THE CENSVRE OF THE ROTA. On Mr DRIDEN'S Conquest of GRANADA.

OXFORD, Printed by H. H. for Fran. Oxlad junior. An. Dom. 1673.

THE CENSURE OF THE ROTA.
VPON Mr DRYDEN'S CONQVEST of GRANADA,

AMonst severall other late Exercises of the Athenian Vertuosi in the Coffe-Academy insti­tuted by Apollo for the advancement of Ga­zeti Philosophy Mercury's, Diurnalls, &c: this day was wholly taken up in the Examinati­on of the Conquest of Granada; a Gentleman on the rea­ding of the First Part, & therein the Discription of the Bull-baiting, said, that Almanzor's playing at the Bull was according to the Standard of the Greek Heroes, who, as Mr. Dryden had learnedly observ'd (Essay of Drama­tique poetry, p. 25.) were great Beef-Eaters. And why might not Almanzor as well as Ajax, or Don Quixot worry Mutton, or take a Bull by the Throat, since the Author had elsewhere explain'd himselfe by telling us the Heroes were more noble Beasts of Prey, in his Epistle [Page 2] to his Conquest of Granada, distinguishing them into wild and tame, and in his Play we have Almanzor shaking his Chaine, and frighting his Keeper. p. 28. broke loose. p. 64. and tearing those that would reclaim his rage. p. 135. To this he added that his Bulls excell'd others Heroes, as far as his own Heroes surpass'd his Gods: That the Champion Bull was divested of flesh and blood, and made immortall by the poet, & bellow'd after death; that the fantastique Bull seem'd fiercer then the true, and the dead bellowings in Verse, were louder then the living; concluding with a wish that Mr. Dryden had the good luck to have vary'd that old Verse quoted in his Dra­matique Essay.

Atque Vrsum, & Pugiles media inter Carmina pos [...]unt Tauros, & Pugiles prima inter Carmina posco. and praefixt it to the front of his Play, instead of

—Maior rerum mihinascitur Ordo,
Majus opus moveo.

Another Virtuoso said he could not but take notice how ignorantly some charg'd Almanzor with transgressing the Rules of the Drama, vainly supposing that Heroes might be confin'd to the narrow walks of other common Mor­tals, not considering that those Dramatick Planets were Images of Excentrio Vertue, which was most beau­tifull, when least regular: that Almanzor was no lesse maliciously tax'd with changing sides, then which charge what could be more unjust, if they look't on him as Achilles and Rinaldos's countryman, and born with them in that Poeticall Free-State, (for Poets of late have form'd Vtopia's) where all were Monarchs (without [Page 3] Subjects) and all swore Alleagiance to themselves, (and therefore could be Traytors to none else) where eve­ry man might invade anothers Right, without trespas­sing on his owne, and make, and execute what Lawes himself would consent to, each man having the power of Life and Death so absolutely, that if he kill'd him­self, he was accountable to no body for the murder; that Almanzor was neither Mr Drydens Subject, nor Boabde­lins, but equally exempt from the Poets Rules, and the Princes Laws, and in short, if his revolting from the Abencerrages to the Zegrys, and from the Zegrys to the Abencerrages again, had not equally satisfi'd both par­ties, it might admit of the same defence, Mr Drydens Out-cries, and his Tumults did, that the Poet represent­ed Men in a Hobbian State of War. A third went on and told them that Fighting Scenes, and Representations of Battells were as necessary to a Tragedy, as Cud­gells, and broken Pates to a Country Wake; that an Heroick Poem never sounded so nobly, as when it was heightned with Shouts, and Clashing of Swords; and that Drums and Trumpets gain'd an absolute Domi­nion over the minds of the Audience: (the Ladies, and Female Spirits) Here an Aquaintance of the Authors interpos'd, and assur'd the Company, he was very confident, that Mr Dryden would never have had the Courage to have ventur'd on a Conquest had he not writ with the sound of Drum and Trum­pet; and that if there was any thing unintelligible in his rants, t'was the effect of that horrour those Instru­ments of War with their astonishing noise had precipi­tated him into, which had so transported him, that he [Page 4] writ beyond himselfe. But he was interrupted by a grave Gentleman that us'd to sup in Apollo and could tell many Story of Ben. Iohnson, who told them, that in his opi­nion Mr Dryden had given little proof of his Courage, since he for the most part combated the dead; and the dead—send no Challenges; nor indeed need they, since through their sides he had wounded himselfe; for he ever play'd the Critick so unluckely, as to discover only his own faults in other men, with the advantage of this aggravation, that the Grammaticall Errors or ol­der Poets, were but the Errors of their Age, but be­ing made his, were not the Errors of this Age: since he granted this Age was refin'd above those Solecismes of the last: thus the Synchoesis, or ill placing of Words, a fault of B. Iohnsons time, was an usuall Elegancy in Mr. Drydens writings, as in the Prologue to his Indian Emperour

Such easie Iudges, that our Poet may
Himself admire the fortune of his Play.

Himself in the second verse, which should have been plac'd before may in the first. In the Indian Emperour, Guyomar say's,

I for my Country fought, and would again,
Had I yet left a Country to maintain.

left should not have preceded Country, but follow'd it. In Granada, second part.

I'le sooner trust th'Hyaena then your smile;
Or then your Tears the weeping Crocodile.

And again. ‘Yet then to change,' tis nobler to despair.’ [Page 5] Thus the using be for are the vice of those dull times, when Conversation was so low, that our Fathers were not taught to write and read good English, was frequent with Mr Dryden in this politer Age; In Granada, second part. Allmanzor.

Madam, your new commands I come to know,
If yet you can have any where I goe,
If to the Regions of the dead they be.

In the Indian Emperour. ‘Things good, or ill, by circumstances be.’ In Maximin.

The Empress knows your worth, but, Sir, there be
Those who can value it as high as she.

And again;

And so obscene their Ceremonies be,
As good men loath, and Cato blusht to see.

In all these places he observ'd the Rhyme hid the false English. The placing of the Preposition at the end of a Verse or Sentence, Mr Dryden had confest was common to him with Iohnson, but not discovering where, the Gentleman oblig'd the Company, by poin­ting at that in Maximin.

your Brother made it to secure his Throne,
Which this man made a step to mount it on.

and more conspicuously in his Elegy on Oliver. (one who was as great a contemner of Kings as Almanzor, and [Page 6] as great a defyer of the Gods as Maximin)

Fortune (that easy Mistresse of the young
But to her ancient Servants coy and hard)
Him at that Age her Favourites rank't among.
When she her best lov'd Pompey did discard.

To all which, he added that ire an obsolete word of B. Iohnson was antiquated now, but inthrall and oph in Mr Dryden were words antiquated in Ben Iohnsons time, that Iohnson only wrote English in good Latine, but Mr Dryden was so accomplish't as to write English fluently in all Languages, Greek, Latine, Italian, Spanish, and what not; in him he met with Escapade, Mirador, Bi­zarre, torrents winding in volumes, Trumpets Clangors, Venus's Cestos, besides unthinking Crowd, bladder'd Air, and such like Poeticall Iargon; and to demonstrate that this Age (or Mr Dryden, which is the same) made some improvement in fals English as well as the last (if at least we have not received a newer English Grammar then Ben. Iohnsons) he desired them to weigh these ver­ses in his Granada.

Obey'd as Soveraign by thy subjects be
But know that I alone am King of me.

me, for my self. again,

I for her sake thy Scepter will maintain,
And thou by me, in spight of thee shall raign.

Thee, for thy self.

As for Mr Drydens cavill at the lines in Catiline.

Go on upon the Gods, kiss lightning, wrest
The Engine from the Cyclops, and give fire
At face of a full Cloud—

[Page 7] His mistaken Image of shooting (since the Cyclops En­gine was a Thunderbolt) recoyl'd upon himself in his Maximin, where he suppos'd Sulphur to rain down in fiery showers on Charinus, a clearer image perhaps of shooting, unknown as much in Maximin's days, as Catalin's. A Critick continuing on the discourse, said, he was sorry that Mr Dryden when he charg'd every page of Shakespeer, and Fletcher with some Solecism of speech, or notorious flaw in sence, did not read their writings and his own with the same spectacles, for had he, he would never have left so incorrect a line as this in that Epilogue, where he taxes the Antients so superciliously; ‘Then Comedy was faultless, but 'twas course.’ 'tis a favour to call this but a flaw; nay, in the threshold of his Granada.

Thus in the Triumphs of soft peace Ireign,
And from my walls defie the pow'rs of Spain.

which two verses agree as ill, as if one were a Moor, and the other a Spaniard. again in the First Part,

As some fair Tulip by a storm opprest,
Shrinks up, and folds its silken arms to rest;
And bending to the blast, all pale and dead,
Hears from within the wind sing round its head.

This Tulip that could hear the wind sing its Epicedium, after it was dead; you may be sure grew no where but in a Poets Garden. [Page 8] in the Second Part,

So two kind Turtles, when a Storm is nigh,
Look up, and see it gath'ring in the Skie,
Each calls his mate to shelter in the Groves,
Leaving in murmurs their unfinish't Loves;
Pearch't on some dropping branch, they sit alone,
And cooe, and hearken to each others moan.

Where because a Turtle was a solitary Bird, he made two of them sit alone.

Again, speaking of Almanzor:

—a gloomy smile arose
From his bent brows, and still the more he heard,
A more severe, and sullen joy appeard.

Here is a Smile describ'd with so much Art, that the description my serve indifferenly either for a Smile, or a Frown, any other Smile, but a gloomy one, rising from bent brows, would have look't too effeminately plea­sant in Almanzor's grim face; a clear proof this of the▪ Epistle, that dimples may not misbecome the stern beau­ty of a Heroe:

These he found in Annus Mirabilis.

So sicken waning Moons too near the Sun,
And blunt their Crescents on the edge of day.

Compared with these in Maximin.

My flaming sword above them to display,
Allkeen and ground upon the edge of Day.

[Page 9] From which he inferr'd, that the Edge of Day was ca­pacitated indifferently either to blunt, or Sharpen, ac­cording to the Poets pleasure, as from that verse in his Astraea Redux: ‘A horrid stilnesse first invades the Ear,’ he observ'd that to invade the Ear (in Mr Drydens Dictio­nary) signified any violence offer'd to the Ear, either from Noise, or Silence.

In another place in Maximin, he seems fully to have answer'd his Prologue, in not servilely stooping so low as Sence;

To bind Porphyrius firmely to the State,
I will this day my Coesar him create,
And, Daughter, I will give him you for wife.

here, in making Porphyrius a Bride, he has reacht an excellence, and justify'd his representation of big-belly'd Men in the Wild Gallant, a greater imposibility, then any Shakespear can be censur'd for (for imposybility's in Mr Drydens charge are sence, but in anothers non­sence) though he wants not these smaller indecorum's neither; such as his introducing Donna Aurelia in the Mock-Astrologer, retrenching her words, which how consistent'tis with the Spanish Gravity, the great Dons of Wit can best resolve him, and such is that indecen­cy, committed in his Mayden Queen, where the Queen and Courtiers stand still, to hear Celadon and Florimell with a great deal of cold mirth absurdly usurp the Queens Prerogative in making new Marriage-Laws.

That Mr Drydens wit was as much advanc'd beyond [Page 10] that of the Ancients, as his sense & Language; was Evi­dent from these Clenches (to omit that of Pulpit-Quib­ling finding the benefit of its Clergy since he was so mannerly, as to ask leave to cleanch there) in his foreci­ted Elegy on our English Maximin. ‘Though in his Praise, no Arts can liberall be.’ In his Rival Ladyes, a Serving man threatents to beat the Poet with a staff of his own Rhymes.

In his Mayden Queen, little Sabina tells Florimell, well my drolling Lady, I may be even with you: to which Flo­rimell wittyly, not this ten years by thy growth yet: and af­ter, tells her taller sister Olinda, she cannot affront her because she is so tall. and to parallell B. Iohnson's,

Forty things more, dear Grand, which you know true,
For which, or pay me quickly, or I'le pay you.

Celadon (in the same Play) tells Florimell; I shall grow desperately constant, and all the tempest of my love will fall upon your head: I shall so pay you: to which Flori­mell makes this reply; Who you, pay me? you are a bank­rupt, cast beyond all possibility of recovery. This when repeated by Loveby in that incomparable clenching Co­medy, the Wild Gallant, Mr Dryden, and the Taylors Wife call'd a Jest, but is farr from Wit in all Langua­ges. To be short, that his wit depended often on a ridiculous chiming of words, was evident from such in­stances as these,

[Page 11]
Under Almanzor prosperously they fought,
Almanzor thesefore must with prayr's be sought.
Know that as Selin was not won by thee,
Neither will I by Selins daughter be.
Forbear dear Father, for your Ozmyns sake,
Do not such words to Ozmys father speak,
But what's the cause that keeps you here with me?
Tbat I may know what keeps me here with you.
Would you your hand in Selins bloud embrue,
Kill him unarm'd, who arm'd shund killing you?

much after the rate of that old Tick-tack

A Pye, a Pudding,
A Pudding, a Pye,
A Pudding-Pye.
A Pye for me,
A Pudding for thee,
A Pudding for me,
A Pye for thee,
A Pudding-Pye for me and thee▪

A modern Poet stept up next, and said, he observ'd Mr Dryden pass'd no better a Complement on the Poets of this Age in his Prologue to his Granada, then on [Page 12] those of the former in his Postscript and Epilogue; for these he tax't as liberally with writing dull sence, as those with writing incorrect; and preferr'd his own gay nonsence equally to both. That his Play was the best com­ment on his Prologue, and his Tulip with silken armes, and two verses.

But silk-worm like, so long within have wrought,
That I am lost in my own webb of thought.

sufficiently displai'd his gayety of nonsence: and 'twas for this reason he suppos'd that he upbraided Beaumont and Fletcher with meannesse of expression in their Scenes of Love, because those dull unthinking men never had their thoughts so well dres't, as to transform their Lovers into such gay things, as Silkwormes and Tulips; but this was the unhappiness of their Education, they were not so well bred, nor kept so good Company as Mr Dryden; nay had Iohnson (who was more conversant in Courts) converst (as our Poet) only with Persons of Honour, he had never disgrac'd the Stage with Tib in her Rags, but attir'd her more like a modern Co­moedian in a broad-brim'd Hatt, and wast Belt: but 'twas plain, his Humor discover'd more of the Mechanique & the Clown, then the Gentleman; thus Otters Horse, and his Bear, and his Bull, might be entertaining to a Groom, or a Bear-ward, but nothing in nature and all that (to english Tom. Otters in rerum naturâ) was more odious to a Man of Garniture and Feathers: in those days they regal'd their Audience with the Acorns of Poetry, and no marvell then if Cobs Tankard quench't their thirstno lesse then pure Helicon: in sine, [Page 13] Iohnsons wit had too much Alchymy, and their best too much allay to pass for that of the Golden Age, an honour only due to the Poets of these times, that bring old Iron on the Stage. The honour of the Golden Age (reply'd another) belongs justly to Mr Dryden, who ever return'd home richly fraught from Spain and America; to his Catholique Conquests Poe­try ow's its Indies, and its Plate-Fleets: and after such Voiages and Discoveries, he could not but wonder a little at his modest excusing his ignorance in Sea Terms in his Annus Mirabilis; since he was very confident that his Muse that had so often crost the Seas, and en­dur'd so many Storms and Shipwracks could not but be Tarpawlin sufficient enough to make an Heroick Poem on Star-boord, and Lar-boord. His blustering Meta­phors would more then acquit him of Horace his Cen­sure, ‘Serpit humi tutus, nimium timidus (que) procellae.’

The boldest of the old Poets never rais'd such Tem­pests as he, though they labour'd to swell their Poetical Sails with all the four winds blowing at once (as Mr Cowly ingeniously, on, V [...]a Furusque; Notusque ruunt, cre­berque procellis Africus, &c.) He was the man Nature seem'd to make choice of to enlarge the Poets Em­pire, & to compleat those Discovery's others had begun to shadow: that Shakespear and Fletcher (as some think) e­rected the Pillars of Poetry is a grosse errour; this Zany of Columbus has discover'd a Poeticall World of greater extent then the Naturall, peopled with Atlan­tick Colony's of notionall creatures, Astrall Spirits, [Page 14] Ghosts, & Idols, more various then ever the Indians wor­shipt, and Heroes, more lawless than their Savages. The-already discover'd habitable world (joyn'd with Sr Tho­mas Moor's, and the Lord Bacon's) was too narrow a Compasse for his Geography of Thoughts, which would admit of no unpeopled Solitudes, nor Terra Incognita; this Poeticall Coryat would travell beyond the Poles of Nature and Opinion; sometimes we have him moun­ting his Pegasus, and taking a flight to the Mountains of the Moon, and the Bed of Nyle, then (having baited first at Heaven) making his Journey through the lo­wer Fields of Ayr, to Spencers Bower of Bliss, and Tas­so's Enchanted wood (both lately discover'd in Fairy-Land) there visiting such wandring Souls▪ as flagging flutter'd down from the middle Sky, and dispossessing the Swallows of their Winter Quarters, lay leiger for Mor­tall frames in Trunks of hollow Trees. Thus ha's he out travall'd the Sun, and made his flights on the wings of his own fancy without the assistance of Gan­za's, or Bottles of May-Dew. In short, did Mr Cowley, or any others dislike this Fairy part of Poetry, (though Mr Cowly had answer'd himself by making use of Angels visions in his Davideis, where the Argument required it) the Poet had prettily excus'd his fantastique Scenes, & Visionary Pageants, in that Apologetick Verse, ‘Ast opere in tanto fas est obrepere Somnum.’ With him joyn'd a phlegmatick heavy Gownman, who ho­ped that that Verse was a frank confession of the Poet, that he compos'd severall of his Raptures in a Dream, of which nature was this in his Maximin. [Page 15] ‘Thou treadst th' Abyss of Light,’ Abyss is a word so inconsistent with Light, that 'tis scarce Bright enough for its Shadow.

In Granada,
Heavens Out-cast, and the Dross of every Star.

Compare this with another in Maximin,

—None, will be so bright,
So pure, or with so small allays of light,

and you'l say ti's all pure refin'd nonsence, without the least allay of dull Sence. In another place in Maximin, ‘I reel, and stagger, and am drunk with light.’ this Verse the Poet made, when he was shut up in a dark room and not suffer'd to see the light. Again.

So mayst thou live thy thousand years in peace,
And see thy Aery Progeny increase.

Here it may be a Quaere, whether Spirits (since amongst them ther's no distinction of Sexes) get all Sons, or all daughters. And following those,

So mayst thou still continue fresh and fair,
Fed by the blast of pure Aetheriall Ayr.

How the Aether, that yeelds a nourishment so thin (scarce distinguishable from none at all) that it would starve a Cameleon, should fatten a Spirit, seems a Para­doxe: now after all this, the World may judge whe­ther the notions of Poets (the Fathers of his Church) [Page 16] concerning spirits and Specters, were more satisfacto­ry, then those of Philosophers and Divines; and whe­ther Mr Dryden was not stark Inspiration mad, and in one of his Enthusiastique fits, when he objected it as lazinesse, or dulnesse to the Clergy, that they did not preach in Verse; That Reformation this Age must not be so happy as to expect, since the Objector had alter'd his resolution of exchanging the Sock and Bus­kin for the Canonicall Girdle Here a great Patron of Rhyme interpos'd, and said, he could heartily wish that not only Divines would preach, Lawyers plead, Philosophers dispute, and Councellers debate, but e­ven our Ladys and Gallants would converse in Rhyme, for besides that this would take off the Argument of the the unnaturallness of Rhyme,

It would be a means of exalting our thoughts, and raising Conversation above the vulgar level, for what can be suppos'd more indecent then for Ladys and Per­sons of Quality to walk on foot in Prose with the Rab­ble? Without the sweetnesse and cadency of Rhyme our quick Repartees in discourse lose much of their Beauty, when as if he that spoke last be nick'd by ano­ther, both in wit and sound, nothing is left desireable. Nay, Mr Dryden that writ ill in Rhyme, would have writ worse without it, for such Redundancy's as this in Granada, First Part, ‘This is my will, and this I will have done.’ which is a handsome way of saying this is my will twice such mean Couplets as this in Maximin.

O my dear Brother, whom Heav'n let us see,
And would not longer suffer him to be!

[Page 17] and such precipitations from such heights, as,

Say but he's dead, that God shall mortall be:
See nothing, Eyes, henceforth, but Death and wo,
You've have done me the worst Office you can do.

would never have been passable, were not many co­zn'd with their sound; in a word, many things were charg'd upon the Poet, of which the Rhymer was no ways guilty, but there needed no greater Argument for the efficacy of Rhime above Blank Verse, then that of blowing a Candle out, and blowing in again, in two Ver­ses.

Granada. Like Tapers new blown out the fumes remain,
To catch the light, and bring it back again.

where the snuff expires so sweetly, it cannot be offen­sive to the most critical Nose. To this a Favourer of Blank verse with some heat reply'd, that these verses in Granada, Second Part,

You see Sir, with what hardship I have kept
This precious gage which in my hands you left.

These in the Indian Emperour,

But I me so far from meriting esteem,
That if I judge, I must my self condemn.

And these in Maximin,

Porphyrius. Too long, as if Eternity were so.
Berenice. Rise good Porphyrius (since it must be so.)

proclaim'd the Rhymer no less faulty then the Poet, [Page 18] and evidently prov'd that Mr Dryden enslav'd his sense as little to Rhyme, as elsewhere to Syllables; and both to sense. Who after this will deny that the way of writing in verse; is the most free and unconstrain'd? in which the Poet is not ty'd up to Language, sense, Syllables, or Rhyme, but even, sweet, and flowing num­bers, and smart Repartees (in plain English, playing with words) attone for the want of all. With what impu­dence can the Adversaries of Rhyme object its difficul­tie? when those that are formed neither by Art nor Nature, may write whole plays, such as Mr Dryden's in it, without easing themselves on pace and [...]rot. It is but framing the character of a Huff of the Town, one that from breaking Glass-windows, and combating the watch, starts up an Heroe: him you must make very saucy to his superiours, to shew he is of the same stamp with Achilles and Rinaldo; then tame the savage with the charming sight of the Kings Daughter (or wife) whom this St George is to deliver from the Dragon, or greater dangers: to heighten his character the more, bring in a sheepish King with a Guard of poultrons to be kick't by him, as often as he thinks fit his Miss. should be a witnesse of his Gallantry: if this be not enough, let him play prizes with Armies, still Tumults with one look, and raise Re­bellions with another. The Language is no lesse easie then the characters, 'tis but stuffing five Acts with Fate, Destiny, Charms, Charming fair, Killing fair, heavenly fair, the Fair and Brave, the Lover and the Brave, &c. an allu­sion to two kind Turtles, foisted in, an impertinent Simile from a Storm, or a Shipwrack, and a senslesse Song of Phillis, and the businesse is done: the descriptions may [Page 19] be borrewed from Statius, and Montaigns Essays, the Rea­son and Politicall Ornaments from Mr Hobs, and the A­strologicall (and if need be, the Language too) from Ibrahim, or the Illustrious Bassa. To conclude all, he said, a barren Invention must ever be provided with such necessary helps, as the following Forms, to which he might have recourse on all occusions.

Some Forms and Figurative Expressions of solarge an extent, that they are adjusted to all Characters in all Plays, Tragedys, Comedys, and Tragi-Comedys, whether written in Rhyme, Blank Verse, or Prose; sui­table to all Prologues, Epilogues, and Dramatique Essays that are, or shall be written. ‘For magnifique Sound’

As when some dreadfull Thunderclap is nigh,
The winged Fire shoots swiftly through the Sky,
Indian Em­peror.
Strikes, and consumes, e're scarce it does appear.

‘Or varied thus:’

—As when Winds and Rain together crowd,
They swell till they have burst the bladder'd cloud:
Granada. 2. part.
And first, the Lightning flashing deadly clear,
Flyes, Falls, Consumes, e're scarce it does appear.

For gentle verses, that do not shake us in the reading.Maiden Queen.

—Heav'n, which moulding Beauty takes such care,
Makes gentle fates on purpose for the fair;
[Page 20] And Destiny that sees them so divine,
Spins all their fortunes in a silken twine.

Translate the Fair to the Brave, it may be thus,

If fate weaves common Thrid, he'le change the doom,
Granada. 1. part.
And with new Purple spread a nobler loom.

‘for a Rant’ ‘Ile grasp my Scepter with my dying hand.Indian Emperour. ‘Or thus, higher:’

—I'le grasp it
Even after death.
Rivall Ladys.

‘Higher yet’

I'le hold it fast
As Life, and when life's gone, I'le hold it last.
Granada 2. part.

‘For generous Love:’

Though to my former vowes I must be true,
Maximin.
I'le ever keep one love entire for you,
That love which Brothers with chast Sisters make.

Or with a more poynant brevity:

Take friedship, or if that too small appear,
Granada. 1. part.
Take Love, which Sisters may to Brothers bear.

‘For sharpnesse of conceit.’ ‘He es'd his half-tir'd Muse on pace and trot.Epilogue to Mock Astro­loger. ‘That is,’

Sometimes upon Rhyme, sometimes upon Blank, Verse,
Essay of Dra­matique Poe­try.
Like an Horse, who eases himself upon Trot and Amble.

[Page 21] For pleasant folly,’

—in the prime
Of Easter Term, in Tart and Chees-cake time.
Epilogue to Maximin.

Easily resolved thus into prose:

In Easter Term, when the Country Gentlewomen come up to
Sr Martin Mariall.
the destruction of Tarts and Chees-cakes.

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