No More Learning

Enough, my dear brother, although we speak

reason.
Yet truth many times being punished for treason.
We ought to be wary, and bridle our tongue,
Bold speaking hath done both men and beasts

wrong.
When the ass so boldly rebuked the pi-ophet.
Thou knowest what danger had like to come of it ;
Though the beast gave his master ne'er an ill

word.
Instead of a cudgel, Balaam wished for a sword.

WOOL-CHURCH.

Truth 's as bold as a lion, I am not afraid ;
I '11 prove every tittle of what I have said.
Our riders are absent, who is 't that can hear ?
Let's be true to ourselves, whom then need we fear?
Where is thy king gone ?



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OF MARYELL. 265

CHARING.

To sec bishop Laud.

WOOL-CHURCH.
To cuckold a scrivener, mine is in masquerade ;
For on such occasions he oft steals away,
And returns to remount me about break of day.
In very dark nights sometimes you may find him,
With a harlot got up on my crupper behind him.

CHARING.

Pause brother awhile, and calmly consider
What thou hast to say against my royal rider.

WOOL-CHURCH.

Thy priest-ridden king turned desperate fighter
For the surplice, lawn-sleeves, the cross, and the

mitre ;
Till at last on the scaffold he was left in the

lurch.
By knaves, who cried up themselves for the

church,
Archbishops and bishops, archdeacons and deans.

CHARING.

Thy king will ne*er fight unless for his queans.

WOOL-CHURCH.

He that dies for ceremonies, dies like a fool.



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266 THE POEMS

CHARING.

The king on thy back is a lamentable tool.

WOOL-CHURCH.

The goat and the lion I equally hate,
And freemen alike value life and estate ;
Though the father and son be different rods,
Between the two scourgers we find little odds ;
Both infamous stand in three kingdoms' votes,
This for picking our pockets, that for cutting our
throats.

CHARINO.