metres, among which, as Ritson has observed, "may be traced the popular stanza which attained so much celebrity in the pastoral ballads of Shenstone."[658:A] Little that can be termed ornamental, either in imagery or episode, is to be found in this poem; but the sketches of character and costume, of rural employment and domestic economy, are so numerous, and given with such fidelity, raciness, and spirit, as to render the work in a very uncommon degree interesting and amusing.
36. Warner, William. Of the biography of this fine old poet, little has descended to posterity. He is supposed to have been born about the year 1558; and that he died at Amwell in Hertfordshire, and was by profession an attorney, are two of the principal facts which, by an appeal to the parish register of Amwell, have been clearly ascertained. In a note to his poem on this village, Mr. Scott first communicated this curious document:—"1608-1609. Master William Warner, a man of good yeares, and of honest reputation: by his profession an atturnye of the Common Pleas: author of Albion's England, diynge suddenly in the night in his bedde, without any former complaynt or sicknesse, on Thursday night, beeinge the 9th day of March: was buried the Saturday following, and lyeth in the church at the corner, under the stone of Gwalter Fader."[658:B]
The lines which gave occasion to this extract form a pleasing tribute to the memory of the bard:
"He, who in verse his Country's story told,
Here dwelt awhile; perchance here sketch'd the scene,
Where his fair Argentile, from crowded courts
For pride self-banish'd, in sequester'd shades
Sojourn'd disguis'd, and met the slighted youth
Who long had sought her love—the gentle bard
Sleeps here, by Fame forgotten."