written for the use of his Cathedral. Hall, in his Satires, had condemned this sort of poetry. An able inquirer into the literature of this period has affirmed, that Hall's Epistles, written before the year 16131%, are the first example of epistolary composition which England had seen. Bishop Hall," he says, was not only our first satirist, but was the first who brought epistolary writing to the view of the public: which was common in that age to other parts of Europe, but not practised in England till he published his own Epistles "." And Hall himself, in the Dedication of his Epistles to Prince Henry, observes, "Your grace shall herein perceiue a new fashion of discourse by epistles, new to our language, vsuall to others: and, as nouelty is neuer without plea of vse, more free, more familiar 143 » 147 143" The first of our countrymen, however, who published a set of his own letters, though not in English, was Roger Ascham, who flourished about the time of the Reformation; and when that mode of writing had been cultivated by the best scholars in various parts of Europe, was celebrated for the terseness of his epistolary style. I believe the second published correspondence of this kind, and in our own language, at least of any importance after Hall, will be found to be Epistolæ Hoelianæ, or the Letters of James Howell, a great traveller, an intimate friend of Jonson, and the first who bore the office of the royal historiographer, which discover a variety of literature, and abound with much entertaining and useful information 149. Israel.-There is none of all my labours so open to all censures. Perhaps some think the verse harsh, whose nice eare regardeth roundnesse more than sense. I embrace smoothnesse, but affect it not." Dec. ii. Ep. v. p. 302, 303. ut supr. 146 See Works, ut supr. p. 275. 147 See Whalley's Inquiry into the Learning of Shakspeare, p. 41. 143 Works, ut supr. p. 172. The reader of Hall's Satires is referred to Dec. vi. Epist. vi. p. 394. 149 Epistolæ Hoelianæ, Familiar Letters, domestic and foreign, divided into sundry Sections, partly historical, political, and philosophical. Lond. 1645, 4to. They had five editions from 1645 to 1673, inclusive. A third and fourth volume was added to the last impression. I must not dismiss our satirist without observing, that Fuller has preserved a witty encomiastic English Epigram by Hall, written at Cambridge, on Greenham's book of The Sabbath, before the year 1592.. Church History, B. ix. Cent. xvi. §. vii. pag. 220, edit. 1655, fol. I find it also prefixed to Greenham's Works, in folio, 1601. The encomiastic Epigram noticed in Mr. Warton's note is now added to his Satires, with a few smaller pieces from his Remains, and his Elegy on Dr. Whitaker from Mr. Nichols's Collection. 1 |