XLIX. AN EPIGRAM TO THOMAS LORD ELESMERE,9 THE LAST TERM HE SAT CHANCELLOR. O, justest lord, may all your judgments be Laws; and no change e'er come to one decree : So may the king proclaim your conscience is Law to his law; and think your enemies his : So, from all sickness, may you rise to health, The care and wish still of the public wealth: So may the gentler muses, and good fame, Still fly about the odour of your name; As, with the safety' and honour of the laws, You favour truth, and me, in this man's cause! HE judge his favour timely then extends, afraid : 9 For this excellent person see p. 184. He held the seals, in compliance with the reiterated intreaties of James, till the 3rd of March, 1617, when, as Camden tells us, the king received them from him with tears of gratitude. This Epigram (Jonson says) was written for a poor man, who had a suit depending before lord Elesmere. Its date may be referred to Michaelmas Term, 1616. For the same poor man. When those good few, that her defenders be, Such shall you hear to-day, and find great foes Who, though their guilt and perjury they know, LI. AN EPIGRAM TO THE COUNSELLOR THAT PLEADED, AND CARRIED THE CAUSE. HAT I hereafter do not think the bar, That henceforth I believe nor books, nor men, 1 A more than civil war.] -plusquam civilia bella. LUCAN. 2 Who 'gainst the law weave calumnies, my] This blank, I imagine, was to have been filled with the name of the counsellor who pleaded in the cause: it must be a word of one syllable, and answer in rhyme to men, the close of the preceding verse. From these particulars, it is probable, the person here meant was Anthony Benn, who succeeded the solicitor Coventry in the recordership of London. WHAL. Hook-handed harpies, gowned vultures, put Thou art my cause: whose manners since I knew, But first dost vex, and search it! if not sound, What use, what strength of reason, and how much So brightly brandish'd, wound'st, defend'st! the while They had, but were a reed unto thy sword. LII. AN EPIGRAM TO THE SMALL-POX. NVIOUS and foul Disease, could there not be One beauty in an age, and free from thee? not store Of those that set by their false faces more Or Turner's oil of talc: nor ever got Spanish receipt to make her teeth to rot. What was the cause then? thought'st thou, in dis grace Of beauty, so to nullify a face, That heaven should make no more; or should amiss Make all hereafter, hadst thou ruin'd this? Ay, that thy aim was; but her fate prevail'd: And, scorn'd, thou'st shown thy malice, but hast fail'd! 3 Sir Hugh Plat.] He was a compiler of recipes for making cosmetics, oils, ointments, &c. &c. ; one of his books is entitled, Delights for ladies to adorne their persons, &c. 1628." 66 LIII. AN EPITAPH. HAT beauty would have lovely styled, And till the coming of the soul To fetch the flesh, we keep the roll. LIV. A SONG. LOVER. OME, let us here enjoy the shade, None brooks the sun-light worse than he. Where love doth shine, there needs no sun, ARBITER. A spark to set whole world a-fire, CHORUS. Such are his powers, whom time hath styled, |