aphical some of the letters signed N.B. in _A
Poste with a Packet of Mad Letters_ (1603, enlarged 1637); the 19th letter
of the second part contains a general complaint of many griefs, and
proceeds as follows: "hath another been wounded in the warres, fared hard,
lain in a cold bed many a bitter storme, and beene at many a hard banquet?
all these have I; another imprisoned? so have I; another long been sicke?
so have I; another plagued with an unquiet life? so have I; another
indebted to his hearts griefe, and fame would pay and cannot? so am I."
Breton was a facile writer, popular with his contemporaries, and forgotten
by the next generation. His work consists of religious and pastoral poems,
satires, and a number of miscellaneous prose tracts. His religious poems
are sometimes wearisome by their excess of fluency and sweetness, but they
are evidently the expression of a devout and earnest mind. His praise of
the Virgin and his references to Mary Magdalene have suggested that he was
a Catholic, but his prose writings abundantly prove that he was an ardent
Protestant. Breton had little gift for satire, and his best work is to be
found in his pastoral poetry. His _Passionate Shepheard_ (1604) is full of
sunshine and fresh air, and of unaffected gaiety. The third pastoral in
this book--"Who can live in heart so glad As the merrie country lad"--is
well known; with some other of Breton's daintiest poems, among them the
lullaby, "Come little babe, come silly soule,"[1]--it is incorporated in
A.H. Bullen's _Lyrics from Elizabethan Romances_ (1890). His keen
observation of country life appears also in his prose idyll, _Wits
Trenchmour_, "a conference betwixt a scholler and an angler," and in his
_Fantastickes_, a series of short prose pictures of the months, the
Christian festivals and the hours, which throw much light on the customs of
the times. Most of Breton's books are very rare and have great
bibliographical value. His works, with the exception of some belonging to
private owners, were collected by Dr A.B. Grosart in the [v.04 p.0502]
_Chertsey Worthies Library_ in 1879, with an elaborate introduction quoting
the documents for the poet's history.

Breton's poetical works, the titles of which are here somewhat abbreviated,
include _The Workes of a Young Wit_ (1577); _A Floorish upon Fancie_
(1577); _The Pilgrimage to Paradise_ (1592); _The Countess of Penbrook's
Passion_ (MS.), first printed by J.O. Halliwell Phillipps in 1