or whom Nash,
in hope of gain, as he admitted, penned 'amorous villanellos and qui
passas.' One of the least reputable of these efforts of Nash survives in
an obscene love-poem entitled 'The Choosing of Valentines,' which may be
dated in 1595. Not only was this dedicated to Southampton in a prefatory
sonnet, but in an epilogue, again in the form of a sonnet, Nash addressed
his young patron as his 'friend.' {386}

Markham's sonnet, 1595. Florio's address, 1598.

Meanwhile, in 1595, the versatile Gervase Markham inscribed to
Southampton, in a sonnet, his patriotic poem on Sir Richard Grenville's
glorious fight off the Azores. Markham was not content to acknowledge
with Barnes the inspiriting force of his patron's eyes, but with
blasphemous temerity asserted that the sweetness of his lips, which
stilled the music of the spheres, delighted the ear of Almighty God.
Markham's sonnet runs somewhat haltingly thus:

Thou glorious laurel of the Muses' hill,
Whose eyes doth crown the most victorious pen,
Bright lamp of virtue, in whose sacred skill
Lives all the bliss of ear-enchanting men,
From graver subjects of thy grave assays,
Bend thy courageous thoughts unto these lines--
The grave from whence my humble Muse doth raise
True honour's spirit in her rough designs--
And when the stubborn stroke of my harsh song
Shall seasonless glide through Almighty ears
Vouchsafe to sweet it with thy blessed tongue
Whose well-tuned sound stills music in the spheres;
So shall my tragic lays be blest by thee
And from thy lips suck their eternity.

Subsequently Florio, in associating the earl's name with his great
Italian-English dictionary--the 'Worlde of Wordes'--more soberly defined
the earl's place in the republic of letters when he wrote: 'As to me and
many more the glorious and gracious sunshine of your honour hath infused
light and life.'

The congratulations of the poets in 1603.

The most notable contribution to this chorus of praise is to be found, as
I have already shown, in Shakespeare's 'Sonnets.' The same note of
eulogy was sounded by men of letters until Southampton's death. When he
was released from prison on James I's accession in April 1603, his
praises in poets' mouths were especially abundant. Not only was that
grateful incident celebrated by Shakespeare in what is probably the
latest of his sonnets (No. cvii.), but Samuel Danie