Ad Musam. 48.
Peace,[123] idle Muse, haue done! for it is time,
Since lousie Ponticus enuies my fame,
And sweares the better sort are much to blame
To make me so well knowne for my[124] ill rime:
Yet Bankes his horse,[125] is better knowne then he.
So are the Cammels and the westerne hogge,[126]
And so is Lepidus his printed Dog:[127]
Why doth not Ponticus their fames enuie?
Besides, this Muse of mine, and the blacke feather
Grew both together fresh[128] in estimation:
And both growne stale, were cast away together:
What fame is this that scarce lasts[129] out a fashion?
Onely this last in credit doth remaine,
That from henceforth, each bastard cast-forth rime,
Which doth but savour of a libell vaine,
Shall call me father, and be thought my crime;
So dull, and with so little sence endu'd,
Is my grose-headed Judge, the multitude.
Finis. I. D.
[Appendix to Epigrams:]
(FROM THE HARLEIAN MSS. 1836.)
As explained in the Note, page 6 ante, I have gleaned a few additions to these Epigrams. At close of those of Hutton,—in the MS. marked 60 and in Hutton's own volume 56,—on folio 15d, is the word 'finis.' Immediately under this, the MS. is continued in the same handwriting on to folio 19, whereon 'finis' is again placed: and on folios 19 and 20 Lines 'of Tobacco' with 'finis' once more. These Lines on 'Tobacco' are curious: and somewhat resemble those on 'Moly' given in the Hitherto Unpublished Poems of Davies, onward. G.
1. In Superbiam. Epi. 4.
I tooke the wall, one thrust me rudely by,
And tould me the King's way did open lye.
I thankt him yt he did me so much grace,
to take the worse, leave me the better place;
For if by th' owners wee esteeme of things,
the wall's the subjects, but the way's the King's.