Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/356

 from Guevara and other writers, and asserted that the statement that it had been translated from a Greek manuscript by Eucolpius was false. Dr. Humphrey Hody denied with equal vigour that Elyot could have had any direct acquaintance with Eucolpius's writings (Treatise on Septuagint). A careful perusal of Elyot's preface and text acquits Elyot of Wotton's and Hody's charges. Elyot's preface contains a list of his previous works. 12. ‘Howe one may take profyte of his enmyes, translated out of Plutarche,’ London, n.d. Since no mention is made of this work in ‘The Image,’ it is probably to be dated after 1540, although the British Museum Catalogue suggests the date 1535. To fill up some blank pages at the end Elyot added ‘The Maner to chose and cheryshe a friende,’ a collection of ‘sayings’ from classical authors. Berthelet reprinted the two pieces with the ‘Table of Cebes,’ a translation by Sir Francis Poyntz. 13. ‘A Preservative agaynste Deth,’ London, 1545, dedicated to Sir Edward North, a collection of passages from Scripture and the fathers.]

Ascham writes in his ‘Toxophilus’ (1545) that Elyot told him ‘he had a worcke in hand which he nameth “De rebus memorabilibus Angliæ.”’ This book, if completed, was, so far as our present information goes, never published. A manuscript belonging to G. F. Wilbraham, esq., of Delamere House, Chester, gives an account of ‘commendable deedes’ concerning Chester, and among the authors whom the writer says he has consulted is ‘Sir Thomas Eliot, his chronicle of the description of Brettaine.’ It is quite possible that Hollinshed or Harrison may have had access to such a manuscript. Eight lines, translated into English from Horace's ‘Ars Poetica,’ are attributed to Elyot by William Webbe in his ‘Discourse of English Poetry.’

[Mr. H. H. S. Crofts collects all the information in his long introduction to his valuable edition of the Governour (1883). He prints Elyot's letters to Cromwell there, and an interesting despatch addressed to the Duke of Norfolk while on his first embassy. See also Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. i. 89; Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, ed. Brewer and Gairdner; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 150; Fuller's Worthies; Strype's Memorials.] 

ELYS, EDMUND (fl. 1707), divine and poet, was born at Haccombe, Devonshire, in or about 1631, being the son of Edmund Elys, rector of East Allington in the same county, by his wife Ursula, daughter of John Carew of Haccombe. After receiving some preliminary instruction from William Hayter at Exeter, he entered Balliol College, Oxford, as a commoner in Lent term 1651, was admitted probationer fellow of that house 29 Nov. 1655, having taken his B.A. degree on 16 Oct. previously, and proceeded M.A. 11 June 1658. He resigned his fellowship 1 Nov. 1659, in which year he succeeded his father in the rectory of East Allington. Writing in 1707 he refers to his fathers death as having involved him 'in a labyrinth of afflictions; some of them lie hard upon me to this day.' During 1659 he adds: 'I was made a prisoner to Major Blackmore in Exeter upon suspicion (of what I was not falsly suspected) that I was a close enemy to the Com-mon Wealth of England, and that I desir'd the prosperity of a design to destroy it by an insurrection, &c.' In 1666 other ' prodigious afflictions fell on me ' (The Quiet Soul, 2nd ed.) His living was under sequestration in 1677, and he found himself 'forced to abscond about London.' In 1680 he was confined in the King's Bench and other prisons. On the accession of William III, Elys, for refusing to take the oaths, was deprived of his rectory. He retired to Totnes, where he was living in 1707, aged 72, a martyr to asthma (ib.) Elys was learned and well-meaning, but his fantastic mode of living and writing drew down on him the ridicule of those whom he wished to convince. Although he does not appear ever to have joined the society, he was a warm friend of the quakers, whose principles he defended in numerous leaflets. A list of these pieces, which were mostly printed at quaker presses, will be found in Joseph Smith's 'List of Friends' Books,' i. 572-5. His poems present a series of tiresome conceits strung together in execrable rhvthm. He is author of: 'Dia Poemata : Poetick Feet standing upon Holy Ground; or, Verses on certain Texts of Scripture. With Epigrams, &c. By E. E.,' 8vo, London, 1655. 'An Alphabet of Elegiack Groans upon the truly lamented Death of that Rare Exemplar of Youthful Piety, John Fortescue, of the Inner Temple, Esquire. By E. E.,' 4to, London, 1656. 'Divine Poems. With a short description of Christian Magnanimity. By E. E.,' 8vo, Oxford, 1658. 'Miscellanea: sive Meditationes, Orationes,' &c., 8vo, [? Oxford] 1658: another edition, enlarged, 4to, Oxford, 1662. 'The Quiet Soul; or, The Peace and Tranquillity of a Christian's Estate. Set forth in two Sermons [on Matt. xi. 29],' Oxford, 1659 ; 2nd edition, Exeter, 1707, 4to. 'An Exclamation to all those that love the Lord Jesus in sincerity, against an Apology written by an ingenious person [Thomas Sprat] for Mr. Cowley's lascivious and prophane verses. By a dutiful son of the Church of England,' 4to, London, 1670. 'Omnes qui audiunt Evangelium