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Then followeth my lord on his mule,
Trapped with gold under her cule,'
In every point most curiously.
On each side, a poll-ax is borne,
"Which in none other use are worn,
Pretending some high mystery.

Then hath he servants five or six score,
Some behind, and some before,

A marvellous great company:

Of which are lords and gentlemen,

With many grooms and

yeomen,

And also knaves among.
Thus daily he proceedeth forth,
And men must take it at worth,
Whether he do right or wrong.

A great carl he is, and a fat;
Wearing on his head a red hat,

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Procur'd with angels' subsidy;
And, as they say, in time of rain,
Four of his gentlemen are fain

To hold over it a canopy.

Cul. Fr.

• Purchased at the court of Rome. As

angel is a well-known coin.

Beside this, to tell thee more news,
He hath a pair of costly shoes,

Which seldom touch any ground;
They are so goodly and curious,
All of gold and stones precious,
Costing many a thousand pound.

Wat. And who did for these shoes pay?

Jeff. Truly, many a rich abbéy,

To be eased of his visitation, &c.

The following is his deseription of the bishops

Wat. What are the bishops divines ?
Jeff. Yea! they can skill of wines,
Better than of divinity!

Lawyers they are of experience,
And, in cases against conscience,
They are parfet1 by practise.
To forge excommunications
For tythes and decimations

Is their continual exercise.

As for preaching, they take no care:
They would see a course at a hare
Rather than to make a sermón:

• Perfect, Fr.

To follow the chace of wild deer,

Passing the time in jolly cheer
Among them all is common.

To play at the cards and the dice
Some of them are nothing nice;

Both at hazard and mum-chance.
They drink, in gay golden bowls,
The blood of poor simple souls,

Perishing for lack of sustenance, &c.

The following passage, on the abuse of great farms, is extremely curious. After describing the numerous exactions to which even the abbeys were subject, he interrupts the recital by this natural question

Wat. How have the abbeys their payment?
Jeff. A new way they do invent,

Letting a dozen farms under one;
Which, one or two great Frankeleins,
Occupying a dozen mens' livings,

Take into their own hands alone.

Wat. The other, in paying their rent,
By likelihood, were negligent,

And would not do their duty'?

Jeff. They payed their duty', and more,
But, their farms are heythed1 so sore,

That they are brought unto beggary'.

The next poet deserving notice, is JOHN HEYWOOD the epigrammatist, who was much admired by Henry VIII. and by his daughter Queen Mary; but the modern reader will not easily detect, in his printed works, that elegant turn of humour which was so long the delight and admiration of an English court. His "Spider and Flie" is utterly contemptible; a less tiresome work is his "Dialogue, containing the number of the effec"tual proverbs in the English tongue, compact in 66 a matter concerning two manner of marriages," printed in 1547. The idea is ingenious, and, though ill executed, such a repertory is at least curious. To the dialogue were added, in his works (printed by Powell, in 1562) six centuries of epigrams, interspersed with a few small tales and fables: and from this heap of rubbish it may perhaps be worth while to extract the three following specimens, which are in Heywood's very best manner.

An old Wife's Boon.

In old world, when old 'wives bitterly pray'd,
One, devoutly, as by way of a boon,

■ Advanced.

Ask'd vengeance on her husband; and to him said, "Thou wouldest wed a young wife, ere this week "were done;

"(Were I dead) but thou shalt wed the devil as (6 soon!"

"I cannot wed the devil," quoth he-" why ?" quoth she.

"For I have wedded his dam before," quoth he.

[1st. cent. Epig. 36.]

Two Wishers for two manner of Mouths.

"I wish thou hadst a little narrow mouth, wife, "Little and little, to drop out words in strife!" "And I wish you, sir, a wide mouth, for the nonce, "To speak all that ever you shall speak at once!" [1st cent. Epig. 83.]

Of blind Bayard.

Who so bold as blind Bayard?1 no beast, of truth : Whereof my bold blind bayard perfect proof

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Both of his boldness, and for his bold blindness; By late occasion in a cause of kindness.

1

Bayard is the name of a horse renowned in stories of chevalry, but I am ignorant of the source of this proverbial expression.

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