to JONSONUS VIRBIUS, 1638,
and was well known in his day as an occasional writer.

<90.23> SULLEN is here used in the sense of MISCHIEVOUS.
In Worcester's Dictionary an example is given of its employment
by Dryden in a similar signification.

<90.24> Thomas Decker, the dramatist and poet, whom Jonson
attacked in his POETASTER, 1602, under the name of CRISPINUS.
Decker retorted in SATIROMASTIX, printed in the same year,
in which Jonson appears as YOUNG HORACE.

<90.25> An allusion to the lines:

"Come, leave the loathed stage,
And the more loathsome age,"

prefixed to the NEW INNE, 1631, 8vo. Jonson's adopted son Randolph
expostulated with him on this occasion in the ode beginning:--

"Ben, doe not leave the stage,
'Cause 'tis a loathsome age."
Randolph's POEMS, 1640, p. 64.

Carew and others did the same.

<90.26> Katherine Philips, the MATCHLESS ORINDA, b. 1631, d. 1664.
Jeremy Taylor addressed to her his "Measures and Offices of
Friendship," 1657, and Cowley wrote an ode upon her death.

<90.27> By MOTION OF BAD I presume the poet means WICKED IMPULSE.

COMMENDATORY VERSES,
PREFIXED TO VARIOUS PUBLICATIONS BETWEEN 1652 AND 1657.

TO MY DEAR FRIEND MR. E[LDRED] R[EVETT].<91.1>
ON HIS POEMS MORAL AND DIVINE.

Cleft as the top of the inspired hill,
Struggles the soul of my divided quill,
Whilst this foot doth the watry mount aspire,
That Sinai's living and enlivening fire,
Behold my powers storm'd by a twisted light
O' th' Sun and his, first kindled his sight,
And my lost thoughts invoke the prince of day,
My right to th' spring of it and him do pray.

Say, happy youth, crown'd with a heav'nly ray
Of the first flame, and interwreathed bay,
Inform my soul in labour to begin,
Ios or Anthems, Poeans or a Hymne.
Shall I a hecatombe on thy tripod slay,
Or my devotions at thy altar pay?
While which t' adore th' amaz'd world cannot tell,
The sublime Urim or deep oracle.

Heark! how the moving chords temper our brain,
As when Apollo serenades the main,
Old Ocean smooths his sullen furrow'd front,
And Nereids do glide soft measures on't;
Whilst th' air puts on its sleekest, smoothest face,
And each doth turn the others looking-glasse;
So by the sinewy lyre now strook we see
Into soft calms all storm of poesie,
And former thundering and lightning lines,
And verse now in its native lustre shines.

How wert thou hid w