LR73 - British Library - Newcastle Harleian MS 4955, fols. 166v-167v

Extract from verses ( c . 1627) by Richard Andrews (1575-1634, physician, Vice-President of St John's, Oxford)   about Poole's Hole, mentioning Jonson 's visit there on his journey to Scotland . The poem appears in a collection of poetry from various authors, including Jonson and John Donne, prepared for William Cavendish, Earl of Newcastle.
Eugene Giddens

[fol. 166v]
Now as I marked all this frame,
I thought I should deserue no blame,
If I a verse or two should graue,
Vpon a Rock within this Caue.
I drewe my knife, t'was not to eate,
And then I wrought this little feate.
A Melting Rocke, a flowing Walke,
A Marble flood, A dropping chalke
A Stony Sea, a Rayneing flint,
A Weeping Tombe, and I am in't.
My guide stood by and did mee note
And ask'd mee what I there had rote
I said I am not foole alone,
Here are more names vpon this stone.
And I do worke now like a Mole
To haue my finger in the hole.
It seemes (quoth hee) Sir you can write,
And I beleeue, you can indite.
I'le tell you heare came on a tyme
A Big fatt man, that spake in Ryme.
Wee had much a-doo, to drawe him in,
For hee at first stuck by the chin.

[fol. 167]
But when the bulghe came to the straights
Hee farted as t'had beene the Waites
Hee seemed a good natur'd man
For I sawe him drinke vp a Can
Of Darbie Ale, and of the best,
I'me sure it held three pintes at least.
This man (I was about to say)
Tould us the storie of a play
How Niobe for very greife,
Sate weeping long without releife;
And then the Gods heareing her mone,
Turn'd her vnto a weeping Stone.
And sure (quoth hee) this is the place,
Where shee doth lye, and all her race.
An other yeare this Man came hyther,
Then hee had studied it I gather.
And ʌ ⎡then⎤ I heard him plainely speake,
Both of this Hole, and that i'th Peake.
That Hole, the Diuells Arse I meane,
So cal'd (quoth hee) t'is in my sceane.
Because Cock-Lawrell to a feast
Did him invite, and there the beast,
Let such a fart within the Peake,
That all the Countrey did then reeke.
Now for this Hole (quoth hee) of Poole
I talke not to you like a Foole,
I'le tell you all the very storie,
Which to your Towne, shalbee a glorie.
The Diuell once pray, heare mee Maisters,
And listen not to your Poetasters.
Was troubled, (as hee is a Cullion)
With a strange fitt of the Strangullion.
The cause, the stone was in his Bladder,
W hich did him vexe, and made him madder,
Then when a Serieant at one bitt
Hee swallowed downe, for then his fitt
Did growe so strong, so sharpe his paines,
That they did tye him vp in Chaynes
Because hee was s'impatient;
One of those chaines was after sent,

[fol. 167v]
To Rochell, and t'is there still sauen
To bee a Barr to keepe their hauen;
But that was nothing to this paine,
Wi th which the Divell now was tane
Hee cries, hee rages, roares, and raues
And calleth all about him Knaues,
Rascalls, and Traitors: what can none
Find any meanes to ease the stone.

[The tale of the Devil continues, but Jonson 's narrative voice is dropped at this point.]

Bibliography
H&S, 11.387-9
Briggs, 'Studies in Ben Jonson ', Anglia 37 (1913)
Kelliher (1993), 134-74