The smell-feast Afer travels to the Burse
Twice every day, the flying news to hear;
Which, when he hath no money in his purse,
To rich men's tables he doth ever bear.
He tells how Gronigen is taken in
By the brave conduct of illustrious Vere,
And how the Spanish forces Brest would win,
But that they do victorious Norris fear.
No sooner is a ship at sea surpris'd,
But straight he learns the news, and doth disclose it;
No sooner hath the Turk a plot devis'd
To conquer Christendom, but straight he knows it.
Fair-written in a scroll he hath the names
Of all the widows which the plague hath made;
And persons, times, and places, still he frames
To every tale, the better to persuade.
We call him Fame, for that the wide-mouth slave
Will eat as fast as he will utter lies;
For fame is said an hundred mouths to have,
And he eats more than would five-score suffice.