Cock treads his Hen, but treads her underfoot.
632. UPON BRAN. EPIG.
That Bran the baker did his breech beray:
I rather think, though they may speak the worst,
'Twas to his batch, but leaven laid there first.
Beray, befoul.
633. UPON SNARE, AN USURER.
She brings in much by carnal usury.
He by extortion brings in three times more:
Say, who's the worst, th' exactor or the whore?
634. UPON GRUDGINGS.
He gives an alms, and chides them from his door.
638. UPON GANDER. EPIG.
Gander, they say, doth each night piss a-bed:
What is the cause? Why, Gander will reply,
No goose lays good eggs that is trodden dry.
639. UPON LUNGS. EPIG.
But that his breath does fly-blow all the meat.
650. UPON COB. EPIG.
His thumb nails par'd afford him sparrables.
Sparrables, "sparrow-bills," headless nails.
652. UPON SKOLES. EPIG.
His dampish buttocks furthermore to clothe;
Cloy'd they are up with arse; but hope, one blast
Will whirl about, and blow them thence at last.
661. UPON JONE AND JANE.
668. UPON ZELOT.
The sign of circumcision in his ears.
670. UPON MADAM URSLY. EPIG.
A chain of corns picked from her ears and toes;
Then, next, to match Tradescant's curious shells,
Nails from her fingers mew'd she shows: what else?
Why then, forsooth, a carcanet is shown
Of teeth, as deaf as nuts, and all her own.
Tradescant, a collector of curiosities. See Note.
Mew'd, moulted.
Deaf as nuts. Cf. De Quincey, "a deaf nut offering no kernel."
705. UPON TRIGG. EPIG.
And tells the world he's now regenerate.
706. UPON SMEATON.
Who two-and-thirty corns had on a foot.
714. LAXARE FIBULAM.
Than to cast off all bashfulness.
730. UPON FRANCK.
Twice two fell out, all rotten at the root.
733. UPON PAUL. EPIG.
Or money? no, but only dew and sweat.
As stones and salt gloves use to give, even so
Paul's hands do give, nought else for ought we know.
734. UPON SIBB. EPIG.
For anger spat on thee, her looking-glass:
But weep not, crystal; for the same was meant
Not unto thee, but that thou didst present.
755. UPON SLOUCH.
And weekly markets for to sell his wares:
Meantime that he from place to place does roam,
His wife her own ware sells as fast at home.
797. UPON BICE.
It is his own breech there that breaks the jest.
798. UPON TRENCHERMAN.
Endure that lukewarm name of serving-man:
Serve or not serve, let Tom do what he can,
He is a serving, who's a trencher-man.
801. UPON COMELY, A GOOD SPEAKER BUT AN
ILL SINGER. EPIG.
He doth it with the sweetest tones of art:
But when he sings a psalm, there's none can be
More curs'd for singing out of tune than he.
802. ANY WAY FOR WEALTH.
Hath been rehers'd by Joel Michelditch:
But now perceiving that it still does please
The sterner fates, to cross his purposes;
He tacks about, and now he doth profess
Rich he will be by all unrighteousness;
Thus if our ship fails of her anchor hold
We'll love the divel, so he lands the gold.
803. UPON AN OLD WOMAN.
Would give, some say, her soul unto the devil.
Well, when she's kill'd that pig, goose, cock, or hen,
What would she give to get that soul again?
804. UPON PEARCH. EPIG.
But there's not one, doth praise the smell of thee.
818. UPON LOACH.
Till his wife licking, so unglues his eyes.
No question then, but such a lick is sweet,
When a warm tongue does with such ambers meet.
824. UPON NODES.
He prays his harvest may be well brought home.
What store of corn has careful Nodes, think you,
Whose field his foot is, and whose barn his shoe?
831. UPON TAP.
Sold his old mother's spectacles for beer:
And not unlikely; rather too than fail,
He'll sell her eyes, and nose, for beer and ale.
834. UPON PUNCHIN. EPIG.
Punchin a dry plant-animal.
Because as plants by water grow,
Punchin by beer and ale spreads so.
836. UPON BLINKS. EPIG.
Tom calls not pimples, but pimpleides;
Sometimes, in mirth, he says each whelk's a spark,
When drunk with beer, to light him home i' th' dark.
837. UPON ADAM PEAPES. EPIG.
His jaws had tir'd on some large chine of beef.
But nothing so: the dinner Adam had,
Was cheese full ripe with tears, with bread as sad.
Sad, heavy: "watery cheese and ill-baked bread".
844. HANCH, A SCHOOLMASTER. EPIG.
He weeps and sighs, as weary of his life.
Say, is't for real grief he mourns? not so;
Tears have their springs from joy, as well as woe.
845. UPON PEASON. EPIG.
Not for to hide his high and mighty ears;
No, but because he would not have it seen
That stubble stands where once large ears have been.
880. KISSES LOATHSOME.
Which to me most loathsome is.
Those lips please me which are placed
Close, but not too strictly laced:
Yielding I would have them; yet
Not a wimbling tongue admit:
What should poking-sticks make there,
When the ruffe is set elswhere?
881. UPON REAPE.
Mistake the flesh, and fly-blow both his eyes;
So that an angler, for a day's expense,
May bait his hook with maggots taken thence.
882. UPON TEAGE.
Truth, yet Teage's truths are untruths, nothing else.
884. UPON TRUGGIN.
Truggin now lives but to belie his name.
886. UPON SPENKE.
Not out of want of breath, but want of faith.
888. UPON LULLS.
By his proboscis that he is all nose.
897. SURFEITS.
That surfeit took by bread the worst of all.
898. UPON NIS.
Serve but for matter to make paper kites.
905. UPON PRICKLES. EPIG.
For bread, drink, butter, cheese; for everything
That Prickles buys puts Prickles out of frame;
How well his nature's fitted to his name!
945. UPON BLISSE.
Where will he kiss, next drunk, conjecture ye.
946. UPON BURR.
That, where meat is, will be a hanger on.
947. UPON MEG.
Which, this night harden'd, sodders up her nose.
Pose, rheum, cold in the head.
961. UPON RALPH.
In sev'rall tills and boxes, keeps 'em safe;
Instead of hartshorn, if he speaks the troth,
To make a lusty-jelly for his broth.
966. UPON VINEGAR.
Than the dead corps, or carcase of the wine.
967. UPON MUDGE.
His teeth all out, to rinse and wash his gums.
971. UPON LUPES.
But for his heart, he cannot have it made;
The reason is, his credit cannot get
The inward garbage for his clothes as yet.
972. RAGS.
But the base dregs and lees of vestiments?
974. UPON TUBBS.
'Tis now his habit, which he can't give o'er.
984. UPON SPOKES.
Nothing he loves on't but the chaps and ears:
But carve to him the fat flanks, and he shall
Rid these, and those, and part by part eat all.
988. UPON FAUNUS.
His wife to death whipped with a myrtle rod.
The rod, perhaps, was better'd by the name;
But had it been of birch, the death's the same.
989. THE QUINTELL.
May fart for joy, as well as shout:
Either's welcome, stink or civit,
If we take it, as they give it.
999. UPON PENNY.
Because his stock will not hold out for white.
1013. UPON BUGGINS.
This is the level-coil that Buggins keeps.
1027. UPON BOREMAN. EPIG.
For all the devil helps, will be a poor man.
1068. UPON GORGONIUS.
To have a tooth twitched out of's native frame;
Drawn was his tooth, but stank so, that some say,
The barber stopped his nose, and ran away.
1079. UPON GRUBS.
Can live by love, or else grow fat by play;
But when they call or cry on Grubs for meat,
Instead of bread Grubs gives them stones to eat.
He raves, he rends, and while he thus doth tear,
His wife and children fast to death for fear.
1080. UPON DOLL.
Were they not basted by her either eye.
1081. UPON HOG.
The flimsy livers and blue gizzards are.
1087. UPON GUT.
Make him thus swell, or windy cabbages.
1101. UPON SPUR.
He's double honour'd, since he's got gay clothes:
Most like his suit, and all commend the trim;
And thus they praise the sumpter, but not him:
As to the goddess, people did confer
Worship, and not to th' ass that carried her.
1108. UPON RUMP.
Steal a swoln sop out of a dripping-pan.
1109. UPON SHOPTER.
Lets drip a certain gravy from her eyes.
1110. UPON DEB.
If seen, thou lik'st me, Deb, in none of these.
1112. UPON CROOT.
Who cannot buy or steal a second to't.
1114. UPON FLOOD OR A THANKFUL MAN.
He says his fore and after grace for it:
If meat he wants, then grace he says to see
His hungry belly borne on legs jail-free.
Thus have, or have not, all alike is good
To this our poor yet ever patient Flood.
1115. UPON PIMP.
There springs a soap-like lather in his shoes.
1116. UPON LUSK.
Would shrouded be and therewith buried.
When his assigns asked him the reason why,
He said, because he got his wealth thereby.
1117. FOOLISHNESS.
No plague there's like to foolishness.
1118. UPON RUSH.
And fears in summer to wear out the leather;
This is strong thrift that wary Rush doth use
Summer and winter still to save his shoes.
1124. THE HAG.
And very well pleas'd,
She cocks out her arse at the parting,
To an old ram goat
That rattles i' th' throat,
Half-choked with the stink of her farting.
She leads on a brace
Of black boar-cats to attend her:
Who scratch at the moon,
And threaten at noon
Of night from heaven for to rend her.
A cracked horn she blows,
At which the hounds fall a-bounding;
While th' moon in her sphere
Peeps trembling for fear,
And night's afraid of the sounding.
Lace, leash.
Boar-cat, tom-cat.
NOTES TO APPENDIX.
64. To him that has, etc. The quotation is not from the Bible, but from Martial, v. 81:—
Dantur opes nulli nunc nisi divitibus."
Cp. also Davison's Poet. Rhap., i. 95. Ed. Bullen.
126. Upon Scobble. Dr. Grosart quotes an Ellis Scobble [i.e., Scobell], baptised at Dean Priory in 1632, and Jeffery Scobble buried in 1654.
200. Upon Gubbs. Printed in Witts Recreations, 1650, without alteration. To save repetition we may give here a list of the other Epigrams in this Appendix which are printed in Witt's Recreations, reserving variations of reading for special notes:—206, Upon Bounce; 239, Upon Guess; 311, Upon Sneap; 357, Long and Lazy; 379, Upon Doll; 380, Upon Screw; 381, Upon Linnit; 400, Upon Rasp; 410, Upon Skinns; 429, Upon Craw; 435, Jack and Jill; 574, Upon Umber; 639, Upon Lungs; 650, Upon Cob; 652, Upon Skoles; 668, Upon Zelot; 705, Upon Trigg; 797, Upon Bice; 798, Upon Trencherman; 834, Upon Punchin; 888, Upon Lulls; 1027, Upon Boreman; 1087, Upon Gut; 1108, Upon Rump.
305. Fearing to break the king's commandement. In 1608 there was issued a proclamation containing "Orders conceived by the Lords of his Maiestie's Privie Counsell and by his Highnesse speciall direction, commanded to be put in execution for the restraint of killing and eating of flesh the next Lent". This was re-issued ten years later (there is no intermediate issue at the British Museum), and from 1619 onwards became annual under James and Charles in the form of "A proclamation for restraint of killing, dressing, and eating of Flesh in Lent, or on Fish dayes, appointed by the Law, to be hereafter strictly observed by all sorts of people".
420. Upon Bridget. Loss of teeth is the occasion of more than one of Martial's epigrams.
456. The tun of Heidelberg: in the cellar under the castle at Heidelberg is a great cask supposed to be able to hold 50,000 gallons.
574. As Umber states: "as Umber swears".—W. R.
639. His breath does fly-blow: "doth" for "does".—W. R.
652. One blast: "and" for "one".—W. R.
668. Yet! see: "ye see".—W. R.
670. Tradescant's curious shells: John Tradescant was a Dutchman, born towards the close of the sixteenth century. He was appointed gardener to Charles II. in 1629, and he and his son naturalised many rare plants in England. Besides botanical specimens he collected all sorts of curiosities, and opened a museum which he called "Tradescant's Ark". In 1656, four years after his death, his son published a catalogue of the collection under the title, "Museum Tradescantianum: or, a collection of rarities preserved at South Lambeth, near London, by John Tradescant". After the son's death the collection passed into the hands of Ashmole, and became the nucleus of the present Ashmolean Museum at Oxford.
802. Any way for Wealth. A variation on Horace's theme: "Rem facias, rem, si possis, recte, si non quocunque modo, rem". 1 Epist. i. 66.
The Portrait of a Woman: I subjoin here the four passages found in manuscript versions of this poem, alluded to in the previous note. As said before, they do not improve the poem. After l. 45, "Bearing aloft this rich round world of wonder," we have these four lines:
Like loving vines hid under ivory,
So full of claret, that whoso pricks this vine
May see it spout forth streams like muscadine.
Twelve lines later, after "Riphean snow," comes a longer passage:
Hath seal'd the primrose of her utmost skill.
But now my muse hath spied a dark descent
From this so precious, pearly, permanent,
A milky highway that direction yields
Unto the port-mouth of the Elysian fields:
A place desired of all, but got by these
Whom love admits to the Hesperides;
Here's golden fruit, that doth exceed all price,
Growing in this love-guarded paradise;
Above the entrance there is written this:
This is the portal to the bower of bliss,
Through midst whereof a crystal stream there flows
Passing the sweet sweet of a musky rose.
With plump, soft flesh, of metal pure and fine,
Resembling shields, both pure and crystalline.
Hence rise those two ambitious hills that look
Into th' middle, sweet, sight-stealing crook,
Which for the better beautifying shrouds
Its humble self 'twixt two aspiring clouds
The third addition is four lines from the end, after "with a pearly shell":
That arms the forehead of the unicorn.
The last four lines are joined on at the end of all:
I consecrate this loving life of mine,
Bowing my lips unto that stately root
Where beauty springs; and thus I kiss her foot.
INDEX OF FIRST LINES.
- An old, old widow, Greedy needs would wed, 383.
- Bad are all surfeits; but physicians call, 403.
- Bar close as you can, and bolt fast too your door, 380.
- Batt he gets children, not for love to rear 'em, 379.
- Bice laughs, when no man speaks; and doth protest, 399.
- Blanch swears her husband's lovely; when a scald, 376.
- Blisse, last night drunk, did kiss his mother's knee, 404.
- Boreman takes toll, cheats, flatters, lies! yet Boreman, 406.
- Broomsted a lameness got by cold and beer, 392.
- Brown bread Tom Pennie eats, and must of right, 406.
- Buggins is drunk all night, all day he sleeps, 406.
- Bungy does fast; looks pale; puts sackcloth on, 382.
- Burr is a smell-feast, and a man alone, 404.
- Center is known weak sighted, and he sells, 386.
- Cob clouts his shoes, and as the story tells, 396.
- Cock calls his wife his hen; when cock goes to 't, 395.
- Comely acts well; and when he speaks his part, 399.
- Craw cracks in sirrop; and does stinking say, 388.
- Crooked you are, but that dislikes not me, 381.
- Cuffe comes to church much; but he keeps his bed, 377.
- Curse not the mice, no grist of thine they eat, 384.
- E'en all religious courses to be rich, 399.
- Eeles winds and turns, and cheats and steals; yet Eeles, 386.
- Feacie, some say, doth wash her clothes i' th' lie, 390.
- Fie, quoth my lady, what a stink is here, 395.
- First, Jolly's wife is lame; then next loose-hip'd, 378.
- Flood, if he has for him and his a bit, 409.
- Fone says, those mighty whiskers he does wear, 377.
- For ropes of pearl, first Madam Ursly shows, 397.
- For second course, last night a custard came, 378.
- For thirty years Tubbs has been proud and poor, 405.
- Franck ne'er wore silk she swears; but I reply, 394.
- Franck would go scour her teeth; and setting to 't, 398.
- Give me a reason why men call, 401.
- Goes the world now, it will with thee go hard, 376.
- Glasco had none, but now some teeth has got, 377.
- Glass, out of deep, and out of desp'rate want, 386.
- Groynes, for his fleshly burglary of late, 381.
- Grubs loves his wife and children, while that they, 407.
- Grudgings turns bread to stones, when to the poor, 395.
- Gryll eats, but ne'er says grace: to speak the truth, 378.
- Gubbs calls his children kitlings: and would bound, 380.
- Guess cuts his shoes, and limping, goes about, 381.
- Hanch, since he lately did inter his wife, 402.
- Hog has a place i' th' kitchen, and his share, 407.
- Horne sells to others teeth; but has not one, 394.
- How could Luke Smeaton wear a shoe or boot, 398.
- Huncks has no money, he does swear or say, 390.
- I abhor the slimy kiss, 402.
- I dream't this mortal part of mine, 375.
- If felt and heard, unseen, thou dost me please, 408.
- If thou dislik'st the piece thou light'st on first, 375.
- If wounds in clothes, Cuts calls his rags, 'tis clear, 385.
- I have seen many maidens to have hair, 393.
- In Den'shire Kersey Lusk when he was dead, 409.
- In's Tusc'lans, Tully doth confess, 409.
- Is Zelot pure? he is: yet, see he wears, 397.
- Jone is a wench that's painted, 396.
- Joan would go tell her hairs; and well she might, 392.
- Jolly and Jilly bite and scratch all day, 387.
- Kissing and bussing differ both in this, 391.
- Last night thou didst invite me home to eat, 388.
- Letcher was carted first about the streets, 392.
- Linnet plays rarely on the lute, we know, 385.
- Long locks of late our zealot Peason wears, 402.
- Leech boasts he has a pill, that can alone, 383.
- Luggs, by the condemnation of the bench, 378.
- Lulls swears he is all heart; but you'll suppose, 403.
- Lungs, as some say, ne'er sets him down to eat, 396.
- Lupes for the outside of his suit has paid, 405.
- Maggot frequents those houses of good cheer, 391.
- Mease brags of pullets which he eats; but Mease, 384.
- Meg yesterday was troubled with a pose, 404.
- Money thou ow'st me; prethee fix a day, 380.
- Moon is a usurer, whose gain, 384.
- Much-more provides and hoards up like an ant, 379.
- Mudge every morning to the postern comes, 405.
- Nis he makes verses; but the lines he writes, 403.
- No question but Doll's cheeks would soon roast dry, 407.
- Now Patrick with his footmanship has done, 387.
- Of flanks and chines of beef doth Gorrell boast, 380.
- Of four teeth only Bridget was possest, 387.
- Of pushes Spalt has such a knotty race, 394.
- Old Parson Beanes hunts six days of the week, 389.
- Old Widow Prouse, to do her neighbours evil, 400.
- Old Widow Shopter, whensoe'er she cries, 408.
- Once on a Lord Mayor's day, in Cheapside, when, 392.
- One silver spoon shines in the house of Croot, 408.
- Pagget, a schoolboy, got a sword, and then, 378.
- Parrat protests, 'tis he, and only he, 401.
- Paske, though his debt be one upon the day, 384.
- Paul's hands do give; what give they, bread or meat, 398.
- Peapes, he does strut, and pick his teeth, as if, 401.
- Pievish doth boast that he's the very first, 387.
- Prickles is waspish, and puts forth his sting, 404.
- Prigg, when he comes to houses oft doth use, 384.
- Prig now drinks water, who before drank beer, 379.
- Putrefaction is the end, 388.
- Ralph pares his nails, his warts, his corns, and Ralph, 404.
- Rasp plays at nine-holes; and 'tis known he gets, 386.
- Reape's eyes so raw are that, it seems, the flies, 402.
- Rook he sells feathers, yet he still doth cry, 389.
- Root's had no money; yet he went o' the score, 388.
- Rump is a turn-broach, yet he seldom can, 408.
- Rush saves his shoes in wet and snowy weather, 409.
- Science puffs up, says Gut, when either pease, 407.
- Scobble for whoredom whips his wife and cries, 377.
- Seal'd up with night-gum Loach, each morning lies, 400.
- Shark when he goes to any public feast, 382.
- Shift now has cast his clothes: got all things new, 385.
- Sibb, when she saw her face how hard it was, 398.
- Since Gander did his pretty youngling wed, 396.
- Since Jack and Jill both wicked be, 389.
- Skinns, he dined well to-day; how do you think, 386.
- Skoles stinks so deadly, that his breeches loath, 396.
- Skrew lives by shifts; yet swears by no small oaths, 385.
- Skurf by his nine-bones swears, and well he may, 390.
- Slouch he packs up, and goes to several fairs, 399.
- Snare, ten i' th' hundred calls his wife; and why? 395.
- Sneape has a face so brittle that it breaks, 383.
- Spenke has a strong breath, yet short prayers saith, 403.
- Spokes, when he sees a roasted pig, he swears, 405.
- Spunge makes his boasts that he's the only man, 389.
- Spur jingles now, and swears by no mean oaths, 408.
- Strutt, once a foreman of a shop we knew, 378.
- Sudds launders bands in piss, and starches them, 381.
- Tap, better known than trusted as we hear, 401.
- Teage has told lies so long that when Teage tells, 403.
- That was the proverb. Let my mistress be, 383.
- The eggs of pheasants wry-nosed Tooly sells, 393.
- The staff is now greas'd, 410.
- This lady's short, that mistress she is tall, 389.
- To cleanse his eyes, Tom Brock makes much ado, 382.
- To loose the button is no less, 398.
- To paint the fiend, Pink would the devil see, 381.
- Thou writes in prose how sweet all virgins be, 400.
- Tom Blinks his nose is full of weals, and these, 401.
- Tom shifts the trenchers; yet he never can, 399.
- Trigg, having turn'd his suit, he struts in state, 397.
- Truggin a footman was; but now, grown lame, 403.
- Umber was painting of a lion fierce, 393.
- Unto Pastillus rank Gorgonius came, 407.
- Up with the quintell, that the rout, 406.
- Urles had the gout so, that he could not stand, 394.
- Vinegar is no other, I define, 405.
- We read how Faunus, he the shepherds' god, 406.
- Were there not a matter known, 388.
- What are our patches, tatters, rags, and rents, 405.
- What is the reason Coone so dully smells, 394.
- What made that mirth last night, the neighbours say, 395.
- When Jill complains to Jack for want of meat, 391.
- When others gain much by the present cast, 385.
- When Pimp's feet sweat, as they do often use, 409.
- Wherever Nodes does in the summer come, 400.
- Who to the north, or south, doth set, 388.
- Who with thy leaves shall wipe, at need, 375.
- Why walks Nick Flimsey like a malcontent! 387.
- Wither'd with years, bed-rid Mamma lies, 380.
- With paste of almonds, Syb her hands doth scour, 393.
- Y'ave laughed enough, sweet, vary now your text, 382.
- You say, you love me; that I thus must prove, 383.
- You say you're young; but when your teeth are told, 390.
- You say you'll kiss me, and I thank you for it, 394.