Had all the morning held, now the second
Time made ready, that day, in flocks are found
In the Prefence, and I (God pardon me)
As fresh and sweet their Apparels be, as be
Their fields they fold to buy them. For a king
Those hose are, cry the flatterers; and bring
Them next week to the theatre to fell.

Wants reach all states: me seems they do as well
At stage, as courts; all are players. Whoe'er looks
(For themselves dare not go) o'er Cheapfide books,
Shall find their wardrobes inventory. Now
The Ladies come. As pirates (which do know
That there came weak fhips fraught with Cut-

chanel)

[well, The men board them; and praife (as they think) Their beauties; they the menswits; both are bought. Why good wits ne'er wear scarlet gowns, I thought This caufe, Thefe men, mens wits for speeches buy, And women buy all red which scarlets dye. He call'd her beauty lime-twigs, her hair net: She fears her drugs ill lay'd, her hair loose set".

NOTES.

young Nobility received inftruction in thofe days: It was alfo customary for the Nobility and Gentry to vifit the condemned criminals in Newgate.

P.

di. e. Arrive to worship and magistracy. The reafon he gives is, that those who have wit are forced to fell their stock, instead of trading with it. This thought, though not amifs, our Poet has not paraphrafed. It is obfcurely expreffed, and poffibly it escaped him.

ei. e. Confcious that both her complexion and her hair are borrowed; the fufpects, that, when, in the common cant of

Pay their last duty to the Court, and come
All fresh and fragrant to the drawing-room; 215
In hues as gay, and odours as divine,

As the fair fields they fold to look so fine.
"That's Velvet for a King!" the flatt'rer swears;
'Tis true, for ten days hence 'twill be King Lear's.
Our Court may justly to our stage give rules, 220
That helps it both to fools-coats and to fools.
And why not players ftrut in courtiers cloaths?
For these are actors too, as well as thofe :
Wants reach all states; they beg but better drest,
And all is fplendid poverty at beft.

225

230

Painted for fight, and effenc'd for the smell, Like frigates fraught with spice and cochine'l, Sail in the Ladies: how each pyrate eyes So weak a veffel, and fo rich a prize! Top-gallant he, and she in all her trim, He boarding her, she striking fail to him: "Dear Countefs! you have charms all hearts to hit!" And "Sweet Sir Fopling! you have fo much wit!" Such wits and beauties are not prais'd for nought, For both the beauty and the wit are bought. 235

NOTES.

flatterers, he calls her beauty lime-twigs, and her hair a nɛt to catch lovers, he means to infinuate that her colours are coarsely laid on, and her borrowed hair loosely woven.

VER. 220, our stage give rules,] Alluding to the Authority of the Lord Chamberlain.

Would not Heraclitus laugh to see Macrine
From hat to shoe, himself at door refine,
As if the Presence were a Mosque: and lift
His skirts and hofe, and call his clothes to fhrift,
Making them confefs not only mortal

Great ftains and holes in them, but venial
Feathers and duft, wherewith they fornicate:
And then by Durer's rules furvey the state
Of his each limb, and with ftrings the odds tries
Of his neck to his leg, and waste to thighs.
So in immaculate clothes, and Symmetry
Perfect as Circles', with fuch nicety

As a young

Preacher at his first time goes

To preach, he enters, and a lady which owes Him not fo much as good-will, he arrefts, And unto her protests, protests, protests,

So much as at Rome would ferve to have thrown Ten Cardinals into the Inquifition;

And whispers by Jefu fo oft, that a

Pursuevant would have ravish'd him away
For faying our Lady's Pfalter. But 'tis fit
That they each other plague, they merit it.
But here comesGlorious that will plague themboth,
Who in the other extreme only doth

NOTES.

Because all the lines drawn from the centre to the circumference are equal.

'Twou'd burst ev'n Heraclitus with the spleen,
To fee those anticks, Fopling and Courtin:
The Presence seems, with things fo richly odd,
The mofque of Mahound, or fome queer Pa-god.
See them furvey their limbs by Durer's rules, 240
Of all beau-kind the best proportion'd fools!
Adjust their cloaths, and to confeffion draw
Thofe venial fins, an atom, or a straw;
But oh! what terrors must distract the foul
Convicted of that mortal crime, a hole;
245
Or fhould one pound of powder lefs bespread
Those monkey tails that wag behind their head.
Thus finish'd, and corrected to a hair,

They march, to prate their hour before the Fair.
So first to preach a white-glov'd Chaplain goes,
With band of Lily, and with cheek of Rose, 251
Sweeter than Sharon, in immac'late trim,
Neatness itself impertinent in him.

Let but the Ladies fmile, and they are bleft: Prodigious! how the things proteft, protest: 255 Peace, fools, or Gonson will for Papists seize you, If once he catch you at your Jefu! Jesu!

Nature made ev'ry Fop to plague his brother, Just as one Beauty mortifies another. 259 But here's the Captain that will plague them both, Whofe air cries Arm! whofe very look's an oath:

NOTES.

VER. 249. Durer's rules,] Albert Durer.

Call a rough carelesness, good fashion :

Whofe cloak his fpurs tear, or whom he fpits on,
He cares not, he. His ill words do no harm
To him; he rushes in, as if Arm, arm,

He meant to cry; and though his face be as ill
As theirs which in old hangings whip Christ, still
He strives to look worfe; he keeps all in awe;
Jefts like a licens'd fool, commands like law.
Tyr'd, now I leave this place, and but pleas'd fo
As men from gaols to execution go,

Go, through the great chamber (why is it hung
With the seven deadly fins?) being among
Those Afkaparts, men big enough to throw
Charing-Crofs for a bar, men that do know
No token of worth, but Queens man, and fine
Living; barrels of beef, flaggons of wine.
I fhook like a spied Spie-Preachers which are
Seas of Wit and Arts, you can, then dare,
Drown the fins of this place, but as for me
Which am but a fcant brook, enough fhall be
To wash the stains away: Although I yet
(With Maccabees modefty) the known merit
work leffen, yet some wife men fhall,

Of

my

I hope, esteem my Writs Canonical.

NOTES.

A Giant famous in Romances.

P.