Born deaf, and blind; nothing might stop his way: The bride he snatches from the bridegroom's arms, "A dead man's skull supplied his helmet's place, And dead to this, live to a life more high; "The second far more foul in every part, Burnt with blue fire, and bubbling sulphur streams; Most strange it seems, that burning thus for ever, The other brother, GILES FLETCHER, after leaving Eton, went to Trinity College, Cambridge. He, like his brother, took holy orders, and held the living of Alderton in Suffolk. Nothing more is recorded of him; save that he died at Alderton while yet in the prime of life. He chose a far superior subject for his poem, to that which his brother had selected. Giles's poem is on Christ's Victory and Triumph. Hallam correctly decides that "he has more vigour than his elder brother, but more affectation in his style." I cannot concur with Hallam in adding that "he has less sweetness and less smoothness." I will quote a portion of the song of the sorceress in the scene of the Temptation. Many of these lines seem to me to be eminently smooth and sweet : "Love is the blossom where there blows Every thing that lives or grows : And the Sun doth burn in love : Love the strong and weak doth yoke, Under whose shadows lions wild, Love did make the bloody spear : While in his leaves there shrouded lay I the bud and blossom am. Only bend thy knee to me, Thy wooing shall thy winning be. "See, see the flowers that below Like unto a summer-shade, But now born, and now they fade. Every thing doth pass away, There is danger in delay : Come, come, gather then the rose, Is gladly bruis'd to make me wine; Thy wooing shall thy winning be." Giles Fletcher, like his brother, is of the Spenserian school; and, like his brother, sometimes ventures to compete with their common master. It is singular that each should have given an elaborate allegorical description of Despair, as if to try how closely they could follow their master in one of his most celebrated performances. The passage in Christ's Triumph on Earth, in which the description of Despair is given, is also remarkable, as having afforded a hint to Milton for his description of the first meeting between the Tempter and our Saviour in the "Paradise Regained:" "Twice had Diana bent her golden bow, And shot from Heav'n her silver shafts, to rouse The sluggish salvages, that den below, And all the day in lazy covert drouse, Since him the silent wilderness did house : The Heav'n his roof, and arbour harbour was, The ground his bed, and his moist pillow grass : "At length an aged sire far off he saw Come slowly footing, every step he guest With benedicities, and prayers store, But the bad ground was blessed ne'er the more, "A good old hermit he might seem to be, And them might wash away with dropping brine, And dead, might rest his bones under the holy shrine." "Thus on they wandred; but these holy weeds "He was the son of blackest Acheron, Where many frozen souls do chatt'ring lie, Where nothing can be heard for the loud cry "Ere long they came near to a baleful bower, That gaping stood all comers to devour, That still for carrion carcases doth crave. The ground no herbs, but venomous, did bear, Nor ragged trees did leave; but every where Dead bones and skulls were cast, and bodies hanged were. "Upon the roof the bird of sorrow sat, Elonging joyful day with her sad note, Did wave her leather sails, and blindly float, While ever with her wings the screech owl smote And all about the murdered ghost did shriek and groan. F "Like cloudy moonshine in some shadowy grove, That made him deadly look, their glimpse did show "His clothes were ragged clouts, with thorns pinn'd fast; A thousand wild chimeras would him cast: The voice dies in the tongue, and mouth gapes without boot. "Now he would dream that he from Heaven fell, "Therefore he softly shrunk, and stole away, He never durst to draw his breath for fear, Him by the heels back to his ugly den: Out fain, he would have leapt abroad, but then The Heav'n, as Hell, he fear'd, that punish guilty men." Perhaps the finest stanzas in Giles Fletcher's poem are those in which the remorse of Judas is described: "For, him a waking bloodhound, yelling loud, A guilty conscience, barking after blood, Pursued eagerly, nay, never stay'd, Till the betrayer's self it had betray'd. Oft changed he place, in hope away to wind; But change of place could never change his mind : Himself he flies to lose, and follows for to find. "There is but two ways for this soul to have, Feed on the howling ghosts, and fiery surges Where flames do burn and yet no spark of light, "There lies the captive soul, aye-sighing sore, But tells to them the stars, and heaps the sands: THE MARTYRS. In several of the preceding memoirs in this chapter I have alluded to the religious troubles and persecutions of Queen Mary's reign. Besides the eminent men whom I have already mentioned as having shared the sufferings of the Reformed Church during that period, many more Etonians are recorded in the Alumni Etonenses, as having been afflicted for conscience' sake. I do not stop to particularise them all; but our humble tribute of gratitude and honour must be said to Four, whose faith was strong even unto death, and who sealed their belief with their blood. These are JOHN FULLER, who became a scholar of King's in 1527; and was burnt to death on Jesus Green in Cambridge, April 2nd, 1556 ROBERT GLOVER, scholar of King's in 1533; burnt to death at Coventry on the 20th of September, 1555: LAWRENCE SAUNDERS, scholar of King's in 1538; burnt to death at Coventry on the 8th of February, 1556: JOHN HULLIER, scholar of King's also, in 1538; burnt to death on Jesus Green, Cambridge, on the 2nd of April, 1556. I have condensed from Fox some account of the Martyrdom of the two last. The narrative of JOHN GLOVER'S sufferings may also be found in that writer. (Townshend's Edition, vol. vii.) Respecting LAWRENCE SAUNDERS, the old Martyrologist of the Reformation says:— "After that Queen Mary, by public proclamation in the first year of her reign, had inhibited the sincere preaching of God's holy word, as is before declared, divers godly ministers of the word, which had the cure and charge of souls committed to them, did, notwithstanding, according to their bounden duty, feed their flock faithfully, not as preachers authorised by public authority |