The Whole Works of William Browne of Tavistock ... Now first collected and edited, with a memoir of the poet, and notes, by W. Carew Hazlitt, of the Inner Temple |
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| VI. Epigrams. |
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 | The Whole Works of William Browne |  |
333
VI. Epigrams.
[It hapned lately at a Fair, or Wake]
It hapned lately at a Fair, or Wake,(After a pott or two or such mistake)
Two iron-soled Clownes, and bacon-sided,
Grumbled: then left the formes wch they bestrided,
And with their crabb tree cudgels, as appeares,
Threshd (as they vse) at one anothers' eares:
A neighbor nere, both to their house and drinke,
(Who though he slept at sermons) could not winke
At this dissention, with a Spiritt bold
As was the ale that arm'd them, strong & old,
Stept in & parted them; but Fortunes frowne
Was such, that there our neighbor was knockdt downe.
For they, to recompence his paines at full,
Since he had broke their quarrell, broke his Scull.
People came in, & raise[d] him from his swound;
A Chirurgeon then was calld to search the wound,
Who op'ning it, more to endeare his paynes,
Cryde out, Allas, Looke, you may see his Braynes.
Nay, quoth the Wounded man, I tell you free,
Good Mr Surgeon, that can neuer bee;
For I should nere haue medled with ye Brall,
If I had had but any Braynes at all.
334
ON AN HOURE GLASSE.
The truest houre glasse lyes; for youle confes,All holes grow bigger, and the sand growes lesse.
ON THE COUNTESSE OF SOMERSETS PICTURE.
The pitty'd fortune most men chiefly hate;And rather thinke the envyde fortunate:
Yet I, if Miserie did looke as She,
Should quicklie fall in loue with Miserie.
ON JOHN TOOTH.
Heere lyeth in soothHonest John Tooth;
Whom Death on a daye
From vs drew awaye.
TO DON ANTONIO, KING OF PORTUGALL.
Between thee & thy kingdome, late with force,Spaine happily hath sued a divorce;
And now thou maist, as Christ did once of his,
Say, that thy kingdome not of this world is.
335
[MAN.]
Like to a Silkeworme of one yeare,Or like a wronged Louers Teare,
Or on the Waues a Rudders Dynt,
Or like the Sparkles of a Flint,
Or like to little Cakes perfum'd,
Or Fireworkes made to be consum'd;
Even such is Man, and all that trust
In weake and animated dust.
The Silkeworme droopes; the teares soon shed;
The Shipps waye lost; the Sparkle dead;
The Cake is burnt; the Fireworke done;
And Man as these as quickly gone.
[Give me three kisses, Phillis; if not three]
Give me three kisses, Phillis; if not three,Giue me as many as thy sweet lips be;
You gave & tooke one, yet deny me twaine,
Then take back yours, or give me mine againe.
ON ONE BORNE BLYNDE, AND SOE DEAD.
Who (but some one like thee) could euer saye,He master'd Death, from robbing him a day?
Or was Death euer yet soe kinde to any?
One Night she took from thee, from others many,
And yet, to recompence it, in thy Tombe,
Giues the a longer, till the daye of doome.
336
ON A ROPE-MAKER HANG'D.
Heere lyes a man, much wrong'd in his hopes,Who got his wealth backwards by making of Ropes;
It was his hard chance in his fortunes to falter,
For he liv'd by the Rope, & dyde by the halter.
| The Whole Works of William Browne | |