pinking like the snuffe of a candle; _quantum mutatus ab
illo_, how unlike the knave he was before, not for malice, but
for sharpnesse! The hogshead was even come to the hauncing,
and nothing could be drawne from him but dregs; yet the emptie
caske sounds lowder than when it was full, and protests more
in his waining than he could performe in his waxing. I drew
neere the sillie soul, whom I found quivering in two sheets of
protestation paper (alluding to the work mentioned here in the
following note). O how meager and leane he looked, so crest
falne that his combe hung downe to his bill; and had I not
been sure it was the picture of Envie, I should have sworn it
had been the image of Death: so like the verie anatomie of
Mischief, that one might see through all the ribbes of his
conscience."

In another rare pamphlet from the same school, "Pasquill of
England to Martin Junior, in a countercuffe given to Martin
Junior," he humorously threatens to write "The Owle's
Almanack, wherein your night labours be set down;" and "some
fruitful volumes of 'The Lives of the Saints,' which, maugre
your father's five hundred sons, shall be printed," with
"hays, jiggs, and roundelays, and madrigals, serving for
epitaphs for his father's hearse."

[417] Some of these works still bear evident marks that the
"pursuivants" were hunting the printers. "The Protestatyon
of Martin Mar-Prelate, wherein, notwithstanding the
surprising of the printer, he maketh it knowne vnto the
world that he feareth neither proud priest, tirannous prelate,
nor godlesse cater-cap; but defieth all the race of them,"
including "a challenge" to meet them personally; was
probably one of their latest efforts. The printing and the
orthography show all the imperfections of that haste in
which they were forced to print this work. As they lost their
strength, they were getting more venomous. Among the little
Martins disturbed in the hour of parturition, but already
christened, there were: "Episto Mastix;" "The Lives and
Doings of English Popes;" "Itinerarium, or Visitations;"
"Lambethisms." The "Itinerary" was a survey of every
clergyman of England! and served as a model to a si