When tir'd of Town and Study, I retreat,
My honour'd Friend*, to thy fair country Seat;
Where you with all the rural Sports invite,
But most with Mirth and attic Wit delight;
When pleasure to the Plains returns with you,
Together oft we take delight to view

Th' obsequious Otter plunge into the Stew.
There see him dive for Food, and joyful draw

The gasping Captives, from his murderous Jaw+.

}

Duke de RESSEGEUER.

+ Could an Animal be thus tutored for use on the Sea coast, in addition to the Amusement, it would save many Qualms to the Summer Excursionist.

"Whyle gale of wynde the slacke sayles filles full strayte,

He leaning ouer hollow rocke doth lye,

And either his begiled hookes doth bayte,

Or els beholdes and feeles the pray from hye;

The trembling Fish he feeles with line extent,
And paised hand."

HERCULES Furens, 1581.

This is a Pigmy's mimic of the

day (a day as fair as heart could wish)
When Giant stood on shore of Sea to fish ;
For angling Rod, he took a sturdy Oake,
For line a Cable, that in Storm ne're broke;
His Hook was such as heads the end of Pole,

To pluck down House, ere fire consumes it whole;

His hook was baited with a Dragon's tail,

And then on rock he stood, to bob for Whale;

Which strait he caught, and nimbly home did pack
With ten Cart load of Dinner on his Back."

The last lines, with trifling Alteration are inserted in the Poetical Works of Dr. KING, born 1663, but certainly not the Production of that facetious Writer. They are copied from the mock Romance printed with "The Loves of HERO and LEANDER, and other choice pieces of Drollery, &c." 1653. From a Ballad in the same Collection, which appears to

G

Among the sportive Tenants of the Lake,
Wide havoc water Rats and Beavers make:
These Foes with Subtlety alone pursue:
If from the Shore you at a distance view
A Beaver plunge into the Stream, in vain
You'll hope by Darts a Conquest to obtain;
The conscious Robber 'neath the Surface dives,
And on the scaly Tribes securely thrives.

If Reeds and Rushes should your Lakes infest,
Cut not away the Heads and leave the rest;
The Stems corrupt, if suffered to remain,
And from the Roots fresh Crops appear again:

Since nothing to the Natives of the Flood
Is more destructive than the Want of Food,

have been made on the setting fire to LONDON-BRIDGE, the following humorous Stanzas are selected.

Into the Chips there fell a spark

Which put out in such Flames,
That it was known into Southwark,
Which lives beyond the Thames.

For loe the Bridge was wondrous high,
With water underneath

O're which as many Fishes fly,

As Birds therein doth breath.

And yet the Fire consum'd the Bridg,
Not far from place of landing;
And though the Building was full big,

It fell down not with standing.

And eke into the Water fell,

So many pewter Dishes;

That a Man might have taken up very well

Both boyld and roasted Fishes."

Throw grains of Corn, or scatter crumbs of Bread,
And if, of some unknown Distemper dead,

You chance to find a Sheep, or in the Yoke
An Ox should yield to Death's untimely stroke,
To feast your hungry Fish their Bodies throw,
Or pounded Acorns and cheap Pulse bestow;
For Famine will compel the wat❜ry breed
Like Beast on Flesh, on Grass like Sheep to feed,
With Fruit like Birds to fill their hungry Maw,
And on their Kind to rush with greedy Jaw.

The Eel devours the smaller finny train, And Smelts, and Gudgeons, seek the Shore in vain. In Bulk with Years while other Fishes rise,

Why Gudgeons, Loach, and Smelts are small in size,
And still the old continue Dwarfs, relate

The rise, ye Muses, of the Minim State.
Where, with a tardy Current, near the Sea,
The Po, in slow Meanders takes its way,
A band of Children on the Borders stood,
Engag'd in play, and in the lucid flood
Threw Stones, which, sliding on the wat'ry plain,
Now seem to sink and now emerge again.
Beneath the Stream the Sisters of the Sea
Then list'ning sat to CLIO's Tales, whom she
Pleased with the Loves of absent EPHIRE'.
When ÆGLE first the dashing Pebbles heard,
She at the Surface of the Stream appear'd
Enjoin'd the Boys to leave the River's side,
And added Threats; they bold her Threats defy'd,
And casting impious Stones, in scorn they cry;

}

Call then a Monster from the neighb'ring Main,
To wreak our Vengeance on the impious Train."
She said, and OCEAN to the Sisters gave

A dreadful Form, which rose above the Wave.
The Boys beheld and trembled at the Sight,
And try'd to fly, but Fear arrests their Flight;
Breathless they fell, their Limbs the Monster tore,
And in the River cast 'em from the Shore;
Then shook his Head, and in the limpid flood
Wip'd from his fatal jaws the streaming Blood.
The Nymphs the Slaughter saw and heard the cries,
And feasted with Revenge their eager Eyes,
What female Heart but may by Youth be gain'd?
And Beauty in the Boys that still remain'd

Like a fair Flow'r which yielding to the Share
Reclines its drooping Head, but still continues fair.
How credulous is Love*! they see the Shore
O'erspread with Bodies, all besmear'd with Gore,

Yet hope by Fear they fell, and signs of Life explore;

*FLECKNOE, in the Character of a young female Enamorist, says, "it is with Lovers as it is with Anglers, who feed Fishes till they are caught, but caught once, feed on them; so it will be long enough ere she bite at the Bait, unless he has more to bait her with than fine Words or lamentable Compliments." Upon the Subject of Love the Angler's Muse seldom drags a Simile from the Tackle; or floats the lines in a stream of Sorrow to bait a barbed Hook with a gentle Heart. TURBERVILE introduces an allusion to the Art, where he writes in " Disprayse of Women that allure and loue not."

"That troupe of honest Dames
those GRISELS all are gone;

NO LUCRECE now is left aliue,

ne CLEOPATRA none.

Those dayes are all ypast,

that date is fleeted by:

They Myrrors were, dame Nature made

hir skilful hande to try.

Now course of Kinde exchaungde

doth yeeld a woorser graine,

Their Hands the Heart, no longer beating, try,
Or their fair Fingers ope th' unwilling Eye;
Another seeking whether yet the Breath
Hangs on the Lips, nor quite extinct by Death,
Joins her's to theirs, compassionately kind,
And leaves, unseen, a tender Kiss behind..

And Women in these latter Yeares

those modest Matrones staine.

Deceit in their delight,

great Fraud in friendly lookes:

They spoyle the Fish for Friendship's sake,

that houer on their Hookes.

They buye the Baite to deare

that so their Freedome loze;

And they the more deceitfull are,

that so can craft and gloze."

The Contrariety of Love is also thus depicted in the Sign Cancer, fourth Book of PALENGENIUS, translated by BARNABY GOOGE.

66

if so be that Loue weare not

by God's Aduisement right,
To euery Man apoynted here

by Limites parted iust:
No dout of al might one be loued,
and on them all should lust,
And euery Man might safe enioy
the Damsel that he likes:

But as the Fisher doth not take

the Fishes all in Dikes;

Nor Foulers all the Birdes do catch,

nor Hunters all do kill;

But euery one his chance doth take,

obtaines, and hathe his will;

So, Loue to euery one is delt

by God's Arbitrement;

So doth the Seruaunt, base, ful oft

his Lady wel content,"