With a new buttery hatch, that opens once in four or five days,

And a new French cook, to devise fine kickshaws, and toys;

Like a young courtier, &c.

With a new fashion, when Christmas is drawing on, On a new journey to London straight we all must

begone,

And leave none to keep house, but our new porter

John,

Who relieves the poor with a thump on the back with a stone;

Like a young courtier, &c.

With a new gentleman-usher, whose carriage is com

pleat,

With a new coachman, footmen, and pages to carry up

the meat,

With a waiting-gentlewoman, whose dressing is very

neat,

Who when her lady has din'd, lets the servants not eat;

Like a young courtier, &c.

With new titles of honour bought with his father's

old gold,

For which sundry of his ancestors old manors are

sold;

And this is the course most of our new gallants hold, Which makes that good house-keeping is now grown

so cold,

Among the young courtiers of the king,
Or the king's young courtiers.

IX.

Sir John Suckling's Campaigne.

When the Scottish covenanters rose up in arms, and advanced to the English borders in 1639, many of the courtiers complimented the king by raising forces at their own expense. Among these, none were more distinguished than the gallant Sir John Suckling, who raised a troop of horse, so richly accoutred, that it cost him 12,000l. The like expensive equipment of other parts of the army, made the king remark, that "the Scots would fight stoutly, if it were but for the Englishmen's fine cloaths." [Lloyd's Memoirs.] When they came to action, the rugged Scots proved more than a match for the fine showy English: many of whom behaved remarkably ill, and among the rest this splendid troop of Sir John Suckling's.

This humorous pasquil has been generally supposed to have been written by Sir John, as a banter upon himself. Some of his contemporaries, however, attributed it to Sir John Mennis, a wit of those times, among whose poems it is printed in a small poetical miscellany, entitled "Musarum delicia: or the Muses recreation, containing several pieces of poetique wit, 2nd edition. By Sir J. M. [Sir John Men

nis] and Ja. S. [James Smith.] London, 1656, 12mo." [See Wood's Athenæ, ii. 397, 418.] In that copy is subjoined an additional stanza, which probably was written by this Sir John Mennis, viz.

"But now there is peace, he's return'd to increase
His money, which lately he spent-a

But his lost honour must lye still in the dust;

At Barwick away it went-a."

SIR John he got him an ambling nag,

To Scotland for to ride-a,

With a hundred horse more, all his own he swore, To guard him on every side-a.

No Errant-knight ever went to fight

With halfe so gay a bravada,

5

Had you seen but his look, you'ld have sworn on a book,

Hee❜ld have conquer'd a whole armada.

The ladies ran all to the windows to see

10

So gallant and warlike a sight-a,
And as he pass'd by, they said with a sigh,
Sir John, why will you go fight-a?

But he, like a cruel knight, spurr'd on;

His heart would not relent-a,

For, till he came there, what had he to fear?

15

Or why should he repent-a?

The king (God bless him !) had singular hopes
Of him and all his troop-a:

The borderers they, as they met him on the way, For joy did hollow, and whoop-a.

None lik'd him so well, as his own colonell,

Who took him for John de Wert-a;

20

But when there were shows of gunning and blows, My gallant was nothing so pert-a.

For when the Scots army came within sight,

And all prepared to fight-a,

He ran to his tent, they ask'd what he meant,
He swore he must needs goe sh*te-a.

The colonell sent for him back agen,

To quarter him in the van-a,

25

30

But Sir John did swear, he would not come there,

To be kill'd the very first man-a.

To cure his fear, he was sent to the reare,
Some ten miles back, and more-a;
Where Sir John did play at trip and away,
And ne'er saw the enemy more-a.

35

Ver. 22. John de Wert was a German general of great reputation, and the terror of the French in the reign of Louis XIII. Hence his name became proverbial in France, where he was called De Vert. See Bayle's Dictionary.

X.

To Althea from Prison.

This excellent sonnet, which possessed a high degree of fame among the old Cavaliers, was written by Colonel Richard Lovelace, during his confinement in the Gatehouse, Westminster: to which he was committed by the House of Commons, in April 1642, for presenting a petition from the county of Kent, requesting them to restore the king to his rights, and to settle the government. See Wood's Athenæ, vol. ii. p. 228, and Lyson's Environs of London, vol. i. p. 109; where may be seen at large the affecting story of this elegant writer, who after having been distinguished for every gallant and polite accomplishment, the pattern of his own sex, and the darling of the ladies, died in the lowest wretchedness, obscurity, and want, in 1658.

This song is printed from a scarce volume of his poems, entitled Lucasta, 1649, 12mo., collated with a copy in the Editor's folio MS.

WHEN love with unconfined wings

Hovers within my gates,

And my divine Althea brings

To whisper at my grates;

When I lye tangled in her haire,
And fetter'd with her eye,

The birds that wanton in the aire,
Know no such libertye.

5