"But stay, my muse; in thine owne confines keepe
And wage not warre with so deere lov'd a neighbor,
But having sung thy day song, rest and sleepe;
Preserve thy small fame and his greater favor:
His song was worthie merrit (Shakspeare hee)
Sung the faire blossome, thou the withered tree:
Laurell is due to him; his art and wit

Hath purchast it: Cypres thy brow will fit."

Shakspeare in several places uses meed for "merit," and here we see Barksted making "merit" and meed synonymous. We give the title of "Mirrha the Mother of Adonis" at length, because it shows that Lewis Machin's Eclogues, which are spoken of in Lowndes (Bibl. Man. 1861, p. 1438) as a separate publication, were only a supplement to Barksted's poem, in order to swell the volume:

"Mirrha the Mother of Adonis: or Lustes Prodegies. By William Barksted. Horace. Nansicetur enim pretium, nomenque Poeta. Whereunto are added certain Eclogs by L. M.-London printed by E. A. for John Bache, and are to be sold at his shop in the Popes-head Palace, nere the Royall Exchange. 1607."

The name of Lewis Machin is appended at length to the Eclogues; but they have little or no merit of any kind, and the allusions, personal and political, are often not intelligible. Barksted, as is well known, was an actor, and played in Ben Jonson's "Epicone," and he may have sustained a part in Lewis Machin's comedy "The Dumb Knight," which was printed in 1608. In 1615 Barksted was one of Alleyn's Company, (Memoirs of Edw. Alleyn, 1841, p. 130.)

VICARS, JOHN.Babels Balm or the Honey-combe of Romes Religion. With a neate draining and straining out of the rammish Honey thereof. Sung in tenne most elegant Elegies in Latine by that most worthy Christian Satyrist Master George Good-winne, and translated into tenne English Satyres by the Muses most unworthy Eccho, John Vicars. - Imprinted at London by George Purslowe &c. 1624. 4to. 65 leaves.

On the fly-leaf of this tract the first Earl has written in his copy,

"J. Bridgewater ex dono Jo: Vicars;"

and to his Lordship the translation is dedicated in two pages of verse, in which the late Lord Chancellor Ellesmere is styled

66 'our Nestour, your Progenitour,

Englands grave Cato, prudent Senatour,

Fraught with faire Vertue, and from Vice most free."

A short address to the Reader is succeeded by Goodwin's dedication of his original work to Sir Robert Naunton, by an acrostic by Vicars upon Goodwin, and a violently abusive poem, thus headed: "To the most discourteous Momish Catholike, whose greatest grace is a graceles gracious kisse at his unholy Fathers great Toe, Greeting." Thomas Salisbury, Bach. in Divinity, subscribes some commendatory lines, to which are added, "The Argument of the Poeme, and the contents of the ten Satires." At the end of them is "a Corollarie to the Premises," and six lines "upon this Bee-hive or Honeycombe."

Vicars was married, for the second time, to Susan Martin, on 2d April, 1617, having buried his first wife, Edith, and child, in the preceding year. In the register of St. Bartholomew the Less he is termed " Schoolmaster," and his son Robert was baptized there on 22d June, 1616.

VICARS, JOHN. All the memorable and wonder-strikinge Parliamentary Mercies effected for, and afforded unto this our English Nation within this space of lesse then 2 Yeares past Ao. 1641 and 1642. Are to be sould by Thomas Jenner in his shop at the old Exchange. 4to. 9 leaves.

The above is an engraved title-page, supported by half-lengths of Time and Truth, and beneath them, in the centre, Envy eating a heart. Two texts from Isaiah are on scrolls under Time and Truth, and a third from Revelation, under Envy. The plates,

exclusive of the title-page, are eight in number, each containing two representations of some public transaction, with engraved explanations. 1. The Archbishop of St. Andrew's assaulted in his pulpit. 2. The Apprentices attacking Lambeth Palace. 3. The beheading of Lord Strafford. 4. The flight of Sir F. Windebank, Sir John Finch, Lord Digby, Jermyn, &c. 5. Souldiers destroying Altars, pictures, &c. 6. English and Scots Armies embracing. 7. Ministers and people taking the Protestation. 8. Burton, Bastwick, and Prynne entering London in triumph. 9. The High Commission Court and Star Chamber voted down. 10. The Queen Mother and Capuchin Friars embarking for France. 11. Imprisonment of the Bishops in the Tower. 12. Disarming Popish Recusants. 13. Train-bands guarding the Lords and Commons to Parliament. 14. The inhabitants of Buckinghamshire riding to Parliament with the Protestation. 15. The House of Commons considering the anonymous letter to Pym. 16. Colonel Lunsford and Cavaliers assaulting the Londoners at Westminster Hall.

VICARS, JOHN. - Prodigies and Apparitions, or England's Warning Pieces. Being a seasonable Description by lively figures and apt illustrations of many remarkable and prodigious forerunners and apparent Predictions of God's Wrath against England, if not timely prevented by true Repentance. Written by J. V. Are to bee sould by Tho. Bates &c. 8vo. n. d. 29 leaves.

66

The title is engraved upon a drapery, supported by a child with two heads, and representing, in the background, various prodigies in the air and on the earth. There are six other plates, devoted to separate " emblems," or "warning-pieces" to England of approaching destruction for her sins. One of these (the second) represents a child with "two distinct heads, two hearts, two arms, and the stump of a third growing out from the back,” which had been "shewn to King Charles and the Queen, Anno. Dom: 1633." At the back are the following lines by Vicars, which show his fanatical ingenuity in applying this abortion to the circumstances of the times:

"Behold, good Reader, here a monstrous birth

To damp thy sinnes delight, and marre such mirth:
A man-childe born in most prodigious sort,
Which for undoubted truth thou mayst report.
Two distinct heads it had, and eke two hearts,
Two arms, whence grew a stump: in other parts
Like other children. What may this portend?
Sure, monstrous plagues doe monstrous sinnes attend!
The sinnes of Heads, in government abus'd;
The sinnes of Hearts, opinions false infus'd,
And broacht abroad to raise up foes and factions,
And Arms and Armies to confound with fractions:
Disjoynted States (like stump-like Ireland)
Whiles brothers thus 'gainst brothers lift their hand.
This (surely) God seemes hereby to foretell,

That having plagues must hideous Sinnes expell."

In the last line for "having" we surely ought to read heavy. Each plate has verses of the same description annexed to it, but the main body of the tract is prose. Near the end the author speaks of "this instant year, 1643," which was no doubt the date of publication, although none appears on the title-page.

VICARS, JOHN.-A Sight of the Transactions of these latter yeares. Emblemized with engraven plats, which men may read without spectacles. Are to be sould by Thomas Jenner in his shop at the old Exchange. 4to. n. d. 15 leaves.

The engraved title to this production is from the same plate as the preceding, with the exception that the original words have been abrased, and others substituted as above. Eight of the plates are also the same, though not inserted in the same order, and three others are added, each containing two subjects, viz.: 1. The pulling down of Cheapside Cross, the 2d of May, 1643. 2. The burning of the Book of Sports and Pastimes, the 10th of May, 1643. 3. Burning papistical books, crucifixes, pictures, &c., in Somerset House and St. James Palace, the 23d of May, 1643. 4. The Hanging of Challener and Tomkins in May, 1643. 5. The be

heading of Sir A. Carew, Sir J. Hotham, Captain Hotham, and Archbishop Laud, in 1645. 6. The breaking of the Great Seal, the 11th of August, 1646.

The plates are accompanied by prose details and explanations, bringing down the events to the 11th of August, 1646, and at the conclusion are the words, "Collected by John Vicars." Vicars had the presumption, in 1632, to publish a translation of the Eneid, a ludicrous mixture of bombast, barbarism, and bathos.

VIENNA.

Vienna. Noe Art can cure this hart. Where in is storied the valorous atchievements, famous triumphs, constant love, great miseries, and finall happines of the well deserving, truly noble and most valiant Kt. S. Paris of Vienna, and the most admired amiable Princess the faire Vienna. - London Printed for Richard Hawkins &c. n. d. 4to. 95 leaves.

On some copies of this production the date of 1650 is found, but the present edition is, perhaps, earlier. Opposite to an engraved title-page, by Gifford, are some explanatory verses, and others in commendation of the author (for it is spoken of by him and his friends as an original work) are prefixed. The only writer of note who lends his praise is Thomas Heywood, the dramatist.

A translation of the original romance came from the press of Caxton in 1485, and it formed the subject of a play acted before Queen Elizabeth by the children of Westminster on Shrove Tuesday, 1571. (Vide Hist. Engl. Dram. Poetry, I. 197.) Dr. Dibdin (Typ. Ant. I. 261) informs us that "the original is of Provençal growth, and was translated into French by Pierre de la Sippade." It is singular, as we learn on the same authority, that Caxton's impression, which purports to be "translated out of French into English," should be of an earlier date than any known foreign edition.