sugared meats seling the sweet repast,
The life in blankets, and sundry kinds of playe,
Amidst the press the worldly looks to waste,
Hath with it joyned oft such bitter taste,
That whoso joys such kind of life to holde,
In prison joys, fetter'd with chains of golde.

* * * * *

THOMAS SACKVILLE, Earl DORSET

Was son of Richard Sackville and Winifrede, daughter of Sir John
Bruges, Lord of London.[1] He was born at Buckhurst in the parish of
Withiam in Suffex, and from his childhood was distinguished for wit
and manly behaviour: He was first of the University of Oxford, but
taking no degree there, he went to Cambridge, and commenced master of
arts; he afterwards studied the law in the Inner-Temple, and became a
barrister; but his genius being too lively to be confined to a dull
plodding study, he chose rather to dedicate his hours to poetry and
pleasure; he was the first that wrote scenes in verse, the Tragedy of
Ferrex and Perrex, sons to Gorboduc King of Britain, being performed
in the presence of Queen Elizabeth, long before Shakespear appeared[2]
on the stage, by the Gentlemen of the Inner-Temple, at Whitehall the
18th of January, 1561, which Sir Philip Sidney thus characterises: "It
is full of stately speeches, and well founding phrases, climbing to
the height of Seneca's stile, and as full of notable morality, which
it doth most delightfully teach, and so obtain the very end of
poetry." In the course of his studies, he was most delighted with the
history of his own country, and being likewise well acquainted with
antient history, he formed a design of writing the lives of several
great personages in verse, of which we have a specimen in a book
published 1610, called the Mirror of Magistrates, being a true
Chronicle History of the untimely falls of such unfortunate princes
and men of note, as have happened since the first entrance of Brute
into this Island until his own time. It appears by a preface of
Richard Nicolls, that the original plan of the Mirror of Magistrates
was principally owing to him, a work of great labour, use and beauty.
The induction, from which I shall quote a few lines, is indeed a
master-piece, and if the-whole could have been compleated in the same
manner, it would have been an honour to the nation to this day, nor
could have sunk under the ruins of time; but the courtier put an end
to the poet; and one cannot help wishing for the sake of our nati