His rosy ties and garters so o'erblown,
By his each glorious parcel to be known!
He wont was to encounter me aloud,

Where-e'er he met me, now he's dumb, or proud.
Know you the cause? he has neither land nor lease,
Nor bawdy stock that travels for increase,
Nor office in the town, nor place in court,
Nor 'bout the bears, nor noise to make lords sport.
He is no favourite's favourite, no dear trust
Of any madam, hath need o' squires, and must.
Nor did the king of Denmark him salute,5
When he was here; nor hath he got a suit,
Since he was gone, more than the one he wears.
Nor are the queen's most honour'd maids by th' ears
About his form. What then so swells each limb?
Only his clothes have over-leaven'd him.

XCVIII.

TO SIR THOMAS ROE."

HOU hast begun well, Roe, which stand well

to,

And I know nothing more thou hast to do.

thing is alluded to in the Silent Woman; "The perpetual motion is here, and not at Eltham." WHAL.

For fa-ding, see vol. vii. p. 226.

5 Nor did the king of Denmark, &c.] Christian IV., who visited this country in 1606. See vol. vi. p. 470.

Sir Thomas Roe.] Grandson of sir Thomas Roe, and nephew of the sir John, and William Roe already mentioned. "In this great man," Granger truly says, "the accomplishments of the scholar, the gentleman, and the statesman, were eminently united. During his residence in the Mogul's court, he zealously promoted the trading interest of this kingdom, for which the East India Company was greatly indebted to him. In his embassy to the Grand Signior, he collected many valuable Greek and Oriental manuscripts, which he presented to the Bodleian Library, to which he left his valuable collection of coins. The fine Alexandrian MS. of the

He that is round within himself, and straight,"
Need seek no other strength, no other height;
Fortune upon him breaks herself, if ill,

And what would hurt his virtue, makes it still.
That thou at once then nobly may'st defend
With thine own course the judgment of thy friend,
Be always to thy gather'd self the same;

And study conscience more than thou would'st fame.
Though both be good, the latter yet is worst,
And ever is ill got without the first.

XCIX.

TO THE SAME.

HAT thou hast kept thy love, encreas'd thy will,

Better'd thy trust to letters; that thy skill; Hast taught thyself worthy thy pen to tread, And that to write things worthy to be read: How much of great example wert thou, Roe, If time to facts, as unto men would owe?

Greek Bible which Cyrill, the patriarch of Constantinople, presented to Charles I. was procured by his means. This was afterwards published by Dr. Grabe. His speech, at the council-table, against debasing the coin in the reign of Charles, gained him the highest reputation. His curious and interesting 'Negotiations' were first published by the Society for promoting Learning, 1740, fol."

Sir Thomas was the son of Robert Roe: he was born in 1580, and, about the close of Elizabeth's reign, was made esquire of the body to that princess. He was knighted by James in 1604, and in 1614 appointed, at the request of the East India Company, ambassador to the Mogul: he continued at his court four years, and was dismissed with extraordinary honours. He died after a very active and useful life in 1644, and was buried in Woodford church, Essex.

"He that is round, &c.] From Horace :

totus teres atque rotundus, In quem manca ruit fortuna, &c.

But much it now avails, what's done, of whom :
The self-same deeds, as diversly they come,
From place or fortune, are made high or low,
And e'en the praiser's judgment suffers so.
Well, though thy name less than our great ones be,
Thy fact is more : let truth encourage thee.

C.

ON PLAYWRIGHT.8

LAYWRIGHT, by chance, hearing some toys
I'd writ,

Cry'd to my face, they were th' elixir of wit:
And I must now believe him; for to-day,
Five of my jests, then stolen, past him a play.

CI.

INVITING A FRIEND TO SUPPER.

O-NIGHT,grave sir, both my poor house and I
Do equally desire your company

Not that we think us worthy such a guest, But that your worth will dignify our feast,

8 On Playwright.] This epigram is said by Stephen Jones (the person so judiciously selected by the booksellers to prepare the new edition of the Biographia Dramatica) to have been written on the appearance of Ford's Ladies' Trial. "Ben Jonson (he says) a bitter enemy of Ford's, charges the latter with having stolen a character in this play from him.

"Playwright (i. e. Ford) hearing," &c.

Mr. Jones has not here the usual apology for his stupidity,-that "he found it so in the former edition;" for Read, though Macklin's forgery lay before him, was too well acquainted with dates to adopt it. The fact is, that the Ladies' Trial did not appear till two years after Jonson's death, while the epigram to which it is here said to have given birth, was published two and twenty, and

With those that come; whose grace may make that

seem

Something, which else could hope for no esteem.
It is the fair acceptance, sir, creates
The entertainment perfect, not the cates.
Yet shall you have, to rectify your palate,
An olive, capers, or some better sallad
Ushering the mutton; with a short legg'd hen,
If we can get her, full of eggs, and then,
Limons, and wine for sauce: to these, a coney
Is not to be despair'd of for our money;

And though fowl now be scarce, yet there are clerks,
The sky not falling, think we may have larks.
I'll tell you of more, and lie, so you will come :
Of partridge, pheasant, woodcock, of which some
May yet be there; and godwit if we can;
Knat, rail, and ruff too. Howsoe'er, my man
Shall read a piece of Virgil, Tacitus,

Livy, or of some better book to us,

9

probably written two and thirty years before! All this Mr. Jones must have found stated in the very paper from which he copied the epigram; and all this he chose to conceal from an itch become quite epidemic among the low scribblers of his caste, to insult the memory of Jonson. The assertion that this great poet was the bitter enemy of Ford, is an echo of the profligate falsehood of Weber, who is not afraid to declare, that it is proved by indisputable documents! whereas the only memorial of any passage whatever between Ford and Jonson, now known to exist, is a very friendly elegy by the former, "ON THE DEATH OF THE BEST OF ENGLISH POETS, BEN JONSON." It is mortifying to contend with such a "case of asses;" -but they must not be suffered to kick at the ashes of Jonson with impunity.

9

Howsoe'er my man

Shall read a piece of Virgil, &c.] Richard Brome, his servant, whom he had apparently instructed in Latin, whose talents justify his master's pains, and whose good qualities warrant his affection. Jonson had Juvenal in view here:

Nostra dabunt alios hodie convivia ludos;

Conditor Iliados cantabitur, atque Maronis

Altisoni dubiam facientia carmina palmam. Sat. 11.

Of which we'll speak our minds, amidst our meat;
And I'll profess no verses to repeat:

To this if aught appear, which I not know of,
That will the pastry, not my paper, show of.
Digestive cheese, and fruit there sure will be;
But that which most doth take my muse and me,
Is a pure cup of rich Canary wine,

Which is the Mermaid's now, but shall be mine :1
Of which had Horace or Anacreon tasted,
Their lives, as do their lines, till now had lasted.
Tobacco, nectar, or the Thespian spring,
Are all but Luther's beer, to this I sing.
Of this we will sup free, but moderately,
And we will have no Pooly', or Parrot by;
Nor shall our cups make any guilty men :
But at our parting, we will be, as when
We innocently met. No simple word,
That shall be utter'd at our mirthful board,
Shall make us sad next morning; or affright
The liberty, that we'll enjoy to-night.

1 Which is the Mermaid's now, but shall be mine.] The Mermaid, a tavern in Bread-street, at that time frequented by our author, and his poetical friends Beaumont and Fletcher, and the reigning wits of the age. WHAL.

This is from Horace's Invitation to Virgil:

Nardi parvus onyx eliciet cadum

Qui nunc Sulpiciis accubet horreis,

Spes donare novas largus, &c.

But the plan of the whole is from a little poem of Martial, lib. x. epig. 48, of which it has many incidental imitations, particularly of the concluding lines:

De Nomentana vinum sine face lagena,
Qua bis Frontino consule plena fuit.
Accedent sine felle joci, nec mane timenda
Libertas, et nil quod tacuisse velis:

De Prasino conviva meus, Venetoque loquatur;
Nec facient quenquam pocula nostra reum.