Catalogue, that Sir George Buc
had been indebted to Lord Ellesmere for certain favours shown him, {39}
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:--

"My Muse wants eloquence and retoricke,
For to describe it more scollerlike,
And doth crave pardon for hir bold adventure,
When that upon these subjects she did enter.
'Tis eight months since this first booke was begun,
Come, Muse, breake off, high time 'tis to adone.
Travell no further in these martiall straines,
Till we know what will please us for our paines.
I know thy will is forward to performe,
What age doth now deny thy quill t' adorne,
Whose age is _seventy-sixe, compleat in yeares_,
Which in the Regester at large appeares."
&c. &c. &c. &c.

Cromwell d