How, best of Kings, dost thou a sceptre bear! As chief of those still promise they will be. V. ON THE UNION. When was there contract better driven by Fate? The world the temple was, the priest a king, VI. TO ALCHEMISTS. If all you boast of your great art be true, His epigram was probably written soon after the accession of James, and when this good prince had surely given little cause for complaint to any one. With respect to his boyish poetry.... it is really creditable to his talents. Some of the Psalms are better translated by him than they were by Milton at his years. G. It will not be forgotten in what terms Bacon addressed King James at this time, and what expectations he built on his Majesty's learning. • Of England and Scotland under James; completed under Anne in 1707. VII. ON THE NEW HOT-HOUSE. Where lately harbored many a famous whore, VIII. ON A ROBBERY. Ridway robbed Duncote of three hundred pound; Ridway was ta'en, arraigned, condemned to die; But, for this money, was a courtier found, Begged Ridway's pardon: Duncote now doth cry, Robbed both of money, and the law's relief: IX. TO ALL TO WHOM I WRITE. May none whose scattered names honor my book X. TO MY LORD IGNORANT. Thou call'st me poet, as a term of shame; 7 So called from the hot baths used in them. generally bagnios. - B. "And now she professes a hot-house, Which I think is a very ill-house too." They were Measure for Measure, II. i. XI. ON SOMETHING, THAT WALKS SOMEWHERE. still.8 Good Lord, walk dead XII. ON LIEUTENANT SHIFT. Shift, here in town, not meanest amongst squires That haunt Pickt-hatch, Marsh-Lambeth, and Whitefriars, 9 Keeps himself, with half a man, and defrays The charge of that state with this charm, God pays, 10 By that one spell he lives, eats, drinks, arrays Himself; his whole revenue is, God pays. 8 "He [Jonson] never esteemed a man," says Drummond, "for the name of a Lord." — B. The respective resorts of debauchees, thieves, and fraudulent debtors. G. "To your manor of Pickt-hatch, go." " Merry Wives of Windsor, II. ii. 10 The impudent plea for charity, or rather for running in debt, advanced by disbanded soldiers, of whom there were many at this period and more who pretended to be such. The quarter-day is come; the hostess says, Signs to new bond; forfeits, and cries, God pays. Calls for his stool, adorns the stage: 11 God pays. The expression occurs in the London Prodigal, in a passage much to the purpose: "Sir Arthur. I am a soldier and a gentleman. "Lace. I neither doubt your valor nor your love, But there be some that bear a soldier's form, That swear by Him they never think upon : Go swaggering up and down from house to house, 11 It was the custom for young men of fashion to sit upon the stage, for which they were charged extra. A three-legged stool, says Mr. Collier [Annals of the Stage], which Dekker (1609) dignifies by the style of "a tripos" seems to have been usually hired on these occasions, and for this sixpence, and subsequently a shilling, was paid. The entrance to the stage for persons who availed themselves of this privilege was through the 'tiring-house. - B. "Would you have a stool, sir?" "A stool, boy?" Aye, sir, if you'll give me sixpence, I'll fetch you one.' "For what, I pray thee? what shall I do with it?" "O Lord, sir! will you betray your ignorance so much? why, Throne yourself in state on the stage, as other gentlemen use, sir." Cynthia's Revels: Induction. To every cause he meets, this voice he brays: Not his poor cockatrice but he betrays Thus; and for his lechery-scores, God pays. But see! th' old bawd hath served him in his XIII. TO DOCTOR EMPIRIC. When men a dangerous disease did 'scape Camden, most reverend head, to whom I owe How nothing's that! to whom my country owes 12 Camden was our poet's niaster at Westminster-school; and gratitude has led him to make a proper acknowledgment for his care and pains in teaching him, both by this epigram, and the dedication of Every Man in his Humor to him. — W. These are not the only places in which Camden is mentioned with respect. In the King's Entertainment, Jonson terms him "the glory and light of the kingdom," and in the Masque of Queens he introduces him with similar commendation.-G. |