[329] "Curiosities of Literature," vol. i. p. 158 (last edition).
[330] There is a small poem, published in 1643, entitled "The Great
Assizes holden in Parnassus," in the manner of a later work,
"The Sessions of the Poets," in which all the Diurnals and
Mercuries are arraigned and tried. An impartial satire on them
all; and by its good sense and heavy versification, is so much
in the manner of GEORGE WITHER, that some have conjectured it
to be that singular author's. Its rarity gives it a kind of
value. Of such verses as Wither's, who has been of late
extolled too highly, the chief merit is their sense and truth;
which, if he were not tedious, might be an excellence in
prose. Antiquaries, when they find a poet adapted for their
purposes, conjecture that he is an excellent one. This prosing
satirist, strange to say, in some pastoral poetry, has opened
the right vein.