Book xv

., p. 647, edit. 1720.)

[3] John Cleveland wrote a satirical address to Mr. Hammond, the Puritan preacher of Beudley, who had exerted himself “for the Pulling down of the Maypole.” It begins, in mock praise, “The mighty zeal which thou hast put on,” &c.; and is printed in _Parnassus Biceps_, 1656, p. 18; and among “_J. Cleveland Revived: Poems_,” 1662, p. 96.

[4] Here the thought is enveloped amid tender fancies. Compare the more passionate and solemn earnestness of the loyal churchman, Henry King, Bishop of Chichester, in his poem of _The Exequy_, addressed “To his never-to-be-forgotten Friend,” wherein he says:—

“Sleep on, my Love, in thy cold bed, Never to be disquieted! My last good-night! Thou wilt not wake, Till I thy fate shall overtake; Till age, or grief, or sickness, must Marry my body to that dust It so much loves; and fill the room My heart keeps empty in thy Tomb. _Stay for me there; I will not faile_ _To meet thee in that hollow Vale._ And think not much of my delay; I am already on the way, And follow thee with all the speed Desire can make, or sorrows breed,” &c.

[5] For special reasons, the Editor felt it nearly impossible to avoid the omission of a few letters in one of the most objectionable of these pieces, the twelfth in order, of _Choyce Drollery_. He mentions this at once, because he holds to his confirmed opinion that in Reprints of scarce and valuable historical memorials _no tampering with the original is permissible_. (But see Appendix,