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seen much of his uncle, and may have been led to the pursuit of literature by his influence. Fowler's verse,[1] together with the shorter poems of Montgomerie, came into the possession of Drummond and was preserved in his library.
Henry Locke, the last of the prefatory sonneteers, was a poet of slightly greater prominence. Bodenham, for his quotations from Locke in Belvedére, probably used the volume of friendly and devotional sonnets "by H. L. Gentleman" 2 which was licensed for publication in 1593, and issued again in 1597 with a number of scriptural paraphrases under the title of "Ecclesiastes, otherwise called The Preacher — Whereunto are annexed sundrie sonets of a feeling conscience of the same authors." Dr. Grosart, in his reprint of a part of this volume, 3 includes the sonnet printed in the Exercises at vacant houres (wrongly referred to as The Essayes of a Prentise) and if in his introductory biography he had followed up this clue, he might have shown that the greater part of Locke's life was spent as an envoy or political intelligencer. He was engaged in this service as early as i58i, 4 but it was not until ten years later 5 that he was sent to Scotland to help carry out Elizabeth's ingenious and persistent policy of setting Scottish lords against their king. His letters show that his activities continued intermittently until 1602. His intrigues
2 In Bodenham's list of contributors (cf. p. Ivi), Locke, Constable, and Churchyard are the only ones distinguished by the title " Esq."
8 Miscellanies of the Fuller Worthies' Library, 1871, Vol. II. The article on Locke in Diet. Nat. Biog. is based chiefly on Grosart's introduction.
- Cat. S. P. For., 1580-1581.
5 Cal. Hatfield MSS., Pt. IV, p. in, R. Douglas to A. Douglas, May 18, 1591 : Locke "has been in these parts . . . half a year and more . . . and his majesty and the queen have conceived no little opinion of his honest behavior, so that they would willingly employ him in their service." Cf. Cal. S. P. Sco., for Locke's correspondence between May, 1591, and February, 1602.
- ↑ Two sonnets by Fowler and a number of his letters are found in Nichols, Progresses, Vol. I, pp. 251, 261, etc. The verses have the headings, Sonnet uppon a Horloge of the Clock at Sir George More's, 1603, and To Lady Arabella Stuart. Fowler's letters to the Earl and Lady Shrewsbury indicate continued devotion to the Lennox family and a hand in the Lady Arabella's match-making, but not, as Disraeli (quoted by Nichols) supposes, a desire to present himself to the King's cousin as a suitor.
