The true Effigies of the German Giant, now to be seen at the Swan near Charing-Cross, whose stature is nine foot and a half in height, and the span of his hand a cubit compleat. He goes from place to place with his voife, who is but of an ordinary stature, and takes money for the show of her husband.

On a folio broadside, with an engraving on copper, ten inches by seven, representing the German Giant, with his wife on one side holding by her husband's hand; on the other, a gentleman, probably a spectator, whose arm the giant is spanning. His thumb and finger reaching from the point of the gentleman's extended forefinger, to the bend of the arm. The etch

ing resembles Hollar's coarsest style.

"It from tradition hath of old been se'd
This isle by gyants was inhabited,

Who with an oak in hand, would walk as free
As once * Silvanus with a cypress tree :
And hence 'tis like, that first of all 'twas spoke
This hardy nation had their bearts of oak :
Arms lent by nature, and throughout the land
The oak complying with the gyant's hand.
Fit for their hand, and not without desert,
The oak complying with the gyant's heart.
Yet though this island better fenced stood
With walls of oak, than gyantean blood;
With walls whose tops and bottoms do disdain
All opposition from the roaring main;
Yet it must not in honor be deny'd,
That gyants first did in this isle reside:
Ætnean brothers whose bold heads aloft

The tops of bills and clouds beneath them scoft;
Such, by the labells both of Fame and Fate,
Was by the dread hand of mighty Askepate,
Who neer Southampton, a full mile, had strength
To throw a mill-stone on his foot at length:
So vast a stone upon his foot below
Seem'd but a corn upon the gyant's toe:

"Et teneram ab radice ferens Silvane cupressum."

VIRG. GEOR. I.

The

The place to this day to be seen, doth tell
Where this was done and where the mill-stone fell,
And such stout Coronæus was, from whom
Cornwal's first honor, and her name doth come,
For though he showeth not so great, nor tall
In his dimensions set forth at Guild-hall,
Know, 'tis a poet onely can define,
A gyant's posture in a gyant's line,

The art falls short of nature, and must err
When rules are given her by the carpenter,
Who ought not bulks uncircumscrib'd to draw,
By the small compass of his own scant law;
And thus attended with his direful dog,
The gyant was (God bless us) Gogmagog.
And he who (fear'd by his prodigious fame)
Not long since kept the gates of Nottingham;
And many others who have left to all
Succeeding times, their proud memorial,
And though that nature now more spent and old,
Doth in such off springs grow more weak & cold;
Yet some remainders to this day are seen,
Of what we finde she heretofore hath been:
Witness this gyant, who not long ago
Was seen in Ipswich at a publick show;
And though no native, yet his birth must be
Fam'd as his countrey is of Germany.
Poor Germany who now the Turks to raunt
Many more gyants like himself doth want.
To see him hundreds day by day do throng,
As he from place to place doth pass along;
His bode's uncertain, for to think 'tis vain,
One place so tall a wonder to contain ;
His whole proportion is upright and streight,
'Tis nine foot fully and a half in height,
Not much in debt to age, his body clean
Up to his stature, and not fat nor lean;
His hand exceeds in bigness, and his span
'Bove twice th' extensions of another man;
He no excess of any wine doth pour
Into his gorge, nor doth he much devour ;
And though his stature be admir'd, yet he
Doth seem much pleas'd with mediocritie.

But that which makes the wonder seem more rife,

This so great gyant hath a little wife,

By whose advice he's carryed up and down,
From court to countrey and from town to town.
He is their gain, where ever he doth go,
Tis she receives the money for the show.

A woman lovely, and in all compleat,
And though but little, yet her wit is great;
Thus heretofore true love with love did dy,
The faithfull Phillis, and the good Sir Guy.
But that a gyant one so tall in show,
Should choose a wife and live with one so low,
Is more than ever any age yet knew,

And baply more than age again shall view.

Finis.

London, Printed for Matthew Collins, at the three Black Birds, in Cannon street, 1660."

In Wood's study at Oxford, B. 35. The Oxford antiquary hath written the following note on the margin: "An Irish man as large as this, was to be seen at the blew bore, Oxon. an. 1681, at the act time."

A. O.

The New Yeeres Gift: presented at Court, from the Lady Parvula to the Lord Minimus, (commonly called Little Jefferie) Her Majesties' Servant, with a Letter as it was penned in short-hand : wherein is proved Little Things are better then Great. Written by Microphilvs. Printed at London by N. and J. Ökes, dwelling in Little St. Bartholmewes. 1686. 24mo. pp. 116. *

"To the reader. As they are not alwaies most valiant who are most violent: so commonly the most censorious, be the least judicious. I expect the judgruent of the wise, and the censure of the over wise; and wish I were of the formers pardon as certaine, as the latter are of mine. The censures of the learned ought to bee judicious, the censures of them both charitable. Howsoever if any shal say, when I undertooke this worke I had but little to doe, it shall no way displease him, who is, and will remaine to his friends a servant, and to his foes a MICROPHILUS."

Complimentary verses are prefixed, signed S. M.;

• Prefixed is the portrait of Jeffery Hudson, the dwarf. See Granger, temp. Charles Ist. Class. XII.

D. L.:

D. L.; T. Little; W. Loe; W. Short. The first is addressed

"To his high and mighty friend, William Evans, sirnamed the Great Porter.

"Wil, be not angry this small booke is read
In praise of one no bigger then thy head;
'Tis not in envy of thy greatnesse made,
Which might be unto twenty such, a shade:
Though hee bee small in body and in limbe,
Yet wee commend some thing that's great in him
The greatnesse of his spirit, and his minde,
Whose vertues are not like thy strength confin'd
Vnto his bulke: but pure without a dreg;
And has a body streighter then thy leg.
Doubt not in emulation some will straine
His sinewy muse, for to advance thy fame,
Then be not angry this small Lord is prais'd,
Since thou by nature, he by wit, is rais'd.

S. M.

The Letter is thus inscribed "To the most exquisite Epitome of Nature and compleatest Compendium of a Courtier the Lord Minimvs; [whom] the Lady Parvula wisheth health and happines.-Sir, May it please your diminutive eminence, permit a devoted lover of your concise dimensions, to present very lowly, as most fitting to your person, in remembrance of this newyeare a small token of my unparalleld affection. Confesse I must, compendious Sir, my gift is somewhat of the least, but my hope is, being therein so like yourselfe, it will not displease you. And if whatsoever is received, is received according to the measure or size of the receiver, be a true rule in phylosophy; then, bootlesse had it beene for your obsequious Handmaid, to have meditated any present for size greater; since how great soever, it would have beene but as very little, your, selfe so very little, being the receiver: Nor is your littlenesse (mistake me not) mentioned as any derogation to' worth: diamonds of most precious value, are but little in substance: and if it might not appear in me presumption to trouble you with further discourse, I could with easie, or no labour prove things little to bee farr better then things that are great. Is not a Microcosme better than a Macrocosme, the little-world man, then the great world earth? Nay man the lesser world is Jord of the greater; and in the greater world, which is the Creator's library (the severall creatures being as so many bookes in it) have we not rarer documents from the little decimosextos, the ant and dove, then from the great folios, the elephant and whale!.... And as men that are little are very ex

cellent: so likewise that which is excellent in or about men is very little wit, the thing so admired, is not that in men very little? Money, the thing so desired, though a man have much, yet he esteemes it as little, and things ever are to be judged as they are valued: is not honesty in men very little, when sophistry hath fled the schooles and is become a shopkeeper, and tradesmen think if they lose their lying they lose their living? Looke for obedience, of things the best, is it not little, when princes' commands are rather questioned then obeyed? Looke for malice, of things the worst, is it not very great, when fooles had rather spend much in law then forgive somewhat in charity?.... If a man but seriously observe hee shall finde very few things such as they seeme: and by reason wise men also have their weake times their verdict to bee no sufficient argument to command universall beliefe, especially where reason is pregnant with probable proofes on the adverse side, add to this diffidence being so necessary a part of wisedom. Besides admit this position little better then great seeme very strange, yet stranger then this have bin admitted after a rational examination, and therefore why not this upon the like consideration? When I had one servant, I had a servant; when I had two servants, I had halfe a servant; when I had three I had never a one: this speech I presume may be beleeued to be a very mad one, and yet it is a most wise one, for 'tis resolved thus: a master having but one servant, thought him over-burthened with work, and therfore tooke another to helpe him; (now hee had two) but each so trusted to the others observance, that they were often missing and the worke not done; he chose another (so he had three) and was then worse served then before. . . . . . Consider little morally and vertue is in the meane: consider little theologically and the whole church is but a little flocke; consider little civilly, and who dare deny (I assume spirit from truth) but that the little prince is a better man then the king's greatest subiect? Nay, the king himselfe, who is God's epilogue and man's prologue, take him in the better consideration, with God he is minor ; take him in the other, with man he is maior; for so Tertullian, Imperator est Maior omnibus, solo Deo minor: a king is greater then all others, lesse onely then God. And I will for ever heartily pray heaven blesse our Queene, because she has made the kingdome happy by bringing his Maiesty so many little ones. In short who desireth not in debt to be as little as may bee? and what a rare temper is it in men of desart not to bee ambitious of Greatnes? and even in the highest matters which men attempt, how commonly the most doe come short, and in their greatest business effect but little. And therefore as it was said of Scipio that he was nunquam minus solus, quam cum solus, never lesse alone, then when alone: so it may

be