 | The honest ghost |  |
75
Loves Lottery.
I pull, God send me fortune in my thank,
Either a Prize worth having, or a Blank;
What is it Crier? see the blousing fool,
How he stands cocking on a buffet stool,
And speakes his mind in silence! Sirra, you,
That stands like to some Beacon, to the view
Of each beholder, tell me what do'est know,
Have I a Prize, resolve me yea, or no?
None; all the better, I am glad thy eyes
Are not a witnesse of a worser prize
Then nothing; it is love for which I drew,
And since I've nothing for my selfe to shew,
I am made free, that was in feare of thrall,
Which to avoid, I'le have no Prize at all.
No Prize, no booty! wellcome-heartily,
I am prepar'd, t'embrace my poverty
With an extended arme, for there is want
Which makes man happy, as Cleanthes scant
Living a single life, got knowledg store,
In which (if married) he had still been poor.
Yet once I'le pull againe, hap what hap can,
And may my Lot make me a happy man.
“Happy or haplesse dole, what ere shall come,
“I will with cheerfull brow receive my doome:
For this I know, if fortune meane me well,
I shall receive a Lot that doth excell
So farre the lower ranke, as flowres grasse,
“Gold lead, myrrhe hemlock, diamond the glasse.
Either a Prize worth having, or a Blank;
What is it Crier? see the blousing fool,
How he stands cocking on a buffet stool,
And speakes his mind in silence! Sirra, you,
That stands like to some Beacon, to the view
Of each beholder, tell me what do'est know,
Have I a Prize, resolve me yea, or no?
None; all the better, I am glad thy eyes
Are not a witnesse of a worser prize
Then nothing; it is love for which I drew,
And since I've nothing for my selfe to shew,
I am made free, that was in feare of thrall,
Which to avoid, I'le have no Prize at all.
No Prize, no booty! wellcome-heartily,
I am prepar'd, t'embrace my poverty
With an extended arme, for there is want
Which makes man happy, as Cleanthes scant
Living a single life, got knowledg store,
In which (if married) he had still been poor.
76
And may my Lot make me a happy man.
“Happy or haplesse dole, what ere shall come,
“I will with cheerfull brow receive my doome:
For this I know, if fortune meane me well,
I shall receive a Lot that doth excell
So farre the lower ranke, as flowres grasse,
“Gold lead, myrrhe hemlock, diamond the glasse.
Now Sir, what has fate sent us, some crackt peece,
Not worth receiving? thinkst thou this will please
A man, whose fortunes stand upon his Prize?
No sir, I'le ferret out your rogueries.
This is given out for some virginian travell,
Some Sea-gull voyage, and you meane to gravell
A country Codshead, and to cheat him too,
Telling him what the Merchants meane to do
With this grand contribution, but they
Meane no such thing: such voyages must stay
Till better opportunity admit,
And then perchance they will accomplish it.
Not worth receiving? thinkst thou this will please
A man, whose fortunes stand upon his Prize?
No sir, I'le ferret out your rogueries.
This is given out for some virginian travell,
Some Sea-gull voyage, and you meane to gravell
A country Codshead, and to cheat him too,
Telling him what the Merchants meane to do
With this grand contribution, but they
Meane no such thing: such voyages must stay
Till better opportunity admit,
And then perchance they will accomplish it.
And yet what strange pretences do they make,
“All that they doe is for their Country sake;
And that this expedition will confer,
Store of estate upon our Ilander?
Then, what rich oare in every cliffe abounds,
The fishie rivers, and faire spacious grounds,
That without tillage yeeld them fruit enough
Without the help of either Share or plough.
Besides, what commerce will accrue thereby
To Albions people, and her Seignory.
“All that they doe is for their Country sake;
And that this expedition will confer,
Store of estate upon our Ilander?
Then, what rich oare in every cliffe abounds,
The fishie rivers, and faire spacious grounds,
That without tillage yeeld them fruit enough
Without the help of either Share or plough.
Besides, what commerce will accrue thereby
To Albions people, and her Seignory.
77
Thus our Lot-novices, are drawne to th'bait,
And brought to bite, not knowing what deceit
Lies shrouded under covert and pretence
Of country profit, Dove-like innocence.
But heare! A prize, and that the greatst of all
Befall'n a Taylor, who upon his stall
Scarce could sustaine his wife and family
With stealing shreads, and other michery;
And now's advanc'd by fortune and his Lot
To many hundreds: and yet knoweth not
His better fate, till that some friend of his
Come to bring tidings of his sodain blisse.
Where finding him heeling a paire of hose,
Or such like botcherie, He skrues his nose
After an upstart-Gallant, leaves his boord,
Which many a peece of stolen stuffe can afford:
Then streight hee claps a peece or two in th'hand
Of his good Nuncio, And thinks what land
Where best to purchase for his sunne and heire,
(Whose heritage was lists;) then do repaire
His Bakers with their scroules, and call him cofin,
With ------ Item for so many dozen dozen
All undefraid, yet much they'l not importune,
Because they heare the issue of his fortune;
Which they admire with knee and vailed head,
And now this loopehole must be worshipped,
Whose Stile by letters is engraven thus,
The Shrine of Sutor Vestiarius.
And this the Country gull, no sooner heares,
Then he is rapt with hope, and therefore beares
Some stakes of hazard in this Lottery;
And hopes in time to hit as prosprously
As ere the yard-man did, and had no doubt
If that he could with lots have holden out
Till he had gain'd his purchase; but how short
He came of that, his owne eares can report,
Where all he got (so little was his thank)
For his disbursements was a Paper-blank.
And yet, O hope, how strong an Oratour
Art thou in thy perswasion! where, thy power
Extracts content from shadows, telling vs
That such events may fall out thus or thus;
Which though they have no possibility,
Yet hope assures them for a certainty.
This moves us oft, to lose the substances
And reall use of things, for semblances;
Meerely phantastick fictions, which proceed
From the distemper of an addle head.
And such Ixion-like make their receit,
Too overweening of their own conceit:
Admiring Merrha-like, what ere they make,
That nought is good, but what they undertake.
Where if event prove sometime sinister
To their intent; they presently aver
The ground whereon they built the plot was good,
Hows'ere the sequell may be understood.
O strang condition of depraved men,
Where fancy is distracted, how or when
Their own affections know not, but proceed
In their intendments without better heed
Then purblind Appius in his Cassian lot
Who for two Romane talents got a groat!
And was not this an excellent receit
For such a summe disbursed? O deceit
As ancient as authentick! for wee see
Acts of this kind gaine an impunitie;
Because those grand-Cayrs that doe profit by them,
Are all too great for poor ones to discry them.
“Laws are like spider-webs, small flies are tane,
“Whiles greater flies break in and out againe.
But th'lot I draw's cleere of another kind;
Where many are, of th'Carthaginian mind,
That brave Arminius, and we follow him,
Who thought it better farre to lose then win
In Hymens Lottery: yet in affection
Where single numbers be, there's no perfection
Because too naked, if that one partake
“Not of an other, and assume his make
To make this number complete: but we find,
Saith Timon, that made perfect in the mind,
Where Contemplation reigneth, which can be
Hardly united with Effeminacie.
True yet the State, if with discretion us'd,
And not through wanton dalliance abus'd,
Which staines the light of wedlock, may be said,
And rightly too, of merit honoured;
Where two divided bodies become one
by an interiour union, bone of bone;
Having recourse to the Creation, when
Women had their beginning from us men:
So as that Mould which gave to us creation,
“Being rib-formd gave Woman generation.
And much I wonder whence these Womens pride
Had propagation! if from Adam's side,
Why should they glory in their beauties flowrs
“Since their perfection is not theirs but ours?
But if (as other Sages do aver)
Eve took this from her Lawyer Lucifer;
Why should they such esteeme of beauty make,
But rather hate it for the Serpents sake?
Who under colour of commending faire,
Tells them by art they'r fairer then they were;
Whence they becom (so pure hath art displaind them)
Made by themselves, & not as God hath made them.
Yet some there be whose vertues make them faire,
And such seeme never fairer then they are,
Whose native beauty doth her light retaine,
Whilest what art daubs, is soon dissolv'd again.
But stay, a Prize! most welcom, what may't be?
“A Maid of Dian's train, whose modestie
Is without reach of Scandal; shee it is
That's fallne to thee to consummate thy blisse;
“Farwell then Contemplation, I have got
“A rarer prize, and I will take my Lot.
And brought to bite, not knowing what deceit
Lies shrouded under covert and pretence
Of country profit, Dove-like innocence.
But heare! A prize, and that the greatst of all
Befall'n a Taylor, who upon his stall
Scarce could sustaine his wife and family
With stealing shreads, and other michery;
And now's advanc'd by fortune and his Lot
To many hundreds: and yet knoweth not
His better fate, till that some friend of his
Come to bring tidings of his sodain blisse.
Where finding him heeling a paire of hose,
Or such like botcherie, He skrues his nose
After an upstart-Gallant, leaves his boord,
Which many a peece of stolen stuffe can afford:
Then streight hee claps a peece or two in th'hand
Of his good Nuncio, And thinks what land
Where best to purchase for his sunne and heire,
(Whose heritage was lists;) then do repaire
His Bakers with their scroules, and call him cofin,
With ------ Item for so many dozen dozen
All undefraid, yet much they'l not importune,
Because they heare the issue of his fortune;
Which they admire with knee and vailed head,
And now this loopehole must be worshipped,
Whose Stile by letters is engraven thus,
The Shrine of Sutor Vestiarius.
And this the Country gull, no sooner heares,
Then he is rapt with hope, and therefore beares
78
And hopes in time to hit as prosprously
As ere the yard-man did, and had no doubt
If that he could with lots have holden out
Till he had gain'd his purchase; but how short
He came of that, his owne eares can report,
Where all he got (so little was his thank)
For his disbursements was a Paper-blank.
And yet, O hope, how strong an Oratour
Art thou in thy perswasion! where, thy power
Extracts content from shadows, telling vs
That such events may fall out thus or thus;
Which though they have no possibility,
Yet hope assures them for a certainty.
This moves us oft, to lose the substances
And reall use of things, for semblances;
Meerely phantastick fictions, which proceed
From the distemper of an addle head.
And such Ixion-like make their receit,
Too overweening of their own conceit:
Admiring Merrha-like, what ere they make,
That nought is good, but what they undertake.
Where if event prove sometime sinister
To their intent; they presently aver
The ground whereon they built the plot was good,
Hows'ere the sequell may be understood.
O strang condition of depraved men,
Where fancy is distracted, how or when
Their own affections know not, but proceed
In their intendments without better heed
79
Who for two Romane talents got a groat!
And was not this an excellent receit
For such a summe disbursed? O deceit
As ancient as authentick! for wee see
Acts of this kind gaine an impunitie;
Because those grand-Cayrs that doe profit by them,
Are all too great for poor ones to discry them.
“Laws are like spider-webs, small flies are tane,
“Whiles greater flies break in and out againe.
But th'lot I draw's cleere of another kind;
Where many are, of th'Carthaginian mind,
That brave Arminius, and we follow him,
Who thought it better farre to lose then win
In Hymens Lottery: yet in affection
Where single numbers be, there's no perfection
Because too naked, if that one partake
“Not of an other, and assume his make
To make this number complete: but we find,
Saith Timon, that made perfect in the mind,
Where Contemplation reigneth, which can be
Hardly united with Effeminacie.
True yet the State, if with discretion us'd,
And not through wanton dalliance abus'd,
Which staines the light of wedlock, may be said,
And rightly too, of merit honoured;
Where two divided bodies become one
by an interiour union, bone of bone;
Having recourse to the Creation, when
Women had their beginning from us men:
80
“Being rib-formd gave Woman generation.
And much I wonder whence these Womens pride
Had propagation! if from Adam's side,
Why should they glory in their beauties flowrs
“Since their perfection is not theirs but ours?
But if (as other Sages do aver)
Eve took this from her Lawyer Lucifer;
Why should they such esteeme of beauty make,
But rather hate it for the Serpents sake?
Who under colour of commending faire,
Tells them by art they'r fairer then they were;
Whence they becom (so pure hath art displaind them)
Made by themselves, & not as God hath made them.
Yet some there be whose vertues make them faire,
And such seeme never fairer then they are,
Whose native beauty doth her light retaine,
Whilest what art daubs, is soon dissolv'd again.
But stay, a Prize! most welcom, what may't be?
“A Maid of Dian's train, whose modestie
Is without reach of Scandal; shee it is
That's fallne to thee to consummate thy blisse;
“Farwell then Contemplation, I have got
“A rarer prize, and I will take my Lot.
| The honest ghost | |