and by others, entitled "The Autor," signed "Vale, G. B.;" after which are added the following lines:—
"Some Poets they are poore, and so am I,
Except I bee reliev'd in Chancery;
I scorne to begg, my pen nere us'd the trade,
This book to please my friends is only made,
Which is performed by my aged quill,
For to extend my country my good will.
Let not my country think I took this paynes
In expectation of any gaines."
We know from Mr. Collier's Bridgewater Catalogue, that Sir George Buc had been indebted to Lord Ellesmere for certain favours shown him, probably in some Chancery suit, to which he here seems to allude, as if still suffering in his pocket from its ill consequences.
My first quotation from the poem itself is one of some importance, as serving to show the probable time at which it was written. On the reverse of fol. 9., at the commencement of the poem, an allusion is thus made to the destruction of Troy:—
"And wasted all the buildings of the king,
Which unto Priamus did glory bring,
Destroy'd his pallaces, the cittie graces,
And all the lusters of his royall places,
Just as Noll Cromewell in this iland did,
For his reward at Tiburne buried."
So also, again, on the reverse of fol. 11., in reference to the abuses and profanations committed by Cromwell's soldiery in St. Paul's Cathedral, he says:—
"Pittie it were this faberick should fall
Into decay, derives its name from Paul,
But yet of late it suffered vile abuses,
Was made a stable for all traytors' uses,
Had better burnt it down for an example,
As Herostratus did Diana's temple."
And again, at the commencement of the eighth chapter, fol. 104.:—
"In this discourse, my Muse doth here intend,
The honor of Saint Patrick to defend,
And speake of his adventrous accidents,
Of his brave fortunes, and their brave events,
That if her pen were made of Cromwell's rump,
Yet she should weare it to the very stump."
At the end of the poem he again alludes to his great age, and to the time which had been occupied in writing it, and also promised, if his life should be prolonged, a second part, in continuation, which, however, appears never to have been accomplished:—