A Common Whore With all these Graces Graced: she's very honest, beautiful and chaste.  
Written by JOHN TAYLOR.  
AT LONDON: Printed for Henry Gosson, and are to be fouled in Pannier-Alley. 1622.   

To no matter who.  
Lord, Master, Goodman, Gaffer, or Knave, Lady, Mistress, Goodwife, Gammer, or Whore, Readers.  
I Would not have you to take me for a Bawd or a Pander, for that I send a Whore amongst you; for though it be my pleasure to call her so, yet you in the perusing of her, and conversing with her; shall find her honester than some of your Wives or Mothers: indeed she hath no great Kindred to boast of, for my poor brain like jove was the father and mother that begat and bore her like a new Pall as And my Pen the Midwife that first wrapped her inragged verses in stead of clouts, where the Printer hath used her as he would be loath to be used himself, for he hath published and proclaimed all her faults to the view of the world, and yet I know the poor Whore's pain is not past, for now she is to be examined a thousand ways, & tortured upon the Rack of censure, and amongst all that shall view and handle her, the hot whoremaster will deal most discourteously with her, for when he perceives her honesty too hard for his Knavery, he will in anger, with three tusks, four pishes, five mews, six wry mouths, and seven scurvy faces, tear her and pull her worse than the Rustical Rabblement did use to use common whores on former Shrove. Tuesdays. But all's one, let him do his worst, she is confidently armed with Innocence: and the threats or danger of the bad, cannot affright her but that she will attempt to recreate the good. In a word, all that is amiss in her, I pray you impute to my bad Tutorship, and her own frailty; all that I hope of her, is, that she is a merry Whore, full of good words: A kind Whore to be had for money or love any where; a true Whore and 〈◊〉 constant, for she will never forsake any man that will keep her: and (by reason she is an honest Whore) she is a poor Whore, and hath neither money nor Sprats; so take my Whore amongst yond as she is.  
Now after this, I'll be exceeding brief  
To send another Pamphlet called a Thief;  
The Hue and Cry is out, and I protest,  
Thought he scape hanging, yet he shall be pressed.  
JOHN TAYLOR.   

A WHORE.  
MY Book, an honest Whore, I fitly call,  
Because it treats of whores in general:  
Then though this Pamphlet I do name a whore  
Let no man shun her company therefore,  
For if ten thousand with her lodge and lie,  
No reputation they shall lose thereby.  
No cost 
* A cheaps Whore.  for diet she at all requires,  
No charge for change of changeable Attires,  
No Coaches, or Carroaches she doth crave,  
No base attendance of a Pand'ring Knave,  
Perfumes and Paintings, she abhors and hates,  
Nor doth she borrow hair from others pates.  
And this much more I'll boldly say for her,  
Who so redeems her from the Stationer  
With whom she as a Slave is kept in hold,  
And at his pleasure daily bought and sold)  
I say, that man that doth her ransom pay,  
She will requite his kindness every way,  
Her Inside with such Treasury is stored,  
As may become the Pocket of a Lord,  
All, from the Cottage, to the Castle high,  
From Palatines unto the Peasantry,  
(If thearl permit their wisdom's Rule their will)  
May keep this Whore, and yet be honest still.  
Yet is she 
* A strange Whore, common and yet honest.  Common, unto all that crave her,  
For six pence honest man or Knave may haucher,  
To be both turned and tossed, she free affords,  
And (like a prating Whore) she's full of words,  
But all her talk is to no other end,  
Then to teach Whoremasters and Whores to mend.  
She in plained terms unto the world doth tell,  
Whores are the Hackneys which men ride to hell,  
And by Comparisons she truly makes  
A Whore worse than a common Shore, or jakes.  
A Succubus, a damned sink of sin,  
A Mire, where worse than Swine do wallow in,  
And with a Whore (although thus plain she be)  
She shows a Whoremonger as bad as she.  
And though I barren am of Eloquence,  
Nor ever understood my Accidence:  
Yet though I have no learning to my share,  
A Whore to broken Latin I'll compare;  
First, if her mind on Whoring she doth fix,  
She's all compact of mirth, all Meretrix,  
And with small teaching she will soon decline  
Mulier into the Gender Masculine.  
By her Attire, of which sex she should be,  
She seems the doubtful Gender unto me,  
To either side her habit seems to lean,  
And may be taken for the Epicene.  
Unto the Neuter I compare her can,  
For she's for thee, or me, or any man.  
In her Declousions she so fare will go,  
As to the common of two, three, or more.  
And come to horum harum Whorum, than  
She proves a great proficient amongst men.  
Then after she hath learned these Lessons right,  
She forward goes unto hoc leave light,  
She paints out pulcher, aided by her glass,  
She's neither bonus, or yet bonitas.  
Homo for all men, is a common name,  
And she for all men is a common shame.  
Not lapis singularly, her can please,  
She love's the plural number lapides.  
To Construe plainly she is seldom curlous,  
The two hard words of durus, and of durius,  
Though she's not passed the Whip, she's passed the Rods,  
And knows to join her qui'es, her queas, & quods,  
The Active from the Passive she'll derive,  
Her Mood commmaunds like the Imperative;  
She knows no Concord's, yet to all men thus,  
She fain would be jucundas omnibut;  
Clam is the Cloak, that covers her offence,  
Her goodness all is in the Future tense,  
She's facile fieri, (quickly won)  
Or Const'ring truly, Easy to be done.  
Parui ducitur probitas, sets forth  
Her honesty is reckoned little worth.  
And he shall find, that takes her for his choice;  
An Interjection, or Imperfect voice,  
Among the rules of Gender, she by heart,  
Can without missing daily say her part.  
The first among them all she liketh best,  
Propria quae Maribus, and there she'll rest.  
Thus may a Whore be made (by this Construction)  
Unto the Grammar Rules an Introduction,  
But yet if Learning might be gotten so,  
Few to the Universities would go.  
And all degrees, tag rag, and old and young,  
Would be well grounded in the Latin tongue:  
Whilst many learned men would be forced to seek  
Their liuings from the Hebrew and the Greek.  
For mine own part I dare to swear and vow  
I ne'er used Accidence so much as now,  
Nor all these Latin words here interlaced,  
I do not know if they with sense are placed,  
I in the Book did find them, and conclude  
At random to a Whore I them allude.  
But leaving Latin, every Trading Wench  
Hath much more understanding of the French.  
If she hath learned great P, O Perseus O,  
She'll quickly know De morbo Gallico.  
If in these Rudiments she well doth enter,  
With any man she never fears to venture:  
She's Impudently armed, and shameless to,  
And never dreads what man to her can do,  
Her neither part to stake she'll often lay  
To keep her upper part in fashion, gay,  
She blushes not to have her Trade well knownne,  
Which is, she life's by using of her own.  
Her shop, her ware, her fame, her shame, her game,  
'Tis all her own, which none from her can claim.  
And if she be half mad, and Curse and swear,  
And fight, and bite, and scratch, and domineer:  
Yet still she proves her patience to be such,  
'Midst all these passions she will bear too much.  
She is not Covetous for any thing,  
For what she hath, men do unto her bring,  
(Her Temperance is a virtue of much honour)  
And all her Commings in, are put upon her.  
She's general, she's free, she's liberal  
Of hand and purse, she's open unto all,  
She is no miserable hidebound wretch,  
To please her friend at any time she'll stretch,  
At once she can speak true, and lie, or either,  
And is at home, abroad, and altogether.  
She's nimbler than a Tumbler, as I think  
Lays down, and takes up, whilst a man can wink.  
And though she seem unmeasured in her pleasure,  
'Tis otherways, a Yard's her only measure.  
But as most Whores are vicious in their fames,  
So many of them have most Virtuous names,  
Though bade they be, they will not bate an Ace  
To be called Prudence, Temperance, Faith, or Grace,  
Or Mercy, Charity, or many more,  
Good names (too good to give to any Whore)  
Much from the Popes of Rome they do not swerve,  
For they have Names which they do ill deserve,  
Only betwixt them here's the difference on't,  
A Whore receives her Name first at the Font.  
The Roman Bishop takes a larger scope,  
For he doth Change his name, when he's a Pope.  
As, if he were a Persecuting Saul,  
If he please he'll be called a Preaching Paul.  
Is his name Swinesnowt, he can change the Case,  
And swap away that Name for Boniface.  
If he be most , and envious,  
Yet if he please, he will be called Pious.  
Be he by Nature to all mischief bend,  
He may and will be called Innocent,  
And be he ne'er so doggedly inclined,  
he'll be named Vrbane, if it be his mind.  
If he be much more fearful than a Sheep,  
The Name of Lee he may have and keep.  
And though he be unmerciful yet still,  
He may be called Clement if he will.  
Thus Popes may have good names, though bade they bet  
And so may Whores though different in degree.  
The Annagram of WHORE'S her mortal foe,  
Divided into two words, 'tis HER WO.  
And seriously (to lay all jesting by)  
A Whore is Her own Woe, and misery.  
For though she have all pleasures at the full,  
Much more than Thays, that proud Corinthian Trull  
Who suffered none but Kings and Potentates  
To have their pleasures, at Excessive rates,  
Yet all that Dear bought Lechery would be  
The greater brand of lasting Infamy,  
And though her Carrion Corpse, rich clad, high ●●d,  
(Half rotten living, and all rotten Dead)  
Who with her hellish Courage, stout and hot,  
Abide the brunt of many a prickshaft shot,  
Yet being dead, and doth Consumed lie,  
Her everlasting shame shall never dye:  
Ixion (in his arms) he did suppose  
That he the Goddess juno did enclose:  
But in the end his frantic error showed,  
That all which he Embraced was but a Cloud.  
So whosoever do their Lust embrace,  
In stead of Love are clouded with disgrace.  
The Godless Goddess Venus, honoured fare,  
For Conquering of the Conquering God of War,  
To hide their shame they no defence could get,  
When limping Vulcan took them in a net,  
And being past shame, with that foul offence,  
She armed herself with shameless Impudence,  
And with  articles would prove,  
That foul Concupiscence and Lust is Love..  
For which each bawdy Knave, and filthy Whore, 
Hear I have for some 60. lines followed the report of Corneius Agrippa, in his Vanity of scicaces.   
Her devilish Deity do still adore.  
I have read Histories that doth Repeat  
Whores were of old in estimation Great,  
Pandemus King of Corinth, he Erected  
(That he from Perses power might be protected)  
A Temple unto Venus, as some say,  
Where Whares might for his safety safely pray.  
And some in Ephesus, did Temples rear,  
In whom the Paphean Queen adored were,  
Where they that were the wickedest Whores of all,  
Were the chief Priests in robes Pontifical.  
And in the I'll of Paphes, 'twas the use  
Maids got their Dowries, by their Corpse abuse,  
But if that order were allowed here,  
So many would not Portions want I fear.  
The Art of Bawd'ry was in such respect  
Amongst th' Egyptians, that they did erect  
An Altar to Priapus, and their guise  
Was, that their Priests on it did Sacrifice.  
Wise Aristotle, was in wit so poor,  
He Sacrificed to Hermia, his whore.  
Great julius Caesar, was so free and Common,  
And called a Husband unto every woman.  
Procullus Emperor, (the Story says)  
Deslowred one hundred Maids 
* Sarmatian Maids.  in Fifteen days.  
If all be true that Poets use to write,  
Hercules lay with Fifty in one night.  
When Heliogabilus, Rome's Sceptre swayed,  
And all the world his lawless Laws obeyed:  
He in his Court did cause a Stews be made,  
Whereas Cum privilegio, Whores did trade.  
H'inuited Two and twenty of his friends,  
And kindly to each one a Whore he lends.  
To set Whores free, that then in bondage lay,  
A mighty Mass of money he did pay, 
30. pound weight a piece.   
He (in one day) gave to each whore in Rome  
A Ducat, (a large and ill bestowed sum.)  
He made Orations unto Whores, and said  
They were his Soldiers, his Defence and aid,  
And in his speech he showed his wit s'acute,  
Of sundry forms of Bawd'ry to dispute.  
And after giving unto every Whore,  
For listening to his tale three ducats more,  
With Pardon unto all, and Liberty  
That would be Whores within his Monarchy.  
And yearly pensions, he freely gave,  
To keep a Regiment of Whores, most brave.  
And oft he had (when he in Progress went)  
Of Whores, Bawds, Pandeas, such a Rabblement  
Six hundred Wagons, History reports,  
Attended only on these brave Consorts.  
This was a Royal Whoremaster indeed,  
A special 
* Or rather malefastor  Benefactor at their need,  
But now since Heliogabilus deceased,  
I think the world with Whores is so increased,  
That if it had an Emperor as mad,  
He might have twice so many as he had.  
For by experience we see every day  
That bad things do increase, good things decay.  
And virtue (with much care) from virtue breeds,  
Vice freely springs from vice like stinking weeds.  
Sardanapalus King of Babylon,  
Was to his whores such a Companion,  
That he in their Attire did Sow and sing,  
(An exercise unfitting for a King)  
This fervent Lust, (which some call ardent jove)  
Did cause the Bastard 
* Hercuier.  of the mighty jove  
To please his jowl, he took a Wheel  
And (laying by his Club) did Spin and Reel.  
Great love himself, could not this snare escape,  
Lust led him on to many a shameless Rape.  
Poor Hebe, Helena, 
* Jupiter transformed himself to all these shapes to attain his desrie.  Danae, and Europa,  
Alemena, Io, Semele, and Leada,  
Antiopa, Asterie, Ganymede,  
These and a number more his fancy fed.  
To compass which his shifts were manifold  
T'a Bull, a Ram, a Swan, a shower of Gold,  
To dreadful Thunder, and consuming Fire,  
And all to quench his inward flames desire.  
Apollo turned fair Daph●● into 
* The Bay tree or Laurel.  Bay,  
Because she from his Lust did fly away.  
He loved his Hiacinct, and his Coronis,  
As fervently as Venus loved Adonis,  
So much he from his Godhead did de●●ne,  
That for a Wench he kept Adme●●s Kine.  
And many other Gods have gone aftray,  
If all be true which Ovid's Book doth say.  
Thus to fulfil their Lusts, and win their Trulls,  
We see that these  Gods were Guls.  
The mighty Captain 
* Achilles, who was slain (befotted to his Death) for the love of Polixena.  of the Mermidous  
Being Captived to these base passions,  
Met an untimely unexpected slaughter  
For fair Polixena, King Priam's Daughter.  
Lucretia's Rape, was Tarquin's overthrow,  
(Shame often pays the debt that sin doth owe)  
Hot Philomela lost, and Tereus won  
It caused the lustful Father 
* Tereus' K. of Thrace, care of his own Son Itis made into py-meat by his wife Frogne.  eat his Son.  
In this vice Nero took such beastly joy,  
He married was to Sporus, a young Boy,  
And P●riander, 
* A Tyrant Prince in Corinth.  was with Lust so led,  
He with Mellissa lay, when she was Dead.  
Pygmalion, 
* Plutarte.  with an Image made of Stone,  
Did Love and lodge; (I'll rather lie alone.)  
Aristophanes, 
* Appius murdered himself, because Virginia's father had slain her, to free her from his Lust.  joined in Love would be  
To a she Ass, but what an Ass was he.  
A Roman Appius did in jail abide  
For Love of fair Virginia, where he died.  
Our second Henry, 
* K Henry the 2. King of England.  Aged, Childish, fond,  
On the fair feature of fair Rosamond:  
That it raised most unnatural hateful strife  
Betwixt himself, his Children, 
* At Woodstock.  and his wife.  
The end of which was, that the jealous Queen  
Did poison 
* Mrs. Shore.  Rosamond in furious spleen.  
The fourth King Edward lower did descend.  
He to a Goldsmith's wife 
* She was I●cobs daughter, whose Rape was accursedly revenged by her brethren, Simeon & Leu●, Genesi●.  his love did bend.  
This sugared sin hath been so general,  
That it hath made the strongest Champions fall.  
●●r Si●●em ravished 
* 2. Sam. 12.  Dina, for which deed,  
〈◊〉 number of the Sichemites did bleed,  
●●d Samson, in the prime of manly strength  
〈◊〉 Dallila, was overcome at length  
●●ng 
* 2. Sam. 13.  David frayly fell, and felt the pain,  
●●d with much sorrow, was restored again,  
●●ough Saul his foe he no way would offend,  
〈◊〉 this sin made him kill his loyal friend.  
〈◊〉 much with Thamar, Incest did commit,  
●●d Absalon deprived his Life for it.  
●●d Sal●●● allowed most Royal means,  
〈◊〉 keep 3. hundred Queens, 7. hundred Queans,  
〈◊〉 whose means to Idolaty he fell  
〈◊〉 most as low as to the Gates of Hell.  
At last repeating, he makes declaration,  
That all was vanity, and spirits vexation.  
Abundance of Examples men may find,  
Of Kings and Princes to this vice inclined,  
Which is no way for meaner men to go,  
Because their betters oft have wandered so,  
For they were plagued of God, and so shall we  
Much more, if of their sin we partners be.  
To show what Women have been plunged in  
The bottomless Abyss of this sweet sin:  
There are example of them infinite,  
Which I ne'er mean to read, much less to write.  
To please the Reader though I'll set down some,  
As they unto my memory do come.  
Flora a Whore in Rome, great wealth did win,  
By her dear trading and her Commings in,  
Which wealth she freely gave when she did dye  
Unto the Roman people generally,  
For which they all (to show their thankes unto h●●  
Made her a Goddess, and did Reverence do her  
And Lays of Corinth, asked Demosthenes  
One hundred Crowns for one night's business,  
For which a crew of Whores did set upon her,  
A Whore she was, and Whores to death did stone  
There was a famous Whore 
* She was servant to Exanthus, & fellow to Esope the Fabulist.  Rhodope named  
Who for her gain, at such high price she gamed,  
That she (most liberal) did the Charges bear,  
A stately high Pyramids to Rear.  
Great julius Caesar, was much overseen  
With Cleopatra the Egyptian Queen:  
And after she ensnared Mark Anthony,  
For which they both by their own hands did dye.  
Semiramis played the inhuman Trull,  

a Queen of Babylon, slain by her son, whom she would have had to have laid with her.  And was enamoured with a beastly Bull:  
So did 
b Pasiphas, wife to Minos' king of Crete.  Pasipha, but me thinks 'tis strange,  
That Queens so far from womenhood should range.  
Mirha (Adonis mother) caused her father  
The flower of her virginity to gather.  
If wise Ulysses, had not well been armed,  
Enchanting Circe's, had his honour charmed,  
When lustful Paris stole the lustful Punk  
Fair Helen, had the Ship that bore them sunk,  
Then thirty Kings in peace at home had stayed,  
Nor Troy or Troyans' in their ruins laid,  
Fair Messalina, a most royal Whore,  
(Wife unto Claudins the Emperor)  
The sports of Venus in the Stews did play, 
c Messalina and Faustins' two Empresses.   
Sometimes full five and twenty times a day.  
Marcus Aurelius did fair Faustine wed,  
And she with Whoring did adorn his head.  
And many Princes and great Potentates,  
With Vulcan's crest have armed their noble pates:  
This to the poorest Cuckold seems a bliss,  
That he with mighty Monarch's sharer is,  
That though to be Cornuted be a grief,  
Yet to have such brave partners, is relief.  
These Whores & Whoremasters, which I have named,  
And thousands more (in Histories defamed)  
With partial self-opinion did approve,  
Their sensuality and lust was Love..  
When as the odds is more than day from night,  
Or fire from water, black from purest white.  
The one with God, one with the Devil doth dwell,  
Love comes from heaven, and lust doth spring from hell.  
But the old Proverb, ne'er will be forgot,  
A Lecher's love is (like Sir Reverence) hot.  
And on the sudden cold as any stone,  
For when the lust is past, the love is gone.  
But love is such a blessing from on high,  
Whose zealous fervency can never dye,  
It outlives life, and the ascending flame  
Mounis to the God of Love, from whence it came.  
Lust made 
* Genesis.  Seths' sons, with fornication vain,  
join with the daughters of accursed Caine.  
And the world suffered, for their fornication  
Depopulation, by the inundation.  
And twenty and four thousand Israelites  
Died for this sin amongst the 
a Numbers.  Midianites.  
For the not punishing this fact (almost)  
The Tribe of 
b judge. 19.20. and 21. cha. 65000. were slain of the Israelines, prodthere remained of the Beniamites only 600.  Beniami● were slain and lost.  
May this be called love, then call virtue vice,  
And every bawdy house, a Paradise.  
If lust were love, it would not like a Wolf,  
Drown Lover's hearts in Desperations Gulf,  
A Theban, 
c For Antigena the daughter of Oedipus and jecasla.  Hemon, himself madly killed,  
On his to dear deer's Tomb his heart blood spilt  
For Pham (a poor Waterman's sweet sake)  
Fair Saphe from a rock, her 
d The more fool she, though she were a Poecesse.  neck she broke.  
Pheadra, for her Hippollitus, they say,  
Did hang herself, and make a Holiday.  
And 
e She was daughter to Lycurgus K. of Thrace.  Phillis for 
f Son to Theseus.  Demophoon did as much,  
I'll never love, if Love's effects be such.  
To quench the Carthaginian 
g D●co. for Eneac, burned herself.  Queen's desire,  
She burned herself upon a pile of fire;  
If either Pyramus, or Thisbe had  
Not been stark fools, or else exceeding mad,  
The doting, idle misconceiving Elves,  
So desperately, had ne'er fore-done themselves.  
Thus all the difference betwixt love and lust,  
Is, one is just, the other is unjust,  
Search but in Histories, and men may find  
Examples beyond numb'ring, of this kind,  
How of both Sexes, each estate, and sort  
Of people; from the Cottage to the Court,  
Have madly ran this course some hanged, some drowned,  
, starved, & stabbed themselues with many a wound,  
Or pined away like Coxcombs, ever craving  
To have the thing, that's never worth the having.  
In Antwerp, many filthy Whores I saw,  
That for their Trading were allowed by Law.  
And I in Prague did see a street of Whores,  
An English mile in length, who at their doors,  
Did stand and ply (rich clad, and painted rare)  
More hard than ever I plied for a fare.  
Th' Italian Stews (to make the Pope good cheer)  
Paid twenty thousand Ducats in a 
h Almost every year, a ducat is more then, 8. shillings, which sum is 8000. l.  year.  
Besides, they give a Priest (t'amend his fee)  
The profit of a Whore, or two or three,  
methinks it must be bad Divinity,  
That with the Stews hath such affinity,  
'Tis a mad doctrine Lechery shall pay  
A Churchman's stipend, that should preach & pray  
And in those Stews, where women are so common  
In entertaining all, refusing no man,  
Whereas a father with a Whore may lie,  
Which done, his son his place may hap supply,  
And then an Uncle, or a brother may  
Succeed each other in that damned play.  
For no propinquity, or no degree  
Of Kin, that haunt there, that can swear theyare free  
From this commixion, and which is worst,  
A Whore may have a Bastard, borne and nursed,  
And grown a woman, and to this Trade set her,  
May be a Whore to him that did beget her.  
Or to her brothers, or to all her Kin,  
She may be prostituted in this sin.  
And therefore to conclude this point, I muse  
That Christian commonwealths allow a Stues;  
I think that Thiefs as well allowed should be,  
As Whores and Whore masters should thus be free.  
They from the heathen do examples bring,  
That Whoring, is a rare commodious thing,  
There was an ancient use in Babylon,  
When as a woman's stock was spent and gone,  
Her living it was lawful then to get,  
Her carcase out to Livery to let.  
And Venus did allow the Cyprian Dames,  
To get their liuings by their body's shames,  
Lycurgus did a Law in Sparta make,  
That all men might their Barren wives forsake:  
And by the same Law it ordained was,  
Wives might unable husbands turn to grals.  
And the wise Solon the Athenian,  
Allowed Whores to be free for any man.  
And though these things the Pagan people did,  
Yet Christian governments these things forbidden,  
But there's no Commonwealth maintains the same,  
But where the 
a Not in any place but where Rome's supremacy is allowed.  Pope is Landlord of the game.  
The Stews in England bore a beastly sway,  
Till the eight 
b Anno Regni 37.  Henry banished them away,  
And since those common whores were quite put down,  
A damned crew of private whores are grown,  
So that the devil will be doing still,  
Either with public or with private ill.  
Thus much for whoring I must say again,  
It hath produced many valiant men:  
Brave Bastards, have been famous Conquerors,  
And some great Lords, and Kings, and Emperors.  
As Hereules Ioues mighty Bastard son,  
And 
c So says Cornelius Agrippa, but I find it otherways in Quintus Curtius.  Alexander King of Macedon:  
Clodovee King of France, from Bastardy,  
And William Conqueror, from Normandy,  
These and a number more I could recite,  
Besides the unknown number's infinite.  
And sure that wretched man that married is  
Unto a wife disposed to this amiss,  
Is mad to wrong himself at all thereby,  
With heart grief and tormenting jealousy.  
If he hath cause for't, let him then forsake her,  
And pray God mend her, or the devil take her:  
If he hath no cause to be jealous then,  
He's worthy to be made the scorn of men,  
Thus cause or no cause, man himself should arm,  
That jealousy should never do him harm.  
The Nicholaitanes, to avoid the pain  
Of jealousy, amongst them did ordain,  
That all their married wives, of each degree,  
To every one a common Whore should be.  
And so amongst them one could hardly find,  
A Cuckold that did bear a jealous mind.  
When I but think what Sciences, and Arts,  
What men and women, full of excellent parts,  
Forget their functions, lay their virtues by,  
And wait and live, and thrive by Lechery.  
A Poet's Art, all other Arts excel,  
If he hath skill and grace to use it well:  
Yet many times 'tis used most base and vile,  
When it descends unto a bawdy style,  
To turn good humane studies, and divine,  
Into most beastly lines, like Aretine;  
To seek to merit everliving Bays,  
For sordid stuff (like Ovid's lustful Lays.)  
With false bewitching verses to entice  
Frail creatures from fair virtue to foul vice,  
Whose flattery makes a whore to seem a Saint,  
That stinks like carrion, with her pox and paint.  
Comparing her (with false and odious lies)  
To all that's in or underneath the skies.  
Her eyes to Suns, that doth the Sun Eclipse,  
Her cheeks are Roses, (Rubies are her lips)  
Her white and red Carnation mixed with snow,  
Her teeth to oriental pearl, a Row,  
Her voice like Music of the heavenly Spheres,  
Her hair like thrice refined golden Wires,  
Her breath more sweet than Aromatic drugs,  
Like Mownts of Alabaster are her drugs,  
Her Bracilets, Rings, her Scarf her Fan, her Chain,  
Are subjects to inspire a Poet's brain:  
But above all her Smock most praise doth win,  
For 'tis the Curtain next unto her skin,  
Her lose Gown, for her loser body fit,  
Shall be adored with a flash of wit,  
And from the Chin-clowt, to the lowly Slipper,  
In heliconian streams his praise shall dipher.  
I leave vnnam'd what is affected best,  
As 'tis most fit, for it maintains the rest,  
Her thighs, her knees, her legs, her feet, and all,  
From top to toe are supernatural.  
Her ivory hands, with saphire veins inlayde,  
Which cannot be by mortal Pen displayed.  
Her smile makes cold December Summer like,  
Her frown, hot june with shivering Frost can strike,  
And life and death doth in her looks abide,  
Or many Knaves and Fools that said so lied.  
Her Shapperoones, her Periwigs and Tires,  
Are Relics, which this flattery much admires,  
Rebates, Mask, her Busk and Busk-point to,  
Are things to which mad men must homage do.  
Her Verdingale, her Garters, Shoes and Roses,  
Her Girdle that her wasteful waste encloses.  
Not one of these but's honoured with a Sonnet,  
If the said Poet be but set upon it.  
Another seeks to win his Wenches will,  
With oily Oratories smooting skill:  

As thus.  
MOst inestimable Magazine of Beauty, r● Masterpiece of Nature, Perfections wonder, and Love's Quintessence, in whom the po●● and majesty of juno, the feature of Cithere the wisdom of Ioues Braine-bred 
* Pallas.  Girl, ●● chastity of Diana, and the constancy of Luc●cia, have their domestical habitation, who w● the Goddesses are deified, with the Graces graced, with the Virtues stellifide, with the Mus● honoured, and with the senses admired: vouchsafe dread Empress of my Affections, to pardon ●● intrusive boldness of my untuned tongue (which was never tipped with the Courtly Gloss of Adulation) who being the Ambassador of my heart doth prostrate myself and my best services to 〈◊〉 disposed of at your great commands, and as the Refulgent beams of Titan makes purity of obscurity, so one glance or glimpse of the tranflucen● of your eyes sun dazzling corruscancie, wi●● exile all the cloudy vapours of heart-tormenting moody melancholy, that like an usurping Tyrant hath Captivated your humble suppliant, thus fervently to Implore your Clemency.   
here's a sweet deal of scimble scamble stuff,  
To please my Lady Wagtayle, (marry muff)  
Gep with the Grinkcomes, (but I speak too late)  
This kind of flattery, makes a Whore take state, 
Crinkcomes is an Utopian word, which is in English a P. at Paris.   
Grows pocky proud, & in such port doth bear her,  
That such poor scabs as I, must not come near her.  
Thus may she live, (much honoured for her Crimes)  
And have the Pox some twelve or 13. times,  
And she may be so bountiful again,  
To sell those Pox to three or fourscore men.  
And thus the Surgeons may get more by fare  
By Whores and Peace, then by the Sword and war.  
And thus a Whore (if men consider of it)  
●an increasing gainful piece of profit.  
●ut of all Whores, that I have named before,  
There's none so Cunning as the City Whore,  
●hee hath so many several sorts of Bawds,  
To cloak and cover her deceits and frauds,  
That sure the Devil cannot more device  
Then she, to blind her horned Husbands eyes.  
The offers Purls to sell, and fine Bonelace,  
And whispers that her Friend's in such a place:  
● second offers Starch, and tells her how  
●er sweetheart tarries for her at the Plough,  
A third sells Wafers, and a fourth hath Pins,  
And with these tricks these Bawd's admittance wins.  
That had her Husband Argos eyes, yet he  
By these deceivers should deceived be,  
If all these fail, a Beggar woman may,  
A sweet Love letter to her hands convey.  
Or a neat Laundress, or a Hearbwife can,  
Carry a sleeveless message now and than,  
Or if this fail, her teeth may Ache (forsooth)  
And then the Barber must come draw a Tooth.  
Or else she may be sick (upon Condition)  
That such a Doctor may be her Physician,  
He feels her pulses, and applies his trade  
With Potions which th' Apothecary made,  
All's one for that, her health she quickly gains,  
Her Husband pays the Doctor for his pains.  
But of all Bawds, Gold is the Bawd indeed,  
It seldom speaks but it is sure to speed:  
It can blind Watches, open bolts and locks,  
Break walls of Stone, as hard as Marble rocks:  
Make Iron bars give way, and Gates fly ,  
Gives Lust the reynes to run with boundless see  
Kills jealousy, appeases Rivals, and  
Doth what the owners will or can Command,  
And last of all it stops the biting jaws  
Of the just rigorous, and severest Laws.  
I therefore say, he that hath Golden pelf,  
Hath a good Bawd, if so he please himself,  
Those that hath Gold, can want no Bawds or Que●●  
Except they use a mean, to guide their means.  
To end this point, this consequence I'll grant,  
Those that have Golden Bawds, no Whores can w●●  
And though the mighty power of Gold be such, 
A seraping miserable father, that cares not how he get Gold to leave it to a Whoremaster his Son, is his Sons provident Bawd.   
Yet Silver (many times) can do as much:  
Thus every wealthy Whoremaster may bear  
His Bawd in's purse, or pocket any where.  
For mine own part, I live not in such want,  
But that I eat and sleep, though Coin be scant:  
And cause I want the Bawd I named before,  
By Consequence I needs must want the Whore.  
And wanting of them both, I hope to be  
From Gowtes, Pox, and extortion ever free.  
But as there's wondrous difference in men's meat,  
So is the odds of Whores exceeding great:  
Some Rampant, & some Couchant, and some Passant,  
Some Guardant & some Dormant, & some Crescent,  
Some Pendant, some (a Pox on't) but the best on't,  
A private Whore, trade's safely, there's the jest on't.  
Besides, as Whores are of a several cut,  
So fitting Titles on them still are put:  
●or if a Prince's love to her decline,  
●or manners sake she's called a Concubine:  
●a great Lord, or Knight affect a Whore,  
She must be termed his Honour's Paramour,  
The rich Gull Gallant calls her Dear and Love,  
Duck, Lamb, Squall, Sweethart, Cony, and his Dove:  
●pretty Wench she's with the Countryman,  
And a Kind Sister with the Puritan,  
●e's a Priest's Leman, and a Tinker's Pad.  
〈◊〉 Dell, or Doxy (though the names be bad)  
And amongst Soldiers this sweet piece of Vice  
〈◊〉 counted for a Captain's Cockatrice.  
But the mad Rascal, when he's five parts drunk,  
Calls her his Drah, his Quean, his syll, or Punk:  
And in his fury begins to Rail and Roar,  
Then with full mouth, he truly calls her Whore,  
And so I leave her, to her hot desires,  
'Mongst Pimps and Panders, and base Aplesquire  
To mend or end, when Age or Pox will make her  
Detested, and Whoremasters all forsake her.  

A Comparison betwixt a Whore and a Book.  
ME thinks I hear some Cavillers object  
That 'tis a Name absurd and indirect,  
To give a Book the Title of a Whore,  
When sure I think no Name befits it more.  
For like a Whore by day light, or by Candle,  
'Tis ever free for every Knave to handle:  
And as a new Whore is beloved and sought,  
So is a new Book in request and bought,  
When Whores wax old & stolen, they're out of 〈◊〉  
Old Pamphlets are most subject to such fate.  
As Whores have Panders, to emblaze their worth,  
So these have Stationers to set them forth.  
And as an old Whore may be painted new  
With borrowed Beauty, fair unto the view,  
Whereby she for a fine fresh whore may pass,  
Yet is she but the Rotten whore she was.  
So Stationers, their old cast Books can grace,  
And by new Titles paint a fresh their face,  
Whereby for Currant they are passed away,  
As if they had come forth but yesterday.  
A Book is Dedicated, now and than  
To some great worthy, or unworthy man:  
Yet for all that 'tis common unto me,  
●● thee, or he, or all estates that be,  
And so a man may have a Whore (forsooth)  
●pposing she is only for his tooth,  
●●t if the truth he would search out and look,  
●●e's common unto all men like a Book.  
〈◊〉 Book with gaudy Coat, and silken strings,  
Whose inside's full of Obscene beastly things,  
● like a Whore, Caparisoned and trapped,  
●ull of Infection, to all mischief apt.  
●●one Whore may be common unto any,  
● one Book, may be Dedicate to many.  
And sure I say, and hope I speak no slander,  
〈◊〉 such a Book, the Poet is the Pander.  
〈◊〉 prostitutes his Muse to every one,  
●hich should be Constant unto one alone,  
●his is a kind of Bawd'ry vile and base,  
Is bounty, and is Poetryes' disgrace.  
●●d lest they should be lost it is ordained,  
●●t Books within a Library are Chained,  
●hee that to himself will keep a Whore,  
●●st Chain her, or she'll trade with forty more.  
〈◊〉 Books are leaf by leaf oft turned and tossed,  
〈◊〉 are the Garments of a whore (almost)  
〈◊〉 both of them, with a wet finger may  
〈◊〉 solded or unfolded, Night or Day.  
Moreover 'tis not very hard to prove,  
That Books and Whores may Rivals be in Love,  
(To purchase men's displeasures I am loath)  
But sure good Scholars still hath loved them both.  
Some Books have their Erratas at the last  
That tells their Errors and offences past.  
So many great Whores did in state survive,  
But when Death did their hateful lives deprive,  
Their faults escaped and their Erratas then  
Hath been made manifest and known to men.  
Some Books and Whores to wicked purpose bend  
Do, for their faults receive one punishment.  
As Books are often burnt, and quite forgotten,  
So Whores are overstew'd, or roasted rotten.  
Experience shows that Books much knowledge bri●●●  
And by experience Whores know many Things.  
And as true justice, all men's loss repairs,  
So whores do give to all men what is theirs.  
Terence she learns, yet will she much Rebuke●  
If we do play the part of true Eunuchus.  
As Books profane, or else Heretical,  
Or scurrilous, non sense schismatical,  
Perverts man's judgement, and his soul pollutes,  
Such are all whores, and such will be their Fruits  
Some Slovens soil a Book in little space,  
And slaver it, and so the Leaves deface:  
And some again will take a cleanly course  
To read it daily, yet 'tis ne'er the worse.  
So some men use a whore, when once they have  
They'll touse and tear, and beastly all beslaver  
When Forty neat whoremasters might have played  
And used her, and she still be thought a Maid.  
●e that doth Read a Book he likes, would be  
●●one, from any Interruption free,  
And he that with a whore, would toy or eye,  
● think desires no other Company.  
When Books are wet, their beauty's gone or soiled,  
〈◊〉, wash a whore, and all her paintings spoiled.  
●●d as an old whore (spite of Paint or clothing)  
●●lls at the last, the object of men's loathing,  
●●om'd and unpitied, and to finish all,  
●●es in a Ditch, or in an Hospital.  
● Pamphlets, and some works of writers Grave  
〈◊〉 used much worse than whores by many a Knave.  
Who ne'er regards the matter or the price,  
〈◊〉 tear like Tyrants, to wrap Drugs or Spice,  
〈◊〉 which is worse in Privy matters use them.  
〈◊〉 worst of all, like Roarers they abuse them,  
When as they Rend good Books to light and dry  
〈◊〉 ●acco (England's bainefull Deity).  
〈◊〉 'tis a thing I ne'er thought on before, 
* Now a● days.   
〈◊〉 book's examined stricter than a whore.  
〈◊〉 ●re's not a Sheet, a Leaf, a Page, a Verse,  
●●orde, a syllable, or letter (scarce)  
〈◊〉 that (Authority) with judgements eye,  
〈◊〉 diligently look, and search, and pry,  
〈◊〉 gage the sense, and first will understand all,  
●●st in a Phrase, or word, there lurk a scandal.  
〈◊〉 my poor whore in this hath not been spared,  
〈◊〉 skirts were curtayld, and her nails were 
* She would have scratched else.  pared.  
All's one for that, though she such usage had,  
She's not left naked, though not richly clad,  
I knew she must be questioned and I say,  
I am right glad she scaped so well away.  
And should all whores of high and low Degree,  
(As Books are) to account thus called be,  
The Whorish number would wax very small,  
Or else men never could examine all.  
This Book my Whore or else this whore my Boo●  
(She bears both Names, so neither is mistook)  
Respects not all her enemies a straw,  
If she offended, she hath had the Law,  
She was examined, and she did Confess,  
And hath endured the torture of the Press:  
Her faults are Printed unto all men's sight,  
Unpartially declared in black and white,  
And last, in Paul's Churchyard, and in the street  
She suffers Pennance up and down in Sheets.  
And if all Whores, to do the like were made,  
A Linen Draper were the richest Trade.  
If any Whore be honester than mine is,  
I'll write no more but stop my mouth with   
FINIS.