"Full oft the valiant knight his hold doth shift,
And with much prettie sleight, the same doth slippe;
In fine he doth applie one speciall drift,
Which was to get the Pagan on the hippe:
And hauing caught him right, he doth him lift,
By nimble sleight, and in such wise doth trippe:
That downe he threw him, and his fall was such,
His head-piece was the first that ground did tuch."
Sir John Harington's Translation of Orlando
Furioso, Booke xlvi. Stanza 117.
In some editions, the fourth line is printed "namely to get," &c., with other variations in the spelling of the rest of the stanza.
W. R. Arrowsmith.
(To be continued.)
[LORD COKE.]
Turning over some old books recently, my attention was strongly drawn to the following:
"The Lord Coke, his Speech and Charge, with a Discouerie of the Abuses and Corruptions of Officers. 8vo. Lond. N. Butter, 1607."
This curious piece appears to have been published by one R. P. [1], who describes himself, in his dedication to the Earl of Exeter, as a "poore, dispised, pouertie-stricken, hated, scorned, and vnrespected souldier," of which there were, doubtless, many in the reign of James the Pacific. Lord Coke, in his address to the jury at the Norwich Assizes, gives an account of the various plottings of the Papists, from the Reformation to the Gunpowder Treason, to bring the land again under subjection to Rome, and characterises the schemes and the actors therein as he goes along in the good round terms of an out-and-out Protestant. He has also a fling at the Puritans, and all such as would disturb the church and hierarchy as by law established. But the most remarkable part of the book is that which comes under the head of "A Discouerie of the Abuses and Corruption of Officers;" and believing an abstract might interest your readers, and furnish the antiquary with a reference, I herewith present you with a list of the officials and others whom my Lord Coke recommends the Jurie to present, assuring them, at the same time, that "by God's grace they, the offenders, shall not goe unpunished for their abuses; for we have," says he, "a COYFE, which signifies a scull, whereby, in the execution of justice, wee are defended against all oppositions, bee they never so violent."
1. The first gentleman introduced by Lord Coke to the Norwich jury is the Escheator, who had power to demand upon what tenure a poor yeoman held his lands, and is an officer in great disfavour with the judge. He gives some curious instances of his imposition, and concludes by remarking that, for his rogueries, he were better described by striking away the first syllable of his name, the rest truly representing him a cheator.