epigrams, continued long, will appear from a piece of some humour, called "An Inquisition against Paper-persecutors," written in 1625". But of this, more distinct proofs will appear in the progress of our history. It must not be forgotten, that a second impression of an English version of Ariosto's Satires, which contain many anecdotes of his life and circumstances, and some humorous tales, and which are marked with a strong vein of free reprehension, but with much less obscenity than might be expected from satires written by the author of ORLANDO FURIOSO, appeared in long verse, by an anonymous translator, in 1611'. I believe these satires are but little known or esteemed by the Italians. For the sake of juxtaposition, I will here anticipate in throwing together the titles of some others of the most remarkable collections of satires and satirical epigrams, published between 1600 and 1620, mean Others that nere search'd newe-born vice at all, But the Seuen Deadly Sinnes in generall, Drawne from the tractate of some cloyster'd frier, Will needs write Satyres, and in raging fire Exasperate their sharpe poeticke straine; And thinke they haue touch'd it, if they raile at Spaine, The pope, and devill. . . . . The reader will recollect, that Saint Paul's church-yard and its environs, in which was Little-Britain, abounded with shops and stalls of booksellers; that its steeple was thrown down by lightning, in 1561; and that a general reparation of the church was now become a great object of the nation. f "Ariosto's Seven Planets gouerning Italie. Or, his Satyrs in seuen famous discourses, &c. Newly corrected and augmented, &c. With a new edition of three most excellent Elegies, written by the same Lodovico Ariosto." By W. Stansby, 1611. 4to. I believe this title gave rise to the following:-" A Booke of the seuen planets, or seuen wandring motions of William Alablaster's wit, retrograded or removed by John Racster." Lond. 1598. 4to. There is an edition of this translation of Ariosto's Satires, 1608. See supr. p. 388. It is more certain that Ariosto's title gave rise to "The Philosophers Satyrs, or the Philosophers Seven Satyrs, alluding to the seuen Planets," &c. By Robert Anton of Magdalene college, Cambridge. Lond. 1616. 4to. It may be sufficient to have mentioned these Satires here. [In 1617 they were entitled "Vices Anatomie scourged and corrected, in new Satires lately written by R. A. of Magdalen College, Cambridge."-PARK.] ing to consider hereafter those that best deserve, more critically and distinctly. The COURT OF CONSCIENCE, or Dick Whipper's Sessions*, appeared in 1607. More fooles yet, a collection of Epigrams in quarto, by R. S., perhaps Richard Smith+, in 1610. The most elegant and wittie Epigrams of sir James Harrington, the translator of Ariosto, in four books, in 1611. Jonson's EPIGRAMS, in 1616. Henry Fitzgeoffrey's SATIRES in 1617. PHILOMYTHIE or PHIlomythologie, wherein outlandish birds, beasts, and fishes, are taught to speake true English plainely, By T. Scor, gentleman, including satires in long English verse, in 1616. The second part of PHILOMYTHIE, containing certaine Tales of True Libertie, False Friendship, Power United, Faction and Ambition, by the same, 1616'. Certaine Pieces of this age parabolized, by the same, in 1616m. George Wither, of Manydowne in Hampshire, educated at Magdalene College in Oxford, and at Lincoln's inn, afterwards an officer in Cromwell's army, and popular even among the puritans as a poet, published ABUSES stript and whipt, or Satyricall Essayes. Divided into two Bookes, in 1613". For this publication, date 1600. But I have not seen any printed copy with an earlier date than 1615.-PARK.] 1 Jonson's epigrams, as we have seen, are mentioned with Davies's, by Fitzgeoffrey, 1601. Affan. Lib. ii. Signat. E. 4. DAVISIOS lædis mihi, JONSONIOSQUE lacessis. I have seen "N. Britland's Boure of Delight, contayning Epigrams, Pastorals, Sonnets," &c. Printed for W. Jones, 1597. But these Epigrams do not so properly belong to the class before us. The same may be said of the Epigrams of George Turberville, and some few others. [With a Dedication signed Richard West.-PARK.] † [Mr. Warton's copy, or that which he had seen, was probably imperfect; since the name of Roger Sharpe unveils the initials in the title-page.-PARK.] Many of Harrington's Epigrams were certainly written before. Perhaps there was an older edition. In Fitz-geoffrey's Latin Epigrams, called Affania, published 1601, there is an Epigram to Harrington, with these lines, preferring him to Haywood or Davies, as an English epigrammatist. Signat. B. 3. Sive arguta vago flectas epigrammata torno, Sive Britanna magis sive Latina velis; At tu Biblidicis malis comes ire Camenis, Illis HAYWOODOS DAVISIOSQUE præis. And in sir John Stradling's Epigrams, published 1607, there is one to Harrington with this title, Lib. i. p. 32. "Ad D. I. Harrington, Equitem doctissimum, de quibusdam epigrammatis Stradlingo, equiti, dono missis, 1590." And in Stradling's epigrams, we have two of Harrington's translated into Latin. [A MS. copy of Harrington's Epigrams, in the Public Library Cambridge, contains nine or ten epigrams which had not appeared in print till they were inserted by Mr. Reed in the European Magazine for Jan. 1789. The above MS. copy bears Of this the first Davies, Harrington says, "This Haywood [the epigrammatist] for his prouerbs and epigrams is not yet put down by any of our country, though one [Davies in the margin] doth indeede come neare him, that graces him the more in saying he put him downe," &c.—" A new Discovrse of a stale svbiect, called the Printed Metamorphosis of Ajax," &c. 1596. 12mo. Signat. D. 2. Again, "But as my good friend M. Dauies saide of his Epigrams, that they were made like doublets in Birchen-lane, for euery one whom they will serue," &c. Ibid. Signat. I. In Hayman's Quodlibets, or Epigrams, there is one, "To the reverend, learned, and acute, Master Charles Fitz-Geoffrey, bachelor in diuinity, my especiall kind friend, and most excellent poet." He compares him to Homer, being blind of one eye. B. i. 111. p. 18. This was Charles the author of the Latin Epigrams, above-mentioned. which was too licentious in attacking establishments, and has a vein of severity unseasoned by wit, he suffered an imprisonment for many months in the Marshalsea. Not being debarred the use of paper, pens and ink*, he wrote during his confinement, an apology to James the First, under the title of A SATYRE, printed the following year, for his censures of the government in his first book. But, like Prynne in the pillory railing at the bishops, instead of the lenient language of recantation and concession, in this piece he still perseveres in his invectives against the court. Being taken prisoner in the rebellion by the roy. alists, he was sentenced to be hanged; but sir John Denham the poet prevailed with the king to spare his life, by telling his majesty, So long as Wither lives, I shall not be the worst poet in England. The revenge of our satirist was held so cheap, that he was lampooned by Taylor the water-poet. Richard Brathwayte, a native of Northumberland, admitted at Oriel college, Oxford, in 1604, and afterwards a student at [Such was the unsubdued addiction of Wither to poetical composition, that when he was debarred the use of paper, pens, and ink, during a subsequent confinement in the Tower, he continued to write verses with ochre on three trenchers, which he afterwards printed in a tract entitled "A Proclamation," &c. See the Brit. Bibliogr. p. 434.-PRICE.] • Reprinted 1615, 1622, 8vo. P The titles of Wither's numerous pieces may be seen in Wood, Ath. Oxon. i. 392. seq. He was born in 1588, and died in 1667. He has left some anecdotes of the early part of his life, in the first book of his Abuses. The Occasion, p. 1. seq. In Hayman's Epigrams, 1628, there is one, "To the accute Satyrist, Master George Wither." Epigr. 20. And 21. p. 61. 66 Here might be mentioned, Essayes and Characters, ironicall and instructive, &c. By John Stephens the younger, of Lincolnes inne, Gent." Lond. 1615. 12mo. Mine is a second impression. Many of the Essayes are Satires in verse. There is also a collection of Satyrical poems called the Knave of Clubbs, 1611. another, the Knave of Harts, 1612. and More Knaves yet, the Knaves of Spades and Diamonds; with new additions, 1612. 4to. Among Mr. Capell's Shaksperiana, at Trinity college, Cambridge, are "Dobson's Dry Bobs," 1610. bl. lett. 4to. and Heath's Epigrams, 1610. Svo. [Those Epigrammatic Knaves appear to have been the fabrication of Samuel Rowlands. The first of them has his initials, and consists of satirical characters. The second is undesignated, and comprises Knaves of all kinds, with several sarcastic appendages. The third has an introductory Epistle, with the name of this versatile author at length, and chiefly is com Cambridge, chiefly remembered, if remembered at all, as one of the minor pastoral poets of the reign of James the First, published in 1619, "NATVRES embassie, or the Wilde-mans measures, danced naked, by twelve Satyres, with sundry others," &c.9.-Donne's SATIRES were written early in the reign of James the First, though they were not published till after his death, in the year 1633. Jonson sends one of his Epigrams to Lucy Countess of Bedford, with Mr. DONNES SATYRES'. It is conjectured by Wood, that a lively satirical piece, on the literature of the times, which I have already cited, with Donne's initials, and connected with another poem of the same cast, is one of Donne's juvenile performances. I had supposed John Davies. But I will again exhibit the whole title of the Bodleian edition :-" A Scourge for paperpersecutors, by I. D. With an Inquisition against paper-persecutors, by A. H. London, for H. H. 1625," in quarto. But Wood had seen a detached edition of the former piece. He says, "Quære, whether John Donne published A Scourge for Paper Persecutors, printed in quarto, tempore Jacobi primi. The running title at the top of every page is PAPER'S COMPLAINT, in three sheets and a half. The date on the title pared out at the bottoms." This must have been an older edition, than that in which it appears connected, from similarity of subject, with its companion, An Inquisition against paper-persecutors, in the year 1625, as I have just noticed. Ath. Oxon. i. 556. [See above, p. 462.] He thus ridicules the minute commemorations of unhistorical occurrences in the Chronicles of Hollinshead and Stowe. Signat. B. 3. Some chroniclers that write of kingdoms' Do so absurdly sableize my white Bald may games, beare baytings, and Made to some prince, by some poore cor- And if a bricke-bat from a chimney falls, Owen's idea of an epigram points out the notion which now prevailed of this kind of composition, and shows the propriety of blending the epigrams and satires of these times under one class. A satire, he says, is an epigram on a larger scale. Epigrams are only satires in miniature. An epigram must be satirical, and a satire epigrammatical'. And Jonson, in the Dedication of his EPIGRAMS to Lord Pembroke, was so far from viewing this species of verse, in its original plan, as the most harmless and inoffensive species of verse, that he supposes it to be conversant above the likenesse of vice and facts, and is conscious that epigrams carry danger in the sound. Yet in one of his epigrams, addressed TO THE MEERE English CensvRER, he professes not exactly to follow the track of the late and most celebrated epigrammatists. To thee my way in EPIGRAMMES seemes newe, This, however, discovers the opinion of the general reader*. Of the popularity of the epigram about the year 1600, if no specimens had remained, a proof may be drawn, together with evidences of the nature of the composition, from Marston's humorous character of Tuscus, a retailer of wit. But roome for Tuscus, that iest-moungering youth, Discourse of what you will, he straight can fit Robert Hayman above quoted thus recommends his own Epigrams. Quodlibets, B. iv. 19. p. 61. Epigrams are like Satyrs, rough with- Epigr. xviii. Freeman also celebrates Haywood wrote Epigrams, and so did Reader, thou doubtest utrum horum mavis. Our bastard eglets dare not see the sun So boldly as your true-borne babes have donne. Yet bee it knowne, wee dare look tow❜rds MSS. Sloan. 1489. 1889. 1947.-PARK.] In Dunbar's Latin Epigrams, published 1616, there is a compliment to Davies of Hereford, author of the Scourge of Folly, as a Satirist or Epigrammatist. Cent. xx. p. 66. * [Hust, in his "Clara Stella," has the following odd tribute, addressed "To one that asked me why I would write an English epigram after Ben Jonson." How! dost thou ask me why my ventrous pen Durst write an English epigram after Ben! Oh! after him is manners:-though it would 'Fore him have writ, if how it could have told. Hust's Cl. St. 1650. p. 33.-PARK.] |