Parts than the Italian could do, with his door." Of miming, gets the opinion of a wit. From friendship, is its own fame's architect : That, seeming praises, are yet accusations. Described it's thus: defined would you it have? Then, the town's Honest Man's her errant'st knave. CXVI. TO SIR WILLIAM JEPHSON. EPHSON, thou man of men, to whose lov'd All name, gentry yet owe part of their best flame : So did thy virtue inform, thy wit sustain That age, when thou stood'st up the master-brain : In men, but every bravest was the best; 6 Doth play more Parts than the Italian could do, with his door.] An allusion to an Italian, then well known for his performances and tricks of art: the person meant, I believe, is taken notice of in king James's Dæmonology, and is there called Scoto: "The devil will learn them many juglary tricks at cards, dice, and such like, to deceive mens senses thereby, and such innumerable false practics, which are proved by over many in this age; as they who are acquainted with that Italian called Scoto, yet living, can report." Lib. i. p. 105. Old Iniquity, means the character called the Vice, in our ancient Moralities: it has a place in our author's comedy, The Devil is an Ass. WHAL. This is an excellent piece, full of strong sense, and just satire. It will serve for all times. That blood not minds, but minds did blood adorn ; Them in, if not from thee, or must commit CXVII. ON GROINE. ROINE, come of age, his state sold out of hand For's whore: Groine doth still occupy his land. CXVIII. ON GUT. UT eats all day and letchers all the night, CXIX. TO SIR RALPH SHELTON.7 OT he that flies the court for want of clothes, At hunting rails, having no gift in oaths, Cries out 'gainst cocking, since he cannot bet, Shuns press-for two main causes, pox and debt, 7 This is the person who engaged with Mr. Hayden, in the mad With me can merit more, than that good man, And in their error's maze thine own way know: He that, but living half his age, dies such,8 CXX. AN EPITAPH ON SALATHIEL PAVY, A CHILD OF QUEEN EEP with me, all you that read And know, for whom a tear you shed frolic of rowing up Fleet ditch to Holborn, celebrated, page 233; but I know nothing more of him. 8 He that, but living half his age, dies such, Makes the whole longer than 'twas given him, much.] Qui sic vel medio finitus vixit in ævo Longior huic facta est quam data vita fuit. Mart. lib. viii. 27. 9 Salathiel Pavy.] The subject of this beautiful epitaph acted in Cynthia's Revels, and in the Poetaster, 1600 and 1601, in which year he probably died. The poet speaks of him with interest and affection, and it cannot be doubted that he was a boy of extraordinary talents. Many of the children of St. Paul's, as well as of the queen's chapel, evinced great powers on the stage, at a very early period of life, and not a few of them became the pride and ornament of it in riper years. Our times have witnessed several attempts to bring children (pert 'Twas a child that so did thrive As heaven and nature seem'd to strive Years he number'd scarce thirteen Yet three fill'd zodiacs had he been And did act, what now we moan, As, sooth, the Parcæ thought him one, So, by error to his fate 1 They all consented; boys and girls) upon the stage, as prodigies, which have all terminated, as might reasonably be expected, in disappointment and disgrace. It should be recollected that the "children" of the old theatre were strictly educated, and that they were opposed only to one another. Nothing so monstrous ever entered into the thoughts of the managers of those days as taking infants from the cock-horse, and setting them to act with men and women.—And yet it would be unjust, perhaps, to attribute the present encouragement of this degrading exhibition wholly to the managers: if they took advantage of the gross folly of that many-headed beast, the town, and indulged its vitiated taste, they did little more than their precarious situation seemed to warrant.-Let not Mr. Kemble, however, be defrauded of his due praise: but for his judicious and welltimed humour in arranging the characters of the Provoked Husband in such a manner as to place the absurdity of the attempt in the most glaring light, that forward baby, Miss Mudie, would have disgraced and delighted all London for the season, instead of being sent back to her dirt pies, and her doll, after a single exposure. So, by error to his fate Ille ego sum Scorpus, clamosi gloria Circi, Mart. lib. x. epig. 53. Lachesis (Dr. Jortin observes) did not take away Scorpus out of But viewing him since, alas, too late! And have sought, to give new birth, But being so much too good for earth, CXXI. TO BENJAMIN RUDYERD.2 UDYERD, as lesser dames to great ones use, My lighter comes to kiss thy learned muse; Whose better studies while she emulates, She learns to know long difference of their states. envy, but by mistake. She concluded that one who had gained so many prizes at the chariot-races was an old man, and in consequence of this error, took him in the flower of youth. I fancy, therefore, that Martial wrote, "Inscia quem Lachesis," &c. Tracts, vol. ii. p. 273. There can be no doubt that Jonson read Inscia; and it seems highly probable that Jortin was led to the emendation by this epitaph, which was always well known. 2 Sir Benjamin Rudyerd (for subsequently to the writing of this epigram, he received the honour of knighthood) was, as Granger says, "an accomplished gentleman, and an elegant scholar." It is no small proof of his worth, that he lived on terms of intimacy with the earl of Pembroke, to whose poetical trifles his own were subjoined, in a little volume which came out in 1660. In the troubles which led to the usurpation of the Parliament, sir Benjamin took an active part, and spoke often on the side of moderation and justice, particularly on the question of excluding the bishops from the Upper House. He was the last person who held the office of "Surveyor of the Court of Wards and Liveries," and, when that court was abolished in 1646, received a grant of land and money as a compensation for his place. He died in 1658, and, as may be conjectured from his epitaph, which he wrote himself, in the practice of that piety and virtue which had formed the |