And gratulate the breach I grieved before, Oh, wouldst thou add like hand to all the rest! Thou hast thy breast so clear of potent crimes, Where sweetness is required, and where weight: true. XCVI. TO JOHN DONNE. Who shall doubt, Donne, whe'er I a poet be, That so alone canst judge, s' alone dost make; As thou hast best authority t' allow? 66 Marked by thy hand, and with the better stone, My title's sealed. Those that for claps do write, Let pui'nees', porters', players' praise delight, And, till they burst, their backs, like asses, load: A man should seek great glory, and not broad. See XCVII. ON THE NEW MOTION.67 you yon' motion? not the old fa-ding, 68 Nor Captain Pod," nor yet the Eltham thing; 70 But one more rare, and in the case so new: 66 Punies. 67 A motion was the term applied to a puppet-show, and here to a puppet. "O, excellent motion! O, exceeding puppet." Two Gentlemen of Verona, II. i. So Jonson also, in his Bartholomew Fair, Act V. Sc. iv., introduces a motion at length. 39 68" With such delicate burthens of dildos and fadings."" A rustic Irish dance, described at length in Boswell's edition of Malone's Shakspere, under above passage. A well-known master of a puppet-show. 70 A similar allusion occurs in The Silent Woman: "The perpetual motion is here, and not at Eltham."-B. Eltham was a market town of importance at this time, and the palace there was a royal residence. His cloak with orient velvet quite lined through; His rosy ties and garters so o'erblown, By his each glorious parcel to be known! He wont was to encounter me aloud, Where'er he met me ;· now he's dumb or proud. Know you the cause? he's neither land nor lease, 71 Nor 'bout the bears, nor noise to make lords sport. ears About his form. What then so swells each limb? Only his clothes have over-leavened him. XCVIII. TO SIR THOMAS ROE.72 Thou hast begun well, Roe, which stand well too, 71 Christian IV., who visited this country in 1606.— G. 72 Nephew of Sir John Roe,- see Epigram xxvii. p. 16, and the most distinguished member of his family. He was knighted by James I., and appointed ambassador to the Mogul, at the instance of the East India Company, to whom he rendered valuable services during the four years he held the appointment. He died in 1644. — B. And what would hurt his virtue, makes it still.78 That thou at once then nobly mayst defend With thine own course the judgment of thy friend, Be always to thy gathered self the same, And study conscience more than thou wouldst fame. Though both be good, the latter yet is worst, XCIX. TO THE SAME. That thou hast kept thy love, increased thy will, C. ON PLAYWRIGHT. Playwright, by chance, hearing some toys I'd writ, Cried to my face, they were th' elixir of wit: 78" In se ipso totus, teres atque rotundus In quem manca ruit semper fortuna." HORACE, Sat. II. 7, 86-89. And I must now believe him; for to-day CI. INVITING A FRIEND TO SUPPER. To-night, grave sir, both my poor house and I Not that we think us worthy such a guest, Something, which else could hope for no esteem. The entertainment perfect, not the cates. And though fowl now be scarce, yet there are clerks, The sky not falling, think we may have larks. I'll tell you of more, and lie, so you will come, Of partridge, pheasant, woodcock, of which some May yet be there; and godwit if we can; 75 Knat, rail, and ruff, too. 74 Bell corrects to "bitter." Howsoe'er, my man' 76 75 Godwit and knat are of the family of snipes. 76 Richard Brome, to whom he afterwards addressed some verses. See post, p. 344. — B. -- |