"Virgidemiarum" was followed by an amended edition in 1598, and in the same year by "Virgidemiarum. The three last bookes. Of byting Satyres" (reprinted 1599). Not in fact the earliest English satirist, Hall wrote in smooth heroic couplets. In the first book of his satires "(Poeticall)", he attacks the writers whose verses were devoted to licentious subjects, the bombast of "Tamburlaine" and tragedies built on similar lines, the laments of the ghosts of the "Mirror for Magistrates", the metrical eccentricities of Gabriel Harvey and Richard Stanyhurst, the extravagances of the sonneteers, and the sacred poets (Southwell is aimed at in "Now good St Peter weeps pure Helicon, And both the Mary's make a music moan"). In Book II Satire 6 occurs a description of the trencher-chaplain, who is tutor and hanger-on in a country manor. Among his other satirical portraits is that of the famished gallant, the guest of "Duke Humfray." Book VI consists of one long satire on vices and follies dealt with in the earlier books.