LXVIII. ON PLAYWRIght. LAYWRIGHT convict of public wrongs to men, Takes private beatings, and begins again. Two kinds of valour he doth shew at once; Active in's brain, and passive in his bones. LXIX. TO PERTINAX COB. OB, thou nor soldier, thief, nor fencer art, LXX. TO WILLIAM ROE. HEN nature bids us leave to live, 'tis late Then to begin, my Roe! He makes a state In life, that can employ it; and takes hold On the true causes, ere they grow too old. Delay is bad, doubt worse, depending worst; Each best day of our life escapes us, first :3 66 3 Each best day of our life escapes us first.] From Virgil: Optima quæque dies miseris mortalibus ævi Prima fugit." William Roe was probably the brother of the person to whose memory the epigrams at pp. 158, 160, and 161 are consecrated. I have already remarked on the solemn tone which the poet assumes in all his addresses to this family. Then, since we, more than many, these truths know; Though life be short, let us not make it so. LXXI. ON COURT PARROT. O pluck down mine, Poll sets up new wits still; LXXII. TO COURTLING. GRIEVE not, Courtling, thou art started up A chamber-critic, and doth dine, and sup At madam's table, where thou mak'st all wit Go high, or low, as thou wilt value it. 'Tis not thy judgment breeds thy prejudice, Thy person only, Courtling, is the vice. LXXIII. TO FINE GRAND. HAT is't, Fine Grand, makes thee my friendship fly, Or take an Epigram so fearfully, As 'twere a challenge, or a borrower's letter? debtor. 4 Randolph has imitated this Epigram in his Pedlar; a forgotten piece, from which Dodsley took the plot, and something more than the plot, of his Toy-shop. Item, a tale or two some fortnight after ; That yet maintains you, and your house in laughter. Item, a fair Greek poesy for a ring, In most vile verses, and cost me more pain, LXXIV. TO THOMAS LORD CHANCELLOR EGERTON. HILST thy weigh'd judgments, Egerton, I hear, And know thee then a judge, not of one year; Whilst I behold thee live with purest hands; That no affection in thy voice commands; That still thou'rt present to the better cause; And no less wise than skilful in the laws; Whilst thou art certain to thy words, once gone, As is thy conscience, which is always one : The Virgin, long since fled from earth, I see, To our times return'd, hath made her heaven in thee.5 5 The Virgin, long since fled from earth, I see, To our times return'd, hath made her heaven in thee.] This is high praise; but it is not bestowed at random; and it comes from one who knew and judged him well. This great man was the natural son of sir Richard Egerton, of LXXV. ON LIPPE THE TEACHER. CANNOT think there's that antipathy away, To inveigh 'gainst plays, what did he then but play? Ridley, Cheshire, by Alice, daughter of Mr. Sparke, also of Cheshire. He was born in 1539, sent to Oxford when he was about 17, and thence to Lincoln's Inn. In 1584 he was appointed Solicitor General, and two years afterwards, he was made Master of the Rolls, which office he held together with that of Lord Keeper until the accession of James I., 1603, when he was advanced to the dignity of baron of Ellesmere, and constituted Lord High Chancellor of England. In 1610 he was created viscount Brackley, and died at York House in the Strand, 15th March, 1617, having on the third of that month obtained the king's leave, after long and earnest importunity, to resign the great seal. He was in his seventyeighth year. His person, as to its exterior, was so grave and dignified, that many people, Fuller says, have gone to the Chancery on purpose only to see his venerable garb, and were highly pleased at so acceptable a spectacle. But his interior presented a subject of higher admiration. "His apprehension was keen and ready; his judgment deep and sound, his reason clear and comprehensive, his elocution eloquent and easy. As a lawyer he was prudent in council, extensive in information, honest in principle, so that while he lived he was excelled by none; and when he died, he was lamented by all." Coll. Peerage, vol. iii. p. 190. Jonson has some allusions to the Ode to Lollius, who was very far from an Egerton: LXXVI. ON LUCY, COUNTESS OF BEDFORD. HIS morning, timely rapt with holy fire, 6 I thought to form unto my zealous Muse, What kind of creature I could most desire, To honour, serve, and love; as poets use. I meant to make her fair, and free, and wise, Of greatest blood, and yet more good than great; I meant the day-star should not brighter rise, Nor lend like influence from his lucent seat. I meant she should be courteous, facile, sweet, Hating that solemn vice of greatness, pride; I meant each softest virtue there should meet, Fit in that softer bosom to reside. Only a learned, and a manly soul I purposed her; that should, with even powers, The rock, the spindle, and the sheers control Of Destiny, and spin her own free hours. Such when I meant to feign, and wish'd to see, My Muse bade, Bedford write, and that was she! LXXVII. TO ONE THAT DESIRED ME NOT TO NAME HIM. B E safe, nor fear thyself so good a fame, That, any way, my book should speak thy name: For, if thou shame, rank'd with my friends, to go, I'm more ashamed to have thee thought my foe. • This morning, timely rapt with holy fire.] The English language, rich as it is in effusions of this kind, does not furnish a complimentary poem that for delicacy of sentiment, and beauty of diction, can at all be compared with this exquisite epigram; which has yet the further merit of being consonant to truth. See vol. vii. p. 18. |