d's word to
warrant all I believe, and the commendable ordinances of our English
Church, to approve all I practise; In which course I live a faithful
Christian, and an obedient, and so teach my family." The eclogues
already mentioned are twelve in number, all of them written after
the accession of King James to the throne of England, on important
subjects, relating to the manners, characters, and incidents of the
times he lived in: they are pointed with many fine strokes of satire,
dignified with noble instructions of morality, and policy, to those
of the highest rank, and some modest hints to Majesty itself. The
learning contained in these eclogues is so various and extensive, lhat
according to the opinion of his son, who has written long annotations
on each, no man's reading besides his own was sufficient to explain
his references effectually. As his translation of Tasso is in every
body's hand, we shall take the specimen from the fourth eclogue,
called Eglon and Alexis, as I find it in Mrs. Cooper's collection.

EGLON and ALEXIS.

Whilst on the rough, and heath-strew'd wilderness
His tender flocks the rasps, and bramble crop,
Poor shepherd Eglon, full of sad distress!
By the small stream, fat on a mole-hill top:
Crowned with a wreath of Heban branches broke:
Whom good Alexis found, and thus bespoke.

ALEXIS.

My friend, what means this silent lamentation?
Why on this field of mirth, this realm of smiles
Doth the fierce war of grief make such invasion?
Witty Timanthes[3] had he seen, e're whiles,
What face of woe thy cheek of sadness bears,
He had not curtained Agamemnon's tears.
The black ox treads not yet upon thy toe,
Nor thy good fortune turns her wheel awaye;
Thy flocks increase, and thou increasest so,
Thy straggling goates now mild, and gentlely;
And that fool love thou whipst away with rods;
Then what sets thee, and joy so far at odds?

[Footnote 1: Muses Library, p. 343.]

[Footnote 2: Muses Library, p. 344.]

[Footnote 3: Timanthes the painter, who designing the sacrifice of
Iphigenia, threw a veil over the face of Agamemnon, not able to
express a father's anguish.]

* * * * *

THOMAS RANDOLPH,

A Poet of no mean genius, was born at Newnham, near Daintry in
Northamptonshire, the 15th of June, 1605; he was son of William
Randolph of Hams, near Lewes in Sussex, was educated at Westminster
school, and went from thence to