Fylpot, a gentylman, and one of hys previe chambre, called unto him two more of hys companyons, which in moving their heades towardes me, shewed me most frendely countenaunces. By one of these three the kynge havynge informacion that I was there in the strete, he marveled thereof, for so much as it had bene tolde hym a lytle afore that I was bothe dead and buried. With that hys grace came to the wyndowe, and earnestly behelde me a poore weake creature, as though he had upon me so symple a subject an earnest regard, or rather a very fatherly care." This visit to the king occasioned his immediate appointment to the bishopric of Ossory, which was settled the next day, as he declared1 afterwards, against his will, of the king's own mere motion only, without suit of friends, meed, labour, expenses, or any other sinister means else. On the [2d February] 1553,2 he was consecrated at Dublin by the archbishop of that see, and underwent a variety of persecutions from the Popish party in Ireland, which at length compelled him to leave his diocese, and conceal himself in Dublin. Endeavouring to escape thence in a small trading vessel, he was taken prisoner by the captain of a Dutch man-of-war, who rifled him of all his money, apparel, and effects. The ship was then driven by stress of weather into St Ives in Cornwall, where he was taken up on suspicion of high treason, but soon discharged. From thence, after a cruise of several days, the ship arrived in Dover Road, and he was again put in danger by a false accusation. On his arrival in Holland, he was kept prisoner three 1 See his "Vocacyon." 2 Mr A. Chalmers gives the date of Bale's consecration, February 2, 1553, and not the 20th of March. The former is correct. Collier. weeks, and then obtained his liberty on payment of a sum of money. From Holland he retired to Basil in Switzerland, and continued abroad during the remainder of Queen Mary's reign. On the accession of Queen Elizabeth, he returned to England; but being disgusted with the treatment he met with in Ireland, he went thither no more. He was promoted on the 15th of January 1560, to a prebend in the Cathedral Church of Canterbury, and died in that city in [or before] November 1563, in the sixty-eighth year of his age. According to the manners of the times in which he wrote, he appears to have taken very indecent liberties with all his antagonists in his religious controversies, and to have considered himself as not bound by any rules of decorum in replying to those from whom he differed in matters, wherein the interests of religion were concerned. The acrimony of his style on these occasions acquired him the appellation of "Bilious Bale," and it was applied to him with singular propriety. His principal work is esteemed the " Scriptorum illustrium majoris Brytaniæ quam nunc Angliam et Scotiam vocant Catalogus;" a Japheto per 3618 annos usque ad annum hunc domini 1557, &c., first printed imperfectly at Wesel in 1549, and afterwards more completely in 1557 and 1559.1 He was the author of a great number of dramatic pieces, [four 2] of which only appear to have been published. 66 1 Five centuries of writers seem to have been printed at Wesel in 1549, under the following title: "Illustrium Majoris Britaniæ Scriptorum, hoc est Angliæ, Cambriæ, et Scotia, Summarium." The most complete and enlarged edition was printed at Basil by Oporinus in 1559.—Collier. 2 Not including his "King Johan," printed by Collier, 1838. Of these and his other works, see a very copious list This present copy is taken from an old black letter edition in 4to, in the valuable collection of David Garrick, Esq. The title-page being damaged, I am unable to give the date of it. 2 What is remarkable in this drama is that it is divided into seven acts, and at the end of each act has a kind of chorus, which was performed with voices and instruments. in Cooper's "Athens," i. 227-30. See also Hazlitt's "Handbook," v. Bale. The list given in the former edition of Dodsley was so imperfect and unsatisfactory as not to appear worth retention. 1 But in Dodsley's own edition, 1744, occurs the following interesting notice omitted in that of 1825: "This antient piece I found in the Harleian Collection of Old Plays, consisting of between 600 and 700, which are now in my possession." Very probably, Garrick was partly indebted to Dodsley for his dramatic rarities. 2 It will be seen that the design of the author necessarily divided itself into seven ages or periods, for the seven promises by the Creator to Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Esaias, and John the Baptist.-Collier. 1 This list of characters is not in the old copy, but was made out from the mention of persons in the progress of the piece.-Collier. GOD'S PROMISES. BALEUS prolocutor. IF profit may grow, most Christian audience, As those matters are that the gospel specify. Without whose knowledge no man to the truth can fall,1 Nor ever attain to the life perpetual. For he that knoweth not the living God eternal, The Father, the Son, and also the Holy Ghost, And what Christ suffered for redemption of us all, What he commanded, and taught in every coast, And what he forbode, that man must needs be lost, 1 The old copy from which this dramatic piece was first reprinted by Dodsley, and subsequently by Mr Reed, having been damaged, and a part of the leaf lost, it was not possible to ascertain exactly the last word of this line it was therefore supplied by conjecture, and not very happily: the line has till now stood "Without whose knowledge no man to the truth can come." But the form of the stanza, and the rhyme in the next line, shows decidedly that this is wrong. In Davenport's "City Night Cap," Act 3, we meet with a not very dissimilar use of the word fall. "I have made a modest choice of you, grave sir, To be my ghostly father; and to you I fall for absolution." |