To know the heads of danger, where 'tis fit
To bend, to break, provoke, or suffer it;

Duggs. How! I go to man, and corrupt my milk, thou dried eel-skin!

Kecks. You, mistress wet-eel-by-the-tail, if you have a mind to it. Such a thing has been done.

Duggs. I defy thee, I, thou onion-eater! And, now I think on't, my lady shall know of your close diet, your cheese and chibbols, with your fresh tripe and garlick,-it makes a sweet perfume in the nursery!

Hold. Ay, by my faith-but pack you both hence-here comes a wise man will tell us another tale.

Enter a Mathematician.*

"Tis clear, in heaven all good aspects agree
To bless with wonder this nativity;

But what needs this our star so far extend
When here a star shines that doth far transcend
In all benevolence, and sways more power
To rule his whole life, than the star his hour?
For in a prince are all things, since they all
To him as to their end in nature fall,

As from him being their fount, all are produced,

Heaven's right through his, where'er he rules, diffused:
This child then from his bounty shall receive,
Judgment in all things, what to take or leave;
Matter to speak, and sharpness to dispute
Of every action, both the root and fruit,
Truly foreseeing in his each fit deed,
Wisdom to attempt and spirit to proceed;
In mirth ingenious he shall be, in game
He shall gain favour, in things serious, fame.
Dissensions shall he shun and peace pursue,
Friendships, by frailties broke, he shall renew.
Virtue by him shall gain agen her youth,
And joy as much therein as in her truth.
All helpless chances he shall free indure,
And, perils past, at length survive secure ;

* i. e. an astrologer.

All this, my lord, is valour: this is yours,'

And was your father's, all

your ancestors!

This is the song wherewith his fates are full,
That spin his thread out of their whitest wool."

This is followed by a ridiculous Song describing a battle between the Nurses within.

The Watermen of the Black-Friars are then introduced into the Hall, with a

SONG.

"They say it is merry when gossips do meet,
And more to confirm it, in us you may see't,
For we have well tasted the wine in the street,
And yet we make shift to stand on our feet.

As soon as we heard the Prince would be here,
We knew by his coming we should have good cheer ;
A boy for my lady!-thus every year,

Cry we-for a girl will afford us but beer."

Two or three others follow. Then this

SONG.

"Fresh as the day, and new as are the hours,
Our first of fruits, that is the prime of flowers,
Bred by your breath on this low bank of ours,
Now in a garland by the Graces knit
Upon this obelisk, advanced for it,

We offer as a circle the most fit,

To crown the years, which you begin, great king, And you with them, as father of our spring.”

And the piece concludes with a Song of several stanzas, by a kind of good spirit, or genius, from the earl's family seat in the North.

2 All this, my lord, is valour: this is yours, &c.] This was written many years before the earl of Newcastle, (or, as the

Who durst live great 'mongst all the colds and

heats

Of human life; as all the frosts and sweats
Of fortune, when or death appear'd, or bands:
And valiant were, with or without their hands.

XC.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE

LORD HIGH TREASURER OF ENGLAND,'

AN EPISTLE MENDICANT,

MDCXXXI.

MY LORD,

Poor wretched states, prest by extremities,
Are fain to seek for succours and supplies
Of princes aids, or good men's charities.

Disease the enemy, and his ingineers,
Want, with the rest of his conceal'd compeers,
Have cast a trench about me, now five years,

And made those strong approaches by false brays,
Redouts, half-moons, horn-works, and such close

ways,

The muse not peeps out, one of hundred days;

MS. terms him, of Mansfield) took up arms in the defence of his king and country. Jonson knew his patrons; and it may be added, to the credit of his discernment, that few of them belied his praises.

Richard, lord Weston. He was appointed to this office in 1628, and was succeeded at his death, in 1634, by a commission, at the head of which was Laud. This Epistle enables us to ascertain the commencement of that illness which, after a tedious and painful conflict of eleven years, terminated the poet's life in 1637.

But lies block'd up, and straiten'd, narrow'd in, Fix'd to the bed and boards, unlike to win Health, or scarce breath, as she had never been;

Unless some saving honour of the crown,
Dare think it, to relieve, no less renown,
A bed-rid wit, than a besieged town.

XCI.

TO THE KING

ON HIS BIRTH-DAY,

Nov. 19, MDCXXXII.

AN EPIGRAM ANNIVERSARY.

This is king Charles his day. Speak it, thou Tower, Unto the ships, and they from tier to tier, Discharge it 'bout the island in an hour,

As loud as thunder, and as swift as fire. Let Ireland meet it out at sea, half-way, Repeating all Great Britain's joy and more, Adding her own glad accents to this day, Like Echo playing from the other shore. What drums or trumpets, or great ordnance can, The poetry of steeples, with the bells, Three kingdoms mirth, in light and aëry man, Made lighter with the wine. All noises else, At bonfires, rockets, fire-works, with the shouts That cry that gladness which their hearts would pray,

Had they but grace of thinking, at these routs, On the often coming of this holy-day :

And ever close the burden of the song,
Still to have such a Charles, but this Charles

long.

The wish is great; but where the prince is such, What prayers, people, can you think too much!

XCII.

ON THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

AND VIRTUOUS LORD WESTON,

LORD HIGH TREASURER OF ENGLAND, UPON THE DAY HE WAS MADE EARL OF PORTLAND, Feb. 17, MDCXXXII.

TO THE ENVIOUS.*

Look up, thou seed of envy, and still bring
Thy faint and narrow eyes to read the king
In his great actions: view whom his large hand
Hath raised to be the PORT unto his LAND!
Weston! that waking man, that eye of state!
Who seldom sleeps! whom bad men only hate!
Why do I irritate or stir up thee,

Thou sluggish spawn, that canst, but wilt not see!

To the Envious.] Weston had many enemies, and his sudden rise was not seen without jealousy. Charles appears to have entertained an extraordinary regard for him, probably on account of his being warmly recommended by the duke of Buckingham, whose favour, however, he is said to have outlived. The treasurer seems to have been an imprudent, improvident man; with considerable talents for business, but fickle and irresolute. He died, lord Clarendon says, without being lamented, "bitterly mentioned by those who never pretended