BOOK RHYMES.

TRADITIONAL COVER OR FLYLEAF

INSCRIPTIONS.

Familiar examples are

Or

is my name, England is my nation,

is my dwelling place, And Christ is my salvation.

Steal not this book for fear of shame,
For in it you see the owner's name
And if I catch you by the tail,

You must prepare for Newgate jail.

The last two lines sometimes run

Or

And when you die the Lord will say,
Where is that book you stole away.

If you do, you shall rue,

The Lord my God will punish you.

There is sometimes a tag to the first rhyme; in a book owned by one Job Everall, of Salop, it is continued thus

When I am dead and in my grave,

And all my bones are rotten,
Then this will make you think of me,

When I am quite forgotten.-AP. 575.

In another book owned by a person of the same county, we get another variant of rhyme two, dated 1769

I put my name for to betray

The thief that steals this book away.

Steal not this book, etc.

Restore it back if lost it be,

For the owner's name above you see.—Ibid.

Variations of rhyme two are—

Steal not this book, etc.

The first is John in letters bright,

The second Smith to all men's sight,

And if you dare to steal this book,

The devil will take you with his hook.-CE. vii. 554.

Steal not this book, my honest friend,

For fear the gallows should be your end,

And when you're dead the Lord should say,

On the flyleaf of Aristotelis Ethicorum Explicatio accuratissimum. J. Camerarii, Francofurti, 4to, 1578, is written

This boke is one thing, The halter is another,

And he that stealeth the one, Must be sure of the other.

John Huntbate. CF. i. 429.

"Halter" sometimes gives place to "hemp."

This is - 's book,

You may just within it look,

But you'd better not do more, For the devil's at the door,
And will snatch at fingering hands; Look behind you there

he stands.-CG. ii. 125.

Of better thought are—

John Smith, his book

God give him grace therein to look,

Not only look but understand,

For learning is better than house or land,
When house(s) and land(s) are gone and spent,
Then learning is most excellent.—CE. vii. 554.
John Ellis, his book,

God give him grace therein to look,
And when the bell for him doth toull,

The Lord of heaven receive his soulle.

āno domini 1704. CK. iii. 206.

Phillip Morrey is my name,

And with my pen I write the same,

Tho' had such pen been somewhat better,

I could have mended every letter.

From flyleaf of Brathywate's Panedone or Health from Helicon, pub. 1621. CE. viii. 591.

Thomas Haud, his book,

God give him grace theare on to look,

And if my pen it had bin better,

I would have mend it every letter.

In a Geneva Bible, date 1596. Id.

Jesus that made bothe sea and lande,
Send me grace to amend my hande.

On a MS., fifteenth century. CF. iii. 425.

William Holker is my name,

I pray God send me good fame. Amen.-Id.

More literary in character are

If thou art borrow'd by a friend,
Right welcome shall he be
To read, to study-not to lend,
But to return to me.

Not that imparted knowledge doth

Diminish learning's lore,

But books, I find, if often lent,

Return to me no more.-CE. vii. 127-8.

Give your attention as you read,

And frequent pauses take,

Think seriously; and take good heed

That you no dogs'-ears make.

Don't wet the fingers as you turn

The pages one by one;

Never touch prints, observe; and learn
Each idle gait to shun.-Id. 128.

Neither blemish this book, or the leaves double down,
Nor lend it to each idle friend in the town;

Return it when read; or, if lost, please supply

Another as good, to the mind and the eye.

With right and with reason you need but be friends,

And each book in my study your pleasure attends.—Id.

This book is mine by right divine,

And if it go astray,

I'll call you kind my desk to find,

And put it safe away.—CE. vii. 337.

On the fly-leaf at the end of a folio copy of the Holy Warre, was the autograph of Roger Pepys, a barrister, M.P. for Cambridge, 1661, and afterwards recorder of that town, cousin to Samuel Pepys. He also added this couplet.

Now in this book I put my name,

Because I would not lose ye same.

Vide" Bibliography" appended to Mr. J. E. Bailey's Life of Thomas Fuller, DD.; London, 1874, p. 715. CI. viii. 258.

In a copy of Æsop's Fables, occurs the following, dated July

7th, 1775

The rose is red, the grass is green,

The days are spent which I have seen,
When I am dead then ring my knell,

And take my book and use him well.-CJ. vi. 46.

In an old rent book, of 21 Ed. IV. is this inscription— "Ihu Maria, Helpe, Amen,

Ryches makyth pryde,

And pride maket plee,
And plee makyth poverte,

And poverte makyth ples,

That is lief."-CF. xii. 306.

The ensuing lines were found written on the fly-leaf of a Bible

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
And every man a scribe by trade-

To tell the love of God alone
Would drain the ocean dry,

Nor could the scroll contain the whole.

Though stretch'd from sky to sky.—CE. vii. 337.

It has been suggested (CE. viii. 257) that Smart, the translator of Horace, wrote the lines: but Moses Margoliorith, Wybunbury, states that the verse is a translation of four Chaldee lines by Rabbi Mayir ben Isaac, which form part of a beautiful ode on the attributes of God, not unmixed with a considerable proportion of the fabulous, which is sung in every synagogue during the service of the first day of the Feast of Pentecost. CE. viii. 180.

Schoolboys have a formula interpreting the word FINIS, which is generally spoken-although it may sometimes be found written beneath the word-varying slightly in different localities. Shropshire it runs

F for Francis, I for Jancis, N for Nickley Boney,
I for John the Waterman, and S for Signey Coney.

In

AP. 575