* * * * *

MICHAEL BLAUNPAYN.

This Michael Blaunpayn, otherwise sirnamed the Cornish Poet, or the Rymer, was born in Cornwall, and bred in Oxford and Paris, where he attained to a good proficiency in Learning, being of great fame and estimation in his time, out of whose Rymes for merry England as Cambden calls them, he quotes several passages in that most excellent Book of his Remains.  It hapned one Henry of Normandy, chief Poet to our Henry the Third, had traduced Cornwall, as an inconsiderable Country, cast out by Nature in contempt into a corner of the land.  Our Michael could not endure this Affront, but, full of Poetical fury, falls upon the Libeller; take a tast (little thereof will go far) of his strains.

  Non opus est ut opus numere quibus est opulenta,
  Et per quas inopes sustentat non ope lenta,
  Piscibus & stanno nusquam tam fertilis ora.

  We need not number up her wealthy store,
  Wherewith this helpful Lands relieves her poor,
  No Sea so full of Filh, of Tin, no shore.

Then, in a triumphant manner, he concludeth all with this Exhortation to his Countrymen: 

  Quid nos deterret? si firmiter in pede stemus,
  Fraus ni nos superat, nihil est quod non superemus.

  What should us fright, if firmly we do stand? 
  Bar fraud, and then no force can us command.

Yet his Pen was not so lushious in praising, but, when he listed, it was as bitter in railing, witness this his Satyrical Character of his aforesaid Antagonist.

Est tibi gamba capri, crus passeris, & latus Apri, Os leporis, catuli nasus, dens & gena Muli, Frons vetulae, tauricaput, & color undique Mauri, His argumentis quibus est argutia Mentis, Quod non a Monstro differs, satis hic tibi monstro.

  Gamb’d like a Goat, Sparrow-thigh’d, sides as a Boar,
  Hare-mouth’d, Dog-nos’d, like Mule thy teeth and chin,
  Brow’d as old wife, Bull headed, black as a More,
  If such without, then what are you within? 
    By these my signs the wife will easily conster,
    How little thou does differ from a Monster.

This Michael flourished in the time of King John, and Henry the Third.

* * * * *

MATTHEW PARIS.

Matthew Paris is acknowledged by all to be an Englishman saving only one or two wrangling Writers, who deserve to be arraigned of Felony for robbing our Country of its due; and no doubt Cambridgeshire was the County made happy by his birth, where the Name and Family of Paris is right ancient, even long before they were setled therein at Hildersham, wherein they still flourish, though much impaired for their Loyalty in the late times of Rebellion.