The history of English poetry: from the close of the eleventh to the commencement of the eighteenth century. To which are prefixed, two dissertations. ... By Thomas Warton, ... [pt.4]

SECT. XLVIII.

THE popularity of Hall's and Marston's Satires, notwithstanding their proscription or rather extermi|nation by spiritual authority, produced an innumerable crop of SATIRISTS, and of a set of writers, differing but little more than in name, and now properly belonging to the same species, EPIGRAMMATISTS.

In 1598, printed at London, appeared

"SKIALETHEIA, or a Shadowe of Truth in certaine Epigrams and Satyres."

The same year, SEUEN SATIRES, applied to the week, in|cluding the world's ridiculous follies a 1.1. This form was an imitation of the SEMAINES of Du Bartas, just translated into English by Delisle. The same year,

"A SHADOWE of TRUTH in certaine Epigrams and Satires. b 1.2."

This year also, as I conjecture, were published Epigrams by sir John Davies, author of NOSCE TEIPSUM c 1.3. These must not be confounded with the SCOURGE OF FOLLY, by John Davies of Hereford, printed in 1611. In 1598 also, was published in quarto,

"Tyros roaring Megge, planted against the walls of Melan|choly, London, 1598."

With two Decads of Epigrams d 1.4. The author appears to have been of Cambridge. Tyro is perhaps a real name. The dedication is to Master John Lucas.

In the year 1598, was also published, under the general title of CHRESTOLOROS, seven Books of Epigrams, by Thomas Bastard e 1.5. Bastard, a native of Blandford in Dorsetshire, was removed from a fellowship of New-College Oxford, in 1591, being, as Wood says,

"much guilty of the vices belonging to the poets, "and given to libelling f 1.6."

Harrington, the translator of Ariosto, has an Epigram addressed to

"Master Bastard, a mi|nister, that made a pleasant Booke of English Epigrams g 1.7."

Wood, in his manuscript Collection of Oxford libels and lampoons, which perhaps he took as much pleasure in collect|ing as the authors in writing, now remaining in the Ashmolean Museum, and composed by various students of Oxford in the reign of queen Elizabeth, has preserved two of Bastard's sa|tyrical pieces h 1.8. By the patronage or favour of lord treasurer Suffolk, he was made vicar of Bere-regis, and rector of Hamer, in Dorsetshire; and from writing smart epigrams in his youth, became in his graver years a quaint preacher i 1.9. He died a pri|soner for debt, in Dorchester-gaol, April 19, 1618. He was an elegant classic scholar, and appears to have been better qua|lified for that species of the occasional pointed Latin epigram established by his fellow-collegian John Owen, than for any sort of English versification.

In 1599, appeared

"MICROCYNICON sixe snarling satyres by T. M. Gentleman,"

perhaps Thomas Middleton. About the same time appeared, without date, in quarto, written by

William Goddard,

"A MASTIF WHELP, with other ruff-i|land-like currs fetcht from amongst the Antipedes, which bite and barke at the fantastical humourists and abusers of the time. Imprinted at the Antipedes, and are to be bought where they are to be sold."

It contains eighty-five satires. To these is added,

"Dogges from the Antipedes,"

containing forty one k 1.10.

A satyrical piece in stanzas, which has considerable merit, called PASQUILL'S MAD-CAP, was printed at London in quarto, for V. S. in the year 1600 l 1.11. With Pasquill's MESSAGE.

Also by the same author, perhaps Nicholas Breton, Pasquill's FOOLE-CAP, printed for T. Johnes in the same year, the dedication signed, N. B. At the end is

"Pasquill's passion for the world's waiwardnesse m 1.12."

In the year 1601, was published in duodecimo,

"The whipper of the Satyre, his pennance in a white sheete, Or the Beadles Confutation, Imprinted at London, by John Fasket, 1601."

And by way of reply,

"No whippinge nor trippinge, but a kind of snippinge, London, 1601."

Again,

"The whipping of the SATYRE, Imprinted at London for John Flasket, 1601 n 1.13."

About the same time, as I conjecture, were published,

"Epi|grams served out in fifty-two severall dishes, for every man to taste without surfeting. By I. C. gentleman."

At London, without date. In 1608,

"Epigrams, or Humour's Lottery o 1.14."

The same year,

"A Century of Epigrams, by R. W. Bachelor of Arts, Oxon p 1.15."

The same year,

"Satyres, by Richard Myddleton, gentleman, of Yorke q 1.16."

In 1619,

"Newe

Epigrams, having in their Companie a mad satyre, by Joseph Martin, London, for Elde r 1.17."

In 1613, were pub|lished two books of epigrams, written by Henry Perrot, entitled,

"LAQUEI RIDICULOSI, or Springes for Woodcockes. Caveat emptor. Lond. for J. Busbie, 1613 s 1.18."

Many of them are worthy to be revived in modern collections. I am tempted to transcribe a specimen.

A Welshman and an Englishman disputed, Which of their Landst 1.19 maintain'd the greatest state: The Englishman the Welshman quite confuted; Yet would the Welshman nought his brags abate; "Ten cookes in Wales, quoth he, one wedding sees; "True, quoth the other,—Each man toasts his cheese u 1.20."

John Weaver, I believe the antiquary who wrote ANTIENT FUNERAL MONUMENTS, published a book of Epigrams, in 1599, or rather 1600, which are ranked among the best, by Jonson w 1.21. Thomas Freeman, a student in Magdalen college Oxford, about the year 1607, who appears to have enjoyed the friendship and encouragement of Owen, Shakespeare, Daniel, Donne, Chapman, and Heywood the dramatist, printed in quarto,

"RUB AND A GREAT CAST. In one hundred Epi|grams, London, 1614 x 1.22."

To these is annexed,

"RUB AND

A GREAT CAST. The second Bowl in an hundred Epi|grams."

Both sets are dedicated to Thomas Lord, Windsor. Thomas Wroth of Glocester-Hall, Oxford, about 1603, pub|lished at London, in quarto, 1620,

"An Abortive of an idle Hour, or a century of Epigrams y 1.23."

To the opening of 1600, I would also assign

"The MASTIVE or young Whelpe of the old dogge. Epigrams and Satyres. London, printed by Thomas Creede. In quarto, without date."

The Advertisement to the reader is subscribed H. P z 1.24. We are sure that they were at least written after Churchyard's death: for in the third Epigram, the writer says, that Haywood was held for EPIGRAMS the best when Churchyard wrote a 1.25.

Some of the critics of the author's days are thus described.

The mending poet takes it next in hand; Who hauing oft the verses ouerscan'd, "O filching!" straight doth to the stat'ner say, "Here's foure lines stolen from my last newe play."— Then comes my Innes of court-man in his gowne, Cryes, Mew! What hackney brovght this wit to towne? But soone again my gallant youth is gon, Minding the kitchenb 1.26 more than Littleton. Tut what cares he for law, shall haue inough When's father dyes, that canker'd miser-chuffe. Next after him the countrey farmerc 1.27 views it, "It may be good, saith he, for those that vse it: "Shewe me king ARTHUR, BEUIS, or SIR GUY, &c d 1.28."

In these days, the young students of the Inns of Court, seem to have been the most formidable of the critics e 1.29.

The figure and stratagems of the hungry captain, fresh from abroad, are thus exposed.

Marke, and you love me.—Who's yond' marching hither? Some braue Low-Countrey Captain with his feather, And high-crown'd hat. See, into Paulesf 1.30 he goes, To showe his doublet, and and Italian hose. The whiles his Corporal walkes the other ile, To see what simple gulls he can beguile g 1.31.

The wars in Spain and the Low-countries filled the metropolis with a set of needy military adventurers, returning from those expeditions, who were a mixture of swaggering and submission, of flattery and ferocity, of cow|ardice and courage, who assumed a sort of professional magna|nimity, yet stooped to the most ignominious insults, who endeavoured to attract the attention of the public, by the splendour of martial habiliments, were ready for any adven|tures of riot and debauchery, and insinuated themselves into favour by hyperbolical narrations of their hazardous atchieve|ments. Jonson's Bobadill was of this race of heroic rakes. We have seen one of them admirably described by Marston i 1.32.

In 1600 appeared, a mixture of Satires and Epigrams,

"THE LETTING OF HUMOURS BLOOD IN THE HEAD VAINE, with a new morisco daunced by seauen satyrs, upon the bottom of Diogenes tubbe,"

written by Samuel Row|lands, and printed by William White h 1.34.

In a panegyric on Charnico, a potation mentioned by Shakespeare, he alludes to the unfortunate death of three co|temporary poets, two of which are perhaps Green and Mar|lowe, or perhaps George Peele k 1.35.

As for the Worthies on his hoste's walle l 1.36, He knowes three worthy drunkards passe them alle: The first of them, in many a tauerne tride, At last subdued by Aquavitae dide: His second worthy's date was brought to fine, Freshing with oysters, and braue Rhenish wine. The third, whom diuers Dutchmen held full deere, Was stabb'd by pickled herrings and stronge beere. Well, happy is the man doth rightly know, The vertue of three cuppes of Charnico m 1.37!

The rotation of fashionable pleasures, and the mode of passing a day of polite dissipation in the metropolis, are thus represented. The speaker is SIR REVELL, who is elegantly dressed in a dish-crowned hat and square-toed shoes.

Speake, gentlemen, what shall we do to day? Drinke some braue health vpon the Dutch carouse n 1.38, Or shall we to the GLOBE, and see a Play? Or visit Shoreditch for a bawdie house o 1.39? Let's call for cardes, or dice, and have a game: To sit thus idle, &c p 1.40.

In another we have the accomplished fashion-monger q 1.41.

Behold a most accomplish'd cavaleere, That the world's ape of fashions doth appeare!

Walking the streets, his humour to disclose, In the French doublet, and the German hose: The muffe, cloak, Spanish hat, Toledo blade, Italian ruffe, a shoe right Flemish made: Lord of misrule, where'er he comes he'll revell, &c r 1.42.

In another, of a beau still more affected, he says,

How rare his spurres do ring the morris dance s 1.43!

One of the swaggerers of the times, who in his rambles about the town, visits the Royal Exchange as a mercantile traveller, is not unluckily delineated.

Sometimes into the Royal 'Change he'll droppe, Clad in the ruines of a broker's shoppe. And there his tongue runs byass on affaires, No talk, but of commodities and wares.— If newes be harken'd for, then he prevalyes, Setting his mynt at worke to coyne new tayles t 1.44.— He'll tell you of a tree that he doth knowe, Vpon the which rapiers and daggers growe,

As good as Fleetstrete hath in any shoppe, Which being ripe downe into scabbards droppe.— His wondrous trauells challenge such renowne, That sir Iohn Mandeuille is qvite pvt downe u 1.45. Men without heads, and pigmies hand breadth hie, Those, with no legges, that on their backs do lie; Or w 1.46, do the weather's iniurie sustaine, Making their leggs a penthouse for the raine x 1.47.

Gabriel Harvey, in his Four Letters printed in 1592, quotes some English hexameters, from

"those vnsatyrical Satyres, which Mr. Spencer long since embraced in an overloving sonnet y 1.48."

This passage seems to indicate a set of satires, now unknown, to which Spenser had prefixed the undeserved honour of a recommendatory sonnet, now equally forgotten.

Meres, who wrote in 1598, observes,

"As Horace, Lucilius, Juvenal, Persius, and Lucullus, are the best for SATYRE among the Latins, so with us, in the same faculty these are chiefe: Piers PLOWMAN, Lodge, Hall of Emanuel colledge in Cambridge, the author of PIGMALION'S IMAGE AND CERTAINE SATYRES z 1.49, the author of SHIALETHIA a 1.50."

And in another place, having cited some of Marston's satires, he adds Rankins as a satirist b 1.51. I have never elsewhere seen the name of Rankins. Nor have I seen Lodge's Satires, unless his

"ALARUM AGAINST USURERS, containing tried experiences against worldly abuses,"

and its appendix his History of Forbonius and Prisaeria, printed at London, in 1584, may be considered under that character.

Wood also, a great dealer in the works of our old minor poets, yet at the same time a frequent transcriber from Meres, still more embarrasses this matter, where he says, that Lodge, after he left Trinity college at Oxford, about the year 1576, and

"had spent some time in exercising his fancy among the poets in the great city, he was esteemed, not Joseph Hall of Emanuel college excepted, the best for satyr among English men c 1.52."

Lodge was fitted for a different mode of composition. He was chiefly noted for pastorals, madrigals, and sonnets; and for his EUPHUES GOLDEN LEGACY, which furnished the plot of the AS YOU LIKE IT of Shakespeare. In an extended acceptation, many of the prose-pamphlets written about this period, by Greene and Decker, which paint or expose popular foibles and fashions, particularly Decker's GUL'S HORN-BOOK, a manual or directory for initiating an unexperienced spendthrift into the gaieties of the metropolis, might claim the appellation of satires d 1.53. That the rage of writing satires, and satirical epigrams, continued long, will appear from a piece of some humour, called

"An Inquisition against Paper-persecutors,"

written in 1625 e 1.54. But of this, more distinct proofs will appear in the progress of our history.

It must not be forgotten, that a second impression of an English version of Ariosto's Satires, which contain many anecdotes of his life and circumstances, and some humourous tales, and which are marked with a strong vein of free reprehension, but with much less obscenity than might be expected from satires written by the author of ORLANDO FURIOSO, appeared in long verse, by an anonymous translator, in 1611 c 1.55. I believe these satires are but little known or esteemed by the Italians.

For the sake of juxtaposition, I will here anticipate in throwing together the titles of some others of the most re|markable collections of satires and satirical epigrams, published between 1600 and 1620, meaning to consider hereafter those that best deserve, more critically and distinctly f 1.56. The COURT OF CONSCIENCE, or Dick Whipper's Sessions, appeared in 1607. More fooles yet, a collection of Epigrams in quarto, by R. S. perhaps Richard Smith, in 1610. The most elegant and wittie Epigrams of sir James Harrington, the translator of Ariosto, in four books, in 1611 g 1.57. Jonson's EPIGRAMS, in 1616 h 1.58. Henry Fitzgeoffry's SATIRES in 1617 i 1.59. PHILOMYTHIE or PHILO|MYTHOLOGIE, wherein outlandish birds, beasts, and fishes, are taught to speake true English plainely, By T. SCOT. gentleman,

including satires in long English verse, in 1616 k 1.60. The second part of PHILOMYTHIE, containing certaine Tales of True Libertie, False Friendship, Power United, Faction and Ambition, by the same, 1616 l 1.61. Certaine Pieces of this age parabolized, by the same, in 1616 m 1.62. George Wither, of Manydowne in Hamshire, educated at Magdalene College, in Oxford, and at Lincolns inn, afterwards an officer in Cromwell's army, and popular even among the puritans as a poet, published ABUSES stript and whipt, or Satyricall Essayes. Divided into two Bookes. in 1613 n 1.63. For this publication, which was too licentious in attacking establishments, and has a vein of severity unseasoned by wit, he suffered an imprisonment for many months in the Marshalsea. Not being debarred the use of paper, pens and ink, he wrote during his confinement, an apology to James the first, under the title of A SATYRE, printed the following year, for his censures of the government in his first book. But, like Prynne in the pillory railing at the bishops, instead of the lenient language of recantation and concession, in this piece he still perseveres in his invectives against the court o 1.64. Being taken prisoner in the rebellion, by the royalists, he was sentenced to be hanged; but sir John Denham the poet, prevailed with the king to spare his life, by telling his majesty, So long as Wither lives, I shall not be the worst poet in England. The revenge of our satirist was held so cheap, that he was lampooned by Taylor the water-poet p 1.65. Richard Brathwayte, a native of Northum|berland,

admitted at Oriel college, Oxford, in 1604, and after|wards a student at Cambridge, chiefly remembered, if remem|bered at all, as one of the minor pastoral poets of the reign of James the first, published in 1619,

"NATVRES embassie, or the Wilde-mans measures, danced naked, by twelve Satyres, with sundry others, &c q 1.66."

—Donne's SATIRES were written early in the reign of James the first, though they were not pub|lished till after his death, in the year 1633. Jonson sends one of his Epigrams to Lucy Countess of Bedford, with MR. DONNES SATYRES r 1.67. It is conjectured by Wood, that a lively satirical piece, on the literature of the times, which I have already cited, with Donne's initials, and connected with another poem of the same cast, is one of Donne's juvenile performances. I had supposed John Davies. But I will again ex|hibit the whole title of the Bodleian edition.

"A Scourge for paper-persecutors, by I. D. With an Inquisition against paper-persecutors, by A. H. London, for H. H. 1625,"

in quarto. But Wood had seen a detached edition of the former piece. He says,

"Quaere, whether John Donne published A Scourge for Paper Persecutors, printed in quarto, tempore Jacobi

primi. The running title at the top of every page is PAPER'S COMPLAINT, in three sheets and a half. The date on the title pared out at the bottom s 1.68."

This must have been an older edition, than that in which it appears connected, from similarity of subject, with its companion, An Inquisition against paper-persecutors, in the year 1625, as I have just noticed.

Owen's idea of an epigram points out the notion which now prevailed of this kind of composition, and shews the propriety of blending the epigrams and satires of these times, under one class. A satire, he says, is an epigram on a larger scale. Epi|grams are only satires in miniature. An epigram must be satyrical, and a satire epigrammatical t 1.69. And Jonson, in the Dedication of his EPIGRAMS to Lord Pembroke, was so far from viewing this species of verse, in its original plan, as the most harmless and inoffensive species of verse, that he supposes it to be conversant above the likenesse of vice and facts, and is conscious that epigrams carry danger in the sound. Yet in one of his epigrams, addressed TO THE MEERE ENGLISH CENSVRER,

he professes not exactly to follow the track of the late and most celebrated epigrammatists.

To thee my way in EPIGRAMMES seemes newe, When both it is the old way and the true. Thou saist that cannot be: for thou hast seene DAVIS, and WEEVER, and the BEST have BEENE, And mine come nothing like, &c u 1.70.

This, however, discovers the opinion of the general reader.

Of the popularity of the epigram about the year 1600, if no specimens had remained, a proof may be drawn, together with evidences of the nature of the composition, from Marston's humourous character of Tuscus, a retailer of wit.

But roome for Tuscus, that iest-moungering youth, Who neer did ope his apish gerning mouth, But to retaile and broke another's wit. Discourse of what you will, he straight can fit, Your present talke, with, Sir, I'll tell a iest,— Of some sweet ladie, or grand lord at least. Then on he goes, and neer his tongue shall lie, Till his ingrossed iests are all drawne dry: But then as dumbe as Maurus, when at play, Hath lost his crownes, and paun'd his trim array. He doth nought but retaile iests: breake but one, Out flies his table-booke, let him alone, He'll haue it i' faith: Lad, hast an EPIGRAM, Wil't haue it put into the chaps of Fame?

Giue Tuscus copies: sooth, as his own wit, His proper issue, he will father it, &c w 1.71.

And the same author says, in his Postscript to PIGMALION,

Now by the whyppes of EPIGRAMMATISTS, I'll not be lash'd.—

One of Harrington's Epigrams, is a comparison of the Sonnet and the Epigram.

Once by mishap two poets fell a squaring, The Sonnet and our Epigram comparing. And Faustus hauing long demur'd vpon it Yet at the last gaue sentence for the Sonnet, Now, for such censvre, this his chiefe defence is, Their sugred tast best likes his likrous senses. Well, though I grant sugar may please the tast, Yet let my verse haue salt to make it last x 1.72.

In the RETURN FROM PARNASSUS, acted 1616, perhaps written fome time before, Sir Roderick says,

"I hope at length England will be wise enough: then an old knight may haue his wench in a corner, without any SATIRES or EPI|GRAMS y 1.73."

In Decker's VNTRUSSING OF THE HUMOROUS POET, Horace, that is Jonson, exclaims in a passion,

"Sirrah! I'll compose an EPIGRAM vpon him shall go thus—z 1.74."

Notes

• a 1.1

  Entered to William Fyrebrand, May 3, 1598. REGISTR. STATION. C. f. 34. b.
• b 1.2

  Entered to N. Linge, Sept. 15, 1598. Ibid. f. 41. b.
• c 1.3

  Marlowe's OVID'S ELEGIES were ac|companied with these Epigrams. The whole title is,

  "Epigrammes and Elegies, by J. D. and C. M. [Marlowe.] at Middle|burgh."

  No date. Davies's Epigrams are commended in Jonson's Epigrams, xviii. And in Fitzgeoffry's AFFANIAE, Lib. ii. Signat E. 4.

  DAVISIOS laedat mihi, Jonsoniosque lacessat.
• d 1.4

  With

  "sequitur Tyronis Epistola."

  Compare Wood, ATH. OXON, F. i. 219.
• e 1.5

  Entered to Joane Brome, Apr. 3, 1598. Ibid. f. 38. b.
• f 1.6

  ATH. OXON. i. 431.
• g 1.7

  HARRINGTON'S EPIGRAMS, B. ii. 64. See also B. ii. 84. They are also mention|ed with applause in Goddard's MASTIF, no date, SAT. 81. And in Parrot's SPRINGES FOR WOODCOCKES, Lib. i. EPIGR. 118.
• h 1.8

  One of them is entitled,

  "An admo|nition to the City of Oxford, or Mare|plate's Bastardine."

  In this piece, says Wood, he

  "reflects upon all persons of note in Oxford, who were guilty of amorous exploits, or that mixed them|selves with other men's wives, or with wanton houswives in Oxon."

  The other is a disavowal of this lampoon, written after his expulsion, and beginning Jenkin, why man, &c. See Meres, WITS TR. f. 284.
• i 1.9

  There are two sets of his Sermons, Five, London, 1615, 4to. The three first of these are called the MARIGOLD OF THE SUN. Twelve, London, 1615. 4to.
• k 1.10

  The name of the author, who appears to have been a soldier, is added in the De|dication, to some of his flatt-cappe friends at the Temple. The Satires were written after Bastard's EPIGRAMS, which are com|mended, SAT. 81. I will give a specimen from the second part, SAT. 5.

  To see Morilla in her coach to ride, With her long locke of haire vpon one side; With hatt and feather worn in swaggr|ing gvise, With buttned boddice, skirted dubblett|wise, Vnmaskt, and sit i' th' booth without a fanne: Speake, could you iudge her lesse than be some manne, &c.

  Here is the dress of a modern amazon, in what is called a Riding-habit. The side|lock of hair, which was common both to men and women, was called the French Lock. So Freeman of a beau, in RUB AND A GREAT CAST, edit. 1614, EPIGR. 32.

  Beside a long French locke.— And Hall, SAT. iii. 7. His haire French-like stares on his fright|ed head, One locke, amazon-like, disheveled.

  Hence may be illustrated a passage in a Letting of Humours blood, &c. printed about 1600. EPIGR. 27.

  Aske Humors why a feather he doth weare,— Or what he doth with such a horsetail locke.

  See also Perrott's Springes for Woodcockes, or Epigrams, 1613, Lib. i. EPIGR. i. Of a beau.

  And on his shoulder weares a dangling locke.

  In B. Rich's OPINION DEIFIED, &c.

  "Some by wearing a long locke that hangs dangling by his eare, do think by that louzie commoditie to be esteemed by the opinion of foolery."

  Lond. 1613. 4to. ch. xxix. p. 53. Again, in RETURN FROM PARNASSUS, 1606, A. iii. S. ii.

  Must take tobacco, and must weare a lock.

  Compare Warburton's note on MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, A. v. S. i.

  "He wears a key in his ear, and a long lock hang|ing by it, &c."

  I add but one more instance, from the character of a RUFFIAN, or bully.

  "When without money, his gingling spurre hath last his voyce, his head his locke, &c."

  WHIMZIES, or a new Cast of CHARACTERS, Lond. 1631. 16mo. p. 136.
• l 1.11

  He says, p. 36.

  And tell prose writers, STORIES are so stale, That penie ballads make a better sale.

  He mentions country-players, p. 31. PAS|QUILL'S MAD-CAP is applauded in THE WHIPPINGE OF THE SATYRE, 1601. Sig|nat. F. 3.

  That MAD-CAP yet superiour praise doth win, &c.

  In Dekker's GUL'S HORNE BOOK, 1609, we have,

  "I am the Pasquill's MAD-CAPPE that will doot."

  p. 8.

  "PASQUILL'S IESTS, with the merriments of mother Bunch,"

  were published, Lond. 1629. Bl. Let. 4to. But this I suppose not to have been the first edition. And in refe|rence to Pasquill's MAD-CAP, there is,

  "Old Mad-cappes new gallimaufry, made into a merrie messe of mingle mangle, 1602."
• m 1.12

  Under the title of PASQUIN, we have also the following coeval pieces.

  "PAS|QUILL'S MISTRESSE, or the worthie and unworthie woman, 1600.—PASQUILL'S PASSE, and passeth not, set downe in three pees, 1600.—PASQUILL'S PALI|NODIA, and his Progresse to the taverne, where, after the survey of the Sellar, you are presented with a pleasant pynte of poeticall sherry, 1619."
• n 1.13

  In duodecimo. It is dedicated to the

  "Vayne glorious, the HUMOURIST, SA|TYRIST, and EPIGRAMMATIST."

  The writer's initials are I. W. I believe this piece to be a Reply to Rowlands. But in one place he seems to attack Marston. Sig|nat. D 2.

  But harke, I heare the Cynicke Satyre crie, A man, a man, a kingdom for a man!

  He mentions the Fatness of Falstaff. Sig|nat. D 3.

  That sir John Falstaffe was not any way More grosse in body, than you are in brayne.
• o 1.14

  Entered, April 11, to Busbie and Holme. REGISTR. STATION. C. f. 165. b.
• p 1.15

  Entered, Apr. 21, to T. Thorpe, Ib. f. 166. a. I take R. W. to be Richard West, who is the author of

  "Newes from Bartholomew fair,"

  entered to I. Wright, Jul. 16, 1606. Ibid. f. 141. b. I find

  "Merry Jests, concerning popes, monks, and fryers, from the French, by R. W. Bachelor of Arts, of H. H. [Hart-Hall] Oxon, assigned to John Barnes."

  RE|GISTR. STATION. D. f. 11. a.
• q 1.16

  Entered to Jos. Harrison, May 4. RE|GISTR. C. f. 167. a.
• r 1.17

  There is a second edition entered to Elde, May 8, 1621. REGISTR. D. f. 15. a. In 1617,

  "A paraphrasticke tran|script of Juvenal's tenth Satyre, with the tragicall narrative of Virginia's death is entered, Oct. 14, to N. Newbury."

  REGISTR. C. f. 284. b.
• s 1.18

  In the Latin Dedication, it appears they were written in 1611. Mr. Steevens quotes an edition in 1606. Shakesp. Vol. viii. 409.
• t 1.19

  Countries.
• u 1.20

  Lib. i. EPIGR. 9.

  Taylor the water poet, has mentioned Parrot's Epigrams, in EPIGRAMS, p. 263. fol. edit. EPIGR. vii.

  My Muse hath vow'd reuenge shall haue her swindge, To catch a Parrot in the woodcockes springe.

  See also p. 265. EPIGR. xxxi.
• w 1.21

  Jonson's EPIGR. xviii. They are in duodecimo, and cited in ENGLAND'S PARNASSUS, 1600.
• x 1.22

  I am tempted to give the following specimen of our author's humour, more especially as it displays the growing extent of London, in the year 1614. Sign. B. 3. EPIGR. 13.

  LONDON'S PROGRESSE. Quo ruis, ab demens?—

  Why how nowe, Babell, whither wilt thou build? I see old Holborne, Charing-crosse, the Strand, Are going to Saint Giles's in the field. Saint Katerne she takes Wapping by the hand, And Hogsdon will to Hygate ere't be long. London is got a great way from the streame, I thinke she meanes to go to Islington, To eate a dishe of strawberries and creame. The City's sure in progresse I surmise, Or going to revell it in some disorder, Without the walls, without the Liber|ties, Where she neede feare nor Mayor nor Recorder. Well, say she do, 'twere pretty, yet tis pitty, A Middlesex Bailiff should arrest the Citty.

  This poetical rant has been verified far beyond the writer's imagination.
• y 1.23

  They are mentioned with applause in Stradling's EPIGRAMMATA, published 1607.
• z 1.24

  I know not if these initials mean Henry Parrot, an epigrammatist before re|cited. There is also,

  "THE MORE THE MERRIER, containing threescore and odde headlesse Epigrams shott, like the Fools bolt amongst you, light where you will. By H. P. Gent."

  Lond. 1608. 4to.

  "Who says in his dedication, Con|cerning vnsauorie lewdnesse, which many of our Epigrammatist so much affect, I haue esteemed it fitter for Pick-hatch than Powles churchyard."

  Is H. P. for Henry Peacham? One of the Epigrams (Epig. 51.) in the last mentioned collec|tion appears, with some little difference only, in Peacham's MINERVA, fol. 61. edit. 4to. By one H. P. are

  "Characters and Cures for the Itch. Characters, Epigrams, Epitaphs."

  A BALLAD-MAKER is one of the characters, p. 3. London, for T. Jones, 1626. 12mo.
• a 1.25

  I have some faint remembrance of a collection of Epigrams, by Thomas Har|man, about the year 1599. Perhaps he is the same who wrote the following very cu|rious tract, unmentioned by Ames.

  "A Caueat for common ••vrsitors uulgariter, called Uagabondes, set forth by Thomas Harman, esqvier, for the vtilitie and proffyt of his naturall countrey. Newly augmented and imprinted Anno domini. M. D. LXVII. Imprinted at London in fletestrete, at the signe of the faulcon, by Wylliam Gryffith, and are to be solde at his shoope, in saynt Dunstones churchyard, in the west."

  A quarto in black letter, with a wooden cut in the title. In the work, is a reference to the first edition in the preceding year, 1566. It is dedicated, with singular impropriety, to Elizabeth countess of Shrewsbury. The writer speaks of his lodgings

  "at the White fryers within the cloyster."

  fol. 20. b. This seems to have given rise to another piece of the same sort, unnoticed also by Ames,

  "The fraternitye of vaca|bondes, as wel of ruflyng vacabondes, as of beggerly, as women as of men, of gyrles as of boyes, &c. Wherevnto also is adioyned the xxv order of Knaues, &c. Imprinted at London, by Iohn Awdely, dwellyng in little Britayne streete, without Aldersgate, 1575."

  Bl. Let. 4to. These, by the way, are some of the first books exhibiting, not only the tricks but the language, of thieves, which Jonson has introduced into his MASQUE OF GIPSIES. Compare Ames, HIST. PR. p. 423.
• b 1.26

  They were famous for their entertain|ments at the inns of court.
• c 1.27

  Country gentleman, yeoman.
• d 1.28

  Old Romances. SAT. ii. SIGNAT. H. 3.
• e 1.29

  Hence, among a variety of instances, says Marston in the second preface to his SCOURGE OF VILLANY.

  Some pedant spruce, or some span-new-come fry, Of Inns a-court, striuing to vilefie My darke reproofes, &c.
• f 1.30

  The iles of Saint Paul's church were the fashionable walk.
• g 1.31

  Sat. iii. SIGNAT. I. 2.
• i 1.32

  And in another place, B. ii. 7.

  What, meanst thou him, that in his swaggering slops Wallowes vnbraced all along the streete? He that salvtes each gallant he doth meete, With farewell capitaine, kind heart, adew! He that the last night, tumbling thou didst view, From out the great man's head , and thinking still, He had been sentinell of warlike Brill, &c.

  The great man's head, if the true read|ing, must be a cant word for the Sign of some tavern. Harrington has an Epigram of one getting drunk at the Sarazens head. B. i. 52. W. Fenner mentions the Sara|cen's head, without Newgate, and another without Bishopsgate, both famous for fero|city of feature. The Compter's Common|wealth, &c. p. 3. Lond. 1617. 4to. Brill, which we now call The Brill, is a town in the Netherlands. See also Hall, SAT. iv. 4.

  And pointed on the shoulders for the nonce, As new come from the Belgian gar|risons.
• * 1.33

  A sign.
• h 1.34

  In small octavo. There is another edi|tion, without date, in small quarto, exhi|biting a very different title,

  "HUMORS ORDINARIE, where a man may be verie marrie, and exceedingly well vsed for his six-pence. At London, Printed for Wil|liam Firebrand, &c."

  I know not which is the first of the two. He praises Tarleton the comedian, for his part of the Clowne, and his Clownishe ••••oppe, EPIGR. 30. And Pope for his part of the Clowne. SAT. iv. Singer the player is also mentioned. ibid. One Samuel Rowlands, I know not if the same, has left in verse,

  "The Betraying of Christ, Judas in despair, The seven wounds of our Saviour on the crosse, with other poems on the passion,"

  dedi|cated to sir Nicholas Walsh, knight, 1598, for Adam Islip, in quarto. Under the same name I have seen other religious poems, rather later. See Percy's BALL. iii. 117.
• k 1.35

  It is called a sparkling liquor, in God|dard's MASTIF-WHELP, or Satires, no date. SAT. 63. [See Notes to SE••. P. HENR. vi. A. ii. S. 3.]

  —I will steepe Thy muddy braines in sparkling CHA••|NICO.

  See Reed's OLD PLAYS, iii. 457.
• l 1.36

  Pictures on the walls of the tavern.
• m 1.37

  Sat. vi. Again, EPIGR. 22. Mar|low's end has been before related. Robert Green was killed by a surfeit of pickled herrings and Rhenish wine. This was in 1592. At which fatal banquet Thomas Nash was present. Meres says, that Peele died of the venereal disease. WITS TR. f. 285. p. 2. He must have been dead be|fore, or in, 1598.
• n 1.38

  Marston asks, what a traveller brings from Holland, CERT. SAT. ii.

  From Belgia what, but their deep bezel|ing, Their boote-carouse, and their beere|buttering.

  Again, Sc. VILLAN. B. i. 3.

  In Cyprian dalliance, and in Belgick cheere.
• o 1.39

  See George Wither's ABUSES STRIPT AND WHIPT, or SATYRICAL ESSAYES, Lond. 1615. 12mo. The SCOURGE, p. 277.

  .—But here approaches A troop, with torches hurried in their coaches, Stay, and behold, what are they? I can tell, Some bound for Shoreditch, or for Clarkenwell. O, these are they which thinke that for|nication, &c.

  See above, p. 64.
• p 1.40

  EPIGR. 7.
• q 1.41

  I will subjoin the same character from Marston's SCOURGE OF VILLANIE, which is more witty, but less distinct and circum|stantial. B. iii. 11.

  This fashion-monger, each morne fore he rise, Contemplates sute-shapes, and once out of bed, He hath them straight full lively por|trayed: And then he chuckes, and is as proude of this, As Taphus when he got his neighbours blisse. All fashions, since the first yeare of the Queene, May in his study fairly drawne be scene;— The long Fooles coat, the huge slop, the lug'd boote, From mimick Pyso all doe claime their roote. O, that the boundlesse power of the soule Should be coup'd vp in fashioning some roule!

  See above, a fantastic beau by Hall, p. 30.
• r 1.42

  EPIGR. 25.
• s 1.43

  EPIGR. 32. Boots were a mark of dignity or elegance, ibid. EPIGR. 8.

  He scornes to walke in Powles without his bootes.
• t 1.44

  Hall has a character partly resembling this, SAT. vi. 1.

  Tattelius, the new-come traueller, With his disguised coate, and ringed ear, Trampling the bourse's marble twice a day, Tells nothing but starke truths, I dare well say, &c.

  The bourse's marble is the pavement of the Royal Exchange, now newly erected by sir Thomas Gresham. The Royal Exchange seems to have been frequented by hungry walkers as well as saint Pauls, from Ro|bert Hayman's QUODLIBETS, or EPI|GRAMS, &c. Lond. 1628. 4to. Epigr. 35. p. 6.

  TO SIR PEARCE PENNILESSE.

  Though little coyne thy purselesse pockets lyne, Yet with great company thou'rt taken vp; For often with duke Humfray thou dost dyne, And often with sir Thomas Gresham sup.
• u 1.45

  Hall alludes to sir John Mandevill's TRAVELLS, a book not yet out of vogue. SAT. B. iv. 6.

  Or whetstone leesings of old Man|deuille.

  And in the IRISH BANQUET, or the Mayors feast of Youghall, Certain pieces of this age parabolized in T. Scot's PHILOMYTHIE, printed in 1606. 8vo. Signat. M. 2.

  Of Ladies loues, of Turnaies, and such sights As Mandeville nere saw.—

  I have

  "THE SPANISH MANDEVILE OF MIRACLES, translated from the Spanish,"

  Lond. 1618. 4to. The Dedication, to lord Buckhurst, is dated 1600.
• w 1.46

  Or those, who having legs, and lying on their backs, &c.
• x 1.47

  SAT. i. In these Satires, Monsieur Domingo, a drunkard is mentioned. EPI|GR. i. See Shakesp. SEC. P. H. iv. A. 5. S. 3.
• y 1.48

  LET. iii. p. 44.
• z 1.49

  Marston's SCOURGE OF VILLANIE had not yet appeared.
• a 1.50

  Fol. 282. 2.
• b 1.51

  Fol. 277.
• c 1.52

  ATH. OXON. i. 498.
• d 1.53

  Harrrington in his Epigrams, men|tions the Satires of a poet whom he often attacks under the name of Lynus. B. i. 67.

  His Distickes, SATYRES, Sonnets and Hexameters, His Epigrams, his Lyricks, and Penta|meters.

  And again, he has an Epigram

  "Against a foolish Satyrist, called Lynus."

  B. i. 14. See also, B. i. 41.
• e 1.54

  By A. H. Lond. for H. H. 1625. p. 1. At the end of

  "A Scourge for Paper|persecutors, by I. D."

  And shall it still be so? Nor is't more hard To repaire Paul's, than to mend Paul's church-yard? Still shall the youths that walk the mid|dle ile, To whet their stomacks before meales, compile Their sudden volumes, and be neuer barr'd From scattering their bastards through the yard?— —It is no wonder, That Paul's so often hath beene strucke with thunder; Twas aimed at those shops, in which there lie Such a confvsed heape of trumperie, Whose titles each terme on the posts are rear'd, In such abundance, it is to be fear'd That they in time, if thus they go on, will Not only LITTLE but GREAT Britain fill, With their infectious swarmes, whose guilty sheetes I haue obserued walking in the streetes; Still lurking neare some church, as if hereby They had retired to a sanctuary, For murdering paper so.— —Each drincking lozell nowe, That hath but seen a colledge, and knows howe, &c.

  After having censured those who versifi|ed the bible, and made it all Apocryphal, but with a compliment to the translators of Du Bartas, he adds,

  Others that nere search'd newe-born vice at all, But the Seuen Deadly Sinnes in generall, Drawne from the tractate of some cloys|ter'd frier, Will needs write SATYRES, and in raging fire Exasperate their sharpe poeticke straine; And thinke they haue touch'd it, if they raile at Spaine, The pope, and devill.—

  The reader will recollect, that Saint Paul's church-yard and its environs, in which was LITTLE-BRITAIN, abounded with shops and stalls of booksellers: that its steeple was thrown down by lightening, in 1561: and that a general reparation of the church was now become a great object of the nation.
• c 1.55

  "Ariosto's SEVEN PLANETS gouern|ing Italie. Or, his Satyrs in seuen fa|mous discourses, &c. Newly corrected and augmented, &c. With a new edition of three most excellent ELEGIES, written by the same Lodovico Ariosto."

  By W. Stan••by, 1611. 4to. I believe this title gave rise to the following.

  "A Booke of the seuen planets, or seuen wandring mo|tions of William Alablaster's wit, retro|graded or removed by John Ra••ster."

  Lond. 1598. 4to. There is an edition of this translation of Ariosto's Satires, 1608. See supr. vol. iii. 481.

  It is more certain that Ariosto's title gave rise to

  "The Philosophers Satyrs, or the Philosophers Seven Satyrs, alluding to the seuen Planets, &c."

  By Robert Anton of Magdalene college, Cambridge. Lond. 1616. 4to. It may be sufficient to have mentioned these Satires here.
• f 1.56

  I have seen

  "N. Britland's BOURE OF DELIGHT, Contayning Epigrams, Pastorals, Sonnets, &c."

  Printed for W. Jones 1597. But these Epigrams do not so properly belong to the class before us. The same may be said of the Epigrams of George Turberville, and some few others.
• g 1.57

  Many of Harrington's Epigrams were certainly written before. Perhaps there was an older edition. In Fitzgeoffrey's Latin Epigrams, called AFFANIAE, pub|lished 1601, there is an Epigram to Har|rington, with these lines preferring him to Haywood or Davies, as an English epi|grammatist. Signat. B. 3.

  Sive arguta vago flectas epigrammata torno, Sive Britanna magis sive Latina velis. At tu Biblidicis malis comes ire Camenis, Illis HAYWOODOS DAVISIOSQUE praeis.

  And in sir John Stradling's Epigrams, published 1607, there is one to Harring|ton with this title, Lib. i. p. 32.

  "Ad D. I. Harrington, Equitem doctissi|mum, de quibusdam epigrammatis Stradlingo, equiti, dono missis, 1590."

  And in Stradling's epigrams, we have two of Harrington's translated into Latin.
• h 1.58

  Jonson's epigrams, as we have seen, are mentioned with Davies's, by Fitzgeoffrey, 1601. AFFAN. Lib. ii. Signat. E. 4.

  DAVISIOS laedis mihi, JONSONIOSQUE lacessis.

  Of this the first Davies, Harrington says,

  "This Haywood [the epigrammatist] for his prouerbs and epigrams is not yet put down by any of our country, though one [Davies in the margin] doth indeede come neare him, that graces him the more in saying he put him downe, &c."

  —

  "A NEW DISCOVRSE of a stale svbiect, called the METAMORPHOSIS of AJAX, &c."

  Printed 1596. 12mo. SIGNAT. D. 2. Again,

  "But as my good friend M. Dauies saide of his Epigrams, that they were made like doublets in Birchen-lane, for euery one whom they will serue, &c."

  Ibid. SIGNAT. I.
• i 1.59

  In Hayman's QUODLIBETS, or Epi|grams, there is one,

  "To the reverend, learned, and acute, Master Charles Fitz|Geoffrey, bachelor in diuinity, my espe|ciall kind friend, and most excellent poet."

  He compares him to Homer, be|ing blind of one eye. B. i. 111. p. 18. This was Charles the author of the Latin Epigrams, abovementioned.
• k 1.60

  This is a second edition,

  "much in|larged,"

  Lond. For Francis Constable, &c. 8vo.
• l 1.61

  For Constable. ut supr.
• m 1.62

  Lond. Printed by E. Griffin, for F. Constable, &c. 8vo. I suppose these two last to be second editions.
• n 1.63

  Three editions soon followed, 1614, 1615, 1622, 8vo.
• o 1.64

  Reprinted 1615, 1622, 8vo.
• p 1.65

  The titles of Wither's numerous pieces may be seen in Wood, ATH. OXON. i. 392. seq. He was born in 1588, and died in 1667. He has left some anecdotes of the early part of his life, in the first book of his ABUSES, &. The OCCASION, p. 1. seq. In Hayman's Epigrams, 1628, there is one,

  "To the accute Satyrist, Master George Wither."

  EPIGR. 20. And 21. p. 61.

  Here might be mentioned,

  "ESSAYES and CHARACTERS, ironicall and instruc|tive, &c, By John Stephens the younger, of Lincolnes inne, Gent."

  Lond. 1615. 12mo. Mine is a second impression. Many of the ESSAYES are Satires in verse.

  There is also a collection of Satyrical poems called the KNAVE OF HEARTS, 1612. Another, the KNAVE OF SPADES, 1611. And

  "Knaves yet, The Knaves of Spades and Diamonds. With new addi|tions,"

  1612. 4to. Among Mr. Capell's SHAKESPERIANA, at Trinity college, Cambridge, are

  "Dobson's Dry Bobs,"

  1610, Bl. Let••. 4to. And Heath's EPI|GRAMS, 1610. 8vo.
• q 1.66

  For R. Whitcher, 12mo. They were reprinted for the same, 1621. 12mo. In his satire on ADULTERIE, are these lines, p. 30.

  And when you haue no favours to be|stow, Lookes are the lures which drawe Affec|tion's bow.

  To these pieces is annexed,

  "The second Section of Divine and Morall Satyres, &c."

  This is dedicated to S. W. C. by R. B. See also Brathwayte's STRAPPADO for the Devil, 1615. 8vo.
• r 1.67

  EPIGR. xciii. See xcvi. Though Jonson's EPIGRAMS were printed in 1616, many were written long before. And among Freeman's Epigrams, RUN AND A GREAT CAST, 1614, we have the following. EPI|GR. 84.

  TO JOHN DONNE.

  The STORME described hath set thy name afloat, Thy CALME a gale of famous winde hath got: Thy SATYRS short too soone we them o'erlook, I prithee, Persius, write another booke!
• s 1.68

  ATH. OXON. i. 556. [See above, p. 81.] He thus ridicules the minute com|memoration of unhistorical occurrences in the Chronicles of Hollinshead and Stowe. Signat. B. 3.

  Some chroniclers that write of king|dom's states, Do so absurdly sableize my white With maskes, and interludes, by day and night, Bald may games, beare baytings, and poore orations, Made to some prince, by some poore corporations. And if a bricke-bat from a chimney falls, When puffing Boreas nere so little bralls; Or wanton rig, or leacher dissolute, Doe stand at Paules-crosse in a sheeten sute: All these, and thousand such like toyes as these, They close in Chronicles like butterflies. And so confound grave matters of estate With plaies of poppets, and I know not what.— Ah good sir Thomas More, fame be with thee, Thy hand did blesse the English his|torie!—

  As also when the weathercock of Paules Amended was, this chronicler enroules, &c.—
• t 1.69

  Robert Hayman above quoted, thus recommends his own Epigrams. QUODLI|BETS, B. iv. 19. p. 61.

  Epigrams are like Satyrs, rough with|out, Like chesnuts sweet; take thou the kernell out.
• u 1.70

  EPIGR. xviii. Freeman also celebrates Davis, RUN AND A GREAT CAST, 1614. 4to. EPIGR. 100.

  Haywood wrote Epigrams, and so did Davis, Reader, thou doubtest utrum horum ma|vis.

  In Dunbar's Latin Epigrams, published 1616, there is a compliment to Davies of Hereford, author of the SCOURGE OF FOLLY, as a Satyrist or epigrammatist. CENT. xx. p. 66.
• w 1.71

  Sc. VILLAN. B. iii. 11.
• x 1.72

  EPIGR. B. i. 37.
• y 1.73

  A. ii. S. 2.
• z 1.74

  Edit. 1602. Sign. C. 2. Again, ibid.

  "Heere be EPIGRAMS upon Tucca."

  E. 3.

  "They are bitter EPIGRAMS composed on you by Horace."

  F. 3.

  "A gentle|man, or honest citizen, shall not sit in your pennie-bench theaters with his squirrell by his side cracking nuttes, but he shall be SATYRED and EPIGRAMMED upon, &c."

  H. 3.

  "It shall not be the whippinge o' th' satyre nor the whipping of the blind beare, &c."

  L. 3.

  "He says here, you diuulged my EPIGRAMS."

  H.

  "And that same PASQUILLS-MAD|CAP nibble, &c."

  A.