Lett no dark corner of the Land
Bee unimbellisht with one Gemme,
And those which here too thick doe stand

                    Sprinkle on them.

And, trust mee, Ladyes, you will find
In that sweet life more sollid joyes,
More true contentment to the minde,

                    Then all Towne-Toyes.

Nor Cupid there less blood doth spill,
Butt heads his shafts with chaster love,
Not feath’red with a Sparrow’s quill

                    Butt of a Dove.

There may you heare the Nightingale,
The harmeless Syren of the wood,
How prettily shee tells a tale

                    Of rape and blood.

Plant trees you may and see them shoot
Up with your Children, to bee serv’d
To your cleane Board, and the fayr’st fruite

                    To bee preserved;

And learne to use their sev’rall gumms. 
Tis innocente in the sweet blood
Of Cherrys, Apricocks and Plumms

                    To bee imbru’d.

[235] The Galliard, a lively French dance described in Sir John Davies’ Orchestra (st. 67).

[236] Sc. good-bye.  Cf.  Shirley’s Constant Maid, i. 1, “Buoy, Close, buoy, honest Close:  we are blanks, blanks.”

[237] Can the reference be to Troilus and Cressida?

[238] Ben Jonson’s Alchemist.

[239] Puisne (i.e. puny) was the term applied to students at the Inns of Court; also to Freshmen at Oxford.

[240] Cf.  Shirley’s Honoria and Mammon, i. 2: 

    “Go to your Lindabrides
    I’the new brothel; she’s a handsome leveret.”

[241] The first edition of this well-known book was published in 1628. Parsons Resolutions is a fictitious book.

[242] The “lamentable ballad of the Lady’s Fall” has been reprinted by Ritson and Percy.

[243] In the MS. follows a line, scored through:—­

    “And while my footman plaies sigh out my part.”

[244] Shirley delights in ridiculing the affectation in which the gallants of his time indulged.  Cf. a very similar passage in The Lady of Pleasure, v. 1.

[245] The cant language of thieves.  In Harman’s Caveat for Cursitors, or some of Dekker’s tracts, “Pedlars’ French” may be found in abundance.

[246] I print this passage exactly as I find it in the MS. With a little trouble it might be turned into good law.

[247] Aut Shirley aut Diabolus.  Cf. Duke’s Mistress, iv. 1: 

    “You shall lead destiny in cords of silk,
    And it shall follow tame and to your pleasure.”

[248] Sc. swaggering.

[249] A Chrisome child was one that died within a month after birth, at the time of wearing the Chrisome cloth (i.e. the cloth formerly wrapt round a child after baptism).  Device implies that his rival is perfectly helpless among ladies, a mere child.