ALL affectation is disgusting. We know people cannot possess the ability of doing any thing well, without a consciousness that it is done well; and when occasion offers fairly, I do not blush for them when they acknowledge that consciousness. I am far more displeased to catch folk depreciating their own talents; which ap pears to me to be a species of very false modesty. And when I hear it from the lips of those I cannot rebuke, I put on the appearance of deafness, and feign not to be sensible to their cries. They have thrown themselves down a precipice, as it were, in order to be helped up upon a mountain-and I wish them there to lie, till they wisely resolve to walk in plain paths for the future. However, I suppose, persons who are eminent for any accomplishment, have a difficult task to please the rest of the world. The golden mean is hidden from their view, by the brilliancy of their own genius; and, as they hate one sort of vanity, they start from it into the jaws of its opposite. So that modesty may be as vain-glorious on the ground, as pride in a triumphal car.

ALAS! for us! the wisest and most prudent of us are ill qualified to guess what will ensure our own felicity. How many times does the attainment of our wishes destroy the object which they ardently strove to secure! a lesson (which, were it possible for us to profit by experience) would teach us moderation in our pursuits, and submission to the will of "our Father, in heaven," who so often renders crosses and disappointments blessings.

WHAT a strange, but what a forcible comparison, is that of good old Bishop Taylor, when speaking of men who have deferred settling their account with heaven, and their own consciences, till they are on the point of departure from this world, he says, “it will be as bad as contending with a bull in a closet."

WHAT Would be wanting to constitute felicity, if humanity was universally and entirely the "order of the day?" Sin and misery would vanish from the earth!

PRIDE, when it humbles pride, appears less hateful.

IF "to him that is afflicted, pity should be shewed," let it be shewn to him who is afflicted with vice-who is visited with the worst of troubles-an accusing conscience and tyrannical passions.

SOME people throw dirt on the characters of others; which, like fuller's earth, sticks awhile, but being brushed off, leaves the gar-ment more clean and bright than ever.

Q. Z.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE.

Qui monet quasi adjuvat.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Nuga Antique. Being a Miscellaneous Collection of original Papers, in Prose and Verse, written during the Reigns of Henry VIII. Edward VI. Queen Mary, Elizabeth, and King James. By Sir John Harington, Knight. Selected from authentic Remains, by the late Henry Harington, A. M. and newly arranged, with illustrative Notes, by Thomas Park, F. A. S. 8vo. 2 Vols. Printed by Wright, for Vernor and Hood, &c. 1l. 1s. 1804.

SIR JOHN HARINGTON, the once celebrated author of the principal papers in the volumes before us, was descended from a respectable family in Cumberland, whose ancestor, Sir James Harington, was attainted, in the reign of Henry the Seventh, for bearing arms at the battle of Towton, and taking Henry the Sixth prisoner; his estates, amounting to five and twenty considerable manors in the north, were forfeited to the crown.

Notwithstanding this attachment to the house of York, his succeeding generations were well received at the court of Henry the Eighth, where John Harington, of Stepney, the father of our author, held a considerable office; who, having united himself in marriage to a natural daughter of Henry, with whom the king gave, as dower, the forfeited church lands of Kelston, &c. is said to have built the largest house at that time in Somersetshire. In the reign of Queen Mary, he was imprisoned eleven months in the Tower, with his second wife, Isabella Markham, for carrying a letter to the Princess Elizabeth. Their attachment to this lady, during her confinement, established them so firmly in her favour, that she retained them in her service, when queen, and stood godmother to their son, our author, as a mark of her friendly remembrance of their sufferings on her account.

It appears that Sir John was born at Kelston, near Bath, in 1561; that he was educated at Eton, and afterwards entered at Christ's College, Cambridge, under the care of Doctor Still. For a short time, he appears to have studied the law, at Lincoln's Inn; but his proficiency in literature and poesy, together with the queen's regard for his parents, soon brought him to court. Here he distinguished himself by his wit and erudition and gained the esteem of all ranks, and both sexes. Being well versed in the Italian language, he

I I-VOL XVII.

translated a tale out of Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso,” which was highly pleasing to the ladies; but the queen, who speedily obtained a sight of her godson's poetry, thinking it proper to affect indignation, at some indelicate passages, forbad our author the court till he had translated the entire work. This he accomplished, and dedi eated to herself in 1591.

Another literary production made its appearance in 1596*, which appears to have contained certain sarcasms on men in high stations, and particularly to have levelled some inuendo against the earl of Leicester; whence it called forth much apparent displeasure, even from the queen; and Mr. Harington avers, that its author escaped a star-chamber inquisition, rather from the queen's secret attachment to him, (which the courtiers well knew) than from any favour or lenity in themselves. Several epigrams, respecting this book, and the queen's reconciliation to the author, are printed at the end of his translation of " Orlando Furioso," 1634, and had three previous impressions.

He married a daughter of Sir George Rogers, of Cannington, in Somersetshire, by whom he appears to have had eight children.— Being of a gay and volatile turn, it is by no means surprising that he should be profuse in his expences. Though his fortune, therefore, was considerable, his extravagance was still greater, and he was obliged to part with some of his estates, particularly one called Nyland. Soon after this happened, he was riding over the very spot, and, with his usual pleasantry, said to his man John: "John, John, this Nyland

"Alas! once was my land."

To which John as merrily and truly replied:

"If you had had more wit, Sir,

"It might have been yours yet, Sir."

Which answer (to adopt an expression of his own) makes us feel that there is often "craft in a clouted shoe."

The favour of the queen, it may be presumed, was not solely grounded on her opinion of Sir John's wit and pleasantry. His general character was such as obtained the esteem of his sovereign, and was the cause of his being employed, on occasional services, with the most distinguished characters of his time. On the appointment of the earl of Essex to be Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, in 1599, he was made Commander of Horse in his service, and was one of

* Entitled " A new Discourse of a stale Subject, called the Metamorphosis of Ajax,” otherwise a jakes. It was occasioned, as Mr. Harington reports, by the author's hav ing inventéd a kind of water-closet for his house at Kelston.

the few officers that unfortunate nobleman selected to accompany him in his ill-judged and impolitic return from Ireland. The unfavourable reception the queen gave to Essex was extended to his followers. Sir John describes himself as having arrived at court in the very "heat and height of all displeasure." "After I had been there but an hour," he adds, "I was threatened with the Fleet; I answered, poetically, that, coming so late from the land service, I hoped that I should not be prest, to serve in her Majesty's Fleet, in Fleet-street." In another audience, he speaks of what he felt at the queen's reconcilement, and says, "he seemed to hear like St. Paul, when rapt up in the third heaven." After this return of Essex, and his subsequent disloyalty, the queen being too much engaged to attend to any thing that did not immediately concern the public welfare, our author seems to have retired to his seat at Kelston, where he was principally busied in cultivating his estates, and improving that fortune which had been considerably impaired by wearing so long at court.

On the accession of James, we find him again brought forth to view; his poetical talents were employed to panegyrise the new king, and he soon became a literary favourite with the monarch, who affected learning, and abounded in pedantry. By King James he was created a Knight of the Bath; a correspondence commenced, and interviews passed between them.

The "Brief State of the Church," undertaken as a supplement to Doctor Godwin's "Catalogue of Bishops," was presented by its author, in MS. to Prince Henry, and intended solely for his Royal Highness's private use. The publication of this work, by his mater nal grandson, Doctor Chetwind, in 1653, as it contained some severe strictures on the married clergy, created no small clamour in that body; several of the members of which did not fail to remember that its author's principles accorded with his practice; since he, together with Robert Earl of Leicester, supported Raleigh, in his suit to Queen Elizabeth, for the manor of Banwell (belonging to the bishoprick of Bath and Wells,) on a presumption that the Right Reverend incumbent had incurred a præmunire, by marrying a second wife.

Fuller, Collier, Dryden, and others, have spoken with respect of our author's abilities as an English writer, consider ing the age he lived in; and in Stow's annals, he is enumerated

* He had been knighted in the field by Lord Essex, which gave much offence to the queen, who was a great economist in such honours, or at least was inclined to bes stow them with her own hand. Vide Camden, &c.

among those excellent poets which worthily flourished in their own works, and lived together in Queen Elizabeth's reign. He had formed a plan, it is said, for writing a history of his own times, but did not live to execute it. He died in 1612, aged fifty-one.

"His translation of Ariosto,' with Apologie of Poetric' prefixed; his Ajax,' Epigrams,' and School of Salerne,' with the State of the Church,' are the only productions hitherto published. Many other manuscripts, both in prose and verse, were left behind him. Peck, in his Desiderata, (vi. 13,) speaks of Verses on the Death of Mary Queen of Scots, by Sir John Harington," MS. manû Fleming. His entire Version of the Psalms is in the collection of Francis Douce, Esq. An inedited poem, entitled England's Poverty,' occurs in the catalogue of the Ashmolean MSS. but in the catalogue only; and a poetical 'New Year's Gift to King James," is preserved in the College library, Edinburgh. His Succinct Collection of Historie,' and his Compendious Observations on the Emperors' Lives,' are spoken of in Ulysses, upon Ajax,' a feeble retort on Harington's Cloacinean Satire: respecting which tract, the ingenious Mrs. Cooper committed a laughable mistake, in supposing it to have been ⚫ meant for a court amusement. That lady's laconic character of our knight is less inaccurate, and may therefore suitably close this brief account of this life.

"Sir John Harington appears to have been a gentleman of great pleasantry and humour; his fortune was easy, the court his element, and wit, not his business, but diversion." Muse's Library, p. 297.

e

The "Nuga Antiqua" were selected and published by Mr. Henry Harington, from a collection of MSS. which descended, from his literary ancestor, to the present ingenious and well-known Dr. Harington,* of Bath. The shrewdness of their remarks; their real good sense and humour; and the curious illustrations they afford, of the customs and manners of the times in which they were written, have long rendered them interesting to the lovers of antiquity, and to the public in general.

"In reconducting them to the press," says Mr. Park, "I have taken the liberty of rejecting several prose pieces, which had appeared in preceding editions, and of inserting others, that seemed to possess stronger claims for admission into a mèlange suranné. Much of the former poetry is likewise omitted, from having proved, on examination, to be printed in Tottell's early assemblage of songs and sonnets; a garland,' says our elegant Warton, 'in which it was the fashion for every flowery courtier to leave some of his blossoms.' As this garland is again preparing for public exhibition, by the accomplished hand of Bishop Percy, such omissions became more forcibly authorised."

The real merit of these interesting trifles, and the additional value conferred upon them by the researches of so distinguished an antiquary as Mr. Park, must be sufficiently obvious to render any

* In whose possession some inedited MSS. still remain, which Dr. Johnson ear、 nestly wished to see in print; and which, we hope Dr. II. may yet be induced to give to the public. Rev.