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IN PHILONEM. XXXVIII. - Christopher Marlowe, The Works of Christopher Marlowe, vol. 3 (Poems) [1598]

Edition used:

The Works of Christopher Marlowe, ed. A.H. Bullen (London: John C. Nimmo, 1885). Vol. 3.

Part of: The Works of Christopher Marlowe, 3 vols.

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IN PHILONEM. XXXVIII.

  • Philo, the lawyer,1 and the fortune-teller,
  • The school-master, the midwife,2 and the bawd,
  • The conjurer, the buyer and the seller
  • Of painting which with breathing will be thaw'd,
  • Doth practise physic; and his credit grows,
  • As doth the ballad-singer's auditory,
  • Which hath at Temple-bar his standing chose,
  • And to the vulgar sings an ale-house story:
  • First stands a porter: then an oyster-wife
  • Doth stint her cry and stay her steps to hear him

    10

  • Then comes a cutpurse ready with his3 knife,
  • And then a country client presseth4 near him;
  • There stands the constable, there stands the whore.
  • And, hearkening5 to the song, mark6 not each other.
  • There by the serjeant stands the debitor,1
  • And doth no more mistrust him than his brother:
  • This2 Orpheus to such hearers giveth music,
  • And Philo to such patients giveth physic

[1]Isham copy and MS. “gentleman.”

[2]MS. “widdow.”

[3]So Isham copy and MS.-Other eds. “a.”

[4]So Isham copy.-Other eds. “passeth.”MS, “presses.'

[5]So Isham copy, ed. A, and MS.-Eds, B, C “listening”

[6]So Isham copy, ed. A, and MS.-Eds. B, C “heed.”

[1]So eds. B, C. -Isham copy, MS. and ed. A, “debtor poor.” With the foregoing description of the “ballad-singer's auditory “compare Wordsworth's lines On the power of Music, and Vincent Bournes charming Latin verses (entitled Cantatrices) on the Ballad Singers of the Seven Dials.

[2]So MS,-Eds. “Thus”