From ARMIN's Nest of Ninnies, 1608, 4to.

DESCRIPTION OF WILL SOMMERS,

WILL SOMMERS, borne in Shropshire, as some say,
Was brought to Greenwitch on a holy day,
Presented to the King; which Foole disdayn'd
To shake him by the hand, or else asham'd;
How er'e it was, as ancient people say,
With much adoe was won to it that day,
Leane he was, hollow-eyde, as all report,
And stoop he did too; yet in all the Court
Few men were more belov'd then was this Foole,
Whose merry prate kept with the king much rule.
When he was sad, the King and he would rime:
Thus Will exiled sadnesse many a time,

I could describe him as I did the rest,
But in my mind I do not think it best :

My reason this,- how er'e I doe descry him,
So many knew him, that I may belye him;
Therefore to please all people, one by one,
I hold it best to let that paines alone.

Onely thus much,—he was a poore man's friend,
And helpt the widdow often in the end.
The King would ever graunt what he did crave,
For well he knew Will no exacting knave:

But wisht the King to doe good deeds great store,
Which caus'd the Court to love him more and more.

Description of Jemy Camber, a Scotish fool.

FROM THE SAME.

THIS fat Foole was a Scot borne, and brought up
In Sterlin, twenty miles from Edinborough,
Who being but young, was for the King caught up,
Serv'd this King's father all his life time thorough.
A yard high and a nayle, no more his stature,
Smooth fac't, fayre spoken, yet unkinde by nature.

Two yards in compasse and a nayle, I reade,

Was he at forty yeeres, since when I heard not
Nor of his life or death, and further heede

Since I ne'er read, I looke not, nor regard not :
But what at that time Jemmy Camber was,
As I have heard I write, and so let passe.

His head was smalle, his hayre long on the same,
One eare was bigger than the other farre;
His forehead full, his eyes shin'd like a flame;

His nose flat, and his beard small, yet grew square;

His lips but little, and his wit was lesse,

But wide of mouth, few teeth I must confesse.

His middle thicke, as I have said before,

Indifferent thighes and knees, but very short; His legs be square, a foote long and no more; Whose very presence made the King much sport : And a pearle spoone he still wore in his cap, To eate his meate he lov'd, and got by hap.

A pretty little foote, but a big hand

On which he ever wore rings rich and good:

Backward well made as any in that land,

Though thicke, and he did come of gentle bloud:

But of his wisedome ye shall quickly heare,
How this fat Foole was made on every where.

Then follow some anecdotes of him, in prose.

In Ulysses upon Ajax, a tract, written soon after Harington's Metamorphoses of Ajax, 1596, one Rumsey is mentioned as my lord of Pembroke's jester.

THE following extract from a very scarce publication may supply an additional note to Mr. Dibdin's highly enriched edition of Sir Thomas More's Utopia.

"Quick-witted Sir Thomas Moore travel'd in a cleane contrarie province to grave father Erasmus, who did write a booke in commendation of Folly; for hee, seeing most commonwealths corrupted by ill custome, and that principalities were nothing but great piracies, which, gotten by violence and murther, were maintained by private undermining and bloodshed; that in the chiefest flourishing kingdomes there was no equal or wel divided weale one with another, but a manifest conspiracie of rich men against poore men, procuring their owne unlawfull commodities under the name and interest of the commonwealth; he concluded with himselfe to lay downe a perfect plot of a Commonwealth or Government, which he would intitle his UTOPIA."

The Young Gallants Whirligigg: or Youths Reakes, demonstrating the inordinate affections, absurd actions, and profuse expences, of vnbridled and affectated youth: with their extravagant courses, and preposterous progressions, and aversions. Together with the too often deare bought experience, and the rare, or too late regression and reclamation of most of them from their habituall ill customes, and unqualified manners. Compiled and written by F. L. [Dedication signed Fra. Lenton.]

London, printed by M. F. for Rob. Bostocke in Pauls Churchyard, 1629.

4to.

In his dedication to Sir Julius Cæsar, Knt. the author speaks of having "once belonged to the Innes of Court," and says he was "no usuall Poetizer, but to barre idlenesse, imployed that little talent the Muses conferr'd upon him, in this little tract."

A copy of this tract is preserved in the library of Sion College, which possibly may be unique. Lenton was the author of The Innes of Court anagrammatised, 1634, and Great Britain's Beauties, 1638; two poems of no very elevated cast or character, yet not without some ingenious particularities.

Phyala Lachrymarum, or a few friendly teares shed on the body of Mr. Nathaniel Weld, M. A. of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge. By W. Lathum, 1634.

12mo.

THE following poetical posy occurs in this scarce little production.

No gaudie Tulips here admitted be,
Emblemes of false faire-fained sanctitię,
Whose worth all outward is in shew alone,
But inward scent hath not, ne vertue none.

Bring bashfull Pinkes, in which is to discry
Sweet embleme of faire maiden-modestie,-
Which, though of flowers least, almost the field
For sweetnesse to the greatest need not yeeld.

Bring Hearts-ease store; oh! flower most blest of all,
Which all they weare, whom nothing can befall
Beyond their expectation ill, ne ought

So good, as to excesse to tempt their thought.

Bring Medway Cowslips, and deft Daffodillies;
The Country Primrose and all sorts of Lillies,
And Flowre-de-Luce (Le fleur de lise, more right)
Delicia flos, the flower of delight.

And last, a traile of winding Ivie let

Run all along, on either side beset

With sprigs of Daphnis, stain'd with drops of gold,
And olive-leaves that still with peace doth hold.