JAMES CARKASSE'S LUCIDA INTERVALLA, AN ILLUSTRATION OF PEPYS' DIARY.

I met lately with a quarto volume of poems printed at London in 1679, entitled:

"Lucida Intevalla containing divers miscellaneous Poems written at Finsbury and Bethlem, by the Doctor's Patient Extraordinary."

On the title-page was written in an old hand the native of the "patient extraordinary" and author James Carkasse, and that of the "doctor" Thomas Allen. A little reading convinced me that the writer was a very fit subject for a lunatic asylum; but at page 5, I met with an allusion to the celebrated Mr. Pepys, which I will beg to quote:—

"Get thee behind me then, dumb devil, begone,

The Lord hath eppthatha said to my tongue,

Him I must praise who open'd hath my lips,

Sent me from Navy, to the Ark, by Pepys;

By Mr. Pepys, who hath my rival been

For the Duke's [³] favour, more than years thirteen;

But I excluded, he high and fortunate,

This Secretary I could never mate;

But Clerk of th' Acts, if I'm a parson, then

I shall prevail, the voice outdoes the pen;

Though in a gown, this challenge I may make,

And wager win, save if you can, your stake.

To th' Admiral I all submit, and vail—"

The book from which I extract is cropped, so that the last line is illegible. Can the noble editor of Pepys' Diary, or any of your readers, inform me who and what was this Mr. James Carkasse?

W.B.R.

Footnote 3:[(return)]
The Duke of York, afterwards James II.