FIGURE OF SIX.  
Containing these Six things; Wit, Mirth, Pleasure, pretty Observations, new Conceits, and merry Jests.  
When days are long, this Figure may  
Help you to pass the time away:  
And it will breed you much delight,  
To pass away the winter's night.  
LONDON, ●●●nted for John Wright at the King's head in the Old Bayley. 1652.   

TO make a large preface to a small Volume, were as ridiculous, as to set and alderman's Gate before a poor Cottage; for as the one would show a great diproportion in building, so the other would tire the Reader to no purpose; and therefore I intend not to use many words to entreat thy acceptance of this Figure of Six, because it may be, some delight more in dry Thistles, then in the sweetest Flowers that can be gathered out of the Garden of Invention: but let them enjoy their humour, for I know there are Six kinds of Readers: the pain Readers; the ignorant Reader, the scoffing Reader, the conceited Reader, the carping Reader, and the kind Reader. Now to the last of these Six, namely to the kind Reader, I commend this Figure of Six: and if he like it, I care not for the rest, and so I rest.  
Thy Friend, D. N.  
This book is like a pair of Dice,  
That doth run still upon the since,  
And two pence of it is the price.  
The Figure of Six is liked well,  
For 'tis six to one but it will sell.   

THE FIGURE OF SIX.  
1. SIx things are very hard to do to pray heartily, to forgive willingly, to suffer patiently, to love moderately, to love wisely, and to spend thriftily.  
2. Six things are much abused: Wine, Women, Weapons, Wit, Wealth, and a poor man in want.  
3. Six heads are without brains: an Arrow head, a Horse head, a nails head, a Hammers head, a Beds head, and a Maiden head.  
4. Six things are best when they are broken: A cunning Scrivener, a Nut a Cake, a Lobster, an egg, and a good Jest.  
5 Six things do blind judgement Affection, Passion, Ignorance, Opinion, Hatred, and Bribery.  
6. Six cruel long Bills: A forest Bill, a steward's Bill, a watchman's Bill, a Chancery Bill, a woodcock's Bill, and a tailor's Bill.  
7. Six great helps belong to a Poet the help of Invention, the help of nature, the help of Art the help of Reading, the help of the Muses, and the help of Money.  
8 Six chief herbs in the Garden: Sage, Time, Thrift, bachelors Buttons, Rosemary, and the herb of Grace.  
9 Six figures of Six: The figure of Six in arithmetic, the figure six in small Beer, the figure of Six in a horse's mouth, the figure of Six upon cards, the figure of Six in this book, and the figure of Six in silver  
10. Six very painful Letters: The head H, the tooth H, the back H, the belly H, the horn H, and the halter H:  
11 Six things are necessary for school, boys: a penknife, quills, Paper, Inke-Books, and sometimes Birch.  
Fear, Hope idleness jealousy, sadness and madness.  
13. Six things do live in a several Elements, A chameleon in the air, a Salamander in the fire, a Mole in the earth, a Fish in the water, a fool in the Court, and a Drunkard in his Ale.  
14. Six things are good in cold weather: good Fare, good Fires, good drink, good company, good jests, and a she Bed-fellow  
15 Six degrees of misery: To be out of clothes, to be out of Money, to be out of Friends, to be out of Credit, to be out of house and home, and to be out of one senses.  
16. Six goodly fights: to see a Tree full of fruit, a Garden full of Flowers, a field full of cattle, a barn full of corn a woman with child, and a ship under sail.  
17. Six light things do make man heavy hearted: Light pennyworths light pots, light purses light gold, light suppers, and light wives.  
18. Six things are necessary to Life: Meat, drink, clothing, lodging, health and some wealth.  
19 Six things do make no show to the world: Wit in a blunt man, Learning in a wise man, strength in a valiant man, wealth in a r●ch man, Religion in a good man, and virtue in a poor man.  
20. Six things are much alike: The fawning of a dog, the flattering of a Knave, the scratching of an ass, the greasing of a Sow, the cackling of a Goose, and the kindness of an Host●●.  
21. Six blind things: a blind Man, a blind mould, a blind Buzzard, a blind Beetle, Homer the blind Writer, and Cupid the blind Archer.  
22 Six things are n●cessary in a Christian life: Faith, Hope, and charity, Love, Peace, and unity.  
23. Six kinds of Prodigals: The fine prodigal▪ the kind Pr●digall, the drunken prodigal, the dicing prodigal, the wit●y prodigal, and the wenching P●odigall  
24 Six pleasant Fruits: Cherries, S●rawberries, Plumbs, Peaches▪ pears and the fruit of Love.  
25. Six angry things: A sick man, a proud man, a conceited man▪ an upstart Officer, a wasp, and a woman.  
26. Six things are too much used: much eating, much drinking, much sleeping much swearing, much prating, and much lying.  
27. Six things are very dangerous to take up: hot Iron, whole Pots, a seal from a Bond, dice among Cheaters, money upon Usury, and a maid's petticoat.  
28. Six kinds of worms: a Mal●worme a muck-worm, a Mud worm, an Earth worm, a fruit-worm, and a wood-worm.  
29. Six things there are which drink of other men: cost: an Host, an Hostis, a tossed, a T●pster, a Fly, and a sharker.  
30. Six bad humers: a scoffing humour, a quarrelling humour, a proud humour, a zealous humour, a mad humour, and a melancholy humour.  
31. Six great menders: tailors, cobblers, sempsters, Tinkers, Glasse-menders, and bellows-menders.  
32. Six things do soon vanish Youth, Beauty, Strength, Mirth, Pleasure, and hasty Love.  
33. Six things are very sharp sighted: an Eagle a hawk, a Hearne, a needle, a jealous eye, and a hungry man.  
34 Six things are well matched together: A slut and a sloven, a knave and a fool, a scold and a deaf man, a whore and a blind man, a Bride and a bridegroom, an ass and a flatterer.  
35 Six schools are much frequented: A grammar school, a Writing school, a Drinking school, a Dancing school a Fencing, school, and a Vaulting school  
36 Six ill sounds: The scraping of trenchers, the rubbing of iron the howling of a Dog, the creaking of a wheel the crying of Cats, and the sco●lding of a shrew.  
37 Six kinds of tame fowl live in London, prating daws, gossipping Magpies, cheating rooks, young Woodcocks, old dotterels, and wanton wagtails.  
38 Six essential parts belong to a Gallant: To wear good clothes, to swear great oaths, to spend soundly, to drink profoundly, to compliment with a friend, and to court a wench.  
39 Six things are soon dry: A ditch in summer, a tap when the drink is out, a complementing ass, a poor mands ●urse, an Ap●ill shower and a widow's ears.  
40 Six things are much desired, but seldom found: A happy Life, a good wife, a careful servant, an honest Pettifogger, a conscionable man, and a constant friend.  
41 Six cracked things are never good: a cracked glass, a cracked Bottle, a cracked Fiddle a cracked Groat, a cracked crown, and a a cracked maidenhead.  
42 Six things are very tedious: To fit by an ill fire, to hear a long tale, to court a coy wench, to ride on a jade, to expect the return of a slow carrier, and to lie in bead and look for a sweetheart.  
43 Six Items are reckoned in inns: Item for meat, Item for bread, Item for drink, Item for fruit and cheese, Item for fire, and Item for kissing Hostis  
44 Six chief faculities belong to the reasonable soul: Speech, Laughter, Reason, Understanding, Will, and Election of good and bad.  
45 Six renowned Greek Poets: Pindaries, Euripides, Non●ius, Theognis, He flod, and Hom●r.  
46. Six kinds of water: cold wate● hot water, strong water, stomach wate● Rose water, and Rose the Chamber● maids water.  
47. Six things belong to a Husband● man to manure his ground, to plough his ground, to sow his corn, to reap his corn, to thresh his corn, and to sell his corn  
48. Six steps bring men to Tyburne● idleness brings men to ill company, ill company brings wasteful spending, wasteful spending brings want, want brings stealing▪ and stealing brings them to the gallows.  
49. Six things do desire to meet: a foe with his foe in the Field, a friend with his friend, the jet with straw, the Load stone with Iron, the Male with the Female, and the Lover with his sweet heart.  
50. Six things are required in a Gentleman: Birth, Education, Learning, virtue, courtesy a●d Courage.  
51. ●ix comfortable things do belong to a Traveller; a good horse, good company, good boots good wa●es good store of money, & a good inn at night.  
52. Six in inferior ignorant Artists: A ●inker to a brazier a cobbler to a Shoo●aker a clerk to a Lawyer, an Apo●●ecary to a Physian▪ a butcher to a ●aylor, and a rhymer to a Poet.  
53. Six things are never satisfied. The thirstiness of the Sea the covetousness ●f an Usuer, I●ell, Ambition, the Grave, 〈◊〉 an insatiate woman  
54. Six necessary charges belong to ●oore house keepers: Firing Candle, ●read▪ drink Food▪ and to pay their ●and-Lords Rent,  
55. Six things are that are good in ●eep: his wool for clothes, his skin for ●archment his dung to fat the ground, is flesh for meat his bones for dice, ●nd his guts for Fiddle-strings.  
56. Six kind of Runners are much ●sed: A running Footman a running ●ckey, a running head a running vessel, running horse, a running hound, and running banquet  
57 Six things will make a man weep ●hen he hath no cause of sorrow: To ●eele Onions and garlic, to sit by a ●moaking fire, to drink Bottle-ale, to ●at Mustard, and to sup hot broth.  
58 Six things there are which the g●eatest Orator cannot persuade: 〈◊〉 persuade a fool from his folly, a 〈…〉 to hear a scold to be quiet, a ma● that has a cold to leave coughing a ma●● to leave her sweet heart▪ and a man 〈◊〉 pay the reckoning that has no money.  
59 Six things do make an 〈…〉 be well customed: good lodging goo● horsem●at, good attendance good usag● a fine ●●o●tis and a fine sign.  
60 Six great Talkers are seldom b●●leeved: a fortune-teller, a Traveller a Midwife, an old man, a Lawyer and an Irish man.  
61. Six commendations belong to good Horse: to be well mettled to hav● a good pace, a good colour a 〈◊〉 man● a fair tail, and to be well marked  
62 Six Games are much used: Irish tick-tack, Bowling, Shooting, Ruff● and In and In  
63 Six things there are which Maid desire: to be praised to be wooed, to b● fl●tter'd, to be kised by their swee● heart, to be married, to be refreshed &c.  
64 Six kinds of wanton creature Apes, monkeys, Kitlings, young Whelps Parrots, and wanton wenches.  
65. Six things are seldom or never seen: A white Crow▪ a black Sw●n, a faithless Turtle●dove, an owl in the day time, a Swallow in Winter, and a Friend in adversity.  
66 Six kinds of Hooks▪ Fish● hooks, fleshhooks, Tenter hooks, Doorehooks, Pot-hooks, and shouder-hooks, or sergeants.  
67. Six essential properties belong to a Lover: to love truly to love honestly, to love discreetly, to love chastely▪ to love faithfully and to love constantly.  
68 Six things are unpossible to be done: to catch a shower of hail in a bottle, ●o empt the Sea with a spoon, to tell the hair of ones head, to find a needle in a bundle of Hay, to find a Maidenhead in the court Russes, and to turn a windmill sails with a pair of bellows  
69 Six things do commonly ●oe together: lying and swearing, drinking and quarrelling, pride and beggary, love and idleness, wit and wilfulness, beauty and wantonness.  
70. S●x kinds of people not to be believed: horse-coursers. Broker● Travellers, pettifoggers, beggars, and soldiers  
71. Six things do make an excellen● receipt for the recovery of maidenheads: The Brains of a Beetle the heart of an humble Bee. ●an handful of 〈◊〉 with an ounce of Lond●n deliverance, boiled over the fire of a low worm, with the water of Pumicestone, which at the second taking will restore it, 〈◊〉 never.  
72. Six things belong to a shepherd a hook a Scrip, a ●ottle, a, Tarbox, a Bag-pite, an old cloak, and a young wench wrapped in it  
73. Six chief businesses belong to a Housewife: Brewing baking, spinning, Carding▪ Washing and Milking.  
74. ●ix very unconstant things: the Wind, for that's always turning, the moon, for that's always changing, the Sea, for that's always ebbing and flowing, a gliding stream, for that's always running, a child, for he's always craving▪ and a woman, for she's always wavering.  
57 Six things do bring men to want: carelessness, unthriftiness, Idlenessesse, wantonness, Pride and prodigality.  
76. Six things can never hold our long: drinking without eating, watching without sleeping, eating without drinking, clothes without mending giving without recovering, and spending without getting.  
77 Six things are required in a well shaped grey hound: to be backed like a beam, sided like a Breame, footed like a Cat, tayled like a Rat, breasted like ● drag, and headed like a Snake.  
78. Six things would make a man laugh: to see a Fox turn Lawyer to see Geese turn clients, to hear an owl sing, to see an Ape play his tricks, to see a Cat play on the Fiddle, and to see a Goose dance to the music.  
79 Six hard steps lead to Heaven: Crosses, Afflictions, Troubles, Con●empt of men, Want and poverty.  
80 Six helps there are to climb these steps; Prayer, Patience, Humility, Faith, Zale, and hope in God  
81 Six moral virtues are of chief note: Valour, Prudence, temperance, liberalty, Magnificence and Justice.  
82 Six shadows are often taken for substance: The shadow of Frenchmen, which is compliments, The shadow of Learning, which is plausible Discourse; The shadow of love, which are amorous vows; the shadow of Honour, Which is Wealth, the shadow of Wit, which are Jests: and the shadow of Life, which is mere shadow.  
82 Six things belong to a good sire: a pare of And●orns, a pair of Bellows, a pair of tongues, a Shewell, good company, and a pot of Ale.  
84. Six things are not respected when they are out of date: An old Horse, an old Hound, an old servingman, old Boötes, an old Maid, and an old almanac.  
85 Six things deserve hanging: w●● clothes, good Bells, a rope of Onions, a door on the hooks, a Usurer, and a thief.  
26. Six kinds of humours are much noted, a merry humour, a melancholy humour, a prodigal humour, a jealous humour, a sco●ng humour, and a sullen humour.  
87 Six things can never be recalled, being once misspent: a word from 〈◊〉 Mouth, an Arrow from the Bow, Money, Time, Youth once past, and a maidenhead once lost.  
88 Six things declare a true Friend: to help one in necessity, to speak well of one in absence, to keep one's counsel, to suppress his anger to give counsel, and be constant to the end.  
89. Six sorts of Drunkards, and ne'er a good one, a sowish Drunkard, a sheepish Drunkard, a loving Drunkard, a goat Drunkard an a pish Drunkard, and a Fox Drunkard.  
90 Six ways can never be found out: Via evis the way of a Bird. Via navis the way of a ship, Via v●●is the way of worm Via sapientis, the way of a wise man Via sagitta the way of an Arrow, and Via juvenis, the way of a young man and maid.  
91. Six things are very unseemly: to drink with a foul mouth, to cut bread with a foul knife, to feed swinishly, to talk bawdily, to scratch one's breech, and to gnaw meat.  
92. Six sweet meats have sour sauce: Pleasure, Prodigality, Pride, idleness, Scorning, and Whoring.  
93. Six notes to be observed in love: to love wisely, love warily, chastely, discreetly, virtuously and constantly.  
49 Six things comfort a man's heart: Wine, Company, Good news, good Ale, good Clothes, and Money in purse.  
95 Six things are well matched together: A Lawyer and his client, a Maid and her Love, Money and Wit, a blue coat and a Cognizance, a physician and his Patient, and a cup of Ale and a tossed.  
96. Six things deserve no pity: a lazy beggar, a drunkard's headache, a counterfeit Cripple, a prodigal wanting a Woman weeping, and Goose going barefoot.  
97 Six things will take a man by the No●● before he be aware: Bottle Ale, sneezing Powder. Tobacco, Pepper, 〈◊〉 and ill sm●ls.  
〈…〉 things are very sweet and pleasant Food to a hungry man, drink ●o a thirsty: man, sleep to a weary man ●ealth to a sick man, the shore to a sea, man, and Money to a poor man.  
99 Six heads are very good meat: A pig's head, a rabbits head, a lamb's head, a sheep's head, a calf's head, and cod's head.  
100 Six things are very headstrong: ● head strong horse, an unruly child, ●n unruly, youngman, a Tempest at ●ea, a Cuckold and a Bull.  
101. Six notes do show a virtuous mind: to live temperately, to love one's friend faithfully, to speak courteously, ●o heal honestly, to bear Adversity patiently, and to follow goodness con●tantly.  
102. Six outsides are more fair and beautiful than their infides: A fair Whore apainted Tomb a guilded Cup, ● rotten Nut, the bark of a cinnamon ●ree, and a Gallant in a new suit.  
103. Six good Dishes in a country house are always in readiness: a piece of Bacon, a piece of hung beef, White Meats, Cake and Cheese, Pudding and 〈◊〉.  
104. Six Birds do haunt and frequent Country house● a Martin, a Swallow, a Robin-rod breast, an owl a Daw and a Dove.  
105 Six things are great wasters of time: Eating, drinking, sleeping. Tobacco taking, Discoursing, and idleness  
106. Six things are hard to do: To row against the stream, to run against a hill to force a woman against her, will, to kick against thorns, and to strive against a great man.  
107 Six Caps are of great note: the scholar's Cap the tradsemans' Cap, the seamans' Cap the night Cap, the foole● Cap and the fuddling Cap.  
108. Six Touchstones do try six several qualities: Money is the Touch●stone of Honesty. Temptations of beauty. Adversity of Patience, Prosp●rity of wisdom Necessity of Friendship, and Time of Truth▪  
109. Six Dishes belong to a married man's table: three of flesh, and three of fish; a Tongue a Dotrell, a Raylt, a Pout▪ a Carb, and a carp.  
110. Six notes for a wise man▪ To are injuries to moderate his passion bestow his gifts warily: to deal ho●●stly, to live cheerfully, and die wil●●gly.  
111. Six things are good to the end good Man, a good tale, a good friend, 〈◊〉 good book, a good Play, and a good ●udding.  
112. Six things are very pleasing to ●e five senses, good cheer and good ●rinke to the tasting, Money to the ●●ght, music to the ear flowers to the ●mell, scratching to the leg to the touch ●nd to kiss a Maid.  
113. Six empty things are never good ●mpty brains, empty Barnes▪ empty Pots, empty Platters, empty Pockets, ●nd empty purses.  
114 Six butts do spoil fix good con●itions: A fair Maid, but unchaste, an ●onest man but poor; a good tailor, ●ut a thief; a good workman, but an ill ●usband; a good huswife but a scold; ● kind natured man but a Cuckold.  
115 ●ix days▪ three good, and three bad belong to a married man: the three good are his wedding day, the Christi●ing day, and her burial day▪ the three bad are washing days, scouring days, and scolding days.  
116. Six bad ways of being between; between two sergeant, to sit between two doors, to halt between two opinions to be between a whore's arms, between a pair of foul sheets, and beteewne hawk and Buzzard.  
FINIS.