SAMUEL ROWLANDS. [A prolific humorous and satirical writer of the 17th century]. THE CONJURER COZENED. A SHIFTING knave about the town To tell men's fortunes and good haps, What day was best to travel on, If violent or natural A man should end his life; So cunningly he played the knave With shifting, base, and cozening tricks; Amongst a crew of simple gulls, A butcher comes and craves his help, Ten groats he gave him for his fee ; With characters, and vocables, And divers antic shows. The butcher, in a beastly fear, And wished himself within his shop, Some sheep or calf to kill. At length out of an old blind hole, Behind a painted cloth, A devil comes with roaring voice, Seeming exceeding wroth. With squibs and crackers round-about Wild-fire he did send ; Which swaggering Ball, the butcher's dog, So highly did offend That he upon the devil flies, And shakes his horns so sore, Even like an ox, most terrible He made hobgoblin roar. The cunning man cries, "For God's love, help! Fight dog, fight devil!" butcher said, And claps his hands at Ball. The dog most cruelly tore his flesh, G The devil went to wrack, "Give me my money back again, He gets not back again to hell, And I will have some interest too, Deliver first mine own ten groats, The conjurer, with all his heart, And gives five shillings of his own: To whom the butcher says,— Farewell, most scurvy conjurer! Think on my valiant deed, Which has done more than English George That made the dragon bleed. He and his horse, the story tells, Did but a serpent slay : I and my dog the devil spoiled,- ROBERT HERRICK. Born in 1591, son of a goldsmith in Cheapside, of good family connexions: died towards 1674. Herrick entered the church, in what year is uncertain: the year 1629 is the first clear date relating to this matter, when Herrick, aged thirty-eight, was appointed to the living of Dean Prior, Devonshire. In 1648 he was ejected as a royalist; but restored in 1660. He lived a bachelor; much more (if we may judge from his verses) in the style of a jovial celibate than of a clerical ascetic. A certain section of his poems is religious or moral; the great majority of them, however, testify to a keen enjoyment of the good things of this world, whether simple or refined. Many of his compositions are, in the fullest sense of the term, trifles; others are at least exquisite trifles; some are not trifles, and are exquisite. After more than a century of neglect, ensuing upon their first ample popularity, Herrick's writings have for years been kept freshened with a steady current of literary laudation-certainly not unjustified, so far as their finer qualities go, but tending a little to the indiscriminate]. UPON A WIFE THAT DIED MAD WITH JEALOUSY. IN this little vault she lies Here, with all her jealousies; And such spirits raise 'twill then UPON PAGGET. PAGGET, a schoolboy, got a sword, and then TO THE DETRACTOR. WHERE others love and praise my verses, still But cry thee mercy; exercise thy nails To scratch or claw, so that thy tongue not rails. Some numbers prurient are, and some of these Are wanton with their itch; scratch, and 'twill please. THE INVITATION. To sup with thee thou didst me home invite, And richer wine wouldst give to me, thy guest, And for no less than aromatic wine Of maiden's-blush commixed with jessamine. A ragg'd soused neat's-foot with sick vinegar; Beer small as comfort, dead as charity. At which amazed, and pondering on the food,- FRANCIS QUARLES. [Born in 1592, died in 1644. Chiefly known as the author of the Emblems. Quarles held the post of cup-bearer to the Queen of Bohemia, daughter of James I.; afterwards of secretary to Archbishop Usher in Ireland, and of Chronologer to the City of London. He adhered to the royal party in the civil war : hence his property was sequestrated, and his mishaps are supposed to have accelerated his death]. HEY, THEN, UP GO WE. KNOW this, my brethren, heaven is clear, The righteous man shall flourish, Good days are coming on. Then come, my brethren, and be glad, Lawn sleeves and rochets shall go down, We'll break the windows which the whore And, when the popish saints are down, Then Barrow shall be sainted; Shall stand for men to see, Rome's trash and trumpery shall go down, Whate'er the Popish hands have built Our hammers shall undo; We'll break their pipes and burn their copes, And teach beneath a tree; We'll drive the doctors out of doors, And all that learned be; We'll cry all arts and learning down, And hey, then, up go we! We'll down with deans and prebends, too, And I rejoice to tell ye We then shall get our fill of pig, And capons for the belly. We'll burn the Fathers' weighty tomes, And make the Schoolmen free; We'll down with all that smells of wit, And hey, then, up go we! If once the Antichristian crew We'll teach the nobles how to stoop, And keep the gentry down. Good manners have an ill report, And turn to pride, we see; We'll therefore put good manners down, The name of lords shall be abhorred, We'll make these wanton sisters stoop, What though the King and Parliament We have more cause to be content,- For, if that reason should take place, Who would be in a Roundhead's case? What should we do, then, in this case? If that we hold out seven years' space A time may come to make us rue, EDMUND WALLER. [Born on 3d March 1605, died on 21st October 1687. Was not only an admired poet and man of fashion, but also an active though not highly consistent politician; negociating for the Parliament, plotting for Charles I., lauding Cromwell, and acclaiming Charles II. As a poet, Waller is now chiefly remembered by his delightful lyric, "Go, lovely rose," and as the poetic suitor of "Saccharissa"-i. e., Lady Dorothy Sidney, whom he courted, but did not secure in marriage]. AN EPIGRAM ON A PAINTED LADY WITH ILL TEETH. That Lyce painted,—should they flee, So grossly woven and ill set, Her own teeth would undo the knot, |