glish.

The Castle of Labour, translated from the French into English.

Bale gives this author but an indifferent character as to his morals;
he is said to have intrigued with women, notwithstanding his clerical
profession: It is certain he was a gay courtly man, and perhaps, tho'
he espoused the Church in his profession, he held their celebacy and
pretended chastity in contempt, and being a man of wit, indulged
himself in those pleasures, which seem to be hereditary to the poets.

* * * * *

Sir THOMAS MORE.

Tho' poetry is none of the excellencies in which this great man was
distinguished, yet as he wrote some verses with tolerable spirit, and
was in almost every other respect one of the foremost geniusses our
nation ever produced, I imagine a short account of his life here will
not be disagreable to the readers, especially as all Biographers of
the Poets before me have taken notice of him, and ranked him amongst
the number of Bards. Sir Thomas More was born in Milk-street, London,
A.D. 1480. He was son to Sir John More, Knight, and one of the
Justices of the King's-Bench, a man held in the highest esteem at
that time for his knowledge in the law and his integrity in the
administration of justice. It was objected by the enemies of Sir
Thomas, that his birth was obscure, and his family mean; but far
otherwise was the real case. Judge More bore arms from his birth,
having his coat of arms quartered, which proves his having come to his
inheritance by descent. His mother was likewise a woman of family, and
of an extraordinary virtue.

Doctor Clement relates from the authority of our author himself, a
vision which his mother had, the next night after her marriage. She
thought she saw in her sleep, as it were engraven in her wedding ring,
the number and countenances of all the children she was to have, of
whom the face of one was so dark and obscure, that she could not well
discern it, and indeed she afterwards suffered an untimely delivery of
one of them: the face of the other she beheld shining most gloriously,
by which the future fame of Sir Thomas was pre-signified. She also
bore two daughters. But tho' this story is told with warmth by his
great grandson, who writes his life, yet, as he was a Roman Catholic,
and and disposed to a superstitious belief in miracles and visions,
there is no great stress to be laid upon it. Lady More might perhaps
communicate this vision to her son, a