Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 10.djvu/353

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Churchyard
345
Churchyard

when the poet, for publishing some verses that bad given offence, was arrested and brought before the privy council. Towards the close of his life Churchyard found a patron in Dr. {afterwards Sir) Julius CsBsar, to whom, in 1602, he dedicated * The Wonders of the Ayre, the Trembling of the Earth, and the Warnings of the World before the Judgement Day,' 4to, acknowledging in the dedicatory epistle that he was indebted to his patron 'for the little that I live upon and am likely to die withall.' In 1603 he published 'A. Psean Triumphall; upon the King's publick entry from the Tower of London to Westminster,' 4to. His two last productions appeared in the year of his deatn, 1604: 1. 'A blessed Balme to search and salve Sedition,' 4to, relating to the execution of Watson and Clarke in November 1603. 2. 'Churchyard's Good Will. Sad and heavy verses in the nature of sn Epitaph for the losse of the Archbishop of Canterbury.' The 'Good Will' is free from those eccentricities of spelling and punctualtion which Churchyard adopted in many of his writings. He was buried at St. Margaret's, Westminster, on 4 April 1604.

Churchyard's poetic merits are not of a high order. His 'Shore's Wife' is a smoothly written copy of verses, but it has been absurdly overrated. He is at his best when he is recounting his own struggles and misfortunes ; he then writes with pathos, and shows occasional glimpses of poetic power. Fuller observes that 'he may run abreast with any of that age writing in the beginning of that reign.' Drayton in his 'Epistle to Henry Reynolds' couples him with George Oascoigue, and remarks :

Had they
Liv'd bat a little longer, they had seene
Their workes before them to have buried beene.

Churchyard lived quite long enough to see the greater part of his multifarious writings consigned to oblivion.

In addition to the works already mentioned Churchyard published the following pieces : 1. 'An Epitaph upon the Death of Kyng Edward,' 15 six-line stanzas. 2. 'The Fantasies of a troubled mannes head' (1566), single sheet, preserved in the Huth collection. 3. 'A Discourse of Rebellion,' 1570, 8vo, 4 leaves, in verse. 4. 'The most true Reporte of James Fitz Morrice and others, the like Offenders,' n. d., 8vo, with a reprint of the preceding piece. 5. 'A Scourge for Rebels,' 1584, 4to, 11 leaves. 6. 'The Epitaph of Sir Philip Sidney' (1587), which was formerly preserved in the Bodleian, but now reposes in the libranr of some unknown collector. 7. 'A Feast full of sad cheere/ 1592, 4to, 10 leaves. 8. 'A true Discourse Historicall of the succeeding Govemours in the Netherlands . . . Translated and collected by T. C[hurchyard], Esquire, and Ric. Ro[binson], out of the Reverend E. M[eteranus] ... his fifteene bookes Historiaæ Belgicæ,' &c., 1602, 4 to. In his ' Challenge,' 1593, he mentions that he had made translations from Virgil and Du Bartas ; also that he had written ' A book of a sumptuous shew in Shrovetide by Sir Walter Rawley, Sir Robert Carey, M. Chidley, and Mr. Arthur Gorge,' which book (he assures us) 'was in as good verse as ever I made;' and that he was the author of 'an infinite number' of 'songes and sonets giuen where they cannot be recovered, nor purchase any favour where they are craned. From the dedicatory epistle to the 'Wonders of the Ayre,' 1602, we learn that he translated a part of Pliny, but put aside his translation when he heard that 'a great learned doctor called doctor Holland' had translated the whole. An unpublished work of Churchyard, entitled 'The School of War,' is preserved in MS. Cotton. Calig. B. 5, art. 74. To 'The Mirrour for Magistrates ' of 1587 Churchyard contributed 'The Story of Thomas Wolsey,' and in that edition he is credited with the authorship of 'The Tragedy of Thomas Mowbray,' a poem assigned in the 'Myrrour' of 1659 to Sir T. Chaloner. Commendatory verses by Churchyard are prefixed to : 1. Skelton's 'Workes,' 1568. 2. Huloet's 'Dictionarie,' 1572. 3. Jones's 'Bathes of Bathes Ayde,' 1572. 4. Lloyd's ' Pilgrimage of Princes,' 1574. 5. Bedingfield's ' Cardanne's Comforte,' 1576. 6. Bamabe Riche's 'Alarmeto England,' 1578. 7. Lowe's 'Whole Course of Chirurgerie,' 1597. ' The 'Censure of a loyal subject,' 1587, by G[eorge] W[hetstone], and ' Giacomo di Grassi, his true Art of Defence, &c., Englished by J. G., Gent.,' 1594, were edited by Churchyard. In Chalmers's introduction to 'Churchyard's Chips concerning Scotland,' 1817, is printed (from Lansd. MS. xi. 56) a letter of Churchyard to Sir Robert Cecil, dated from Bath, and relating to the papists in that neighbourhood. Tanner assigns to Churchyard ' Wonders of Wiltshire and the Earthquake of Kent,' 1580, 8vo. The following pieces were entered in the Stationers' Registers, but are not known to have been published : 1. 'The Comendation of Musyke,' 1562. 2. 'A ballet intituled admonition agaynste dice playe,' 1566-7. 3. 'A book of Master Churchyardes Doinge,'&c., 1603-4. The Spenser Society threatened to issue a complete collection of Churchyard's works, but 'The Worthines of Wales,' 1871, is the only piece that has yet appeared. Select works of Churchyard have been reprinted in