And, tho' she be some dunghill drudge at home,
Yet can he her resigne some refuse roome

Amids the well-knowne stars; or, if not there,
Sure will he saint her in his Calendere.

SATIRE VIII 45.

HENCE, ye profane": mell" not with holy things,
That Sion muse from Palestina brings.
Parnassus is transform'd to Sion-hill,

And Jury-Palmes her steep ascents done fill.
Now good S. Peter weeps pure Helicon 50,
And both the Maries make a musick mone":
Yea, and the prophet of the heav'nly lire,
Great Salomon, sings in the English Quire;
And is become a newfound sonetist,
Singing his love, the Holy Spouse of Christ :
Like as she were some light-skirts of the rest,
In mightiest ink-hornismes he can thither wrest.
Ye Sion muses shall, by my deare will,
For this your zeale and far-admired skill,
Be straight transported from Jerusalem,
Unto the holy house of Betleem.

52

4 This Satire ridicules, among others, Markham's Sion's Muse: for an account of which see History of English Poetry: Vol. III. p. 318. W.

47 Hence, ye profane ·

48

49

procul, O procul este, profani.

mell-mingle, meddle.

VIRGIL. EN. VI. 258. E.

Jury-Palmes-The first edition reads Iury-Palmes, which the Oxford Editor converted into iv'ry-Palms, but of the meaning which he affixed to the word I can form no notion; whereas Jury-Palms, or the Palm-Trees of Judea, is in perfect harmony with the figure adopted by our Satirist. Book IV. Sat. 3. has the same allusion:

The palme doth rifely rise in Jury field.

50 Now good S. Peter weeps pure Helicon.

The work here reprehended was Robert Southwell's "St. Peter's Complaint," originally published in 1595: reprinted in small 4to. 1615; and again, in 1620, in 12mo. E.

51 And both the Maries make a musick mone. Spenser, in his Teares of the Muses, 1. vi. has

52

Music of heart-breaking moan. E.

light-skirts-wanton,

SATIRE IX.

54

ENVY, ye Muses, at your thriving mate 53,
Cupid hath crowned a new Laureat :
I saw his Statue gayly tyr'd " in greene,
As if he had some second Phoebus beene.
His Statue trimd with the Venerean tree,
And shrined faire within your sanctuary.
What, he, that earst to gain the ryming goale,
The worne Recitall-post of Capitolle,
Rymed in rules of stewish ribaldry,
Teaching experimentall baudery?

Whiles th' itching vulgar tickled with the song,
Hanged on their unreadie poet's tongue.
Take this, ye patient Muses; and foule shame
Shall wayt upon your once profaned name.
Take this, ye Muses, this so high despight,
And let all hatefull lucklesse birds of night,
Let scriching oules nest in your razed roofes,
And let your floore with horned satyrs' hoofes
Be dinted" and defiled every morne;
And let your walles be an eternall scorne.
What if some Shordich " fury should incite
Some lust-stung lecher, must he needs indite
The beastly rites of hyred venerye,
The whole world's universall baud to bee?
Did never yet no damned Libertine,
Nor elder Heathen, nor new Florentine "7,

Tho' they were famous for lewd libertie,

Venture upon so shamefull villanie.

Our Epigrammatarians old and late,

Were wont be blam'd for too licentiate.

Chast men! they did but glance at Lesbia's deed,

And handsomely leave off with cleanly speed.
But arts of whoring, stories of the stewes,
Ye muses, will ye beare, and may refuse?
Nay let the Divell and Saint Valentine,
Be gossips to those ribald rymes of thine.

53 Envy, ye Muses, at your thriving Mate, &c. &c.

Mr. Warton supposes Robert Greene to be alluded to in these lines; who prac tised the vices, so frequently displayed by him in his Poems. E.

64

55

old writers.

tyr'd-attired.

dinted-marked, impressed. Frequently used by Spenser, and the

56 Shoreditch was, in our author's time, a part of the town notorious for brothels. W.

nor new Florentine.

The Oxford Editor refers this to Peter Aretine.

VIRGIDEMIARUM.

LIB. II.

1