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 ;" 



" I am a rimer of the Irish race, 

 And have already rimde thee staring mad ; 

 But if thou cease not thy hold jests to spread 

 I'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, Avhich (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." 



