We will survey the suburbs, and make forth our sallies

Down Petticoat-lane and up the Smock-alleys, To Shoreditch, Whitechapel, and so to St. Kathern's,

To drink with the Dutch there, and take forth their patterns:

From thence, we will put in at Custom-house key there,

And see how the factors and prentices play there False with their masters, and geld many a full

pack,

To spend it in pies, at the Dagger and the Woolsack.

Pug. Brave, brave, Iniquity! will not this do, chief?

Inių. Nay, boy, I will bring thee to the bawds and the roysters,

At Billinsgate, feasting with claret-wine and oysters;

that "the spits of the fairies are made of Spanish needles;" but, indeed, the expression is too common for notice. In the Sun's Darling, by Ford, Folly says of one of the characters, "He is a French gentleman that trails a Spanish pike, a taylor." Upon which the editor observes, “ I cannot discover the force of this allusion, except it be to the thinness of the taylor's legs!" The editor is not fortunate in his guesses. The allusion is to the taylor's needle, which, in cant language, was commonly termed a Spanish pike. In the satirical catalogue of books by sir John Birkenhead is, "The Sting of Conscience, a tract written with the sharp end of Arise Evans's Spanish pike. Arise Evans was a taylor. Mr. Weber had not discovered that the best needles, as well as other sharp instruments, were, in that age, and indeed long before and after it, imported from Spain: if he had ever looked into Jonson, whom he is so forward to revile, he might have seen the "force of the allusion," and, probably, discovered, in addition to it, that the name of this great poet might be cited for better purposes than the gratification of wanton malice, or the sport of incorrigible folly.

From thence shoot the Bridge, child, to the Cranes in the Vintry,

And see there the gimblets, how they make their entry!

Or if thou hadst rather to the Strand down to fall, 'Gainst the lawyers come dabbled from Westminster hall,

And mark how they cling, with their clients together,

Like ivy to oak, so velvet to leather:
Ha, boy, I wou'd shew thee-

Pug. Rare, rare!

Sat. Peace, dotard,

And thou, more ignorant thing, that so admir'st; Art thou the spirit thou seem'st? so poor, to choose,

This for a Vice, to advance the cause of hell,
Now, as vice stands this present year? Remember
What number it is, six hundred and sixteen.
Had it but been five hundred, though some sixty
Above; that's fifty years agone, and six,
When every great man had his Vice stand by him,
In his long coat, shaking his wooden dagger,
I could consent, that then this your grave choice
Might have done that, with his lord chief, the
which

Most of his chamber can do now. But, Pug,
As the times are, who is it will receive you?
What company will you go to, or whom mix with?
Where canst thou carry him, except to taverns,
To mount upon a joint-stool, with a Jew's trump,
Το put down Cokely, and that must be to citizens?
He ne'er will be admitted there, where Vennor
comes."

5 Cokely and Vennor.] Cokely is elsewhere mentioned by Jonson as master of a puppet-show; he seems also to have been

He may perchance, in tail of a sheriff's dinner, Skip with a rhyme on the table, from Newnothing,

And take his Almain-leap into a custard,'

famous for tricks of legerdemain. Of Vennor, his superior in the art, I can give the reader no information. In Taylor's Cast over the Water, he mentions

"Poor old Vennor, that plain dealing man,

Who acted" England's Joy" at the Old Swan."

If the Vennor of the text be, as I suppose, the son of this person, he seems to have turned aside from the plain dealing of his father.

And take his Almain-leap into a custard.] In the earlier days, when the City kept a fool, it was customary for him, at public entertainments, to leap into a large bowl of custard set on purpose: there is an allusion to this piece of mirth in Shakspeare. WHAL.

Whalley alludes to All's well that end's well. "You have made a shift to run into it, boots and all, like him that leapt into the custard." A. 2. S. 5.

66

Our old dramatists abound with pleasant allusions to the enormous size of these “ quaking custards," which were served up at the city feasts, and with which such gross fooleries were played. Thus Glapthorne:

"I'll write the city annals

In metre, which shall far surpass Sir Guy
Of Warwick's history; or John Stow's, upon
The custard, with the four and twenty nooks
At my lord mayor's feast."

Wit in a Const.

Indeed, no common supply was required; for, besides what the Corporation (great devourers of custard) consumed on the spot, it appears that it was thought no breach of city manners to send, or take some of it home with them for the use of their ladies. In the excellent old play quoted above, Clara twits her uncle with this practice:

"Nor shall you, sir, as 'tis a frequent custom,
Cause you're a worthy alderman of a ward,
Feed me with custard, and perpetual white broth
Sent from the lord mayor's feast, and kept ten days,
Till a new dinner from the common hall
Supply the large defect."

Shall make my lady mayoress and her sisters
Laugh all their hoods over their shoulders. But
This is not that will do, they are other things
That are received now upon earth, for Vices;
Stranger and newer: and changed every hour.
They ride them like their horses, off their legs,
And here they come to hell, whole legions of
them,

Every week tired. We still strive to breed,
And rear up new ones; but they do not stand;
When they come there, they turn them on our
hands.

And it is fear'd they have a stud o' their own
Will put down our's: both our breed and trade
Will suddenly decay, if we prevent not.
Unless it be a vice of quality,

Or fashion now, they take none from us. Carmen
Are got into the yellow starch, and chimney-

sweepers

To their tobacco, and strong waters, Hum,
Meath and Obarni.' We must therefore aim

Are got into the yellow starch, and chimney-sweepers
To their tobacco, and strong waters, Hum,

Meath and Obarni] The ridiculous fashion, affected both by the great and small vulgar, of having their ruffs and linen stiffened with a kind of yellow starch was an object of satire to the wits of Jonson's age. It was first brought into vogue by Mrs. Turner, one of the persons employed by the countess of Essex in the poisoning of sir Thomas Overbury: and as she was soon after executed for her dealings in that affair, with a yellow starched ruff about her neck, the mode became for a time disreputable. WHAL.

Enough, and more than enough has been produced on this tritest of all subjects, yellow starch. On the strong waters mentioned in the quotation, Whalley has nothing; and I have very little to the purpose. Meath is familiar to every reader under the name of metheglin. Hum, I have always understood to be an infusion of spirits in ale or beer. It is mentioned by

At extraordinary subtle ones now,

When we do send to keep us up in credit:
Not old Iniquities. Get you e'en back, sir,
To making of your rope of sand again;
You are not for the manner, nor the times.
They have their vices there, most like to virtues :
You cannot know them apart by any difference:
They wear the same clothes, eat the same meat,
Sleep in the self-same beds, ride in those coaches,
Or very like, four horses in a coach,

As the best men and women. Tissue gowns,
Garters and roses, fourscore pound a pair,
Embroider'd stockings, cut-work smocks and
shirts,

More certain marks of letchery now and pride,
Than e'er they were of true nobility! [Exit Iniq.
But, Pug, since you do burn with such desire
To do the commonwealth of hell some service,
I am content, assuming of a body,

You go to earth, and visit men a day.
But you must take a body ready made, Pug;
I can create you none: nor shall you form
Yourself an airy one, but become subject
To all impression of the flesh you take,
So far as human frailty. So, this morning,
There is a handsome cut-purse hang'd at Tyburn,
Whose spirit departed, you may enter his body:
For clothes, employ your credit with the hang-

man,

Or let our tribe of brokers furnish you.

several of our old dramatists, and appears to have been considered as a kind of cordial. Thus Fletcher: "Lord, what should I ail! what a cold I have over my stomach; would I had some hum!" Wild Goose Chace. Obarni is probably a preparation of usquebaugh; but this is merely conjecture. The word is an ama Ayousor, (as far as my knowledge reaches,) and I have endeavoured in vain to ascertain the meaning of it.