Than all those lordly fooles which lock their bones
In the dumb piles of chested brasse, and stones.
Th'art rich in thy own fame, and needest not
These marble-frailties, nor the gilded blot
Of posthume honours; there is not one sand
Sleeps o'r thy grave, but can outbid that hand
And pencill too, so that of force wee must
Confesse their heaps shew lesser than thy dust.
And-blessed soule!-though this my sorrow

can

Adde nought to thy perfections, yet as man
Subject to envy, and the common fate,
It may redeem thee to a fairer date;
As some blind dial, when the day is done,

Can tell us at mid-night, there was a sun,

So these perhaps, though much beneath thy fame, May keep some weak remembrance of thy name, And to the faith of better times commend

Thy loyall upright life, and gallant end.

Nomen et arma locum servant, te, amice, nequivi
Conspicere-

UPON A CLOKE LENT HIM BY MR. J.

RIDSLEY.

ERE, take again thy sack-cloth! and thank

heav'n

Thy courtship hath not kill'd me; Is't

not even

Whether wee dye by peecemeale, or at once?
Since both but ruine, why then for the nonce
Didst husband my affiictions, and cast o're
Me this forc'd hurdle to inflame the score?
Had I neer London in this rug been seen
Without doubt I had executed been

For some bold Irish spy, and 'crosse a sledge

Had layn mess'd up for their foure gates and

bridge.

When first I bore it, my oppressed feet

Would needs perswade me 'twas some leaden sheet;
Such deep impressions, and such dangerous holes
Were made, that I began to doubt my soals

And ev'ry step-so neer necessity—
Devoutly wish'd some honest cobler by;

Besides it was so short, the Jewish rag

Seem'd circumcis'd, but had a Gentile shag.

Hadst thou been with me on that day, when wee

Left craggie Bilston,' and the fatall Dee,

Now BISHTON (or BISHOPSTONE) in Monmouthshire,

When beaten with fresh storms, and late mishap
It shar'd the office of a cloke, and cap,
To see how 'bout my clouded head it stood
Like a thick turband, or some lawyer's hood,
While the stiffe, hollow pletes on ev'ry side
Like conduit-pipes rain'd from the bearded hide :
I know thou wouldst in spite of that day's fate
Let loose thy mirth at my new shape and state,
And with a shallow smile or two professe
Some Sarazin1 had lost the clowted dresse.
Didst ever see the good wife-as they say—
March in her short cloke on the christning day,
With what soft motions she salutes the church,
And leaves the bedrid mother in the lurch;
Just so jogg'd I, while my dull horse did trudge
Like a circuit-beast plagu'd with a goutie judge.

And this was civill. I have since known more
And worser pranks: one night-as heretofore
Th' hast known-for want of change-a thing
which I

And Bias us'd before me2-I did lye

near Caerleon in Merionethshire, the Isca Silurum of the Romans. Craggie Biston' refers no doubt to certain caves there. The Poet's school-boy rambles from Llangattock doubtless included Bishton. G.

1 Saracen. G.

2 One of the Seven Wise Men. Probably the allusion

Pure Adamite, and simply for that end
Resolv'd, and made this for my bosome-friend.
O that thou hadst been there next morn, that I
Might teach thee new Micro-cosmo-graphie!
Thou wouldst have ta'ne me, as I naked stood
For one of the seven pillars before the floud;
Such characters and hierogliphicks were,

In one night worn, that thou mightst justly swear
I'de slept in cere-cloth, or at Bedlam, where
The mad-men lodge in straw; I'le not forbear
To tell thee all; his wild impress and tricks
Like SPEED's' old Britans made me look, or Picts;
His villanous, biting, wire-embraces

Had seal'd in me more strange formes and faces
Than children see in dreames, or thou hast read
In arras, puppet-playes, and ginger-bread,
With angled schemes, and crosses that bred fear
Of being handled by some conjurer,

And neerer, thou wouldst think-such strokes

were drawn

I'de been some rough statue of Fetter-lane ;2

is to an ungallant dilemma on the subject of marriage fathered on him in Aulus Gellius. (v. 11). G.

John Speed: Born 1555: died July 28th 1629. G.

2 Fetter Lane was a 'lane' leading originally to gardens, and so called says Stow, on account of fewters (idle people) lying there. Both extremities of the 'lane' were used for

Nay, I believe, had I that instant been
By surgeons or apothecaries seen,

They had condemned my raz'd skin to be
Some walking herball, or anatomie.

But-thanks to th' day!-'tis off. I'd

advise

now

Thee friend to put this peece to merchandize;
The pedlars of our age have business yet,
And gladly would against the Fayr-day fit
Themselves with such a roofe, that can secure
Their wares from dogs and cats rain'd in showre,
It shall performe; or if this will not doe
"Twill take the ale-wives sure; 'twill make them

two

Fine roomes of one, and spread upon a stick,

Is a partition, without lime or brick.

Horn'd obstinacie! how my heart doth fret

To think what mouthes and elbowes it would set
In a wet day? have you for two pence e're
Seen King Harry's chappell at Westminster,

more than two centuries as places of public execution. Ben Jonson names it in association with pawnbrokers. From Vaughan's allusion there must have been 'statues' placed in some of the public buildings. The student of Puritanism will remember Fetter-lane mainly as consecrated by the 'preaching' of the burningly eloquent William Fenner.

G.