dies, shall leave a knaves carcasse in the grave behind him. . .

Diseases incident to this quarter, as by astrologicall and philosophicall conjectures I can gather, are these following: Prentices that have been sore beaten shall be troubled with ach in their armes, and it shall be ill for such as have sore eies to looke against the sun. The plague shall raigne mortally amongst poore men, that diverse of them shal not be able to change a man a groate. Olde women that have taken great colde may perhaps be trobled with the cough, and such as have paine in their teeth shall bee grievouslie troubled with the tooth ach. Beside, sicke folke shall have worse stomaches then they which be whole, and men that cannot sleepe shall take verie little rest: with other accidentall infirmities, which I doe overpasse.

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From Pierce Pennilesse his supplication to the Diuell' [1592].

THE COMPLAYNT OF PRIDE.

O BUT a far greater enormite raigneth in the heart. of the Court: Pride, perverter of all Vertue, sitteth appareled in the Merchants spoils, and ruine of yoong Citizens, and scorneth Learning, that gave their up-start Fathers titles of Gentry.

THE NATURE OF AN UPSTART.

All malcontent fits the greasie sonne of a Cloathier, and complaines (like a decaied Earle) of the ruine of ancient houses: whereas, the Weavers loomes first framed the web of his honour, and the locks of wool, that bushes and brambles have tooke for

toule of insolent sheepe, that would needs strive for the wall of a fir-bush, have made him of the tenths of their tarre, a Squier of low degree: and of the collections of the scatterings, a Justice, Tam Marti quam Mercurio, of Peace and of Coram. Hee will bee humorous, forsoth, and have a broode of fashions by himselfe.

Sometimes (because Love commonly weares the liverey of Witte) hee will be an Inamorato Poeta, and sonnet a whole quire of paper in praise of Lady Swin-snout, his yeolow-fac'd Mistres, and weare a feather of her rain-beaten fanne for a favor, like a fore-horse.

Al Italionato is his talke, and his spade peake is as sharpe as if he had been a Pioner before the walles of Roan. Hee will despise the barbarisme of his owne Countrey, and tell a whole Legend of lyes of his travailes unto Constantinople. If he be challenged to fight, for his delaterye excuse, hee ob-jects that it is not the custome of the Spaniard, or the Germaine, to looke backe to every dog that barkes.

You shall see a dapper Jacke, that hath beene but over at Deepe, wring his face round about, as a man would stirre up a mustard pot, and talke English through the teeth, like Jaques Scabd-Hams, or Monsieur Mingo de Moustrap: when (poore slave) he hath but dipt his bread in wilde Boares grease and come home againe or beene bitten by the shinnes by a Wolfe and saith, he hath adventured upon the Barricadoes of Gurney, or Guingan, and fought with the yoong Guise hand to hand.

From Christ's Teares over Jerusalem' [1593].

USURERS.

IF the stealing of one Apple in Paradise brought such a universal plague to the worlde, what a plague to one soul will the robbing of a hundred Orphans of theyr possessions and fruite-yards bring? In the Country the Gentleman takes in the Commons, racketh his Tennaunts, undoeth the Farmer. In London the Usurer snatcheth up the Gentleman, gyves him Rattles and Babies for his over-rackt rent, and the Commons he tooke in, he makes him take out in Commodities. None but the Usurer is ordained for a scourge to Pride and Ambition. Therefore it is that Bees hate Sheepe more then anie thing, for that when they are once in theyr wooll, they are so intangled that they can never get out. Therfore it is that Courtiers hate Merchants more then any men, for that being once in their bookes, they can never get out. Many of them carry the countenaunces of Sheep, looke simple, goe plain, weare their haire short; but they are no Sheepe, but Sheep-byters: their wooll or their wealth they make no other use of but to snarle and enwrappe men with. The law (which was instituted to redresse wrongs and oppressions) they wrest contrarily, to oppresse and to wrong with. And yet thats not so much wonder, for Law, Logique, and the Swizers, may be hir'd to fight for any body; and so may an Usurer (for a halfepeny gaine) be hyred to bite any body. For as the Beare cannot drinke but he must byte the water, so cannot hee coole his avaritious thirst, but he must plucke and bite out hys Neighbors throate.

From The Martin Marprelate Tractates' [1589].

MARTINS MONTHS MINDE.1

AND therewithal, lifting up himselfe on his pillowe, [Olde Martin]2 commanded the elder Martin to go into his studie, and to fetch his Will, that lay sealed in his deske, and bound fast with an hempen string: which when he had brought, he commanded to be broken up, and to be read in their hearing; which was as followeth.

After he had begun with the usual stile; next touching his bodie (for it should seeme he had forgotten his soule: for the partie that heard it told me, he heard no word of it), he would, should not be buried in any Church (especiallie Cathedrall, which ever he detested), Chappell, nor Churchyard, for that they had been prophaned with superstition: but in some barne, outhowse or field (yea, rather then faile, dunghill), where their prime prophecyings had been used; without bell, pompe, or any solemnitie; save that his friends should mourne for him in gownes, and whoods, of a bright yellowe: the whoods made of a strawnge fashion, for no ordinarie thing contented him (belike with a crest after Hoydens cut), and Minstrells going before him; wherein hee would have a Hornpipe at any hand, because he loved that instrument above measure: the rest he referred to their discretion; but a Rebuke, and a Shame, in my opinion, were the fittest fiddles for him.

Minister he would have none to burie him, but his sonne, or some one of his lay brethren, to tumble him into the pit. He would not be laid East and West (for hee ever went against the haire), but North, and South: I think because ab aquilone 2 Martin the Puritans.

1 Longing.

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omne malum; and the South wind ever brings corruption with it: tombe he would have none (for feare belike that his disciples finding the monument, would commit some Idolatrie to it), nor Epitaph upon his grave, but on some post, or tree, not farre from it, he would have onelie engraven: M. M. M. Whereby his sonnes say, he meant; Memoriæ Martini magni.

But I thinke rather this: Monstrum Mundi Martinus.

From Have with you to Saffron Walden' [1596].

DR. GABRIEL HARVEY'S HEXAMETERS.

WERE he as he hath been (I can assure thee) he would clothe and adorne thee with manie gracious gallant complements, and not a rotten tooth that hangs out at thy shop window, but should cost him an indefinite Turkish armie of English Hexameters. O, he hath been olde dogge at that drunken, staggering kinde of verse, which is all up hill and downe hill, like the way betwixt Stamford and Beechfield, and goes like a horse plunging through the myre in the deep of winter, now soust up to the saddle, and straight aloft on his tiptoes. Indeed in old King Harrie sinceritie, a kind of verse it is hee hath been enfeoft in from his minoritie, for as I have bin faithfully informed, hee first cryde in that verse in the verie moment of his birth, and when he was but yet a fresh-man in Cambridge he set up Siquisses1 and sent his accounts to his father in those joulting Heroicks. . . . But though he be in none of your Courts Licentiate, and a Courtier otherwise hee is never like to be; one of the Emperour 1 Bills for anything lost.