This learned friend of Spenser and Sir Philip Sydney (though better known from his quarrel with Tom Nashe) was in the habit of writing copious memoranda in his books, several of which were in the library of Mr. Lloyd, of Wygfair. Among them some miscellaneous volumes, which I believe afterwards passed into the collection of Mr. Heber, contained remarkable specimens of his calligraphic skill. His name was written four or five times: "Gabriel Harveins, 1579," and with variation, "Gabrielis Harveij" and "di Gabriello Haveio." The volumes contained the Medea and Giocasta of Lodovico Dolce, in Italian; the Hecuba and Iphigenia of Euripides in Latin, by Erasmus, the Comedies of Terence, &c.; and the first Italian and English Grammar, by Henry Grantham, 1575. On the blank pages and spaces what follows was inscribed:—
"La Giocasta d' Euripide, Dolce, et Gascoigno. Senecæ et Statii Thebais. Item Senecæ Œdipus. Quasi Synopsis Tragœdiarum omnium.—NON GIOCO, MA GIOCASTA."
"Omne genus scripti, gravitate Tragœdia vincit."
"Hæ quatuor Tragœdiæ, instar omnium Tragœdiarum pro tempore: præsertim cum reliquarum non suppetit copia. Duæ Euripidis placent in primis, et propter auctoris prudentissimam veram, et propter interpretis singularem delectum. Eadem in Sophoclis Antigonem affectio, ab Episcopo Vatsono tralatam: cum propter interpretis accuratum judicium. Qui tanti fecit optimo Tragicos, ut eosdem soleret cum Checo et Aschamo, omnibus aliis poetis anteferre; etiam Homero et Virgilio."
"Questa Medea di Dolce non è Medea di Seneca. Ma Thieste di Dolce è Thieste medesimo di Seneca. Solo coro nel fin è soperchievole."
"Gascoigni Jocasta, magnifice acta solemne ritu, et vere tragico apparatu. Ut etiam Vatsoni Antigone; cuive pompæ seriæ, et exquisita. Usque adeo quidem utraque ut nihil in hoc tragico genere vel illustrius vel accuratius."
"Jam floruerant prudentissimi Attici, Pericles, Thucydides, Sophocles; jam florent Plato, Xenophon, Demosthenes, cum Euripides pangit Tragœdias. Nec excellentissimorum Atticorum, ullus vel prudentior Euripides, vel argutior, vel etiam elegantior. Nihil in eo nugarum, nihil affectationis, et tamen singula ubique cultissima."
"Erasmus talis Euripidis interpres, qualis Pindari Melancthon. Fœlix utriusque ad interpretandum dexteritas et fluens elocutionis facilitas. Plus in Erasmo diligentiæ; in Melancthone perspicuitas. Quam persequebatur, Camerarius, nec tamen assequebatur."
"Erasmi ferè jadicium acre, et serium nec dubium est, quin delectum adhibucrit in sapientissimis Tragœdiis eligendis exquisitum."
"Ut ferè fœminas; sic Comœdias et Tragœdias; qui unam omnimodo novit, omnes novit quodam modo. Saltem ex ungue, Leonem; ex clave, Herculem."