Joshua Sylvester

Joshua Sylvester, translator of The Weeks and Works of Dubartas, was patronized by Prince Henry. His translations gained him a great reputation than his compositions. He was no great poet, but was of a much more estimable character; he was an honest and religious man. Ob. 28 Sept. 1618, Aet. 55. Mr. Dryden tells us, that "when he was a boy, he thought inimitable Spenser a mean poet, in comparison with Sylvester's Dubartus; and was rapt into an ecstacy when he read these lines:"

Now when the winter's keener breath began
To chrystalize the Baltic ocean;
To glaze the lakes, to bridle up the floods,
And periwig with snow the bald-pate woods.

See the dedication to the Spanish Fryar.