TEXNOTAMIA; OR, THE MARRIAGE OF THE ARTS. TOBACCO'S TOBACCO. TOBACCO'S a Musician, It descends in a close, Through the organs of the nose, This makes me sing So ho, ho; So ho, ho, boys, Earth ne'er did breed Whereof to boast so proudly. Tobacco is a Lawyer, His pipes do love long cases, Our feet do make indentures, While we seal with stamping paces. This makes me sing, &c. Tobacco's a Physician, Good both for sound and sickly; "Tis a hot perfume That expels cold rheum, And makes it flow down quickly. 1630. This makes me sing, &c. Tobacco is a Traveller, Come from the Indies hither; It passed sea and land, Ere it came to my hand, And 'scaped the wind and weather. This makes me sing, &c. Tobacco is a Critic, That still old paper turneth, Whose labour and care That ascends from a rag when it burneth. This makes me sing, &c. [WITH Shirley terminates the roll of the great writers whose works form a distinct era in our dramatic literature. He was the last of a race of giants. Born in the reign of Elizabeth, he lived to witness the Restoration, and carried down to the time of Charles I. the moral and poetical elements of the age of Shakespeare. New modes and a new language set in with the Restoration; and the line that separates Shirley from his immediate successors is as clearly defined and as broadly marked as if a century had elapsed between them. Shirley was educated at Merchant-Tailors' School, and from thence removed to St. John's College, Oxford, which he afterwards left to complete his collegiate course at Cambridge. Having entered holy orders, he was appointed to a living at or near St. Albans, in Hertfordshire; but subsequently renounced his ministry, in consequence of having embraced the doctrines of the Church of Rome. For a short time he found occupation as a teacher in a grammar-school, a life of drudgery which he soon relinquished to become a writer for the stage. He produced altogether thirty-three plays; and not the least THE DRAMATISTS. 15 remarkable circumstance connected with them is that, instead of going to other sources for his plots, he invented nearly the whole of them. Vigour and variety of expression, and richness of imagery are amongst his conspicuous merits; and, making reasonable allowance for occasional confusion in the imbroglio of his more complicated fables, arising, no doubt, from hasty composition, the action of his dramas is generally contrived and evolved with considerable skill. Shirley died in 1666. Wood tells us that the fire of London drove him and his wife from their residence near Fleet-street into the parish of St. Giles's-in-the-Fields, and that the alarm and losses they sustained took so severe an effect upon them that they both died on the same day.] LOVE TRICKS. 1624. SHEPHERDS AND SHEPHERDESSES. W OODMEN, shepherds, come away, This is Pan's great holiday, Throw off cares, With your heaven-aspiring airs Help us to sing, While valleys with your echoes sing. Nymphs that dwell within these groves Crown your golden hair with roses; As you pass Foot like fairies on the grass. Joy crown our bowers! Philomel, Leave of Tereus' rape to tell. Let trees dance, As they at Thracian lyre did once; Mountains play, This is the shepherds' holiday. IN THE WITTY FAIR ONE. 1628. LOVE'S HUE AND CRY. N Love's name you are charged hereby After a face, who t'other day, These are best marks to know the thief: Her hair a net of beams would prove, Is a comely field of snow. A sparkling eye, so pure a gray Lilies, married to the rose, Have made her cheek the nuptial bed; Her lips betray their virgin red, As they only blushed for this, THE BIRD IN A CAGE. 1632. THE FOOL'S SONG.* AMONG all sorts of people The matter if we look well to; * In this song, Shirley follows closely a similar exaltation of the motley by Ben Jonson.-See ante, p. 114. The fool is the best, he from the rest And foots it without blushing And of all men doth fear least, When wise men prate, and forfeit their state, He without fear can walk in The streets that are so stony; Your gallant sneaks, your merchant breaks, He's a fool that does owe no money. THE TRIUMPH OF PEACE. 1633. THE BREAKING UP OF THE MASQUE. COME away, away, away, See the dawning of the day, |