Then of my tempests felt at sea and land,

Which neither ships nor houses could withstand,
What woeful wrecks I've made may well appear,
If naught were known but that before Algier,
Where famous Charles the Fifth more loss sustained
Than in the long hot war which Milan gained.
Again, what furious storms and hurricanoes
Know western isles, as Christopher's, Barbadoes,
Where neither houses, trees, nor plants I spare,
But some fall down, and some fly up with air.
Earthquakes so hurtful, and so feared of all,
Imprisoned I am the original.

Then what prodigious sights I sometimes show,
As battles pitched in the air, as countries know;
Their joining, fighting, forcing, and retreat,
That earth appears in heaven, oh, wonder great!
Sometimes red flaming swords and blazing stars,
Portentous signs of famines, plagues, and wars,
Which make the mighty monarchs fear their fates
By death, or great mutation of their states.

I have said less than did my sisters three;

But what's their wrath or force, the same 's in me. To add to all I've said was my intent,

But dare not go beyond my element."

OF THE FOUR HUMORS IN

MAN'S CONSTITUTION.

The former four now ending their discourse,
Ceasing to vaunt their good, or threat their force,
Lo, other four step up, crave leave to show
The native qualities that from them flow.
But first they wisely showed their high descent,
Each eldest daughter to each element:
Choler was owned by Fire, and Blood by Air;
Earth knew her black swarth child, Water her fair.
All having made obeisance to each mother,
Had leave to speak, succeeding one the other.
But 'mongst themselves they were at variance
Which of the four should have predominance.
Choler first hotly claimed right by her mother,
Who had precedency of all the other;
But Sanguine did disdain what she required,
Pleading herself was most of all desired.
Proud Melancholy, more envious than the rest,
The second, third, or last could not digest;

She was the silentest of all the four;

Her wisdom spake not much, but thought the more.

Mild Phlegm did not contest for chiefest place,
Only she craved 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, seeing her impetuosity,

At present yielded to necessity.

CHOLER.

To show my high descent and pedigree
Yourselves would judge but vain prolixity.
It is acknowledged from whence I came;
It shall suffice to show you what I am
Myself and mother one, as you shall see,
But she in greater, I in less, 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 selves in a less noble gender.
Though under fire we comprehend all heat,
Yet man for choler is the proper seat;
I in his heart erect my regal throne,
Where monarch-like I play and sway alone.
Yet many times, unto my great disgrace,
One of yourselves are my compeers in place,
Where if your rule prove once predominant,
The man proves boyish, sottish, ignorant;

But if you yield subservience unto me,

I make a man a man in the highest degree.
Be he a soldier, I more fence his heart
Than iron corslet 'gainst a sword or dart.
What makes him face his foe without appal,
To storm a breach, or scale a city wall;
In dangers to account himself more sure
Than timorous hares whom castles do immure?
Have you not heard of worthies, demi-gods?
'Twixt them and others what is it makes the odds
But valor? Whence comes that? From none of you.
Nay, milksops, at such brunts you look but blue.
Here's sister 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 outbid us all, I think.
She loves a fiddle better than a drum;

A chamber well; in field she dares not come.
She'll ride a horse as bravely as the best,
And break a staff, provided be in jest;

But shuns to look on wounds, and blood that 's spilt. She loves her sword only because it's gilt.

Then here's our sad black sister, worse than you;

She 'll neither say she will, nor will she do,
But, peevish malcontent, she musing sits,
And by misprision's like to lose her wits.
If great persuasions cause her meet her foe,
In her dull resolution she's so slow

To march her pace to some is greater pain
Than by a quick encounter to be slain.
But be she beaten, she 'll not run away;
She'll first advise if it be not best to stay.

Now let's give cold white sister Phlegm her right

So loving unto all, she scorns to fight;

If any threaten her, she 'll in a trice

Convert from water to congealéd ice;

Her teeth will chatter, dead and wan's her face,
And 'fore she be assaulted quits the place.

She dares not challenge if I speak amiss,

Nor hath she wit or heat to blush at this.

Here's three of you all see now what you are;

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

From whence fine spirits flow, and witty notions?
But 't is not from our dull slow sister's motions,
Nor, sister Sanguine, from thy moderate heat.
Poor spirits the liver breeds, which is thy seat.
What comes from thence my heat refines the same,
And through the arteries sends it o'er the frame;
The vital spirits they 're called, and well they may,
For when they fail man turns unto his clay.

The animal I claim as well as these

The nerves should I not warm, soon would they freeze. But Phlegm herself is now provoked at this.

She thinks I never shot so far amiss;