Be thou my book's intelligencer, note If they go on, and that thou lov'st a-life 66 AN EPIGRAM TO WILLIAM, EARL OF NEW CASTLE. They talk of fencing, and the use of arms, 96 It was an ancient usage of the kings of England to hallow rings on Good Friday; "which rings," says Boorde, 'worn on one's finger doth help them which hath the cramp." Rings made from coffin hinges were also supposed to prevent the cramp. The custom of the royal hallowing of rings had its origin in a ring said to have been brought from Jerusalem to King Edward, and which had long been preserved with great veneration in Westminster Abbey, in consequence of its supposed efficacy in curing cramp and falling sickness. — B. 97 This blank occurs in the folio. I hate such measured, give me mettled, fire That trembles in the blaze, but then mounts higher! A quick and dazzling motion! when a pair Of bodies meet like rarefied air! Their weapons shot out with that flame and force, Of human life; as all the frosts and sweats AN EPITAPH ON HENRY LORD LA-WARE. 98 TO THE PASSER-BY. If, passenger, thou canst but read, 98 Fourth Lord Delaware. It was his father who was appointed Captain-General of the expedition to America in 1609, and died near the coast when on his second voyage out as Governor of Virginia, in 1618. Minerva's and the Muses' care! What could their care do 'gainst the spite Of honor, nor no air of good, But crept like darkness through his blood, Of virtue, got above his name? Could stop the malice of this ill, AN EPIGRAM.99 That you have seen the pride, beheld the sport, 99 Evidently addressed to the Lord-Keeper Williams, Bishop of Lincoln, and probably written in 1625, when the chancellorship was transferred from him to Sir Thomas Coventry. G. To see you set apart thus from the rest, To obtain of God what all the land should ask? My lord, till felt grief make our stone hearts soft, AN EPIGRAM TO KING CHARLES, FOR A HUNDRED POUNDS HE SENT ME IN MY SICKNESS. 1629. Great Charles, among the holy gifts of grace To cure the called King's Evil with thy touch; And in these cures dost so thyself enlarge, 100 100 Alluding to the angel which was given to each person who came to be touched for the evil. The angel was worth ten shillings, and as it would require two hundred angels to make up the value of £100, Jonson estimates that the king valued the poet more than ten score of other folk. The custom of presenting a piece of gold on these occasions was in O piety! so to weigh the poor's estates! TO KING CHARLES AND QUEEN MARY, FOR THE LOSS OF THEIR FIRST-BORN. AN EPIGRAM CON SOLATORY. 1629. Who dares deny that all first-fruits are due Doth by his doubt distrust His promise more. 66 troduced in the reign of Henry VIII. It probably descended from the practice, common in the time of Edward III., of wearing the rose-noble as an amulet against danger in battle. "The angel-noble of Henry VII.," observes Mr. Pettigrew, appears to have been the coin given, as it was of the purest gold; it was the coin of the time, and not made especially for this purpose. It bore the inscription, Per Cruce tua salva nos rpe rede; but in the time of Elizabeth this was altered to A Domino factum est istud, et est mirabile in oculis nostris. After the reign of Elizabeth it was found necessary to reduce the size of the coin, so great were the numbers that applied to he touched, and the inscription was therefore reduced to that of Soli Deo Gloria, which continued to be the case to the time of Queen Anne."-On Superstitions connected with Medicine and Surgery. — B. |