Part 35

Before the Knight, is perill plast, Which he, by skipping ouergoes, And yet that Pawne can worke a cast, To ouerthrow his greatest foes; The Bishop's prudence, prieng still Which way to worke his master's will.

The Rooke's poore Pawnes, are sillie swaines, Which seeldome serue, except by hap, And yet those Pawnes, can lay their traines, To catch a great man, in a trap: So that I see, sometime a groome May not be spared from his roome.

THE NATURE OF THE CHESSE MEN.

The King is stately, looking hie; The Queene doth beare like maiestie: The Knight is hardie, valiant, wise: The Bishop prudent and precise. The Rookes no raungers out of raie, The Pawnes the pages in the plaie.

LENVOY.

Then rule with care, and quicke conceit, And fight with knowledge, as with force; So beare a braine, to dash deceit, And worke with reason and remorse. Forgive a fault when young men plaie, So giue a mate, and go your way.

And when you plaie beware of checke, Know how to saue and giue a necke: And with a checke beware of mate; But cheefe, ware had I wist too late: Loose not the Queene, for ten to one, If she be lost, the game is gone."

FOOTNOTES:

These are a king; a queen; a prince; a privy-counsellor; a noble man; a bishop; a judge; a knight; a gentleman; a lawyer; a soldier; a physician; a merchant (their good and bad characters); a good man, and an atheist or most bad man; a wise man and a fool; an honest man and a knave; an usurer; a beggar; a virgin and a wanton woman; a quiet woman; an unquiet woman; a good wife; an effeminate fool; a parasite; a bawd; a drunkard; a coward; an honest poor man; a just man; a repentant sinner; a reprobate; an old man; a young man, and a holy man.

It is by no means certain that this may not be intended to perpetuate the memory of some other person of the same names, although Mr. Gough, in a note to the second volume of Queen Elizabeth's Progresses, seems to think it belongs to our author.

Bridges' Northamptonshire, vol. ii. page 78, s. Shaw's Staffordshire, vol. i. page 422.

To these lists of Breton's productions may be added, 1. A Solemne Passion of the Soule's Loue. 4to. Lond. 1598. 2. The Mother's Blessing, 4to. Lond. 1602. 3. A True Description of vnthankfulnesse; or an enemie to Ingratitude. 4to. Lond. 1602. 4. Breton's Longing, 4to. title lost in the Bodleian copy; prefixed are verses by H. T. gent. 5. A Poste with a packet of Mad Letters, 4to. 1633, dedicated by Nicholas Breton to Maximilian Dallison of Hawlin, Kent. The last tract excepted, all the above are in a volume bequeathed by Bishop Tanner to the university of Oxford, which contains many of the pieces noticed by Ritson, and, in addition, The Passion of a discontented Minde. 4to. Lond. 1602, which I should have no hesitation in placing to Breton. At the end of the volume are The Passions of the Spirit, and Excellent Vercis worthey imitation of euery Christian in thier Conuersiation, both in manuscript, and, if we may judge from the style, evidently by the author before-mentioned. For the Figures, in the composition of which he had certainly a share, see page 198.

I am not aware that the following specimen of his versification, which is curious, has been reprinted.

Raie, for array; order, rank. So Spencer.

"And all the damzels of that towne in ray, Came dauncing forth, and ioyous carrols song:"

Faerie Queene, book v. canto xi. 34.

vii. Essayes and Characters of a Prison and Prisoners. Written by G. M. of Grayes'-Inne, Gent. (Woodcut of a keeper standing with the hatch of a prison open, in his left hand a staff, the following lines at the side;

"Those that keepe mee, I keepe; if can, will still: Hee's a true Iaylor strips the Diuell in ill.")

Printed at London for Mathew Walbancke and are to be solde at his shops at the new and old Gate of Grayes-Inne. 1618.

A second edition appeared in 1638, and, as the title informs us, "with some new additions:" what these were I am not able to state, as my copy, although it appears perfect, contains precisely the same with that of 1618.

Of Geffray Mynshul, as he signs his name to the dedication, I can learn no particulars, but I have reason to suppose him descended from an ancient and highly respectable family, residing at Minshull, in the county of Chester, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. By what mishap he became an inmate of the King's-bench prison, from when he dates his Essayes, it is impossible to conjecture, but as he talks of usury and extortion, as well as of severe creditors; and advises those who are compelled to borrow, to pay as soon as they can, we may suppose that imprudence and extravagance assisted in reducing him to the situation he attempts to describe.

In the dedication to his uncle, "Mr. Matthew Mainwaring, of Namptwich, in Cheshire," he says:--"Since my comming into this prison, what with the strangenesse of the place, and strictnesse of my liberty, I am so transported that I could not follow that study wherein I tooke great delight and cheife pleasure, and to spend my time idley would but adde more discontentments to my troubled brest, and being in this chaos of discontentments, fantasies must arise, which will bring forth the fruits of an idle braine, for e malis minimum. It is farre better to giue some accompt of time, though to little purpose, than none at all. To which end I gathered a handfull of essayes, and few characters of such things as by my owne experience I could say Probatum est: not that thereby I should either please the reader, or shew exquisitenes of inuention, or curious stile; seeing what I write of is but the child of sorrow, bred by discontentments, and nourisht vp with misfortunes, to whosc help melancholly Saturne gaue his iudgement, the night-bird her inuention, and the ominous rauen brought a quill taken from his owne wing, dipt in the inke of misery, as chiefe ayders in this architect of sorrow."

"CHARACTER OF A PRISONER.

A prisoner is an impatient patient, lingring vnder the rough hands of a cruell phisitian: his creditor hauing cast his water knowes his disease, and hath power to cure him, but takes more pleasure to kill him. He is like Tantalus, who hath freedome running by his doore, yet cannot enioy the least benefit thereof. His greatest griefe is that his credit was so good and now no better. His land is drawne within the compasse of a sheepe's skin, and his owne hand the fortification that barres him of entrance: hee is fortunes tossing-bal, an obiect that would make mirth melancholy: to his friends an abiect, and a subiect of nine dayes' wonder in euery barber's shop, and a mouthfull of pitty (that he had no better fortune) to midwiues and talkatiue gossips; and all the content that this transitory life can giue him seemes but to flout him, in respect the restraint of liberty barres the true vse. To his familiars hee is like a plague, whom they dare scarce come nigh for feare of infection, he is a monument ruined by those which raysed him, he spends the day with a hei mihi! ve miserum! and the night with a nullis est medicabilis herbis."

FOOTNOTES:

In the church of St. Mary, at Nantwich, in that county, is a monument erected by Geofry Minshull, of Stoke, Esq. to the memory of his ancestors. Historical Account of Nantwich, 8vo. 1774, page 33. King, in his Vale Royal of England, folio, Lond. 1656, page 74, speaks of Minshall-hall, "a very ancient seat, which hath continued the successions of a worshipfull race in its own name"--&c.

This place of residence was omitted in the second edition.

The Mainwarings were an old family of repute, being mentioned as residing near Nantwich, by Leland, Itin. vol. 7. pt. i. fol. 43. See also the list of escheators of Cheshire, in Leycester's Historical Antiquities, folio, Lond. 1673, p. 186.