are my Verses by thee weigh’d In a false Scale?  May Truth be said; Whilst thou to get the more esteem, A Learned Poet fain wouldst seem, Skelton, thou art, let all men know it, Neither Learned, nor a Poet.

He died of the Plague, Anno 1522, and was buried in St. Paul’s, with this Epitaph on a Brass Plate, fixed in the Wall by the great North-Door: 

Gulielmo Lilio, Pauliae Scholae olim Praeceptori primario, & Agnetae Conjugi, in sacratissimo hujus Templi Coemiterio hinc a tergo nunc destructo consepultis; Georgius Lilius, hujus Ecclesiae Canonicus, Parentum Memoriae pie consulens, Tabellam hanc ab amicis conservatam, hic reponendam curavit.

* * * * *

Sir THOMAS MORE.

Sir Thomas More, a great Credit and Ornament in his Time, of the English Nation, and with whom the Learned’st Foreigners of that Age, were proud to have correspondence, for his wit and excellent parts, was born in Milk-street, London. Anno Dom. 1480.  Son to Sir John More, Knight, and one of the Justices of the Kings Bench.

He was bred first in the Family of Archbishop Morton, then in Canterbury-Colledge in Oxford; afterwards removed to an Inn of Chancery in London, called New-Inn, and from thence to Lincolns-Inn; where he became a double Reader.  Next, his Worth preferred him to be Judge in the Sheriff of London’s, Court, though at the same time a Pleader in others; and so upright was he therein, that he never undertook any Cause but what appeared just to his Conscience, nor never took Fee of Widow, Orphan, or poor Person.

King Henry the Eighth coming to the Crown, first Knighted him, then made him Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and not long after L. Chancellor of England, in which place he demeaned himself with great integrity, and with no less expedition; so that it is said, at one time he had cleared all Suits depending on that Court:  whereupon, one thus versified on him,

  When More some years had Chancellor been,
    No more Suits did remain;
  The same shall never more be seen,
    Till More be there again.

He was of such excellency of Wit and Wisdom, that he was able to make his Fortune good in whatsoever he undertook:  and to this purpose it is reported of him, that when he was sent Ambassador by his Master Henry the Eighth into Germany, before he deliver’d his Embassage to the Emperor, he bid one of his Servants to fill him a Beer-glass of Wine, which he drunk off twice; commanding his Servant to bring him a third; he knowing Sir Thomas More’s Temperance, that he was not used to drink, at first refused to fill him another; telling Sir Thomas of the weight of his Employment:  but he commanding it, and his Servant not daring to deny him, he drank off the third, and then made his immediate address to the Emperor, and spake his Oration in Latine, to the admiration of all the Auditors.  Afterwards Sir Thomas merrily asking his Man what he thought of his Speech? he said, that he deserved to govern three parts of the World, and he believed if he had drunk the other Glass, the Elegancy of his Language might have purchased the other part of the World.