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