IN CINEAM. XIX.
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hou, doggËd Cineas, hated like a dog,For still thou grumblest like a masty[478] dog,Compar'st thyself to nothing but a dog;Thou say'st thou art as weary as a dog,As angry, sick, and hungry as a dog,As dull and melancholy as a dog,As lazy, sleepy, idle[479] as a dog.But why dost thou compare thee to a dogIn that for which all men despise a dog?I will compare thee better to a dog; 10Thou art as fair and comely as a dog,Thou art as true and honest as a dog,Thou art as kind and liberal as a dog,Thou art as wise and valiant as a dog.But, Cineas, I have often[480] heard thee tell,Thou art as like thy father as may be:'Tis like enough; and, faith, I like it well;But I am glad thou art not like to me. FOOTNOTES: [478] Mastiff. [479] So Isham copy and MS.--Eds. A, B, C "and as idle." [480] So MS.--Isham copy and ed. A "oft." IN GERONTEM.[481] XX. Geron, whose[482] mouldy memory correctsOld Holinshed our famous chroniclerWith moral rules, and policy collectsOut of all actions done these fourscore year;Accounts the time of every odd[483] event,Not from Christ's birth, nor from the prince's reign,But from some other famous accident,Which in men's general notice doth remain,--The siege of Boulogne,[484] and the plaguy sweat,[485]The going to Saint Quintin's[486] and New-Haven,[487] 10The rising[488] in the north, the frost so great,That cart-wheel prints on Thamis' face were graven,[489]The fall of money,[490] and burning of Paul's steeple,[491]The blazing star,[492] and Spaniards' overthrow:[493]By these events, notorious to the people,He measures times, and things forepast doth show:But most of all, he chiefly reckons byA private chance,--the death of his curst[494] wife;This is to him the dearest memory,And th' happiest accident of all his life. 20 FOOTNOTES: [481] Not in MS. [482] So Isham copy.--Omitted in ed. A. [483] So Isham copy.--Eds. A, B, C "old." [484] Boulogne was captured by Henry VIII. in 1544. [485] The reference probably is to the visitation of 1551. [486] In 1557 an English corps under the Earl of Pembroke took part inthe war against France. "The English did not share in the glory of thebattle, for they were not present; but they arrived two days after totake part in the storming of St. Quentin, and to share, to their shame,in the sack and spoiling of the town."--Froude, VI. 52. [487] Havre.--The expedition was despatched in 1562. [488] Led by the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland in 1569. [489] The reference is to the frost of 1564.--"There was one great frostin England in our memory, and that was in the 7th year of QueenElizabeth: which began upon the 21st of December and held in soextremely that, upon New Year's eve following, people in multitudes wentupon the Thames from London Bridge to Westminster; some, as you tell me,sir, they do now--playing at football, others shooting at pricks."--"TheGreat Frost," 1608 (Arber's "English Garner," Vol. I.) [490] "This yeare [1560] in the end of September the copper monies whichhad been coyned under King Henry the Eight and once before abased byKing Edward the Sixth, were again brought to a lowervaluacion."--Hayward's _Annals of Queen Elizabeth_, p. 73. [491] On the 4th June 1561, the steeple of St. Paul's was struck bylightning. [492] "On the 10th of October (some say on the 7th) appeared a blazingstar in the north, bushing towards the east, which was nightly seendiminishing of his brightness until the 21st of the same month."--Stow's_Annales_, under the year 1580 (ed. 1615, p. 687). [493] The defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. [494] Vixenish.
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