recommends his services to "an olde man," by way

of Lullaby.

"Now that I take my lute in hand
Rage and Rancour I you command,
Take your sister Melancholie,

And downe to darke hell all hie yee.

For heere I meane to make my residence,
By vertue of my peacefull influence;

And cheere this aged man with lovelements
Lulla lullabie, &c.

for ever.

Though age be olde and colde, I can

Re-young him to a lustie man,
And in his jointes infuse a fire
To execute a kinde desire.

I can revegetate his dying yeere,

By faire be-priesting him to a bonny-pheere,
Or els dispensing him sueh like good cheere
els where. Lulla lullabie, c.

The plough-lob I can civillize,
The franticke man with grace agnize:
Kings and Cesars I subdue,

And with my rites their soules indue.
All faire and goodly things I do detect,
And with my vaile I cover all defect,
And all in unitie I do connect

and approve. Lulla lullabie, &c.

I doe devise all gay attyres,
Calles, rebatoes, perwigs, and wires:
Hoop-sleeves, French-bodies, vardingalles,
Paintings, perfumes, and washing balies:
With twenty thousand such like bonny things,
To grace fair Nature, and mis-nature's doings,
And profite trades by doing my devisings

workemanly. Lulla lullabie, &c.

Feasts

Feasts and frollickes I doe ordaine,
And merrie meetings on the plaine:
Revels, and daunces in a rowe,

And morrow-musicke at the window:
Tilting and justs are my magnificence,
The pomp wherof forbeareth no expence,
If so my spirit be in the pretence,

and grace it. Lulla lullabie, &c.

Wrinckles and pimples I can cure,
And make the stutting tongue demure;
The trembling palsey I can staie,
And take the misers gowt away:

The cripple creature I can make to runne,

The blinde man with new eyes to see the sunne,

And set in other teeth where th' old are done,
with the rewine. Lulla lullabie, &c.

Then since I am so physicall,

So musicall, so martiall,
So court-accepted, and rurall,
And so joy mighty over all:
Be not t' yourself so prejudiciall
As to refuse my beneficiall

Bounties, in over melancholie gall.

Lulla lullabie, lulla lullabie."

Love by these, and other similar allurements, wins over the silly gray-beard to become his servitor and to vow eternal fealty to him as his sovereign, which the cajoler Cupid no sooner hears, than he calls the dotard an errant ideot to be so duped, and threatens him with private annoyance and public exposure, concluding his maledictions thus

"Besides thy inward anguishes,
Farre worse then all the premises,

Vaine hope, and desperation,
And doubtfull interpretation,

of every occurrent:

Presumption and jelousie,

Care, passion, and captivitie,

Errour and indiscretion,

Unrest and vaine invention,

and thy wealth mispent.

These and such like absurdities,

Shall owlefie thee 'n all mens eies;

Who when they have twitted thee to death,

Yet shall thy shame survive unneth,

and thus thy epitaph

Who ere' thou art that readst this Epitaph above,
Know that heer underneath doth lie the Owle of Love."

T. P..

ART. VI. A Wife: now the Widdow of Sir Thomas Overburye: being a most exquisite ana singular poem of the Choise of a Wife. 4th Edit. London. 1614. 410.

*

This, which professes to be the fourth, is the earliest impression I have seen of this once popular production, and the preface bears date May 16, 1614 Mr. Neve, in his notices of the author, says, that 1614 was the first year of its publication; but I am not without suspicion that it appeared in print before the death of Overbury, which took place in October 1613. Successive editions were published in many succeeding years that in 1615, had the following title

See Cursory Remarks on Ancient English Poets, 1789, p. 27.

New

New and choise Characters of severall Authors: together with that exquisite and unmatcht poeme The Wife; written by Syr Thomas Overburie. With the former Characters, and conceited Newes, all in one volume; with many other things added to this sixt impression London: Printed by Tho. Crede for Laurence Lisle, &c. 1615. Small 8vo.

To the early edition of Overbury's Wife, cited above, the verses of Sir Henry Wotton" on a happy life," were appended. In this sixth impression appeared the characters of "a Tinker, an Apparatour, and an Almanac-maker," which were claimed by J. Cocke, as his literary property, in a prefix to the Essaies of Stephens, 2d edit. 1615. "Newes from the Country,” was printed as Dr. Donne's in 1669; and several stray effusions by other writers were probably engrafted on the publisher's original stock, and employed to enlarge this oft-reprinted book, of which the title was thus altered in a copy now before me.

Sir Thomas Overbury his Wife. With additions of new Characters; and many other Wittie Conceits never before printed. The fifteenth impression. London: Printed by R. B. for Robt. Allot. 1632.

12mo.

Twenty five copies of commendatory verses are prefixed; with an elegy on Wm. Lord Effingham, a complimentary poem ad Comitissam Rutlandiæ, and an elegy on the death of that Lady. Mr. Granger says, that the book had gone through sixteen editions in 1638, and that the last was published in 1753: sed quære? The fate of Overbury is sufficiently known:

the

the merits of his principal production have been thus stated by the accomplished Mr. Neve. "In Overbury's poem of The Wife, the sentiments, maxims, and observations with which it abounds, are such as a considerable experience and a correct judgment on mankind alone could furnish. The topics of jealousy, and of the credit and behaviour of women, are treated with great truth, delicacy and perspicuity. The nice distinctions of moral character, and the pattern of female excellence here drawn, contrasted as they were with the heinous and flagrant enormities of the Countess of Essex, rendered this poem extremely popular, when its ingenious author was no more."

As some edition of the poem may at all times be obtained by every poetical reader, a single stanza may be sufficient to introduce here, as a specimen of it.

"Woman's behaviour is a surer bar

Than is their no: that fairly doth deny
Without denying; thereby kept they are

Safe ev'n from hope:-in part to blame is she,
Which hath without consent been only tried;
He comes too near, who comes to be denied."

The popularity of Overbury's poem gave rise perhaps to most of those which are here noticed in succession.

T. P.

ART. VII. The Husband. A poeme expressed in a compleat man. London: Printed for Lawrence Lisle, dwelling at the Tygres Head in Paul's Church-yard. 1614. Small 8vo.