JOHN DAVIES AND CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE.
Epigrammes and Elegies, by J. D. and C. M. At Middlebourgh. 8vo. [no date.]
These productions are ascribed to Davies and Marlowe, but as it is impossible to determine with accuracy the portions belonging to each, and as moreover the volume is extremely rare it has been thought best to reprint the whole.
FLY merry Muse unto that merry town,
Where thou may'st plays, revels and triumphs see,
The house of fame and theatre of renown,
Where all good wits and spirits love to be.
Fall in between their hands, that love and praise thee,
And be to them a laughter and a jest:
But as for them which scorning shall approve thee,
Disdain their wits, and think thine own the best.
But if thou find any so gross and dull,
That think I do to private taxing lean :
Bid him go hang for he is but a gull,
And knows not what an epigram does mean.
Which taxeth under a particular name,
A general vice which merits public blame.
Oft in my laughing rhymes, I name a gull,
But this new term will many questions breed,
Therefore at first I will express at full,
Who is a true and perfect gull indeed.
A gull is he who fears a velvet gown,
And when a wench is brave, dares not speak to her: A gull is he which traverseth the town,
And is for marriage known a common wooer.
A gull is he, which while he proudly wears,
A silver hilted rapier by his side,
Indures the lies, and knocks about the ears,
Whilst in his sheath, his sleeping sword doth bide.
A gull is he which wears good handsome clothes,
And stands in presence stroking up his hair,
And fills up his imperfect speech with oaths,
But speaks not one wise word throughout the year:
But to define a gull in terms precise,
A gull is he which seems, and is not wise.
Rufus the Courtier, at the theatre,
Leaving the best and most conspicuous place,
Doth either to the stage himself transfer,
Or through a grate, doth shew his double face.
For that the clamorous fry of Inns of court,
Fills up the private rooms of greater price,
And such a place where all may have resort,
He in his singularity doth despise.
Yet doth not his particular humour shun
The common stews and brothels of the town,
Though all the world in troops do thither run,
Clean and unclean, the gentle and the clown:
Then why should Rufus in his pride abhor,
A common seat, that loves a common whore.
Quintus the Dancer useth evermore,
His feet in measure, and in rule to move,
Yet on a time he called his mistress whore,
And thought with that sweet word to win her love;
Oh had his tongue like to his feet been taught,
It never would have uttered such a thought.
Faustinus, Sextus, Cinna, Ponticus,
With Gella, Lesbia, Thais, Rhodope,
Rode all to Staines for no cause serious,
But for their mirth, and for their lechery.
Scarce were they settled in their lodging, when
Wenches, with wenches, men with men fell out;
Men with their wenches, wenches with their men,
Which straight dissolves, this ill assembled rout.
But since the devil brought them thus together,
To my discoursing thoughts it is a wonder,
Why presently as soon as they came thither,
The self same devil did them part asunder.
Doubtless it seems it was a foolish devil
That thus did part them, ere they did some evil.
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