Anne East, Emme Spencer, Jane Gold, Katherme Roberts, Susannah Hulinge.

Butler’s Character of WILLIAM LILLY.

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  “A cunning man[20], hight SIDROPHEL. 
  That deals in destiny’s dark counsels,
  And sage opinions of the moon sells;
  To whom all people, far and near,
  On deep importances repair;
  When brass and pewter hap to stray,
  And linen slinks out of the way: 

[Footnote 20:  A cunning man, hight Sidrophel.  ’William Lilly, the famous astrologer of those times, who in his yearly almanacks foretold victories for the parliament with as much certainty as the Preachers did in their sermons; and all or most part of what is ascribed to him by the Poet, the reader will find verified in his “Letter,” (if we may believe it) wrote by himself to Elias Ashmole, Esq.’  For further curious information respecting William Lilly, the reader may consult Dr. Grey’s Notes to Hudibras, vol. ii. page 163, &c.  Edition 1819, in 3 vols, 8vo.]

  When geese and pullen are seduc’d,
  And sows of sucking pigs are chous’d: 
  When cattle feel indisposition,
  And need th’ opinion of physician;
  When murrain reigns in hogs or sheep,
  And chickens languish of the pip;
  When yeast and outward means do fail,
  And have no power to work on ale;
  When butter does refuse to come,
  And love proves cross and humoursome;
  To him with questions and with urine,
  They for discov’ry flock, or curing.

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  He had been long t’wards mathematics,
  Opticks, philosophy, and staticks,
  Magick, horoscopy, astrology,
  And was old dog at physiology: 
  But, as a dog that turns the spit,
  Bestirs himself, and plies his feet
  To climb the wheel, but all in vain,
  His own weight brings him down again;
  And still he’s in the self-same place,
  Where at his setting out he was: 
  So, in the circle of the arts,
  Did he advance his nat’ral parts: 
  Till falling back still, for retreat,
  He fell to juggle, cant, and cheat: 
  For as those fowls that live in water
  Are never wet, he did but smatter: 
  Whate’er he labour’d to appear,
  His understanding still was clear,
  Yet none a deeper knowledge boasted,
  Since old Hodge Bacon, and Bob Grosted,

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  Do not our great Reformers use
  This SIDROPHEL to forebode news? 
  To write of victories next year,
  And castles taken yet i’th’ air? 
  Of battles fought at sea, and ships
  Sunk, two years hence, the last eclipse? 
  A total o’er throw giv’n the KING
  In Cornwall, horse and foot, next spring? 
  And has not he point-blank foretold
  Whatso’er the Close Committee would? 
  Made Mars and Saturn for the cause,
  The Moon for fundamental laws;
  The Ram, the Bull, the Goat, declare
  Against the Book of Common Prayer;
  The Scorpion take the Protestation,
  And Bear engage for Reformation;
  Made all the royal stars recant,
  Compound, and take the covenant.”