ne William Basse, of
Moreton, near Thame, in Oxfordshire, who was some time a retainer
of Lord Wenman, of Thame Park, i.e. Richard Viscount Wenman, in the
peerage of Ireland. And I find among my MS. biographical collections
that a William Basse, of Suffolk, was admitted a sizar of Emanuel
College, Cambridge, in 1629. A.B. 1632, and A.M. in 1636. The William
Basse who wrote _Great Brittaines Sunnes-set_ in 1613, was also the
author of the MS. collection of poems entitled _Polyhymnia_, mentioned
by MR. COLLIER. In proof of this it is merely necessary to notice
the dedication of the former "To his Honourable Master, Sir Richard
Wenman, Knight," and the verses and acrostics in the MS. "To the Right
Hon. the Lady Aungier Wenman, Mrs. Jane Wenman, and the truly noble,
vertuous, and learned Lady, the Lady Agnes Wenman." Basse's Poems
were evidently intended for the press, but we may conjecture that the
confusion of the times prevented them from appearing. Thomas Warton,
in his _Life and Literary Remains of Ralph Bathurst, M.D._, has a copy
of verses by the Dr. "To Mr. W. Basse, upon the intended publication
of his Poems, January 13, 1651;" to which the learned editor adds, "I
find no account of this writer or his poems." The whole consists of
forty-four verses, from which I extract the beginning and the end:--

Basse, whose rich mine of wit we here behold
As porcelain earth, more precious, 'cause more old;
Who, like an aged oak, so long hath stood,
And art religion now as well as food:
Though thy grey Muse grew up with elder times,
And our deceased grandsires lisp'd thy rhymes;
Yet we can sing thee too, and make the lays
Which deck thy brow look fresher with thy praise.
* * * * *
Though these, your happy births, have silent past
More years than some abortive wits shall last;
He still writes new, who once so well hath sung:
That Muse can ne'er be old, which ne'er was young."

These verses are valuable as showing that Basse was living in 1651,
and that he was then an aged man. The Emanuelian of the same name, who
took his M.A. degree in 1636, might possibly be his son. At any rate,
the latter was a poet. There are some of his pieces among the MSS. in
the Public Library, Cambridge; and I have a small MS. volume of his
rhymes, scarcely soaring above mediocrity, which was presented to me
by an ancient family residing in Suffolk.

A poem by William Basse is inserted in t