I met lately with a quarto volume of poems printed at London in 1679,
entitled:
"_Lucida Intevalla_ containing divers miscellaneous Poems
written at Finsbury and Bethlem, by the Doctor's Patient
Extraordinary."
On the title-page was written in an old hand the native of the "patient
extraordinary" and author _James Carkasse_, and that of the "doctor"
_Thomas Allen_. A little reading convinced me that the writer was a very
fit subject for a lunatic asylum; but at page 5, I met with an allusion
to the celebrated Mr. Pepys, which I will beg to quote:--
"Get thee behind me then, dumb devil, begone,
The Lord hath eppthatha said to my tongue,
Him I must praise who open'd hath my lips,
Sent me from Navy, to the Ark, by Pepys;
By Mr. Pepys, who hath my rival been
For the Duke's[3] favour, more than years thirteen;
But I excluded, he high and fortunate,
This Secretary I could never mate; {88}
But Clerk of th' Acts, if I'm a parson, then
I shall prevail, the voice outdoes the pen;
Though in a gown, this challenge I may make,
And wager win, save if you can, your stake.
To th' Admiral I all submit, and vail--"
The book from which I extract is _cropped_, so that the last line is
illegible. Can the noble editor of Pepys' _Diary_, or any of your
readers, inform me who and what was this Mr. James Carkasse?