EPIGRAMS.

HERO AND LEANDER.

BOTH robbed of air, we both lie in one ground,
Both whom one fire had burnt, one water drowned.

PYRAMUS AND THISBE.

Two by themselves each other love and fear,
Slain, cruel friends, by parting, have joined here.

NIOBE.

By children's births and death I am become
So dry, that I am now mine own sad tomb.

A BURNT SHIP.

Out of a fired ship, which, by no way
But drowning, could be rescued from the flame,
Some men leaped forth, and ever, as they came
Near the foe's ships, did by their shot decay;
So all were lost, which in the ship were found,
They in the sea being burnt, they in the burnt ship

drowned.

FALL OF A WALL.

Under an undermined and shot-bruised wall
A too bold captain perished by the fall,
Whose brave misfortune happiest men envied,
That had a town 1 for tomb his bones to hide.

A LAME BEGGAR.

I am unable, yonder beggar cries,

To stand or move; if he say true, he lies.

A SELF-ACCUSER.

Your Mistress, that you follow whores, still taxeth you; 'T is strange that she should thus confess it,

though it be true.

A LICENTIOUS PERSON.

Thy sins and hairs may no man equal call;
For as thy sins increase, thy hairs do fall.

ANTIQUARY.

If in his study he hath so much care

To hang all old strange things, let his wife beware.

DISINHERITED.

Thy father all from thee by his last will
Gave to the poor; thou hast good title still.

1 tower, 1639. '49, '54, '69.

PHRYNE.

Thy flattering picture, Phryne, is like 1 thee
Only in this, that you both painted be.

AN OBSCURE WRITER.

Philo with twelve years study hath been grieved To be understood; when will he be believed?

[A DILEMMA.]

Klockius so deeply hath sworn ne'er more to come In bawdy-house, that he dares not go home.

RADERUS.

Why this man gelded Martial I muse,2
Except himself alone his tricks would use,

As Katherine, for the Court's sake, put down stews.

MERCURIUS GALLO-BELGICUS.

Like Aesop's fellow-slaves, O Mercury,
Which could do all things, thy faith is; and I
Like Aesop's self, which nothing; I confess,
I should have had more faith, if thou hadst less;
Thy credit lost thy credit. 'T is sin to do,
In this case, as thou would'st be done unto,
To believe all. Change thy name; thou art like
Mercury in stealing, but liest like a Greek.

1 like to, 1649, '54, '69. 2 amuse, 1669.

A WONDER.

Compassion in the world again is bred:
Ralphius is sick, the broker keeps his bed.

VOTA AMICO FACTA.

TRANSLATED OUT OF GAZEUS, fol. 160.

1650.

God grant thee thine own wish, and grant thee mine,
Thou who dost, best friend, in best things outshine;
May thy soul, ever cheerful, ne'er know cares;
Nor thy life, ever lively, know gray hairs;
Nor thy hand, ever open, know base holds;
Nor thy purse, ever plump, know plaits or folds;
Nor thy tongue, ever true, know a false thing;
Nor thy word, ever mild, know quarrelling;
Nor thy works, ever equal, know disguise;
Nor thy fame, ever pure, know contumelies;
Nor thy prayers know low objects, still divine;

God grant thee thine own wish, and grant thee mine.

THE PROGRESS OF THE SOUL.