Form. An't please you, sir, it hung up in the room where I was stript; and I borrow'd it of one of the drawers to come home in, because I was loth to do penance through the street in my shirt. Clem. Well, stand by a while. Enter E. KNOWELL, WELLBRED, and BRIDGET. Who be these? O, the young company; welcome, welcome! Give you joy. Nay, mistress Bridget, blush not; you are not so fresh a bride, but the news of it is come hither afore you. Master bridegroom, I have made your peace, give me your hand: so will I for all the rest ere you forsake my roof. E. Know. We are the more bound to your humanity, sir. Clem. Only these two have so little of man in them, they are no part of my care. Wel. Yes, sir, let me pray you for this gentleman, he belongs to my sister the bride. Clem. In what place, sir? Wel. Of her delight, sir, below the stairs, and in public: her poet, sir. Clem. A poet! I will challenge him myself presently at extempore. Mount up thy Phlegon, Muse, and testify, How Saturn, sitting in an ebon cloud, Disrobed his podex, white as ivory, And through the welkin thunder'd all aloud. Wel. He is not for extempore, sir: he is all for the pocket muse; please you command a sight of it. Clem. Yes, yes, search him for a taste of his vein. [They search Mathew's pockets. Wel. You must not deny the queen's justice, sir, under a writ of rebellion. Clem. What! all this verse? body O' me, he carries a whole realm, a commonwealth of paper in his hose: let us see some of his subjects. [Reads. Unto the boundless ocean of thy face, Runs this poor river, charg'd with streams of eyes. How! this is stolen. E. Know. A parody! a parody! with a kind of miraculous gift, to make it absurder than it was. Clem. Is all the rest of this batch? bring me a torch; lay it together, and give fire. Cleanse the air. [Sets the papers on fire.] Here was enough to have infected the whole city, if it had not been taken in time. See, see, how our poet's glory shines! brighter and brighter! still it increases! O, now it is at the highest; and now it declines as fast. You may see, sic transit gloria mundi! Know. There's an emblem for you, son, and your studies. Clem. Nay, no speech or act of mine be drawn against such as profess it worthily. They are not born every year, as an alderman. There goes more to the making of a good poet, than a sheriff. Master Kitely, you look upon me!--though I live in the city here, amongst you, I will do more reverence to him, when I meet him, than I will to the mayor out of his year. But these paper-pedlars! these ink-dabblers! they cannot expect reprehension or reproach; they have it with the fact, E. Know. Sir, you have saved me the labour of a defence.