merchant crowded in his study amongst a company of law-books, which they justled so often with their coxcombs, that they were almost together by the ears with them; when at the sight of us they took an habeas corpus, and removed their bodies into a bigger room. But there we lingered not long for our torments; for the mercer and the merchant gave fire to the lawyer's tongue with a rope of angels, and the word fines went off with such a powder, that the force of it blew us all into the country, quite changed our ploughmen's shapes, and so we became little ants again.

This, madam Nightingale, is the true discourse of our rural fortunes, which, how miserable, wretched, and full of oppression they were, all husbandmen's brows can witness, that are fined with more sweat still year by year; and I hope a canzonet of your sweet singing will set them forth to the world in satirical harmony.

The remorseful nightingale, delighted with the ant's quaint discourse, began to tune the instrument of her voice, breathing forth these lines in sweet and delicious airs.

The Nightingale's Canzonet.

Poor little ant,

Thou shalt not want

The ravish'd music of my voice!

Thy shape is best,

Now thou art least,

For great ones fall with greater noise:

angels] See note, p. 20. There seems to be an allusion

to fireworks running on lines: see vol. ii. p. 531.

kremorseful] i. e. compassionate.

And this shall be the marriage of my song,
Small bodies can have but a little wrong.

Now thou art securer,
And thy days far surer;

Thou pay'st no rent upon the rack,
To daub a prodigal landlord's back,
Or to maintain the subtle running
Of dice and drabs, both one in cunning;
Both pass from hand to hand to many,
Flattering all, yet false to any;

Both are well link'd, for, throw dice how you can,
They will turn up their peeps1 to every man.

Happy art thou, and all thy brothers,
That never feel'st the hell of others!
The torment to a luxur due,

Who never thinks his harlot true;
Although upon her heels he stick his eyes,
Yet still he fears that though she stands she lies.

Now are thy labours easy,
Thy state not sick or queasy;

All drops thou sweat'st are now thine own;
Great subsidies be as unknown

To thee and to thy little fellow-ants,

Now none of you under that burden pants.

Lo, for example, I myself, poor worms,"
That have outworn the rage of Tereus' storms,
Am ever blest now, in this downy shape,
From all men's treachery or soul-melting rape;
And when I sing Tereu, Tereu,
Through every town, and so renew

The name of Tereus, slaves, through fears,
With guilty fingers bolt their ears,

AllP ravishers do rave and e'en fall mad,
And then such wrong'd souls as myself are glad.

So thou, small wretch, and all thy nest,
Are in those little bodies blest,
Not tax'd beyond your poor degree
With landlord's fine and lawyer's fee:
But tell me, pretty toiling worm,
Did that same ploughman's weary form
Discourage thee so much from others,
That neither thou nor those thy brothers,
In borrow'd shapes, durst once agen
Venture amongst perfidious men?

ANT.

Yes, lady, the poor ant replied,
I left not so; but then I tried
War's sweating fortunes; not alone
Condemning rash all states for one,

Until I found by proof, and knew by course,
That one was bad, but all the rest were worse.

NIGHTINGALE.

Didst thou put on a rugged soldier then?

A happy state, because thou fought'st 'gainst men. Prithee, discourse thy fortunes, state, and harms; Thou wast, no doubt, a mighty man-at-arms.

The Ant's Tale when he was a soldier.

Then thus, most musical and prickle-singing' madam (for, if I err not, your ladyship was the first

P All] So first ed. Sec. ed. “And all."

agen] See note, p. 192.

r

prickle-singing] Compare p. 556, line 4.

that brought up prick-song," being nothing else but the fatal notes of your pitiful ravishment), I, not contented long, a vice cleaving to all worldlings, with this little estate of an ant, but stuffed with envy and ambition, as small as I was, desired to venture into the world again, which I may rather term the upper hell or frigida gehenna, the coldcharitable hell, wherein are all kind of devils too; as your gentle devil, your ordinary devil, and your gallant devil; and all these can change their shapes too, as to-day in cowardly white, to-morrow in politic black, a third day in jealous yellow; for believe it, sweet lady, there are devils of all colours. Nevertheless, I, covetous of more change, leapt out of this little skin of an ant, and hung my skin on the hedge, taking upon me the grisly shape of a dusty soldier. Well made I was, and my limbs valiantly hewn out for the purpose: I had a mazzard, I remember, so well lined in the inside with my brain, it stood me in better stead than a double headpiece; for the brain of a soldier, differing from all other sciences, converts itself to no other" use but to line, fur, and even quilt the coxcomb, and so makes a pate of proof: my face was well leavened, which made my looks taste sour, the true relish of a man of war; my cheeks dough-baked, pale, wan, and therefore argued valour and resolution; but my nose somewhat hard-baked, and a little burnt in the oven, a property not amiss in a soldier's visage, who should scorn to blush but in his nose; my chin was well thatched with a beard, which was a necessary shelter in winter, and a fly-flap in sum

mer, so brushy and spreading, that my lips could scarce be seen to walk abroad, but played at all-hid, and durst not peep forth for starting a hair. To conclude, my arms, thighs, and legs, were so sound, stout, and weighty, as if they had come all out of the timber-yard, that my very presence only was able to still the bawlingest infant in Europe. And I think, madam, this was no unlikely shape for a soldier to prove well; here was mettle enough for four shillings a-week to do valiant service till it was bored as full of holes as a skimmer. Well, to the wars I betook me, ranked myself amongst desperate hot shots,-only my carriage put on more civility, for I seemed more like a spy than a follower, an observer rather than a committer of villany. And little thought I, madam, that the camp had been supplied with harlots too as well as the Curtain, and the guarded tents as wicked as garden tenements; trulls passing to and fro in the washed shape of laundresses, as your bawds about London in the manner of starchwomen, which is the most unsuspected habit that can be to train out a mistress. And if your ladyship will not think me much out of the way though I take a running leap from the camp to the Strand again, I will discover a pretty knavery of the same breeding between such a starchwoman and a kind wanton mistress; as there are few of those balassed vessels now-adays but will have a love and a husband.

The woman crying her ware by the door (a most pitiful cry, and a lamentable hearing that such a stiff thing as starch should want customers), passing

the Curtain] i. e. the theatre so called, in Shoreditch.

" garden tenements] See note, vol. i. p. 162.

a] So first ed. Not in sec. ed.