Microcosmography

FOOTNOTES:

[DH] An almanack-maker; a ballad-monger; a corranto-coiner; a decoy; an exchange man; a forrester; a gamester; an hospitall-man; a iayler; a keeper; a launderer; a metall man; a neuter; an ostler; a post-master: a quest-man; a ruffian; a sailor; a trauller; an vnder sheriffe; a wine-soaker; a Xantippean; a yealous neighbour; a zealous brother.

[DI] This cater-character, which possesses a separate title page, contains delineations of an apparator; a painter; a pedler; and a piper.

[DJ] Moorfields were a general promenade for the citizens of London, during the summer months. The ground was left to the city by Mary and Catherine, daughters of sir William Fines, a Knight of Rhodes, in the reign of Edward the Confessor. Richard Johnson, a poetaster of the sixteenth century, published in 1607, The Pleasant Walkes of Moore-fields. Being the Guift of two Sisters, now beautified, to the continuing fame of this worthy Citty. 4to. black-letter, of which Mr. Gough, (Brit. Topog.) who was ignorant of the above, notices an impression in 1617.

[DK] This is certainly intended as a pun upon the names of two news-venders or corranto-coiners of the day. Nathaniel Butter, the publisher of "The certain Newes of this present Week," lived at the Pyde-Bull, St. Austin's-gate, and was the proprietor of several of the intelligencers, from 1622 to about 1640. Nicholas Bourne was a joint partner with Butter in The Sweedish Intelligencer, 4to. Lond. 1632.

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xii. Picturæ loquentes: or Pictures drawne forth in Characters. With a Poeme of a Maid. By Wye Saltonstall. Ne sutor ultra crepidam. London: Printed by T. Coles, &c. 1631. 12mo.

I have copied the above title from an article in the Censura Literaria[DL], communicated by Mr. Park, of whose copious information, and constant accuracy on every subject connected with English literature, the public have many specimens before them.

Saltonstall's[DM] Characters, &c. reached a second edition in 1635. A copy of this rare volume is in the possession of Mr. Douce, who, with his accustomed liberality, permitted my able and excellent friend, Mr. John James Park, to draw up the following account of it for the present volume.

To "The Epistle dedicatory" of this impression, the initials (or such like) of dedicatee's name only are given, for, says the dedicator, "I know no fame can redound unto you by these meane essayes, which were written, Ocium magis foventes, quam studentes gloriæ, as sheapheards play upon their oaten pipes, to recreate themselves, not to get credit."

"To the Reader. – Since the title is the first leafe that cometh under censure, some, perhaps, will dislike the name of pictures, and say, I have no colour for it, which I confesse, for these pictures are not drawne in colours, but in characters, representing to the eye of the minde divers severall professions, which, if they appeare more obscure than I coulde wish, yet I would have you know that it is not the nature of a character, to be as smooth as a bull-rush, but to have some fast and loose knots, which the ingenious reader may easily untie. The first picture is the description of a maide, which young men may read, and from thence learn to know, that vertue is the truest beauty. The next follow in their order, being set together in this little book, that in winter you may reade them ad ignem, by the fire-side, and in summer ad umbram, under some shadie tree, and therewith passe away the tedious howres. So hoping of thy favourable censure, knowing that the least judicious are most ready to judge, I expose them to thy view, with Apelles motto, Ne sutor, ultra crepidam. Lastly, whether you like them, or leave them, yet the author bids you welcome.

"Thine as mine,

W.S."

"THE TEARME

Is a time when Justice keeps open court for all commers, while her sister Equity strives to mitigate the rigour of her positive sentence. It is called the Tearme, because it does end and terminate busines, or else because it is the Terminus ad quem, that is, the end of the countrey man's journey, who comes up to the Tearme, and with his hobnayle shooes grindes the faces of the poore stones, and so returnes againe. It is the soule of the yeare, and makes it quicke, which before was dead. Inkeepers gape for it as earnestly as shelfish doe for salt water after a low ebbe. It sends forth new bookes into the world, and replenishes Paul's walke with fresh company, where Quid novi? is their first salutation, and the weekely newes their chiefe discourse. The tavernes are painted against the tearme, and many a cause is argu'd there and try'd at that barre, where you are adjudg'd to pay the costs and charges, and so dismist with 'welcome gentlemen.' Now the citty puts her best side outward, and a new play at the Blackfryers is attended on with coaches. It keepes watermen from sinking and helpes them with many a fare voyage to Westminster. Your choyse beauties come up to it onely to see and be seene, and to learne the newest fashion, and for some other recreations. Now monie that has beene long sicke and crasie, begins to stirre and walke abroad, especially if some young prodigalls come to towne, who bring more money than wit. Lastly, the tearme is the joy of the citty, a deare friend to countrymen, and is never more welcome than after a long vacation."

FOOTNOTES:

[DL] Vol. 5, p. 372. Mr. Park says that the plan of the characters was undoubtedly derived from that of Overbury, but, he adds, the execution is greatly superior. Four stanzas from the poem entitled, A Maid, are printed in the same volume.

[DM] An account of the author may be found in the Athenæ Oxon. Vol. 1. col. 640.

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xiii. London and Country corbonadoed and quartered into seuerall Characters. By Donald Lupton, 8vo. 1632.

[See British Bibliographer, i. 464; and Brand's Sale Catalogue, page 66, No. 1754.]

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xiv. Character of a Gentleman, appended to Brathwait's English Gentleman, 4to. London, by Felix Kyngston, &c. 1633.

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xv. "A strange Metamorphosis of Man, transformed into a Wildernesse. Deciphered in Characters. London, Printed by Thomas Harper, and are to be sold by Lawrence Chapman at his shop in Holborne, 1634."

[12mo. containing pp. 296, not numbered.]

This curious little volume has been noticed by Mr. Haslewood, in the Censura Literaria (vii. 284.) who says, with justice, that a rich vein of humour and amusement runs through it, and that it is the apparent lucubration of a pen able to perform better things. Of the author's name I have been unable to procure the least intelligence.

"THE HORSE (No. 16.)

Is a creature made, as it were, in waxe. When Nature first framed him, she took a secret complacence in her worke. He is even her master-peece in irracionall things, borrowing somewhat of all things to set him forth. For example, his slicke bay coat hee tooke from the chesnut; his necke from the rainbow, which perhaps make him rain so wel. His maine belike he took from Pegasus, making him a hobbie to make this a compleat gennet[DN], which main he weares so curld, much after the women's fashions now adayes; this I am sure of howsoever, it becomes them, [and] it sets forth our gennet well. His legges he borrowed of the hart, with his swiftnesse, which makes him a true courser indeed. The starres in his forehead hee fetcht from heaven, which will not be much mist, there being so many. The little head he hath, broad breast, fat buttocke, and thicke tayle are properly his owne, for he knew not where to get him better. If you tell him of the hornes he wants to make him most compleat, he scornes the motion, and sets them at his heele. He is well shod especially in the upper leather, for as for his soles, they are much at reparation, and often faine to be removed. Nature seems to have spent an apprentiship of yeares to make you such a one, for it is full seven yeares ere hee comes to this perfection, and be fit for the saddle: for then (as we,) it seemes to come to the yeares of discretion, when he will shew a kinde of rationall judgement with him, and if you set an expert rider on his backe, you shall see how sensiblie they will talke together, as master and scholler. When he shall be no sooner mounted and planted in the seat with the reins in one hand, a switch in the other, and speaking with his spurres in the horse's flankes, a language he wel understands, but he shall prance, curvet, and dance the canaries[DO] halfe an houre together in compasse of a bushell, and yet still, as he thinkes, get some ground, shaking the goodly plume on his head with a comely pride. This will our Bucephalus do in the lists: but when hee comes abroad into the fields, hee will play the countrey gentleman as truly, as before the knight in turnament. If the game be up once, and the hounds in chase, you shall see how he will pricke up his eares streight, and tickle at the sport as much as his rider shall, and laugh so loud, that if there be many of them, they will even drowne the rurall harmony of the dogges. When he travels, of all innes he loves best the signe of the silver bell, because likely there he fares best, especially if hee come the first, and get the prize. He carries his eares upright, nor seldome ever lets them fall till they be cropt off, and after that, as in despight, will never weare them more. His taile is so essentiall to him, that if he loose it once hee is no longer an horse, but ever stiled a curtall. To conclude, he is a blade of Vulcan's forging, made for Mars of the best metall, and the post of Fame to carrie her tidings through the world, who, if he knew his own strength, would shrewdly put for the monarchie of our wildernesse."

FOOTNOTES:

[DN] Mr. Steevens, in a note to Othello, explains a jennet to be a Spanish horse; but from the passage just given, I confess it appears to me to mean somewhat more. Perhaps a jennet was a horse kept solely for pleasure, whose mane was suffered to grow to a considerable length, and was then ornamented with platting, &c. – A hobby might answer to what we now term a hogged poney.

[DO] The Canaries is the name of an old dance, freqnently alluded to in our early English plays. Shakspeare uses it in All's well that ends well—

– "I have seen a medicine,That's able to breathe life into a stone;Quicken a rock, and make you dance canaryWith spritely fire and motion;"

Sir John Hawkins, in his History of Musick, iv. 391. says that it occurs in the opera of Dioclesian, set to music by Purcell, and explains it to be "a very sprightly movement of two reprises, or strains, with eight bars in each: the time three quarters in a bar, the first pointed." I take this opportunity of mentioning, that among Dr. Rawlinson's MSS. in the Bodleian, [Poet. 108.] is a volume which contains a variety of figures of old dances, written, as I conjecture, between the years 1566 and 1580. Besides several others are the pavyan; my Lord of Essex measures; tyntermell; the old allmayne; the longe pavian; quanto dyspayne; the nyne muses, &c. As the pavian is mentioned by Shakspeare, in the Merry Wives of Windsor, and as the directions for dancing the figure have not been before discovered, I shall make no apology for offering them in the present note.

"THE LONGE PAVIAN,

ij singles, a duble forward; ij singles syde, a duble forward; repīnce backe once, ij singles syde, a duble forward, one single backe twyse, ij singles, a duble forward, ij singles syde, prerince backe once; ij singles syde, a duble forward, reprince backe twyse."

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xvi. The true Character of an untrue Bishop; with a Recipe at the end how to recover a Bishop if hee were lost. London, printed in the yeare 1641[DP].

[4to. pp. 10, besides title.]FOOTNOTES:

[DP] I have a faint recollection of a single character in a rare volume, entitled "A Boulster Lecture," &c. Lond. 1640.

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xvii. Character of a Projector, by – Hogg. 4to. 1642.

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xviii. Character of an Oxford Incendiary. Printed for Robert White in 1643. 4to.

[Reprinted in the Harleian Miscellany, V. 469. edit. 1744.]-

xix. The Reformado precisely charactered (with a frontispiece.)

[See the Sale Catalogue of George Steevens, Esq. 8vo. Lond. 1800. page 66. No. 1110.]-

xx. "A new Anatomie, or Character of a Christian or Round-head. Expressing his Description, Excellencie, Happiness and Innocencie. Wherein may appear how far this blind world is mistaken in their unjust Censures of him. Virtus in Arduis. Proverbs xii. 26; and Jude 10, quoted.) Imprimatur John Downame. London, Printed for Robert Leybourne, and are to be sold at the Star, under Peter's Church in Corn-hill, 1645. 8vo. pp. 13.

[In Ashmole's Museum.]-

xxi. In Lord North's Forest of Varieties, London, Printed by Richard Cotes, 1645, are several Characters, as lord Orford informs us, "in the manner of sir Thomas Overbury." Royal and Noble Authors, iii. 82. Of this volume a second edition appeared in 1659, neither of these, however, I have been able to meet with. For some account of the work, with extracts, see Brydges' Memoirs of the Peers of England, 8vo. London. 1802. page 343.

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xxii. Characters and Elegies[DQ]. By Francis Wortley, Knight and Baronet. Printed in the yeere 1646." 4to.

The characters are as follow:

1. The character of his royall majestie; 2. The character of the queene's majestie; 3. The hopeful prince; 4. A true character of the illustrious James Duke of York; 5. The character of a noble general; 6. A true English protestant; 7. An antinomian, or anabaptisticall independent; 8. A jesuite; 9. The true character of a northerne lady, as she is wife, mother, and sister; 10. The politique neuter; 11. The citie paragon; 12. A sharking committee-man; 13. Britanicus his pedigree – a fatall prediction of his end; 14. The Phœnix of the Court.

Britanicus his Pedigree – a fatall Prediction of his End.

I dare affirme him a Jew by descent, and of the tribe of Benjamin, lineally descended from the first King of the Jewes, even Saul, or at best he ownes him and his tribe, in most we reade of them. First, of our English tribes, I conceive his father's the lowest, and the meanest of that tribe, stocke, or generation, and the worst, how bad soever they be; melancholy he is, as appeares by his sullen and dogged wit; malicious as Saul to David, as is evident in his writings; he wants but Saul's javelin to cast at him; he as little spares the king's friends with his pen, as Saul did Jonathan his sonne in his reproach; and would be as free of his javelin as his pen, were his power sutable to his will, as Ziba did to Mephibosheth, so does he by the king, he belies him as much to the world, as he his master to David, and in the day of adversitie is as free of his tongue as Shimei was to his soveraigne, and would be as humble as he, and as forward to meet the king as he was David, should the king returne in peace. Abithaes there cannot want to cut off the dog's head, but David is more mercifull then Shimei can be wicked; may he first consult with the witch of Endor, but not worthy of so noble a death as his own sword, die the death of Achitophel for feare of David, then may he be hang'd up as the sonnes of Saul were against the sunne, or rather as the Amelekites who slew Isbosheth, and brought tidings and the tokens of the treason to David; may his hands and his feet be as sacrifices cut off, and so pay for the treasons of his pen and tongue; may all heads that plot treasons, all tongues that speake them, all pens that write them, be so punisht. If Sheba paid his head for his tongue's fault, what deserves Britannicus to pay for his pen and trumpet? Is there never a wise woman in London? we have Abishaes.

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Francis Wortley, was the son of Sir Richard Wortley, of Wortley, in Yorkshire, knight. At the age of seventeen he became a commoner of Magdalen College, Oxford; in 1610 he was knighted, and on the 29th of June in the following year, was created a baronet; being then, as Wood says, esteemed an ingenious gentleman. During the civil wars he assisted the royal cause, by raising a troop of horse in the king's service; but at their conclusion he was taken prisoner, and confined in the tower of London, where it seems he composed the volume just noticed. In the Catalogue of Compounders his name appears as "of Carleton, Yorkshire," and from thence we learn that he paid 500l. for his remaining property. In the Athenæ Oxonienses may be found a list of his works, but I have been unable to trace the date of his decease. Mr. Granger says that "Anne, his daughter, married the second son of the first Earl of Sandwich, who took the name of Wortley," and adds that the late Countess of Bute was descended from him. Biographical History, ii. 310.

FOOTNOTES:

[DQ] The Elegies, according to Wood, are upon the loyalists who lost their lives in the king's service, at the end of which are epitaphs.

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xxiii. The Times anatomiz'd, in severall Characters. By T. F[ord, seruant to Mr. Sam. Man[DR].] Difficile est Satyram non scribere. Juv. Sat. 1. London, Printed for W. L. Anno 1647."

[12mo. in the British Museum.]

"PAMPHLETS

Are the weekly almanacks, shewing what weather is in the state, which, like the doves of Aleppo, carry news to every part of the kingdom. They are the silent traytors that affront majesty, and abuse all authority, under the colour of an Imprimatur. Ubiquitary flies that have of late so blistered the eares of all men, that they cannot endure any solid truth. The ecchoes, whereby what is done in part of the kingdome, is heard all over. They are like the mushromes, sprung up in a night, and dead in a day; and such is the greedinesse of men's natures (in these Athenian dayes) of new, that they will rather feigne then want it."

FOOTNOTES:

[DR] (MS. interlineation in a copy among the King's pamphlets.)

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xxiv. Character of a London Diurnal, 4to. 1647. [This was written by Cleveland, and has been printed in the various editions of his poems.]

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xxv. Character of an Agitator. Printed in the Yeare 1647. 4to. pp. 7.

This concludes with the following epitome – "Hee was begotten of Lilburne (with Overton's helpe) in Newgate, nursed up by Cromwell, at first by the army, tutored by Mr. Peters, counselled by Mr. Walwin and Musgarve, patronised by Mr. Martin, (who sometimes sits in counsell with them, though a member) and is like to dye no where but at Tyburne, and that speedily, if hee repent not and reforme his erronious judgement, and his seditious treasonable practises against king, parliament, and martiall discipline itselfe. Finis."

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xxvi. In Mr. Brand's Sale Catalogue, No. 1754, we have The Surfeit to A.B.C. 8vo. Lond. 1656, which is there represented to consist of Characters.

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xxvii. Characters of a Temporizer and an Antiquary. [In "Naps upon Parnassus," 8vo. 1658. See the Censura Literaria, vol. vi. p. 225; vol. vii. p. 341.]

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xxviii. Satyrical Characters, and handsom Descriptions, in Letters, 8vo. 1658. [Catalogue of Thomas Britton the Small Coal Man, 4to, p. 19. No. 102.]

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xxix. A Character of England, as it was lately presented in a Letter to a Noble-man of France. With Reflections upon Gallus Castratus. The third Edition. London. Printed for John Crooke, and are to be sold at the Ship in St. Paul's Church-Yard, 1659.

(12mo. pp. 66, title and preface 20 more.)

This very severe satire upon the English nation was replied to in the following publication.

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xxx. A Character of France, to which is added Gallus Castratus, or an Answer to a late slanderous Pamphlet, called the Character of England. Si talia nefanda et facinora quis non Democritus? London, Printed for Nath. Brooke, at the Angel in Cornhill, 1659.

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xxxi. A perfect Description of the People and Country of Scotland. London. Printed for J. S. 1659.

(12mo. pp. 21. besides the title.)-

xxxii. A brief Character of the Low Countries under the States, being Three Weeks Observation of the Vices and Vertues of the Inhabitants. Non seria semper. London, printed for H. S. and are to be sold by H. Lowndes, at the White Lion in St. Paul's Church Yard, neer the little North Door, 1659.

(12mo. pp. 500. title, &c. 6 more.)

Written by Owen Feltham, and appended to the several folio editions of his Resolves.

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xxxiii. The Character of Italy: Or, The Italian Anatomiz'd by an English Chirurgion. Difficile est Satyram non scribere. London: Printed for Nath. Brooke, at the Angel in Cornhil. 1660.

[12mo. pp. 93, title and preface 12 more.]-

xxxiv. The Character of Spain: Or, An Epitome of Their Virtues and Vices.

– Adeo sunt multa, loquacemUt lassare queant Fabium.

London: Printed for Nath. Brooke, at the Angel in Cornhil. 1660.

[12mo. pp. 93, title, &c. 12 more.]-

xxxv. Essayes and Characters, by L. G. 8vo. 1661.

[See Brand's Sale Catalogue, No. 1754.]-

xxxvi. The Assembly-man. Written in the Year 1647. London: Printed for Richard Marriot, and are to be sold at his shop under St. Dunstan's Church, in Fleet-street, 1662-3[DS].

[4to. pp. 22.]

Sir John Birkenhead was the author of this character, which was printed again in 1681, and in 1704 with the following title, "The Assembly-man. Written in the Year 1647; but proves the true character of (Cerberus) the observator, mdcciv." It was also reprinted in the Harleian Miscellany, v. 93. For an account of the author, see the Biographia Britannica, edit. Kippis, ii. 324.

FOOTNOTES:

[DS] With a very curious and rare frontispiece.

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xxxvii. Fifty-five[DT] Enigmatical Characters, all very exactly drawn to the Life, from several Persons, Humours, Dispositions. Pleasant and full of Delight. By R. F. Esq.; London: Printed for William Crook, at the sign of the Three Bibles on Fleet-bridge. 1665[DU]."

[8vo. pp. 135, title, index, &c. not numbered, 11 more.]

Richard Flecknoe, the author of these characters, is more known from having his name affixed to one of the severest satires ever written by Dryden, than from any excellence of his own as a poet or dramatic writer. Mr. Reed conceives him to have been a Jesuit, and Pope terms him an Irish priest. Langbaine says, that "his acquaintance with the nobility was more than with the muses, and he had a greater propensity to rhyming, than a genius to poetry." As a proof of the former assertion the Duke of Newcastle prefixed two copies of verses to his characters, in which he calls Flecknoe "his worthy friend," and says:

"Flecknoe, thy characters are so full of witAnd fancy, as each word is throng'd with it.Each line's a volume, and who reads would swearWhole libraries were in each character.Nor arrows in a quiver stuck, nor yetLights in the starry skies are thicker set,Nor quills upon the armed porcupine,Than wit and fancy in this work of thine.W. Newcastle."

To confirm the latter, requires only the perusal of his verses, which were published in 1653, under the title of Miscellania. Besides these, he wrote five[DV] dramatic pieces, the titles of which may be found in the Biographia Dramatica; a collection of Epigrams, 8vo. 1670; Ten Years Travels in Europe. – A short Discourse of the English Stage, affixed to Love's Dominion, 8vo. 1654; The Idea of his Highness Oliver, late Lord Protector, &c. 8vo. 1659. &c. &c.[DW]

"CHARACTER OF A VALIANT MAN." – (page 61.)

"He is onely a man; your coward and rash being but tame and savage beasts. His courage is still the same, and drink cannot make him more valiant, nor danger lesse. His valour is enough to leaven whole armies, he is an army himself worth an army of other men. His sword is not alwayes out like children's daggers, but he is alwayes last in beginning quarrels, though first in ending them. He holds honour (though delicate as chrystall) yet not so slight and brittle to be broak and crackt with every touch; therefore (though most wary of it,) is not querilous nor punctilious. He is never troubled with passion, as knowing no degree beyond clear courage, and is alwayes valiant, but never furious. He is the more gentle i' th' chamber, more fierce he's in the field, holding boast (the coward's valour,) and cruelty (the beast's,) unworthy a valiant man. He is only coward in this, that he dares not do an unhandsome action. In fine, he can onely be evercome by discourtesie, and has but one deffect – he cannot talk much – to recompence which he dos the more."