Lucida intervalla, containing divers miscellaneous poems, written at Finsbury and Bethlem by the Doctors patient extraordinary.
Carkesse, James, fl. 1679.
Page 45
A Bethlehemite in Bedlam, one of the small Pro∣phets, and a minor Poet to the Lady Sheriffesse Beckford, Mrs Catherine Heywood, and Mrs Johnson, requesting them to make his Cloy∣ster fit for their Reception, and then to allow him the Honour to kiss their hands, in the too close em∣braces of his Prison.
YOu three Graces, and Nine Muses are a Iury;
Do these agree, mine's fit for Bedlam fury?
No; nor am I Mad, but with design for certain:
Acting the Part, my Name-sake's not Sir Martin.
The Bedlam Quack, dissector of an Oyster,
Me as his Patient, Physicks in this Cloyster:
I sleep in Stubble, where I'm bid to Sow
My wilder Oats (may Ceres speed the Plough)
There as I lie, I second am Iack-straw,
And all the Bedlamites do over-awe:
Fair Ladies, you the Posse Comitatus,
With Beauties force, can quell the Slaves that hate us.
Page 46But pray hence forward see, I lie in Feather;
With Quils pickt out, I'le praise all three together:
To this the Poet better you'l enable,
If his dark Cell you hang with brighter Sable;
And when your goodness hath prepar'd the place,
Come challenge here the Glory of your Grace.
