Than all those lordly fooles which lock their bones can Adde nought to thy perfections, yet as man 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 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? 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; And ev'ry step-so neer necessity— 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 And this was civill. I have since known more 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 In one night worn, that thou mightst justly swear Had seal'd in me more strange formes and faces 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 They had condemned my raz'd skin to be But-thanks to th' day!-'tis off. I'd advise now Thee friend to put this peece to merchandize; 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 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. |