356 
And Randolph in the Jealous Lovers: 
“ And my poets 
Shall with a Satire steep’d in vinegar 
Rhime ’em to death, as they do rats in Ireland.” 
Archdeacon Nares, in his Glossary, quotes the following 
verses from “* Rhythmes against Martin Mar-Prelate :” 
“‘T am a rimer of the Irish race, 
And have already rimde thee staring mad ; 
But if thou cease not thy bold jests to spread 
T’ll never leave till I have rimde thee dead.” 
Sir William Temple, in his Essay on Poetry, has the fol- 
lowing passage : 
‘* The remainders [he is speaking of the old Runic] are 
woven into our very language. Mara, in old Runic, was a 
goblin that seized upon men asleep in their beds, and took 
from them all speech and motion. Old Nicka was a Sprite 
that came to strangle people who fell into the water. Bo was 
a fierce Gothick captain, son of Odin, whose name was used by 
his soldiers when they would fight or surprise their enemies : 
and the proverb of rhyming rats to death came, I suppose, 
from the same root.” 
Reginald Scot, in his Discoverie of Witchcrafte, p. 35 (ed. 
1665), says: ‘‘ The Irishmen affirm that not only their children, 
but their cattel are, as they call it, eye-bitten when they fall 
suddenly sick, & tearm one sort of their witches eye-biters, 
only in that respect: yea and they will not stick to affirm that 
they can rime either man or beast to death.” 
And Dean Swift, in his witty and ironical ‘‘ Advice to 
a Young Poet,” (having quoted Sir Philip Sidney), says :— 
‘¢ Our very good friend (the Knight aforesaid), speaking of the 
force of poetry, mentions rhyming to death, which (adds he) 
is said to be done in Ireland ; and truly, to our honour be it 
spoken, that power in a great measure continues with us to this 
” 
day. 
