Epigrams
Hero and Leander
Both robb’d of air, we both lie in one ground;
Both whom one fire had burnt, one water drown’d
Pyramus and Thisbe
Two, by themselves, each other, love and fear,
Slain, cruel friends, by parting have join’d here.
Niobe
By children’s births, and death, I am become
So dry, that I am now mine own sad tomb.
A Burnt Ship
Out of a fired ship, which by no way
But drowning could be rescued from the flame,
Some men leap’d forth, and ever as they came
Near the foes’ ships, did by their shot decay;
So all were lost, which in the ship were found,
They in the sea being burnt, they in the burnt ship drowned.
Fall of a Wall
Under an undermined and shot-bruised wall
A too-bold captain perish’d by the fall,
Whose brave misfortune happiest men envied,
That had a town for tomb, his bones to hide.
A Lame Beggar
I am unable, yonder beggar cries,
To stand, or move; if he say true, he lies.
Cales and Guyana
If you from spoil of th’ old world’s farthest end
To the new world your kindled valours bend,
What brave examples then do prove it true
That one thing’s end doth still begin a new.
Sir John Wingfield
Beyond th’ old Pillars many have travalled
Towards the sun’s cradle, and his throne, and bed.
A fitter pillar our Earl did bestow
In that late island; for he well did know
Farther than Wingfield no man dares to go.
A Self-Accuser
Your mistress, that you follow whores, still taxeth you;
’Tis strange that she should thus confess it, though ’t be true.
A Licentious Person
Thy sins and hairs may no man equal call;
For, as thy sins increase, thy hairs do fall.
Antiquary
If in his study he hath so much care
To hang all old strange things, let his wife beware.
Disinherited
Thy father all from thee, by his last will,
Gave to the poor; thou hast good title still.
Phryne
Thy flattering picture, Phryne, is like thee,
Only in this, that you both painted be.
An Obscure Writer
Philo with twelve years’ study hath been grieved
To be understood; when will he be believed?
Klockius
Klockius so deeply hath sworn ne’er more to come
In bawdy house, that he dares not go home.
Raderus
Why this man gelded Martial I muse,
Except himself alone his tricks would use,
As Katherine, for the court’s sake, put down stews.
Mercurius Gallo-Belgicus
Like Esop’s fellow-slaves, O Mercury,
Which could do all things, thy faith is; and I
Like Esop’s self, which nothing. I confess
I should have had more faith, if thou hadst less.
Thy credit lost thy credit. ’Tis sin to do,
In this case, as thou wouldst be done unto,
To believe all. Change thy name; thou art like
Mercury in stealing, but liest like a Greek.
Ralphius
Compassion in the world again is bred;
Ralphius is sick, the broker keeps his bed.
The Liar
Thou in the fields walk’st out thy supping hours
And yet thou swear’st thou hast supped like a king;
Like Nebuchadnezar perchance with grass and flowers,
A salad worse then Spanish dieting.