ve_, by Anthony
Scoloker, 1604; Breton's _The Passionate Shepheard_, _or The Shepheardes
Loue_: _set downe in passions to his Shepheardesse Aglaia_: _with many
excellent conceited poems and pleasant sonets fit for young heads to
passe away idle houres_, 1604 (none of the 'sonets' are in sonnet metre);
and John Reynolds's _Dolarnys Primerose_ . . . _wherein is expressed the
liuely passions of Zeale and Loue_, 1606. Though George Wither's similar
productions--his exquisitely fanciful _Fidelia_ (1617) and his
_Faire-Virtue_, _the Mistresse of Phil' Arete_ (1622)--were published at
a later period, they were probably designed in the opening years of the
seventeenth century.

{439a} They were first printed in 1656, seven years after the author's
death, in _Poems by that famous wit_, _William Drummond_, London, fol.
The volume was edited by Edward Phillips, Milton's nephew. The best
modern edition is that edited by Mr W. C. Ward in the 'Muses' Library
(1894).

{439b} Cf. William Browne's _Poems_ in 'Muses' Library (1894), ii. 217
et seq.

{440} Chapman imitated Spenser by appending fourteen like sonnets to his
translation of Homer in 1610; they were increased in later issues to
twenty-two. Very numerous sonnets to patrons were appended by John
Davies of Hereford to his _Microcosmos_ (1603) and to his _Scourge of
Folly_ (1611). 'Divers sonnets, epistles, &c.' addressed to patrons by
Joshua Sylvester between 1590 and his death in 1618 were collected in the
1641 edition of his _Du Bartas his divine weekes and workes_.

{441a} Remy Belleau in 1566 brought out a similar poetical version of
the Book of Ecclesiastes entitled _Vanite_.

{441b} There are forty-eight sonnets on the Trinity and similar topics
appended to Davies's _Wittes Pilgrimage_ (1610 ?).

{442a} Graphic illustrations of the attitude of Ronsard and his friends
to a Greek poet like Anacreon appear in _Anacreon et les Poemes
anacreontiques_, _Texte grec avec les Traductions et Imitations des
Poetes du XVIe siecle_, par A. Delboulle (Havre, 1891). A translation of
Anacreon by Remy Belleau appeared in 1556. Cf. Sainte-Beuve's essay,
'Anacreon au XVIe siecle,' in his _Tableau de la Poesie francaise au XVIe
siecle_ (1893), pp. 432-47. In the same connection _Recueil des plus
beaux Epigrammes grecs_, _mis en vers francois_, par Pierre Tamisier
(edit. 1617), is of interest.

{442b} Italy was the original home of the sonnet, and it was as popular
a poet