitled, "Doc. Brooke of Teares."-Dr. Samuel Brooke, the intimate friend of Dr. Donne, was the son of a Yorkshire merchant, and was entered at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1596. He took the degree of M. A. in 1604, that of B. D. in 1607, and that of D.D. in 1615. In 1612, he was made Divinity Professor of Gresham College, and was afterwards in succession Rector of St. Margaret's, Lothbury, Master of Trinity, and Archdeacon of Coventry. This last preferment he held only for a few months, and died in September, 1631.* I believe he has not generally been recognized as an English poet, though some of his contemporaries have left allusions which would have led us to look

See Ward's Lives of the Gresham Professors, in Bliss's ed. of Wood's Fasti, i. 401, and in Zouch's Walton, pp. 35, 36, ed. 1796: where much more will be found about him.

for more copious remains than this short poem, which has hitherto been all but anonymous. Thus Donne speaks of "seeing in" him "bright sparkes of Poetry," and Crashaw calls him a Brooke

"Whose Banks the Muses dwelt upon,

More then their own Helicon.'

A Latin pastoral, of which he was the author, (and I think it was not his only performance of that kind,) was acted before King James at Cambridge on Friday, March 10: 1614-5 and was afterwards printed. Its full title is given in the note. Chamberlain says that it was excellently written, and as well acted;" and that it "gave great contentment, as well to the King as to the rest."+

66

His brother, Christopher Brooke, who was Donne's "chamber-fellow," and who shared, like Dr. Brooke, in the troubles arising from Donne's hasty marriage, has been already mentioned in connection with Serjeant Hoskins (p. 7), and was far more celebrated for English Poetry, in which he was frequently the coadjutor of William Browne.§

Donne's Poems, p. 98, ed. 1633. (I presume the initials "M. S. B." refer to Mr. Samuel Brooke. The piece was evidently written when they were both young, and before Donne became a Protestant.) Crashaw's Poems, p. 95, ed. 1670. Crashaw's Elegy is copied in Archbishop Sancroft's Collection, MS. Tann. 465. fol. 65. vo, which contains also a Latin Epitaph on Dr. Brooke. fol. 27.

+ "Melanthe, Fabula pastoralis, acta cum Jacobvs Magnæ Brit. Franc. & Hiberniæ Rex, Cantabrigiam suam nuper inviseret, ibidemq; Musarum atque animi gratiâ dies quinque commoraretur. Egervnt Alvmni Coll. San. et Individvæ Trinitatis, Cantabrigiæ. Excudebat Cantrellvs Legge. Mart. 27. 1615." A copy in the Bodleian (Rawl. 4to. 253) has an imperfect list of the original actors, supposed to be in the handwriting of the author.

See Hawkins's ed. of Ruggle's Ignoramus, p. xxx. and Ward, as above.

Wood mentions his Elegy on Henry, Prince of Wales, 1613; his Eclogues, dedicated to William Browne, 1614, and some scattered pieces, to which Dr. Bliss has made important additions. Wood's Fasti, i. 403. An Epithalamium, which bears his signature, is the last piece contained in England's Helicon. There are two Elegies by "C. B." in Cheetham MS. (Manchester) 8012. pp. 154, 155.