The King knights Will for fighting on his side;
Yet when Will comes for fighting to be tried,
There is not one in all the armies can
Say they e'er felt, or saw, this fighting man.
Strange, that the Knight should not be known i' th' field;
A face well charged, though nothing in his shield.
Sure fighting Will like _basilisk_ did ride
Among the troops, and all that _saw_ Will died;
Else how could Will, for fighting, be a Knight,
And none alive that ever saw Will fight?
Of the malignancy of their wit, we must preserve one specimen. They
probably harassed our poet with anonymous despatches from the Club:
for there appears another poem on D'Avenant's anger on such an
occasion:--