t of making even Decker popular; while he discovered
that his own laurel-wreath had been dexterously changed by the
"Satiromastix" into a garland of "stinging nettles."

In "The Poetaster," _Crispinus_ is the picture of one of those
impertinent fellows who resolve to become poets, having an equal
aptitude to become anything that is in fashionable request. When
Hermogenes, the finest singer in Rome, refused to sing, _Crispinus_
gladly seizes the occasion, and whispers the lady near him--"Entreat
the ladies to entreat me to sing, I beseech you." This character is
marked by a ludicrous peculiarity which, turning on an individual
characteristic, must have assisted the audience in the true
application. Probably Decker had some remarkable head of hair,[391]
and that his locks hung not like "the curls of Hyperion;" for the
jeweller's wife admiring among the company the persons of Ovid,
Tibullus, &c., _Crispinus_ acquaints her that they were poets, and,
since she admires them, promises to become a poet himself. The simple
lady further inquires, "if, when he is a poet, his looks will change?
and particularly if his hair will change, and be like those
gentlemen's?" "A man," observes _Crispinus_, "may be a poet, and yet
not change his hair." "Well!" exclaims the simple jeweller's wife, "we
shall see your cunning; yet if you can change your hair, I pray do
it."

In two elaborate scenes, poor Decker stands for a full-length.
Resolved to be a poet, he haunts the company of Horace: he meets him
in the street, and discovers all the variety of his nothingness: he
is a student, a stoic, an architect: everything by turns, "and
nothing long." Horace impatiently attempts to escape from him, but
_Crispinus_ foils him at all points. This affectionate admirer is
even willing to go over the world with him. He proposes an ingenious
project, if Horace will introduce him to Maecenas. _Crispinus_ offers
to become "his assistant," assuring him that "he would be content
with the next place, not envying thy reputation with thy patron;"
and he thinks that Horace and himself "would soon lift out of favour
Virgil, Varius, and the best of them, and enjoy them wholly to
ourselves." The restlessness of Horace to extricate himself from
this "Hydra of Discourse," the passing friends whom he calls on to
assist him, and the glue-like pertinacity of _Crispinus_, are richly
coloured.

A ludicrous and exquisitely satirical scene occurs at the trial of
_Crispi