2»> S. VII. Jan. 1. '69.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



LONDON. SATURDAY, J.ANU4RY 1. Mh^ 



TO ODB READERS. 



A Happy Nbw Year to You, Gentle Beadebs, 

 One and All! 



It is now Nine Years since we first opened our columns 

 for the use of all inquiring spirits, 



" Omni quaerenti et scire volenti," 



and each of those Nine Years has seen an increase in the 

 number of our Friends, and in our consequent usefulness. 

 The obvious utility of the object for which this Journal 

 was started, namely, " to assist Men of Letters and of 

 Research in their pursuits, by furnishing them with a 

 Medium of Inter-communication," is doubtless one great 

 cause of our success. Something may also be due to the 

 rule which excludes from these pages all harsh and un- 

 courteous discussions. Even if this rule has no}; con- 

 tributed to our success, it has made Notes and Queries 

 what it now is, that summum bonum of all philosophers — 

 " a fuippi/ Medium." We shall endeavour to maintain 

 this essential characteristic of our publication. We have 

 no objection to preside over a passage of arms ; but when 

 the combatants wax wroth, we must be permitted, as of 

 old, to throw down our truncheon and close the lists. 

 And so, once more. Gentle Readers, we bid You A Happy 

 Njiw Ykau ! 



JOSUAII SYLVESTER AND HIS WORKS. 



Little is known of the personal history of this once 

 liighly popular, but now totally neglected poet. It 

 has been surmised that pecuniary difficulties drove 

 him into exile, where he languished and died, and 

 was soon forgotten. The suspicion may be fairly 

 controverted — the assertion is too true. With 

 the exception of that typographical curiosity, his 

 LachrymcE Lachrymariim (a monody on the pre- 

 mature demise of his patron, Prince Henry, eldest 

 son of James I.), and three brief extracts from 

 his lighter compositions, inserted in Ellis's Speci- 

 mens of the Early British Poets, probably few are 

 aware how many other pieces, original and trans- 

 lated, this proto-musus of the Puritans committed 

 to the press ; and how deeply was the most illus- 

 trious of our sacred poets indebted to him for some 

 of his choicest similes, as well as the most apposite 

 of his phrases. Sylvester culled the flowers which 

 the genius of Milton disposed. This interesting 

 fact was first noted, in 1750, by Lauder, in his 

 splenetic Essay on Milton's Use and Imitation of the 

 Moderns ; and, half a century later, was confirmed 

 more at large by Dunster, in his Letter to Dr. 

 Falconer, Sylvester's Du Bartas " contains (says 

 the last-mentioned critic) more material prima 

 stamina of the Paradise Lost than, as I believe, 

 any other book whatever ; and my hypothesis is, 



that it positively laid the first stone of that monu- 

 mentum are perennius." And he proceeds to esta- 

 blish his hypothesis by innumerable quotations 

 from, and comparisons of, the principal works of 

 the two poets. The interesting fact alone of 

 Milton's obligations to him ought to preserve 

 from oblivion the name of Du Bartas's ingenious 

 paraphrast. 



No author was more highly esteemed by his 

 poetical contemporaries than Josuah Sylvester, 

 by whom he was commonly styled " The Silver- 

 tongued," for the smoothness of his versification. 

 He was not more distinguished for his learning 

 and ingenuity than for his many virtues and piety. 

 Anthony a Wood incidentally describes him as "a 

 saint on earth, a true Nathanael, a Christian Is- 

 raelite ;" and John Vicars, the Puritan, who sang 

 his requiem, testifies also of him as one 



" Whom Envy scarce could hate, whom all admired, 

 Who lived beloved, and a Saint expired." 



He was a native of Kent, and was born in the 

 year 1563. The only education he received was 

 under Dr. Adrianus Saravia of Southampton, with 

 whom he continued from the age of nine to twelve, 

 and of whose " love and labors" he makes grate- 

 ful acknowledgments in one of his latest poems : — 



"... My Saravia, to whose rev'rend name 

 Mine owes the honor of Du Bartas' fame. 

 From th' ample cisterns of his sea of skill 

 Suck'd I my succor, and slight shallow rill ; 

 The little all I can, and all I could, 

 In three poor years, at three times three years old." 



He regrets not having to "either Athens flown" 

 (that is, to Oxford or Cambridge), or followed his 

 revered master to Ley den, when Saravia was in- 

 vited, shortly after parting with his pupil, to fill 

 the divinity chair in that University. 



Notwithstanding his scholastic deficiencies in 

 youth, Sylvester contrived, " in his manly years," 

 to thoroughly master the French, Spanish, Dutch, 

 Italian, and Latin languages. Doubtless, lie ac- 

 quired the first four of these whilst trading on the 

 Continent. In 1597, he was a candidate for the 

 office of secretary to the Company of Merchant- 

 adventurers at Stade, of which he was a member. 

 On that occasion the Earl of Essex, then at the 

 height of his fortune, exerted himself, but apparr 

 ently in vain, in his favour ; recommending him in 

 two highly eulogistic letters, addressed from the 

 court of Elizabeth. Wood says that queen "had 

 a great respect for him ; King James I. had a 

 greater ; and Prince Henry the greatest of all ; 

 who valued him so much, that he made him the 

 first [and Sylvester adds himself the worst} poet- 

 pensioner." 



His connexion with the Court, however, as well 

 as all hopes of preferment there, must have ter- 

 minated with the life of the young Prince ; for 

 the poet's subsequent career appears to have been 

 one of unmitigated poverty and neglect. The 



