[699:E] Curious specimens from this publication have been given by Mr. Haslewood in the Brit. Bibliographer, No. X. p. 549.
[700:A] Of this voluminous pamphleteer, five more pieces are enumerated by Ritson, published posterior to 1616. Though a rapid and careless writer, he occasionally exhibits considerable vigour, and has often satirized with spirit the manners and follies of his period. He may be justly classed as surmounting mediocrity, and he is therefore designated as such at the close of this article.
[700:B] This poem, and the Fisherman's Tale, are written in blank verse, a species of composition in which Sabie had been preceded by Surrey, Gascoigne, Turberville, Riche, Peele, Higgins, Blenerhasset, Aske, Vallans, Greene, Breton, Chapman, Marlowe, &c. A copious analysis of these pieces has been given by Mr. Haslewood in No. V. of the British Bibliographer, from p. 488. to 503.; but neither the genius nor the versification of Sabie merit much notice: his Pan, however, contains some beautiful rhymed lines.
[700:C] Annexed, says Ritson, to his "Hours of Recreation or after dinners," 1576, 8vo.
[700:D] The "Four Paradoxes" occupy four portions, each consisting of 18 six-line stanzas, and the whole is terminated by three additional ones, entitled his "Resolution." The specimens of this poem adduced by Mr. Park in Censura Literaria, vol. iii. and iv., speak highly in its favour, and seem to justify the following encomium:—"There is much manly observation, forcible truth, apt simile, and moral pith in the poem itself; and it leaves a lingering desire upon the mind, to obtain some knowledge of a writer, whose meritorious production was unheralded by any contemporary verse-man, and whose name remains unrecorded by any poetical biographer."—Vol. iii. p. 376.
[701:A] An accurate account of this volume, which was republished in 1622 and 1640, may be found in Censura Literaria, vol. iii, p. 381. "From the great disparity of merit between this and the preceding article," observes Mr. Park, "there is little reason to suppose them by the same author, though they bear the same name."
[701:B] A perfect copy of this miserable collection of poems, consisting of sonnets, elegies, odes, odellets, &c. was purchased, at a sale, by Mr. Triphook for twelve guineas. The only copy before known was without a title, from which Ritson has given a full account, though, at the same time, he terms the author an "arrogant and absurd coxcomb," and condemns him for his "wretched style, profligate plagiarism, ridiculous pedantry, and unnatural conceit."—Vide Bib. Poetica, p. 337. et seq.
[701:C] An ample and interesting description of Stanyhurst, and his translation, will be found in Censura Literaria, vol. iv. pp. 225. 354., the production of Mr. Haslewood. Nash has not exaggerated when, alluding to this poet, he says, "whose heroical poetry infired, I should say inspired, with an hexameter furye, recalled to life whatever hissed barbarism hath been buried this hundred yeare; and revived by his ragged quill such carterly varietie, as no hedge plowman in a countrie but would have held as the extremitie of clownerie: a patterne whereof I will propound to your judgment, as near as I can, being part of one of his descriptions of a tempest, which is thus:—
"Then did he make heaven's vault to rebound
With rounce robble bobble,