The Rooke's poore Pawnes, are sillie swaines,
Which seeldome serue, except by hap,
And yet those Pawnes, can lay their traines,
To catch a great man, in a trap:
So that I see, sometime a groome
May not be spared from his roome.
THE NATURE OF THE CHESSE MEN.
The King is stately, looking hie;
The Queene doth beare like maiestie:
The Knight is hardie, valiant, wise:
The Bishop prudent and precise.
The Rookes no raungers out of raie[CX],
The Pawnes the pages in the plaie.
LENVOY.
Then rule with care, and quicke conceit,
And fight with knowledge, as with force;
So beare a braine, to dash deceit,
And worke with reason and remorse.
Forgive a fault when young men plaie,
So giue a mate, and go your way.
And when you plaie beware of checke,
Know how to saue and giue a necke:
And with a checke beware of mate;
But cheefe, ware had I wist too late:
Loose not the Queene, for ten to one,
If she be lost, the game is gone."
FOOTNOTES:
[CS] These are a king; a queen; a prince; a privy-counsellor; a noble man; a bishop; a judge; a knight; a gentleman; a lawyer; a soldier; a physician; a merchant (their good and bad characters); a good man, and an atheist or most bad man; a wise man and a fool; an honest man and a knave; an usurer; a beggar; a virgin and a wanton woman; a quiet woman; an unquiet woman; a good wife; an effeminate fool; a parasite; a bawd; a drunkard; a coward; an honest poor man; a just man; a repentant sinner; a reprobate; an old man; a young man, and a holy man.
[CT] It is by no means certain that this may not be intended to perpetuate the memory of some other person of the same names, although Mr. Gough, in a note to the second volume of Queen Elizabeth's Progresses, seems to think it belongs to our author.
[CU] Bridges' Northamptonshire, vol. ii. page 78, s. Shaw's Staffordshire, vol. i. page 422.