To the most mighty Monarch of Montzago, the model of Magnanimity, the map of man-darring Monster-quellers, the thrice three times treble triple renowned Alphebo, ornamented honourable Knight of Standsalio, Treldedo, Marova, Fregero, Andalowsia, and the sky-scaling mountain of Mulletto. Illustrious Pheander, victorious and valorous Champion to Don Phoebus, great Duke of Delphos, and the Oracle of Apollo; marquis of Muzetta, and the lake Asse-Phaltites: Earl of Utopia; Lord and Dominator of the Promontory of Polipratemost: The unconquered all-conquering Maiden Knight, by revelation, by creation, by procreation, and contentation: the unmatched Phoenix, and fourfold commander of the Enchanted Islands, by nomination, by Banner, by warlike achievements, by nativity, by descent and process, matchless and unparelleld Sir Thomas Parsons, Knight of the Sun, great cousin Vermin to the seldom seen Queen of Fairies, and hopeful heir apparent to her invisible Kingdom.  
Unmatchable Chevaliere, I am bold to commit a poor Goose to your impregnable protection and patronage, I know there will be as much to do in the keeping of her, and with as much danger, as was the conquest of the Golden Fleece, the Apples of the Hesperides, or the saving of Andromeda by Perseus: & but that your valiant achievements are known and approved, I would never have put my Goose to your invincible Guard, the enemies that will assault you, or attempt to take her from you, are many, whom in duteous courtesy I will describe unto you: First, the Poulters will assail you with a terrible battery of rotten Eg-shot, to surrender the innocent Goose, that they may murder, embowel, pull, pluck, and prostitute her to the sale of who gives most. Secondly, the Upholsters will come upon you with a fresh Alarm for her feathers, to stuff the empty paunches of their Bolsters, Pillows, and hungry Bed-tikes. Thirdly, the Croaks in squadrons, armed with Dripping-pans and Spits in stead of Spears, before they will lose their Fees, (and the luking of their fingers to boot) will fight hotly for the Goose till all smoke again. Fourthly, the Apothecaries (rather than they will want the sweetness of the pinguidity or fecundious fat of the Goose's auxungia (vulgarly called grease) they will so pelt you with pills in stead of pellets, that they will make all stink again. Fiftly, the Kitchin-mayde will throw scalding water at you, but she will have one of her wings to sweep down Cobwebs, and dispossess Spiders of the habitations they have built out of their own bowels. Sixtly, the Fletcher's, and Archers, swear they will pink your skin full of Ilot-holes, but they will have her pinions to make them fly swifter dead than the Goose could living. Seaventhly, the Poets for her Quills will call another pennyless threadbare Parliament, and ordain Satirical Statutes, and Tragical Acts against you, and with their scattered imaginations they will scale the skies as high as sullen Saturn's Altitude, and rake into the lowest profundity of Barrathrum, foraging through the earth, air and seas; but they will stigmatize, cauterize, Epigramatize, and Annagramatize you, till you make a surrender. Eightly, the Lawyers will firk and ferret you, tossing you betwixt hard fortune and ill luck, that you will be almost mad, or be in great danger to have very little wit left. Ninthly, the Scriveners, public Notaries, or notorious Publicans, will not only join with the Lawyers and the Poets against you: but they will never procure you any money when you need, without excessive brokage, great credig, or good security. Tenthly, Shopkeepers (if you hold the Goose's Quills from them) have sworn that they will ever keep you cut of their books. And lastly, Schoolboys will throw whole volleys of stones at you, where ever they see you, if you allow them not Pens, though it be but to scribble or make Iewes letters.  
Thus having laid open to your Herculean view, the labours and dangers that you are like to suffer in protecting the Goose, Now I think it fit (under correction) to closeup my Dedication with some dutiful counsel, that though your enemies are mighty and many, and that they do prevail against you, and with their multitude take from you both the flesh and feathers of the Goose, (which indeed belongs not to you, nor do I dedicate them to you) yet here is your true honour, and that which makes all men admire you, that her better part, her genius, her intellectual understanding, her capacity; and reverend gravity, her wisdom, and her very spirit; neither man, devil or Dragon, is able to bereave you of, as long as you have a sword to defend it. I have dedicated a Book of a Beggar at this time to Archy, but most noble Sir, only to you my Goose, so leaving you. Not doubting of your acceptance, and protection: I wish you such increase of honour as is suitable to your Heroic endeavours, and unimitable wisdom.  
He that truly neither wonders or admires at your worthiness, john Taylor.   

TAILOR'S GOOSE.  
WHen restless Phoebus▪ seemed himself to rest  
His flaming Car, descending to the West,  
And Hesperus obscured her twinkling light:  
Then in a sable mantle, (Madam Night)  
took of the world the sole command, & keep  
Charming the eyes of Mortals sound a sleep:  
She sent dull Morpheus forth, and Somnus both,  
(The Leaden Potentates of Sleep and Sloth)  
Who unto every one good Rest imparts  
Save Lovers, guilty minds, and careful hearts.  
The stealing hours, creeped on with sleeping pace,  
When masked Midnight showed her Ebon face;  
When Hags and Furies, Witches, Fairy's, Elves,  
Ghosts, Spirits and Goblins do disport themselves:  
When fond imaginary dreams do reign  
In formeleste forms, in man's molested brain:  
On such a time, I sleeping in my bed,  
An unaccustomed dream came in my head,  
Me thought as near unto a River's side,  
Within a pleasant Grove I did abide,  
That all the feathered birds that swims or flies,  
Or lives betwixt the breeding earth and skies,  
One at the least of every several sort,  
Did for their recreation there resort.  
There was such strange variety of notes  
Such warbling, and such whistling from their throats:  
The Base, the Tenor, Treble, and the Mean,  
All acting various Actions in one Scene:  
The sober Goose (not thinking ought amiss)  
Amongst the rest did (harshly) keake and hiss:  
At which the Peacock, and the pyde-coate jay,  
Said, take the foolish gaggling Goose away.  
The Goose (though angry) with a modest look,  
Seemed as she gently this affront would brook.  
When all the Fowls in general out did break,  
Commanding her she should not dare to speak.  
Away the melancholy Goose returned,  
And in a bank of Reed she sat and mourned,  
Complaining against the hateful multitude,  
And justly taxing with Ingratitude  
The Race of all mortality; and then  
Is none (quoth she) surviving amongst men,  
That will my true worth search and understand,  
And in my quarrel take a Pen in hand,  
And in a stately high Heroic style,  
My Predecessors noble Acts compile,  
From age to age descending unto me,  
That my succeeding Issue all may see  
The admirable deeds that I have done,  
And run that worthy course that I have run.  
O impious age when there is no defence  
For Virtue and for hated Innocence:  
When Flatterers, Fools, and Fiddlers are rewarded,  
When I must live unpitied unregarded.  
Me thought these last words ended with a keake  
Of such great force, as if her heart would break;  
At which I starting wakened from my dream,  
And made the Goose's wrong, my Muse's theme;  
I'arose, put on my clothes, sat down, and than  
I took my Pen in hand, and thus began.  
began From dark Oblivions den I here let loose  
Th'imprisoned honour of the famous Goose:  
In her creation and original,  
And after in the law Leviticall,  
And at all times before and since the Flood,  
A Goose hath justly gained the name of good.  
To value her with any other Bird,  
Comparisons are weak and mere absurd:  
First for her flesh, she is man's daily fare;  
She's good, she's cheap, she's plenty, and she's rare:  
Bake her, or roast her, use her as you will,  
And Cook her as she should be, 
A good Goose.  she's good still:  
But as great sums are made with little driblets,  
So put the Hare's head against the Goose's giblets;  
And men may piece a dinner up (perhaps)  
Which otherwise would rise with hungry chaps:  
For the old Proverb, I must here apply,  
Good meat men may pick from a Goose's eye.  
She is good fresh, but better two days salted,  
For then she'll try if Ale or Beer be Malted;  
Her grease is excellent (probatum est)  
For such as numbness in their joints molest:  
For the Sciatica, the Cramp, or Gout  
It either cures or eases, out of doubt.  
mixed with Stavesacre, and Argentum vive,  
It will not leave a man a Louse alive.  
Her lungs and liver into powder dried,  
And fasting in an Ass' milk applied,  
Is an experienced Cordial for the Spleen,  
As oftentimes it hath approved been.  
Her brains, with Salt and Pepper, if you blend  
And eat, they will the understanding mend.  
Her Gall, if one be but with drink oppressed,  
Or meat, or fruit, and cannot well digest:  
But swallow't down, and take the another's Cup,  
And presently 'twill fetch the rest all up.  
And thus a Goose, for medicine and for food,  
I have Annatomized exceeding good.  
As for her qualities, whilst she doth live,  
She doth example and instruction give:  
Her modesty and affability  
Shows she's descended from Gentility,  
For if they be a hundred in a troop,  
To a Barn door in courtesy they'll stoop.  
How neat and comely they themselves will pick,  
That no one feather out of order stick:  
How gravely they from place to place will waggle,  
And how (like Gossips) freely they will gaggle,  
That sure I think, the fashion of their prate,  
Our wives at Gossip do imitate.  
In 
* Books which I never read.  Pliny and in Gesner I do find,  
That Geese are of strange sundry sorts and kind.  
In Scotland there are Geese which grow on Trees,  
(Which much from humane reason disagrees)  
Bred by the Air and Sun's all-quickning fire  
That ne'er was Egg, not e'er had Dam or Sire.  
Then there's a Soleand Goose, which they so call,  
Because the female hath but one in all,  
Sole is as much to say, as be alone,  
And never Soleand Goose did hatch but one.  
Or else the name of them may well proceed  
From the Dam's soote-sole, 
These Soland Geese do breed in a little Island in Scotland 2. mile within the Sea, called the Basse, between 25. & 30. miles beyond Barwick, where they are in such abundance that the Lord (or owner) of the Island doth yearly receive for these Geese 200. li. sterling.  whence they all do breed,  
Which in her Claw she holds until it hatch  
The Gander fetches food, the Goose doth watch.   

The Winchester Goose.  
THen there's a Goose that breeds at Winchester,  
And of all Geese, my mind is least to her:  
For three or four weeks after she is Rost,  
She keeps her heat more hotter than a toast.  
She's seldom got or hatched with honesty,  
From Fornication and Adultery,  
From reaking Lust, foul Incest, beastly Rape,  
She hath her birth, her breeding, and her shape.  
Besides Whoremongers, Panders, Bawds and Pimps,  
Whores, Harlots, Courtesans, and such base Imps,  
Luxurious, lecherous Goats, that hunt in Flocks,  
To catch the Glangore, Grincome's, or the Pocks.  
Thus is she got with pleasure, bred with pain,  
And scarce ere comes where honest men remain.  
This Goose is worst of all, yet is most dear,  
And may be had (or heard of) any where.  
A Pander is the Cater, to the Feast,  
A Bawd the Kitchen Clerk, to see her dressed.  
A Whore the Cook, that in a pocky heat,  
Can dress a dish fit for the Devil to eat.  
The hot whore-hunter for the Goose doth serve,  
The whilst the Surgeon, and Physician carve.  
The Apothecary gives attendance still,  
For why the sauce lies only in his Bill.  
There hath a Turkey at Newmarket been,  
Which to this Goose was somewhat near a kin:  
And some report, that both these Fowls have seen  
Their like; that's but a pair of shears between.  
And one of them (to set them truly forth)  
Costs more the dressing then they both are worth.  
This Goose is no way to be tolerated,  
But of good men to be despised and hated,  
For one of these, if it be let alone,  
Will eat the owner to the very bone,  
Moreover, it from Nature is contrary,  
And from all other Creatures quite doth vary:  
For of all breeding things that I could hear,  
The Males do still beget, and Females bear.  
But this hath ever a Dam masculine  
Engendered by a Father Feminine.  
Quite kim kam, wiw waw, differing from all other,  
The Sire's a Female, and a Male the Mother.  
But cease my Muse soil not thy purer strain,  
With such contagious mud, rouse rouse again  
From this polluted puddle, and once more,  
Take the same Theme in hand thou hadst before.   

The Tailors Goose.  
But yet a little mirth doth make me stay:  
A Tailor's Goose comes wadling in my way▪  
A thing I cannot give the Epithet  
Of Male or Female, or Hermaphrodite.  
Of Vulcan's brood it is, whose Dam and Sire,  
Was windy bellowes, smoke, and flaming Fire.  
By Nature it should much delight to lie,  
For in a Forge it had Nativity:  
Yet it with lying doth no hurt commit,  
Stealing is more addicted unto it;  
And yet to Steel it is so near a kin,  
That to be true it doth opinion win.  
'tis mettle to the hard back, I am sure,  
And 'tis a dish will ten men's lives endure.  
Be it of Age a hundred winters long,  
It is as tender as 'twas when 'twas young.  
A Cook from it can get but slender fees,  
It hath no Giblets, like to other Geese.  
It neither breeds nor feeds, yet doth this good,  
It doth help others to get clothes and food.  
And of all Geese she's tamest, she'll not roam,  
This Goose a man may always have at home▪  
'Tis diet only for an Ostrich tooth,  
It cannot cog, yet very much doth smooth.  
It puts down all the Fowls that ere man saw,  
'tis often Roasted, yet 'tis ever Raw,  
It is a bird that any Slut may dress,  
It knows no Wars, yet every day doth Press.  
And to conclude it is a mess of meat,  
Which who so can digest it, let him eat.   

The praise of the Grey Goose wing.  
THe Winchester and Tailor's Goose I see,  
Are both too heavy, and too hot for me:  
I will return the honour to Emblaze,  
Of the Grey Goose that on the Green doth graze.  
To speak of wand'ring Wild-geese in this place,  
Were (like a Goose) to run the wild-goose Chase:  
The Egyptians did observe their wont guise,  
How in the Sky they flew triangle wise,  
Which with one Corner forward, is their drift,  
Thus figured to cut the Air more swift.  
For me the wild-goose is too high a game,  
My mind is only to the Goose that's tame,  
I in her Flesh's praise have wrote before,  
But yet her Feathers doth deserve much more.  
They are of far more estimate and price  
Then th'ostrich, or the bird of Paradise,  
The Raven, the Crow, the Daw in mourning dight,  
The prating Pie attired in black and white,  
The Buzzard, Redshank, Kite, Owl, Gull and Rook,  
The fabled Phoenix that breeds where (go look,)  
The Pheasant, Partridge, Turtle, Plover, Pigeon,  
The Woodcock, Woodquist, Woodpecker, & Widgeon,  
The jay, the Snipe, the Teal, the Cock, the Hen,  
The Chogh, the Lark, the Lapwing, and the Wren,  
The Falkon, the Gerfaulkon, Hobby, Marlin,  
The Sparrowhauke, the goshawk, tassel, Starlin,  
The Haggard, Keistrell, Lanneret, Cormorant,  
The Caperkelly, and the Termagant,  
The Bunting, Heathcocke, Crane and Pelican,  
The Turkey, Mallard, Duck, the Stork, the Swan,  
The Pewet, Parrot, and the Popingay,  
The Eagle, and the Cassawaraway,  
The Sheldrake, Bittour, Blackbird, Nightingale,  
The Cuckoo that is always in one tale,  
The Sparrow of the hedge, or of the house,  
The Ringdove, redbreast, and the Tittimouse,  
The Bulfinch, Goldfinch, Ringtaile, Wagtail, and  
The Hearne that lives by water and by land:  
The Swallow, Martin, Lennet, and the Thrush,  
The Mavis that sings sweetly in the bush;  
The Morecoote, the Kingfisher, and the Quail;  
The Peacock, with his proud vainglorious tail.  
These sorts of Birds that I have named before,  
If they thrice redoubled three times more.  
And let men value them but as they are,  
They cannot with the Goose (for worth) compare.  
Many of these do feed on Carrion still,  
And still are Carrion, ever being ill,  
Neither in flesh or feathers they afford  
To do man service at his bed or board.  
And some of them yield Plumes, and ornaments  
for Ladies, and for Knightly Tournaments:  
But let these toys be weighed but just and right,  
And they'll be found as vain as they are light.  
Others there are, as Parrots, Stairs, Pies, Daws,  
Are mightily accounted of, because  
They can speak perfect none-sence, prate and chatter,  
Feeding the ear: these fowls make fools the farter.  
Then there are others great, and small in size,  
But great all for the greatness of their price,  
Most pleasantly their flesh men do devour,  
The sauce lies in the reckoning, sharp and sour.  
Some are to sing continually in Cages,  
And get but bread and water for their wages.  
And others, with great pains men do procure  
With cost of Manning, Diet, Hood, Bells, Lure;  
The pleasure's little, and the gain is small,  
A Goose for profit doth surpass them all.  
When with her flesh man's stomach she hath fed,  
She gives him ease and comfort in his bed:  
She yields no whim-whams wavering on his crest,  
But she relieves him with repose and rest.  
And though the world be hard, she lays him soft,  
She bears the burden, and he lies aloft:  
Let him be drunk, or weary, sick, or lame,  
She's semper idem, always one the same.  
Thus to supply our wants, and serve our needs,  
Good meat and lodging from a Goose proceeds.  
Besides she loves not far abroad to gad,  
But at all times she's easy to be had;  
As if (to satisfy man's hungry gut,)  
She waited still that he her throat should cut.  
Men need not be at charge for Hawks and Dogs,  
And ride, and run o'er hedge, ditch, mires, and bogs:  
She's quickly caught, and drestwell, eats as pleasant  
As (far fetched dear bought) Partridge or a Pheasant.  
Throughout the world the Trump of Fame loud rings,  
Temblaze the glory of the Goose's wings:  
The Roman Eagle ne'er had spread so far,  
But that the grey Goose was the Conqueror.  
Sesostris King of Egypt with her feather,  
Reigned storms and showers of Arrows, like foul weather,  
And overcame the jews, th'Affirians,  
Th'Arabians, Scythians, Germans, Thracians.  
The Huns, the Goths, the Vandals, and the Galls,  
With Arrows made great Rome their several thralls:  
The Philistines were mighty Bowmen all,  
With which they got the conquest of King saul.  
Cyrus' with thousands of his Persians  
With Shafts were slain by the Messagetans,  
Turks, Tartars, Trojans, and the Parthians,  
Danes, Saxons, Swevians, and Pollonians;  
Yea, all the Nations the whole world around,  
The gray-Goose-wing hath honoured and renowned.  
But why should I roam far and wide aloof,  
When our own Kingdom yields sufficient proof,  
But search the Chronicles, it is most plain,  
That the Goose wing brave Conquests did obtain.  
Remember valiant Edward's name (the third)  
How with the wing of this deserving Bird,  
When to small purpose served his Shield or Lance:  
At Cressie he ore-toped the power of France.  
And after that, remember but again  
That Thunderbolt of war, that Mars of men,  
The black Prince Edward, his victorious son,  
How he at Poyctures a brave battle won,  
Where the French King and many Peers were ta'en,  
Their Nobles, and their Gentles most part slain,  
And thirty thousand of their Commons more▪  
Lay in the field all weltering in their gore.  
Henry the fifth (that memorable King)  
All France did unto his subjection bring,  
When forty thousand of the French men lay  
At Agincourt, slain in that bloody fray.  
And though true valour did that conquest win,  
But for the Goose's wing it had not been.  
In these things, and much more than I can say,  
The Goose's feather bore the prize away.  
If I should write all in particular,  
What this rare feather hath achieved in war,  
Into a sea of matter I should run,  
And so begin a work will ne'er be done.  
And thus from time to time it hath appeared,  
How the grey Goose hath bravely domineered:  
With swiftly cutting through the empty sky,  
Triumphantly transporting victory  
From land to land, offending and defending  
The Conquest on the Arrows still depending.  
Our English Yeomen, in the days of old,  
Their names and fames have worthily extolled,  
Witness that Leash, that stout admired three,  
Brave Adam Bell, Clim Clough, Will Clowdeslee.  
I could capitulate, and write upon  
Our English Robin Hood, and little john,  
How with this feather they have won renown,  
That evermore their memories shall crown.  
And e'er the Devil these damned Guns devised,  
Or hellish powder here was exercised,  
With the Goose wing we did more honour get,  
More nobly gained, than Guns could ever get.  
And how hath Vice our worthy land infected,  
Since Archery hath been too much neglected? 
Something in praise of the exercise of shooting.   
The time that men in shooting spent before,  
Is now (perhaps) perverted to a Whore,  
Or bowling, swearing, drink, or damned Dice,  
Is now most Gentlemanlike exercise.  
But for these few that in those days remain,  
Who are addicted to this shooting vein:  
Let men but note their worthy disposition,  
And we shall see they are of best condition,  
Free honest spirits, such as men may trust,  
In all their actions, constant, true and just.  
It is a thing I have observed long,  
An Archers mind is clear from doing 
* For the most part this is general.  wrong:  
It is a note worthy respect, and mark,  
An Archer is no base defamed Shark,  
Not given to pride, to covetousness, or  
To swearing, which all good men do abhor,  
Nor doth he exercise, or take delight,  
To cheat, to cog, to lie, and to backbite,  
But with most loving friendly conversation,  
He practiseth this manly recreation.  
There was a Statute in th'eight Henries reign, 
K. Henry 8. did with the consent of the 3. estates in the Parliament, enact a Statute, for shooting: which Statute is still of force, though not in use.   
Which Statute yet doth in full force remain,  
And as it stands in force, so doth my Muse  
Wish that it were observed, and kept in use.  
Within these few years (I to mind do call)  
The Yeomen of the Guard were Archers all,  
A hundred at a time I oft have seen,  
With Bows and Arrows ride before the Queen, 
Q. Elizabeth.   
Their Bows in hand, their Quivers on their shoulders,  
Was a most stately show to the beholders:  
And herein, if men rightly do observe,  
The Arrows did for two good uses serve:  
First, for a show of great magnificence,  
And trusty weapons for to guard their Prince.  
Prince Charles (our hope of Britain's happiness)  
Doth his affection oftentimes express:  
With many Noble men of worthy race,  
Do with their best performance, shooting grace: 
The Highland men or Redshanks in Scotland, are exceeding good Archers. 2. Sam 1. 18.   
And long may these superior Worthies live,  
Example to th'inferior sort to give,  
That though this exercise be much declined,  
May some supporters and defenders find.  
King Saul's brave son (true hearted jonathan)  
David's true friend, a Prince, a valiant man,  
Did in this noble quality excel▪  
As the true story of his life doth tell.  
King David made a Law, and did command,  
That shooting should be taught within this land.  
Thus from true Histories we plainly see,  
That shooting is of great antiquity:  
And that the glory of the Goose's wings  
Hath been advanced by Princes, Lords and Kings,  
And that yet Princes, Peers and Potentates,  
And best of all conditions and estates,  
Do give to Archery the praise and prize  
Of the best, manly, honest exercise.   

The praise of the Goose's Quill.  
ANd thus for Shooter's having showed my skill,  
I'll now say somewhat for the Goose's Quill.  
Great Mars his Train of Military men  
I leave, and turn the Shaft into a Pen:  
The Goose's feathers acteth sundry parts,  
And is an Instrument both of Arms and Arts.  
Many divine and heavenly mysteries,  
And many memorable Histories  
Had with blind Ignorance been overgrown,  
And (were't not for the Pen) had ne'er been known.  
The Muse's might in Pernass hill have stayed,  
Their fames had ne'er been through the world displayed,  
But that the Goose's Quill with full consent,  
Was found to be the fittest Instrument  
To be their Nuntius, and to disperse  
Their glory through the spacious Universe.  
Grammar (that of all Science is the ground)  
Without it, in forgetfulness were drowned,  
And Rhetoric (the sweet rule of eloquence)  
Through the Goose Quill distils its Quintessence:  
Logic with difinitions (I am sure)  
Were nothing, or else very much obscure:  
Astronomy would lie, or lie forgot  
And scarce remembered, or regarded not;  
Arithmetic would err exceedingly,  
Forgetting to divide and multiply:  
Geometry would lose the Altitude,  
The crassie Longitude and Latitude:  
And Music in poor case would be o'erthrown,  
But that the Goose Quill pricks the Lessons down.  
Thus all the liberal Sciences are still  
In general beholding to the Quill.  
Embassages to far remoted Princes,  
Bonds, Obligations, Bills and Evidences,  
Letters 'twixt foe and foe, or friend and friend,  
To gratulate, instruct, or reprehend,  
Assurances, where faith and troth is scant,  
To make the faithless to keep covenant;  
The Potent weapon of the reverend Law,  
That can give life or death, save, hang or draw,  
That with a royal, or a noble dash,  
Can from the King's Exchequer fetch the Cash.  
To most Shopkeepers it a reckoning makes,  
What's got or lost, what he lays out, or takes:  
Without the Goose a Scrivener were a fool,  
Her Quill is all his only working tool:  
And sure a Goose is of a wondrous nature,  
Contrary to each other living creature,  
Things that in water, earth, or air, hath growth,  
And feed and live, bite only with the mouth:  
But the Goose with sophisticated skill,  
Doth bite most dangerously with her quill,  
Yet is she free from prodigality,  
And most of all bites partiality:  
She oft with biting makes a Knight a debtor,  
And rankle to a beggar, 
A shrewd biting beast  little better.  
She oft hath bit a Gallant from his land  
With quick conveyance, and by slight of hand  
Sometimes her biting is as durable  
As is a Gangrene, most incurable,  
And many that into her fangs do fall,  
Do take the Counters for their Hospital;  
A Forger, or a Villain that forswears,  
Or a false Witness, she bites off their ears:  
On me her power she many times hath shown,  
And made me pay more debts than were mine own.  
Thus doth her Quill bite more than doth her chaps,  
To teach fools to beware of after-claps.  
They say in Latin that a Goose's name  
Is ANSER, which made in an Annagram,  
Is SNARE, 
Hereupon began the Proverb, of good Goose bite not.  in English, which doth plain declare,  
That she to fools and knaves will be a snare.  
Indeed she oft hath been a snare to me,  
Myself was in the fault, alas not she.   

The memorable honour of the Goose for saving the Capital at Rome.  
But now to show her never dying name,  
And how at Rome she won deserving fame:  
When barbarous Brennus, cruel King of Galls,  
Had wasted Italy, and razed Rome's walls:  
When devastation did depopulate,  
With sword and furious fire the Roman state.  
When many a throat was tyrannously cut,  
And all the City to the sack was put:  
When many of the Citizens did fly  
Into the Capital to live and dye,  
Whereas the Image of great jupiter,  
(The rip rap, thwick thwack thumping thunderer)  
Was of refined gold, adorned, adored,  
Where helpless fools, poor helpless help implored.  
The Capital a goodly building was,  
And did (for strength) by Art and Nature pass,  
So that the people that were there within,  
Thought it impregnable, that none could win:  
But slender watch upon the walls they kept,  
And (thinking all secure) secure they slept,  
They thought Ioues Statue, and his Temple there,  
Was a sure guard, that foes they need not fear:  
But jove these dangers did not understand,  
Or else he had some other work in hand:  
Perhaps poor Io like a Cow in shape,  
He like a Bull then wronged with beastly rape,  
Or like a Swan for Leada, he thought fit,  
In that fowls form, that foul fault to commit:  
Perchance that time fair Danae to entrap,  
He reigned bewitching gold into her lap;  
He then (perhaps) did to Alcmene go,  
And made a Cuckold of Amphitryo,  
Or else to Semele that time he came,  
And burned his burning love with lightning's flame,  
Perhaps with Helena he the Ram did play,  
Or with Europa toyed the time away,  
Mnemosine he could not let alone,  
Or he to Hebe at that time was gone,  
It may be to Antiopa he went,  
Or to Astery, for his more content:  
Or it may be he lay within his bed,  
And played, and fooled with wanton Ganymede:  
But whither jupiter 
jupiter either could not or would not help to defend the Capital, or or else like many brave whoremasters, he had more mind of his lechery then his honour: so that had it not been for the Goose, his golden Image had been taken prisoner by the enemy.  that time was got,  
He to defend the Capitol was not,  
Unless he were transformed wondrous strange,  
And to a Goose's shape his Godhead change:  
For all the Guard were sleeping at that time,  
When as the armed Galls the walls did climb.  
Then when the Watch did to destruction sleep,  
The careful Goose true sentinel did keep,  
She spied the foe, and keaked out an Alarm,  
At which the Sleepers waked, and cried, Arm Arm:  
Then they their Enemies in fury slew,  
Which down the battlements in heaps they threw.  
And thus a Goose the honour did obtain,  
To save the Romans, which had else been slain:  
And to preserve the famous Capital,  
And set Rome free from the insulting Gall.  
The Roman General that time, as then  
Was manly Manlius, a stout man of men.  
The Senate gratefully did raise anon,  
An Altar with a golden Goose thereon,  
And for the Goose's service had been such,  
They aloud almes-Oates from the common Hutch,  
For old and sick decayed Geese to feed,  
In memory of that brave Goose's deed.  
Why should the Eagle be the Bird of jove,  
When as the Goose deserveth so much love?  
'Tis plain and evident the Goose was cause,  
That all Rome scap't from speedy Martial laws.  
Yet did the Romans (like ingrateful Nags)  
Advance an Eagles portait in their Flags, 
Cornelius Agrippa, in his vanity of Sciences. pag. 137. Cap. 81.   
When as Cornelius Agrippa says,  
The Goose deserved it more by many ways.  
Now having done the Capitol Goose right,  
I'll try some other ways to breed delight.   

Goostoft in Lincolnshire.  
IN Lincolnshire an ancient Town doth stand,  
Called Goostoft, that hath neither fallowed Land,  
Or Woods, or any fertile pasture Ground,  
But is with watery Fens encompassed round.  
The people there have neither Horse or Cow,  
Nor Sheep, nor Ox, or Ass, nor Pig, or Sow:  
Nor Cream, Curds, Whig, Whey, Buttermilk or Cheese,  
Nor any other living thing but Geese.  
The Parson of the Parish takes great pains,  
And tithe Geese only, are his labours gains:  
If any Charges there must be defrayed,  
Or Impositions on the Town is laid,  
As Subsidies, or Fifteen for the King,  
Or to mend Bridges, Churches any thing.  
Then those that have of Geese the greatest store,  
Must to these Taxes pay so much the more.  
Nor can a man be raised to Dignity,  
But as his Geese increase and multiply.  
And as men's Geese wax more and more, and breed,  
From Office unto office they proceed.  
A man that hath but with twelve Geese began,  
In time hath come to be a Tythingman:  
And with great Credit past that Office through  
(His Geese increasing) he hath been Headborough.  
Then (as his Flock in number are accounted)  
Unto a Constable, he hath been mounted.  
And so from place to place he doth aspire,  
And as his Geese grow more he's raised higher.  
'tis only Geese there that do men prefer,  
And 'tis a Rule, no Goose, no Officer.  
At Hunnibourne, a Town in Warwickshire,  
What Gogmagog Gargantua Geese are there,  
For take a Goose that from that place hath been,  
That's lean, and enough but feathers, bones and skin,  
And bring her thither, and with little cost  
she'll be as fat as any Bawd, almost.  
For take four Geese, and with a like expense,  
Feed one there, and the others two miles thence,  
And she that feeds at Hunnibourne shall be  
More worth in weight and price, than th'other three.  
She shall with Flesh unable be to go,  
I cannot yield the Reason, but 'tis so 
* A woman's Reason▪ .   

Goose Fair at Stratford Bow, the Thursday after Whitsuntide.  
AT Bow the Thursday after Penticost,  
There is a Fair of Green Geese, ready Rost,  
Whereas a Goose is very dogcheap there, 
The Description of Green-goose Fair   
The Sauce is only somewhat sharp and dear,  
There (ere they scarce have feathers on their back)  
By hundreds and by heaps they go to wrack,  
There is such Baking, roasting, broiling, boiling,  
Such swearing, drabbing, dancing, dicing toiling,  
Such shifting, sharking, Cheating, smoking, stinking,  
Such Gormondizing, Cramming, Guzzling, Drinking:  
As if the world did run on wheels away,  
Or all the Devils in hell kept Holiday.  
And as Herbs, Flowers and Weeds together grow,  
So people are that day at Stratford Bowe.  
There sits a Cheater with a simple Gull,  
And there an Honest woman, there a Trull,  
Yonder a Fiddler daubed with grease and Ale,  
And there an Ass telling an Idle tale.  
There's one a Roasting, yonder's one a Stewing,  
And yond's one drinks until he fall a spewing:  
There's a kind Cuckold with his Wife doth wander,  
To exercise the office of a Pander,  
His Pimship with his Punk despite the horn,  
Eat Gosling giblets in a fort of Corne.  
There is ran tan Tom Tinker and his Tib,  
And there's a juggler with his fingers glib.  
There throngs a Cutpurse, with his working tool  
And there's a gallant Coxcomb, there's a Foole.  
There's four or five together by the ears,  
And tumble in the Dirt like Dogs and Bears.  
One staggering there hath got the Drunken yox,  
And there's one swaggering fast within the Stocks.  
Thus with these Galleymaufry humours still,  
These Linsey wolsey posteres, Good and Ill,  
These mingle mangle, motley toys they spend  
The time, till night doth make them homeward wend.  
Then they return as wise as Geese away,  
For whom so many Geese were slain that day.  
They brought both wit and money with them thither,  
But with the Geese 'tis all devoured together.  
And if they were but taught as well as fed,  
More Coin were saved, and man a wiser head.  
Thus (as my Muse is able) I have told  
How that a Goose's use is manifold.  
How many several sorts of Geese there are,  
Some wild, some tame, some to near, some to far▪  
How from her Flesh and entrailes, it is plain,  
Good food and Physic daily we obtain: 
Food, Physic, Lodging, Arts, Arms, and good Society, all from a Goose.   
How freely she doth play the true upholster,  
And fill with Feathers, pillows, bed and bolster.  
And how in many an honourable War,  
The Grey Goose wing hath been the vanquisher.  
The necessary uses of her Quill,  
How to the good 'tis good, Ill to the ill.  
And Shooting here (according to my love)  
To be a noble Exercise I prove.  
And how the Goose Rome's Capitol did saue,  
(As says the Story) I described have.  
And now let men examine well and try  
If any Bird in water, earth or Sky,  
Or all in general together are,  
With the good Goose (forworth) to make Compare.  
Many absurdly, Idle, foolish, base,  
Will call a man a Goose in foul disgrace:  
When if men rightly understood the same,  
A man is honoured with a Goose's name.  
For though the Eagle be of Birds the King,  
Yet 'tis a Ravenous, greedy hurtful thing.  
And he that with that title me should call,  
I had as leive he called me Thief withal.  
She while she lives doth yield relief to many,  
And alive or dead, beholding not to any.  
She hath maintained ten thousand men,  
With food, and Physic, Lodging, Shafts and Pen,  
And lastly (not to charge them any ways)  
Her own Quill here, writes her own worthy praise.  
Because a Goose is Common, and not Dear,  
She amongst fools is small esteemed here.  
So Blackberryes, that grow on every briar,  
Because theyare plenty few men do desire:  
Spanish Potatoes are accounted dainty,  
And English Persneps are course meat though plenty.  
But if those Berries or those Roots were scant,  
They would be thought as rare, through little want,  
That we should eat them, and a price allow  
As much as Strawberryes, and Potatoes now.  
Why Bread is common, having still our fill  
We think not on, because we have it still:  
But if we want Bread than we do remember,  
We want the Groundwork of our belly timber.  
The Light is common, which few think upon,  
Till Night doth put her blindfold muffler on,  
And all attired in mourning black as pitch,  
Then men misselight, and tumble in the Ditch.  
So should we want a Goose's Flesh and Feather,  
The quantity of five years but together:  
We than should all confess with one consent,  
How that a Goose were superexcellent.  
Many good blessings we too much forget,  
'Cause they are near and Cheap, not far to fet.  
Me thinks I hear some Cuckoo, or some jay,  
Some Daw, some Pie, some Gull, or Buzzard say,  
That I have given the Goose her worthy style,  
But have forgot the Gander all this while.  
I'll give them Answer (though they merit none)  
I do Include both sexes under one,  
'tis knowue to every perfect understander,  
A Goose is much superior to a Gander.  
For though a man, a Mare or Gelding stride,  
We briefly say, he doth on Horseback ride:  
And though a Gelding be the beast that bore  
We call't a Horse, that's neither Horse or Mare.  
So Ganders under name of Geese do go,  
The Goose's worthiness deserves it so.  
Once I remember, Riding on my way  
In Berkshire, near unto a Town called Bray,  
I on my journey as I passed along,  
Road by a Goose, a Gander, and their young.  
(I neither minding them nor yet their Crew)  
The Gander in my face with fury flew,  
Who in his fierce encounter was more hot,  
Then if he had been Spanish Don Quixot.  
But sure himself so bravely he did bear,  
Because his Love and Lady Goose was there:  
And 'twas a spur his Chivalry unto,  
To have his sweet heart see what he did do,  
My Horse he started, to the ground I went,  
Dismounted in that (Ganderous) tournament.  
I should say Dangerous, but sure I am  
That GANDEROUS is a DANGEROUS Anagram.  
The Gander was mine enemy, what tho,  
I'll honour worthy Valour in my foe.  
He Tilted bravely, and in lieu of it  
The Goose's Quill, the Gander's praise hath writ.  
Thus for the Goose I having done my best,  
My toiled Muse retires unto her Rest:  
I'll shut my Inkhorn, and put up my Pen,  
So take my Goose amongst you Gentlemen.  
FINIS.