Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub

Since her interpretations, and our deeds,
Unto a like infinity arise;

As b'ing a science that by nature breeds
Contention, ftrife, and ambiguities:
For altercation controverfy feeds,
And in her agitation multiplies:
The field of cavil lying all like wide,
Yields like advantage unto either fide.
Which made the grave Caftilian king devife
A prohibition, that no advocate

Should be convey'd to th' Indian colonies;
Left their new fettling, fhaken with debate,
Might take but flender root; and so not rife
To any perfect growth of firm eftate:
For having not this skill how to contend,
Th' unnourish'd ftrife would quickly make an end.
Daniel on Lord Keeper Egerton.
Laws, the next pillars be, with which we deal,
As fophiftries of ev'ry common-weal;

Or rather nets, which people do ask leave,
That they to catch their freedoms in, may weave;
And still add more unto the fultan's pow'r,
By making their own frames themselves devour.
Thefe Lesbian rules, with fhew of real grounds,
Giving right, narrow; will, tranfcendent bounds.
Lord Brooke's Muftapba.

Since multitude of laws are figns either of
Much tyranny in the prince, or much
Rebellious difobedience in the fubje&t;
We rather think it fit to ftudy, how
To have our old laws thoroughly executed;

Than to have new ftatutes cumbrously invented.

Marfton's Fawn.

You oft call parliaments, and there enact
Laws good and wholfome, fuch as whofo break
Are hung by the purse or neck: But as the weak

And

And fmaller flies i'the fpider's web are ta'en,
When great ones tear the web, and free remain ;
So may that moral tale of you be told,
Which once the wolf related: In the fold

The fhepherds kill'd a fheep, and eat him there;
The wolf look'd in, and fee'ng them at fuch cheer,
Alas! quoth he, fhould I touch the least part

Of what you tear, you would pluck out my heart.
Great men make laws, that whofoe'er draws blood
Shall dye; but if they murder flocks, 'tis good:
I'll go eat my lamb at home, fir.

Dekker's Match me in London. 1. Tell me, what has made thee fo melancholy?

2. Why, going to law.

1. Why will that make a man melancholy? 2. Yes, to look long upon ink and black

Buckram

-I went to law in anna

Quadragefimo fecundo; and I

Waded out of it, in anno fexagefimo tertio. i. What! three and twenty years in law?

2. I have known those that have been five and fifty, And all about pullen and pigs.

1. May it be poffible fuch men fhould breathe, To vex the terms fo much?

2. 'Tis food to fome,

My lord. There are old men at the present,
That are so poifon'd with th' affectation

Of law-words, having had many fuits canvafs'd;
That their common talk is nothing but barb'rous
Latin: They cannot fo much as pray, but
In law, that their fins may be remov'd, with
A writ of error, and their fouls fetch'd up

To heaven with a certiorari.

Tourneur's Revenger's Tragedy. This wretch, that lov'd, before his food, his ftrife, This punishment falls even with his life;

His pleasure was vexation, all his bifs.

[blocks in formation]

'The torment of another:

Their hurt his health, their starved hope his ftore;
Who fo loves law, dies either mad or poor.

1. Still in law?

Middleton's Phanix.

2. I had not breath'd elfe now; 'tis very marrow, Very marrow to me, to be in law :

I had been dead ere this elfe. I have found

Such fweet pleasure in the vexations of others,
That I could wish my years over and over again,
To fee that fellow a beggar;, that bawling knave a
gentleman:

A matter brought ev'n t'a judgment to day,
As far as e'er it was, to begin again to-morrow.
Oh raptures! here a writ of demur,

There a procedendo; here a certiorari,

There a capiendo; tricks, delays, money-laws!
I have been a term-trotter myself these five
And forty years; a goodly time, and a gracious!
In which space, I have been at least fixteen times
Beggar'd, and got up again; and in the mire again,
That I have funk again, and yet got up again.
Nay more, (in fælici horâ be it spoken)

You fee I am old, yet have at this prefent,

Nine and twenty fuits in law, and all not worth forty fhillings.

The pleasure of man is all:

A stake pull'd out of my hedge, there's one :

I was well beaten, I remember, that's two :.

I took one a-bed with my wife, against her will; that's , three ;

Was call'd cuckold for my labour, that's four;
I took another a-bed with her, that's five:
And then one call'd me wittal, that's the fixth ;
He kill'd my dog for barking, that's feven;
My maid-fervant was kifs'd at that time, eight;
My wife mifcarry'd with a pufh, nine;

Et

Et fic de cæteris.

I have fo vex'd and beggar'd the whole parish
With proceffes, fubpoena's, and fuch like moleftations,
They are not able to fpare fo much ready money
From a term, as would fet up a new weather cock:
The church-wardens are fain to go law

With the poor's money: And I fo fetch up all the men
Ev'ry term-time, that 'tis impoffible

To be at civil cuckoldry within ourselves, Unless the whole country rife upon our wives. 2. O' my faith a pretty policy.

3. Nay, an excellent ftratagem:

But of all I moft wonder at the continual
Subftance of thy wit, that having had fo
Many fuits in law from time to time, thou
Haft still money to relieve them.

1. Why do you so much wonder at that? Why this is my course.

My mare and I come up fome five days 'fore the term,
Here I lodge, as you fee, among inns and places
Of most receipt; by which advantage I

Dive into the countrymens caufes, furnish them
With knavifh council, little to their profit;
Buzzing into their ears, this courfe, that writ,
This office, that ultimum refugium;

As you

know I have words enough for the purpose. 2. Enough a conscience in faith.

1. Enough in law, no matter for confcience;
For which bufy laborious fweating courtesy,
They cannot chufe but feed me with money,
By which I maintain mine own fuits.
Another fpecial trick I have, which is

To prefer moft of thofe men to one attorney

Whom I affect beft; to answer which kindness of mine,

He'll fweat the better in my cause, and do them

The lefs good; take it of my word, I help'd

My attorney to more clients the last term,

H 5

Than

Than he will dispatch all his life-time: I did it.

The good needs fear no law;

Middleton's Phoenix.

It is his fafety, and the bad man's awe.

Mainger, Middleton, and Rowley's Old Law.

We are of the condition of fome great
Men in office; that defire execution

Of the laws, not fo much to correct offences
And reform the commonwealth; as to thrive
By their punishment, and grow rich and fat
With a clear confcience.

If we offend the law,

Shirley's St. Patrick for Ireland.

The law may punish us; which only strives
To take away excess, not the neceflity

Or ufe of what's indiff'rent: And is made
Or good or bad by 't's use.

Nabbs's Covent-Garden.

We fee

Thieves daily hang'd for robberies; yet fome
Go on ftill in the practice! What a fine

Is fet upon the head of foul adultery,

And yet our neighbours wives can hardly 'scape us!
There are laws against extortion, and sad
Penalties fet upon bribes;

Yet great mens hands have their forefathers itch!
Prifons are fill'd with bankrupts; yet we fee
How crafty merchants often wrong their creditors,
And Londoners fly to live at Amfterdam!

Richard Brome's English Moor. Dead falls the cause, if once the hand be mute;

But let that fpeak, the client gets the fuit.

Your clemency has taught us to believe
It wife, as well as virtuous, to forgive.
And now the most offended shall proceed
In great forgiving, till no laws we need:

Herrick.

For

« AnteriorContinuar »