What things have we seen, Done at the Mermaid! heard words that have been So nimble, and so full of subtil flame, As if that every one from whence they came, Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest, And had resolv'd to live a fool, the rest Of his dull life.

-Beaumont, Francis
  Letter to Ben Jonson, verses prefacing  Jonson's Volpone.

This wench we speak of strays so from her kind, Nature repents she made her; 'tis a mermaid Has tolled my son to shipwreck

-Dekker,Thomas
The Roaring Girl (with Thomas Middleton), act1, sc.2.

Souls of Poets dead and gone What Elysium have ye known, Happy field or mossy cavern, Choicer than the Mermaid Tavern?

-Keats,John
  'Lines on the Mermaid Tavern'.