A climbing height it is without a head,
  Depth without bottome, way without an end,
  A circle with no line invironed,
  Not comprehended, all it comprehends;
  Worth infinite, yet satisfies no minde,
  ’Till it that Infinite of the God-head finde.

[Footnote 1:  Fuller’s Worthies of Warwickshire, p. 127.]

[Footnote 2:  Travels, third Edition, p. 114.]

* * * * *

JOHN DAY.

This author lived in the reign of King James I. and was some time student in Caius College in Cambridge.  No particulars are preserved concerning this poet, but that he had connection with other poets of some name, and wrote the following plays: 

1.  Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green, with the Merry Humour of Tom Stroud, the Norfolk Yeoman, several times publicly acted by the Prince’s Servants; printed in 4to.  London, 1659; for the plot, as far as it concerns history, consult the writers in the reign of King Henry VI.

2.  Humour out of Breath, a Comedy, said to have been writ by our author, but some have doubted his being the real author of it.

3.  Isle of Gulls, a Comedy, often acted in the Black Fryars, by the children of the Revels, printed in 4to.  London, 1633.  This is founded upon Sir Philip Sidney’s Arcadia.

4.  Law Tricks, or Who Would Have Thought It? a Comedy, several times acted by the children of the Revels, and printed in 4to. 1608.

5.  Parliament of Bees, with their proper characters, or a Bee-Hive furnished with Twelve Honey-Combs, as pleasant as profitable, being an allegorical description of the ancients of good and bad men in those days, printed in 4to.  London, 1641.

6.  Travels of Three English Brothers, Sir Thomas, Sir Anthony, and Mr. Robert Shirley, a History, played by her Majesty’s Servants, printed in 4to.  London, 1607, and dedicated to Honour’s Favourites and the entire friends of the family of the Shirleys.  In the composition of this play our author was assisted by William Rowley, and Mr. George Wilkins; the foundation of it may be read in several English Writers, and Chronicles, and it is particularly set down in Dr. Fuller’s Worthies, in his description of Sussex.  When our author died cannot be justly ascertained, but Mr. Langbaine has preserved an elegy written on him, by his friend Mr. Tateham, which begins thus: 

  Don Phoebus now hath lost his light,
  And left his rule unto the night;
  And Cynthia, she has overcome
  The Day, and darkened the sun: 
  Whereby we now have lost our hope,
  Of gaining Day, into horoscope, &c.

In this manner he runs on:  like a gentleman in Lincolns Inn, who wrote an ingenious poem upon the transactions between a Landlord and his Tenant Day, who privately departed from him by Night, printed in a single sheet, London, 1684.  To shew the parallel, the following lines are sufficient.