Of one of Harvey's
pamphlets
Nash writes: 'Credibly it was once
rumoured about the Court, that the Guard meant to try masteries with
it before the Queene, and, instead of throwing the sledge or the
hammer, to hurle it foorth at the armes end for a wager.
John Donne
_A Pursevant would have ravish'd him away._ The reading
of three independent MSS., _Q_, _O'F_, and _JC_, of 'Topcliffe' for
'Pursevant' is a very interesting clue to the Catholic point of
view from which Donne's _Satyres_ were written. Richard Topcliffe
(1532-1609) was one of the cruellest of the creatures employed to
ferret out and examine by torture Catholics and Jesuits. It was he who
tortured Southwell the poet. In 1593 he was on the commission against
Jesuits, and in 1594-5 was in prison. John Hammond, the civilist, who
is possibly referred to in _Satyre V_, l. 87, sat with him on several
inquiries. See _D.N.B._ and authorities quoted there; also Meyer, _Die
Katholische Kirche unter Elisabeth_, 1910.
PAGE =167=, ll. 233-4. _men big enough to throw
Charing Crosse for a barre.
_
Of one of Harvey's
pamphlets
Nash writes: 'Credibly it was once
rumoured about the Court, that the Guard meant to try masteries with
it before the Queene, and, instead of throwing the sledge or the
hammer, to hurle it foorth at the armes end for a wager.
' _Have with
you, &c._ (M^{c}Kerrow, iii, p. 36.)
ll. 235-6. _Queenes man, and fine
Living, barrells of beefe, flaggons of wine._
Compare Cowley's _Loves Riddle_, III. i:
_Apl._ He shew thee first all the coelestial signs,
And to begin, look on that horned head.
_Aln._ Whose is't? Jupiters?
_Apl._ No, tis the Ram!
Next that the spacious Bull fills up the place.
