Note 82 — Epigrammes.
Reading edition
1st edition, 'which in epigrams did;' Isham 'which did.' [The Epigrams of John Heywood are well known. An allusion to this epigram of Davies occurs in Sir John Harington's Metamorphosis of Ajax, 1596: "This Heywood for his proverbs and epigrams is not yet put down by any of our country, though one [Marginal Note, M[aster] Davies doth indeed come near him, that graces him the more in saying he puts him down," p. 41, edition 1814. (In the same work we find, "But, as my good M. Davies said of his epigrams, that they were made, like doublets in Birchin-lane, for every one whom they will serve, &c. p. 133. D.] [I add from T. Bastard's 'Chrestoleros' [Lib. II: Epigram 15] an answer to this:
Heywood goes downe saith Dauis, sikerly, And downe he goes, I can it not deny: But were I happy did not fortune frowne Were I in heart I would sing Dauy downe.
Cf. also lib. iii. Ep. 3. Mr. Dyce also quotes from Freeman's Rubbe and a great Cast, 1614. G.]