Of the four Humours in Mans Conftitution.

He former four now ending their difcourfe,

TH

Ceafing to vaunt their good, or threat their force,

Lo other four step up, crave leave to show

The native qualityes that from them' flow:
But firft they wifely fhew'd their high defcent,
Each eldest daughter to each Element.

Choler was own'd by fire, and Blood by air,
Earth knew her black fwarth child, water her fair:
All having made obeyfance to each Mother,
Had leave to speak, fucceeding one the other:
But 'mongst themselves they were at variance,
Which of the four should have predominance.
Choler first hotly claim'd right by her mother,
Who had precedency of all the other:
But Sanguine did difdain what the requir'd,
Pleading her felf was moft of all defir'd.
Proud Melancholy more envious then the reft,
The second, third or laft could not digeft.

$ each.

1 first" not in the first edition.

She was the filenteft of all the four,

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Her wisdom fpake not much, but thought the more

น

Mild Flegme did not conteft for chiefeft" place,

Only the crav'd to have a vacant space.

Well, thus they parle and chide; but to be brief,

Or will they, nill they, Choler will be chief.

They feing her impetuofity

W

At prefent-yielded to neceffity.

Choler.

O fhew my high* descent and pedegree,

Your felves would judge but vain prolixity;

It is acknowledged from whence I came,

It shall fuffice to fhew" you what I am,

My felf and mother one, as you shall fee,

But thee in greater, I in lefs degree.

We both once Masculines, the world doth know,
Now Feminines awhile, for love we owe
Unto your Sisterhood, which makes us render

Our noble felves in a lefs noble gender.
Though under Fire we comprehend all heat,
Yet man for Choler is the proper feat:
I in his heart erect my regal throne,
Where Monarch like I play and fway alone.

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Yet many times unto my great difgrace
One of your felves are my Compeers in place,
Where if
your rule prove once predominant,
The man proves boyish, fottish, ignorant:
But if you yield fubfervience unto me,
I make a man, a man in th'high'ft degree:
Be he a fouldier, I more fence his heart
Then iron Corflet 'gainst a sword or dart.
What makes him face his foe without appal,
To ftorm a breach, or scale a city wall,
In dangers to account himself more fure
Then timerous Hares whom Caftles do immure?
Have you not heard of worthyes, Demi-Gods?
Twixt them and others what is't makes the odds
But valour? whence comes that? from none of you,
Nay milkfops at fuch brunts you look but blew.
Here's fifter ruddy, worth the other two,

Who much will talk, but little dares she do,
Unless to Court and claw, to dice and drink,
And there she will out-bid us all, I think,
She loves a fiddle better then a drum,
A Chamber well, in field she dares not come,
She'l ride a horfe as bravely as the best,

And break a staff, provided 'be in jeft;

But fhuns to look on wounds, & blood that's spilt,

She loves her fword only because its gilt.
Then here's our fad black Sifter, worse then you.

She'l neither fay fhe will, nor will she doe;

once grow.

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But peevish Malecontent, mufing fits,
And by mifpriffions like to loofe her witts:
If great perfwasions cause her meet her foe,
In her dull refolution fhe's fo flow,
To march her pace to fome is greater pain
Then by a quick encounter to be flain.
But be the beaten, fhe'l not run away,

She'l firft advise if't be not best to stay.

a

Now let's give cold white fifter flegme her right,

So loving unto all she scorns to fight:

If

any threaten her, she'l in a trice Convert from water to congealed ice:

Her teeth will chatter, dead and wan's her face,
And 'fore the be affaulted, quits the place.
She dares not challeng, if I speak amifs,

Nor hath fhe wit or heat to blush at this.
Here's three of you all fee now what you are,

Then yield to me preheminence in war.
Again who fits for learning, science, arts?
Who rarifies the intellectual parts:

From whence fine fpirits flow and witty notions:
But tis not from our dull, flow fifters motions:
Nor fifter fanguine, from thy moderate heat,
Poor spirits the Liver breeds, which is thy feat.
What comes from thence, my heat refines the fame
And through the arteries fends it o're the frame:
The vital spirits they're call'd, and well they may
For when they fail, man turns unto his clay.

a But.

But tis" not in the first edition.

The animal I claim as well as thefe,

The nerves, fhould I not warm, foon would they freeze

But flegme her felf is now provok'd at this

She thinks I never fhot fo far amifs.

The brain fhe challengeth, the head's her feat;
But know'ts a foolish brain that wanteth heat.
My abfence proves it plain, her wit then flyes
Out at her nofe, or melteth at her eyes.
Oh who would mifs this influence of thine

To be diftill'd, a drop on every Line?
Alas, thou haft no Spirits, thy Company
Will feed a dropfy, or a Tympany,

The Palfy, Gout, or Cramp, or fome fuch dolour:
Thou waft not made, for Souldier or for Scholar;
Of greazy paunch, and bloated cheeks go vaunt,
&
But a good head from these are diffonant.

But Melancholy, wouldst have this glory thine,
Thou fayft thy wits are staid, subtil and fine;
'Tis true, when I am Midwife to thy birth

Thy felf's as dull, as is thy mother Earth:
Thou canst not claim the liver, head nor heart
Yet haft the Seat affign'd, a goodly part

e

The finke of all us three, the hateful Spleen
Of that black Region, nature made thee Queen;
Where pain and fore obstruction thou doft work,
Where envy, malice, thy Companions lurk.

If once thou'rt great, what follows thereupon
But bodies wafting, and deftruction?

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