contents than himself.

[103] Prynne seems to have considered being debarred from pen, ink,
and books as an act more barbarous than the loss of his ears.
See his curious book of "A New Discovery of the Prelate's
Tyranny;" it is a complete collection of everything relating
to Prynne, Bastwick, and Burton; three political fanatics, who
seem impatiently to have courted the fate of Marsyas. Prynne,
in his voluminous argument, proving the illegality of the
sentences he had suffered, in his ninth point thus gives way
to all the feelings of Martinus Scriblerus:--"Point 9th, that
the prohibiting of me pen, ink, paper, and books, is against
law." He employs an argument to prove that the abuse of any
lawful thing never takes away the use of it; therefore the law
does not deprive gluttons or drunkards of necessary meat and
drink; this analogy he applies to his pen, ink, and books, of
which they could not deprive him, though they might punish him
for their abuse. He asserts that the popish prelates, in the
reign of Mary, were the first who invented this new torture of
depriving a scribbler of pen and ink. He quotes a long passage
from Ovid's Tristia, to prove that, though exiled to the Isle
of Pontus for his wanton books of love, pen and ink were not
denied him to compose new poems; that St. John, banished to
the Isle of Patmos by the persecuting Domitian, still was
allowed pen and ink, for there he wrote the Revelation--and he
proceeds with similar facts. Prynne's books abound with
uncommon facts on common topics, for he had no discernment;
and he seems to have written to convince himself, and not the
public.

But to show the extraordinary perseverance of Prynne in his
love of scribbling, I transcribe the following title of one of
his extraordinary works. He published "Comfortable Cordial
against Discomfortable Fears of Imprisonment, containing some
Latin verses, sentences and texts of Scripture, _written by
Mr. Wm. Prynne on his chamber-walls in_ the Tower of London
during his imprisonment there; translated by him into English
verse," 1641. Prynne literally verifies Pope's description--

"Is there who lock'd from ink and paper, scrawls
Wi