And great the fear conceived by every one, Not Jason, nor the adventurous youths of Greece, These Worthies nine prepared a wooden horse, Their brave achievements, and in time to come, Clubs are turned trumps: so now the lot is cast But his undaunted spirit, nursed with meat Of Minos, Eacus, and Radamand, Princes of Limbo, who must out of hand And first grim Minos spake, "Most loving friends, And that our kingdom will grow desolate; But if one head from thence be ta'en away, THE GHYRLOND OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARIE.1 ERE are five letters in this blessed name, Which, changed, a five-fold mystery design; The M the Myrtle, A the Almonds claim, R Rose, I Ivy, E sweet Eglantine. These form thy ghyrlond. Whereof Myrtle Green, As Love here studied to keep Grace alive. The second string is the sweet Almond bloom, As it alone, and only it, had room To knit thy crown, and glorify the rest. The third is from the garden called the Rose, The fourth is humble Ivy, intersert But lowly laid, as on the earth asleep, Preservèd in her antique bed of Vert, No faith's more firm, or flat, than where't doth creep. But that which sums all is the Eglantine, Which, of the field, is 'cleped the sweetest brier, 1 From "The Female Glory; or, the Life and Death of our Blessed Lady, the holy Virgin Mary, God's own Immaculate Mother. London, printed by Thomas Harper, for John Waterson. 1635." I doubt much whether these stanzas are Jonson's. F. C. Inflamed with ardour to that mystic shine Thus Love, and Hope, and burning Charity, As if they adored the Head whereon they're fixed. THE REVERSE, ON THE BACK SIDE. HESE Mysteries do point to three more great, On the reverse of this your circling crown, All pouring their full share of graces down, The glorious Trinity in Union met. Daughter, and Mother, and the Spouse of God, Most holy and pure Virgin, blessèd Maid, Sweet Tree of life, King David's strength and tower, The House of gold, the Gate of heaven's power, The Morning Star, whose light our Fall hath stayed. Great Queen of Queens, most mild, most meek, most wise, Most venerable Cause of all our joy, Whose cheerful look our sadness doth destroy, The Seat of Sapience, the most lovely Mother, Who mad'st us happy all in thy reflex, Thou Throne of glory, beauteous as the Moon, Who like a Giant hastes his course to run, Through all the lines of this circumference, T' imprint in all purged hearts this virgin sense Of being Daughter, Mother, Spouse of GOD. B. I. COCK LORREL'S SONG.2 HEN broiled and broacht on a butcher's prick [skewer], The kidney came in of a Holy Sister; This bit had almost made his devilship sick, That his doctor did fear he would need a glister: "For hark," quoth he, "how his belly rumbles!" The jowl of a Jailor was served for a fish, With vinegar pist by the Dean of Dunstable, Two Aldermen lobsters asleep in a dish, With a dried Deputye, and a sousèd Constable. These got him so fierce a stomach again That now he wants meat whereon to feed-a; He called for the victuals were dressed for his train, And they brought him up an Olla podrida, 2 In the recently published volume of Loose and Humorous Songs, from Bishop Percy's folio MS., is a version of the Cocklorrel Song in the Gipsies Metamorphosed, which contains a multitude of various readings, and the above six stanzas, which take the place of the single one, commencing "The jowl of a jailor served for a fish," at vol. vii. p. 394. F. C. |