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Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of Great Britain (1837)
Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of Great Britain - 1837 Author:Unknown Author Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: more enlightened judgment than his predecessors, and, with one exception, than even his contemporaries ; he must ever hold a respectable place among the poets of... more » England. 4. Of Thomas Norton, the friend and the alleged coadjutor of Sackville in the composition of " Gorbeduc," we know little. He wrote, we are told, some fugitive pieces of poetry; but much of a poet he could not be, if we may judge from the twenty-seven psalms which he versified, and which are comprised in the notable version of his friends, Sternhold and Hopkins. They are, in every respect, so mediocre, that when we peruse them, we have scarcely patience to be told that he wrote the three acts of Ferrex and Porrex; indeed the paternity has been suspected before now. Well does Wentner observe, that " the force of critical evidence often prevails over the authority of assertion, — a testimony which is diminished by time, and may be rendered suspicious by a variety of circumstances. Throughout the whole piece there is an invariable uniformity of diction and versification." True it is, that every scene of Ferrex and Porrex is impressed by the characteristic manner of Sackville; a mariner very different from that of Stern- hold's coadjutor. If Norton really composed any portion of this play, it must have been before he embraced his Calvinistic principles; for afterwards, he must, of necessity,' have regarded so profane an occupation with pious horror. 5. Thomas Preston (died 1570) was one of those inconsiderable writers, who, instead of advancing, may truly be said to have impeded, the establishment of our national drama. Into the particulars of his life we will not stoop to enquire : his only claim to distinction is, that he wrote the worst tragedy that appeared in. the reign of Elizabeth, or that has appeared si...« less