FOOTNOTES:
[478] Mastiff.
[479] So Isham copy and MS.--Eds. A, B, C "and as idle."
[480] So MS.--Isham copy and ed. A "oft."
IN GERONTEM.[481] XX.
Geron, whose[482] mouldy memory corrects Old Holinshed our famous chronicler With moral rules, and policy collects Out of all actions done these fourscore year; Accounts the time of every odd[483] event, Not from Christ"s birth, nor from the prince"s reign, But from some other famous accident, Which in men"s general notice doth remain,-- The siege of Boulogne,[484] and the plaguy sweat,[485]
The going to Saint Quintin"s[486] and New-Haven,[487] 10 The rising[488] in the north, the frost so great, That cart-wheel prints on Thamis" face were graven,[489]
The fall of money,[490] and burning of Paul"s steeple,[491]
The blazing star,[492] and Spaniards" overthrow:[493]
By these events, notorious to the people, He measures times, and things forepast doth show: But most of all, he chiefly reckons by A private chance,--the death of his curst[494] wife; This is to him the dearest memory, And th" happiest accident of all his life. 20
FOOTNOTES:
[481] Not in MS.
[482] So Isham copy.--Omitted in ed. A.
[483] So Isham copy.--Eds. A, B, C "old."
[484] Boulogne was captured by Henry VIII. in 1544.
[485] The reference probably is to the visitation of 1551.
[486] In 1557 an English corps under the Earl of Pembroke took part in the war against France. "The English did not share in the glory of the battle, for they were not present; but they arrived two days after to take part in the storming of St. Quentin, and to share, to their shame, in the sack and spoiling of the town."--Froude, VI. 52.
[487] Havre.--The expedition was despatched in 1562.
[488] Led by the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland in 1569.
[489] The reference is to the frost of 1564.--"There was one great frost in England in our memory, and that was in the 7th year of Queen Elizabeth: which began upon the 21st of December and held in so extremely that, upon New Year"s eve following, people in mult.i.tudes went upon the Thames from London Bridge to Westminster; some, as you tell me, sir, they do now--playing at football, others shooting at p.r.i.c.ks."--"The Great Frost," 1608 (Arber"s "English Garner," Vol. I.)
[490] "This yeare [1560] in the end of September the copper monies which had been coyned under King Henry the Eight and once before abased by King Edward the Sixth, were again brought to a lower valuacion."--Hayward"s _Annals of Queen Elizabeth_, p. 73.
[491] On the 4th June 1561, the steeple of St. Paul"s was struck by lightning.
[492] "On the 10th of October (some say on the 7th) appeared a blazing star in the north, bushing towards the east, which was nightly seen diminishing of his brightness until the 21st of the same month."--Stow"s _Annales_, under the year 1580 (ed. 1615, p. 687).
[493] The defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588.
[494] Vixenish.
IN MARc.u.m. XXI.
When Marcus comes from Mins",[495] he still doth swear, By "come[496] on seven," that all is lost and gone: But that"s not true; for he hath lost his hair, Only for that he came too much on[497] one.
FOOTNOTES:
[495] Dyce conjectures that this was the name of some person who kept an ordinary where gaming was practised. (MS. "for newes.")
[496] So eds. B, C.--Isham copy and ed. A "a seaven."
[497] So MS. with some eccentricities of spelling ("to much one one").--Old eds. "at."
IN CYPRIUM. XXII.
The fine youth Cyprius is more terse and neat Than the new garden of the Old Temple is; And still the newest fashion he doth get, And with the time doth change from that to this; He wears a hat now of the flat-crown block,[498]
The treble ruff,[499] long coat, and doublet French: He takes tobacco, and doth wear a lock,[500]
And wastes more time in dressing than a wench.
Yet this new-fangled youth, made for these times, Doth, above all, praise old George[501] Gascoigne"s rhymes.[502] 10
FOOTNOTES:
[498] Shape or fashion; properly the wooden mould on which the crown of a hat is shaped.
[499] So MS.--Old eds. "ruffes."
[500] Love-lock; a lock of hair hanging down the shoulder in the left side. It was usually plaited with ribands.
[501] So MS. and eds. B, C.--Not in Isham copy or ed. A.
[502] Gascoigne"s "rhymes" have been edited in two thick volumes by Mr.
Carew Hazlitt. He died on 7th October 1577. In Gabriel Harvey"s _Letter Book_ (recently edited by Mr. Edward Scott for the Camden Society) there are some elegies on him.
IN CINEAM. XXIII.
When Cineas comes amongst his friends in morning, He slyly looks[503] who first his cap doth move: Him he salutes, the rest so grimly scorning, As if for ever they had lost his love.
I, knowing how it doth the humour fit Of this fond gull to be saluted first, Catch at my cap, but move it not a whit: Which he perceiving,[504] seems for spite to burst.
But, Cineas, why expect you more of me Than I of you? I am as good a man, 10 And better too by many a quality, For vault, and dance, and fence, and rhyme I can: You keep a wh.o.r.e at your own charge, men tell me; Indeed, friend Cineas, therein you excel me.[505]