And brought in none, but spent repute,
Y' assume a pow'r as absolute
To judge, and censure, and control,
As if you were the sole Sir Poll,

And saucily pretend to know

More than your dividend comes to.
You'll find the thing will not be done
With ignorance and face alone;

No, though y' have purchas'd to your name
In history so great a fame;

That now your talent 's so well known
For having all belief outgrown,

That ev'ry strange prodigious tale
Is measur❜d by your German scale-
By which the virtuosi try

The magnitude of ev'ry lie,

Cast

up to what it does amount,

And place the bigg'st to your account:
That all those stories that are laid

86 Sir Politic Would-be, in "Volpone."

91 92 These two lines, I think, plainly discover that Lilly, and not Sir Paul Neal, was here lashed under the name of Sidrophel;' for Lilly's fame abroad was indisputable. Mr. Strickland, who was many years agent for the Parliament in Holland, thus publishes it: " I came purposely into the committee this day to see the man who is so famous in those parts where I have so long continued: I assure you his name is famous all over Europe. I came to do him justice." Lilly is also careful to tell us, that the King of Sweden sent him a gold chain and medal, worth about fifty pounds, for making honourable mention of his Majesty in one of his almanacks, which, he says, was translated into the language spoken at Hamburgh, and printed and cried about the streets, as it was in London. Thus he trumpets to the world the fame he acquired by his infamous practices, if we may credit his own history.

VOL. I.

Too truly to you, and those made,
Are now still charg'd upon your score,
And lesser authors nam'd no more.
Alas! that faculty betrays
Those soonest it designs to raise ;
And all your vain renown will spoil,
As guns o'ercharg'd the more recoil;
Though he that has but impudence
To all things has a fair pretence;
And put among his wants but shame,
To all the world may lay his claim :

Though you have try'd that nothing 's borne
With greater ease than public scorn,

105

110

That all affronts do still give place

115

To your impenetrable face;

That makes your way through all affairs,
As pigs through hedges creep with theirs:
Yet as 'tis counterfeit, and brass,
You must not think 'twill always pass;
For all impostors, when they're known,
Are past their labour and undone ;

And all the best that can befall

An artificial natural,

Is that which madmen find as soon

As once they're broke loose from the moon,
And, proof against her influence,

Relapse to e'er so little sense,

To turn stark fools, and subjects fit
For sport of boys and rabble-wit.

And hangs or drowns with half the trouble;
While those who sillily pursue

The simple downright way and true,

Make as unlucky applications,

And steer against the stream, their passions.

Some forge their mistresses of stars,

And when the ladies prove averse,

And more untoward to be won
Than by Caligula the moon,

Cry out upon the stars for doing

Ill offices, to cross their wooing,

When only by themselves they're hind'red,

5

10

15

For trusting those they made her kindred,
And still the harsher and hide-bounder
The damsels prove, become the fonder;
For what mad lover ever dy'd

To gain a soft and gentle bride?
Or for a lady tender-hearted,

In purling streams or hemp departed?

Leap'd headlong int' Elysium,

Through th' windows of a dazzling room?
But for some cross ill-natur'd dame,

20

25

Of th' inns of Court and Chancery, Justice;
Who might perhaps reduce his cause

50

43 VAR. And us'd as.'

To th' ordeal trial of the laws,

Where none escape but such as branded
With red-hot irons have past bare-handed;
And, if they cannot read one verse

I' th' Psalms, must sing it, and that's worse.
He, therefore, judging it below him
To tempt a shame the dev'l might owe him,
Resolv'd to leave the Squire for bail
And mainprize for him to the jail,
To answer, with his vessel all
That might disastrously befall,

And thought it now the fittest juncture
To give the Lady a rencounter,
T' acquaint her with his expedition,
And conquest o'er the fierce magician;
Describe the manner of the fray,
And shew the spoils he brought away;
His bloody-scourging aggravate,
The number of the blows, and weight;
All which might probably succeed,
And gain belief he 'ad done the deed:
Which he resolv'd t' enforce, and spare
No pawning of his soul to swear;
But rather than produce his back,
To set his conscience on the rack;
And, in pursuance of his urging
Of articles perform'd, and scourging,
And all things else, upon his part
Demand deliv'ry of her heart,

Her goods, and chattels, and good graces,
And person, up to his embraces.

Thought he, The ancient errant knights
Won all their ladies' hearts in fights,
And cut whole giants into fritters,