Parts than the Italian could do, with his door."
Acts Old Iniquity, and in the fit

Of miming, gets the opinion of a wit.
Executes men in picture; by defect,

From friendship, is its own fame's architect :
An inginer in slanders of all fashion,

That, seeming praises, are yet accusations.

Described it's thus: defined would you it have? Then, the town's Honest Man's her errant'st knave.

CXVI.

TO SIR WILLIAM JEPHSON.

EPHSON, thou man of men, to whose lov'd

All

name,

gentry yet owe part of their best flame : So did thy virtue inform, thy wit sustain

That age, when thou stood'st up the master-brain :
Thou wert the first mad'st merit know her strength,
And those that lack'd it, to suspect at length,
'Twas not entail'd on title: that some word
Might be found out as good, and not “my lord :'
That nature no such difference had imprest

In men, but every bravest was the best;

6

Doth play more

Parts than the Italian could do, with his door.] An allusion to an Italian, then well known for his performances and tricks of art: the person meant, I believe, is taken notice of in king James's Dæmonology, and is there called Scoto: "The devil will learn them many juglary tricks at cards, dice, and such like, to deceive mens senses thereby, and such innumerable false practics, which are proved by over many in this age; as they who are acquainted with that Italian called Scoto, yet living, can report." Lib. i. p. 105. Old Iniquity, means the character called the Vice, in our ancient Moralities: it has a place in our author's comedy, The Devil is an Ass. WHAL.

This is an excellent piece, full of strong sense, and just satire. It will serve for all times.

That blood not minds, but minds did blood adorn ;
And to live great was better than great born.
These were thy knowing arts: which who doth now
Virtuously practise, must at least allow

Them in, if not from thee, or must commit
A desperate solocism in truth and wit.

CXVII.

ON GROINE.

ROINE, come of age, his state sold out of hand

For's whore: Groine doth still occupy his land.

CXVIII.

ON GUT.

UT eats all day and letchers all the night,
So all his meat he tasteth over twice;
And striving so to double his delight,
He makes himself a thorough-fare of vice.
Thus, in his belly, can he change a sin,
Lust it comes out, that gluttony went in.

CXIX.

TO SIR RALPH SHELTON.7

OT he that flies the court for want of clothes, At hunting rails, having no gift in oaths, Cries out 'gainst cocking, since he cannot bet, Shuns press-for two main causes, pox and debt,

7 This is the person who engaged with Mr. Hayden, in the mad

With me can merit more, than that good man,
Whose dice not doing well, to a pulpit ran.-
No, Shelton, give me thee, canst want all these,
But dost it out of judgment, not disease;
Dar'st breathe in any air; and with safe skill,
Till thou canst find the best, choose the least ill.
That to the vulgar canst thyself apply,
Treading a better path, not contrary;

And in their error's maze thine own way know:
Which is to live to conscience, not to show.

He that, but living half his age, dies such,8
Makes the whole longer than 'twas given him, much.

CXX.

AN EPITAPH ON SALATHIEL PAVY, A CHILD OF QUEEN
ELIZABETH'S CHAPEL.

EEP with me, all you that read
This little story:

And know, for whom a tear you shed
Death's self is sorry.

frolic of rowing up Fleet ditch to Holborn, celebrated, page 233; but I know nothing more of him.

8 He that, but living half his age, dies such,

Makes the whole longer than 'twas given him, much.]

Qui sic vel medio finitus vixit in ævo

Longior huic facta est quam data vita fuit.

Mart. lib. viii. 27.

9 Salathiel Pavy.] The subject of this beautiful epitaph acted in Cynthia's Revels, and in the Poetaster, 1600 and 1601, in which year he probably died. The poet speaks of him with interest and affection, and it cannot be doubted that he was a boy of extraordinary talents. Many of the children of St. Paul's, as well as of the queen's chapel, evinced great powers on the stage, at a very early period of life, and not a few of them became the pride and ornament of it in riper years.

Our times have witnessed several attempts to bring children (pert

'Twas a child that so did thrive
In grace and feature,

As heaven and nature seem'd to strive
Which own'd the creature.

Years he number'd scarce thirteen
When fates turn'd cruel,

Yet three fill'd zodiacs had he been
The stage's jewel;

And did act, what now we moan,
Old men so duly,

As, sooth, the Parcæ thought him one,
He play'd so truly.

So, by error to his fate 1

They all consented;

boys and girls) upon the stage, as prodigies, which have all terminated, as might reasonably be expected, in disappointment and disgrace. It should be recollected that the "children" of the old theatre were strictly educated, and that they were opposed only to one another. Nothing so monstrous ever entered into the thoughts of the managers of those days as taking infants from the cock-horse, and setting them to act with men and women.—And yet it would be unjust, perhaps, to attribute the present encouragement of this degrading exhibition wholly to the managers: if they took advantage of the gross folly of that many-headed beast, the town, and indulged its vitiated taste, they did little more than their precarious situation seemed to warrant.-Let not Mr. Kemble, however, be defrauded of his due praise: but for his judicious and welltimed humour in arranging the characters of the Provoked Husband in such a manner as to place the absurdity of the attempt in the most glaring light, that forward baby, Miss Mudie, would have disgraced and delighted all London for the season, instead of being sent back to her dirt pies, and her doll, after a single exposure.

So, by error to his fate
They all consented, &c.]

Ille ego sum Scorpus, clamosi gloria Circi,
Plausus, Roma, tui, deliciæque breves ;
Invida quem Lachesis raptum trieteride nona,
Dum numerat palmas, credidit esse senem.

Mart. lib. x. epig. 53.

Lachesis (Dr. Jortin observes) did not take away Scorpus out of

But viewing him since, alas, too late!
They have repented;

And have sought, to give new birth,
In baths to steep him;

But being so much too good for earth,
Heaven vows to keep him.

CXXI.

TO BENJAMIN RUDYERD.2

UDYERD, as lesser dames to great ones use, My lighter comes to kiss thy learned muse; Whose better studies while she emulates, She learns to know long difference of their states.

envy, but by mistake. She concluded that one who had gained so many prizes at the chariot-races was an old man, and in consequence of this error, took him in the flower of youth. I fancy, therefore, that Martial wrote,

"Inscia quem Lachesis," &c. Tracts, vol. ii. p. 273.

There can be no doubt that Jonson read Inscia; and it seems highly probable that Jortin was led to the emendation by this epitaph, which was always well known.

2 Sir Benjamin Rudyerd (for subsequently to the writing of this epigram, he received the honour of knighthood) was, as Granger says, "an accomplished gentleman, and an elegant scholar." It is no small proof of his worth, that he lived on terms of intimacy with the earl of Pembroke, to whose poetical trifles his own were subjoined, in a little volume which came out in 1660.

In the troubles which led to the usurpation of the Parliament, sir Benjamin took an active part, and spoke often on the side of moderation and justice, particularly on the question of excluding the bishops from the Upper House. He was the last person who held the office of "Surveyor of the Court of Wards and Liveries," and, when that court was abolished in 1646, received a grant of land and money as a compensation for his place. He died in 1658, and, as may be conjectured from his epitaph, which he wrote himself, in the practice of that piety and virtue which had formed the