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. Care how thy children up to bring. 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; Chide not to bed-ward when we wend. Let shamefastness thy mistress be, THE WIFE'S ANSWER. HUSBAND! if thou wilt pure appear, Make servants sweat at work: not fires. If thou on thy friends do bestow, For servants thine keep tauntings tart: 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, 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, was not very long protracted; since he began to enjoy the advantages of public office at the age of 26, and at 33 was |