And yet are with their princes: fill them full Of your Moravian horse, Venetian bull; Tell them what parts you've ta'en, whence run away, What states you've gulled, and which yet keeps you' in pay; Give them your services, and embassies Then can a flea at twice skip i' the map. And then lie with you, closer than a punk, For meat. CVIII. TO TRUE SOLDIERS.86 Strength of my country, whilst I bring to view, I swear by your true friend, my Muse, I love Who now calls on thee, Nevil, is a muse That serves nor fame nor titles; but doth choose Where virtue makes them both, and that's in thee, Where all is fair beside thy pedigree. 86 Antithetical to the preceding. It also occurs in the Address to the Reader at the close of Jonson's Poetaster, where a similar character is satirized. 66 87 In his service in the Low Countries," Drummond records, "he [Jonson] had, in the face of both the camps, killed one enemy, and taken opima spolia from him." 88 That is, is such as Captain Hungry. 89 Whalley says that this Sir Henry Nevil was a son of Lord Abergavenny; but Gifford thinks this a mistake, and that the person intended was a son of Sir Henry Nevil, of Billingham, a distinguished statesman, much employed by the Queen, to whom he was introduced by Cecil. The epigram is not sufficiently distinct in its personal allusions to determine the identity. - B. Thou art not one seek'st miseries with hope, Is private gain, which hath long guilt to friend. To make thy lent life good against the Fates; To be the same in root thou art in height, And that thy soul should give thy flesh her weight. Go on, and doubt not what posterity, Now I have sung thee thus, shall judge of thee. Thy deeds unto thy name will prove new wombs, Whilst others toil for titles to their tombs. CX. TO CLEMENT EDMONDS, ON HIS CÆSAR'S COMMENTARIES OBSERVED, AND TRANSLATED. 90 This piece was originally prefixed to the work it commends. Clement Edmonds, son of Sir Thomas Edmonds, born in 1566, held the office of secretary to Queen Elizabeth for the French language, and was afterwards appointed Remembrancer of the City of London, Master of the Requests, and one of the clerks of the Council. He was knighted in 1617, and died in 1622. Edmonds was a man of learning and general attainments, particularly in the "art military,” as we are informed by his epitaph. He published his observations on Cæsar's Commentaries in three parts, the first two in 1600, and the third in 1609. - B. The name of Pompey for an enemy, All yielding to his fortune; nor, the while, He wrote with the same spirit that he fought; For where his person lived scarce one just age, CXI. TO THE SAME, ON THE SAME. Who, Edmonds, reads thy book, and doth not see What th' antique soldiers were, the modern be? More than to vary what our elders knew; Which all but ignorant captains will confess; That to the world thou shouldst reveal so much, CXII. TO A WEAK GAMESTER IN POETRY. With thy small stock why art thou vent'ring still At this so subtle sport, and play'st so ill? Think'st thou it is mere fortune that can win? Or thy rank setting? that thou dar'st put in Thy all, at all; and whatsoe'er I do, Art still at that, and think'st to blow me' up too? Tragic or comic, but thou writ'st the play. I modestly quit that, and think to write, I pass to elegies; thou meet'st me there; |