There magpy teacheth them to chat,
And cookow soone doth hit them pat.

When winter comes our Eues lacke heate,
And cast off Adam olde;

And then hot sprites must needs be had,

To put in heat to colde;

To townes they goe, within a while,

Looke home old Adam.

Marke this wile

The holy whore no fellow hath,
The Pruritane is shee;

That midst her praiers sends her eie,
The purest man to see;

The

purer man, the better grace,

The clearest hue the cherefulst face.

Sprite moues her first to wish him wel,
And discipline decaied.

Doth make her seeke so far from wood,
To haue God's word obaied;

I'le tel you plaine, the matter is fresh,
They gin in sprite, but end in flesh.

A displing rod must needs be had;
Good Martins say not so;

This displing rod, will make you nod,
And cause your heads to grow:

Get home, keepe house, ware tounes so pure:
Their zeale is hot, they'le plaie you sure.

When home you come, ioine faith & loue,
Let priest his portion haue,

Let neighbours field be as it was,

Cast off your garments braue; Loue God and gospel as you ought, And let that goe, that was il sought.

Must

Must churches doune to maintaine pride
And make your sailes to swel?
Few mighty subiects fit a state,

A few doe verie wel.

Crack me this nut, thou gentle blood,
Whose father was but Robin-hood.

Shall prince say no, and pearlesse men
Detest this wrangling broode;
Who neither prince nor peere will knowe
In this their traiterous moode?

And do they liue, and liue they stil
Their poisoned cup of gal to fil?

Martin's farewel, and let's be friends,
And thanke God for his word,
And prince and peers, and peace and al,
And skaping forraine sword;

Yet no man's sword could strike so sore
As Martin's would. I'le say no more."

This is succeeded by six ten-line stanzas of a strange epithetical compound of garbled sentences, with a studied phraseology, in part imitating the Scotish language. A few lines will suffice.

“Thou caytif kerne, vncouth thou art, vnkist thou eke sal bec,
For aiming thus in coverture at prelatis hie in gree.

Thy spell is borrell, spokis bin blunt, thy sconce rude rusticall,
But to the heefor fell and fierce short hornis done eft befall.-St. 1.

Quhat zeale were thilke that kingis gwerdons, whae are iclad in clay,
Quhilk they bequeathit to the kirke as monuments for aie,

Should be so robd and ransackit, contrair to their behests,

To make new vpstart lacks Lor-Danes, with coin to cram their chests? That they whaes fathers were bot kernis, knauis, pesants, clownis, & booris,

Moght perke as paddocks, ligg in soft, & swath their paramoris.—St. 3.

Thilke

Thilke men of elde that han from God the sprite of prophecie,
Quhilk thou dost reke, did not as thou, spekes scoffes and ribaudrie.
Weil lettred clarkis endite thair warkes (quoth Horace) slow & geasoun,
Bet thou can wise forth buike by buike at euery spurt & seasoun.
For men of litrature t'endite so fast, them doth not sitte,
Enaunter in them, as in thee, thair pen outrun thair witt;

The shaftis of foolis are soone shotte out, bot fro the merke they stray,
So art thou glibbe to guide and taunte, but rouest all the way.
Quhen thou hast parbrackt out thy gorge, & shot out all thy arrowes,
See that thou hold thy clacke, & hang thy quiver on the gallowes."

The epigrams have more abuse than. wit.

St. 5

"New-fangled bores I thought to terme the birdes of Martin's nest,
But that I see in getting boies, like men they doe their best.
The veriest knaves cheese Pruritans, and Martinists are found;
And why? they saie where sin was great, there grace will most abound.”

The merit or demerit of controversial publications is seldom a matter worth inquiry; their ephemerical purpose served, they are generally destroyed and forgotten. In the present instance, tracts that once created an universal ferment in this kingdom, now only occur among the rarest preservations of chance, and the most industrious research will not gratify the collector with obtaining possession of the whole pro and con. Literary curiosities they must remain while the history of the press forms a prominent feature in that of our country; but of their origin the following lines give such an indifferent description, as to leave that scarcity unregretted by general readers.

"If any mervaile at the man, and doe desire to see,

The stile and phrase of Martin's booke, come learn it here of me.

Holde my cloke boy, chill haue a vling at Martin, O the boore,
And if his horse play like him well, of such he shall haue store.
He thus bumfeges his bousing mates, and who is Martin's mate?
that the steale counters were knoune, chood catch them by the pate,

Th

Th' vntauorie snuffes first iesting booke, though clownish, knauish was,
But keeping still one stile, he prooues a sodden headed asse.

Beare with his ingramnesse awhile, his seasoned wainscot fate,
That brought that godly cobler Cliffe, fór to disproue his grace.

But, O, that godly cobler Cliffe, as honest an olde lad,
As Martin (O the libeller) of hangbyes ever had:
If I berime thy worshipnes, as thou beliest thy betters,
For railing see which of vs two shall be the greatest getters.
But if in flinging at such states, thy noddle be no slower ;
Thy brother hangman will thee make, he puide three asses lower,
Then mend these manners Martin, or in spite of Martin's nose,
My rithme shall be as dogrell, as vnlearned is thy prose.

These tinker termes, and barber's iestes first Tarleton on the stage,
Then Martin in his bookes of lies, hath put in euery page:
The common sort of simple swads, I can there state but pitie,
That will vouch safe, or deygne to laugh at libelles so vnwittie.
Let Martin thinke some pen as badde, some head to be as knavish,
Some tongue to be as glibbe as his, some rayling all as lavish;
And be content, if not because we know not where to find thee,
We hope to se thee where deserts of treason haue assign'd thee."
Conduit street.

J. H.

ART. VII. Supplement to some articles in the letters on Simon's coins.

SIR,

TO THE EDITOR OF CENSURA' LITERARIA.

I now find that the second tom. of Kircher's dipus was published at Rome in 1653, but as the transmission of books from foreign countries was not then so quick as it has been since, it is still very possible that Walton might know nothing of the contents of that book when he published his own in 1657. I find

See Herbert, p. 1687.

however

however that the coins of Simon had been made known to the public before the appearance of Kircher's book by a Jew of the name of Moses Alaschar; for that book of Alaschar is quoted by Morinus in his tract de Samarit. pentat, p. 209, which was published as early as 1631 it does not however appear whether Alaschar had or not discovered the name of Simon on them, but he had deciphered the legend of liberation of Zion, yet this alone was not sufficient to prove to Walton that they were coined since the captivity.

:

All legends, which had been found on Jewish coins before Alaschar, were only shekel of Israel or Jerusalem the holy, and they were of the larger kinds called shekels, which are now generally conceived to be all of them forgeries by the Jews to impose on Europeans, who were studious of Jewish antiquities: so that the too confident assertions of Scaliger, Walton, and Prideaux, were founded merely on error, or at best on coins not so sufficiently authenticated as those of Simon have been since.

Hence we see how very slowly truth comes to light; but for the examiner of Mr. Hurwitz to remain under such an old error, and make use of an exploded argument after better evidence and more certain and later facts have been laid before the public, is less excusable. As to Prideaux it seems scarcely possible, but that he must have known the name of Simon to have been found on the only Jewish coins now esteemed genuine ; since I have pointed out so many authors by whom that name is mentioned before 1715 as found on such coins: his omission then of all notice of them seems to have arisen from his conviction, that coins struck under