Alas! he will not close the weeping eye, Whiles fickle Fortune fann'd me with her wing, But now that she has chang'd her cozening face, He ne're was firmly seated that could fall. He then introduces a description of Philosophy, under the figure of "a woman of bright majesty," which will form as suitable a specimen of the poem as any other that can be selected: While thus I musing lay alone In smoaky rooms, their colour were; So climbing the degrees, to move From Earth below to Heaven above. Go, go, ye Sirens, go accurst And leave this sick man's cure to me. The poem is divided into five books, and is interspersed throughout with short lyrical songs in various measures, but none of them of sufficient worth or poetical merit to deserve quotation. The present copy is accompanied with the following autograph letter, signed Harry Coningesbye, addressed To St Thomas Hyde K and Baronet. Sr finding my selfe lost as to the splendour of my family, I thought my selfe bound in vindication of my selfe to deriue to posterity the true cause of its fatal ruine, and having for my owne alleuiation pleased my selfe with englishing this Consolatory, I haue prefixed the true, sad, yet glorious and honest deportment of my most deare father, and for that your house was once his, and his forefathers, I ernestly beg that you would please to allow this little booke a little roome in it, that it may there remaine as a record of the honest mind of S Weild hall, March 30th 1665. Your harty well-wisher and humble seruant, Weild or Wold Hall, in the parish of Shenley in Hertfordshire, was the place to which the widow of Thomas Coningsby and her son retired after the sale of North Mimms to the Hydes. Harry Coningsby married Hester Cambell, and was knighted by Charles II. The work appears to have been printed for the purpose of distribution among the friends of the translator, the loyalty of whose family brought upon them such heavy calamity. It is rare, and is unnoticed by either Lowndes or Watt. See full particulars of the Coningsby family, with pedigree, in Chauncey's Hist. of Hertfordshire, pp. 462-3, and Clutterbuck's ditto, vol. i. p. 444. Collation: Sig. A to N 4, in eights. In Brown Calf, marbled leaves. CONSCIENCE. Robin Conscience, or Conscionable Robin: His Progresse through Court, City, and Countrey: With his bad Entertainment at each severall place &c. [Woodcut on the title.] London. Sm. 8vo, blk. lett. pp. 16. [Imprint cut off.] One of the numerous small metrical pieces or chapbooks usually ascribed to the prolific pen of Martin Parker, the great ballad writer of the reigns of Charles I. and II. Its continued popularity is shewn by the frequent reprints of it which appeared from time to time, chiefly in black letter, and which by their daily wear and tear will account for its great scarceness. The earliest edition of it at present known is one in the Bodleian, printed by F. Coles, with the initials of the author, “M. P.," 1635, Svo, 11 leaves, unless it may be thought that the present one, of which the imprint is unfortunately cut off, is of an earlier date; but, as Parker did not begin to publish anything till 1632, this is not very probable. There is a woodcut on the lower half of the title, but as the author was in the habit in his chapbooks of using old worn out woodcuts which had been employed for other works, and as a portion of it has been lost in the present copy, it is difficult to make out its meaning or application. The tract commences without any prefix on page 3, and is written in the common three-line verse, with a rhyming termination, and is not without a certain merit from its satire and humour, as will be seen from the following short extracts from it: I first of all went to the Court, Conscience quoth one, be gone with speed, Thus banisht from the Court I went then running From them I fled with winged haste For Lawyers cannot me abide, Unto the City hyed I then, The shop-keepers that use deceit, me lame there. Having thus in his progress through the city visited Cheapside, the Exchange, Fish Street, Gracechurch Street, and various other places, Robin, seeing that wherever he goes, as soon as they discover him "they vanish,” says: I seeing all the City giuen To use Deceit in spight of Heauen To leaue their company I was driuen perforce then. So ouer London bridge in haste When I came there, I hop'd to find All sorts of men and women there, Finding that he did not succeed any better in the borough, he “left them in their wickedness, bewailing his bad success, and goes into the country to try what would befall him there," but visits the yeomen and farmers, and rich men of the world, with no better success: He that obserues, may somewhat spy And so I'le bring all to an end, And if that any gal'd Jade kick, Mongst honest folks that haue no lands, Mr. Collier has noticed in his Hist. Dram. Poet., vol ii. p. 402, a large fragment of an early Interlude with the title of Robin Conscience, the date of which appears to be somewhat uncertain, but is supposed to be very early in the reign of Elizabeth, or possibly even earlier, and it is not unlikely that the title of Parker's tract may have been taken from this Interlude, whicb, however, has nothing in common with its successor, and its loss is not to be regretted on the score of any literary merit. This little tract is very scarce, and from its satirical humour, and freedom from anything gross or improper, will merit reprinting. It consists of eight leaves only, including the title, printed very closely, containing nearly eleven verses on each page. - His CONSCIENCE. Robin Conscience: or, Conscionable Robin. Progresse through Court, City, and Countrey: With his Entertainment at each severall Place &c. London, Printed by T. F. for Fr. Coles and are to be sold at the signe of the Lambe in the Old Baily 1662. Sm. 8vo, blk. lett. pp. 24. Another edition of the same curious and entertaining tract in black letter. It has on Sig A 1 before the title, a worn out woodcut or frontispiece, intended we suppose to represent Robin Conscience, in a robe trimmed with ermine, holding a cap in his right hand, and a long staff in his left. On the next leaf is the title as above, with a well known cut intended as a view of the city, and Robin with his staff in the centre, and a windmill on a hill in the distance. On the reverse is another old familiar and often used cut of the courtier and the countryman resting on his staff. The verse begins on A 3, and does not vary much from that in the former impression. The present copy wants the last leaf B 4, containing one verse only, and probably some small ornament or woodcut, to fill up the page. It is one of the imperfect pieces from the curious Wolferstan collection, and has the usual signature "Frances Wolfrestan her book" on the title, of whose literary tastes we have made mention before, see p. 89. Parker published another similar tract to this in prose, called Harry White his Humour, 12mo, 163-, which was privately reprinted by Mr. Halliwell in 1851, 4to, but is inferior in merit and humour to Robin Conscience. See Collier's Bibliogr. Cat., vol. ii. p. 102. The present tract has been reprinted in the first vol. of the Harl. Miscell. This edition is equally scarce with the other, and a copy wanting the last leaf lately sold at Messrs. Sotheby and Co's for 17. 188. Collation: Title A 2; Sig. A to B. 4 in eights. Unbound. |