“That being long pregnant with desire to bring forth something, and being afterwards brought to bed, had chose his friend Mr. Robert Hayman to be godfather, not doubting but his child would be well maintained, feeing he could not live above an hour with him; and therefore he entreated him when he was dead, that he might be buried deep enough in his good opinion, and that he might deserve this epitaph;

  Here lies the child that was born in mirth,
  Against the strict rules of child-birth;
  And to be quit, I gave him to my friend,
  Who laught him to death, and that was his end.”

The reason of my making this digression, is to shew, that such ridiculous unmeaning mirth, is not likely to have fallen from Mr. Goff, as he was a grave man, and nothing but what was manly droped from his pen.  In the latter part of his life he forsook the stage for the pulpit, and instead of plays writ sermons, some of which appeared in print in the year 1627.  To these works may be added his Latin funeral oration, at the divinity school, at the obsequies of Sir Henry Saville, printed in 4to, Oxon 1622; another in Christ’s-church cathedral, at the funeral of Dr. Goodwin, canon of that church, printed in London 1627.

[Footnote 1:  Langbaine’s Lives of the Poets, 223.]

* * * * *

Sir Fulk Greville, Lord Brooke,

Sprung from an honourable family in Warwickshire; he was educated both at Oxford and Cambridge, and introduced to court by an uncle in the service of Queen Elisabeth, who received him into her favour, which he had the happiness to preserve uninterupted to her death.  At the coronation of James I, he was created Knight of the Bath, and soon after obtained a grant of the ruinous castle of Warwick.  He was next appointed sub-treasurer, chancellor of the Exchequer, and privy counsellor, and then advanced to the degree of a baron, by the title of lord Brooke of Beauchamps-court, and one of the lords of the bed-chamber to his Majesty.  This noble author was the friend of Sir Philip Sidney, than which a greater compliment cannot be bestowed.  As he was a poet and a man of wit he was held in the highest esteem in that courtly age; but he added to genius, a gallantry of spirit, and was as fine a soldier as a writer.  Winstanley gives an instance of his prowess in arms.

“At the time (says he) when the French ambassador came over to England to negotiate a marriage between the duke of Anjou, and Queen Elizabeth, for the better entertainment of the court, solemn justs were proclaimed, where the Earl of Arundel, Frederick lord Windsor, Sir Philip Sidney, and he, were chief challengers against all comers; in which challenge he behaved himself so gallantly, that he won the reputation of a most valiant knight.  Thus you see that tho’ case be the nurse of poetry, the Muses are also companions to Mars, as may be exemplified in the characters of the Earl