[29] Taylor's Translation of Plato's works, vol v. p. 36.
[30] Shakspeare satirically alludes to the quality of such rhymes in
his _Merchant of Venice_, Act v. Sc. 1. Speaking of one
"------ whose poesy was
For all the world like cutler's poetry
Upon a knife, _Love me, and leave me not_."
[31] One of the _fruit trenchers_, for such these roundels are
called in the _Gent. Mag._ for 1798, p. 398, is engraved there, and
the inscriptions of an entire set given.--See also the Supplement to
that volume, p. 1187. The author of the "Art of English Poesie,"
1589, tells us they never contained above one verse, or two at the
most, but the shorter the better. Two specimens may suffice the
reader. One, under the symbol of a skull, thus morally discourses:--
"Content thyself with thine estate,
And send no poor wight from thy gate;
For why, this counsel I you give,
To learne to die, and die to live."
On another, decorated with pictures of fruit, are these satirical
lines:--
"Feed and be fat: hear's pears and plums,
Will never hurt your teeth or spoil your gums.
And I wish those girls that painted are,
No other food than such fine painted fare."
[32] This constant custom of engraving "posies," as they were
termed, on rings, is noted by many authors of the Elizabethan era.
Lilly, in his "Euphues," addresses the ladies for a favourable
judgment on his work, hoping it will be recorded "as you do the
posies in your rings, which are always next to the finger not to be
seene of him that holdeth you by the hand, and yet knowne by you
that weare them on your hands." They were always engraved withinside
of the ring. A MS. of the time of Charles I. furnishes us with a
single posy, of one line, to this effect--"This hath alloy; my love
is pure." From the same source we have the two following rhyming, or
"double posies"--
"Constancy and heaven are round,
And in this the emblem's found."
"Weare me out, love shall not waste;
Love beyond tyme still is placed."
[33] Heywood's "Dialogue, conteyninge the Number in Effecte of all
the Proverbes in the English Tunge, 1561." There are more editions
of this little volume than Warton has noticed. There is some humour
in his narrative, but his metre and his ribaldry are heavy taxes on
our curiosity.
[34] The whole of Tusser's "Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie,"
1580, was composed in quaint couplets, long remembered by the
peasantry for their homely worldly wisdom. One, constructed for the
bakehouse, runs thus:--
"New bread is a drivell (waste);
Much crust is as evil."