Now take a spice of Bastard's quality as a humorist; not failing to mark again the solemn flow and well-balanced cadence of the lines:
"You who have sorrow's hidden bottom sounded,
And felt the ground of teares and bitter moane,
You may conceive how Gilloes heart is wounded,
And judge of his deep feeling by your owne.
His toothlesse wife, when she was left for dead,
When grave and all was made—Recovered!"
I have other evidence as strongly favourable, but I shall not adduce it, lest after all it be wasted on unwilling ears. But if it be the verdict of your readers that Thomas Bastard has been unjustly forgotten, he shall live again in your pages.
R. C. C.