But most of all, he chiefly reckons by

8

A priuate chance,—the death of his curst wife;

This is to him the dearest memory,

And the happiest accident of all his life.

But that's not true; for he hath lost his haire,—
Onely for that he came too much at one.

IN CIPRUM.2 22.

The fine youth Ciprius is more tierse and neate,
Then the new garden of the Old Temple is ;

8 Ill-natured. D. [This is a good-natured explanation. I fear that in this place it means more and worse, though in the Taming of the Shrew we have Kate the curst, without the slightest imputation on her moral character, or any allusion to anything but her vixen temper. G.]

9 MS. for newes."-The first edition [and Isham] reads 'from Mins' the other two as above. Mins' (which perhaps should be written Min's) is, I presume, the name of some person who kept an Ordinary where gaming was practised. D. 1 Isham'a.' G.

2 Sic but should be, as Isham, Ciprium: Mr. Dyce reads Cyprium. G.

And still the newest fashion he doth get,

And with the time doth change from that to this;
He weares a hat of the flat-crowne block,

The treble ruffes, long cloake, and doublet French;
He takes tobacco, and doth weare a lock,

And wastes more time in dressing then a wench :
Yet this new fangled youth, made for these times,
Doth aboue all praise old George Gascoine's3 rimes?

IN CINEAM. 23.

When Cineas comes amongst his friends in morning,
He slyly spies who first his cap doth moue;
Him he salutes, the rest so grimly scorning,

As if for euer they had lost his loue.

I seeing 5 how it doth the humour fit

6

Of this fond gull to be saluted first,

Catch at my cap, but moue it not a whit :

Which to perceiuing, he seemes for spite to burst :

3 Died October 7th, 1577. His Works have been worthily col

lected by Mr. W. C. Hazlitt in his Roxburghe Library. G.

4 MS. " notes."

as above. G.]

D. [first edition and Isham "lookes": others

5 In first edition and Isham “ Knowing" and MS. G.

7 Dyce's text is 'he': but 'to' is often in Davies' time printed for 'too.' Isham 'Which perceiuing.' G.

But Cineas, why expect you more of me,
Then I of you? I am as good a man,

And better too by many a quality,

For vault, and dance, and fence and rime I can :
You keep a whore at your own charge, men tell me,
Indeed friend (Cineas) therein you excell me.

IN GALLUM. 24.

Gallas hath beene this Summer-time in Friesland,
And now return'd, he speaks such warlike words,
As, if I could their English understand,

I feare me they would cut my throat like swords :
He talkes of counter-scarfes 8 and casomates,
Of parapets, of curteneys, and palizadoes ;
Of flankers, ravelings, gabions he prates,
And of false-brayes, and sallies 1 and scaladoes.

8 Isham 'scarphes.' G.

9 Isham 'false brayes.' In this place I have restored the reading 'false-brayes' of the 1st edition and of the MS, rejecting 'falsebaits' of 2nd and 3rd editions. There is no such word in military engineering or fortification; but there is 'fausse-braye' or 'falsebraye.' There is a not very intelligible description in Bailey's Dictionary. G.

1 With this passage compare the following lines:

"See Captaine Martio he i' th' 'Renounce me' band,

That in the middle region doth stand

But, to requite such gulling tearmes as these,
With words of my profession I reply;

I tell of fourching,2 vouchers, and counterpleas,
Of withermans,3 essoynes, and Champarty.

4

So, neither of us understanding one another,
We part as wise as when we came together.

IN DECIUM. 25.

Audacious painters have Nine Worthies made;
But poet Decius,5 more audacious farre,
Making his mistris march with men of warre,

Wo' th' reputation steele ! Faith, lets remoue
Into his ranke (of such discourse you loue):
Hee'l tell of basilisks, trenches, retires,

Of pallizadoes, parapets, frontires,

Of caluerins, and baricadoes too.

What to bee harquebazerd, to lie in perdue," &c.

Fitzgeoffrey's Notes from Black-Friars' Sig. E 7, a portion of the volume entitled Certain Elegies, &c., ed. 1620. See our MemorialIntroduction for an impudent appropriation of this epigram. G.

2 MS. "forginge." D. Isham 'foorching.' G.

3 Other editions and MS. "Withernams": Isham names.'

G.

4 Isham 'vnderstanding either.' G.

' whither

5 Drayton is here meant. [Malone's Manuscript-note in Bodleian copy. G.]

With title of "Tenth Worthy "6 doth her lade.7
Me thinks that gull did use his tearmes as fit,
Which tearm'd his loue " a gyant for her wit."

6 [Ben] Jonson told Drummond "That S[ir] J [ohn] Davies played in ane Epigrame on Drayton's, who in a sonnet, concluded his Mistress might [have] been the Ninth [Tenth] Worthy; and said, he used a phrase like Dametas in [Sir Philip Sidney's] Arcadia, who said For wit his Mistresse might be a gyant." "Notes of Ben Jonson's conversations with William Drummond, of Hawthornden,' p. 15 (Shakespere Society). The sonnet by Drayton, which our author here ridicules, is as follows:

"TO THE CELESTIALL NUMBERS.

"Vnto the World, to Learning, and to Heauen,
Three Nines there are, to euery one a Nine,

One Number of the Earth, the other both Diuine;

One Woman now makes three odde numbers euen :

Nine Orders first of Angels be in Heauen,
Nine Muses doe with Learning still frequent,
These with the Gods are euer Resident;
Nine Worthy Ones vnto the World were giuen:
My Worthy One to these Nine Worthies addeth,
And my faire Muse one Muse vnto the Nine,
And my good Angell (in my soule Diuine)
With one more Order these Nine Orders gladdeth :

My Muse, my Worthy, and my Angell, then,

Makes euery one of these three Nines a Ten."

7 Isham reads badly 'woorthly.' 'Laide.' G. Idea: Sonnet 18 ed. 8vo. n. d. D.