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VIRGIDEMIARUM.

LIB. IV.

BOOK IV.

SATIRE I.

Che baiar vuol, bai.

WHO dares upbraid these open rimes of mine
With blindfold Aquine's, or darke Venusine'?
Or rough-hew'ne Teretisius, writ in th' antique vain,
Like an old Satyr and new Flaccian?

Which who reads thrise, and rubs his rugged brow,
And deep indenteth every doubtfull row,
Scoring the margent with his blazing stars,
And hundreth crooked interlinears,

(Like to a merchant's debt-role new defac't,
When some crack'd Manour crost his book at last)
Should all in rage the curse-beat page out-rive,
And in ech dust-heape bury mee alive,
Stamping like Bucephall, whose slackned raynes
And bloody fet-lockes fry with seven men's braines :
More cruell than the cravon Satyre's ghost',
That bound dead-bones unto a burning post;
Or some more strait-lac'd juror of the rest,
Impannel'd of a Holy-Fax inquest*:

Yet well bethought, stoops downe and reads anew.
"The best lies low, and loaths the shallow view,"
Quoth old Eudemon, when his gout-swolne fist
Gropes for his double ducates in his chist":

Venusine-Venusia or Venusum, now Venosa, à town and principality of the kingdom of Naples, was the birth-place of Horace. So Juvenal, i. 51. Hæc ego non credam VENUSINA digna lucerná. E.

And deep IN DENTETH every doubtfull row.

The edition of 1599, followed by the Oxford, reads falsely intendeth.

› More cruell than the cravon Satyre's ghost.

I have not been able to discover the allusion. Craven, or cravent, formerly denoted a coward.

Holy-Fax inquest.

Fax antiently denoted hair. Possibly the reference may be to some inquest held on a holy relique of this nature.

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Then buckle close his carelesse lyds once more,
To pose the poore-blind snake of Epidaore".
That Lyncius may be match't with Gaulard's sight,
That sees not Paris for the houses' height;
Or wilie Cyppus, that can winke and snort
Whiles his wife dallyes on Mæcenas' skort":
Yet when hee hath my crabbed pamphlet red
As oftentimes as Philip hath beene dead,
Bids all the Furies haunt ech peevish line
That thus have rackt their friendly reader's eyne;
Worse than the Logogryphes of later times,
Or Hundreth Riddles shak't to sleeve-lesse rimes.
Should I endure these curses and dispight,
While no man's eare should glow at what I write ?
Labeo is whip't, and laughs mee in the face:
Why? for I smite, and hide the galled-place.
Gird but the Cynick's helmet on his head,
Cares hee for Talus, or his flayle of lead"?
Long as the craftie Cuttle lieth sure
In the blacke Cloud of his thicke vomiture,
Who list complaine of wronged faith or fame,
When hee may shift it to another's name?
Calvus can scratch his elbow and can smile,
That thrift-lesse Pontice bites his lip the while.
Yet I intended in that selfe devise,

To checke the churle for his knowne covetise.
Ech points his straight fore-finger to his friend,
Like the blind diall on the belfrey end.
Who turns it homeward, to say, This is I,
As bolder Socrates in the comedie?

But single out, and say once plat and plaine,
That coy Matrona is a curtezan;

Or thou false Crispus chokd'st thy welthy guest,
Whiles he lay snoring at his midnight rest,

"To pose the poore-blind snake of Epidaore.

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As oftentimes as PHILIP hath beene dead.

Alluding, possibly, to the First Philippic of Demosthenes; where the orator, reprobating the supineness of the Athenians in giving credit to the reports of Philip's death rather than in preparing to resist his attacks, asks τέθνηκε Φίλιππος ; οὐ μὰ Δίπ áλλà dével. Or he may allude to Philip of Spain. E.

"Worse than the LOGOGRYPHES of later times.

Logogryphes are verbal intricacies, from Aoyos and yeios. It is used by Ben JonSee Mason's Supplement to Johnson.

son.

1o Cares hee for Tulus, or his flayle of lead? The allusion is to Spenser's Talus. W.

1

And in thy dung-cart didst the carkasse shrine
And deepe intombe it in Port-Esqueline".
Proud Trebius lives, for all his princely gate,
Or third-hand suits, and scrapings of the plate.
Titius knew not where to shroud his head
Untill he did a dying widow wed,

Whiles shee lay doting on her deathe's bed;
And now hath purchas'd lands with one night's paine
And on the morrow woes and weds againe.
Now see I fire-flakes sparkle from his eies,
Like to a Comet's tayle in th' angrie skies:
His pouting cheeks puff up above his brow,
Like a swolne toad touch't with the spider's blow:
His mouth shrinks sideward like a scornfull Playse,
To take his tired eares' ingratefull place:
His eares hang laving" like a new fug'd swine,
To take some counsell of his grieved eyne.
Now laugh I loud, and breake my splene to see
This pleasing pastime of my poesie;
Much better than a Paris-Garden beare";
Or prating puppet on a theatere;

Or Mimoe's whistling to his tabouret ",
Selling a laughter for a cold meale's meat.
Go to then, ye my sacred Semones",

And please mee more the more ye doe displease.
Care we for all those bugs of ydle feare?
For Tigels grinning on the theatere?

Or scar-babe threatnings" of the rascal crue;
Or wind-spent verdicts of ech ale-knight's view?
Whatever brest doth freeze for such false dread,
Beshrew his base white liver for his meede.
Fond were that pittie, and that feare were sin,
To spare wast leaves that so deserved bin.

And deepe intombe it in Port-Esqueline.

Esquilia was one of the Roman Hills. Here were thrown the carcases of malefactors; and here the eagles sought their prey. E.

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laving-stretched, dangling: so called, perhaps, from the action of

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Paris-Garden was in the Borough: and the Bear Baitings there are frequently alluded to in the productions of the time. W. See Reed's Shakespeare, Vol. XV. Page 200.

14 Or Mimoe's whistling to his tabouret. Probably alludes to Kempe. W.

"Go to then, ye my sacred SEMONES.

Semo, quasi semi-homo, means a deity of inferior order. See p. 206 of this Vol. “Quod à quoquam vel hominum, vel Semonum, vel Dæmonum, fieri possit."

16 Or scar-babe threatnings

i, e, such as might frighten children.

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