294 . LIBRARY OF OLD AUTHORS. 



ions of Piers Ploughman ; " the works in prose and 

 verse of Sir Thomas Overbury ; the " Hymns and Songs " 

 and the "Hallelujah " of George Wither; the poems of 

 Southwell; Selden's "Table-Talk" ; the " Enchiridion" 

 of Quarles ; the dramatic works of Marston, Webster, and 

 Lilly ; Chapman's translation of Homer ; Lovelace, and 

 four volumes of "Early English Poetry"! The vol 

 ume of Mather is curious and entertaining, and fit to 

 stand on the same shelf with the " Magnalia " of his book- 

 suffocated son. Cunningham's comparatively recent 

 edition, we should think, might satisfy for a long time 

 to come the demand for Drummond, whose chief value 

 to posterity is as the Boswell of Ben Jonson. Sir 

 Thomas Overbury's "Characters" are interesting illus 

 trations of contemporary manners, and a mine of foot 

 notes to the works of better men, but, with the ex 

 ception of " The Fair and Happy Milkmaid," they are 

 dull enough to have pleased James the First ; his 

 " Wife " is a cento of far-fetched conceits, here a tom 

 tit, and there a hen mistaken for a pheasant, like the 

 contents of a cockney's game-bag, and his chief interest 

 for us lies in his having been mixed up with an inexpli 

 cable tragedy and poisoned in the Tower, not without 

 suspicion of royal complicity. The " Piers Ploughman " 

 is a reprint, with very little improvement that we can 

 discover, of Mr. Wright's former edition. It would have 

 been very well to have republished the " Fair Virtue," 

 and " Shepherd's Hunting " of George Wither, which 

 contain all the true poetry he ever wrote ; but we can 

 imagine nothing more dreary than the seven hundred 

 pages of his " Hymns and Songs," whose only use, that 

 we can conceive of, would be as penal reading for incor 

 rigible poetasters. If a steady course of these did not 

 bring them out of their nonsenses, nothing short of 

 hanging would. Take this as a sample, hit on by open 

 ing at random : 



