Sense, paft thro' him, no longer is the fame;
For food digefted takes another name.

I pass o'er all thofe confeffors and martyrs,
Who live like S-tt-n, or who die like Chartres,
Outcant old Efdras, or out-drink his heir,
Outufure Jews, or Irifhmen outfwear;
Wicked as pages, who in early years-

A&t fins which Prifca's confeffor fcarce hears.
Ev'n those I pardon, for whose finful fake
Schoolmen new tenements in hell must make;
Of whofe ftrange crimes no canonift can tell.
In what commandment's large contents they dwell.
One, one man only breeds my just offence;

35

40

45

Whom crimes gave wealth, and wealth gave impudence:
Time, that at laft matures a clap to pox,
Whose gentle progress makes a calf an ox,
And brings all natural events to pass,
Hath made him an attorney of an ass.

50 No

For if one eat my meat, though it be known
The meat was mine, the excrement's his own.
But thefe do me no harm, nor they which ufe,
to outufure Jews,

T'outdrink the fea, t' outswear the Letanie,
Who with fins all kinds as familiar be
As confeffors, and for whofe finful fake
Scoolmen new tenements in hell muft make;
Whose strange fins canonifts could hardly tell,
In which commandment's large receit they dwell.
But these punish themselves. The infolence

Of Cofcus, only, breeds my just offence,

Whom time, (which rots all, and makes botches pox,
And plodding on, muft make a calf an ox)
Hath made a lawyer; which (alas) of late;
But fcarce a poet : jollier of this ftate,

No young divine, new-benefic'd, can be
More pert, more proud, more pofitive than he.
What further could I wish the fop to do,
But turn á wit, and scribble verfes too!
Pierce the foft lab'rinth of a lady's ear,

With rhymes of this per cent. and that per year?
Or court a wife, spread out his wily parts,
Like nets or lime-twigs, for rich widows hearts;
Call himself barrister to ev'ry wench,
And woo in language of the pleas and bench?
Language, which Boreas might to Auster hold
More rough than forty Germans when they scold.
Curs'd be the wretch, so venal and fo vain :
Paltry and proud, as drabs in Drury-lane.
'Tis fuch a bounty as was never known,
If PETER deigns to help you to your own:

55.

бо

65

What thanks, what praife, if Peter but fupplies!
And what a folemn face, if he denies !

Grave, as when pris'ners shake the head and swear 'Twas only furetiship that brought 'em there.

Than are new-benefic'd minifters, he throws
Like nets or lime-twigs wherefoe'er he goes
His title of barrister on ev'ry wench,

And wooes in language of the pleas and bench. * *
* Words, words which would tear

The tender labyrinth of a maid's foft ear:

More, more than ten Sclavonians fcolding, more
Than when winds in our ruin'd abbeys roar.

Then fick with poetry, and poffeft with muse

Thou waft, and mad I hop'd; but men which chufe
Law practice for mere gain: bold foul repute
Worfe than imbrothel'd ftrumpets proftitute.
Now like an owl-like watchman he muft walk,
His hand ftill at a bill; now he must talk

His Office keeps your parchment fates entire,
He ftarves with cold to fave 'em from the fire;
For you he walks the streets thro' rain or duft,
For not in chariots Peter puts his truft;
For you he fweats and labours at the laws,

Takes God to witness he affects your caufe,
And lies to ev'ry lord in ev'ry thing,
Like a king's favourite-ör like a king.
These are the talents that adorn them all,
From wicked Waters ev'n to godly * *
Not more of Simony beneath black gowns,
Not more of bastardy in heirs to crowns.
In fhillings and in pence at firft they deal ;
And steal fo little, few perceive they steal;
Till, like the fea, they compass all the land,

75

From Scots to Wight, from Mount to Dover ftrand:
And when rank widows purchase luscious nights,
Or when a duke to Janfen punts at White's,
Ör city-heir in mortgage melts away;
Satan himself feels far lefs joy than they.

80

85

90

Piecemeal

Idly, like prifoners, which whole months will fwear,
That only furetyfhip hath brought them there,
And to every fuitor lye in every thing,
Like a king's favourite-or like a king.

Like a wedge in a block, wring to the barre,
Bearing like affes, and more fhameless farre
Than carted whores, lye to the grave judge; for
Baftardy abounds not in the king's titles, nor
Simony and fodomy in churchmen's lives,
As these things do in him; by these he thrives.
Shortly (as the fea) he'll compass all the land,
From Scots to Wight, from Mount to Dover ftrand.
And spying heirs melting with luxury,

Satan will not joy at their fins as he :

VOL. II.

L

For

Piecemeal they win this acre firft, then that,
Glean on, and gather up the whole estate.
Then ftrongly fencing ill-got wealth by law,
Indentures, cov'nants, articles they draw.
Large as the fields themfelves, and larger far
Than civil codes, with all their gloffes are;
So vaft, our new divines, we must cenfefs,
Are fathers of the church for writing lefs.
But let them write for you, each rogue impairs
The deeds, and dextrously omits, fes heires:
No commentator can more flily pass

O'er a learn'd, unintelligible place :

Or, in quotation, fhrewd divines leave out

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100

Those words, that would against them clear the doubt.

*

So Luther thought the Paternofter long,

When doom'd to fay his beads and even-fong;

105

But

For (as a thrifty wench scrapes kitchen-ftuffe,
And barrelling the droppings, and the snuffe
Of wafting candies, which in thirty year,
Reliquely kept, perchance buys wedding chear).
Piecemeal he gets lands, and spends as much time
Wringing each acre, as maids pulling prime.
In parchment then, large as the fields, he draws
Affurances, big as glofs'd civil laws,

So huge that men (in our times forwardness)
Are fathers of the church for writing less.
Thefe he writes not; nor for these written payes,
Therefore fpares no length (as in those first dayes
When Luther was profeft, he did defire
Short Paternofters, faying as a fryer

Each

*Our poet, by judiciously tranfpofing this fine fimilitude, has given new luftre to his author's thought. The lawyer (fays Dr. Donne) enlarges the legal inftruments for conveying property to the bignefs of glofs'd civil laws, when it is to fecure his own ill got wealth. But let the fame lawyer convey

-property

But having caft his cowl, and left thofe laws,
Adds to Chrift's pray'r, the Power and Glory claufe.
The lands are bought; but where are to be found
Those antient woods, that fhaded all the ground ?
We fee no new-built palaces aspire,

No kitchens emulate the veftal fire.

Where are those troops of poor, that throng'd of yore The good old landlord's hofpitable door?

I 10

Well

Each day his beads; but having left those laws,
Adds to Chrift's prayer, the power and glory claufe)
But when he fells or changes land, h' impaires
The writings, and (unwatch'd) leaves out, fes heires,
As flily as any commenter goes by

Hard words, or fenfe; or, in divinity

As controverters in vouch'd texts, leave out

Shrewd words, which might against them clear the doubt. Where are these spread woods which cloath'd heretofore Those bought lands? not built, nor burnt within door.

property for you, and he then omits even the neceffary words; and becomes as concife and hafty as the loose postils of a modern divine. So Luther, while a monk, and, by his inftitution obliged to fay mafs, and pray in perfon for others, thought even his Pater-nofter too long. But when he fet up for a governor in the church, and his business was to direct others how to pray for the fuccefs of his new model, he then lengthened the Pater-nofter by a new clause. This reprefentation of the first part of his conduct was to ridicule his want of devotion; as the other, where he tells us, that the addition was the power and glory clause, was to satirize his ambition; and both together to infinuate that, from a monk, he was become totally fecularized.— About this time of his life Dr. Donne had a strong propensity to popery, which appears from several strokes in these fatires. We find amongst his works, a fhort fatirical thing called a Catalogue of rare Books, one article of which is intitled, M. Lutherus de abbreviatione Orationis Dominicæ, alluding to Luther's omiffion of the concluding doxology, in his two Catechisms, which fhews he was fond of the joke; and, in the first instance, (for the fake of his moral) at the expence of truth. As his putting Erafmus and Reuchlin in the rank of Lully and Agrippa, shews what were then his fentiments of reformation.