clxxvi LIFE OF 



It may be inferred from Cotton's description of a storm which 

 he inscribed to a nobleman whose name is not mentioned, 8 that 

 he was nearly shipwrecked in his passage to Ireland. 



Allusions to himself also occur in his " Epistle to Sir Clifford 

 Clifton, then sitting in Parliament," and in several other of his 

 pieces. He tells Clifton 



" That you may gue^s at the party that writes t'ee, 

 And not grope in the dark, I'll hold up these lights t'ee. 



For his stature, he's but a contemptible male, 

 And grown something swab with drinking good ale ; 

 His locks, than your brown, a little thought brighter, 

 Which grey hairs make every year whiter and whiter : 

 His visage, which all the rest mainly disgraces, 

 Is warp't, or by age, or cutting effaces. 

 So that, whether 'twere made so, or whether 'twere man'd, 

 In good sooth, he's a very unpromising bard : 

 His legs, which creep out of two old-fashion'd knapsacks, 

 Are neither two mill-posts, nor yet are they trap-sticks : 

 They bear him, when sober, bestir 'em and spare not, 

 And who the devil can stand when they are not? 



Thus much for his person, now for his condition, 

 That's sick enough full to require a physician: 

 He always wants money, which makes him want ease, 

 And he's always besieg'd, tho' himself of the peace, 

 By an army of duns, who batter with scandals, 

 And are foemen more fierce than the Goths or the Vandals. 

 But when he does sally, as sometimes he does, 

 Then hey for Bess Juckson, and a fig for his foes : 

 He's good fellow enough to do every one right, 

 And never was first that ask'd, what time of night ? 

 His delight is to toss the cann merrily round, 

 And loves to be wet, but hates to be drown' d : 

 He fain would be just, but sometimes he cannot, 

 Which gives him the trouble that other men have not. 

 He honours his friend, but he wants means to show it, 

 And loves to be rhyming, but is the worst poet. 

 Yet among all these vices, to give him his due, 

 He has the virtue to be a true lover of you. 

 But how much he loves you, he says you may guess it, 

 Since nor prose, nor yet metre, he swears can express it." 



In 1670 he published a new edition of his "Virgil Travestie," 

 which contained the first and fourth books. 9 To this work he is 

 principally indebted for his literary fame ; for such is the caprice 

 of the public, that whilst his other, and far more important writings 

 have been comparatively neglected, this absurd burlesque has gone 

 through no less than fifteen editions. Upon a work which is so 

 well known it is unnecessary to make any critical remarks ; and 

 though no person would wish the example of one of Cotton's 

 biographers 1 to be followed, by introducing a long dissertation on 



f Poems, p. 199. 



9 Cotton did not affix his name to this work, which was thus advertised by Henry 

 Brome in 1668, " Scarronides, or Virgil Travestie, both parts by a person of honor, in 

 8vo." 



* Oldys. 



