PR 2929 
 
 .B7 
 Copy 1 
 
 Supposed Caricature of the 
 
 Droeshout 
 
 Portrait of Shakespeare 
 

 
SUPPOSED CAKICATUKE OF THE DKOESHOUT PORTKAIT OF 
 
 SHAKESPEAKE. 
 
Notes on Elizabethan Poets. — No. i. 
 
 Supposed Caricature of the Droeshout 
 
 Portrait of Shakespeare 
 
 With Fac-Simile of the Rare Print 
 
 Taken from a very scarce Tract 
 
 of an Elizabethan Poet 
 
 By Basil Brown 
 
 )/V &\ <~\S^r^ 
 
 Printed for private circulation. 
 
 _-/ 
 
 New York 
 1911. 
 
TT 
 
 Copyright, 1911, by Basil Brown 
 
 Limited to one hundred and fifty copies each 
 of which this is No. / 
 
 (fba ^lC < b 
 
 £ CI.A280983 
 

 'Though I deserve not, I desire 
 The laurel wreath, the poet's hire. 
 
 I. 
 
 Tims sang quaint John Taylor, the Water-poet, who 
 was Sailor, Sculler, Traveler, and Reporter, in the golden 
 age of "Eliza and our James;" who for fifty years 
 poured forth a remarkable collection of prose and verse, 
 which is very little known outside the circle of those who 
 delight in Elizabethan literature; and it may be truly 
 said no other English author gives us more exact or 
 curious information respecting the customs, buildings, 
 rivers, inns, and manners of the people of that age than 
 John Taylor. Yet in his voluminous works the magic 
 name of Shakespeare is only once mentioned — namely, in 
 his "Praise of Hemp-seed"* where he tells us: 
 
 "Spencer and Shakespeare did in Art excell." Could 
 this have been written to refute what Ben Johnson had 
 told Drummond of Horthornden in 1618 when he said: 
 "Shakespeare wanted Art"?** 
 
 *Tl\e Praise of Hempseed, with the voyage of Mr. Roger Bird and 
 the Writer hereof, in a Boat of brown paper from London to Quin- 
 borough in Kent. As also a Farewell to the Matchless deceased Mr. 
 Thomas Coryat. concluding with the commendations of the famous River 
 of Thames. Printed at London for H. Gosson, &c, 1620-23. 
 
 **Ben Jonsons Conversations with William Drummond, p. 20. 
 Printed by the Shakespeare Society 1842. 
 
 1 
 
Although Taylor only mentions the name of our 
 greatest poet once, lie alludes to several of the Shake- 
 spearean plays. In 1630 in his " Epistle prefixed to Sir 
 Gregory Nonsense,"* he mentions "The Midsummer 
 Night's Dream," and in his "Three Weeks, three Bales, 
 and three Houres Observations and Travel from London 
 to Hamburg, 1617," where he gives a "true picture of a 
 most unmatc'hiable Hangman, ' ' he compares him to ' ' our 
 English Sir John Falstafr. " Again he is supposed to 
 allude to the "Winter's Tale," in the following lines 
 taken from his "Travels from Prague in Bohemia 
 (Folio, 1630)— "The truth is, that I did chiefly write it, 
 because I am of much acquaintance, and cannot pass the 
 streets but I am continually stayed by one or other, to 
 know what news ; so that sometimes I am four hours 
 before I go the length of two pairs of butts, where such 
 nonsense or senseless questions are propounded to me, 
 that calls many seeming wise men's wisdom to question, 
 drawing aside the curtains of their understandings, and 
 laying their ignorance wide open. First John Easy 
 takes me, and holds me fast by the fist half an hour ; and 
 will needs torture some news out of me from Spinola, 
 whom I was never near by five hundred miles, for he is 
 in the Palatinate Country and I was in Bohemia. I am 
 no sooner eased of him, but Gregory Gander-goose, an 
 alderman of Gotham, catches me by the goll, demanding 
 if Bohemia, be a great town, and whether there be any 
 meat in it, and whether the last fleet of ships be arrived 
 there** His mouth being stopped, a third examines me 
 
 *8ir Gregory Nonsense His \aces from no place. Written on pur- 
 pose, with much study, to no end, plentifully stored with want of wit, 
 learning-, Iudgment, Rime and Reason, and may seeme very fitly for the 
 vnderstanding of Nobody. This is the worke of the Authors, without 
 borrowing or stealing from others. Printed at London, by N. O. 1622. 
 
 **Italics are mine. 
 
boldly what news from Vienna! where the Emperor's 
 army is, and what the Duke of Bavaria doth? . . . 
 and such a tempest of inquisitions that almost chokes 
 my imtience in pieces. To ease myself of all which, I 
 was enforced' to set pen to paper and let this poor pam- 
 phlet (my herald or nuntius) travel and talk, while I take 
 my ease with silence." 
 
 Bobert Greene in his "Pandosta" places Bohemia 
 near the sea, and Shakespeare in the "Winter's Tale" 
 followed Greene. 
 
 Eecently an Italian writer has demonstrated that in 
 ancient times one could go all the way from the Sea to 
 Bohemia in a boat, so that we are glad to believe Shake- 
 speare did not blunder after all. It seems to me John 
 Taylor was the forerunner of our newspaper reporter. 
 To read some of his queer titles reminds one of the head- 
 lines in a metropolitan daily— although the modern news- 
 paper can scarcely outdo his descriptive titles. A few 
 specimens are given here for the reader's amusement: 
 
 "0/ Alterations — 
 
 Alterations strange 
 Of various Signes 
 Heere are compos 7/ 
 A few Poetick Lines. 
 Heere you may finde, when 
 You this Book have read, 
 The Cro icne's transform' d 
 Into the Poet's Head. 
 
 Read well; he Merry and Wise." 
 
 Written by John Taylor, Poeta Aquatica. Printed at 
 London, 1651. 
 
Epigrammes written on put pose to be read with a 
 Proviso, that they may be Vnder stood by the Reader, 
 Being Ninety in Number. Beside two new made Satyres 
 that attend them. By John Taylor at the Signe of the 
 Poet's Head in Phoenix Alley, neare the middle of Long 
 Aker, or Convent Garden. Printed in the Yeare 1651. 
 
 Nonsense upon sence, or Sence upon Nonsence, chuse 
 you whether, either, or neither, &c. Written upon white 
 paper, in a broivne study, Beginning at the End and 
 Written by John Taylor, at the Signe of the Poore Poet's 
 Head in Phoenix Alley, neare the Middle of Long Aker 
 in Convent Garden. 
 
 Mad Verse, Sad Verse, Glad Verse, and Bad Verse, 
 Cut out, and Slenderly stitcht together, by John Taylor. 
 Who bids the Reader edther to like or dislike them, to 
 commend them, or Command them. 
 
 John Taylor knew and was known to many of the 
 greatest men of his age. He tells ns : 
 
 11 Seven times at Sea I served Elizabeth, 
 "And 2 kings forty-five years, until death 
 "Of both my Royal Masters quite bereft me." 
 
 When only sixteen years old, he was at the taking of 
 Cadiz nnder the 'brilliant but most unfortunate Bobert 
 Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, Elizabeth's last Favorite, 
 and one of her last victims. Although there is little 
 worthy the name of poetry in Taylor's works, Ben John- 
 son told William Drummond that Jamesl. said: "Sir 
 Philip Sidney was no poet, neither did he see ever any 
 verses in England (compared) to the Scullers." 
 
 And yet Shakespeare had only then been dead two 
 years! After such praise from the lips of this Scotch 
 Solomon, John Taylor cannot be blamed by posterity for 
 
calling himself the "King's Water-Poet," or for wear- 
 ing the badge of the Koyal Arms. That Taylor knew 
 Shakespeare of Stratford personally, I have little doubt. 
 He knew mo-st of the dramatists and poets of his time. 
 In his "Penniless Pilgrimage" taken to Scotland in 1618 
 he tells us of his meeting with Ben Jonson as follows: 
 "Now the day before I came from Edinburgh, I went to 
 Leith, where I found my long approved, and assured 
 good friend, Master Benjamin Jonson; at one Master 
 Stuart's house; I thank him for his great kindness 
 toward me : for at my taking leave of him, he gave me 
 a piece of gold of two and twenty shillings, to drink his 
 health in England. And withal willed me to remember 
 his kind commendations to all his friends. So with a 
 friendly farewell, I left him as well as I hope never to 
 see him in a worse estate: for he is amongst noblemen 
 and gentlemen that know his true worth and their own 
 honours where with much respective love he is worthilly 
 entertained." Taylor makes us laugh even when he is 
 most serious. Is it not reasonable to infer from this that 
 Taylor could not have known his "long approved and 
 assured' good friend," Ben Jonson, without having 
 known Shakespeare also, whom Jonson "loved this side 
 idolatry"? I only relate plain matters of fact and leave 
 every reader to make his own conclusions. I believe the 
 Poet Shakespeare was the friend and patron of Jonson, 
 and in my monograph on Ben Jonson I have thrown new 
 light upon their friendship. John Taylor knew Thomas 
 Dekker, Thomas Nash, and George Wither, intimately. 
 Dekker was one of those poor dramatists who now and 
 then received a pittance from the manager, Henslowe. 
 He was often in prison — sometimes for debt, and some- 
 times for too openly expressing his opinion of those in 
 authority. He wrote the following lines: 
 
TO MY FKIEND JOHN TAYLOR. 
 
 Roiv on (good Water-man) and looke back still, 
 
 (Thus as thou dost) upon the Muses Hill, 
 
 To guide thee in thy course: Thy Boate's spheare 
 
 Where thine Vrania houes diuinely- clear e. 
 
 Well has than pli'd and (with thy learned Oare) 
 
 Cut through a Riuer, to a nobler shore, 
 
 Then euer any landed-at. Thy saile, 
 
 (Made all of clowdes) swels with a prosperous gale. 
 
 Some say, there is a Ferriman of Hell, 
 
 The Ferriman of Heau'n, I now knoiv well, 
 
 And that's thy selfe, transporting soules to Blisse. 
 
 VRANIA sits at Helme and Pilot is; 
 
 For Thames, thou hast the laetea via found, 
 
 Be thou with haies (as that with stars is) crownd. 
 
 — Thomas Dekker.* 
 
 And Taylor said in 1644 of the poet, George Wither : 
 "He was a man that I have these thirty-five years loved 
 and respected, because I thought him simply honest." 
 We know Ben Jonson also loved; to be called honest. I 
 have not space enough in this essay to name half the 
 literary men whom Taylor knew. But the Water-Poet 
 could not tolerate a word against his royal master, and 
 went for Wither in a pamphlet entitled : 
 
 Aqua-Mvsae, Or, Cacafogo Cacadaemon, Captain George 
 Wither With Wrung in the Withers. Being a short 
 lashing Satyre, wherein the Juggling Rebell is Com- 
 pendiously finely firked and Jerked, for his late 
 Railing Pamphlet against the King and State, called 
 Campo-Musae. Printed in the fourth Yeare of the 
 Grand Rebellion. 
 
 *Works of John Taylor, the Water-Poet, comprised in the Folio 
 Edition of 1630. Printed for the Spenser Society, 1869, page 8. 
 
 6 
 
Taylor also brought out a pamphlet ou Nash, as 
 follows : 
 
 Crop-Eare Curried, or Tom Nash his Grhost, declaring 
 the pruining of Prinnes two last Parracidieall Pam- 
 phlets, &c. With a strange Prophecy, reported to be 
 Merlins, or Nims'hags the Grymno sophist, &c. Printed 
 in the yeare 1644. 
 
 In 1612 Taylor amused all literary London by 
 burlesqueing Tom Coryat's Travels or ''Crudities," 
 which were at that time very popular. Coryat* was so 
 "nipt, galled and bitten" that he succeeded in having 
 Taylor's pamphlet burned. Still Taylor continued for 
 years after to make jests at the expense of poor Coryat,** 
 to the great amusement of the wits of that age. 
 
 That : 
 
 "Opinion that great fool makes fools of all' 
 
 no one in his time knew better than John Taylor. How- 
 ever, when he could steer clear of authority without the 
 danger of losing his ears or his head, he managed to tell 
 the truth. His caution is well expressed in his "Epi- 
 grame 89 " : 
 
 "My thoughts are free, I wish my tongue were so. 
 Then would I freely speake what I do thinke; 
 But yet my tongue too hold shall not go, 
 It is more safe at injuries to icinke." 
 
 *Master Thomas Coryat's Commendation to his Friends in Eng- 
 land ; from Agra the Capitoll of the Great Mogul. F. 1630. 
 
 **Odcomu , s Complaint; or Coryat's funerall Epicedium, or Death 
 Song, upon his late reported drowning. Dedicated to the Miror of the 
 Time, Don Archibald Armstrong. F. 1630. 
 
And in Epigranie 22 : 
 
 "To speake all that I know* tvould show small wit, 
 To speake more than I know were worse than it." 
 
 We know Shakespeare himself was "made tongue-tied 
 by authority. ' ' But what were the injuries so much com- 
 plained of by the Water-poet! I have said he had a 
 grudge against the King's Players and that he com- 
 plained to Sir Francis Bacon and other great men about 
 it but we will let Taylor speak of his suit in his own 
 words, on page 11. 
 
 In 1623 the First Folio appeared and was dedicated 
 to the "Most Noble and Incomparable Paire of Brethren, 
 William Earle of Pembroke, &c, Lord Chamberlaine to 
 the Kings moist Excellent Majesty. And Philip Earle of 
 Montgomery, &c. Gentleman of his Majesty's Bed- 
 chamber. Both Knights of the most Noble Order of the 
 Garter and our Singular good Lords." Seven years 
 afterwards Taylor published his own works in folio, 
 dedicating them to the same two nohle brothers, but 
 added the World to his dedication, wherein he ridiculed 
 common opinion in these scornful terms : 
 
 "World, I have two requests to make of Thee, which, 
 if thou grant me, I will never thank thee: The first is 
 good clothes (for those bear a monstrous sway), because 
 I have occasion to speake with great men, and without 
 good clothes (like a golden sheath to a leaden blade) 
 there is no admittance. Secondly, that thou wilt keepe 
 close from my Headers all prejudicate opinions, or let 
 them be persuaded that this following Booke is not of. 
 my writing; for opinion doth worke much in such cases; 
 
 *D'Avenant said : — 
 
 "Since knowledge is but sorrow's spy, 
 "It is not safe to know." 
 
There were Verses once much esteed for their goodness, 
 because it was thought that a learned Italian Poet named 
 Sanazarus made them; but afterwards, being found to 
 be of a poore man's writing, they lost their estimation . 
 An Antham was once sung before the Duchesse of Urbin 
 and but slightly regarded; but after, being knowne that 
 Jaquin de pris made it, it was extolled. So for my poore 
 inventions of my poorer self, were it nameless, I am 
 persuaded that it ivould passe more blameless, however 
 World to thee I send it, etc., etc/'* These extracts from 
 his works plainly indicate Taylor's contempt for the 
 World's — or vulgar opinion. Gonld it be he was ridicul- 
 ing some great book which had been foisted upon the 
 world under the name of another? Else why should he 
 say to the readers, "Let them be persuaded that this 
 following Booke is not of my writing, for opinion doth 
 worke much in such a case," . . . unless he had 
 some other work in mind? I am only seeking for Truth, 
 and am not rash enough to assert anything nor do I 
 think my conjecture will seem unreasonable to an un- 
 prejudiced mind. It would seem that John Taylor was 
 chary of offending those in authority, for he lived in an 
 age when it was treason to think aloud, still he often 
 risked his life by telling the truth. In his "The Liar, 
 or a contradiction to those who in the titles of their 
 bookes affirmed them to be true, when they were false" 
 he says: "Although mine are all true, yet I term them 
 false." Still harping on false title-pages, which indi- 
 cates he had some book in mind. The King's Players 
 had wittingly or unwittingly offended him; and Taylor 
 confesses his attempt in writing against the Players was 
 "Venturous and full of danger;" but in his determina- 
 
 *Italics are mine. 
 
tion to publish his grievance to the world he says : "But 
 fall back, fall edge, come what can come, I am resolved, 
 and without fear or flattery, thus I beginne. " Then he 
 blames the Players for the multitude of idle watermen, 
 because they (the Players) drew three or four thousand 
 people daily away from the Thames, "that were used 
 to spend their monies by water" . . . "So that at 
 times a poore man with five or six children, doth give 
 good 'attendance to his labour all day, and at night hath 
 not gotten a groat to relieve himself, his wife and fam- 
 ily." Taylor really loved plays and players, but he had 
 the interest of his poor fellow-watermen at heart (whose 
 hero he was), and petitioned his Majesty's "Commission- 
 ers for suits"* to aid them. And he says he "found them 
 generally affected to the suit we prosecuted." All this 
 annoyed the King's Players so much that they were up 
 in arms and exhibited a petition against the watermen 
 in which they very wittingly said that the watermen 
 were "unreasonable, and that we might as justly remove 
 the Exchange, the walks in Pauls or Moorefields to the 
 Bankside for our profits, as to confine them," etc. All 
 this happened three years before Shakespeare's death, 
 and no doubt the reader will be glad to see the honest 
 Waterman's complaint as he left it to us in his own 
 words. So here it is in full : 
 
 * Among them Sir Francis Bacon and Sir Julius Caesar. 
 
 10 
 
II. 
 
 THE TEVE CAVSE OF THE WATERMENS SUIT 
 
 concerning Players, and the reasons that 
 
 their Playing on London side is their 
 
 extreame hindrances. 
 
 With a Relation how farre that suit was proceeded 
 in, and the occasions that it was not effected. 
 
 The occasions that hath moued me to write this Pam- 
 phlet are many, and forcible, and the Attempts in writing- 
 it aduenturous and full of danger, for as on the one side 
 I doubt not but with truth to stop the mouthes of Ignor- 
 ance and Mai lice that haue and doe daily scandalize mee, 
 (and witball I know I shall purchase a generall thankes 
 from all honest men of my Company) so I am assured 
 to game the hatred of some that loue mee well, and I 
 affect them no worse, only for my plaine truth and dis- 
 charging of my conscience : But fall back, fall edge, 
 come what can come, I am resolued, and without feare 
 or flattery, thus I beginne. 
 
 In the month of I a unary last 1613* there was a motion 
 made by some of the better sort of the company of 
 Watermen, that it were necessary for the reliefe of such 
 a decayed multitude to petition to his Majesty, that the 
 Players might not haue a play4iouse in London or in 
 Middlesex, within foure miles of the City on that side 
 of the Thames. Now this request may seeme harsh and 
 not well to bee disgested by the Players and their Apen- 
 dixes. But the reasons that mou'd vs vnto it, being 
 charitably considered, makes the suite not only seeme 
 
 *The Globe theatre, situated on the Bank-side, was burned down 
 in 1613. 
 
 11 
 
reasonable, but past seeming most necessary to be sued 
 for, and tollerable to bee granted. 
 
 Our petition 'being written to purpose aforesaid, I 
 was selected by my company to deliuer it to his Majesty 
 and follow the businesse, which I did with that care and 
 integrity, that I am assured none can iustly taxe me with 
 the contrary. I did ride twice to Theobalds,* once to 
 Newmarket, and twice to Roystone, before I could get a 
 reference vpon my petition. I had to beare my charge, of 
 my company first and last, seuen pound two shillings, 
 which horsehire, horse meat, and mans meat brought to a 
 consumption ; besides I wrote seuerall petitions to most of 
 the Eight Honourable Lords of his Maiesties Priury 
 Counsel], and: I found them all compassionately affected 
 to the necessity of our cause. 
 
 First, I did briefly declare part of the seruices that 
 Watermen had done in Queene Elizabeth's raigne, of 
 famous memory, in the voyage to Portingale, with the 
 Right Honor able and neuer to be forgotten Earle of 
 Essex; then after thai, how it pleased God (in that great 
 deliuerance in the yeere 1588**) to make Watermen good 
 seruiceable instruments, with their losse of liues and 
 limbs to defend their Prince and Country. Moreouer, 
 many of them serued with Sir Francis Drake, Sir, Iohn 
 Haivhins, Sir Martin Frobusher, and others: besides in 
 Gales action, the land voyage, in Ireland, in the Low 
 cuntryes, and in the narrow Seas they haue beene, (as 
 in duty they are bound) at continuall command, iso that 
 euery Summer 1500. or 2000. of them were imployed to 
 the places aforesaid, hauing but nine shillings foure 
 pence the month a peece for their pay, and yet were they 
 
 *Built by Burleigh and given by his son, Robert Cecil, to James I. 
 **Year of the Armada. 
 
 12 
 
able then to let themselues out like men, with shift of 
 Apparell, linnen and wollen, and forbear e charging of 
 their Prince for their pay sometimes sixe months, nine 
 months, twelue months, sometimes more, for then there 
 were so few Watermen and the one halfe of them being 
 at Sea, those that staid at home had as much worke as they 
 would doe. 
 
 Afterwards the Players began to play on the Bank- 
 side and leaue playing in London and Middlesex (for the 
 most part then there went such great concourse of peo- 
 ple by water, that the smal number of watermen remain- 
 ing at home were not able to carry them, by reason of 
 the Court, the Tearmes, the Players, and other imploy- 
 ments, so that we were inforced and encouraged (hoping 
 that this golden stirring world would haue lasted euer) 
 to taken and entertaine men and boyes : which boyes are 
 growne men, and keepers of houses, many of them being 
 ouer-charged with families of Wife and Children, so that 
 the number of Water-men, and those that Hue and are 
 maintained by them, and by the onely labour of the Oare 
 and the Scull, betwixt the Bridge and Windsor and 
 Grauesend, cannot be fewer then forty thousand; the 
 cause of the greater halfe of which multitude, hath beene 
 the Players playing on the Banke-side, for I haue knowne 
 three Companies besides the Beare-bayting, at once 
 there; to wit, the Globe, the Rose, and the Swan. And 
 it is an infallible truth, that had they neuer played there 
 it had beene better for Water-men by the one halfe of 
 their liuing, for the Company is encreased more then 
 halfe by their meanes of playing there in former times. 
 
 And now it hath pleased God in this peaceful time, 
 that there is no imployment at the sea, as it hath beene 
 accustomed, so that all those great numbers of men 
 remaines at home; and the Players haue all (except the 
 
 13 
 
Kings men) left their vsuall residency on the Banke-side, 
 and doe play in Middlesex farre remote from the 
 Thames, so that euery day in the weeke they doe draw 
 vnto them three or fonre thousand people, that were vsed 
 to spend their monies by water, (to the reliefe of so many 
 thousands of poore people, which by Players former 
 playing on the Banke-side) are encreased, so that oft- 
 times a poore man that hath nine or sixe children, doth 
 giue good attendance to his labour all day, and at night 
 (perhaps) hath not gotten a Groat to relieue himself e, his 
 wife and family. 
 
 This was the effect and scope of our petition, though 
 here I haue declared it more at large, to which his 
 Maiesty graciously granted me a reference to his com- 
 missioners for suites, who then were the Eight honour- 
 able Sir Iuliiis Caesar, Sir Thomas Par ray, Knights, the 
 Right Worshipful Sir Francis Bacon then the Kings 
 Atturny general!, Sir Henry Moimtague his Maiesties 
 Sergant at Law, Sir Walter Cope, Master George Cal- 
 uert, one of the Clarkes of his Maiesties priury Counsell, 
 and Baron Southerton, one of the Barons of the Kings 
 Exchequer : these Honorable and Worshipfull persons 
 I did oft solicite, by petitions, by friends, and by mine 
 owne industrious importunity, so that in the end when 
 our cause was heard, wee found them generally affected 
 to the suit we prosecuted. 
 
 His Maiesties Players did exhibit a petition against 
 vs, in which they said!, that our suit was vnreasonable, 
 and that we might as iustly remoue the Exchange, the 
 walkes in Pauls, or Moorefields to the Bank-side for our 
 profits as to confine them ; but our extremities and cause 
 being iudiciously pondered by the Honorable and Wor- 
 shipfull Commissioners, Sir Francis Bacon very worthily 
 said that so farre forth as the Publike weale was to be 
 
 14 
 
regarded before pastimes, or a seruiceable decaying mul- 
 titude before a liandfull of particular men, or profit 
 before pleasure, so far was our suite to be preferred 
 before theirs. Whereupon the Players did appeale to 
 the Lord Chamber! aine, which was then the Earle of 
 Sommerset* who stood well affected to vs, hauving beene 
 moued before in the businesse by Master Samuel Gold- 
 smith an especiall friend of mine, and a Gentleman that 
 my selfe and all the rest of my poore company in general! 
 are generally beholden, and deepely ingaged vnto ; for 
 of his owne free will to his cost and charge, wee must 
 with thankfulnesse acknowledge he hath beene and is 
 continually our worthy friend. Who seeing the wants of 
 such numbers of vs, hee hath often neglected his owne 
 vrgent and profitable affaires, spending his time and 
 coyn in any honest occasion that might profit vs. Thus 
 much I thought good to insert in the way of thankful- 
 nesse, because of all vices, ingratitude is most hateful!. 
 The Commissioners did appoint mee to come on the 
 next day that they sate again, and that then the Players 
 and wee should know their determinations concerning 
 our businesses; but before the day came, Sir Walter 
 Cope died, and Sir Iulius Caesar** being chief e Commis- 
 sioner was made master of the Rolls, by which means 
 the Commission was dissolu'd, and we neuer yet had fur- 
 ther [hearing. Thus farre did I proceed in this thank- 
 lesse suite ; and because it was not effected, some of my 
 company partly through malice or ignorance, or both, 
 haue reported that I tooke bribes of the Players to let 
 the suite fall, and that to that purpose I had a supper 
 
 *Can\ the King's Favorite, who was implicated in the poisoning of 
 Overbury. 
 
 **Sir Julius Caesar for his third wife married a young widow, who 
 was a niece of Sir Francis Bacon's. 
 
 15 
 
with them at the Oardina.il s Hat on the Banke-side ; and 
 that if I had dealt wel with my Company, and done as I 
 might hane done, then all had heene as they would hane 
 had it. 
 
 These and more the like such pritty aspersions, the 
 outcast rubbish of my Company hath very liberally, 
 vnmannerly and ingratefully bestowed vpon mee, 
 whereby my 'credit hath been blemished, the good opinion 
 which many held of me lost, my name abused, and I a 
 common reproach, a scorne, a bye-word, and bayting- 
 stocke to the poysonous teeth of enuy and slander. 
 
 But I doubt not but what is before said will satisne 
 any well disposed or honest mind, and for the rest (if 
 there bee any such) <as I found them ignorant knaues, 
 so I leaue them vnthankfull villanes. And I will regard 
 such Vipers, and their slander so little, that their malice 
 shall not make mee giue oner to doe seruice to my Com- 
 pany, by any honest lawfull meanes; my Trade (vnder 
 Grod) is my ibest friend, and though it bee poore, I am 
 sure the calling is honest, therefore I will be an assistant 
 in this suite, or any other that may be auailable vnto it ; 
 and howsoeuer we are slightly esteem 'd by some Griddy- 
 beaded Corkbrains or Mushrom Painted Puckfoysts* ; 
 yet the estate of this Kingdome knowes, that many of the 
 meanest Scullers that Rowes on the Thames, was, is, or 
 shall be, if occasion iserue, at command to doe their 
 Prince and Country more seruice, then any of the Play- 
 ers shall be ioyned vnto. 
 
 I must confesse that there are many rude vnciuill 
 Fellowes in our company, and I would some Doctor 
 would purge the Thames of them : the reason whereof is, 
 that all men being Vicious, hy consequence most Vice 
 
 *Not very complimentary to some of the Players! 
 
 1G 
 
must be in the greatest Companies, but Water-men are 
 the greatest Company, therefore most abues must raigne 
 amongst Water-men; yet (not to excuse them in any 
 degree) let a man but consider other trades and facul- 
 ties of higher account, and I am sure they will come short 
 in honesty perhaps not of Water-men, but of the honest 
 Vocation of a Water-man. 
 
 For if hee vse labour no otherwise then he ought, 
 which is to carry the Kings Leidge people carefully, and 
 to land them safely, to take his due thankfully without 
 murmuring or doing iniury, then I say, that that Water- 
 man may feed vpon the labours of his hands with a bet- 
 ter Conscience, and sleepe with a quieter spirit then 
 many of our furre-gownd mony-mongers that are ac- 
 counted 1 good common-wealths men: but if a rayling 
 knaue doe chance to abuse his Fare, either in words or 
 deeds, (as indeed wee haue too many such) what reason 
 is it, that for the wrong that one, two, or more doth com- 
 mit, that all the rest of the whole Company shal be scan- 
 dalized for it. If a Mercer, a Grocer, a Gold-smith, or 
 any other of the best Trades, be a Traytor, a Thiefe, or 
 a Debosht Drunkard, it were impudent ignorance for the 
 Vices of a few, that all the rest of the function should 
 bee reproch'd: I will make no odious comparisons, but 
 I am perswaded that there are as many honest men of 
 our company as of any other, such as doe make a con- 
 science of what they doe : such as wil not wrong others 
 though it might be gainfull to themselues : Such who are 
 both Religious and Charitable, and whose greatest care 
 is to liue in Gods feare, that they may die in his fauour : 
 And for those that are vnruly, ignorant, and brutish, 
 there is no company hath sharper Lawes, or more 
 seuerely executed, as the Counters can testifie once a 
 weeke: Little ease can witnesse often: The whip, and the 
 
Whipper, like a roaring diuell doth many times affirme 
 the naked truth, and banishment from the Kiuer of 
 Thames foreuer, now and then cuts off a bad member. 
 Besides, Fines and Forfeitures are laid vpon the heads 
 of petty offenders, that few or none escapes vnpunished 
 if their faults be knowne : If the gout be in a mans toe, 
 all the body is grived; if a finger ake, the rest of the 
 members hath a share in the paine ; but if many of Ioynts 
 and members be putrifide, then the heart cannot chuse 
 but be craz'd with care, if not wounded; so is it with our 
 Company, that the Abuses and Vices of the worst infe- 
 riour members as Graeelesse, Godlesse, Eeprobates, are 
 sometimes like a Plague, infectious to their betters, and 
 a daily jieart-griefe to all honest men, who are scandal- 
 ized by their damnable demeanors. But all they doe or 
 can doe, is nothing to the defaming of the Company, for 
 it were very absurd because one in his drinks hath kild 
 a man, to impute the fault to the wine or the drinks that 
 he dranke, when the blame lies in the drunkard that 
 abus'd Gods good Creatures in taking too much; so a 
 Watermans trade is honest necessary, and not to be 
 wanted, howsoeuer it is abus'd by misgouern'd vnciuill 
 companions. If a Water-man would be false in his trade, 
 I muse what falsehood he could vse, hee hath no false 
 weights or measures to curtoll a mans passage, but he 
 will land a man for his money, and not bate him an inch 
 of the place he is appointed: His shop is not darke like 
 a Woolen-Drapers on purpose, because the buyer shall 
 not see the coursnesse of the Cloath, or the falsenesse of 
 the Colour : no his worke and ware is seene and knowne, 
 and hee vtters it with the sweat of his browes ; the worst 
 fault is, that like a Lawyer he will take more then his fee 
 (if any body will giue it him) very thankfully, his bare 
 fare he will take willingly (vpon necessity) but lesse then 
 
 is 
 
his fare, or many times nothing, me thinkes goes against 
 stomacke. 
 
 I bane seene a Vsnrer (who hath beene fit onely for 
 the graue these senen yeeres being more than halfe rot- 
 ten with the Gowt, the Cough, and the Murre) who hath 
 lost bis conscience to get money, and perhaps, win dam- 
 nation, who is not able to goe by land, and yet will not 
 pay his Fare by water, but like the picture of misery, 
 will either beg his passage of some seruing-man, or bar- 
 gaine with a Waterman to giue him two pence for six 
 penniworth of labour, such I haue seene, and such there 
 are too many, who if they were once buried, the wheel e 
 of Time would turne, and what they got vniustly by 
 extortion, oppression, and grinding the faces of the 
 poore, what they haue vncharitably pinch 'd in keeping 
 backe the labourers byre, their Sons or heires perhaps 
 will consume in Law who shall possesse most of that ill 
 gotten goods, or else Drinke it, Dice it, Drab it, Eeuel 
 and ruffle it, till all is gone; and as their fathers before 
 them made others to rot in prison, so their prodigal 1 
 Sonnes are holed in some loathsome Iayle, being lowzy. 
 lodging on the boords, and liue vpon the boxe and the 
 Almes-basket. 
 
 Moreouer, too many there are that passe the bounds 
 of liberality, and spend most prodigally on a Whore, on 
 (thediuell of India) Tobacco*; on the superfluous Quarts 
 and Pintes of the blood of Bacchus (Sack and Claret) 
 Spanish and French, on vnlawfull Games, and in a word, 
 on a thousand vanities, they will carelesly and beyond 
 expectation cast away their cash: but vpon a Water-man, 
 that hath rowed till his heart ake, and sweats till bee 
 hath not a dry thread about him, the Gentlemens bounty 
 
 *TMs slur on Tobacco would have pleased King James, who wrote a 
 book against it. 
 
 10 
 
is asleepe, and hee will pay him by the Statute, or if hee 
 giue him two pence more, he hath done a huge worke 
 beyond the merrit of Suttons Hospital 1. 
 
 I my selfe haue met with a Roaring boy (or one of 
 the cursed crew) that hath had nothing about him but a 
 Sattin outside to couer his knauery, and that none of his 
 owne neither, witnesse his Mercer and his Taylor : Yet 
 this Gallant must be shipp'd in a paire of Oares at least: 
 but his gay slop hath no sooner kist the Cushions, but 
 with a volley of new coynd oathes (newly brought from 
 hell to the Bermoodoes by the Ghost of a Knight of the 
 post) he hath neuer left Roaring, row, row, row, a pox 
 on your row, (as if his punke should stay too long for 
 his pestiferous person) and when his scuruinesse is 
 landed where he pleases, hee hath told me I must waite 
 on him, and 'he will returne to mee presently, and I shall 
 carry him backe againe, and bee paid all together : then 
 haue I attended fiue or six houres (like Ihon a Noakes) 
 for nothing, for my cheating sharke hairing neither mony 
 nor honesty, hath neuer come at mee, but tooke some 
 other paire of stayres, and in the same fashion coozened 
 another Water-man for his Boat-hire. 
 
 We must, and doe with thankfulnesse confesse, that 
 the Nobility, Gentry, and all others of the better sort of 
 this Kingdome, haue honest, worthy and charitable con- 
 siderations of our want of meanes, and multitude of 
 men; for they doe know that house-rent, and victuals, 
 are at foure times the rate which it was at when the 
 Statute was made in Queene Maries Raygne for our 
 fares, and as the price of all things is raised (except 
 poore mens labors) so doe they in conscience very liber- 
 ally rayse our f aires accordingly. 
 
 And as before I haue written, our trade is so usefull 
 and necessary, both for the Kings seruice and the Com- 
 
 20 
 
mons commodity, that it is not to be (or cannot be 
 wanted) and by how much the more a "Water-man is 
 neere to his Maiesty, to the Queenes Maiesty, to the 
 Princes Highnesse, to the Nobility, the Gentry, and the 
 best of the Commonalty of this Kingdome, and some- 
 times of forraine Xations, so much the more ought 
 Water-men to behaue themselues honestly, and soberly 
 in their calling : There are many better trades and quali- 
 ties, that scarce the best of their Companies in all their 
 Hues time do come so often and so neere the presence of 
 Maiesty and Nobility as we doe. (I write not to dis- 
 parrage any, nor with boasting to pufTe vp our selues) 
 none comes neerer, except the Barber, and long and 
 often he may come) or the Physician and Chirurgion, 
 (which God grant they may bee euer needlesse:) but a 
 Water-man many times hath his Soueraigne by the hand, 
 to stay him in and out of the Barge, where there is not 
 aboue halfe an inch betwixt life & death, the Barge being 
 then the royal Court: & being but a dore betwixt the 
 King & them, they are at that time Gentlemen of the 
 priuy Chamber, or Yoemen of the Gard at least*. 
 
 And thus much I am bold to insert for my selfe, and 
 many more of my company that I know, that we neuer 
 exacted mony wrongfully, or contended with any of the 
 Kings Leidge people for more then they themselues 
 would giue with any reason, or gaue any one abusiue or 
 vnreuerend speeches if they would not go with vs: for 
 we know that men are free to buy their cloath at what 
 Drapers they please, or their staffes at which Mercers 
 they will, what Taylor they list make their garments; 
 and what Cooke they like may dresse their meat : and 
 so forth, of all functions euery man is free to make his 
 
 *Taylor's reverence for the nobility was genuine, and pathetic. 
 
 21 
 
dboyse ; and so amongst Water-men, men may take whom 
 they please, because they are bound to none, he that goes 
 with me shall haue my labor, and I am in hope to haue 
 his money, he that will not goe with me goes with an- 
 other, and I haue the more ease the while, he doth me no 
 wrong in not going with me, & I will do him no iniury 
 for going from me ; this is my resolution, and a number 
 more of my Company, and those that are otherwise 
 minded, I wish with all my heart that God will he pleased 
 to amend them, or else that the Hangman may haue 
 authority to end them. 
 
 But to return to the purpose (from which I haue too 
 long digrest). The Players are men that I generally 
 lone, and wish well vnto and to their quality, and I doe 
 not know any of them but are my friends, and wish as 
 much to me : and howsoeuer the matter falls out, whether 
 they play or not play, I thanke God, I am able to line as 
 well as another, either with them or without them: But 
 my loue is such vnto them that whereas they do play but 
 once a day, I could bee content they should play twice 
 or thrice a day, so it were not in such places as doth 
 vndoe so many thousands of poore people; for as it is, 
 it were much better for vs that they plaid no where. And 
 seeing so triuiall a cause as this would be scarce incom- 
 modious to any, and more commodious to vs then the 
 foure Tearmes in the yeere, seeing our necessities so 
 great, and our reliefe harmelesse to any, seeing the vse 
 of vs expedient, if occasions abroad or at home, and our 
 vnablenesse to set our selues to sea, by reason of our 
 want; our hope is that wee shall bee as much reckoned 
 of as horses, for horses haue meat, drink, and lodging, 
 though they be but seldome ridden, and many of them 
 haue a warme footcloth, when thousand of seruiceable 
 
men are like to famish and starue through want and 
 nakednesse. 
 
 As concerning our endeauours to Eemoue the shelues 
 and sands in the Thames (which are a great annoyance 
 to the Eiuer, and hurt full to the City,) As his Maiesty 
 hath commanded, and the Eight Honourable the Lord 
 Maior & the rest of his worshipfull brethren, shall direct, 
 we shall with all willingnesse doe our duties we doubt 
 not both to the Kings Maiesties contentment, the good 
 of the City, and the good report of our seines. 
 
 Thus (because the truth shewes best being naked) I 
 haue plainely set downe how far re I proceeded in my 
 suite, how it was broken off; what thankes I haue for my 
 paines. The necessity of the cause that made mee goe 
 about it. The abuses I had because it tooke no effect, 
 (which is the chief e cause why I wrote this Pamphlet to 
 iustine my selfe.) Al these things I hope the Iudicious 
 Vnderstander will indulge accordingly; alwaies esteem- 
 ing mee a Loyall louer of my Countrey, and my Com- 
 pany*." 
 
 finis. 
 
 *Works of John Taylor, the Water-Poet, Comprised in the Folio 
 edition of 1030. Printed for the Spenser Society. Pp. 333-33S. 
 
 23 
 
III. 
 
 John Taylor tells us lie was "graced by the Queen 
 of Bohemia," daughter of James I. There was a Joseph 
 Taylor who in 1614 was the leading actor in the "Lady 
 Elizabeth's Servants." In his "Historical Account of 
 the English Stage" Malone says this Joseph Taylor was 
 ' i said by some to have painted the only original picture 
 of Shakespeare now extant."* 
 
 Two portraits of John Taylor, the Water-poet, are in 
 the Oxford picture gallery. They are signed John Taylor 
 pinx 1655. This was the poet's nephew, who, we think, 
 presented them to the gallery two years after the death of 
 the Water-poet. This nephew may have been a son of 
 Joseph Taylor, the actor, and have had a kindred liking 
 for art, and may have drawn the caricature of the Droe- 
 shout head which so interested me many years ago that I 
 had a facsimile made for my own amusement, and I now 
 offer it as a curiosity, well worth the interest of other 
 Shakespearians. As the print is unknown to many, I 
 trust it will secure a^place on the book-shelves of the 
 lovers of the poet. 
 
 John Taylor was a faithful Royalist, and abhored 
 the Roundheads from the bottom of his soul. He felt 
 proud of having touched the King's hand, and history 
 tells us he did good service for Elizaheth, James I. and 
 Charles I. Thomas Hey wood, the dramatist, has left this 
 couplet on public houses in that age : 
 
 "The gentry to the King's Head, 
 The nobles to the Croivn." 
 
 *The Chandos portrait, which some conjecture was painted by 
 Richard Burbage. Joseph Taylor left it in his will to William D'Ave- 
 nant, and after D'Avenant's death it was bought by Betterlore the actor. 
 It does not in the least resemble the bust at Stratford nor the Droeshout 
 "Figure" in the First Folio. 
 
 24 
 
When the garrison at Oxford surrendered 1 , Taylor 
 left there and returned to London where he kept an inn 
 called "The Crown/' situated in Phoenix Alley, West- 
 minister. When Charles I. had been beheaded, the Water- 
 poet hung a mourning crown over his door, which was 
 so much resented by Cromwell's men, Taylor had to take 
 it down. In its place he hung up his own picture and 
 under it put these lines : 
 
 "There's many a head stands for a Sign, 
 Then, gentle reader, why not mine?" 
 
 Wood tells us Taylor, while at Oxford, "wrote many 
 Pasquelles" against the King's enemies, which "he was 
 afraid to own or publish under his own name." Perhaps 
 that is why his "Heads of all Fashions" came out anony- 
 mously in 1642. "Vulgar Opinion" seems to !have been 
 Taylor's pet aversion, upon which he never omits an 
 opportunity to point the finger of scorn. The wise adage 
 expressed by some Chinese sage, 
 
 "In time the mulberry leaf becomes satin," 
 
 reminds us of Taylor's intimation, In time the asses 
 head (by Vulgar Opinion) may become chief cleric to a 
 justice of the peace. He is referring to Fame, which 
 he tells us "has many heads." In 1621 he had seen his 
 friend, George Wither, sent to prison for the second time 
 by some one in authority. Wither had been first impris- 
 oned in 1614. 
 
 The testimony of tradition ought not to take the place 
 of facts and records, yet we know it is too often taken for 
 truth. We know also that records themselves may be 
 forged. But Taylor gives us the names of so many of 
 his friends who were the contemporaries of Shakespeare 
 that we may assume he met and conversed with that 
 
 25 
 
great man. And this brings me to the whole pith of this 
 work. For I have assumed and, in fact, absolutely 
 believe Taylor knew Shakespeare personally. And when 
 the first folio came out, in 1623, he was so disgusted with 
 the Droeshout* picture of Shakespeare that he made a 
 caricature of it. 
 
 Ben Jonson himself begs the reader not to look on 
 his picture, but his book. And Ben Jonson and Taylor 
 were intimate friends. Opposite the title page of the 
 folio portrait Ben Jonson has put these complimentary 
 lines : 
 
 TO THE READER. 
 
 This figure, that thou here seest put, 
 
 It was for gentle Shakespeare cut; 
 
 Wherein the Graver had a strife 
 
 With Nature to out-doo the life: 
 
 O, could he but have drawn his wit 
 
 As well in brasse as he hath hit 
 
 His face; the print would then surpasse 
 
 All that was ever writ in brasse. 
 
 But, since he cannot, Reader, looke 
 
 Not on his Picture but his Booke. 
 
 B. J. 
 
 I think it was Stevens who said of these lines: "It 
 is lucky these commendations are not required to be 
 delivered upon oath. " Boaden tells us the Droeshout 
 engraving has frequently been called "an abominable 
 libel upon humanity," and adds: "Vulgar art is fitted 
 
 *Doinestic State Papers, James I. p. 377, 1G0S, where a grant to 
 Martin Droeshout, painter of Brabant of Denization (Douquet), showing 
 Droeshout was admitted to the privilege of an English citizen in 1608. 
 
 20 
 
to satisfy vulgar taste. ... I am not saying that 
 such abortions of art should be preferred — I am only 
 showing that likeness may be found where nothing else 
 exists for which the picture is desirable." But was the 
 Droeshout a true likeness of Shakespeare? It does not 
 in the least resemble the original statue at Stratford 
 copied by Dugdale in 1656. Xor the monument that is 
 there now. Xor does it resemble the Chan-do s portrait 
 left by Joseph Taylor, the actor, nor the Jansen portrait 
 painted in 1610, which is the most 'beautiful of all, and 
 seems to me the only true portrait of our poet. It would 
 take a folio volume to place before the reader all the 
 deprecatory notices bestowed upon Droeshout \s engrav- 
 ing. And why 
 
 "The Graver had a strife 
 With Nature to out-doo the life" 
 
 is still a puzzle to most of us. In making this criticism 
 upon the picture, Ben Jonson must have had in mind 
 Shakespeare's lines from "Venus and Adonis," pub- 
 lished in 1593 : 
 
 "Look, when a painter would surpass the life, 
 His art's with Nature's workmanship at strife.'' 
 
 In other words, Droeshout was not what Puttenham 
 called "a master craftsman in his art." And as Jonson 
 gazed upon this figurehead for the first time, these words 
 of Hamlet must have flashed across his brain: 
 
 "It out-herods Herod!" 
 
 But he was commissioned to praise the picture, and he 
 did his best. He may even have played on the Dutch- 
 
man's name to aid him, by transposing the letters in it, 
 as was so frequently done in his day among ihis friends 
 who amused themselves with anagrams. 
 
 Thus Droeshoiit, if we but read his name by transpos- 
 ing the letters, really out-Herods* all other portrait 
 engravers. From Ben Jonson's time to the present Droes- 
 hout's portrait of Shakespeare has always been depre- 
 ciated. Indeed, I never saw a face in the least resem- 
 bling it until I viewed this caricature of Taylor's. And 
 the only costume I have seen like the coat on the Droes- 
 hout is that in the portrait of Sir Nathaniel Bacon, who 
 was one of the finest amateur painters of his day. In 
 this whole-length picture of himself at Gorhambury he 
 wears a very similar coat. Note the trimming. 
 
 At Redgrave Hall, in Suffolk, were two of his paint- 
 ings, " Ceres with fruit and flowers," and "Hercules and 
 the Hydra." At Grorhambury I saw a large oil painting 
 by him, of a cook-maid with fowls, and was told that 
 Lady Ann Bacon, the mother of Francis of Verulam, had 
 been his model for this beautiful picture. At Culford, 
 Suffolk, where he lived, are several of his works. His 
 monument in the chancel in Culford, was erected by him- 
 self in 1615, but has not the date of his death. It is a 
 mural, having in the centre his bust, and on the side his 
 palette and brushes. He died 1627. Another monument 
 was erected to his memory at Stifkey, Norfolk. 
 
 But let us now leave the figurehead of the First Folio 
 and come to the Water-poet's "Heads of all Fashions," 
 wherein I have found what seems to me a caricature of 
 the Droeshout head of Shakespeare. 
 
 See fac simile of this title page on p. 30. 
 
 *D-R-0-E-S-H-0-U-T==Oiit-HERODS. 
 
 28 
 
SIR NATHANIEL BACON. K. B. 
 
 From an Original at Gorhambnry. 
 29 
 
Heads of all Fashions. 
 
 Being, 
 A Plaine, Defection or Definition of diverfe, 
 
 and fundry forts j)f heads, Butting, Jetting, or pointing 
 
 |at vulgar opinion. 
 
 .And Allegorically fhewing the'Diverfities of Religion in 
 thefe diftempered times. 
 
 Now very lately written," fince Calves-Heads~came in Seafon. 
 
 a a^ri^a^J^-nWihawani ! ■ !■■ i '«it >.^ g g 
 
 ..— .vm.m,wm ■» ,±-^*lm gggg <■«-— ,a»g.u*A£g - „jf ..tfl 
 
 ai-TrT i W'W 'i' 
 
 London Printed for Iohn Morgan, to be fold in the Old-baily. 1642. 
 
 30 
 
THE CONTENTS 
 
 1. 
 
 A Round-head both at randome and couched. 
 
 2. 
 
 A square head. 
 
 15. 
 
 A Weak head. 
 
 3. 
 
 A solid head. 
 
 16. 
 
 A Thicke head. 
 
 4. 
 
 An empty head. 
 
 17. 
 
 A Thine head. 
 
 5. 
 
 An Hollow Head. 
 
 18. 
 
 A Plaine head. 
 
 6. 
 
 A full head. 
 
 19. 
 
 A Forked head. 
 
 7. 
 
 A deepe head. 
 
 20. 
 
 A Smoothe head. 
 
 8. 
 
 A Greate head. 
 
 21. 
 
 A Rugged head. 
 
 9. 
 
 A Little head. 
 
 22. 
 
 A Logger head. 
 
 10. 
 
 A long head. 
 
 23. 
 
 An Narrow head. 
 
 11. 
 
 A Short head. 
 
 24. 
 
 A Broad head. 
 
 12. 
 
 A Tall head. 
 
 25. 
 
 A Block head. 
 
 13. 
 
 A Flat head. 
 
 26. 
 
 A Light head. 
 
 14. 
 
 A Strong head. 
 
 
 
 27. 
 
 A Heavy head with 
 
 some 
 
 other whole and h 
 
 heads." 
 
 
 
 
 And the extracts here given are enough for the reader, 
 I imagine : 
 
 TO THE GENTLE READER. 
 
 Diftracted fame throughout the world fo fpreads, 
 
 That monfter-like, fhe now hath many heads, 
 
 A man can go to no place, but fhall heare 
 
 Things that may make him hope, and make him feare; 
 
 But I doe hope, and hope I will doe ftill, 
 
 All fhall be well in fpite of little Will, 
 
 Or any of his Crew, farre off or neare, 
 
 Whofe practices doe every day appeare 
 
 Still more and more, the Lord fees how they deale, 
 
 And doth their Plots and Projects all reveale; 
 
 Each City and each Towne, yea every village, 
 
 Can fill us now with newes, we need not pillage. 
 
By this meanes fame hath got a monfters head, 
 Yea many heads, whereof I found a few, 
 And here have laid them open to thy view, 
 Perufe them all, in earneft or in jeft, 
 And tell me which amongft them is the beft. 
 If Round-head fhould he found the beft to be, 
 Farewell all other heads, Round-head for me. 
 But gentle Reader, give me thy good word, 
 And then I care not what Round-heads afford. 
 
 Thine without hypocrfie. J. M. 
 
 * * * 
 
 3. A Solid4iead is one whofe every part, 
 Is furnifhed with nature and with Art, 
 Hath all the faire endowments can be given 
 By the aufpicious Stars or powers of Heaven: 
 If this head be well guarded with Gods grace, 
 Tis fit for Church or State, or any place. 
 
 * * * 
 
 8. A Great-head may containe a world of wit, 
 For there is roome enough to harbour it, 
 Some mighty-headed 1 pleaders I have knowne, 
 And yet their Great-heads little Law have fhowne : 
 But what talke I of heads? it is the braine 
 Enables them their cafes to explaine. 
 
 * =* # 
 
 10. A Long-lhead cannot weare a little cap, 
 The forehead is fo diftant from the nap, 
 This head hath many whimfies in the Braine, 
 Yet wonders much at Rome, at France, and Spaine: 
 Thefe many plots have wrought againft our Land, 
 But this Long-lhead hopes they fhall nere long ftand. 
 
 39 
 
12. A Tall-head like a Pyramide or Steeple, 
 Ore tops the common fort of vulgar people, 
 Tis often on a Pimps broad fhoulders placed, 
 And thinks it felfe with bufhy locks much graced. 
 This head is mounted up fo in the Aire, 
 
 That there can nothing grow (I feare) but haire. 
 
 # * # 
 
 14. A Strong-head though it be not made of brafTe, 
 Remembreth every thing that comes to paffe 
 Within the reach of 's eye, his eare or knowledge, 
 His Skull for skill, and ftrength may be a colledge : 
 If he had beene a Fencer by his fate 
 He would have fcorn'd to feare a broken pate. 
 
 18. A Plaine-head is a plaine well-meaning head, 
 Who as he thinkes no harme, no hurt doth dread, 
 So quickly may be gul'd, for honeft men 
 Are often cheated every now and then : 
 This head is often free unto its friend, 
 Yet many times tis cozen 'd in tlhe end. 
 
 W TV" 
 
 The Conclufion. 
 A world of heads more I could name to you, 
 
 Jf, jU. Jf. 
 
 There also is a Sheeps head and an AfTes, 
 But this laft head moft of the reft furpafTes, 
 For this in time by friends and loves increafe, 
 May be chief e Clarke t'a Juftice of Peace. 
 But ftay rafh Mufe, why doft thou fo farre flie, 
 Thou muft not meddle with Authoritie. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 While there are only seventeen heads shown in Tay- 
 lor's cut, there are twenty-seven described by him in the 
 
 33 
 
Tract. No. 12, the "Tall Head," forms the frontispiece 
 to this work. The reader will see I have borrowed the 
 coat of the Droeshout Figure and placed the Caricature 
 Head upon it. 
 
 Let me end with this couplet of the good Water-Poet : 
 
 "There's many a head stands for a sign, 
 Then gentle reader, why not mine ? ' ' 
 
 34 
 
16 19U 
 

 One copy del. to Cat. Div.