AND ENGLISH PHYSICIAN ENLARGED. 197 



a scorpion, Wormwood, an herb of Mars, j either linen or woolen draper) yet as brave us 

 gives you a present cure ; that Mars, cho- 1 they looked, my opinion was that the moths 

 leric as he is, hath learned that patience, to might consume them ; moths are under the 

 pass by your evil speeches of him, and tells j dominion of Mars; this herb Wormwood be- 

 you by my pen, That he gives you no af-iing laid among cloaths, will make a molh 

 tiiction, but he gives you a cure ; you need ! scorn to meddle with the cloaths, as much 

 not run to Apollo, nor ^Esculapius ; and if! as a lion scorns to meddle with a mouse, or 

 he was so choleric as you make him to be, \ an eagle with a fly. You say Mars is an- 

 he would have drawn his sword for anger, jgry, and it is true enough he is angry with 

 to see the ill conditions of these people i many countrymen, for being such fools to 

 that can spy his vices, and not his virtues. * be led by the noses by the college of phy- 

 The eternal God, when he made Mars, t sicians, as they lead bears to Paris garden, 

 made him for public good, and the sons of : Melancholy men cannot endure to be 

 men shall know it it in the latter end of the | wronged in point of good fame, and that 

 world. Et caelum Mars solus babet. You j doth sorely trouble old Saturn, because they 

 say Mars is a destroyer ; mix a little Worm- i call him the greatest infortunate ; in the 

 wood, an herb of Mars, with your ink, j body of man he rules the spleen, (and that 

 neither rats nor mice touch the paper writ- \ makes covetous man so splenetic) the poor 

 ten with it, and then Mars is a preserver. 5 old man lies crying out of his left side 

 Astrologers think Mars causes scabs and Father Saturn's angry, Mars comes to him ; 

 itch, and the virgins are angry with him, \ Come, brother, I confess thou art evil spoken 

 because wanton Venus told them he de- j of, and so am I ; thou knowest I have my 

 forms their skins ; but, quoth Mars, my exaltation in thy house, I give him an herb 

 only desire is, they should know themselves; j of mine, Wormwood, to cure the old man : 

 my herb Wormwood will restore them to j Saturn consented, but spoke little, and so 

 the beauty they formerly had, and in that {Mars cured him by sympathy. When 

 I will not come an inch behind my opposite, | Mars was free from war, (for he loves to be 

 Venus : for which doth the greatest evil, he j fighting, and is the best friend a soldier 

 that takes away an innate beauty, and when ! hath) I say, when Mars was free from war, 

 he has done, knows how to restore it again ? j he called a council of war in his own brain, 

 or she that teaches a company of wanton j to know how he should do poor sinful man 

 lasses to paint their faces? If Mars be in \ good, desiring to forget his abuses in being 

 a Virgin, in the nativity, they say he causes \ called an infortunate. He musters up his 

 the cholic (it is well God hath set some | own forces, and places them in battalia, 

 body to pull down the pride of man.) HejOh! quoth he, why do I hurt a poor 

 in the Virgin troubles none with the cholic,! silly man or woman ? His angel answers 

 but them that know not themselves (for who I him, It is because they have offended their 

 knows himself, may easily know all the : God, -(Look back to Adam :) Well, says 

 world.) Wormwood, an herb of Mars, is a } Mars, though they speak evil of me, I will 

 present cure for it ; and whether it be most! do good to them ; Death's cold, my herb 

 like a Christian to love him for his good, or | shall heat them : they are full of ill humours 

 hate him for his evil, judge ye. I had al- j (else they would never have spoken ill of 

 most forgotten, that charity thinks no evil.! me;) my herb shall cleanse them, and dry 

 I wasonce in the Tower and viewed the ward- i them; they are poor weak creatures, my 

 robe, and there wasagreat many fine clothes: ] herb shall strengthen them ; they are dull 

 I can give them noother title, for I was never twitted, my herb shall fortify their appre- 



