Then followeth my lord on his mule, Then hath he servants five or six score, A marvellous great company: Of which are lords and gentlemen, With many grooms and yeomen, And also knaves among. A great carl he is, and a fat; Procur'd with angels' subsidy; 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, Which seldom touch any ground; 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 ? Lawyers they are of experience, Is their continual exercise. As for preaching, they take no care: • Perfect, Fr. To follow the chace of wild deer, Passing the time in jolly cheer To play at the cards and the dice Both at hazard and mum-chance. 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? Letting a dozen farms under one; Take into their own hands alone. Wat. The other, in paying their rent, And would not do their duty'? Jeff. They payed their duty', and more, 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, ■ 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 shew'th; 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. |