Then followeth my lord on his mule,
Trapped with gold under her cule
In every point most curiously.
On each side, a poleaxe is borne,
Which in none other use are worn,
Pretending some high mystery.

Then hath he servants five or six score,
Some behind, and some before,

A marvellous great company :

Of which are lords and gentlemen,
With many grooms and yeomen,
And also knaves among.
Thus daily he proceedeth forth,
And men must take it at worth,
Whether he do right or wrong.

A great carl he is, and a fat;
Wearing on his head a red hat,

Procured with angels' subsidy;"
And, as they say, in time of rain,
Four of his gentlemen are fain

To hold over it a canopy.

Cul. Fr.

2 Purchased at the court of Rome. An

angel is a well-known coin.

Beside this, to tell thee more news,
He hath a pair of costly shoes,

Which seldom touch any ground;
They are so goodly and curious,
All of gold and stones precious,
Costing many a thousand pound.

Wat. And who did for these shoes
Jeff. Truly, many a rich abbey,

pay

To be eased of his visitation,

?

The following is his description of the bishops-
Wat. What? are the bishops divines ?
Jeff. Yea! they can well skill of wines,
Better than of divinity!

Lawyers they are of experience,
And, in cases against conscience,
They are parfet1 by practice.
To forge excommunications
For tythes and decimations

Is their continual exercise.

As for preaching they take no care:
They would see a course at an hare

Rather than to make a sermon:
To follow the chace of wild deer,
Passing the time with jolly cheer,
Among them all is common.

Perfect. Fr.

To play at the cards and dice
Some of them are nothing nice;

Both at hazard and mum-chance.
They drink in gay golden bowls
The blood of poor simple souls

Perishing for lack of sustenance.

The following passage, on the abuse of great farms, is extremely curious. After describing the numerous exactions to which even the abbeys were subject, he interrupts the recital by this natural question

Wat. How have the abbeys their payment?
Jeff. A new way they do invent,

Letting a dozen farms under one;
Which one or two great francklyngs,1
Occupying a dozen men's livings,

Take all in their own hands alone.

Wat. The other, in paying their rent,

By likelihood, were negligent,

And would not do their duty?

Jeff. They payed their duty, and more,
But, their farms are heythed so sore,
That they are brought unto beggary.
2 Advanced.

Or frankeyne. See vol. I. p. 320.

The next poet deserving notice is JOHN HEYWOOD the epigrammatist, who was much admired by Henry VIII. and by his daughter Queen Mary; but the modern reader will not easily detect, in his printed works, that elegant turn of humour which was so long the delight and admiration of an English court. His "Parable of the "Spider and the Flie" is utterly contemptible: a less tiresome work is his " Dialogue, contayning in "effect the number of al the proverbes in the English 66 tongue, compact in a matter concerning two mar "riages," printed in 1547, 4to, and 1549, Svo. The idea is ingenious, and, though ill executed, such a repertory is at least curious. To the dialogue were added in his works (printed by Powell, in 1562, 4to, and afterwards three several times) six centuries of epigrams, interspersed with a few small tales and fables, and from this heap of rubbish it may perhaps be worth while to extract the three following specimens, which are in Heywood's very best manner.

An old Wife's Boon.

In old world, when old wives bitterly pray'd,
One, devoutly, as by way of a boon,

Ask'd vengeance on her husband; and to him said, "Thou wouldst wed a young wife, ere this week 66 were done,

“Were I dead, but thou shalt wed the devil as 66 soon !"

"I cannot wed the devil," quod he. "Why?" quod she.

"For I have wedded his dam before," quod he. [1st. cent. epig. 36.]

Two Wishers for two Manner of Mouths.

"I wish thou hadst a little narrow mouth, wife, "Little and little, to drop out words in strife!" "And I wish you, sir, a wide mouth, for the nonce, "To speak all that ever you shall speak at once!" [1st, cent. epig. 83.]

Of blind Bayard.

Who so bold as blind Bayard?1 no beast, of truth: Whereof my bold blind Bayard perfect proof shew'th;

Both of his boldness, and for his bold blindness; By late occasion in a cause of kindness.

Bayard is the name of a horse renowned in stories of chivalry, but I am ignorant of the source of this proverbial expression.