Tell time, it is but motion;
Tell flesh, it is but dust;
And wish them not reply,

For thou must give the lye.

Tell age, it daily wasteth;

Tell honour, how it alters; Tell beauty, how she blasteth ; Tell favour, how she falters; And as they shall reply, Give each of them the lye.

Tell wit, how much it wrangles
In tickle points of nicenesse :
Tell wisedome, she entangles
Herselfe in over-wisenesse ;
And if they do reply,

Straight give them both the lye.

Tell physicke of her boldnesse;
Tell skill, it is pretension;

Tell charity of coldness;

Tell law, it is contention;

35

40

415

50

And as they yield reply,
So give them still the lye.

Tell fortune of her blindnesse ;
Tell nature of decay;

55

Tell friendship of unkindnesse;
Tell justice of delay:

And if they dare reply,

Then give them all the lye.

60

Tell arts, they have no soundnesse,

But vary by esteeming ;

Tell schooles, they want profoundnesse,
And stand too much on seeming :

If arts and schooles reply,

65

Give arts and schooles the lye.

Tell faith, it's fled the citie;

Tell how the countrey erreth; Tell, manhood shakes off pitie; Tell, vertue least preferreth: And, if they doe reply, Spare not to give the lye.

So, when thou hast, as I

Commanded thee, done blabbing,

Although to give the lye

Deserves no less than stabbing,
Yet stab at thee who will,

No stab the soule can kill.

V.

Verses by King James F.

In the first edition of this book were inserted, by way of specimen of His Majesty's poetic talents, some Punning Verses made on the disputations at Stirling: but it having been suggested to the Editor, that the king only gave the quibbling commendations in prose, and that some obsequious court-rhymer put them into metre, it was thought proper to exchange them for two sonnets of King James's own composition. James was a great versifier, and therefore out of the multitude of his poems, we have here selected two, which (to show our impartiality) are written in his best and his worst manner. The first would not dishonour any writer of that time ; the second is a most complete example of the Bathos.

A SONNET ADDRESSED BY KING JAMES TO HIS SON

PRINCE HENRY.

FROM King James's Works in folio: where is also. printed another, called His Majesty's own Sonnet : it would perhaps be too cruel to infer from thence that this was NOT His Majesty's own Sonnet.

God gives not kings the stile of Gods in vaine,
For on his throne his scepter do they swey:
And as their subjects ought them to obey,
So kings should feare and serve their God againe.
1 See a folio entitled The Muses Welcome to King James.

If then ye would enjoy a happie reigne,

5

Observe the statutes of our heavenly King; And from his law make all your laws to spring; Since his lieutenant here ye should remaine.

Rewarde the just, be stedfast, true and plaine;
Represse the proud, maintayning aye the right; 10
Walke always so, as ever in His sight,

Who guardes the godly, plaguing the prophane.
And so ye shall in princely vertues shine,
Resembling right your mightie King divine.

A SONNET OCCASIONED BY THE BAD WEATHER WHICH HINDERED THE SPORTS AT NEW-MARKET

IN JANUARY, 1616.

THIS is printed from Drummond of Hawthornden's Works, folio where also may be seen some verses of Lord Stirling upon this Sonnet, which concludes with the finest anti-climax I remember to have seen.

How cruelly these catives do conspire?

What loathsome love breeds such a baleful band Betwixt the cankred king of Creta land', That melancholy old and angry sire,

5

And him, who wont to quench debate and ire
Among the Romans, when his ports were clos'd"?

But now his double face is still dispos'd, With Saturn's help, to freeze us at the fire.

The earth ore-covered with a sheet of snow, Refuses food to fowl, to bird, and beast:

The chilling cold lets every thing to grow, And surfeits cattle with a starving feast.

4

10

Curs'd be that love and mought continue short, Which kills all creatures, and doth spoil our sport.

4 i. e. may it.

VI.

King John and the Abbot of Canterbury.

THE Common popular ballad of King John and the Abbot seems to have been abridged and modernised about the time of James I. from one much older, entitled King John and the Bishop of Canterbury. The Editor's folio MS. contains a copy of this last, but in too corrupt a state to be reprinted; it however afforded many lines worth reviving, which will be found inserted in the ensuing stanzas.

The archness of the following questions and answers hath been much admired by our old ballad-makers; for besides the two copies above mentioned, there is extant another ballad on the same subject, (but of no great antiquity or merit,) entitled, King Olfrey and the Abbot1. Lastly, about the time of the civil wars, when the cry ran

1 See the collection of Historical Ballads, 3 vols., 1727. Mr. Wise supposes Olfrey to be a corruption of Alfred, in his pamphlet concerning the WHITE HORSE in Berkshire, p. 15.