Selected quad for the lemma: book_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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ID |
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Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
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A29235
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The honest ghost, or, A voice from the vault
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Brathwaite, Richard, 1588?-1673.
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1658
(1658)
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Wing B4267; ESTC R30243
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148,269
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338
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he in such bondage as his griefe Requires without delay present reliefe I 'le hold his Nose to Grindstone and so use him He shall doe what I please or let him chuse him Statutes on Statutes forthwith so pursue him As like Actaeons hounds they still doe view him So that unlesse he hye him all the faster They will in time devoure their breathlesse master For Conscience haggard-like I doe disclaime her Since He that has her seldome proves a gainer Two bags I have the one whereof I call Just All the World and it holds nought at all The other Bag with which I use to lend Money to those that want I call my Friend Whereof I make this use if any come Requesting me to lend them such a summe If th'offers they propound content not me As want of paune or good securitie I presently reply to these who crave In All the world I not one pennie have But if such come as I may profit by them Be 't the same instant I will not deny them For though I have no Coyne as I pretend To give them all content I 'le use my Friend After this manner am I wont to deale In all my practise with the Commonweale Now you shall heare how cunningly I lurch By Simonie the Pastor of the Church Impropriations have I one or two With some Advousons which I thus bestow Least any of my profits should be lost I hold them best deserving who give most These I induct for I doe value them Well worthie th' place who are well-monied men But least some censure should on me befall By being found thus Simoniacall Whereby the Princes priviledge might choose one To take the benefit of my Advouson That I more smoothly may delude the State I in my sale use to Equivocate As for example I doe take a course To sell the Parson whom I choose a Horse A Librarie of Bookes to furnish him Because he wants Books when he enters in And these I rate to him at such a price As serves for Horse Books and for Benefice Now who can say that I doe sell this Living Whose bounteous hand is so inclin'd to giving Tell me what Great one makes them fairer play To give both Bookes and Benefice away No No the most of all our Clerks will sweare Though th' Benefice be cheape th' Addition's deare But let them looke to this before they enter I make no conscience of it Caveat Emptor Yea I doe hold these kinds of Sale as good If they be well and duely understood As to make tender of them for ones life Provided that he take her for his Wife Whom they shall chuse which voluntary offer Makes me suspect her Master has made proffer Of some familiar curt'sie long before I count him mad will for a living bore But if he must let him be his owne Carver Who chuseth not his Wife doth ill deserve her She 's his impropriation which through hate Unto his person might ingraffe his pate Whence in his Parish would abroad be knowne He had a Common-place Booke of his owne But let these Contracts passe they 'r knowne enough Both in the Church and in the Country through I 'le now descend to shew what fierie spirit Our native Country people doe inherit Which I perswade me will seeme strange to all Because wee seeme as if we had no gall But we doe scorne that any place should bee More malapertly factious then wee For when I was a Tennant I doe know Though I'm nò Tennant but a Landlord now I would commence a suite upon my Lord Because I knew the Law for any word In which Commencement many flockt together Like Birds all of one brood and of one fether Who with joynt Combination made a purse To put their seame-rent Landlord to the worse Yea I have knowne so insolent a Nation As when they heard the Princes Proclamation Tend to th' extinguishment of Tennantright They in a braving manner set it light Affronting their weake Landlords at their gate Vowing they 'd force them to confirme their state Nor be their haughtie Lords lesse domineering Puff'd up with present hope of a next Hearing For now am I a Landlord and must sharke For Priest forgets that ever he was Clarke As others doe by raising Fine on Fine And cram my selfe how ere my Tennant pine Great are my debts and my expences large Now whom should I thinke fitting to discharge This heavie taske which thus ore-burdens mee But these rich Gormaws who my Tennants bee Which that it may more covertly be donne In all my State I doe invest my Sonne On which Estate doth presently ensue A Gen'rall Fine which hath beene ever due Scarce is this Fine paid till I make a claime By re-estating of my selfe againe Of a new Fine whereto they must consent Or have a triall for their tenement Which if the Court ad judge once to be mine To Demaine land convert I it in time So as Depopulation is as common As is inconstancy unto a Woman For in the Country many Farms appeere As neither Farme nor Farmer had beene there Now forasmuch as we all Learning lack Unlesse we have it from an Almanack For I doe know no Nation under Sun In a Prognostication puts us down You shall perceive for so I hold it fit What speciall use we daily make of it Herein we note and take observance too Whether our Heire be like to thrive or no Which we collect by this rare-erring forme We seeke the Planet when he first was borne For we assure our selves this cannot erre Prov'd and confirm'd by Shepheards Calender If any dayes foretell ensuing dearth Those be our dayes of Jubile and mirth For my owne part I speake it I doe feare Nothing so greatly as a plentuous yeare For so much graine I 've in my Barns engrost As if it prove not deare it will be lost For till the Markets rise as now they fall I 'le bring none forth let Ratts consume it all What doe I care though Justices doe seeke My Barns and well-stor'd Granars weeke by weeke Vaults and close-arched caves I have below Within the earth of which they little know Nor ever shall so I my selfe may serve I take no thought if all the Country sterve They who for others good their course contrive May live belov'd but dye before they thrive To Court or City seldome I repaire Nor doe I know any employment there To University I never come Unlesse along I carrie up my Sonne To get a Scholars place and after rise By my fat purse unto some Benefice Meane time that he a lesser charge might be To my Estate I still plead povertie Which Master of the Colledge oft believes Whereby my Sonne a Scholership receives Though I 'me resolv'd for money I have more Then many of their Founders had before Thus have I liv'd and thus I meane to live Apt to receive but most unapt to give Thus hoord I Treasure for my Sonne and
had been all by th' booke After a turne or two to th' Table came Where two great personages were at game The one whereof had laid his purse close by His losse upon occasion to supply My Bung observing this takes hold of time Just as this Lord was drawing for a prime And smoothly nims his purse that lay beside him And all this while the other gamester ey'd him At whom he winks to move him to conceale it As one that had no purpose for to steale it He that perceiv'd him thinking him to be One of the Court or of his companie Smiling continued play and so it rested Untill this Lord seeks for his purse but mist it Whereat the other laugh'd quoth he enquire Of such an one and clad in such attire One of your own acquaintance I suppose Who nim'd you of your purse before your nose Diligent search was made all there about But my ingenious gue had got him out Before this inquisition which secur'd him Better then when the court-wals had immur'd him Thus were my Limetwigs laid in every place Who like Blood-hounds had still some game in chase Which they pursu'd with such an eager mind As where they seiz'd they left small store behind Scarce could two country fopps together meete To heare a cheating ballad in the streete But presently some Complices of mine Took hold of th' opportunity of time For while these to the Ballad-monger flocked My nimble Nipps div'd deep into their pocket But for as much as I perceiv'd these shifts Were meerly grounded on apparent thifts And that some private foe through in-bred malice Might be a meanes to bring me to the Gallows This sharking trade relinquish'd I became A wondrous strange reformed honest man An Emp'rick-Doctor who had Art at will Which I derived from my Chymick-Still Where I such waters made as in short time Doctor Stevens water was lesse priz'd then mine Balms apozems confections had I store Yet th' more I had my Patients wish'd for more Such rare effects were daily wrought by these As they were Cures for any strange disease But that I might seem learned in mine Art Of late I've got an Herbal all by heart Whereof I make this use when I can give No reason why this dies or that should live For no such depth as yet mine art affords I streight confound them with abstrusest words As Cataplasms Diarrhicks Cataclisms Concucurbetuls Emplasms Paroxisms With which I so conjure them as they cease To aske me any questions touching these Who for his practise can no reason show He must have words or he 's not worth a stroe Besides all this such Authors can I number As they that heare me are enforc'd to wonder For thus holds Galen thus Hippocrates Thus Silvius holds thus Dioscorides But Paracelsus thus who in my brest Hath more esteeme then any of the rest Though I was never so on learning set As I read any of these Authors yet Nor care I much 't is my desire to seeme More then I am to gain me more esteeme Some twenty Patients have I here hard by Who know not what they ayle no more doe I Yet lest of negligence they me condemn Morning and night I duely visit them Prescribing them receits to cheere their blood Which many times doe far more harm then good Yet am I crouded to on ev'ry side So as of late I on my foot-cloth ride By meanes of such a Lord who had occasion To try my profound Art this last vacation Whose hand of bounty did my state enrich For curing of an ulcer in his breech How glad am I my Chymick-works are done Amalga-like they had more Moone then Sonne More profit doe I reape by one direction To mine Apothecarie or inspection Into my Patients water then I looke Ere to receive from all my Chymick-smook For Alchymie with piercing Autimonie Upon my knowledg cans'd a want of monie Minerall metals Niter Orochalke By th' use whereof I in a cloud did walke Hatching such quaint Chymeraes in my braine As reaping wind was all that I could gaine Hope train'd me on till all my wits were rest me I sought for gold till I no brasse had left me But why doe I my weaknesse thus descry When men have er'd were wiser held then I In making search for this unvalued Stone But I must leave them and their wits alone They hope a day will come will pay for all But I feare such a day will never fall So as me thinks I cannot well compare These men who build strange Castles in the ayre More fitly then to those who once did labor To take a Hare with playing on a Taber Fly-brasse no Chymick but a Physick-ape Since I left Mercury for Aesculape My practise now 's cleere of another nature Trading before in Smoake but now in water Now am I us'd with choycest entertaine Had in esteeme wheres'ever I remaine In City Court and Country harbored With free accesse unto a Ladies bed Whilest her weak husband thinks she Physick wants And for my Potion gives me hearty thanks Streight she protests my Pills doe only please her Thus much I 'm sure they for that season ease her For application is the soveraignst thing That may conceiving to a woman bring There is a lovely-Lady in this land Whom I have had these two yeeres under hand Yet I for manners sake will laine her name But trust me shee 's a hen that loves the game Who has been long time barren yet have I By art and other things I did apply Made her a fruitfull Mother yea some say That shee conceiv'd the very selfe same day That I did minister but I divine It came right neeere unto that very time And I am glad on 't for I doe not see How he had Heir'd his Land withouten mee The babe is full of hope and will no question For his Syres sake love men of our profession But 't is no matter now in grace I am And shall be dead before he be a man Thus much entirely shall I wish unto him Hee 'd be no Alchymist it will undo him For other Arts a Gods name take his venter This is so deepe I thinke it has no center Nor am I only practis'd in the Court But in the Country too to make me sport Here Granam Gurton will be sick for love And I must scent some love-procuring Glove To cause her sweet-heart more affection show And this I promise out a hand to doe Some foure houres after I make known to her That I 've confer'd with my familiar Who has engag'd his word before one weeke Hee whom she seeks shall for her fancy seeke Shee payes me well and hopes all shall be mended But I am gone before halfe weeke be ended Young wenches too I have exceeding store And I content them all what would they more Only some zealous-Sisters doe refraine To come unto me but I know their ayme They daily so increase and multiply Among themselves