i. F EB . 6, 190*.] i NOTES AND QUERIES.
105
should seeme rather to flatter then commend his
Worth. But what needes he my poore mention ?
His learned works published to the World, & his
Pious Monument bestowed on our House, speake in
silence more then I can vtter out of the highest
pitch of Invention."
Nor does our author forget to include in his list of Devonshire worthies the name of William Browne, author of ' Britannia's Pastorals,' the first part of which belongs to 1613. Carpenter was evidently a personal friend of his (book ii. p. 264) :
" the blazoning of whom to the life, especially
the last [Poets], I had rather leaue to my worthy friend Mr. W. Browne ; who as he hath already honoured his countrie in his elegant and sweete 'Pastoralls,' so questionles will easily bee intreated a litle farther to grace it, by drawing out the line of his Poeticke Auncesters, beginning in losephus Iscanus, and ending in himselfe."
Our author falls very flat indeed when he passes from prose to verse. In a metrical effort of some 104 lines, " My Mother Oxford " is supposed to be the speaker, reproaching him for being so devoted to the interests of his native county, and anything more wooden or colourless could scarcely be imagined. He concludes the piece thus (book ii. p. 269) : Or if thy nature with constraint, descends Below her owne delight, to practick endes ; Rise with my morning Phoebus, slight the West, Till furrowed Age inuite thee to thy rest. And then perchance, thy Earth which seldome gaue Thee Aire to breath, will lend thy Corps a graue. Soone the last trumpet will be heard to sound, And of thy load Ease the Deuonian ground. Meane time if any gentle swaine come by, To view the marble where thy ashes ly, He may vpon that stone in fewer yeares, Engraue an Epitaph with fretting teares, Then make mens frozen hearts with all his cries Drink in a drop from his distilling eyes : Yet will I promise thy neglected bones A firmer monument then speachles stones, And when I pine with age, and wits with rust, Seraphick Angells shall preserue thy dust, And all good men acknowledge shall with me Thou lou'st thy Country, when shee hateth thee.
To this fanciful complaint of his Alma Mater Carpenter replies in the same form, and the 116 lines he devotes to his address are almost worse than those which have gone before.
On the famous line in Hamlet's soliloquy (there are analogous expressions in ' Richard III.')-
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all a curious comment may be found in this work of Carpenter's (book ii. p. 284) :
"Whence grew the vsuall Proverbe amongst profane Ruffians ; that conscience makes cou:ards. But this (as I said) is meerely accidentall : For asmuch as nothing spurres out a true resolution more then a good conscience, and a true touch of religion : witnesse the holy Martyrs of the Church
of all ages, whose valour and constancie hath out-
gone all heathen presidents."
I should note that the italics are Car- penter's own. Whether he had Hamlet's line in view when he wrote the above can only be a matter of conjecture. I give the extract for what it is worth.
Since the foregoing was written a perfect copy of the edition of 1625 has come into my hands. I find on collation that the poem ' To my Booke ' is common to both the first and second editions. A. S.
PIG AND KILL-PIG : THE AMERICAN COLONIES
AND ENGLAND. If the following verses,
written in a contemporary hand on a sheet
of foolscap, which I have found among some
old papers in my possession, have not been
published, they may be thought worthy, in
spite of their crudity, of preservation in your
columns :
" When on a trestle pig was laid, And a sad squealing sure it made ; Kill-pig stood by, with knife and steel : ' Die quiet, can't you ? Why d" you squeal ? Have I not fed you with my pease, And now for trifles such as these Will you rebel? Brimful of victual, Won't you be cut and kill'd a little ? '
To whom thus piggy in reply : ' How can you think I'll quiet lie, And that for pease my life I '11 barter ? ' ' Then, piggy, you must shew your charter, How you 're exempted more than others, Else go to pot, like all your brothers.' " Pig struggles.
' Help, neighbours, help ! This pig 's so strong I find I cannot hold him long. Help, neighbours ! I can't keep him under. Where are ye all ? See, by your blunder He 's gone and broke the cords asunder.' " Exit pig, and Kill-pig after him with a knife." Endorsed : "Verses on the Situation of England and America in the year 1779, in which England is describ'd by Kill-pig, and America by Pig." J. ELIOT HODGKIN.
BOSHAM'S INN, ALDWYCH. The ancient name of Aldwych having been judiciously revived by the London County Council as the official designation of the crescent which finishes off the southern end of the new- thoroughfare connecting Holborn and the Strand, it becomes of interest to trace the early history of the locality. In the days of King Richard II. one of the principal inhabi- tants of the district was John Bosham, citizen and mercer, who in 1378 served as one of the Sheriffs of the City of London. In 5 Richard II. (1381) John Walssh, of London, goldsmith, and Margaret his wife, conveyed on two separate occasions to John Bosham, of
