To the Nymphs.

End you the rites, and so be eas'd
Of these, and then great Pan is pleas'd.

HYMN IV.

Great Pan, the father of our peace and pleasure,
Who giv'st us all this leisure,

Hear what thy hallow'd troop of herdsmen pray
For this their holyday,

And how their vows to thee they in Lycæum pay.

Cho. So may our ewes receive the mounting rams, And we bring thee the earliest of our lambs:

So

may the first of all our fells be thine,

And both the beestning of our goats and kine ;
As thou our folds dost still secure,

And keep'st our fountains sweet and pure;
Driv'st hence the wolf, the tod, the brock,
Or other vermin from the flock.

That we, presero'd by thee, and thou observ'd by us,
May both live safe in shade of thy lov'd Manalus.

Shep. Now each return unto his charge,

And though to-day you've liv'd at large,
And well your flocks have fed their fill,
Yet do not trust your hirelings still.
See yond' they go, and timely do
The office you have put them to;
But if you often give this leave,
Your sheep and you they will deceive.

Thus it ended.

s The tod,] i. e, the fox. WHAL.

THE

MASQUE OF OWLS,

AT

KENELWORTH.

Presented by the Ghost of captain Cox, mounted on his Hobby-horse, 1626.

THE MASQUE OF OWLS, &c.] From the second folio. This trifle is not a Masque, nor could it have been so termed by the author: it is, in fact, a mere monologue, a Lecture on Heads ; which, such as it is, probably gave the first hint to G. A. Stevens, for his amusing exhibition, of that name.

Of captain Cox I know no more than Jonson tells. Queen Elizabeth had been entertained at Kenelworth by the " great earl of Leicester," in 1575. To make her time pass as agreeably as possible, the bears were brought in, and baited with great applause! There was also a burlesque representation of a battle, from some old romance, in which captain Cox, who appears to have been some well-known humourist, valiantly bestirred himself. A description of this part of the Entertainment was written and published at the time, in a "Letter from a freend Officer attendant in the court, unto his freend a citizen and merchaunt of London." To this letter, which is written in a most uncouth style by a pedantic coxcomb of the name of Laneham, under an affectation of humour, Jonson perpetually alludes.

THE

MASQUE OF OWLS.

Enter Captain Cox, on his Hobby-horse.

Room! room! for my horse will wince,
If he come within so many yards of a prince;
And though he have not on his wings,
He will do strange things.

He is the Pegasus that uses
To wait on Warwick Muses;
And on gaudy-days he paces
Before the Coventry Graces;
For to tell you true, and in rhyme,
He was foal'd in queen Elizabeth's time,
When the great earl of Lester

In this castle did feast her.

'The captain enters on, or rather in, the paste-board hobbyhorse used by the morris-dancers of the county, whom Jonson calls the Warwickshire Muses, and capers round the circle to make room, according to the usual practice. This little jeud'esprit formed perhaps an episode in some amusement of a more extensive nature, for it could scarcely occupy ten minutes. It is not easy to say before whom it was played. The first couplet speaks of the Prince, and, from a subsequent passage, it would seem to be the prince of Wales: but there was none at this period add too, that the earl of Leicester (if he was the possessor of Kenelworth castle,) died in 1626; so that the date is probably too late, by a year.

Now, I am not so stupid

To think, you think me a Cupid,
Or a Mercury that sit him;

Though these cocks here would fit him:
But a spirit very civil,

Neither poet's god, nor devil,
An old Kenelworth fox,
The ghost of captain Cox,
For which I am the bolder,
To wear a cock on each shoulder.
This captain Cox, by St. Mary,
Was at Bullen with king Ha-ry;
And (if some do not vary)
Had a goodly library,'

⚫ His library is given at great length, by the author of the "Letter." It is curious and amusing. "And fyrst Captain Cox, an od man I promiz yoo: by profession a mason, and that right skilfull; very cunning in fens, (fencing) and hardy as Gavin; for his ton-sword hangs at hiz tablz eend; great oversight hath he in matters of storie: For az for King Arthurz book, Huan of Burdiaus, the foour sons of Aymon, Bevys of Hampton, The Squyre of lo degree, The Knight of Courtesy, and the Lady Faguell, Frederik of Gene, Syr Eglamoour, Syr Tryamoour, Syr Lamwell, Syr Isenbras, Syr Gawyn, Olyver of the Castle, Lucres and Curialus, Virgil's Life, the Castle of Ladiez, the Wido Edyth, the King and the Tanner, Frier Rous, Howleglas, Gargantua, Robin Hood, Adam Bel, Clim of the Clough, and William of Cloudsley, the Churl and the Burd, the Seven Wise Masters, the Wife lapt in a Morels skin, the Sak full of Nuez, the Seargeaunt that became a Fryar, Skogan, Collyn Clout, the Fryar and the Boy, Elynor Rumming, and the Nutbrooun Maid, with many moe than I rehearz here: I beleeve hee have them all at hiz fingers endz.

Then in Philosophy, both morale and naturale, I think he be az naturally overscen: beside Poetrie and Astronomie, and oother hid Sciencez, as I may gesse by the omberzt of his books: whereof part, az I remember, The Shepherdz Kalender, The Ship of Foalz, Danielz Dreamz, the Booke of Fortune, Stans puer ad Mensum, The hy wey to the Spitl-house, Julian of Brainford's Testament, The Castle of Love, the Booget of Demaunds, the Hundred merry Talez, the Booke of Riddels, the Seaven Sororz of