Trampling the burse's marble twise a day ",
Tells nothing but starke truths, I dare well say;
Nor would he have them knowne for any thing,
Tho' all the vault of his loud murmur ring.
Not one man tells a lye of all the yeare,
Except the Almanacke or the Chronicler.
But not a man of all the damned-crue,
For hils of gold would sweare the thing untrue.
Pansophus now, though all in a cold swatt",
Dares venture through the feared castle-gate,
Albee the faithfull oracles have foresayne
The wisest Senator shall there be slaine:
That made him long keepe home, as well it might;
Till now he hopeth of some wiser wight.
The vale of Stand-gate, or the Suter's hill,
Or westerne playne, are free from feared ill".
Let him, that hath nought, feare nought I areed":
But he, that hath ought, hy him, and God speed!
Nor drunken Dennis doth, by breake of day,
Stumble into blinde tavernes by the way,
And reele mee homeward at the ev'ning starre,
Or ride more easily in his neighbour's chayre.
Well might these checks have fitted former times,
And shouldred angry Skelton's breath-lesse rimes is

gerers of his time; who, in their rambles about the town, visited the Royal Exchange as mercantile travellers. The Royal Exchange was also frequented by hungry walkers, as well as St. Paul's. Robert Hayman, in his Quodlibets or Epigrams. Lond. 1628. 4to. Epigr. 35. p. 6. has

To Sir Pearce Pennilesse.

"Though little coyne thy purselesse pockets lyne,
Yet with great company thou'rt taken up;
For often with Duke Humfray thou dost dyne,
And often with Sir Thomas Gresham sup.'

" Trampling the burse's marble twise a day.

W.

The Royal Exchange received the name of Bourse from Sir Thomas Gresham ;and exchanged it for its present name, in 1570, by order of Queen Elizabeth. E.

12 Pansophus now, though all in a cold swatt,

The is the reading of the edition of 1599, and the Oxford.

13 The vale of Stand-gate, or the Suter's hill,

Or westerne playne, are free from feared ill.

Stand-gate vale probably means Stand-gate Street, in Lambeth.-Suter's or Shooter's Hill is well known.-By westerne playne, the site now occupied by St. James's and Hyde Parks was most likely intended.

15 And shouldred angry Skelton's breath-lesse rimes.

So Phillips, in the Theatrum Poetarum, p. 115, says of Skelton, "Methinks he hath a miserable loos rambling style, and galloping measure of verse." E.

Ere Chrysalus had bar'd the common boxe,
Which earst he pick't to store his private stocks;
But now hath all with vantage paide againe,
And locks and plates what doth behind remaine:
When earst our dry-soul'd syres so lavish were,
To charge whole boots'-full to their friend's wel-fare;
Now shalt thou never see the salt beset

With a big-bellyed gallon flagonet ".

Of an ebbe Cruce must thirsty Silen sip,
That's all forestalled by his upper lip".
Somewhat it was that made his paunch so peare
His girdle fell ten ynches in a yeare.

Or when old gouty bed-rid Euclio

To his officious factor fayre could show

His name in margent of some olde cast bill,
And say, Lo! whom I named in my will;

Whiles hee beleeves, and, looking for the share,
Tendeth his cumbrous charge with busy care
For but a while; for now he sure will die,
By this strange qualme of liberalitie ".

Great thanks he gives-but, God him shield and save
From ever gayning by his master's grave:

Onely live long and he is well repayd,

And weats his forced cheeks whiles thus he said;

Some strong-smeld onion shall stirre his eyes

Rather than no salt teares shall then arise.

So lookes he like a marble toward rayne,

And wrings, and snites 2, and weeps, and wipes againe:
Then turnes his backe and smiles, and lookes askance,
Seas'ning againe his sowred" countenance;
Whiles yet he wearies heav'n with daily cryes,
And backward death with devout sacrifice,

16 Now shalt thou never see the salt beset With a big-bellyed gallon flagonet.

See Note 37, on Book ii. Sat. 6.

17 Of an EBBE CRUCE must thirsty Silen sip, That's all forestalled by his upper lip.

An ebbe cruce probably means a shallow vessel, the contents of which ebbed a returned against the upper lip, and disappointed the drinker.

To peer is, to come just in sight. By peare, our author may mean shrunk in.

19 By THIS strange qualme of liberalitie.

This is restored from the first edition; his being that of the other editions,

20

snites a term in Falconry. "A hawk is said to smite or snite, whe she wipes her beak or bill after feeding". See Phillips's New World of Words.

21

sowred-The Oxford editor reads sorrow'd, without authority.

22

That they would now his tedious ghost bereav'n,
And wisheth well, that wish'st no worse than heav'n.
When Zoylus was sicke, he knew not where,

23

Save his wrought night-cap, and laune pillow-bere":
Kinde fooles! they made him sick, that made him fine;
Take those away, and ther's his medicine.
Or Gellia wore a velvet mastick-patch"
Upon her temples when no tooth did ache;
When Beauty was her reume I soone espide",
Nor could her plaister cure her of her pride.
These vices were; but now they ceas'd of long:
Then why did I a righteous age that wrong?
I would repent mee, were it not too late;
Were not the angry world prejudicate.
If all the sevens penitentiall

Or thousand white-wands might me ought availe,
If Trent or Thames could scoure my foule offence
And set mee in my former innocence,

I would at last repent me of my rage:

25

Now, beare my wrong, I thine, O righteous age.
As for fine wits, a hundreth thousand fold
Passeth our age, whatever times of olde.
For, in that Puis-nè " world, our syres of long
Could hardly wagge their too unweldy tongue
As pined crowes and parrats can doe now,
When hoary age did bend their wrinckled brow:
And now, of late, did many a learned man
Serve thirty yeares' prenti-ship with Priscian;
But now can every novice speake with ease
The far-fetch'd language of Th'-Antipodes.

Would'st thou the tongues, that earst were learned hight”,
Tho' our wise age hath wipt them of their right;
Would'st thou the courtly three in most request,
Or the two barbarous neighbours of the west?
Bibinus selfe can have ten tongues in one,
Tho' in all ten not one good tongue alone.
And can deepe skill ly smothering within,

Whiles neither smoke nor flame discerned bin?

pillow-bere-pillow-case.

23 mastick-patch

Mastick is a clear and sweet gum, of a dry and binding quality. It appears to have been used for the cure of the tooth-ache.

24 When Beauty was her REUME I soon espide.

The meaning probably is, that the desire of being thought beautiful was her disease. Rheuma is explained by Phillips as "a flowing down of humours from the head upon the lower parts.'

Puis-ne-Fr. younger, inconsiderable.

25

26

– hight—named, called.

27

Shall it not be a wild-figg in a wall,
Or fired brimstone in a minerall?

Do thou disdaine, O over-learned" age!
The tongue-ty'de silence of that Samian sage:
Forth, ye fine wits, and rush into the presse,
And for the cloyed world your workes addresse.
Is not 28
a gnat, nor fly, nor seely" ant,
But a fine wit can make an elephant.
Should Bandel's throstle die without a song ?
Or Adamantius, my dog, be laid along,
Downe in some ditch without his exequies,
Or epitaphs, or mournefull elegies?

Folly it selfe, and baldnes, may be prais'd 30;
And sweet conceyts from filthy objects rays'd.
What do not fine witts dare to undertake?
What dare not fine wits doe for honor's sake?
But why doth Balbus his deade-doing quill
Parch in his rusty scabbard all the while;
His golden fleece ore-growne with moldy hore,
As tho' he had his witty works forswore?
Belike, of late, now Balbus hath no need;
Nor now belike his shrinking shoulders dread
The catch-pole's fist-The presse may still remaine
And breath, till Balbus be in debt againe.
Soone may that bee! so I had silent beene,
And not thus rak't up quiet crimes unseene.
Silence is safe, when saying stirreth sore
And makes the stirred puddle stinke the more.
Shall the controller of proud Nemesis
In lawlesse rage upbrayd ech other's vice,
While no man seeketh to reflect the wrong,
And curb the raunge of his mis-ruly tongue ?
By the two crownes of Pernasse ever-greene,
And by the cloven head of Hippocrene,
As I true poet am, I here avow

(So solemnly kist he his laurell bow "')
If that bold Satyre unrevenged be

For this so saucy and foule injurie.

over-learned--The Oxford Editor reads ever-learned; probably by an

error of the press, but certainly without authority.

Folly it selfe, and baldnes, may be pruis'd.

An allusion to Erasmus's Moriæ Encomium, and the Encomium Calvitiei, written at the restoration of Learning. Cardan also wrote an Encomium on Nero, the Gout, &c. W.

SATIRES.-BOOK VI.-SAT. I.

So Labeo weens it my eternall shame
To prove I never earnd a poet's name.
But would I be a poet if I might 3,

To rub my brow three daies, and wake three nights,
And bite my nayles, and scrat my dullard head,
And curse the backward Muses on my bed
About one peevish syllable; which, out-sought,
I take up Thales' joy, save for fore-thought
How it shall please ech ale-knight's censuring eye 33,
And hang'd my head for fear they deeme awry.
Whiles thred-bare Martiall turnes his merry note,
To beg of Rufus a cast winter-cote1;
Whiles hungry Marot leapeth at a beane,
And dyeth like a starv'd Cappucien 35:
for what may
Go, Ariost, and gape
From trencher of a flattring cardinall;
And, if thou gettest but a pedant's fee,
Thy bed, thy board, and coarser liverye,

But would I be a poet if I might,

&c. &c.

fall 36

Vos ô

Pompilius sanguis, carmen reprehendite, quod non
Multa dies et multa litura coërcuit, atque
Perfectum decies non castigavit ad unguem.

Hor. Ars. Poct. 291. E.

which, OUT-SOUGHT,

I take up THALES' JOY, save for fore-thought,

How it shall please ech ALE-KNIGHT's censuring eye.

Out-sought means discovered.-By Thales' joy the Satirist seems to refer to a say ing of Thales, the Milesian, the founder of the Ionic Sect, and the first of the Seven Wise Men of Greece. He boasted that he had to thank his fortune princiPally for three things-Πρῶτον μὲν ἄνθρωπος ἐγενόμην, καὶ ἐ θηρίον· εἶτα, ὅτι ἀνὴρ, καὶ & γυνὴ· τρίτον, ὅτι Ελλην, καὶ ἐ Βάρβαρος. See his Life in Diog. Laert. Ale-knight means the oracle of the tavern.

34 Whiles thred-bare Martiall turnes his merry note,

To beg of Rufus a cast winter-cote.

Alluding to the 57th Epigram of the VIth Book of Martial. E.

36 Whiles hungry Marot leapeth at a beane,

And dyeth like a starv'd Cappucien.

Clement Marot, the best French poet of his time. Toward the close of his life he fell into disgrace, as a warm friend to the Reformed Religion: having, as Beza E. confesses, contracted at the Court of France such loose habits of life, as even Protestantism itself could never correct.

Go, Ariost, and gape for what may fall,

&c. &c.

E. The allusion is evidently to Hippolito, Cardinal of Este; to whose court Ariosto's reputation for wit had procured him favourable access.