All the workes of Iohn Taylor the Water-Poet Being Sixty and three in Number. Collected into one Volume by the Author [i.e. John Taylor]: With sundry new Additions, corrected, reuised, and newly Imprinted |
 |
 | All the workes of Iohn Taylor the Water-Poet |  |
112
IACKE A LENT HIS BEGINNING AND ENTERTAINMENT: with the mad prankes of his Gentleman-Vsher Shroue-Tuesday that goes before him, and his Footman Hunger attending.
TO THE FISHMONGERS, AND BVTCHERS, GREETING.
113
[Of Iacke an Apes I list not to endite]
Of
Iacke an Apes I list not to endite,
Nor of Iack Daw my Gooses quill shall write:
Of Iacke of Newbery I will not repeate,
Nor Iacke of both sides, nor of Skip-Iacke neate.
To praise the Turnspit Iacke my Muse is mum,
Nor of the entertainment of Iacke Drum
Ile not rehearse: nor of Iacke Dogge, Iacke Date,
Iacke foole, or Iacke a Dandy, I relate:
Nor of Blacke Iacks at gentle Buttry bars,
Whose liquor oftentimes breeds houshold wars:
Nor Iacke of Douer that Grand Iury Iacke,
Nor Iacke Sawce (the worst knaue amōgst the pack.)
But of the Iacke of Iackes, Great Iacke a Lent,
To write his worthy acts is my intent;
How hee's attended with a messe of Iackes,
Whose fame my Artlesse weake inuention cracks,
Iacke Herring and Iacke Sprat, Iacke Strawe, Iacke Cade,
These are the Iacks with which my pen must trade.
Nor of Iack Daw my Gooses quill shall write:
Of Iacke of Newbery I will not repeate,
Nor Iacke of both sides, nor of Skip-Iacke neate.
To praise the Turnspit Iacke my Muse is mum,
Nor of the entertainment of Iacke Drum
Ile not rehearse: nor of Iacke Dogge, Iacke Date,
Iacke foole, or Iacke a Dandy, I relate:
Nor of Blacke Iacks at gentle Buttry bars,
Whose liquor oftentimes breeds houshold wars:
Nor Iacke of Douer that Grand Iury Iacke,
Nor Iacke Sawce (the worst knaue amōgst the pack.)
But of the Iacke of Iackes, Great Iacke a Lent,
To write his worthy acts is my intent;
How hee's attended with a messe of Iackes,
Whose fame my Artlesse weake inuention cracks,
Iacke Herring and Iacke Sprat, Iacke Strawe, Iacke Cade,
These are the Iacks with which my pen must trade.
116
The Cut-throats Butchers, wanting throats to cut,
At Lents approach their bloody Shambles shut:
For forty dayes their tyranny doth cease,
And men and beasts take truce and liue in peace:
The Cow, the Sow, the Ewe may safely feed.
And lough, grunt, bleate, and fructifie and breed,
Cocks, Hens, & Capons, Turkey, Goose, & Widgeon,
Hares, Conyes, Pheasant, Partridge, Plouer, Pidgeon,
All these are from the breake-neck Poulters pawes
Secur'd by Lent, and guarded by the lawes,
The goaring Spits are hang'd for fleshly sticking,
And then Cockes fingers are not worth the licking.
At Lents approach their bloody Shambles shut:
For forty dayes their tyranny doth cease,
And men and beasts take truce and liue in peace:
The Cow, the Sow, the Ewe may safely feed.
And lough, grunt, bleate, and fructifie and breed,
Cocks, Hens, & Capons, Turkey, Goose, & Widgeon,
Hares, Conyes, Pheasant, Partridge, Plouer, Pidgeon,
All these are from the breake-neck Poulters pawes
Secur'd by Lent, and guarded by the lawes,
The goaring Spits are hang'd for fleshly sticking,
And then Cockes fingers are not worth the licking.
117
The Whiting, Rotchet, Gournet, and the Mop,
The Scate and Thorneback, in the net doth drop:
The pide-coat Mackrell, Pilchard, Sprat, and Soale,
To serue great Iack-a Lent amaine doe trole.
The Scate and Thorneback, in the net doth drop:
The pide-coat Mackrell, Pilchard, Sprat, and Soale,
To serue great Iack-a Lent amaine doe trole.
The Breame, the Lamprey, Barbell, But, and Pike,
Secure might keepe the Riuer, Pond, and Dike:
Carps, Tench, Perch, Smelts, would neuer come to land,
But for Nets, Angles, and the Fishers hand:
And bawling queanes that vse to sell and buy,
Would cry, because they want where with to cry.
Secure might keepe the Riuer, Pond, and Dike:
Carps, Tench, Perch, Smelts, would neuer come to land,
But for Nets, Angles, and the Fishers hand:
And bawling queanes that vse to sell and buy,
Would cry, because they want where with to cry.
118
Then pell-mell murther, in a purple hue,
In reeking blood his slaughtering pawes imbrew:
The Butchers Axe (like great Alcides Bat)
Dings deadly downe, ten thousand thousand flat:
Each Butcher (by himselfe) makes Marshall Lawes,
Cuts throats, & kills, and quarters, hangs, & drawes.
In reeking blood his slaughtering pawes imbrew:
The Butchers Axe (like great Alcides Bat)
Dings deadly downe, ten thousand thousand flat:
Each Butcher (by himselfe) makes Marshall Lawes,
Cuts throats, & kills, and quarters, hangs, & drawes.
119
Then all the zealous Puritans will feast,
In detestation of the Romish beast.
In detestation of the Romish beast.
120
CERTAINE BLANKE VERSES VVRITTEN of purpose to no purpose, yet so plainely contriu'd, that a Childe of two yeeres old may vnderstand them as well as a good Scholler of fifty.
Great Iacke-a-Lent, clad in a Robe of Ayre,Threw mountaines higher then Alcides beard:
Whilst Pancradge Church, arm'd with a Samphier blade,
Began to reason of the businesse thus:
You squandring Troglodites of Amsterdam,
How long shall Cerberus Tapster be?
What though stout Aiax lay with Proserpine,
Shall men leaue eating powdred Beefe for that?
I see no cause but men may picke their teeth,
Though Brutus with a Sword did kill himselfe.
Is Shooters-hill turn'd to an Oyster pie,
Or may a May-pole be a butterd Plaice?
Then let Saint Katherins saile to Bride-well Court,
And Chitterlings be worne for statute lace,
For if a Humble-bee should kill a Whale
With the butt-end of the Antarticke Pole,
'Tis nothing to the marke at which we ayme:
For in the Commentaries of Tower Ditch,
A fat stew'd Bawd hath bin a dish of state.
More might be said, but then more must be spoke,
The weights fell downe because the Iacke rope broke.
And he that of these lines doth make a doubt,
Let him sit downe and picke the meaning out.
FINIS.
| All the workes of Iohn Taylor the Water-Poet | |