After this slender dinner, they be either teaching or learning until five of the clock in the evening, when they have a supper not much better than their dinner. Immediately after the which they go either to reasoning in problems, or into some other study, until it be nine or ten of the clock; and then being without fire, are fain to walk or run up and down half an hour, to get a heat on their feet, when they go to bed. "These be men not weary of their pains, but very sorry to leave their study; and sure they be not able some of them to continue for lack of necessary exhibition and relief." SPENSER AT CAMBRIDGE. Edmund Spenser, one of the great landmarks of English poetry, was born in East Smithfield, near the Tower, about the year 1553; as he sings in his Prothalamion: Merry London, my most kindly nurse, That gave to me this life's first native source, The rank of his parents, or the degree of his affinity with the ancient house of Spenser, is not fully established. Gibbon says: "The nobility of the Spensers has been illustrated and enriched by the trophies of Marlborough; but I exhort them to consider the Faery Queen as the most precious jewel in their coronet." The poet was entered a sizar (one of the humblest class of students) of Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 1569, and continued to attend college for seven years. "Öf his proficiency during this time," says Johnson, "a favorable opinion may be drawn from the many classical allusions in his works." At Cambridge, he became intimate with Gabriel Harvey, the future astrologer, who induced the poet to repair to London, and there introduced him to Sir Philip Sidney, 66 one of the very diamonds of her Majesty's court." Of Spenser it has been well said that he and Chaucer are the only poets before Shakspeare who have given to the language anything that in its kind has not been surpassed, and in some sort superseded-Chaucer in his Canterbury Tales, and Spenser in his Faery Queen. Spenser is thought to have been known as a votary of the Muses among his fellow-students at Cambridge: there are several poems in a Theatre for Worldlings, a collection published in the year in which he became a member of the University, which are believed to have come from his pen. RICHARD HOOKER AT HEAVITREE. The boyhood of Richard Hooker, the learned and judicious divine, and the earliest and one of the most distinguished prosewriters of his time, presents some interesting traits. He was born at Heavitree, near Exeter, about 1553, of parents "not so remarkable for their extraction or riches, as for their virtue and industry, and God's blessing upon both.” When a child, he was grave in manner and expression. By the kindness of his uncle, he obtained a better education at school than his parents could have afforded; and when a school-boy, "he was an early questionist, quietly inquisitive, Why this was, and that was not, to be remembered? Why this was granted, and that denied?" Hence his schoolmaster persuaded his parents, who intended him for an apprentice, to continue him at school, the good man assuring them that he would double his diligence in instructing him." "And in the mean time his parents and master laid a foundation for his future happiness, by instilling into his soul the seeds of piety, those conscientious principles of loving and fearing God; of an early belief that he knows the very secrets of our souls; that he punishes our vices, and rewards our innocence; that we should be free from hypocrisy, and appear to men what we are to God, because, first or last, the crafty man is catcht in his own snare. Jewel, bishop of Salisbury, next took Hooker under his care, sent him to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and contributed to his support. Having entered into holy orders, he was appointed Master of the Temple, London; and the church contains a bust erected by the benchers to his memory. Hooker's most celebrated work is his treatise on “Ecclesiastical Polity," a powerful defense of the Church of England; and the first publication in the English language which presented a train of clear logical reasoning. وو 66 SIR PHILIP SIDNEY, THE ENGLISH PETRARCH. Sir Philip Sidney-a name which most educated Englishmen have learnt to admire and love-was born in 1554, at Penshurst Place, in Kent, where an oak, planted to commemorate the event, flourishes to this day. Young Sidney was placed at the Free Grammar-school of Shrewsbury. While there, his father, Sir Henry Sidney, "a man of great parts," addressed a letter to him, in 1566, full of sterling advice. His biographer and companion, Lord Brooke, states that at this early age, Philip was distinguished for intelligence, and for a gravity beyond his years. In 1569, he was entered at Christchurch, Oxford, and is reported to have held a public disputation with Carew, the author of the Survey of Cornwall; while at college he displayed a remarkable acuteness of intellect and craving for knowledge. In 1572, Philip Sidney left England, and proceeded on his * Founded by King Edward VI. In our own time, this school has maintained its pre-eminent rank, under the able head-mastership of the Rev. Dr. Butler. The Schoolhouse is situated near the Castle of Shrewsbury, and is built of freestone, in the Italianized Tudor style; it occupies two sides of a quadrangle, with a square pinnacled tower at the angle, which was partly rebuilt in 1831. travels into France. He was furnished with a license to pass into foreign lands, with three servants and four horses; and was placed under the protection of the Earl of Lincoln, the Lord Admiral. that Sidney was at this time in his eighteenth year, and his boyhood already gave promise of all those graces of mind and of person for which his riper years were so famous. He was tall and well shaped; and even at his early age, skillful in all manly exercices His hair and complexion were very fair, and his countenance soft and pensive as a woman's, and yet full both of intelligence and thoughtfulness Indeed, if the gift of nature descend by inheritance, we cannot wonder that there should be in him a rare union of fine qualities: for his father, Sir Henry, Lord-President of Wales, and afterward Deputy of Ireland, was the very type of a noble English gentleman, excellent as a soldier and a statesman is, upright and prudent, brave and loyal. His mother, the Lady Mary, was full worthy to be the wife of such a man She was one of those women who are the richest ornaments of English History; one whose noble nature had been trained by the discipline of sorrow to the highest degree of excellence. She was the daughter of John, Duke of Northumberland; and when her eldest son, Philip, was born, she wore mourning for her father, her brother, and her sister-in-law, the Lady Jane, who had all died on the scaffold. "The clearness of his father's judgment," writes Fulke Greville, "and the ingenious sensibleness of his mother's, brought forth so happy a temper in their eldest son. From the father he had the stout heart, and the strong hand, and keen intelligence, while his mother has set on him the stamp of her own sweet and very gentle nature."-Life of Sidney, by Steuart A. Pears, M.A. 66 Paris was Sidney's first halting-place, and here he was introduced to the dazzling and bewildering splendor of the court of Catharine de Medicis. Sidney," says Mr. Pears, "had heard much of this queen and her brilliant court: in the quiet days which he had passed at Penshurst, Ludlow, and Oxford, he had often dreamed of such scenes; often too he had talked over the wild doings of the civil wars of France; had his favorite heroes, and in his fancy formed pictures of them—and here he stood in the very midst of these men.' But while in the full enjoyment of the pleasure and luxury of Paris, Sidney's mind was horrified by the Massacre of St. Bartholomew of near 5000 persons and he fled for shelter to the English embassy: the effect of this tragedy on him was deep, and never effaced. From France he proceeded to Belgium, Germany, Hungary, and Italy. At Frankfort, he first became acquainted with Herbert Languet, and addressed to him a volume of letters in Latin, which Mr. Pears has translated, with a few of Sidney's replies. He observes: Sidney's letters are not remarkable for the elegance of their style, for he was then only practicing his pen in Latin writing; nor is it the wit and humor of his letters that render them worthy of attention and praise; but there is such a spirit of gentleness through them all, so much manliness of thought, expressed with the greatest modesty and simplicity, that they cannot fail to please those who delight in watching the opening of a fine character. And if they do not possess that profusion of wit which loads the pages of some modern letter-writers, who (to use the words of Sidney himself) "cast sugar and spice upon every dish that is served at table," they have a charm which no mere man of fashion, be he never so brilliant and versed in belles-lettres, can attain or even appreciate. They are full of the quiet play of a heart overflowing with affection. Hence the offensive criticism of Horace Walpole on Sidney's writings. Sidney next arrived at Vienna, where he perfected himself in horsemanship and other exercises peculiar to those times. At Venice he became acquainted with Edmund Wotton, brother to Sir Henry Wotton. He is said also to have enjoyed the friendship of Tasso, but this statement cannot be verified. Sidney returned to England in 1573; and, famed aforehand by a noble report of his accomplishments, which, together with the state of his person, framed by a natural propension to arms, he soon attracted the good opinion of all men, and was so highly prized in the good opinion of the queen (Elizabeth), that she 66 thought the court deficient without him." Connected with this success is Sidney's first literary attempt, a masque entitled The Lady of May, which was performed before Queen Elizabeth, at Wanstead House, in Essex. After Sidney's quarrel at tennis with the Earl of Oxford, he retired from court to Wilton, the seat of his brother-in-law, the Earl of Pembroke: and there, in the companionship of his sister Mary, he wrote, for her amusement, the Arcadia, which, probably, received some additions from her pen. The chivalry of Sir Philip Sidney, his learning, generous patronage of talent, and his untimely fate (he fell at Zutphen, in his thirty-third year), make his character of great interest. "He was a gentleman finished and complete, in whom mildness was associated with courage, erudition mollified by refinement, and courtliness dignified by truth. He is a specimen of what the English character was capable of producing when foreign admixtures had not destroyed its simplicity, or politeness debased its honor. Such was Sidney, of whom every Englishman has reason to be proud. He was the best prose-writer of his time. Sir Walter Raleigh calls him "the English Petrarch,” and Cowper speaks of him as "a warbler of poetic prose." He trod, from his cradle to the grave, amidst incense and flowers, and died in a dream of glory. BOYHOOD OF LORD BACON. Of the early years of Sir Nicholas Bacon, father of Sir Francis Bacon, the biography is uncertain; but he received his scholastic education at Benet (Corpus Christi) College, Cambridge, and completed his studies abroad. Of his illustrious son, Francis Bacon, born in the Strand, in 1561, we have some interesting early traits. His health was delicate; and by his gravity of carriage, and love of sedentary pursuits, he was distinguished from other boys. While a mere child, he stole away from his play-fellows to a vault in St. James's Fields, to investigate the cause of a singular echo which he had observed there; and when only twelve, he busied himself with speculations on the art of legerdemain.* At thirteen he was entered at Trinity College, Cambridge, which he left after a residence of three years, "carrying with him a profound contempt for the course of study pursued there, a fixed conviction that the system of academic education in England was radically vicious, a just scorn for the trifles on which the followers of Aristotle had wasted their powers, and no great reverence for Aristotle himself." (Macaulay.) (Macaulay.) Such was the foundation of Bacon's philosophy the influence of his writings has been glanced at in page 116. THE ADMIRABLE CRICHTON. The combined genius, learning, and physical advantages which obtained for this celebrated Scotchman the title of Admirable, however oft-told, must be briefly related in this work. James Crichton, son of Robert Crichton, of Eliock, who was Lord Advocate to King James VI., was born in Scotland, in the year, 1561. The precise place of his birth is not mentioned; but, having acquired the rudiments of education at Edinburgh, he was sent to study philosophy and the sciences at St. Andrew's, then the most renowned seminary in Scotland, where the illustrious Buchanan was one of his masters. At the ealy age of fourteen he took his degree of Master of Arts, and was regarded as a prodigy, not only in abilities but actual attainments. He was considered the third reader in the college, and in a short time became complete master of the philosophy and languages of the time, as well as of ten different languages. It was then the custom for Scotchmen of birth to finish their education abroad, and serve in some foreign army previously to their entering that of their own country. When he was only sixteen or seventeen years old (the date cannot be fixed), Crichton's father sent him to the Continent. He had scarcely arrived in Paris, when he publicly challenged all scholars and philosophers to a disputation at the College of Navarre, to be carried on in any of the twelve specified languages, "in any science, liberal art, discipline, or faculty, whether practical or theoretic; and, as if to show in how little need he stood of preparation, or how lightly he held his adversaries, he spent the six weeks that elapsed between the challenge and the contest in a continued round of tilting, hunting, and dancing." On the * Queen Elizabeth, who was taken with the smartness of Bacon's answers when he was a boy, used to try him with questions on various subjects; and it is said that once when she asked him how old he was, his reply was ingeniously complimentary: "I am just two years younger than your Majesty's happy reign." Elizabeth expressed her approbation by calling the boy her "Young Lord Keeper." |