The custom must gradually have arisen for English monarchs to choose from among these laureates of the university one who would be present at court, and would on stated occasions sing the praises of his country and his king. Many times this poet was called simply king's versifier, and there are a few instances on record of this king's versifier being chosen when he had never received from Oxford any laureate degree; though, as a rule, the appointment was conferred because the recipient had already received the laurel crown for skill in Latin versification. It was customary also for the court poets to write in Latin, as the English language was regarded with universal contempt. Warton is of the opinion that the royal laureate did not begin to write in English till the Reformation had begun to diminish the veneration for Latin.

An institution, somewhat like the Laureateship, calculated to encourage literature and develop the national language, is traced to the early reign of Henry III.—when a yearly salary of one hundred shillings was given to Henry d'Avranches, and he has therefore been called the pioneer laureate; but this is a mere tradition. "Morbid credulity can go no farther back than to the Father of English Poetry."

Chaucer, by his close relationship to John of Gaunt, to whose influence he owed some official appointments, has often been styled poet laureate to Edward IV., but there is no evidence whatever that he had any right to the title. He was simply a great poet who was often at court, and who received certain rewards for definite political, not poetical, services.

After Richard II. met Gower rowing on the Thames, and asked him straightway to book some new thing, Gower called himself the king's laureate; but Skelton, while praising both Gower and Chaucer, said "they wanted nothing but the Lawrell." We hear of John Kay, a court poet who lived over fifty years later than Gower, addressing himself to Edward IV. as "hys humble poet laureate." But the title was wholly selfgiven. Henry VII. is said to have granted to Andrew Bernard, poet laureate, a small salary till he should obtain some employment which would insure him the same sum; but there is nothing very permanent in this.

The court jester Scogan called himself laureate, but his claim cannot be sustained.

Skelton aspired to be court poet as well as the laureate of Oxford. By his keen and pungent satire he must have been a power in helping on the Reformation. He was connected by the whole scope of his literary purpose with the reign of Henry VIII., and in that reign the idea of religious liberty became manifest with irresistible power.

The portrait of a great poet-the immortal Spenser-has

been placed recently in a periodical beside that of Chaucer, and both are called poets laureate of the past; but there is no evidence whatever to justify the statement. Edmund Spenser was pensioned by Queen Elizabeth, but there are even doubts whether this pension was paid more than once. When Southey was appointed laureate he wished to magnify his office, and he thereupon wrote some poetry about it, and by poetic license spoke of that

Wreath which in Eliza's golden days

My master, dear, divinest Spenser wore ;

but in plain prose Southey admitted that none of the poets of whom he sang had, with the exception of Ben Jonson, any right to the title of laureate. It was given to them, he says, not as holding the office, but as a mark of honour to which they were entitled. Among these volunteer laureates whom Southey thus praised were Samuel Daniel and Michael Drayton. Daniel held important posts at court, and was much beloved there; but when the courtiers of James I. began to concern themselves with the production of the masques which were becoming so popular, it was considered that Ben Jonson was the poet best fitted to be responsible for their management. Daniel therefore retired from the court. Drayton's portrait has come down to us, his brow encircled by the wreath of laurel. This is owing to the poet's secret wish, and was also the tribute of his friends. Drayton's sonnets rank high in the language, but though he may have deserved the laurel it was never his by royal appointment.

We find in every case that, prior to the era of Ben Jonson, the claims of any poet to the title of laureate cannot be sustained, unless that poet had received the honour from the University of Oxford.

THE LAUREATES.

BEN JONSON.

FIRST POET LAUREATE WITH LETTERS PATENT.

Born in London in 1573 Made court poet to James I. in 1616, the year of Shakespeare's death. This appointment confirmed in 1630, and the Laureateship made permanent. Died in 1637.

(Reigns of James I. and Charles I.)

THOUGH the fame of Ben Jonson has been affected by certain misrepresentations of his character, both literary and personal, notably by the betrayal of trust of which Drummond of Hawthornden was guilty, the words which have been applied to Dryden can much more appropriately be applied to him:

"He wrestles with and conquers time."

By his strong creative genius and his healthful vigour, he was an honour not only to the office he held, but to English literature. The fact that he was the first laureate has added little to his fame. His name has lived because he was a man of colossal mental stature, who by his powerful personality made a deep impression upon his age, and because as a great dramatist and as a lyric poet his work forms a part of

"Those melodious bursts which fill
The spacious times of great Elizabeth
With sounds that echo still."

Many poets have acknowledged their indebtedness to him. Milton himself so admired him that some of his poems are directly modelled upon his. Shadwell openly took him as his master in the dramatic art. In Keats' best work we find traces of the stately majesty and the perfect workmanship of some of Jonson's lines. Even Tennyson has felt the influence of this great and original thinker.

Ben Jonson's work, however, will be found to be full of