VINEGAR AND MUSTARD.

Vinegar and Mustard: or

Wormwood-Lectures for every Day in the Week. Being exercised and delivered in severall Parishes both of Town and City, on several dayes.

A dish of tongues here's for a feast,

Sowre sawce for sweet meat is the best.

- London

Taken Verbatim in short-writing by J. W.
Printed for Will. Whitwood, at the Golden Bell in
Duck-Lane. 1673. 8vo. 12 leaves.

On the title-page is a woodcut (see Roxburghe Ballads, 4to, 1847, p. 89) representing a husband returning home to his shop after a debauch, with a jug in his hand, but refused admittance by his angry wife. It is a mere chap-book, and we may reasonably believe that it was originally published considerably anterior to the date it bears. If a small tract were popular, it was sure to be reprinted, but in very many instances the ancient editions have been lost. One proof of the contrary, however, is now before us, in a piece entitled "The Anatomie of Pope Ioane," which was first printed by Richard Field, in 1591, 4to, and was reprinted by him in 12mo, as long afterwards as 1624, with the addition of the initials of the supposed author,—"Written by I. M.,” — possibly Jervis Markham.

"Vinegar and Mustard" consists of curtain- lectures by wives to their husbands, with such "answers" as the husbands were able to make. Neither the charges nor the replies are at all times very delicate or refined, whether as regards dirt or decency. They are calculated for every day in the week, and chiefly relate to the class of society forming the usual purchasers of such commodities. "Fridayes Lecture" is different from the others, and consists of a scolding-match between "bold Bettris" and "Welsh Guentlin," two market-women, who, after abusing each other very roundly and coarsely, agree to make up their differences over "half a dozen of ale" at the Fox public-house. This is entirely prose, but in other cases the wife's accusation is in prose, and the husband's defence in verse. There is a good deal of humor in some of the dialogues, and the following stanzas are at the back of the title-page:

"The Book to the Reader or Hearer.
"Tis no Tub Lecture which I teach,
But Ile tell you what some women preach;
then, pray come near and hear me.
I am black ink and paper white;
Although I bark, I will not bite:
therefore, you need not feare me.

"No modest woman I envy,
Because I love them heartily,

and prize them more than gold.
None will exceptions take at me,
But such as think they gauled be,
and that's, I'm sure, a Scold."

Here we see the old use of the word "envy" in the sense of hate, so common in the time of Shakspeare; and in the first husband's answer we meet with "warned" in the sense of summoned ; (Julius Cæsar, Act V. sc. 1, &c.) In his "Tale of Melibus,” Chaucer always uses 66 warn as the synonym of summon:

"Know, I am going to the Hall,

Where we this day Master and Wardens chuse:

I, being warn'd, must not refuse."

In the second husband's answer we have an account of the attire of a smart innkeeper's wife :

"You have good gowns unto your back,

and Wastcoats are not base;

Kirtles and scarlet Petticoats,

with silk and golden lace;

Your Beaver-hat, lac'd Handkerchiefs,
and yet you call me goose," &c.

The "Thursdayes Lecture" contains a droll and very characteristic speech by a wife, who was a Puritan, to her husband, "who would not be edified by her," where, among other things, she says: "You (forsooth) will go no where to be edified, but to your steeple-houses, upon your heathenish daies, there where they teach nothing almost but the language of the Beast,” &c.

Among the local allusions, &c. we have a reference to Turnmill or Turnbull-Street, Clerkenwell, to the pond which formerly existed in Smithfield, to Billingsgate Market and its bell, to the

custom of allowing women confined in Newgate to beg at the grated window, &c. We may, perhaps, conclude that the chapbook was first printed anterior to the Civil Wars, and that the initials J. W., on the title-page, were those of one of the numerous and prolific pamphleteers of that period: it is just in the style of Price, Guy, or Parker.

VIRGINIA. A true Relation of such occurrences and accidents of noate as hath hapned in Virginia since the first planting of that Collony, which is now resident in the South part thereof, till the last returne from thence. Written by Captaine Smith one of the said Collony, to a worshipfull friend of his in England. · London Printed for John Tappe, and are to bee solde at the Greyhound in Paules-Church-yard, by W. W. 1608. 4to. B. L. 19 leaves.

This copy consists in fact of twenty leaves, the fly-leaf before the title-page being marked sign. A., and the first leaf after the title-page A 3. On the title-page is a woodcut of a ship in full

sail.

There are differences between this copy and that in the Grenville Library in the first place, it is avowedly on the title-page the work of Capt. Smith, and not of "Thomas Watson, Gent.": then, there is no preliminary address to the reader and no map. Yet this copy is evidently complete, and the signatures (from A to E 4) quite regular. The name of Watson nowhere appears in it, and throughout it is written in the first person, but not subscribed by anybody; there is also no date nor place at the end. In the whole it includes the incidents of about a year; for in the opening the writer of the letter speaks of 26th April, when they set sail for Dominica from the Canaries, and on sign. E he mentions the unexpected return of Capt. Nelson to the fort on 20th April: in neither instance is the year given, but it was probably 1607.

It is useless to enter into any of the events detailed, since they

are very numerous and crowded into a small compass: the most important are the hanging of Capt. Kendall for plotting against the Colony, and the capture and subsequent liberation of Capt. Smith by the Indians, when they had him alone and completely at their mercy. There is little interest in any part of the narrative, which is somewhat hastily and confusedly put together. Notwithstanding what is said in the address before the Grenville exemplar, we believe that Watson was the real author of the tract, though Capt. Smith's more popular name was used in the copy before us.

VIRGINIA. A Good Speed to Virginia. Esay. 42. 4. He shall not faile nor be discouraged, &c. London Printed by Felix Kyngston for William Welbie, and are to be sold at his shop at the signe of the Greyhound in Pauls Church-yard. 1609. 4to. B. L. 15 leaves.

This is an able pamphlet of considerable rarity, published for the purpose of encouraging a spirit of adventure for the settlement of Virginia. Views of worldly policy and of religious duty are judiciously mixed up together, so as to secure the good opinion of various classes. The main drift is however pious, urging the duty of an expedition to North America, on the score of the advantage that would accrue to the poor savages by being brought into the Christian communion. The necessity of relieving Great Britain of surplus population, and the prospect of wealth and happiness to the undertakers are also very strongly pointed out. A new enterprise of the kind was at that time in hand.

"The Epistle Dedicatorie" to the Lords, Knights, Merchants, and Gentlemen "Adventurers for the plantation of Virginia" is subscribed R. G., and is dated "From mine house at the Northend of Sithes lane, London, April 28, Anno 1609.”

The body of the work starts, like a sermon, with a long text from Joshua xvii. 14, and a parallel is kept up throughout between the children of Joseph, and the people of England seeking out

new places of settlement. Columbus and his discovery are thus mentioned early in the tract: "Christopher Columbus made proffer to the Kings of England, Portugall and Spaine, to invest them with the most precious and riches veynes of the whole earth, never known before; but this offer was not only rejected, but the man himself, who deserves ever to be renowned, was (of us English especially) scorned and accounted for an idle Novelist. Some thinke it was because of his poore apparell and simple lookes, but surely it is rather to be imputed to the improvidency and imprudencie of our Nation, which hath alwayes bred such diffidence in us, that we conceit no new report, bee it never so likely, nor beleeve anything, be it never so probable, before we see the effects."

The writer, among other things, maintains the right to dispossess the savages, not only because it is for their own good, but because they have no fixed possession and residence, and because they had in fact invited a settlement on their shores.

In the course of his argument, R. G. several times refers to the book called "Nova Britannia, offering most excellent Fruites by Planting in Virginia," which had just been published, like this, with the date of 1609: it seems not unlikely that it was by the same author. From his closing sentence we learn that he was not in a condition to aid the undertaking either in purse or person: "And thus far have I presumed in my love to the Adventurers, and liking to the enterprise . . . sorrowing with my selfe, that I am not able, neither in person nor purse, to be a partaker in the businesse."

The copy of the tract we have used is especially valuable, from the circumstance that it once belonged to Sir Walter Raleigh, whose autograph it bears, with the addition of “Turr. Lond.," indicating his place of confinement.

Some early owner, not knowing the interest of Sir Walter Raleigh's signature, has endeavored to erase it, and has partially succeeded; but enough is fortunately still left to ascertain the fact. It has been suggested that the production may have come from the pen of Sir Walter himself, and the last sentence it contains, coupled with the character and excellence of the argu