Errand," which, it would seem,
was thought to be the same that had been credited to Sir Walter Raleigh
under the title of "The Lie."

Joshua Sylvester was in his day a writer of some note. Colley Cibber, in
his "Lives of the Poets," is quite lavish in his praise, and says his
brethren in the sacred art called him the "Silver-tongued." The same
phrase has been applied to others.

In his "Specimens of Early English Poets," Ellis "restores" the poem,
with the title of "The Soul's Errand," to Sylvester, as its "ancient
proprietor, till a more authorized claimant shall be produced."

Chambers, in his "Cyclopaedia of English Literature," prints the poem,
with the title of "The Soul's Errand," and he also gives it to
Sylvester, "as the now generally received author of an impressive piece,
long ascribed to Raleigh."

Sir Egerton Brydges, in his "Censura Literaria," doubts Percy's right to
credit Sir Walter with the poem of "The Lie," of which he says there is
a "parody" in the folio edition of Sylvester's works, where it is
entitled "The Soul's Errand."

The veteran J. Payne Collier, the _emendator_ of Shakespeare, has
recently put forth a work, in four volumes, entitled "A Bibliographical
and Critical Account of the Rarest Books in the English Language." In
this work he claims the authorship of "The Lie," "otherwise called 'The
Soul's Errand,'" for Sir Walter Raleigh, and rests his authority on a
manuscript copy "of the time," headed, "Sir Walter Wrawly his Lye." He
quotes the poem at length, beginning,

"_Hence_, soule, the bodies guest."

All other copies that I have seen read, "_Go_, soul," which I think will
be deemed the more fitting word.

Collier does not allude to Sylvester in connection with this poem, but
introduces him in another article, and treats him somewhat cavalierly,
as "a mere literary adventurer and translating drudge." "When he died,"
Collier says, "is not precisely known." He might have known, since there
were records all round him to show that Sylvester died in Holland, in
September, 1618. His great contemporary, Sir Walter Raleigh, was
beheaded in October, one month after.

(By the way, Payne Collier holds out marvellously. Here is his new work,
dated 1866, and I have near me his "Poetical Decameron," published in
1820, _forty-six_ years ago.)

Ritson, a noted reaper in the "old fields," supposes, that "The Lie" was
written by Francis Davison; and in Kerl's "Comprehensive Grammar," among