, then an admired writer in England as well as
France.]

These pieces of Hall, reprinted in 1599 with three additional books
under the uncouth title of "Virgidemiarum" (a harvest of rods), present
the earliest example in our language of regular satire on the ancient
model, and have gained from an excellent poetical critic the following
high eulogium. "These satires are marked with a classical precision, to
which English poetry had yet rarely attained. They are replete with
animation of style and sentiment. The indignation of the satirist is
always the result of good sense. Nor are the thorns of severe invective
unmixed with the flowers of pure poetry. The characters are delineated
in strong and lively colouring, and their discriminations are touched
with the masterly traces of genuine humour. The versification is equally
energetic and elegant, and the fabric of the couplets approaches to the
modern standard[128]."

[Note 128: Warton's History of English Poetry, vol. iv.]

A few of his allusions to reigning follies may here be quoted.
Contrasting the customs of our barbarous ancestors with those of his own
times, he says:

"They naked went, or clad in ruder hide,
Or homespun russet void of foreign pride.
But thou can'st mask in garish gaudery,
To suit a fool's far-fetched livery.
A French head joined to neck Italian,
Thy thighs from Germany and breast from Spain.
An Englishman in none, a fool in all,
Many in one, and one in several."

Shakespeare makes Portia satirize the same affectation in her English
admirer;--"How oddly he is suited! I think he bought his doublet in
Italy, his round hose in France, his bonnet in Germany, and his behavior
every where."

Other contemporary writers have similar allusions, and it may be
concluded, that the passion for travelling then, and ever since, so
prevalent amongst the English youth, was fast eradicating all traces of
a national costume by rendering fashionable the introduction of novel
garments, capriciously adopted by turns from every country of Europe.

"Cadiz spoil" is more than once referred to by Hall; and amongst
expedients for raising a fortune he enumerates, with a satirical glance
at sir Walter Raleigh, the trading to Guiana for gold; as also the
search of the philosopher's stone. He likewise ridicules the costly
mineral elixirs of marvellous virtues vended by alchemical quacks; and
with sounder sense in this point than usually b