ENJOYMENT.

(A Song at the King's House.)
So closely, closely prest

In his Clymena's arms young Damon lay,
Panting, in that transport so o're-blest,
He seem'd just ready, just to die away.
Clymena beheld him with amorous eyes,
And thus, betwixt sighing and kissing, she cries,
Oh, make not such haste to be gone:
'Tis too much unkind,

Whilst I stay behind,

For you to be dying alone.

This made the youth, now drawing to his end,
The happy moment of his Death suspend:
But with so great a pain

His soul he did retain,

That with himself he seem'd at strife,
Whether to let out Love, or keep in Life.
Then she, who already was hasting to Death,'
Said softly, and trembling, and all out of breath,
O now, my Love, now let me go; i

Die with me, Damon, now; for I die too.

Thus dy'd they; but 'twas of so sweet a death
That so to die again, they took new breath.

In text (by Dryden's folio, 1701, i. 500) correct: Alexis; often they di'd; Nymph di'd more.

66

Page 120, and 123. O Love, if ere thou'lt ease, &c. Music, by Pelham Humphrey, in "Choice Ayres,” i. 12. At the former page this is wrongly stated to be in Marriage a la Mode (by confusion with previous song). It is by JOHN CROWE, sung to Julia in the garden," in Act iv. third scene, of his " History of Charles the VIIIth. of France; or, The Invasion of Naples by the French." The 1st. edition, 1672, mentions, "acted at his Highness, the Duke of York's Theatre." In N. Ct. Sgs., p. 91. Variations-least from

first copy :-pants with never; shade; too nigh; Yet oh ye Powers! I'd; Ere I'd; Which honour; griefs.

our

Page 123. I must confess, not many years ago. Music, by William Turner, in "Choice Ayres,” i. 75. Given in R. V.'s New Court Songs, p. 90, entitled "The Recovery: A Theatre Song." Reads "or t'other Additional 3rd verse :

coy."

No Eunuch can more unconcern❜dly brook
The glances of the most bewitching Look:
Yet if my Mis be wantonly enclin❜d,

None can be more obliging, none more kind.
Enjoyment now has taught me how to prize
What onely they that know not, Idolize.

John Evelyn, in his Diary, refers to the introduction of the word "Misse," in restricted meaning, "as at this time they began to call lewd women;" 9 January, 1662. Even thus the harmless word Mistress has become opprobrious.

ton

Page 126. Here to a period is a Scrivener come. This dates thirty-two years earlier, being in "Wit's Recreations," No. 175 (Reprint, p. 270). We may refer to other poems of like humour, beside the " Sexnext following: viz., "The Chandler drew near his end," The Chandler, in Choice Drollery, 1656, p. 72; punning Epitaphs on another Chandler, might his dayes end that made weeks? (wicks)" Wit's Recr., p. 271; on a Dyer, ibid., p. 268; on a Cobbler, Wit Restored, Repr., 182.

Page 127. I sing the praises, &c.

66

How

Given as "An Encomium," among the Fancies and Fantasticks in Wit's Recreation, 1640, Repr., P: 402. Attributed to Suckling is another, on a similar mishap in the Parliament House; in Pills to P. M., iii. 332, "Down came grave ancient Sir John Crooke," &c.;

Rump Coll., 61. At p. 123 (as at pp. 31, 53, 54) we venture on a bracketted correction of an evident misprint: "Times," should be "Thames."

Page 129. Wrong not, dear Empress, &c.

Attributed to SIR WALTER RALEIGH (died 1614) on authority of Lansdowne MS.; Rawl. MS.; and Cotgrave's Wit's Interpreter, 1655, p. 40; where, as Wrong not, sweet Mistress," &c., it is entitled The Silent Lover. Introductory lines, omitted in W. D.,

66

are

Passions are likened best to floods and streams:
The shallow murmur, but the deep are dumb;
So when affections yield discourse, it seems

The bottom is but shallow whence they come.
They that are rich in words, in words discover
That they are poor in that which makes a lover.

Wrong not, &c.

It has been claimed, without evidence, for Sir Robert Ayton, for Lord Pembroke, and Lord Walden! Rawlinson MS. calls it "Sir Walter Raleigh to Queen Elizabeth." See note on i. p. 110.

INTRODUCTION.

Page xv. note, line 6, read James Wright (son of Abraham Wright, author of " Parnassus Biceps.”)

The

Page xix. note, line 2. We possess a copy of a previous edition of Part 1. of "The Wits," also dated 1672, which lacks this Preface, and has, instead, two pages of printed address "To the Readers, The Stationer sends greeting," signed by Francis Kirkman. arrangement is different, including many of Cox's Humours," afterwards included in Part 2., 1673. The frontispiece, representing a performance of "Drolls" at the Red Bull Theatre, is seldom found in extant copies.

FINALE.

FINALE.

I'

F ye be weary of the drowsy hum

Of silly Senators, and Legal folly,

The boasts of "Scientists" (all wrangling), come!
These Drolleries free you soon from melancholy.
A pleasant hour you'll spend with Cavaliers,
Their roystering fun, their catches and cajolery,
Their love-lays-with more smiles than trace of tears;
The varied phases of Westminster Drollery.

Shadows before us move of buried Wits,

Beau Sedley, Dorset, CHARLES with frank good nature;
Once more at Will's, enthron'd, John Dryden sits,
And Davenant brooks jest on nasal feature :
Carew and Raleigh strike their earlier strings,

Wotton and Lyly joining in the chorus ;

Wycherley lends fresh mirth, plump Shadwell sings, Starched Johnny Crowne perks his grave phiz be

[fore us.
Playwrights and Poets, not unknown to fame,
With mockery of Wife, and ode to Spinster,
Gibing at Puritan and Roundhead, came

To 'twine these Drolleries from old Westminster
Garlands unfaded, with a perfume still

For all who hold the White Rose still in favour,—

All who can quaff the true Castalian rill,

And like it better for its antique flavour.

1874.

J. W. E.