In these pieces there is a very rich vein of wit and humour, tho' much
debased by the rust of the age he lived in. His satires are remarkably
broad, open and ill-bred; the verse cramped by a very short measure,
and encumbered with such a profusion of rhimes, as makes the poet
appear almost as ridiculous as those he endeavours to expose. In his
more serious pieces he is not guilty of this absurdity; and confines
himself to a regular stanza, according to the then reigning mode.
His Bouge of Court is a poem of some merit: it abounds with wit and
imagination, and shews him well versed in human nature, and the
insinuating manners of a court. The allegorical characters are finely
described, and well sustained; the fabric of the whole I believe
entirely his own, and not improbably may have the honour of furnishing
a hint even to the inimitable Spencer. How or by whose interest he was
made Laureat, or whether it was a title he assumed to himself, cannot
be determined, neither is his principal patron any where named; but if
his poem of the Crown Lawrel before mentioned has any covert meaning,
he had the happiness of having the Ladies for his friends, and the
countess of Surry, the lady Elizabeth Howard, and many others united
their services in his favour. When on his death-bed he was charged
with having children by a mistress he kept, he protected that in his
conscience he kept her in the notion of a wife: And such was his
cowardice, that he chose rather to confess adultery than own marriage,
a crime at that time more subjected to punishment than the other.

The PROLOGUE to the BOUGE COURTS.

In autumne, whan the sunne in vyrgyne,
By radyante hete, enryped hath our corne,
When Luna, full of mucabylyte,
As Emperes the dyademe hath worne