Young Coleman plays truant from school, and one day, when the school is empty, breaks and defiles the horse. He openly boasts of his feat, and returning another day to repeat his misdeed, is caught by Nisus, who mounts him on the injured horse, which, by poetical license, is made to whinny with content. The youth expects twenty cuts, and receives four: Quattuor[105] inflixit tantum mediocriter ictus, Plures optet equus, plures daret arbiter aequus. Coleman senior calls on the Schoolmaster, who remarks that payment for his son's schooling is in arrear. Coleman returns with Mrs. Coleman, and demands a receipt for the payment, which he makes, as Nisus discovers, lest a counter-action be brought against him: Vult sibi ut absolvens[106] accepti latio detur Consignata manu Nisi, atque a teste probata. Then Mrs. Coleman shows herself deserving of the cucking-stool: ..... bona Carbonissa Inque caput Nisi cumulata opprobria plaustro Digna et rixivomas sub aquis mersante[107] cathedra, Quinetiam manibus quasi pugnatura lacessit. They bring their action for assault. (The English words in the marginal notes, placed below, are in black-letter:) Nulla mora est, juristam adhibent, de fonte dicarum Qui populo Placita ad Communia[108] panditur, exit Schedula quod vulgo[109] Regis Breve dicitur: illo Mox capitur Nisus, geminoque sub obside spondet In responsurum praescripto tempore: tempus Cunctarum[110] lux est animarum crastini. Verum Actor quis?[111] Puer ipse, virum qui provocat, annos Nondum bis-senos superans. Sed et actio quaenam? Quid crimen? Pravus atque atrox injuria, tristes Et tragicae ambages, ampullae sesquipedales, Quod[112] Regis contra pacem vi Nisus, et armis Insultum fecit, male tractans verbere saevo Verberibus diris adeo, plenisque pericli De pueri vita ut desperaretur. The poem ends, leaving poor Nisus in the midst of his first law-suit: Ecce Nisus, jam primum Nisus miser ambulat in jus: and the marginal note is 'In causis litigiosis sive casibus inscriptionum stylus Johannes de Stiles versus Johannem de Nokes.' A concluding chronogram gives the year 1629: LVDI MagIster LIte VeXatVr forI. The Schoolmaster's friends have written him complimentary epigrams, which are prefixed to his poem. One is worth reproducing, ae it has an echo of Crashaw's: Ad κοπροχρυσοῦντα Suavia nonnulli lutulento carmine narrant: Turpia tu nitido, Nise poeta, places. In black-letter, as follows: Some cloath faire tales in sluttish eloquence: Thy tale is foule, thy verse is frankincense. T. Lovering Artium Ludiq. Magister.