Is a right Overdoe: who'ld care for such? "Flatterall. Noethrift. Much-craft. A Prater." "The prating knavve, whether tis right or wrong, "Swillbottle. The Nastye. A Cokes." "A Servant by his Master sent a broad, "A mere Scullion. The peculiar spelling of some of the words in the inscriptions shows that they were engraved by a person who did not understand English. The date of publication (if the plates were ever published) was, perhaps, the early part of the reign of Charles I. WHIP FOR AN APE. - A Whip for an Ape: or Martin displaied. Ordo Sacerdotum fatuo turbatur ab omni, 4to. B. L. 4 leaves. John Laneham, the famous actor, who was a leading member of the Earl of Leicester's Players in 1574, and was, in all probability, nearly related to Robert Laneham, or Langham (see Vol. II. p. 227), seems to have been the author of the singular and amusing tract before us; and although he does not place his name on the title-page, nor subscribe the verses at the close, he mentions himself near the end as the writer of the rhymes before us : "Leave Apes to doggs to baite, their skins to crowes, And let old Lanam lashe him with his rimes." He was an elderly man in 1592, and he had outlived Tarlton four years, whose death is thus by him commemorated :— "Now Tarlton's dead, the Consort lackes a Vice," which of itself shows the connection, or rather identity, of the Vice of the ancient moralities with the Clown of the then popular drama. The whole piece may be said to establish that Laneham, to a certain extent, had taken Tarlton's place as an extempore rhymer. To present Laneham as an author, whose work was printed, is to give him a new character; for although we know that his popular rival, Robert Wilson, left behind him at least one comedy, and assisted in many others, it has not been supposed that Laneham was more than a comic performer. It now appears that his celebrity in that department led the enemies of the Puritans to avail themselves also of his literary services. It will be observed, however, that no printer nor stationer ventured to put a name at the bottom of the title-page, and the first stanza affords a curious proof that corresponding caution was sometimes used upon the stage : "A Dizard late skipt out upon our stage, But in a sacke, that no man might him see; The only thing wherein he hath shewd wit." Thus we learn the manner in which Martin Marprelate, in one instance at least, had, as the Puritans often and loudly complained, been "brought upon the boards of a public theatre.” The subsequent stanza mentions two persons whom Nash had made famous in one or more of his prose satires : "Now out he runnes, with Cuckow, king of May; Then strikes he up Dame Lawsens lustie lay, Which makes me gesse (and I can shrewdly smell) He loves both t' one and t' other passing well.” Here "lay" is misprinted, in the hastily published original, lap, but the rhyme detects the blunder. Laneham's last stanza is this: "And this I warne thee, Martin Monckies face; Take heed of me: my rime doth charme thee bad. I am a rimer of the Irish race, And have already rimde thee staring mad: But if thou ceasest not thy bald jests to spread, Ile never leave till I have rimde thee dead." The above, if it were wanted, would form an apposite note to "As You Like It," Act III. sc. 2, where Shakspeare speaks of the fatal effects of rhymes upon Irish rats. Laneham is here clearly referring to Irish rhymes, which may have been the origin of the proverb. His penultimate unmusical line was, possibly, meant to be characteristic. WHIPPING OF RUNAWAYS.-Londoners Entertainment in the Countrie. Or the Whipping of Runnawayes. Wherein is described Londons Miserie. The Countries Crueltie. And Mans Inhumanitie. - At London Printed by H. L. for C. B. 1604. 4to. leaves. B. L. 16 A tract directed against those who ran away from the mortality of the plague, which had been raging in London; 1 and after the title-page we read the following heading of a page: "London to thy Citizens, especially to such right Honourable, right Worshipfull, and others, as were thy true-borne, ministring comfort to thee in time of visitation. Health, peace and plentie.” This is a brief and laudatory address to those who had remained in the afflicted capital to discharge their charitable duties; but, with some inconsistency, in the commencement of 1 For another brief notice of this pamphlet see Vol. II., p. 274, under LONDONERS. the body of his work, the writer cites "the Physicians advice, Cito fugere, longe abesse, tarde redire,” as the only safeguard from infection. Of course, the malady is attributed to the vices of the kingdom, in spite of the redeeming virtues of the new King. The production is made up of verse and prose—the latter of the ordinary kind and of the usual import, and the former very little better. The following is called "an Elegie," but it is more properly an Eclogue, by a shepherd "on the downs of Buckinghamshire," lamenting over his flock: — "No wonder though I waile, my sheepe are poore; for all my store. The Sommers prime is winter unto mee, "My joy and comfort dies, drown'd up in woe: My Lambes by my moist eies my sorrowes know: They scorne to live, since they my living feare, 'Hust, silence! leave thy cave, thy cave obscur'd, And deigne my woes a grave, woes long endur'd. Though thou leave me, yet take my sorrows to thee, Silence, mov'd to pitty, Sy. Wherefore undon? woeful London! Whilst London smyl'd my flocks did feede them ful "Woe is mee! they die now, cause they feede not: Shepheard Swaynes must flie now, cause they speede not: Yet when I pipe and sing that London smileth, My sheepe revive againe, and death beguileth. "Wherefore, silence, pittie my Lambes mourning, Joine in our sad dittie till woes turning. Sy. Mourne, Swaynes, mourne sheep, and silence wil weepe by you, And as you weepe, for mercie, Shepheards, cry you." This is poor stuff, and afterwards what is really an elegy, but is miscalled "an Æglogue," is no better, excepting that it is shorter. The tract was a performance merely for the day; but, as we never saw more than one copy of it, we have thought it worth a brief notice. WHIPPING OF THE SATIRE. The Whipping of the Satyre. Imprinted at London for John Flasket. 1601. 12mo. 48 leaves. This production is directed principally against three celebrated authors, John Marston, Ben Jonson, and Nicholas Breton. A long prose and prosing address, with which it opens, "To the vayne-glorious, the Satyrist, Epigrammatist, and Humorist," is subscribed W. J., and these letters also follow eight hexameter and pentameter verses, "Ad Lectorem." It is possible that they are the initials reversed of John Weever, who, as we have just seen, on page 227, himself published a collection of Epigrams in 1599, but who might nevertheless subsequently have "changed his copy," by attacking the species of writing he had practised. We know that this course was adopted by more than one dramatist. None of the three poets whom W. J. assails are mentioned by name, but they are sufficiently indicated by pointed allusions, and by the mention of their productions. Thus, on sign. D 2, we meet with these lines: "But harke, I heare the Cynicke Satyre crie, This exclamation is from Marston's "Scourge of Villany," 1598, Sat. VII., where he parodies a well-known passage in Shakspeare's "Richard III." Again, in reference to the title of Marston's volume, W. J. says: |