dramatists who drove the Bible from the stage, and introduced representations of familiar life and popular manners. These are the titles of his plays. The PLAY called the four P. s, being a new and merry ENTERLUDE OF A PALMER, PARDONER, PoTICARY, AND PEDLAR, printed at London in quarto, without date or name of the printer, but probably from the prefs of Berthelette or Raftell. The PLAY of LOVE, or a new and very mery ENTERLUDE of all maner of WEATHERS, printed in quarto by William Raftell, 1533, and again by Robert Wyer'. A mery PLAY betweene the PARDONER and the FRERE, the CURATE, and neybour PRATTE, in quarto, by William Rastell, dated the fifth day of April, 1533. The PLAY of Gentlenes and Nobilitie, in two parts, at London, without date. The PINNER of Wakefield, a COMEDIE. Philotas Scotch, a COMEDIE. A mery PLAY betweene JOHAN JOHAN the husband, TYB the wife, and fyr JOHAN the preefte, by William Raftell, in quarto, 1533.

His EPIGRAMS, fix hundred in number, are probably some of his jokes verfified; and perhaps were often extemporaneous fallies, made and repeated in company. Wit and humour are ever found in proportion to the progrefs of politeness. The miferable drolleries and the contemptible quibbles, with which these little pieces are pointed, indicate the great want of refinement, not only in the composition but in the conversation of our ancestors. This is a specimen, on a piece of humour of Wolfey's Fool, A faying of PATCHE my lord Cardinale's FOOLE.

Maifter Sexton, a perfon of knowen wit,
As he at my lord Cardinale's boord did fit,
Gredily raught at a goblet of wine:

с

Drinke none, fayd my lord, for that fore leg of thyne:
I warrant your Grace, faith Sexton, I provide

For my leg: I drinke on the tother fide'.

The following is rather a humorous tale than an epigram, yet with an epigrammatic turn. --

Although that a Fox have been feene there feelde*,

Yet there was lately in Finfbery Feelde "
A Fox fate in fight of certaine people,

Noddinge, and bliffinge, staring on Paules steeple.
A Maide toward market with hennes in a band
Came by, and with the Fox fhe fell in hand*.
"What thing is it, Rainard, in your braine ploddinge,
"What bringeth this bufy bliffinge, and noddinge ?
"I nother' nod for fleepe sweete hart, the Foxe faide,
"Nor bliffe for fpirytes", except the divell be a maide:
"My noddinge and bliffinge breedth of wonder
"Of the witte of Poules Weathercocke yonder.
"There is more witte in that cockes onely head
"Than hath bene in all mens heds that be dead.
"And thus-by all common report we fynde,
"All that be dead, died for lacke of wynde :
"But the Weathercockes wit is not fo weake
"To lacke winde—the winde is ever in his beake.
"So that, while any winde blowth in the skie,
"For lacke of winde that Weathercocke will not die."

She caft downe hir hennes, and now did the blis",

Jefu, quod fhe, in nomine patris !
"Who hath ever heard, at any season,
"Of a Foxe forging so feat a reason ?”
And while she praysed the Foxes wit so,
He gat her hennes on his necke, and to go.
"Whither away with my hennes, Foxe, quoth fhe ?
"To Poules pig' as fast as I can, quoth he.
"Betwixt these Hennes and yond Weathercocke,
"I will affay to have chickens a flocke ;
"Which if I may get, this tale is made goode,
"In all christendome not fo Wife a broode !".

The other is on the phrase, wagging beards.

It is mery in hall, when beardes wagge all.
Husband, for this these woordes to mind I call;
This is ment by men in their merie eatinge,

Not to wag their beardes in brawling or threatinge:
Wyfe, the meaning hereof differeth not two pinnes,
Betweene wagginge of mens beardes and womens chinnes'.

On the fashion of wearing Verdingales, or farthingales.

Alas! poore verdingales must lie ith' streete,
To house them no doore ith' citee made meete.
Syns at our narrow doores they in cannot win",
Send them to Oxforde, at brodegate to gett in ".

Our author was educated at Broadgate-hall in Oxford, so called from an uncommonly wide gate or entrance,and fince

Crofs herself.

Began to fteal off.

▾ Pike, i. e. spire, or steeple.

The FIRST HUNDRED. Epigr. 10. There are fix more lines, which are fuper. fuous.

· EPIGRAMMES on PROVERBES. Epigram 2.

Enter in. WIN is probably a contraction for go in. But fee Tyrwhitt's GLOSS. Ch.

FIFTE HUNDRED. Epigr. 55. converted

converted into Pembroke college. Thefe EPIGRAMS are mentioned in Wilson's RHETORIKE, published in 1553.

Another of Heywood's works, is a poem in long verse, entitled, A DIALOGUE contayning in effect the number of al the PROVERBES in the English tongue compact in a matter concerning two marriages. The first edition I have seen, is dated 1547*. All the proverbs of the English language are here interwoven into a very filly comic tale.

The lady of the ftory, an old widow now going to be married again, is thus described, with fome degree of drollery, on the bridal day.

In this late old widow, and than old new wife,
Age and Appetite fell at a ftronge ftrife.

Her luft was as yong, as her lims were olde.
The day of her wedding, like one to be folde,
She fett out herself in fyne apparell :

She was made like a beere-pott, or a barell.
A crooked hooked nose, beetle browde, blere eyde,
Many men wisht for beautifying that bryde.
Her waft to be gyrde in, and for a boone grace,
Some wel favoured visor on her yll favoured face;
But with viforlike vifage, fuch as it was,
She fmirkt and fhe fmyld, but fo lifped this las,
That folke might have thought it done onely alone
Of wantonneffe, had not her teeth been gone.
Upright as a candle standeth in a socket,
Stoode the that day, fo fimpre de cocket".
Of auncient fathers fhe tooke no cure ne care,
She was to them as koy as Crokers mare.
She tooke the entertainment of yong men,
All in daliaunce, as nice as a nunnes hen 2.

In quarto. Others followed, 1566.1576.-1587.-1598. 4to.

I do not understand this, which is marked for a proverb.

An admirable proverbial fimile. It is used in Wilfon's ARTE OF RHETORIKE, "I knewe a prieft that was as nice as a "Nunnes Hen, when he would say maffe he

"would

I suppose, That day her eares might wel glow,
For all the town talkt of her high and low.
One fayde a wel favoured old woman she is :
The divill she is, fayde another: and to this
In came the third with his five egges, and fayde,
Fifty yere ago I knew her a trim mayde.
Whatever the were then, fayde one, fhe is nowe,
To become a bryde, as meete as a fowe,

To beare a faddle. She is in this marriage,
As comely as a cowe in a cage.

Gup with a gald back, Gill, come up to fupper,
What my old mare would have a new crupper,

And now mine olde hat must have a new band, &c*.

The work has its value and curiofity as a repertory of proverbs made at fo early a period. Nor was the plan totally void of ingenuity, to exhibit these maxims in the courfe of a narrative, enlivened by facts and circumstances. It certainly was susceptible of humour and invention.

Heywood's largest and most laboured performance is the SPIDER AND THE FLIE, with wooden cuts, printed at London by Thomas Powell, in 1556. It is a very long poem in the octave stanza, containing ninety-eight chapters. Perhaps there never was fo dull, so tedious, and trifling an apologue: without fancy, meaning, or moral. A long tale of fictitious manners will always be tiresome, unless the defign be burlesque: and then the ridiculous, arifing from the contrast between the folemn and the light, must be ingeniously supported. Our author seems to have intended a fable on the burlesque construction: but we know not when he would be serious and when witty, whether he means to make the reader laugh, or to give him advice. We must indeed acknowledge, that the age was not yet fufficiently

"would never faie DOMINUS VOBIS"CUM, but Dominus Vobicum." fol. 112. a. edit. 1567. 4to.

• SECOND PART. ch. i.

In quarto.

refined,