Our gracious Pardon too, wee here proclaim
To all, that shall or will embrace the same:

Before that Cynthia with her borrowed light

Shall three times fill her Globe; at this he sigh'd

And wept again; but off the Army went

For Loyal, Royal Orford now intent.

We have sometimes heard of the fatal effects of fear; here is recorded another instance of the same:

A Cornish Foot-man slipt and got a fall,
As hee was running nigh a Garden wall,
Even at that time, that a thick flight of shot,
Came whistleing o're his head, hee swore by Got
That hee was slain: and panting there hee laid,

For Saints and Souls, desiring his comrade

Him there to bury: but to search his wound,

A Surgeon came; behold! none could be found.
They bid him rise, and fight, for nought him ail'd,
But all their words with him nothing prevail'd:
Rather, said hee, Inter mee here alive,
Then I should in such dangerous times survive.
Cold grew his limbs, his pulse beat weak, his breath
Fetch'd thick, at length hee dies, for fear of Death.

"A Table of the most remarkable passages contained in the Book" at the end, concludes the volume.

There is an account of this work by Mr. Park in the Restituta, vol. iii. p. 331, in which the contents of each of the eight books are given at length, and in which he speaks of only one copy of this publication having been seen by him. Nassau's copy, pt. i. No. 911, sold for 31. 38.; Bright's, No. 1433, 37.; Skegg's, No. 420, 51.

Collation: Sig. A, four leaves; B to N 4 in eights.

Bound by Charles Lewis. In Crimson Morocco, gilt leaves.

COPLAND, (ROBERT.) The Hye way to the Spyttel Hous. Coloph. Enprynted at London in the Fletestrete at ye Rose garland, by Robert Copland. n.d. 4to, blk. lett. pp. 40.

A book not more rare than it is curious and entertaining, as furnishing us with some amusing descriptions of the manners and customs of the lower

classes of society in the early part of the 16th century. It is very fully described by Herbert from the present copy, and his account is copied at length by Dibdin in his Typogr. Antiq., vol. iii. p. 122. The title as above is over a woodcut representing Copland between a porter and a beggar, of which the following is a facsimile.

The work is preceded by twelve seven-line stanzas, entitled "The prologue of Robert Copland compyler and prynter of this boke." It is written in verse in the form of a dialogue between Copland and the porter of the Spittal, which is supposed by Herbert to be the ancient hospital of St. Bartholomew in Smithfield, where Copland represents himself as having taken shelter in the porch on account of a violent snow storm:

As the tyme was

About a fourteny ght after Halowmas,

I chaunced to come by a certayn spyttel

Where I thought best to tary a lyttell
And vnder the porche for to take socour

To abyde the passyng of a stormy shour
For it had snowen and frosen very strong
With great ysesycles on the eues long
The sharp north wynd hurled bytterly

And with black cloudes darked was the sky.

The first page of the work contains a small woodcut descriptive of this circumstance of Copland taking shelter in the porch of the Spittal, and holding a dialogue with the porter, while on the other side is represented the interior with two beggars in bed; and over it are these two lines:

Here begynneth the casualyte

Of the entrance into hospytalytc.

Copland, while thus taking shelter, sees many beggars and others gathering at the gate of the Spittal, and enters into an animated conversation with the porter respecting the nature of the house and the character of its inmates, the latter describing those who are admitted therein, and those who are refused. In the course of the dialogue "are also described the various deceits and frauds of beggars and thieves; and in the end are exposed the vices and follies which, by their consequences, reduce mankind to poverty, and thereby the necessity of coming at last to an alms-house or hospital: such being the 'hye' or ready way thereunto." Among the various deceivers described by the porter, he says there

be two sortes most comonly

The one of them lyueth by open beggery,
Ragged and lowsy, with bag, dysh, and staf,
And euer haunteth among such ryf raf;
One tyme to this spyttall, another to that
Prolyng, and pochyng to get somwhat
At euery doore lumpes of bread, or meat;

For yf the staf in his hand ones catche heat
Than farewell labour, and hath suche delyte

That thryft and honesty fro hym is quyte:
And in suche mysery they lyue day by day
That of very nede they must come this way.
¶ Copland.

Of the other now, what is theyr estate?

Porter.

By my fayth nyghtyngales of Newgate :

These ben they that dayley walkes and jettes,
In theyr hose trussed rounde to theyr doublettes,
And say, good maysters, of your charyte,

Helpe vs poore men that come from the se,
From the Bonaventure we were cast to lande

God it knowes as poorly as we stande!

And sōtyme they say that they were take in Fraūce
And had ben there uii. yeres in duraunce;
In Muttrell, in Brest, in Tourney or Tyrwyn,
In Morlays, in Cleremont, or in Hedyn;
And to theyr countrees they haue ferre to gone,
And amonge them all peny haue they none.
Now good mennes bodyes wyll they say then
For Goddes sake helpe to kepe vs true men!
Or elles they say they haue in pryson be

In newgate, the kynges benche, or marchalse,
As many true men take by suspecyon,

And were quitte by proclamacyon

And yf ony axe, what country men they be?

And lyke your maystershyp, of the north all thre,

Or of Chesshyre, or elles of Cornewale,

Or where they lyst, for to gable and rayle;

And may perchaunce the one is of London,

The other of Yorke, and the thyrde of Hampton.

And thus they lewter in euery way and strete

In townes and chyrches where as people mete
In lanes and patthes, and at eche crosse-way
There do they prate, bable, lye and praye.

He then alludes to others who represent themselves as "poore scholers" from Oxford or Cambridge,

that dayly syng and pray

With Aue Regina, or De profundis,
Quem terra Ponthus, and Stella maris;
At euery doore there they foot and frydge

And say they come fro Oxford or Cambrydge
And be poore scolers, and haue no maner thyng
Nor also frendes to kepe them at lernyng;
And so do lewtre only for crust and crum
With staffe in hand, and fyst in bosum ;
Passyng tyme so, bothe day and yere,

As in theyr legend I purpose shall appere
An other tyme after my fantasy.

There is next a very humorous description of a quack doctor, who pretends

Me non spek Englys by my fayt

My seruaunt spek you what me sayt.

And when his hostess demands

"out of what straunge land, or coost,
Cometh this gentylman ?" "forsothe, hostesse,
This man was borne in hethennesse,"
Sayth his seruant, and is a connyng man,
For all the seuen scyences surely he can ;
And is sure in Physyck and Palmestry,

In augury, sothsayeng, and vysenanry;
So that he can ryght soone espy

If ony be dysposed to malady
And therefore, can gyue suche medycyne,
That maketh all accesses to declyne
But surely yf it were knowen that he
Shold meddle with ony infyrmyte

Of comyn people, he myght gete hym hate,
And lose the fauour of euery great estate;
Howbeit of charyte, yet now and then

He wyll mynyster his cure on pore men,
No money he taketh, but all for Gods loue
Which by chaunce ye shall se hym proue.
Than sayth he, "qui speke my hostesse

Graund malady make a gret excesse ;
Dys infant rumpre ung grand postum
By got he ala mort, tuk vnder thum."
"What sayth he ?" sayth the good wyfe:
"Hostesse, he swereth, by his soule and lyfe
That this chyld is vexed with a bag

In his stomacke, as great as he may wag,
So that or two or thre days come about
It wyll choke hym withouten dout;
But than he sayth, except ye haue his read

This chyld therewith wyll sodeynly be dead.”
"Alas!" sayth she, "yf she loue it well

Now, swete mayster, gyve me your counsell,

For God's sake I aske it, and our lady,

And here is twenty shyllyngs by and by."
'Quid est ?" sayth he. "Forsoth she dooth offre
Viginti solidi, pour fournir vostre coffre :

To do your help," sayth this fals seruyture—

"Non, poynt d'argent," sayth he, "pardeu le non cure."