Stephens dedicates his book to Thomas Turner, Esq. For the sake of a little variety I give one of his "three satyricall Essayes on Cowardlinesse," which are written in verse.
ESSAY I.
"Feare to resist good virtue's common foe,
And feare to loose some lucre, which doth grow
By a continued practise; makes our fate
Banish (with single combates) all the hate,
Which broad abuses challenge of our spleene.
For who in Vertue's troope was euer seene,
That did couragiously with mischiefes fight,
Without the publicke name of hipocrite?
Vaine-glorious, malapert, precise, deuout,
Be tearmes which threaten those that go about
To stand in opposition of our times
With true defiance, or satyricke rimes.
Cowards they be, branded among the worst,
Who (through contempt of Atheisme), neuer durst
Crowd neere a great man's elbow to suggest
Smooth tales with glosse, or Enuy well addrest.
These be the noted cowards of our age;
Who be not able to instruct the stage
With matter of new shamelesse impudence
Who cannot almost laugh at innocence;
And purchase high preferment by the waies,
Which had bene horrible in Nero's dayes.
They are the shamefull cowards, who contemne
Vices of state, or cannot flatter them;
Who can refuse advantage, or deny
Villanous courses, if they can espye
Some little purchase to inrich their chest
Though they become vncomfortably blest.
We still account those cowards, who forbeare
(Being possess'd with a religious feare)
To slip occasion, when they might erect
Hornes on a tradesman's noddle, or neglect
The violation of a virgin's bed
With promise to requite her maiden-head.
Basely low-minded we esteeme that man
Who cannot swagger well, or (if he can)
Who doth not with implacable desire,
Follow revenge with a consuming fire.
Extortious rascals, when they are alone,
Bethinke how closely they have pick'd each bone,
Nay, with a frolicke humour, they will brag,
How blancke they left their empty client's bag.
Which dealings if they did not giue delight,
Or not refresh their meetings in despight,
They would accounted be both weake, vnwise,
And, like a timorous coward, too precise.
Your handsome-bodied youth (whose comely face
May challenge all the store of Nature's grace,)
If, when a lustfull lady doth inuite,
By some lasciuious trickes his deere delight,
If then he doth abhorre such wanton ioy;
Whose is not almost ready to destroy
Ciuility with curses, when he heares
The tale recited? blaming much his years,
Or modest weaknesse, and with cheeks ful-blown
Each man will wish the case had beene his own.
Graue holy men, whose habite will imply
Nothing but honest zeale, or sanctity,
Nay so vprighteous will their actions seeme,
As you their thoughts religion will esteeme.
Yet these all-sacred men, who daily giue
Such vowes, wold think themselves vnfit to liue,
If they were artlesse in the flattering vice,
Euen as it were a daily sacrifice:
Children deceiue their parents with expence:
Charity layes aside her conscience,
And lookes vpon the fraile commodity
Of monstrous bargaines with a couetous eye:
And now the name of generosity,
Of noble cariage or braue dignity,
Keepe such a common skirmish in our bloud,
As we direct the measure of things good,
By that, which reputation of estate,
Glory of rumor, or the present rate
Of sauing pollicy doth best admit.
We do employ materials of wit,
Knowledge, occasion, labour, dignity,
Among our spirits of audacity,
Nor in our gainefull proiects do we care
For what is pious, but for what we dare.
Good humble men, who haue sincerely layd
Saluation for their hope, we call afraid.
But if you will vouchsafe a patient eare,
You shall perceiue, men impious haue most feare."
The second edition possesses the following title—"New Essayes and Characters, with a new Satyre in defence of the Common Law, and Lawyers: mixt with reproofe against their Enemy Ignoramus, &c. London, 1631." It seems not improbable that some person had attacked Stephens's first edition, although I am unable to discover the publication alluded to. I suspect him to be the editor of, or one of the contributors to, the later copies of Sir Thomas Overbury's Wife, &c.: since one of Stephens's friends, (a Mr. I. Cocke) in a poetical address prefixed to his New Essayes, says "I am heere enforced to claime 3 characters following the Wife[CR]; viz. the Tinker, the Apparatour, and Almanack-maker, that I may signify the ridiculous and bold dealing of an vnknowne botcher: but I neede make no question what he is; for his hackney similitudes discouer him to be the rayler above-mentioned, whosoeuer that rayler be."
FOOTNOTES:
[CP] Coxeter, in his MSS. notes to Gildon's Lives of the Eng. Dram. Poets, in the Bodleian, says that the second edition was in 8vo. 1613, "Essays and Characters, Ironical and Instructive," but this must be a mistake.
"Who takes thy volume to his vertuous hand,
Must be intended still to vnderstand:
Who bluntly doth but looke vpon the same,
May aske, what author would conceale his name?
Who reads may roaue, and call the passage darke,
Yet may, as blind men, sometimes hit the marke.
Who reads, who roaues, who hopes to vnderstand,
May take thy volume to his vertuous hand.
Who cannot reade, but onely doth desire
To vnderstand, hee may at length admire.
B. I."
[CR] These were added to the sixth edition of the Wife, in 1615.