FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50  
51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   >>   >|  
of Holinshed's _History_, he has always been regarded by the madder sort of Hibernians as a traitor to the nation. His father was Recorder of Dublin, and he himself, having been born about 1547, was educated at University College, Oxford, and went thence, if not to the Inns of Court, at any rate to those of Chancery, and became a student of Furnival's Inn. He died at Brussels in 1618. Here is an example of his prose, the latter part of which is profitable for matter as well as for form:-- "How beyt[11] I haue heere haulf a guesh, that two sorts of carpers wyl seeme too spurne at this myne enterprise. Thee one vtterlie ignorant, the oother meanlye letterd. Thee ignorant wyl imagin, that thee passage was nothing craggye, in as much as M. Phaere hath broken thee ice before me: Thee meaner clarcks wyl suppose my trauail in theese heroical verses too carrye no great difficultie, in that yt lay in my choice too make what word I would short or long, hauing no English writer beefore mee in this kind of poetrye with whose squire I should leauel my syllables. [11] This and the next extract are given _literatim_ to show Stanyhurst's marvellous spelling. * * * * * Haue not theese men made a fayre speake? If they had put in _Mightye Joue_, and _gods_ in thee plural number, and _Venus_ with _Cupide thee blynd Boy_, al had beene in thee nick, thee rythme had been of a right stamp. For a few such stiches boch vp oure newe fashion makers. Prouyded not wythstanding alwayes that _Artaxerxes_, al be yt hee bee spurgalde, beeing so much gallop, bee placed in thee dedicatory epistle receauing a cuppe of water of a swayne, or elles al is not wurth a beane. Good God what a frye of _wooden rythmours_ dooth swarme in stacioners shops, who neauer enstructed in any grammar schoole, not atayning too thee paaringes of thee Latin or Greeke tongue, yeet like blind bayards rush on forward, fostring theyre vayne conceits wyth such ouerweening silly follyes, as they reck not too bee condemned of thee learned for ignorant, so they bee commended of thee ignorant for learned. Thee reddyest way, therefore, too flap theese droanes from the sweete senting hiues of Poetrye, is for thee learned too applye theym selues wholye (yf they be delighted wyth that veyne) too thee true making of ver
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50  
51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

ignorant

 
theese
 

learned

 
spurgalde
 

speake

 

Mightye

 
Artaxerxes
 

beeing

 

gallop

 

epistle


spelling

 
marvellous
 

dedicatory

 

alwayes

 

wythstanding

 

stiches

 

rythme

 
receauing
 

Cupide

 

fashion


makers

 

Prouyded

 

plural

 

number

 

wooden

 
commended
 
condemned
 

reddyest

 
follyes
 

theyre


fostring
 

conceits

 

ouerweening

 

droanes

 
delighted
 

making

 

wholye

 

selues

 
senting
 

sweete


Poetrye

 
applye
 

forward

 

rythmours

 

Stanyhurst

 
swarme
 

stacioners

 
swayne
 

neauer

 

tongue