Page:Poetical Works of John Oldham.djvu/235

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A SATIRE ADDRESSED TO A FRIEND.
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'T has ever been the top of my desires,
The utmost height to which my wish aspires,
That Heaven would bless me with a small estate,
Where I might find a close obscure retreat;
There, free from noise and all ambitious ends,
Enjoy a few choice books, and fewer friends,
Lord of myself, accountable to none,
But to my conscience, and my God alone:
There live unthought of, and unheard of die,
And grudge mankind my very memory.
But since the blessing is, I find, too great
For me to wish for, or expect of fate;
Yet, maugre all the spite of destiny,
My thoughts, and actions are, and shall be, free.
A certain author, very grave and sage,
This story tells; no matter what the page.
One time, as they walked forth ere break of day,
The wolf and dog encountered on the way:


    kinswoman, or a crackt chambermaid to have and to hold during the time of his life.' A writer in Notes and Queries explains the term 'to the halves' as meaning inadequate, as we should say 'half and half measures.' Bishop Hall gives a very curious sketch in his Satires of these trencher chaplains:—

    A gentle squire would gladly entertaine
    Into his house some trencher-chapelaine,
    Some willing man, that might instruct his sons,
    And that would stand to good conditions.
    First, that he lie upon the truckle-bed,
    While his young master lieth o'er his head;
    Second, that he do, upon no default,
    Never to sit above the salt;
    Third, that he never change his trencher twice;
    Fourth, that he use all common courtesies.
    Sit bare at meals, and one half rise and wait;
    Last, that he never his young master beat
    But he must ask his mother to define
    How many jerks she would his breech should line;
    All these observed, he could contented be,
    To give five markes, and winter liverie.'

    The custom of marrying off the domestic chaplain to the lady's waiting-woman is alluded to by Beaumont and Fletcher in the Woman Hater, Act iii., so. 3.

OLDHAM
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