[424] In Herbert's "Typographical Antiquities," p. 1689, this tract is
intituled, "A Whip for an Ape, or Martin Displaied." I have
also seen the poem with this title. Readers were then often
invited to an old book by a change of title: in some cases, I
think the same work has been published with several titles.
[425] _Martin_ was a name for a _bird_, and a cant term for an _Ass_;
and, as it appears here, an _Ape_. Our _Martins_, considered
as birds, were often reminded that their proper food was
"hempen seed," which at length choked them. That it meant an
_Ass_, appears from "Pappe with a Hatchet." "Be thou Martin
the bird or Martin the beast, a bird with the longest bill, or
a _beast with the longest ears_, there's a net spread for your
neck."--Sign. B. 5. There is an old French proverb, quoted by
Cotgrave, _voce_ Martin:--"_Plus d'un ASNE a la foire, a nom
+Martin+_."
[426] Martin was a _protege_ of this _Dame Lawson_. There appear to
have been few political conspiracies without a woman, whenever
religion forms a part. This dame is thus noticed in the mock
epitaphs on Martin's funeral--
"Away with silk, for I will mourn in sacke;
Martin is dead, our new sect goes to wrack.
Come, gossips mine, put finger in the eie,
He made us laugh, but now must make us crie."
DAME LAWSON.
"Sir Jeffrie's Ale-tub" alludes to two knights who were
ruinously fined, and hardly escaped with life, for their
patronage of Martin.
[427] _Chwere_, _i.e._ "that I were," alluding to their frequently
adopting the corrupt phraseology of the populace, to catch the
ears of the mob.
[428] It is a singular coincidence that Arnauld, in his caustic retort
on the Jesuits, said--"I do not fear your _pen_, but your
_penknife_." The play on the word, tells even better in our
language than in the original--_plume_ and _canife_.
[429] I know of only one _Laneham_, who wrote "A Narrative of the
Queen's Visit at Kenilworth Castle," 1575. He was probably a
redoubtable satirist. I do not find his name in Ritson's
"Bibliographia Poetica."
[430] Alluding to the title of one of their most virulent libels
against Bishop Cooper ["Hay any worke for Cooper," which was a
pun on the Bishop's name, conveyed in the street cry of an
itinerant trader, and was followed by another entitled] "More
work for a Cooper." Cooper, in his "Admonition to the People
of England," had justly observed that this _Mar-Prelate_ ought
to have many other names. See note, p. 510.
I will close this note with an extract from "Pappe with a
Hatchet," which illustrates the ill effects of all sudden
reforms, by an apposite and original image.
"There was an aged man that lived in a well-ordered
Commonwealth by the space of threescore years, and finding,
at the length, that by the heate of some men's braines, and
the warmness of other men's blood, that newe alterations
were in hammering, and that it grewe to such an height, that
all the desperate and discontented persons were readie to
runne their heads against their head; comming into the midst
of these mutiners, cried, as loude as his yeeres would
allow:--'Springalls, and vnripened youthes, whose wisedomes
are yet in the blade, when this snowe shall be melted (laying
his hand on his siluer haires) then shall you find store
of dust, _and rather wish for the continuance of a long frost,
than the incomming of an vntimely thaw_.'"--_Sig. D. 3.
verso._