32. Jephtha. May 1602. Not printed.

33. A Danish Tragedy. May 1602. Not printed.

34. Femelanco. (With Robinson.) Sept. 1602. Not printed. 35, 36. Lady Jane, in two parts. (With Dekker, T. Heywood, Wentworth

Smith, and Webster.) Nov. 1602. Not printed.

37, 38. The London Florentine, in two parts. (With T. Heywood.) Dec. 1602.

39. The Tragedy of Hoffman. Dec. 1602. Printed 1631.

40. Jane Shore. (With J. Day.) March 1603. Not printed.

Henslowe mentions, under date Sept. 3d, 1598, “40s. advanced to Chettle, Jonson, Dekker, and other gentlemen," on account of a tragedy they were then engaged upon, called Robert the Second, King of Scots.

ALEXANDER MONTGOMERY.

(Born circa 1540.)

Alexander Montgomery, whose poetical talents procured for him the patronage and favour of James VI. of Scotland, was born of Scottish parents in Germany, and appears, from the title-page of his works, to have been a military captain. According to Dempster, he was commonly known by the title of Eques Montanus, the Highland Knight; but there is no evidence of his being legally entitled to such an appellation. Polwart mentions him as having resided in Argyle; and the author of a Facetious Poem, in imitation of the Cherry and Slae, seems to represent him as an inhabitant of the district of Badenyon. John Wilson, the author of Clyde, a descriptive poem, says that Montgomery resided also occasionally at Finlayston in Renfrewshire, and that he wrote a poem in honour of that locality. Of the royal bounty which his talents had procured him, he seems to have sustained at least a temporary deprivation; his poems insinuate that a pension which he had enjoyed was withheld at the secret instigation of his enemies. He also complains of his being involved in a tedious process before the court of session, and harassed with misfortunes of every kind. One of his poems is entitled The Poet's Complante against the Unkindness of his Companions when he was in Prisone. Many of the poems of Montgomery are written in the querulous strain, but he always speaks like a man conscious of rectitude; and the recollection of his own virtues, together with the license of his poetical talents, seems to have been his principal source

of consolation under the manifold calamities to which he appears to have been exposed. He died somewhere between 1597 and 1615. Of his works (the most satisfactory edition of which is that published by Dr. Irving in 1821), the best known is The Cherrie and the Slae, an allegorical poem, the meaning of which has been variously explained, but which, upon the whole, would appear to have had a religious aim the poet perceives the cherry growing upon a tall tree, and that tree rising from a formidable precipice; but the sloe, a fruit of an inferior species, is seen depending from a less dangerous height, and seems to invite the irresolute hand. Lord Hailes represents Montgomery as a man of genius; and Thomas Dempster pronounces him the Scottish Pindar, and inferior to none of the ancients in elegance of taste or beauty of composition. Montgomery wrote a Flyting betwene Montgomerie and Polwart (Sir Patrick Hume, of Polwarth), but this scolding ditty does not redound much to his credit. We read with much more satisfaction the author's religious strains. Besides composing various poems of a pious tendency, he versified several of the Psalms in a peculiar measure, which was perhaps adapted to the church music. Montgomery is almost the only Scottish poet who has composed any considerable number of sonnets in his native language. Irvine quotes, from the Drummond manuscripts, no fewer than seventy poems of Montgomery of this character.

BARNABY GOOGE.
(Circa 1540.)

Barnaby Googe, born at Alvingham, in Lincolnshire, was educated both at Christ's College, Cambridge, and at New College, Oxford. He was first a retainer to Cecil, and then, in 1563, a gentleman pensioner to the queen. He is chiefly known as the translator of The Zodiak of Life, written by the godly and learned poet Marcellus Palingenius Stellatus. His version appeared at intervals between 1560 and 1565, in which latter year it was published in a complete form. In 1563 he produced a volume of miscellaneous poems of his own composition, entitled Eglogs, Epytaphes, and Sonnetes; and in 1566 a translation of Naogeorgius' (Kirchmaier) hexametrical poem.

HUMPHREY GIFFORD.

(Born circa 1550.)

We know nothing further of Humphrey Gifford, than that he was the author of A Poesie of Gilliflowers, eche differing from other in colour and odour, yet all swete (London, 1580). It is a volume, now very scarce, of prose translation from the Italian and French, and of poems, devotional, moral, and narrative. The author wrote with great ease.

GEORGE WHETSTONE.
(Born circa 1550.)

George Whetstone, a poet, dramatist, and miscellaneous writer of the Elizabethan period, is commended by Webbe, in his Discourse of English Poetrie, as "a man singularly well skyld in this faculty of poetrie, and worthy to weare the laurell wreathe;" and by Meres, in his Wit's Treasury, is placed between Shakspeare and Gascoigne, as one of the most passionate poets" of that age "to bewail and bemoan the perplexities of love." From his own works it is supposed that he first tried his fortune at court, encouraged perhaps by family respectability, as we find him claiming kin with William Fleetwoode, Esq., Recorder of London, to whom he addresses his Promos and Casandra. But beguiled by the double-faced, double-tongued deceivers of the court, he found his patrimony consumed, whilst dangling after them in fruitless expectation of preferment. Being now destitute of support, he entered the army, and was engaged in some foreign service as a commissioned officer, but of what rank does not appear. Such, however, was his gallant conduct, that it was rewarded with additional pay; but he returned home with more reputation than profit; and his prospects of advancement were so limited, as to determine him to convert his sword into a ploughshare. Yet herein likewise proving unsuccessful, he was compelled to resort to the

generosity of his friends. "This proved,' he tells us, "only a broken reed, and worse than common beggary of charity from strangers. Now craft (he says) arrested him in his sleep, and tempted him with the proposals of several professions; but for the knavery or slavery of them, he rejected all his munificence constrained him to love money, and his magnanimity to hate all the ways of getting it." Elsewhere he tells us, that "when he was an officer, he gave all the spoils to the soldiers under his command." At last "he resolved to accompanye the adventurous Captaine Syr Humfrey