EPIG. 50.

In Flavium.

X

"When Flavius once would needs praise Tin,

His braine could bring no reasons in,

But what his belly did bethinke,

Platters for meat, and Pots for drinke."

EPIG. 57.

Aquæ-ductus per Magistrum Middletonum omnium (qui unquam fuerint) civitati utilissimus.

"London is like to have no more strong beere,

All long of my Lord-Mayor as we heare:

His Brother rather may the cause be thought,

That so much water* to the Towne hath brought."

"Rafe challeng❜d Robin-time and place appointed, Their parents heard on't:-Lord, how they lamented! But (God be thankt) they were soon freed of feare; The one nere meant, the other came not there."

EPIG. 59.

In Mathonem.

"Though great men's houses make it knowne

How Bucks-horns stand the hall in steed,

To hang up hats and caps upon;
Yet every where there's no such need:

For what needs it in Matho's hall?

His head, his horns, may serve for all."

* Alluding to the New River, brought by Sir Hugh Middleton from the springs of Chadwell and Amwell, near Ware, to London; which was completed in 1613, when his brother, Sir Thomas Middleton, was Lord-Mayor elect,

EPIG. 64.

In jactabundum gentis suæ.

No father's deeds can dignify the son,

Nor can we call that ours, we have not done."

EPIG. 66.

In Cæliam.

'No, hang me Cælia, if I'll be thy guest;

We scarce begin to eate, but thou to chide;

This

goose is raw, that capon is ill drest,

And blam'st the cooke, and throw'st the meate aside; When we sit judging, that would rather eate,

No fault o' th' cooke, 'tis thou would'st save thy meate."

EPIG. 73.

In Cloeon.

" "Tis one of Cloe's qualities,

That ever when she sweares, she lies:
'Dost love me, Cloe?' sweare not so,
For when thou swear'st, thou liest I know:
• Dost hate me, Cloe?' prethee sweare,
For then I know thou lov'st me deare."

EPIG. 75.

Honores mutant mores.

"When I and some of my comrades were poor,
O Lord, how we lov'd one another then!
We lov'd as, I thought, no men could love more ;–
But since the most of them are grown rich men,

And I stick fast still to my poverty,

They fly from mee; and, or I skarse am knowne

Or quite forgotten :-—what an asse am I;

The case is partly mine, but more their owne:
And their offence may well forgiven be,
That have forgot themselves as well as me."

EPIG. 76.

In Thuscum.*

"Thuscus writes faire, without [or] blurre or blot,
The rascall'st rimes were ever read, God wot;
No marvell :-many with a swan's quill write,
That can but with a goose's wit endite."

EPIG. 80.

"I have some kinsfolke rich, but passing proud,

I have some friends, but poore and passing willing ;

The first would gladly see me in my shroud,

Which in the last would cause the tears distilling. Now which of these love? sq God me-mend, Not a rich kinsman, but a willing friend."

EPIG. 81.

"Crispus could helpe me if he would,
Charus would helpe me if he could;
Would Crispus Charus' minde did beare,
Or Charus but as wealthy were."

"One told me once of verses that he made,

Riding to London on a trotting jade;

I should have known, had he conceal'd the case,
Ev'n by his verses, of his horse's pace."

T.P.

ART. CLII. A Satyricall Dialogue, or a sharplye invective Conference betweene Alexander the Great

* Forsan Davies of Hereford, a poet and writing-master; whose Microcosmos has been noticed in this volume.

and that trulye woman-hater Diogynes. 4to. no date.

DEDICATION, signed Wm. Goddard.

ART. CLIII. A Neaste of Waspes lately found out and discovered in the Low Countreys, yealding as swete hony as some of our English bees. By Will. Goddard. Dort. 1615. 4to.

In consequence of this production the following quaint lines were addressed by Henry Fitz-Geffrey "to his ingenious friend, Will Goddard, of his booke entituled Waspes."

"True epigrams most fitly likened are

To Waspes, that in their taile a sting must beare:
Thine being Waspes I say, who'st will repine,
They are not epigrams are not like thine."

ART. CLIV. A Mastif Whelp, with other ruff Island like Currs fetcht from amongst the Antipedes: which bite and barke at the fantasticall humorists and abusers of the time. Ato. no date.

DEDICATED to his loving friends, Gentlemen of the Inner Temple, by Wm. Goddard. The publi cation consists of 126 epigrams, entitled satires.

ART. CLV. Linsi-Woolsie: or Two Centuries of Epigrammes. Written by William Gamage;

batchelour in the artes. Patere aut abstine. Printed at Oxford by Jos. Barnes, 1613. 12mo.

ANOTHER title-page bears the date of 1621, but it

is not likely that the book had more than one impression, as it consists of the saddest trash that ever assumed the name of epigrams; and which, with a very slight alteration, well merits the sarcasm bestowed by Shenstone on the poems of a Kidderminster bard:

"Thy verses, friend, are linsey woolsey stuff,
And we must own-you've measur'd out enough."

From their having been printed at Oxford and penned by an A. B. it is probable, however, that GAMAGE was entitled to an incidental notice in Athenæ Oxonienses, which he has not obtained. His volume is dedicated to Katherine, Lady Mansell. The following epigrammatistic compliments were offered to coeval writers, and might, in part, have served for poesies to their rings.

"To ingenious Ben Jonson.

"If that thy lore were equall to thy wit,*
Thou in Apollo's chaire might'st justly sit."

"To the ingenious poet, Mr. Wm. Herbert, of his booke intituled The Prophesie of Cadwa lader.t

"Thy royall prophesie doth blaze thy name :

So poets must, if they will merit fame."

*It is remarkable that this opinion runs directly counter to the judgment of modern critics, who concur in thinking it the fault of learned Ben, that he studied books where he should have studied men. See Mr. Neve's elegant remarks on our ancient poets.

+ Herbert's prophesie of Cadwallader was printed in 1604. See

ante.