I am a poor Tyler, in simple array,
And get a poor living, but eight pence
a day,
My Wife as I get it doth spend it away;
And I cannot help it, she
saith; wot ye why?
For wedding and hanging comes
by destiny.
I thought when I wed her, she had been
a Sheep,
At board to be friendly, to sleep when
I sleep:
She loves so unkindly, she makes me to
weep.
But I dare say nothing, god
wot; wot ye why?
For wedding and hanging comes
by destiny.
Besides this unkindness whereof my grief
grows,
I think few Tylers are matcht to
such shrows,
Before she leaves brawling, she falls
to deal blows.
Which early and late doth
cause me to cry,
That wedding and hanging is
destiny.
The more that I please her, the worse
she doth like me,
The more I forbear her, the more she doth
strike me,
The more that I get her, the more she
doth glike me.
Wo worth this ill fortune
that maketh me cry,
That wedding and hanging is
deny.
If I had been hanged when I had been married,
My torments had ended, though I had miscarried,
If I had been warned, then would I have
tarried;
But now all too lately I feel
and cry,
That wedding and hanging is
destiny.
He wrote also two Comedies, The Tryal of Chivalry, and The longer thou livest, the more Fool thou art.
* * * * *
NICHOLAS BRETON.
Nicholas Breton, a writer of Pastoral Sonnets, Canzons, and Madrigals, in which kind of writing he keeps company with several other contemporary Emulators of Spencer and Sir Philip Sidney, in a publish’d Collection of several Odes of the chief Sonneters of that Age. He wrote also several other Books, whereof two I have by me, Wits Private Wealth, and another called The Courtier and the Country-man, in which last, speaking of Vertue, he hath these Verses:
There is a Secret few do know,
And doth in special places grow,
A rich mans praise, a poor mans wealth,
A weak mans strength, a sick mans health,
A Ladies beauty, a Lords bliss,
A matchless Jewel where it is;
And makes, where it is truly seen,
A gracious King, and glorious Queen.
* * * * *
THOMAS KID, THOMAS WATSON, &c.
Thomas Kid, a writer that seems to have been of pretty good esteem for versifying in former times, being quoted among some of the more fam’d Poets, as Spencer, Drayton, Daniel, Lodge &C. with whom he was either contemporary, or not much later: There is particularly remembred his Tragedy, Cornelia.


