The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland | Page 4

printed in
12mo. London, 1639, and dedicated to Sir Kenelme Digby: The author
has followed the historians of those times. We have in our language
two other plays upon the same subject, one by Shakespear, and the
other by Dryden.

4. Heir, a Comedy, acted by the company of revels, 1620; this play is
much commended by Mr. Thomas Carew, in a copy of verses prefixed
to the play, where, amongst other commendations bestowed on the stile,
and natural working up of the passions, he says thus of the oeconomy
of the play.
The whole plot doth alike itself disclose, Thro' the five Acts, as doth a
lock, that goes With letters, for 'till every one be known, The lock's as
fast, as if you had found none.
If this comedy, is no better than these wretched commendatory lines, it
is miserable indeed.
5. Old Couple, a Comedy, printed in 4to; this play is intended to expose
the vice of covetousness.
Footnotes: 1. Langbaine's Lives of the Poets. 2. Wood's Fasti Oxon. vol.
i. p. 205.
* * * * *

JOHN TAYLOUR, Water-Poet,
Was born in Gloucestershire, where he went to school with one Green,
and having got into his accidence, was bound apprentice to a Waterman
in London, which, though a laborious employment, did not so much
depress his mind, but that he sometimes indulged himself in poetry.
Taylour retates [sic] a whimsical story of his schoolmaster Mr. Green,
which we shall here insert upon the authority of Winstanley. "Green
loved new milk so well, that in order to have it new, he went to the
market to buy a cow, but his eyes being dim, he cheapened a bull, and
asking the price of the beast, the owner and he agreed, and driving it
home, would have his maid to milk it, which she attempting to do,
could find no teats; and whilst the maid and her master were arguing
the matter, the bull very fairly pissed into the pail;" whereupon his
scholar John Taylour wrote these verses,

Our master Green was overseen In buying of a bull, For when the maid
did mean to milk, He piss'd the pail half full.
Our Water-poet found leisure to write fourscore books, some of which
occasioned diversion enough in their time, and were thought worthy to
be collected in a folio volume. Mr. Wood observes, that had he had
learning equal to his natural genius, which was excellent, he might
have equalled, if not excelled, many who claim a great share in the
temple of the muses. Upon breaking out of the rebellion, 1642, he left
London, and retired to Oxford, where he was much esteemed for his
facetious company; he kept a common victualling house there, and
thought he did great service to the Royal cause, by writing Pasquils
against the round-heads. After the garrison of Oxford surrendered, he
retired to Westminster, kept a public house in Phænix Alley near Long
Acre, and continued constant in his loyalty to the King; after whose
death, he set up a sign over his door, of a mourning crown, but that
proving offensive, he pulled it down, and hung up his own picture[1],
under which were these words,
There's many a head stands for a sign, Then gentle reader why not
mine?
On the other side,
Tho' I deserve not, I desire The laurel wreath, the poet's hire.
He died in the year 1654, aged 74, and was buried in the church yard of
St. Paul's Covent-Garden; his nephew, a Painter at Oxford, who lived in
Wood's time, informed him of this circumstance, who gave his picture
to the school gallery there, where it now hangs, shewing him to have
had a quick and smart countenance. The following epitaph was written
upon him,
Here lies the Water-poet, honest John, Who row'd on the streams of
Helicon; Where having many rocks and dangers past, He at the haven
of Heaven arrived at last.
Footnote: 1. Athen. Oxon. vol. ii. p. 393.

* * * * *

WILLIAM HABINGTON,
Son of Thomas Habington, Esq; was born at Hendlip in Worcestershire,
on the 4th of November 1605, and received his education at St. Omers
and Paris, where he was earnestly pressed to take upon him the habit of
a Jesuit; but that sort of life not suiting with his genius, he excused
himself and left them[1]. After his return from Paris, he was instructed
by his father in history, and other useful branches of literature, and
became, says Wood, a very accomplished gentleman. This author has
written,
1. Poems, 1683, in 8vo. under the title of Castara: they are divided into
three parts under different titles, suitable to their subject. The first,
which was written when he was courting his wife, Lucia, the beautiful
daughter