THE PRAISE, ANTIQVITY, and commodity, of Beggary, Beggars, and Begging.  
Beggar's Bush. A Maunbering Beggar. A gallant Beggar.  
At London Printed by E. A. for Henry Gosson, and are to be sold by Edward Wright near Christ's Church Gate. 1621.   

TO THE BRIGHT EYE-DAZELING MIRROR OF MIRTH, Adelantado of Alacrity, the Pump of pastime, spout of sport, and Regent of ridiculous Confabulations, ARCHIBALD ARMSTRONG, alias the Court ARCHY.  
Envy and Hate are such daily followers, and deadly enemies, of the wife, honest, and virtuous, that my hope is, that they will never do you wrong or injury: And my belief is, that (as you have ever) you will always carry yourself so worthily in all your actions, that your best deserts shall neither merit envy or hatred. I have here made bold to present to your illiterate protection, a beggarly Pamphlet of my threadbare invention: I do assure you that I was more troubled in studying where to find a fit Patron, than I was in writing the Book; I thought to have dedicated it to Beggar's Bush near Andever, or to his Hawthorne brother within a mile of Huntingdon: but I considered at last, that the laps of your long Coat could shelter me as well ●r better than any beggarly Thorne-lush. I did once dedicate a Book to your patronage, of the supposed drowning of M. Thomas Coriat, and I did also dedicated trice small Treatises to a Leash of Knights; and because you all four make a well matched Murnivall of Patrons, 
A Gleek.  (for you all alike very illiberally put your hands in your pockets, and to make your moneys even, gave me nothing:) It makes me the bolder at this time to come upon you again, not doubting but your bounty will require my love and pains with as much more. It may be that your high affairs (wherein you are continually pestered with needless employments) rubs your mind quite from the Ryas, that you do not see in what declining predicament your own sometimes esteemed quality is: for the days hath been that many men kept Fools, but now (to save that charge) the most part of such Benefactors perform the function themselves: So that if you take not a speedy order, fooling will be as common as begging or whoremasters, and the sight or presence either of your worthy self, or any of your long-tailed tribe (which was wont to be seen and heard with admiration) will be no more regarded. To prevent which, I would counsel you to make a Corporation of fooling, and that none shall intrude into the society hereafter, but such as shall be Apprentizes to the quality, of which those that are now living, to contribute toward the building or purchasing of a Hall, yourself (during your life) to be perpetual Master of the Company. I hear that the valorous Sir Thomas, Knight of the Sun, hath had such a project in his head, end hath presumed to petition for himself, to have the sole approbation of all authorized Fools and Buffoons. But for aught I see, you need not fear that he will prevent you in this Monopoly, he being so far from the sufficiency of a general superintendent, that he is esteemed unworthy to be a setter up of the trade: for mine own part, a Beadle's place is only my ambition, to whip those out of the Society that are malapert fools, surcie fools, prodigal fools, courteous fools, proud fools, counterfait fools, or any one that is more Knave than Foole. Apart of Bridewell would serve silly for a Hall, and the Arms of the brotherhood shall be an Ass' head Dormant, in a field Gules, with a Babble and three Coxcombs rampant, and two morice-bels pendant, with a Whip passant lashant for the Crest, the Esoucheon mantled with powdered Vermin. This if you please to take in hand, no doubt but the work will be meritorious and notorious, and as the Roman Emperors Nero, Caligula, and Heliogabelus, are as famous for their acts, lines, and deaths, as the good Augustus, Alexander, Severus, and Marcus Aurelius: So shall you be remembered in succeeding ages beyond the memory of Scoggin, or worthy Will Summer. I pray you be not angry that I do not salute you with the flattering Epheihites, of honest, courteous, friendly, loving or kind; for as yet you never gave me occasion to do you any such injury: I protest Sir, I do love you with that affection as is correspondent to the vaccuity of your Worthiness, and I am assured that at all times you will stand my friend in word or deed, for as much as comes to an unbaked Tobacco-pipe. In which assurance I kiss your hand as innocent as the new borne Babe, or Lamb in the Cradle, and shall ever wish you a nimble tongue, to make other men's money run into your Purse, and quick heels to outrun the or Hue and cry, if occasion require.  
He that admires your unparallelable parts, and wisheth the reversion of your gains rather than your Office: john Taylor.   

THE PRAISE, ANTIQVITY, AND COMMODITY of Beggary, Beggars, and Begging.  
A Beggar from an Ancient house begins, 
Antiquity of Beggars.   
Old adam's soon, and heir unto his sins:  
And as our father Adam did possess  
The world, 
Universality.  there's not a Beggar that hath less.  
For whereof is the world compact and framed  
But Elements, which to our fence are named,  
The Earth, the Air, the Water, and the Fire,  
With which all live, without which all-expire.  
These, every Beggar hath in plenteous store,  
And every mighty Monarch hath no more.  
Nor can the greatest Potentate alive,  
The meanest Beggar of these things deprive.  
The Earth is common, 
Earth.  both for birth or Graves,  
For Kings, and Beggars, Freemen, and for Slaves:  
And a poor Beggar as much Air will draw, 
Air.   
As he that could keep all the world in awe.  
The Water, 
Water.  be it Rivers, Seas, or Spring,  
'Tis equal for a Beggar as a King.  
And the Celestial sun's bright fire, 
Fire.  from Heaven  
Amongst all estates most equally is given.  

If these elements could be bought and sold, the poor beggars should have small room for birth, life, or burial.  Given, not to be engrossed, or bought, not sold,  
For gifts and bribes, or base corrupting gold.  
These things nor poor or rich, can sell nor buy,  
Free for all living creatures, till they die.  
An Emperor, a great command doth beat;  
But yet a beggar's more secure from fear.  
A King may use disports (as fits the season)  
But yet a Beggar is more safe from Treason.  
A Prince (amidst his cares) may merry be,  
But yet a Beggar is from flatterers free.  
A Duke, is a degree magnificent,  
But yet a Beggar may have more content.  
A marquis, is a title of great fame,  
A Beggar may offend more, with less blame.  
An Earl, an honourable house may keep,  
But yet a beggar may more sound sleep.  
A Vizecoune may be honoured and renowned,  
But yet a beggar's on a surer ground.  
A Baron, is a Style beloved and Noble,  
But yet a beggar is more sty from trouble.  
A Knight, is good (if his deserts be such)  
But yet a beggar may not owe so much.  
A good Esquire is worthy of respect,  
A beggar's in less care, though more neglect.  
A Gentleman, may good apparel wear,  
A beggar, from the Mercer's book is clear.  
A Servingman that's young, in older years  
Oft proves an aged beggar, it appears.  
Thus all degrees and states, what o'er they are,  
With beggar's happiness cannot compare  
Heaven is the roof that Canopies his head,  
The clouds his Curtains, and the earth his bed,  
The Sun his fire, the Stars his candle light,  
The Moon his Lamp that guides him in the night.  
When scorching Sol makes other mortals sweat,  
Each tree doth shade a beggar from his heat:  
When nipping Winter makes the Cow to quake,  
A beggar will a Barn for harbour take,  
When Trees and Steeples are o'erturned with wind,  
A beggar will a hedge for shelter find:  
And though his inconveniences are store,  
Yet still he hath a salve for every sore,  
He for new fashions, owes the Tailor nothing,  
Nor to the Draper is in debt for clothing:  
A beggar, doth not beggar or deceive  
Others, by breaking like a bankrupt Knave.  
He's free from shoulderclapping Sergeants claws,  
He's out offeare of Envy's cankered jaws:  
He lives in such a safe and happy state,  
That he is neither hated, nor doth hate.  
None bears him malice, rancour, or despite,  
And he dares kill, those that dare him backbite.  
Credit he neither hath or gives to none,  
All times and seasons, unto him are one:  
He longs not for, or fears a quarter day,  
For Rent he neither doth receive or pay.  
Let Nation against Nation wars denounce,  
Let Cannon's thunder, and let Muskets bounce:  
Let armies, armies, force against force oppose,  
He nothing fears, nor nothing hath to lose.  
Let Townes and Towers with battery be o'erturned,  
Let women be deflowered and houses burned:  
Let men sight pellmell, and loose life and limb,  
If earth and skies-escafe, all's one to him.  
O happy begg'ry, every liberal Art  
Hath left the thankless world, and takes thy part:  
And learning, conscience, and simplicity,  
Plain dealing, and true perfect honesty,  
Sweet Poetry, and high Astronomy,  
Musics delightful heavenly harmony,  
All these (with begg'ry) most assuredly  
Have made a friendly league to live and dye.  
For Fortune hath decreed, and holds it fit,  
Not to give one man conscience, wealth, and wit:  
For they are portions which to twain belong,  
And to give all to one were double wrong,  

Wit, wisdom, wealth, and conscience, are not usually heredetary, or in one man.  Therefore although the Goddess want her eyes,  
Yet in her blinded bounty she is wise.  
I will not say, but wealth and wisdom are  
In one, ten, or in more, but 'tis most rare:  
And such men are to be in peace or wars,  
Admired like black Swans, or like blazing Stars.  
Two sorts of people fills the whole world full,  
The witty Beggar, and the wealthy Gull:  
A Scholar, stored with Ares, with not one cross,  
And Artless Naball stored with Indian dross.  
I have seen learning tattered, bare and poor,  
Whilst Barbarism hath domineered with store:  
I have known knowledge, in but mean regard,  
Whilst Ignorance hath robbed it of reward:  
And witless Coxcombs, I have heard dispute,  
Whilst profound Judgements must be dumb and mute.  
Apollo, with advice did wisely grant,  
That Poets should be poor, and line in want:  
And though plain Beggars they do not appear,  
Yet their estates doth show their kin is near.  

The barrenness of Parnassus.  Parnassus' Mount is fruitless, bare and sterile,  
And all the Muses poor in their apparel:  
Bare legged, and footed, with dishevelled hair,  
Nor Buskins, Shoes, or Head-tires for to wear.  
So far they are from any show of thirst,  
They scarce have e'er a smock themselves to shift.  
Homer, that was the Prince of Poetry,  
Was a blind Beggar, and in poverty: 
The poverty or beggary of the Muses.   
And matchless Ovid, (in poor wretched case)  
Exiled from Rome to Pontus in disgrace.  
And Maniun Maro, 
* Virgil, he was borne in a ditch, and afterward being in Rome in service with Augustus Caesar, to whom he many times gave learned verses, and the Emperor always rewarded him with bread. A Louse the ground of the first Hexameters.  for some space in Rome,  
Was to Augustus but a Stable Groom:  
His verses show he had a learned head,  
Yet all his profit was but bread and bread.  
A Louse hath six feet, from whose creeping sprawled  
The first Hexameters, the ever crawled:  
And ever since, in memory of the same,  
A Louse amongst the Learned is no shame.  
Then since the 
* Parnassus.  mountains barren Muses bare,  
And Prince of Poets had ae Beggar's share:  
Since their blind Sovereign was a Beggar poor,  
How can the Subjects but be void of store?  
What are their figures, numbers, types and tropes,  
But Emblems of poor shadows, and vain hopes.  
Their allegories, similes, allusions,  
Threadbare, do end in beggarly conclusions:  
Nor can their Comedies and Tragedies,  
Their Comitragy, Traggecomedies,  
No pastoral preterplupastorall,  
Their Moral studies, and Historical,  
Their sharp Iambic, high Heroick Saphique,  
And all where with their painful studies traffic:  
All these cannot allow a means complete  
To keep them out of Debt with Clothes and meat.  
And though a Poet have th' accomplished parts  
Of Learning, and the Axioms of all Arts:  
What though he study all his brains to dust,  
To make his Fame Immortal, and not rust,  
Revolving day by day and night by night,  
And waste himself in giving others light,  
Yet this is all the Guerdon he shall have,  
That begg'ry will attend him his Grave.  
He (in his own Conceit) may have this bliss,  
And sing, My mind to me a Kingdom is.  
But 'tis a Kingdom wanting form or matter,  
Or substance, like the Moonshine in the water.  
For as a learned 
* Chris. Marlo.  Poet wrote before,  
Gross Gold runs headlong from them, to the Boar;  
For which this unavoided Vow I'll make,  
To love a Beggar for Poet's sake.  
I that ne'er drank of Agganippes' Well,  
That in Parnissus Suburbs scarce do dwell,  
That never tasted the Pegassiar Spring,  
Or Tempe, nor e'reheard the Muses sing,  
I (that in Verse) can only Rhyme and matter  
Quite from the purpose, Method, or the matter.  
Yet some for friendship, Ignorance, or pity  
Will say my lines may pass, indifferent, pretty:  
And for this little, Itching, Vearsing vain,  
With me the Beggar vows he will remain.  
But if I could but once true Poetry win,  
He would stick close to me, as is my Skin.  
And sure if any man beneath the Sky,  
Had to his Nurse a Witch, it must be I,  
For I remember many years ago,  
When I would Cry, as Children use to do:  
My Nurse to still me, or to make me cease  
From crying would say hush lamb, pray thee peace.  
But I (like many youth or froward boys)  
Would yaule, and bawl, and make a wewling noise  
Than she (in anger) in her arms would snatch me,  
And bid the Beggar, or bulbegger catch me,  
With take him Beggar, take him would she say,  
Then did the Beggar such hard hold fast lay  
Upon my back, that yet I never could  
Nor ever shall in force him leave his hold  
The reason therefore why I am not Rich  
I think is, cause my Nurse was half a witch.  
But since it is decreed that I must be  
A beggar, welcome begg'ry unto me:  
I'll patiently embrace my destired Fate  
And live as well on some of higher Rate.  
Yet shall my begg'ry no strange Suits devose  
As Monopolies to catch Fleas or Flies:  
Or the Sole making of all Bleachers pricks,  
Or Corks for bottles, or for every six  
Smelled, Seacrab, Flounder, Playee or Whiting mop,  
One, as a Duty unto me to drop  
Nor to mark Cheeses, I'll not beg at all,  
Nor for the Mouse trap Geometrical.  
Nor will I impudently beg for I and,  
Nor (with Ambition) beg to have Command:  
Or meat, or clothes, or that which few men give,  
I'll never beg for money whilst I live.  
Yet money I esteem a precious thing,  
Because it bears and picture of my King:  
Unto my King I will a servant be,  
And make his pictures servants unto men.  
One only Begg'ry ever I'll embrace,  
I'll beg for grace, of him that can give grace,  
Who all things feeds and fills, and over-seeth  
Who gives, and casteth no man in the teeth.  
So much for that, now on my Theme again,  
What virtues Begg'ry still doth entertain.  
First amongst Beggars, there's not one in twenty,  
But hath the Art of memory most plenty:  
When those that are possessed with riches store  
(If e'er they were in Beggar's state and poor)  
They quite forget it, and will ever hate  
The memory of any Beggar's state.  
For fortune, favour, or benignity,  
May raise a Beggar unto Dignity:  
When like a bladder, puffed with pride and pelf,  
he'll neither know his betters, nor himself,  
But if a Beggar hath been wealthy ever,  
He from his mind puts that remembrance never.  
And thus if it be Rightly understood,  
A beggar's Memory is ever good.  
Nor he by Gluttony, or swimish surfeit,  
Doth purchase Sickness with his bodies forfeit.  
On bonds or bills, he borrows not, or lends,  
He neither by extortion gets or spends.  
No Usury he neither takes or 'gins:  
Oppress he cannot, yet oppressed he lives.  
Nor when he dies, he leaves no wrangling heirs  
To lose by Law that which was his or theirs  
Men that are blind in judgement may see this  
Which of the Rich, or Beggars hath to oft bliss:  
On which most pleasure, Fortune seems to hurl,  
The Lousy beggar, or the gouty Churl:  
The Ragged beggar sitting in the Stocks,  
Or the Embroidered Gallant with the Pocks.  
A Beggar every way is Adam's Son,  
For in a Garden Adam first begun:  
And so a Beggar even from his birth,  
Doth make his Garden the whole entire Earth.  
The fields of Corn doth yield him straw and bread  
To Feed and Lodge, and Hat to hide his head:  
And in the stead of Cutthroat slaughtering Shambles,  
Each Hedge allows him Berries from the brambles.  
The Bullesse, hedge Peake, Hips and Haws, and Sloes,  
Attends his appetite where ere he goes:  
As for his Salads, better never was,  
Then acute Sorrel, and sweet three leaved Grass,  
And as for Sauce he seldom is at Charges  
For every Crabtree doth afford them Vergiss.  
His banquet, sometimes is green Beans and Peason,  
Nuts, Pears, Plumbs, Apples, as they are in season.  
His music waits on him in every bush,  
The Mavis, Bulfinch, Blackbird and the Thrush:  
The mounting Lark, sings in the lofty Sky,  
And Robin redbreast makes him melody.  
The Nightingale chants most melodiously,  
The chirping Sparrow, and the chattering Pye.  
My neighbour Cuckoo, always in one tune,  
Sings like a Townsman still in May and june.  
These feathered Fiddlers, sing, and leap and play,  
The beggar takes delight, and God doth pay.  
Moreover (to accomplish his Content)  
There's nothing wants to please his sight or sent.  
The Earth embroidered with the various hue  
Of Greene, Red, Yellow, Purple, Watchet, Blue:  
Carnation, Crimson, Damask, spotless White,  
And every colour that may please the sight.  
The odoriserous Mint, the Eglantine,  
The Woodbine, Primrose, and the Cowslip fine.  
The Honeysuckle, and the Daffodil,  
The fragrant Time, delights the Beggar still.  
He may pluck Violets in any place  
And Rue, but very seldom herb of Grace:  
Hearts-ease he hath and Love and Idle both,  
It in his bones hath a continual growth.  
His Drink he never doth go far to look,  
Each Spring's his Host, his Hostess is each Brook:  
Where he may quaff and to't again by fits,  
And never stand in fear to hurt his wits,  
For why that Ale, is Grandam Nature's brewing,  
And very seldom sets her Guests a spewing;  
Unmixed, and unsophisticated drink,  
That never makes men stagger, reel and wink.  
Besides a beggar hath this pleasure more,  
He never pays, or never goes on score:  
But let him drink and quaff both night and day,  
there's neither Chalk, nor Post, or aught to pay.  
But after all this single-soaled small Ale,  
I think it best to tell a merry tale:  
There was a Rich hard miserable Lord,  
That kept a knavish Fool at bed and board,  
(As Great men oft affected have such Elves.  
And loved a Fool, as they have loved themselves.)  
But Nature to this Fool such virtue gave,  
Two simples in one Compound, Fool and Knave.  
This Noble Lord, Ignobly did oppress  
His Tenants, raising Rents to such excess:  
That they their states not able to maintain,  
They turned stark beggars in a year or twain.  
Yet though this Lord were too too miserable,  
He in his House kept a well furnished Table:  
Great store of Beggars daily at his Gate,  
Which he did feed, and much Compassionate.  
(For 'tis within the power of mighty men  
To make five hundred Beggars, and feed Ten.  
At last, upon a time the Lord and's Fool,  
Walked after Dinner their hot bloods to cool,  
And seeing three or four score Beggars stand  
To seek Relief from his hard Clutched hand,  
The Nobleman thus spoke his Fool unto,  
Quoth he, what shall I with these Beggars do?  
Since (quoth the Fool) you for my judgement call,  
I think it best we strait ways hang them all.  
That were great pity, than the Lord replied  
For them and me our Saviour equal died:  
Th' are christian's (although beggars) therefore yet  
hang's uncharitable, and unsit.  
Tush (said the Fool) they are but beggars thee,  
And thou canst spare them, therefore let them go:  
If thou wilt do, as thou hast done before,  
Thou canst in one year make as many more.  
And he that can pick nothing from this tale,  
Then let him with the beggar drink small Ale.  
Thus is a Beggar a strange kind of creature,  
And begg'ry is an Art that lives by Nature:  
For he neglects all Trades, all Occupations,  
All functions, Mysteries, Arts, and Corporations.  
he's his own Law, and doth even what he lift.  
And is a perfect right Gimnosophist.  
A Philosophical Pythagoras,  
That without care his life away doth pass.  

A Beggar never grows mad with too much study.  A Lawyer must for what he gets take pains,  
And study night and day, and toil his brains,  
With diligence to sift out Right from Wrong,  
Writes, travels, pleads, with hands, and feet, and tongue.  
And for to end Debate, doth oft debate  
With Rhetoric, and Logic Intricate:  
And after all his travel and his toil,  
If that part which he pleads for get the foil,  
The Client blames the Lawyer, and the Laws,  
And never minds the badness of his Cause.  
'tis better with a Beggar that is Dumb,  
Whose tongueless mouth doth only utter mum:  
In study, and in care, no time he spends,  

Dumb Rhetoric moves Charity.  And hath his business at his finger ends.  
And with dumb Rhetoric, and with Logic mute,  
Lives and gains more, than many that Dispute.  
If case a Beggar be old, weak or Ill,  

The weak Beggar have a great advantage over the strong.  It makes his gains, and comings in more still;  
When beggars that are strong, are paid with mocks,  
Or threatened with the Cage, the Whip, or Stocks.  
he's better borne then any Prince or Peer,  
In's Mother's womb three quarters of a year:  

Beggars (for th' most part well borne.  And when his birth hath made her belly slack,  
She four or five years bears him at her back,  
He lives as if it were Grim Saturn's Reign,  
Or as the Golden age were come again.  
Moreover many virtues do attend  

Virtues that Beggars have  On Beggars, and on them do they depend:  
Humility's a Virtue, 
Humility.  and they are  
In sign of Humbleness, continual bare:  
And Patience is a virtue of great worth, 
Patience.   
Which any beggar much expresseth forth,  
I saw a Beggar Railed at, yet stood mute,  
Before a Beadle, of but base Repute.  
For Fortitude a beggar doth excel, 
Fortitude.   
There's nothing can his valiant courage quell:  
Nor heat or cold, thirst, hunger, Famines rage,  
He dares outdare Stocks, whipping-posts, or Cage.  
he's of the greatest Temperance under heaven, 
Temperance.   
And (for the most part) seeds on what is given.  
He waits upon a Lady, of high price,  
Whose birthplace was Celestial paradise.  
One of the Graces, a most heavenly Dame,  
And Charity's her all admired Name: 
It waits on Charity a worthy bountiful Mistress.   
Her hand's ne'er shut, her glory is in giving,  
On her the Beggar waits, and gets his living. 
Antiquity.   
His State's more ancient than a Gentleman,  
It from the Elder brother (Cain) began: 
Beggary descended from Cain, who was the first man that ever was borne, & heir apparent to the whole world.   
Of Runagates and vagabonds he was  
The first that wand'ring o'er the earth did pass.  
But what's a Vagabond and a Runagate?  
True Annagramatized I will relate:  RUNAGATE, Annagram, AGRANTE. vagabond, Annagram, GAVE A BOND. 
And many well borne Gallants, mad and fond,  
Have with a Grant so often Gave a Bond.  
And wrapped their states so in a Parchment skin,  
They Vagabonds and Runagates have been.  

Honour  A beggar's nob'ly borne, all men will yield,  
His getting, and his birth b'ing in the field:  
And all the world knows 'tis no idle fable,  
To say and swear the field is honourable.  

Courtesy.  A beggar is most courteous when he begs,  
And hath an excellent skill in making legs:  
But if he could make Arms but half so well,  

Security.  For Heraldry his cunning would excel.  
A beggar in great safety doth remain,  
He's out of danger to be robbed or slain:  
In fear and peril he is never put,  
And (for his wealth) no thief his throat will cut.  

Bounty.  He's far more bountiful than is Lord,  
A world of hangers on at bed and board:  
Which he doth lodge, and daily cloth and feed,  
Them and their Issue, that increase and breed;  

Power.  For 'tis disparagement, and open wrong,  
To say a beggar's not a thousand strong:  

Frugality.  Yet have I seen a beggar with his Many,  
Come in at a Playhouse, all in for one penny.  
And though of creatures Lice are almost lest,  
Yet is a Louse a very valiant beast.  
But did not strength unto her courage want,  
She would kill Lion, Bear, or Elephant.  
What is it that she can but she dares do,  
She'll combat with a King, and stand to't too:  
She's not a starter like the dust-bred-Flea,  
She's a great traveller by land and sea,  
And dares take any Lady by the Rea.  
She never from a battle yet did fly,  
For with a Soldier she will line and dye.  
And sure (I think) I said not much amiss,  
To say a Louse herself a soldier is.  
An Host of Lice did to submission bring  
Hard-hearted Pharaoh the Egyptian King.  
But when these cruel creatures do want meat,  
Man's flesh and blood like Cannibals they eat.  
They are unto the beggar Nature's gifts,  
Who very seldom puts them to their shifts. 
A Beggar is no shifting fellow. True friendship   
These are his Guard, which will not him forsake,  
Till Death course doth of his carcase make.  
A beggar lives here in this vale of sorrow,  
And travels here to day, and there tomorrow.  
The next day being neither here, nor there:  
But almost no where, and yet every where. 
Beggars are travellers.   
He never labours, yet he doth express  
Himself an enemy to Idleness. 
He is seldom idle, though he never works.   
In Court, Camp, City, Country, in the Ocean  
A beggar is a right: perpetual motion,  
His great devotion is in general,  
He either prays for all, or preys on all. 
Devotion.   
And it is universally professed, 
Universality.   
From South to North, from East unto the West.  
On his own merits he will not rely, 
He is a lover of good works.   
By others men's good works he'll line and die.  
That begg'ry is most natural all men know,  
Our naked coming to the world doth show: 
Peggery is natural, and general to all the world.   
Not worth a simple rotten rag, or clout,  
Our silly earkasses to wrap about.  
That it will is, and hath perpetual been, 
Beggary is perpetual.   
All go as naked out, as they came in,  
We leave our clothes, which were our covers here,  
For Beggars that come after us to wear.  

The generality of beggary.  Thus all the world in general beggars are,  
And all alike comes in, and goes out bare.  

It is most necessary for every one to live and dye a Beggar.  And who so lives here in the best degree,  
Must (every day) a daily beggar be:  
And when his life hath run unto his date,  
He dies a beggar, or a reprobate.  
(Good Reader, pray misconstrue not this case,  
I mean no profanation in this place)  
Then since these virtues wait on beggary,  
As mild Humility, and Charity,  
With Patience, Fortitude, and Courtesy,  
And Temperance, Honour, Health, Frugality,  
Security, Universality,  
Necessity, and Perpetuity,  
And since heaven sends the Subject and the Prince  
All Beggars hither, and no better hence,  
Since begg'ry is our portion, and our lot,  
Our Patrimony, birthright, and what not:  
Let us pursue our function, let us do  
That (which by nature) we were borne unto.  
And whilst my Muse a little doth repose,  
I'll Character a Beggar out in prose.  
Now it follows, that I show some part of their forms, carriage, manners, and behaviour, their several Garbs, tones, and salutations that they accost their Clients or Benefactors withal, for they can wisely, and discreetly suit their Phrase and language, to be correspondent to their own shape, and suitable to whomsoever they beg of, as for example suppose a Beggar he in the shape or form of a maundering, or wandering Soldier, with one arm, leg or eye, or some such maim; then imagine that there passeth by him some Lord, Knigt, or scarce a Gentleman, it makes no matter which, than his Honour or his Worship shall be affronted in this manner:  
Brave man of Honour, cast a favourable look upon the wounded estate of a distressed Gentleman, that hath borne Arms for his Country in the hottest broils of the Netherlands, with the loss of his members; Cleveland hath felt my strength; I have bickered with the French, at Breast & Deep; I have passed the straits, the dangerous Gulf: the Groin can speak my service (Right Honourable) with no less than two dangerous hurts hardly brought off from Bummil Leaguer, which I would unwillinly discover to your manliness, whose belief shall be therein as much available as eye sight. Fortune hath only left me a tongue to bemoan my losses, and one eye to be witness of your noble bounty; I would be loath to weary your Lordship with the relations of my travels, to whom the story of these wars are as familiar as to myself; your worthy liberality is the spur to valour, and the safeguard of his country; and in your honourable memory my tongue shall supplies the defects of my limbs, and proclaim your merit through the 17 Provinces, whither your bounty shall bear this withered body, to inter it with the blood which I left there as a pledge of my return.  
This is the martial or decayed military kind of begging; which if he speed, than he can fit himself with a prayer accordingly, for the prosperity of his liberal benefactor, as thus:  
Peace be to thy loins (Right honourable) and plenty at thy board, oppression in the country, and extortion in the city, embroder thy carcase, and keep thy Concubine constant, that Tailors may sue to thee for work, more than for payment, and Sericants may stand and gaze at thy fair progress by the Compters, whist thy coach mares shall whurrie thee free from Attachments.  
Then (after a scrub or shrug) you must conceive that he meets with a Lawyer, and fitting his phrase to his language, he assaults him thus, and joins issue.  
Humbly showeth to your good Worship, your poor suppliant having advanced his bill in the late wars of Sweaden Copenhage, and Stock Holland; after Replications in particular, and Reiounders drawn, with bloody pens and dreadful characters, your petitioner joined issue in that fearful day of hearing, at the grand castle of Smolesco, where he came off with the loss of his inheritance, having the evidence of his limbs violently rend from him, to make open passage to the benevolent charity of such of such pious persons as is your good worship; for you are the true soldiers of the country, whose wars concern the domestic peace of our nation, as such as myself doth the foreign. My breeding was Gentle, Sir, and my birth English, a younger brother, driven to my shifts, to avoid the soul accidents of homebred miseries; I measured foreign paces, and was delivered abroad of my breeding at home, in which estate the hand of your bounty must support me, or else calamity will crawl ever me, which hath no Surgeon but the gallows, to which I hope the Law will not deliver me, seeing it carries so fair a face as the reverend aspect of your masterships countenance.  
By this time you must suppose that his bount being awaked he gives him somewhat; when with a correspondent prayer he thus takes his benevale.  
May the Terms be everlasting to thee, thou man of tongue, and may contentions grow and multiply, may Actions beget Actions, and Cases engender Cases as thick as hops, may every day of the year be a Shrove tuesday; let Proclamations forbid fight, to increase actions of battery, that thy Cassock may be three piled, and the welts of thy gown may not grow thread bare.  
Perhaps he meets with some country Farmer, or some honest Russet homespun plain-dealing plowiogger, whom he assaults with a volley of lies and bravadoes, in manner and form following.  
You shall do well to take notice (countryman and friend) that I am a soldier and a gentleman, who having been made Fortune's tennis ball, was lately cast upon these coasts of my country by the merciless cruelty of the raging tempestuous seas, where I have been in that distress that the whole Christian world durst not so much as look on: mine Arms hath been feared by all the enemies that ever beheld them advanced, and my command hath been dreadful through Europe, Asia, Africa and America, from the Sun's Eastern rising to his Western declination. I was the first man that entered (despite the mouth of the cannon) into the famous city of Portrega, a city five times greater than Constantinople, where the great Turk then kept his Seraglio, Bassa Caphy, Bassa Indae, and Mustapha Despot of Servia being my prisoners, whose ransoms yielded my sword three millions of Hungarian ducats; with which returning, thinking to make thee and the rest of my nation rich, the ship which transported me (being overladen) took such a leak that she sunk, not a mortal eye being able to see one penny of that uncountable treasure, myself (as you see preserved) a miserable spectacle of unfortunate chance, for getting astride upon a demyculuering of brass, I was weatherbeaten three leagues; on shore, as you see, an ominous map of manquelling calamity, to the relief whereof, my fellow and friend, (for so my now poverty makes me vouchsafe to call thee) I must entreat thy manhood, by offering a parcel of thy substance; make no delays, Sir, for I would be loath to exercise my valour on thee, and make thee the first Christian that should feel the impregnable strength and vigour of my victorious arm, which hath done to death so many Turks, Pagans and Infidels as cannot truly be numbered.  
After all this superfluous fustian, the poor man unwillingly draws and gives him some small mite, more for fear or lying, then either for love or charity. His fury being abated, he takes his leave thus:  
Fair be thy Harvest, and foul thy winter, that plenty may fill thy barns, and fear of scarcity raise thy price, may thy Landlord live unmarried, that thy fine may not be raised, to buy thy new Landlady a French petlicoate or a new Block Beaver, nor thy rents raised to keep her tyre in fashion.  
Invention many thousand ways could go,  
To show their variations to and fro:  

A justice of peace is as the world to a beggar, a Beadle as the flesh, and a Constable as the diveil.  For as upon the soul of man attends,  
The world, the flesh, the devil, (three wicked friends)  
So likewise hath a beggar other three,  
With whom his humour never could agree.  
A justice, to the world he doth compare,  

A justice will wink or connive at a beggar's faults often, partly for pity, & partly to a cold trouble  And for his flesh, a Beadle is a snare:  
But he that he of all accounts most evil,  
He thinks a Constable to be the devil.  
And 'tis as easy for him as to drink,  
To blind the world, and make a justice wink:  
The Beadle (for the flesh) ' is little pain,  

A whipping will be loove cured.  Which smart he can recover soon again.  
But yet the Devils (the Constable) a spirit,  
From hole to hole that hunts him like a ferret,  
Both day and night he haunts him as a ghost, 
A Constable in a Bugbear to a beggar.   
And of all furies he torments him most.  
All's one for that, though some things fa'l out ill,  
A beggar seldom rides up Holborn hill:  
Nor is he taken with a thievish trap,  
And made dispute with Doctor's Stories 
* Sybutae  cap.  
A common thief, for every groute he gains,  
His life doth venture, besides all his pains:  
For every thing he eats, or drinks, or wears,  
To lose his ears, or gain a rope he fears.  
But for a beggar, be it he or she,  
They are from all these choking dangers free.  
And though (for sin) when mankind first began,  
A curse was laid on all the race of man,  
That of his labours he should live and eat,  
And get his bread by travel and by sweat:  
But if that any from this curse be free,  
A beggar must he be, and none but he.  
For every fool most certainly doth know,  
A beggar doth not dig, delve, plough, or sow:  
He neither harrows, plants, lops, fells, nor rakes,  
Nor any way he pains or labour takes.  
Let swine be meazeld, let sheep die and rot,  
Let murrain kill the cattle, he cares not:  
He will not work and sweat, and yet he'll feed,  
And each man's labour must supply his need.  
Thus without pains of care, his life he'll spend,  
And lives until he dies, and there's an end.  
But I this reekning do of beggary make,  
That it much better is to give then take:  
Yet if my substance will not serve to give,  
Lie (of my betters) take, with thanks, and live.  
FINIS.