THEIR AUTHORS AND ORIGIN. 23
��J. HOPKINS.
FEW of the incidents in the life of this psalm-writer are on record. He graduated B.A. at Oxford in 1544, and was afterwards a clergyman in Suffolk. His name is preserved as that of a coad jutor of Sternhold in the production of the first psalter attached to the " Book of Common Prayer." It appeared in 15G2. Other writers supplied a few psalms. Amongst these were Whitting- ham, a friend of Calvin s ; Norton, the translator of " Calvin s Institutes ;" and Wisdome, Archdeacon of Ely.
Hopkins was editor of the Psalms, 1551. At first he translated fifty-eight of the psalms, forming the old version, but published only seven. He is thought to be somewhat superior as a poet to his coadjutor Sternhold. Some Latin stanzas prefixed to " Foxe s Martyrology " are attributed to him, and Bayle says of him that he was " Britannicorum Poetarum sui temporis non infimus."
" All people that on earth do dwell." No. 153.
It has been customary to attribute this psalm to Hopkins, but not on good grounds. It is superior to his productions. Some have supposed that this psalm was by William Kethe, who was an exile with Knox, at Geneva, in 1555. He was chaplain to the English forces in Havre, in 1563, and last of all had the parish of Okeford, in Dorset. The old Psalter, of which a copy exists in the Library of St. Paul s Cathedral, London, had twenty-five psalms added to it in 1561, all of which, except the above 100th, had Kethe s initials, "W.K." That psalm had the initials "T.S.," for Thomas Sternhold, but as those initials were not afterwards repeated, it is supposed that that psalm was also by William Kethe ; and it is said that in another edition of the same year, "W.K." was put to this rendering ; and in the " Scottish Psalter " of 1564 this psalm has the initials "W.K." Internal evidence is also thought to support this view. In Dr. Williams s Library there is a sermon printed in black letter, preached at Blandford,
�� �
