hman with his stragglers overmatch?
Disdain ye not such rivals, and defer ye their dispatch?
Shall Tudor from Plantagenet, the crown by cracking snatch?
Know Richard's very thoughts' (he touch'd the diadem he wore)
'Be metal of this metal: then believe I love it more
Than that for other law than life, to supersede my claim,
And lesser must not be his plea that counterpleads the same.'
The weapons overtook his words, and blows they bravely change,
When, like a lion thirsting blood, did moody Richard range,
And made large slaughters where he went, till Richmond he espied,
Whom singling, after doubtful swords, the valorous tyrant died."

Of the sonnet compositions of Daniel and Drayton something has been said
already. But Daniel's sonnets are a small and Drayton's an infinitesimal
part of the work of the two poets respectively. Samuel Daniel was a
Somersetshire man, born near Taunton in 1562. He is said to have been the
son of a music master, but was educated at Oxford, made powerful friends,
and died an independent person at Beckington, in the county of his birth,
in the year 1619. He was introduced early to good society and patronage,
became tutor to Lady Anne Clifford, a great heiress of the North, was
favoured by the Earl of Southampton, and became a member of the Pembroke or
_Arcadia_ coterie. His friends or his merits obtained for him, it is said,
the Mastership of the Revels, the posts of Gentleman Extraordinary to James
I., and Groom of the Privy Chamber to Anne of Denmark. His literary
production besides _Delia_ was considerable. With the first authorised
edition of that collection he published _The Complaint of Rosamond_; a
historical poem of great grace and elegance though a little wanting in
strength. In 1594 came his interesting Senecan tragedy of _Cleopatra_; in
1595 the first part of his chief work, _The History of the Civil Wars_, and
in 1601 a collected folio of "Works." Then he rested, at any rate from
publication, till 1605, when he produced _Philotas_, another Senecan
tragedy in verse. In prose he wrote the admirable _Defence of Rhyme_, which
finally smashed the fancy for classical metres dear even to such a man as
Campion. _Hymen's Triumph_, a masque of great beauty, was not printed till
four years before his death. He also wrote a History of England as well as
minor works. The poetical value of Daniel may almost be summed up in two
words--sweetness and dignity. H