Amongst the poets Dacus numbred is,
Yet could he neuer make an English rime;
But some prose speeches I haue heard of his,
Which haue been spoken many an hundreth time:
The man that keeps the Elephant hath one,
Wherein he tells the wonders of the beast:
Another Bankes pronouncèd long agon,[85]
When he his curtailes[86] qualities exprest:
He first taught him that that keeps the monuments
At Westminster, his formall tale to say;
And also him which Puppets represents,
And also him which with the Ape doth play:
Though all his Poetry be like to this,
Amongst the poets Dacus numbred is.
[Footnote 84: This is not Decius of Epig. 25, who was Drayton, but
(eheu!) Samuel Daniel. Cf. Epig. 45, and relative note. On the elephant
(l. 5) see note on Epig. 6. G.]
[Footnote 85: Isham badly 'a goe.' G.]
[Footnote 86: Id est, horse's [the word means properly--a docked
horse.] So much may be found in various books concerning Banks and his
wonderful horse, that any account of them is unnecessary here. D. [The
'wonderful horse' is referred to by Shakespeare. G.]]