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TIMOTHY KENDALL,

A student of Staples Inn. The following verses (from his "Flowers of Epigrams," 1577) are translated from Walter Haddon's Latin poems, 1567. Kendall thought it essential to the diffusion of matrimonial felicity, that such an epitome of the whole duty of married persons, should not be locked up in a learned language. The following specimens are inserted, not for their poetical merit, but on account of the curious picture of ancient manners, which they exhibit.

PRECEPTS OF WEDLOCK.

THE HUSBAND'S REQUESTS.

My wife, if thou regard mine ease,

Pray to the Lord, him praise and please.
Displease not me (for any thing.)

Care how thy children up to bring.
Let still thine house be neat and fine:
Always provide for children thine.
Be merry, but with modesty,
Lest some men blame thy honesty.
Let manners thine be pleasant still;
With Jacks yet do not play the Gill.

Go in thy garments soberly,

Let no spot be thereon to spie.

Be merry, when that I am merry;

When I lower, sing not thou " hey-derry."

The man that liked is of me

Let him likewise be liked of thee.

That which I say in

company

See thou refell not openly.

If ought I speak that likes not thee,

Thereof in secret 'monish me.

Whatso in secret I thee tell,

Reveal not, but conceal it well :

Think not strange wives do make me warm;
When I thee hurt, shew me thy harm.
Confess when-so thou dost offend;

Chide not to bed-ward when we wend.
Sleep slightly rise betime, and pray:
When thou art dress'd, to work away!
Believe not all thing that is said:
Speak little, as becomes a maid.
In presence mine, dispute thou not:
Reply not: chat must be forgot.
The honest do associate still,
Loath living with the lewd and ill!
Let lewdness none, thy life afford,
Be always true of tongue and word;

Let shamefastness thy mistress be,
Do these, and wife come cull1 with me.

THE WIFE'S ANSWER.

HUSBAND! if thou wilt pure appear,
(Even as thyself) then hold me dear.
So shalt thou please Jehove divine,
So shalt thou make me nourish mine.
See that our house, wherein we dwell,
Be handsome, wholesome, walled well:
And let us have what use requires.

Make servants sweat at work: not fires.
See that thy speech be mild and meek,
Of froward frumps be still to seek.
If thou wilt have me do for thee,
Then see thou likewise do for me.

If thou on thy friends do bestow,
Be liberal to my friends also.

For servants thine keep tauntings tart:
Admonish gently me apart:

1 From accoller, Fr. to embrace. It is often written coll, to distinguish it from the more usual word cull, from cueillir.

And, when in sport some time I spend,
Do thou not sharply reprehend.
And when I joy with thee to jest,
In angry mood do not molest.
"Tis not enough that I love thee,
But something thou must make of me.
If I shall not of thee be jealous,
See thou cleave not to many fellows.
Though thou hast toiled out the day,
At night be merry yet alway.

Use never much abroad to roam,

But still keep close with me at home.

Thou saidst much, when thou wast a wooer,

Now we are coupled, be a doer.

Penelope if I shall be,

Then be Ulysses unto me.

EDMUND SPENSER.

From the best information that can now be procured, it seems probable that Spenser was born about 1553, and died in 1598 or 1599. He was educated at Cambridge, which he quitted in 1576, and, retiring into the North, composed his "Shepherd's Calendar," the dedication of which seems to have procured him, his first introduction to Sir Philip Sydney. In 1579 he was employed by Leicester, to whom he had been recommended by Sydney, in some foreign commission. In 1580 he became secretary to lord Grey, of Wilton, then appointed lord deputy of Ireland, and in 1582 returned with him to England. In 1586 he obtained a grant of 3000 acres of land in the county of Cork, and in the following year took possession of his estate, where he generally continued to reside, till 1598, when, as Drummond relates, on the authority of Ben Jonson, his house was plundered and burnt by the Irish rebels, his child murdered, and himself with his wife driven, in the greatest distress, to England. It was in the course of the eleven years passed in Ireland, that he composed his Fairy Queen. If these dates be correct, it will follow that, notwithstanding the illiberal opposition of lord Burleigh, whose memory has been devoted to ignominy, by every admirer of Spenser, the period during which our amiable poet was condemned

To fret his soul with crosses and with cares,
To eat his heart with comfortless despairs,

was not very long protracted; since he began to enjoy the advantages of public office at the age of 26, and at 33 was

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