as the puritans in fact, between fear of popery and hatred of Laud and his measures, were actually broiling and bursting. Satan, however, is vexed by the triumphs of Protestantism in England. His fiends form Jesuits out of matter, "foul hearts, sear'd consciences, feet swift to blood,"—and all this when Jesuit missionaries were dying under unspeakable tortures at the hands of the Iroquois. While Catholics were being hanged in England, and dreaded a massacre in Scotland, Phineas ends loyally,
Thrice happy who that Whore shall doubly pay,
This, royal Charles, this be thy happy meed,—
unhappy Charles who found in the Catholics his most loyal subjects! It is easy but erroneous to confuse the "Piscatory Dialogues" of Phineas with his drama, "Sicelides, a Piscatory," acted at King's College, Cambridge (published, 1631). The dialogue is partly in rhymed heroic couplets of much fluency and partly in prose; the play is of a happier date (1614) than "The Apollyonists," and is written "in a merry pin". Phineas wrote many other things, including a pretty bashful Epithalamium.
Corbet.
Richard Corbet (1582-1635) born at Ewell in Surrey, and educated at Westminster and Christ Church, Oxford, was a merry clergyman, who laughed at but did not abuse Puritans; was liked at Court, and successively held the Sees of Oxford and Norwich. In Aubrey's gossip there are well-known tales about the Bishop's gaieties, and his rhymes on a tour to Paris and on another in the North were reckoned choicely facetious. His best poem has lost nothing in the course of time,
Farewell rewards and Fairies,
Good house-wives now may say,
For now foul sluts in dairies
Do fare as well as they.
There is also a pretty piece to his son Vincent, on attaining his third birthday. Corbet's humorous pieces have much more vigour than refinement: his verses were not intended for publication, and did not appear till ten years after his death.
Sir John Beaumont.
Sir John Beaumont was the elder brother of Francis Beaumont, the celebrated partner of Fletcher in the drama. He was born (1582) at Grace Dieu in Leicestershire, was of Broadgates Hall (now Pembroke College) in Oxford (1596), lived chiefly at his country place, was created a baronet in 1626, and died in 1628. A sacred poem of his, "The Crown of Thorns," in eight books, is lost: his "Bosworth Field" with other pieces was brought out by his eldest son, in 1629, and dedicated to Charles I. Ben Jonson, in prefatory verses, wrote
This book will live, it hath a genius
Above his reader,