ssage of wit betwixt him and _Phillip Repington_ Bishop
of _Lincoln_, the latter sending the Challenge.

_Et niger & Nequam cum sis cognomine Nequam,
Nigrior esse potes, Nequior esse nequis_.

Both black and bad, whilest _Bad_ the name to thee,
Blacker thou may'st, but worse thou canst not be.

To whom _Nequam_ rejoyned,

Phi _not a foetoris_, Lippus _malus omnibus horis_,
Phi _malus_ & Lippus, _totus malus ergo_ Philippus.

Stinks are branded with a _Phi, Lippus_ Latin for blear-eye,
_Phi_ and _Lippus_ bad as either, then _Philippus_ worse together.

A Monk of St. _Albans_ made this Hexameter allusively to his Name:

_Dictus erat_ Nequam, _vitam duxit tamen aquam_.

The Elogy he bestoweth on that most Christian Emperor _Constantine_ the
Great, must not be forgot:

From _Colchester_ there rose a Star,
The Rays whereof gave Glorious Light
Throughout the world in Climates far,
Great _Constantine, Romes_ Emperor bright.

He was (saith one) Canon of _Exeter_, and (upon what occasion is not
known,) came to be buried at _Worcester_, with this Epitaph,

_Eclipsim patitur Sapientia, Sol sepelitur,
Cui si par unus, minus esset flebile funus;
Vir bene discretus, & in omni more facetus,
Dictus erat_ Nequam, _vitam duxit tamen aequam_.

Wisdom's eclips'd, Sky of the Sun bereft;
Yet less the loss if like alive were left;
A man discreet, in matters debonair,
Bad Name, black Face, but Carriage good and fair.

Yet others say he was buried at St. _Albans_ (where he found repulse
when living, but repose when dead) with this Epitaph,

Alexander, _cognomento_ Nequam, _Abbas_ Cirecestriae,
_Literarum scientia clarus, obiit Anno Dom._ 1217. _Lit.
Dom. C. prid. Cal. Feb. & sepultus erat apud Fanum S._ Albani,
_sujus Animae propitietur altissimus_, Amen.

* * * * *

_ALEXANDER ESSEBIE_.

This _Alexander_ was born in _Staffordshire_, say some; in
_Somersetshire_, say others; for which, each County might strive as
being a Jewel worth the owning, being reckoned among the chief of
_English_ Poets and Orators of that Age. He in imitation of _Ovid de
Fastis_, put our Christian Festivals into Verse, setting a Copy therein
to _Baptista Mantuan_. Then leaving _Ovid_, he aspired to _Virgil_, and
wrote the History of the Bible, (with the Lives of some Saints,) in an
Heroical Poem, which he performed even to admiration; and though he
f