"_Could we with ink_," _&c._ (Vol. viii., pp. 127. 180.).--The idea
embodied in these lines was well known in the seventeenth century. The
following "rhyme," extracted from a rare miscellany entitled _Wits
Recreations_, 12mo., 1640, has reference to the subject.
"_Interrogativa Cantilena._
"If all the world were paper,
And all the sea were inke;
If all the trees were bread and cheese,
How should we do for drinke?
"If all the world were sand'o,
Oh then what should we lack'o;
If as they say there were no clay,
How should we take tobacco?
"If all our vessels ran'a,
If none but had a crack'a;
If Spanish apes eat all the grapes,
How should we do for sack'a?
"If fryers had no bald pates,
Nor nuns had no dark cloysters;
If all the seas were beans and pease,
How should we do for oysters?
"If there had been no projects,
Nor none that did great wrongs;
If fiddlers shall turne players all,
How should we doe for songs?
"If all things were eternall,
And nothing their end bringing;
If this should be, then how should we
Here make an end of singing?"