On the principal writers of this minor but difficult species of lyric poetry, to which Shakspeare could have recourse in his own language, it will be necessary to enter into some brief criticism, in order to ascertain the progress and merit of his predecessors, and the models on which he may be conceived to have more peculiarly founded his own practice. The rapid introduction of Italian poetry into our country, during the reign of Henry the Eighth, very early brought with it a taste for the cultivation of the sonnet. Before 1540, _Wyat_ had written all his poems, many of which are sonnets constructed nearly on the strictest form of the Italian model; the _octant_, or major system being perfectly correct, while the _sextant_, or minor system, differs only from the legitimate type by closing with a couplet. The poetical value of these attempts, however, does not, either in versification or imagery, transcend mediocrity, and are greatly inferior to the productions, in the same department, of his accomplished friend, the gallant but unfortunate _Surrey_. The sonnets of this elegantly romantic character, which were published in 1557, deviate still further from the Italian structure, as they uniformly consist of three quatrains in alternate or elegiac verse, and these terminated by a couplet; a secession from the laws of legitimacy which is amply atoned for by virtues of a far superior order, by simplicity, purity, and sweetness of expression, by unaffected tenderness of sentiment, and by vivid powers of description. To this unexaggerated encomium we must add, that the harmony of his metre is often truly astonishing, and even, in some instances, fully equal to the rhythm of the present age. That the assertion wants not sufficient evidence, will be acknowledged by the adduction of a single specimen:— SONNET. "SET me whereas the sunne doth parche the grene, Or where his beames do not dissolve the ise: In temperate heate where he is felt and sene: In presence prest of people madde or wise: Set me in hye, or yet in low degree; In longest night, or in the shortest daye: In clearest skie, or where cloudes thickest be; In lusty youth, or when my heeres are graye: Set me in heaven, in earth, or els in hell, In hyll or dale, or in the foming flood, Thrall, or at large, alive whereso I dwell, Sicke or in health, in evill fame or good: Hers will I be, and onely with this thought Content my self, although my chaunce be nought." Of the sonnets of _Watson_, which were published about 1581, we have given an opinion, at some length, in the preceding chapter, and shall merely add here, that neither in their structure, nor in their diction or imagery, could they be, or were they, models for our author; and are indeed greatly inferior, not only to the sonnets of Shakspeare, but to those of almost every other poet of his day.