Francis Freeling bookplate of Francis Freeling Hunger. jack a Lent. shrove-tuesday. London printed for I. T. and are to be sold at Christ Church Ga●e. 1620. To the Fishmongers and Butchers, greeting. FRiendly, frolic, frank, freehearted, famous, flourishing Fishmongers; And brave, bold, battring, Beefe-braining Butchers, to both your Companies in general I wish health and happiness: I aclowledge you to be Haberdashers for the belly, and I wish a plentiful increase of good appetites, and hungry stomacks, that every one in their calling may prove valiant of their teeth, whereby you may feed merrily by the profit you receive by nimble-chop'd feeders. I haue plainly and briefly set down jack a Lents good deeds and his bad, his friends and his foes, the great need and necessity that we haue of his coming once a year into this kingdom, and the great pity that he is no better entertained and observed. And though it be written in a merry style, yet I dare presume that mirth and truth walk together in it. In a word, read it if you like, and judge it as you list, please yourselves and I am pleased: and give jack a Lent no worse fare for his welcome then he deserves; and then he remaines ever yours to be commanded, at the sign of Pisces, for a dish of Powts, a Carp, or a Cods-head. jack A LENT. OF jack an Apes I list not to indite, Nor of jack Daw my Gooses quill shall writ: Of jack of newberry I will not repeat, Nor jack of both sides, nor of Skip-Iacke neat. To praise the Turn-spit jack my Muse is mum, Nor of the entertainment of jack Drum Ile not rehearse: nor of jack dog, jack Date, jack fool or jack a Dandy I relate: Nor of black jacks at gentle buttery bars, Whose liquour oftentimes breeds household wars: Nor jack of dover that Grand jury jack, Nor jack sauce( the worst knave amongst the pack.) But of the jack of jacks, Great jack a Lent, To writ his worthy acts is my intent; How he's attended with a mess of jacks, Whose famed my artless weak invention cracks, jack Herring and jack Sprat, jack Straw, jack Cade, These are the jacks with which my pen must trade. TO speak of the original of this jack, or from whence the name of jack hath derivation, I think it not impertinent to show you: Therefore I would haue all men understand that jack is no Christian, nor was ever baptized, but is sprung( like a Musrom) out of the corruption of the name of John; for before Iohns were, I did never find mention of any jacks, except black jacks: and there was an old courteous epithet attributed to John( as gentle John) but now so many jacks are made Gentles, that most Iohns and jacks make no further account of gentility, then glorious Titles and gaudy suits: so much for jack. Now for the name and beginning of Lent( as near as I can I will describe) the word Lent doth signify, a thing borrowed: for except a thing bee borrowed, how is it lent? and being lent, it follows by consequence that it was borrowed. But from whom it was borrowed, or who was so free of the lean of this Lent, that would be known. First then, you must conceive, that the true etymology, or ancient name of this Lent, is Lean-tide, which being Anagrammatiz'd, is( Land it) for the chief provision that he is furnished withall being fish, and such seafaring fare, that except he land it, there will bee but could takings in the fish-markets: for jack a Lent hath no society, affinity or propinquitie with flesh and blood, and by reason of his leanness( as Nymshag an ancient utopian Philosopher declares in his Treatise of the antiquity of Ginger-bread, Lib 7. Pag. 30000.) he should haue been a Foot-man to a Prince of that Empire name Lurguash Haddernot; but Lent shewed him the trick of a right Foot-man, and ran away from him faster then an Irish lackey, and from that time to this was never seen in Vtopia. Besides, he hath the Art of legerdemain beyond al the Jugglers in Egypt or Europe, for with a trick that he hath, he is in England, Scotland, France, Ireland, and the most part of the Christian world at once and the selfsame time, yet for all this nimbleness and quick agility, he was never seen to sweat, which is no marvell, because he hath not any fat or pinguiditie in his incorporeal corps. he hath a wife name Fasting, as lean as himself, yet sure I think shee is as honest, as barren: but it were very dangerous for an Epicure or a Puritan to haue a Bastard by her; for there were no other hope, but that the father of the brat( if it should prove male) would tutor it in all disobedience against both Lent and Fasting: for although Lent and Abstinence be but forty dayes endurance, yet to these valiant men of their teeth it seems forty yeeres, for they put the letter( c) into the word Fast, and turn it into Feast. And though a man eat Fish till his guts crack, yet if he eat no flesh, he Fasts, because he eats as fast as he can. For the word Fast is to be taken in many sences, as to fast from feeding, and to feed fast, to bee bown to fast, and to be bound fast. The Fast from feeding is diuers ways performed. 1 Some there are that fast for pure devotion, with a zealous abstinence from any kind of corporal food for a space, because they will bring down and curb their unbridled affections, and tame their fleshly desires, that so the exercise of spiritual contemplation may bee the more fervent, their repentance more unfeigned, and thei● prayers more acceptable. 2 Another Fast is hypocritical or sophistical, as a holy Maid that enjoined herself to abstain four daies from any meate whatsoever, and being locked up close in a room, she had nothing but her two books to feed vpon, but the books were two painted Boxes, made in the form of great Bibles with clasps and bosses, the inside not having one word of God in them, nor any fault escaped in the printing, but the one well filled with Suckets, and sweet meats, and the other with Wine, vpon which this devout▪ Votary did fast with zealous meditation, eating up the contents of one book, and drinking contentedly the other. 3 Then there is a Fast called in spite of your teeth, and that is, Will ye nill ye, when a mans stomach is in Folio, and knows not where to haue a dinner in decimo sexto. This Fast I haue often met withall at the Court, and at diuers great mens houses, not because there hath wanted meat, but because some haue wanted manners, and I haue wanted impudence. But jack a Lents fast is otherwise then all those, for I am as willing to fast with him as to feast with shrovetide: for he hath an army of various dishes, an host of diuers fishes, with salads, Sawees, sweet-meates, Wine, Ale, beer, Fruit, roots, Reysins, Almonds, Spices, with which I haue often( and care not much to do more often) made as good a shift to fast; and with as good a zeal performed it, as a Brownist will go to plow vpon a Christmas day. Thus having shewed the original of this jack, it follows next, that I declare his yearly entertainment into this Ile of Great britain, what privileges he hath, to whom he is best welcome, who are glad of his departure, what friends or foes he hath, and where he inhabiteth all the year after his going from hence. always before Lent there comes waddling a fat gross bursten-gutted groom, called shrove-tuesday, one whose manners shows that he is better fed then taught: and indeed he is the onely monster for feeding amongst all the dayes of the year, for he devours more flesh in fourteen houres, then this whole kingdom doth( or at the least should do) in six weekes after: such boiling and broiling, such roasting and toasting, such stewing and brewing, such baking▪ frying, mincing, cutting, carving, devouring, and gorbellyed gurmondizing, that a man would think people did take in two moneths provision at once into their paunches, or that they did ballast their bellies with meate for a voyage to Constantinople, or the West-Indies. moreover, it is a goodly sight to see how the Cookes in great mens kitchens, do fry in their masters Suet, and sweat in their own Grease, that if ever a cook bee worth the eating, it is when shrove-tuesday is in town, for he is so stued and larded, roasted, basted, and almost ouer-roasted, that a man may eat the rawest bit of him and never take a surfet. In a word, they are that day extreme choleric, and too hot for any man to meddle with, being Monarchs of the Marrow bones, Marquesses of the Mutton, Lords high Regents of the Spit and the Kettle, barons of the Gridiron, and sole Commanders of the Frying-pan. And all this hurly burly is for no other purpose, but to stop the mouth of this Land-whale shrove-tuesday. At whose entrance in the morning, all the whole kingdom is in quiet, but by that time the clock strikes eleven, which( by the help of a knavish Sexton) is commonly before nine, then there is a Bell rung, called The Pancake Bell, the sound whereof makes thousands of people distracted, and forgetful either of manners or humanity: Then there is a thing called wheaten flower, which the sulphory Necromanticke Cookes do mingle with water, eggs, Spice, and other tragical magical enchantments, and then they put it by little and little, into a Frying pan of boiling Suet, where it makes a confused dismal hissing( like the Learnean Snakes in the Reeds of Acheron, styx, or Phlegeton) until at the last by the skill of the Cookes, it is transformed into the form of a Flapiack, which in our translation is called a Pancake, which ominous incantation the ignorant people do devour very greedily( having for the most part well dined before) but they haue no sooner swallowed that sweet candyed bait, but strait their wits forsake them, and they run stark mad assembling in routs and throngs numberless of vngouerned numbers, with uncivil civil commotions. Then Tim Tatters( a most valiant villain) with an ensign made of a piece of a Bakers mawkin fixed vpon a Broome-staffe, he displays his dreadful colours, and calling the ragged Regiment together, makes an illiterate Oration, stuffed with most plentiful want of discretion: the conclusion whereof is, that somewhat they will do, but what they know not. until at last comes marching up another troope of Tatterdemalians, proclaiming wars against no matter who, so they may be doing. Then these Youths armed with cudgels, stones, hammers, rules, trowels, and hand-sawes, put Play-houses to the sack, and Bawdy-houses to the spoil, in the quarrel breaking a thousand quarrels( of glass I mean) making ambitious brickbats break their necks, tumbling from the tops of lofty chimneys, terribly vntyling houses, ripping up the bowels of feather-beds, to the enriching of Vpholsters, the profit of conductor and Dirt-dawbers, the gain of glaziers, Ioyners, Carpenters, tilers and Bricklayers. And which is worse, to the contempt of Iustice: for what avails it for a Constable with an army of reverend rusty Bill-men to command peace to these beasts, for they with their pockets in stead of Pistols, well-charg'd with stone-shot, discharge against the Image of Authority whole volleys as thick as hail, which robustious repulse puts the better sort to the worse part, making the band of vnscowred Halberdiers retire faster then ever they came on, and show exceeding discretion in proving tall men of their heels. Thus by the vnmannerly manners of shrove-tuesday Constables are baffled, bawds are bangd, Punkes are pillaged, Panders are plagued, and the chief Commanmanders of these valorous villia●●es, for their reward for all this confusion, do in conclusion purchase the inheritance of a jail, to the commodity of jailers, and discommodity of themselves, with a fearful expectation that tyburn shall stop their throats, and the Hangman take possession of their coats, or that some Beadle in bloody Characters shall imprint their faults on their shoulders. So much for shrove-tuesday, Iack-a-Lents Gentleman usher, these haue been his humours in former times, but I haue some better hope of reformation in him hereafter, and indeed I wrote this before his coming this year 1619. not knowing how he would behave himself: but tottering betwixt despair& Hope I leave him. shrove-tuesday having played these parts aforesaid, doth Exit, and next day Lent begins to enter, who is entertained by a grave, formal, reverend States-man, called civil Policy: But you must understand, that Lent would very fain take up his lodging here with Religion, but Religion will not bee acquainted with him; and therefore civil Policy hath the managing of the business. But it is a wonder to see what Munition and Artillery the Epicures,& Canniball Flesh-eaters do provide to oppose Lent, and keep him out at the staffs end, as whole barrels of powdered beef to blow him up, tubs of Pork to pistol and shoot him thorough with his kindred hunger, famine, and desolation, Baricadoes of Bacon as strong& impregnable bulwarks against his inuasiue battery. Which civil Policy perceiving, causeth Proclamations strait to bee published for the establishing of Lents government, but then to see how the Butchers( like silenced schismatics) are dispersed, some riding into the country to buy Oxen, Kine, calves, sheep and Lambs, leaving their wives, men and maids to make provision of Pricks for the whole year in their absence: some again of the inferior sort do scout into Stables, Priuies, Sellers, Sir Francis Drakes Ship at Detford, my Lord Mayors Barge, and diuers secret unsuspected places, and there they make private Shambles with kil-calfe cruelty, and Sheepe-slaughtering murder, to the abuse of Lent, the deceiving of the Informers, and the great grief of every zealous Fishmonger. For indeed Lent in his own nature is no blood-sucker, nor cannot endure any bloodshed; and it is his intent, that the Bull, the ox, the Ram, the goat, the Buck, or any other Beast should bee free to live in any Corporation without molestation: it is Lents intent that the innocent lamb, and the Essex calf, should survive to wear the crest of their Ancestors: that the Goose, the Buzzard, the Widgen, and the Woodcock, may walk fearless in any Market town, cheek by iole with a Headborough, or a tithing-man. The Cut-throat Butchers, wanting throats to cut, At Lents approach their bloody Shambles shut: For forty dayes their tyranny doth cease, And men and beasts take truce and live in peace: The Cow, the Sow, the Ewe may safely feed, And lough, grunt, bleat, and fructify and breed, Cocks, Hens, and Capons, Turkey, Goose and Widgeon, Hares, Conies, pheasant, Partridge, plover, pigeon: All these are from the breake-neck Poulters paws secured by Lent, and guarded by the laws, The goring Spits are hanged for fleshly sticking, And then Cookes fingers are not worth the licking. But to recount the numberless Army that Lent doth conduct, the great provision of Munition and Artillery that he hath to withstand those that gain-stand him, his weapons of offence and defence, and variety of hostile Acoustrements that his host is armed withall: if I should writ all these things, my memory must bee boundless, because my work would be endless. First, marches Sir laurence Ling, with his Regiment, an ancient Sea-faring Gentleman: next follows colonel Cod, oftentimes bleeding fresh in the battle: then comes captain Stock-fish, a well beaten soldier, and one that is often proved to endure much; Sir Salmon Salt, in a pitiful Pickle valiantly abides the conflict, and Gilbert Gubbins all to tatters like a ragged soldier many times pieces out a broken supper. The majestical king of Fishes, the heroical most magnificent Herring armed in White and read, keeps his Court in all this hurly-hurly not like a tyrannicall teare-throat in open arms, but like wise Diogenes in a Barrel, where if any of his Regiments either do or take injury, though he want the sword of Iustice, yet he hath the scales, which I imagine he carries not for nought. The great Lord Treasurer to this mighty Prince( old oliver Cob) is very inward with him, and knows more of his secrets then all his privy counsel besides: and when his hard-row'd Master means to show himself in his read bloody colours, then in fury he associates himself with two notorious Rebels, jack straw and jack Cade, who do encompass him round, and beleaguer him on each side, guarding his person from the fury of wind and weather. The wet Fishmongers all this while( like so many Executioners) vnkennell the salt Eeales from their briny Ambuscadoes, and with marshall Law hang them up: the Stock-fish having tried a terrible action of battery is condemned to be drowned, the Ling, Haberdine, Gréen-fish and Cole-fish, are drawn and quartered into poles, backs, and tails, and( like Rebels in Ireland) hanged with a With: nay, the King of fishes himself cannot escape, but is tyrannically broiled vpon a Gridiron. Then comes Iack-Sauce with a spoon creeping out of a Mustard pot, armed in a pewter saucer, a desperate fellow, and one that dares take Dauy Ap Diggon or shone Ap Morgan, by the nose, and many times( with the spirit of Teuxbury) he will make a man weep being most merry, and take the matter in snuff being well pleased. The whiteing, Rotchet, Gournet and the Mop, The Scate and Thorneback, in the net doth drop: The pied-coat Macrell, Pilchard, Sprat and sole, To serve great Iack-a-Lent amain do trole. In the Reareward comes captain Crab, lieutenant Lobster,( whose catching claws always puts me in mind of a Sergeant) the blushing Prawne, the well-armd Oyster, the Scallop, the Wilke, the mussel, Cockle, and the Periwinckle, these are hot shots, terrestial prouocators, fishy in substance, and fleshy in operation. The poor Anchoue is pitifully peppered in the fight, whilst the sturgeon is keg'd, randed, and iold about the ears, and in conclusion without dissembling eaten with fennel, the emblem of flattery: But the Anchoue is oftentimes revenged vpon his eaters, for being devoured raw, he broils in their stomacks so hotly, that before the heat be quenched, the eaters are drenched in the blood of Bacchus, sack and Claret, that though a man be as wise as a Constable at his entrance, his wit sometimes is so shrunk in the wetting, that he may want the understanding of an ass. Then there are a crew of near bread fresh-water soldiers, our Thamessisians, our Comrades of Barking, our eastern and western Riuer-Rouers, these youths are brought and caught by whole shoals, for indeed they are no fighters, but mere white-liuerd heart-lesse runaways, like the great Turkes Asapye, that if the Fishermen( like diligent Catch-poles) did not watch norrowly to catch them by hook and by crooke, by line and leisure, Lent might gape for Gudgeons, Roch and Dace: were it not for these Netmongers, it is no flat lie to say, the Flounder might lie flat in his watery Cabin, and the eel( whose slippery tail puts me in mind of a formal Courtiers promise) would wriggle up and down in his muddy habitation, which would be a great discommodity for schoolboys, through the want of scourges to whip Gigs and Towne-Tops. The Breame, the Lamprey, Barbell, But, and Pike, Secure might keep the river, Pond, and Dike: Carps, Tench, Perch, Smelts, would never come to land, But for Nets, Angles, and the Fishers hand: And bawling wickedness that use to sell and buy, Would cry, because they want wherewith to cry. To speak of the honesty of Fisher-men, and the account that we ought to make of their Calling, it was the faculty of Simon, Andrew, james and John, the blessed Apostles, and by a common Rule, all Fishermen must bee men singularly endowed, and possessed with the virtue of patience, for the proverb says, If you swear, you shall catch no Fish, and I myself haue been an eyewitnesse, when seven or eight Anglers haue employed their best Art and industry two houres, and in the end they haue not been able to share one Gudgeon or a bleak amongst them all, the cause hath been, either there was no Fish to bee caught, or else one impatient fellow of the Company hath sworn away good lucke. I could run ten kingdoms( or Reames) of paper out of breath, in the praise of this lean jack, and his spawnes( Ember-wéekes, Fridayes, and fasting dayes) But I suppose there are none more sorrowful in the time of his being here then Gentlemen and Gentlewomen, for through the royal Court, the inns of Court, the city and Country, all the better sort wear mourning black as long as Lent is in town: But so soon as he is gone, then they change colours, and Feast, Banquet, revel, and make merry, as if the Land were freed from some notorious Termagant Monster, some murdering Plague, or some devouring Famine. The Bakers metamorphose their trade from one shape to another, his round halfpenny loaves are transformed into square Wigs,( which Wigs like drunkards are drowned in their Ale) the rolls are turned to Simnels, in the shape of Bread-pies, and the light puffed up foure-corner'd Bun, doth show that the knavery of the Baker is universal, in Europe, Asia, Affrick, and America: for since Colliers and falconers haue purchased the possession of the Pillory from them, their light bread brings in heavy gains; where if by chance a Batch or a Basket full being examined by the scales of Iustice, and the bread committed to Newgate for want of weight, and the Baker to the counter for lack of Conscience, yet he knows he shall out again, and with a trick that he hath, in one week he will recover the consumption of his purse again, by his moderate light handling of the medicine of meal, Yeast, and Water. But now suppose that Palme-sunday is past, and that you see Lent and both the Fish-streets sing loth to depart, whilst every wet Fishmonger wrings his hands, and by the reason of could takings, beats himself into a heat, whilst( to their great grief) whole herds of Oxen, and flocks of sheep, are driven into every town, for no other purpose but to drive Lent out of the country. Then pell-mell Murder in a purple hue, In reeking blood his slaughtering paws imbrue: The Butchers Axe( like great Alcides Bat) Dings deadly down, ten thousand thousand flat: Each Butcher( by himself) makes Marshall laws, Cuts throats, and kills, and quarters, hangs and draws. It is a thing worthy to bee noted, to see how all the Dogges in the town do wag their tails for ioy, when they see such provision to drive away Lent,( for a dog, a Butcher, and a Puritan, are the greatest enemies he hath) but there is one day in the year that Dogges in general are most afraid, and that is the Friday after Easter: for they having past six weekes without seeing any flesh, and endured a hard siege by Lent and fish-bones, then at Easter they see flesh on the Sunday, monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and when the Friday comes they see great store of fish again: the poor Curres( all in a pitiful quandarie) stink for woe, for fear that another Lent is come suddenly vpon them: thus they continue in that dogged perplexity till the Sunday following, when the appearance of flesh makes them haue a feeling, that they were more afraid then hurt. But imagine Lent is gone, but who knows whither he is gone? that would be known: for it cannot be, but that so mighty a Monarch as he, hath his in roads and his outloapes, his standing court of continual residence, as well as his tents, houses, and places of removal for pleasure and progress. For he comes to us but by way of annual visitation: to the Capuchin friars he comes twice every year, for they keep two Lents, because they will be sure to fast double, for when a thing is well done( tis an old saying) it is twice done, and by consequence a thing being twice done, must bee well done: I know not why they do it, but some say that it is a work of supper arr rogation: and so I leave them. But Lent keeps his continual Court with the holy covents of unsanctified Fathers, the friars Carthusians, these are they that haue made a perpetual divorce from beasts, and birds: these are they that haue confirmed an everlasting League with Lent, and all the ragged Aquarian Regiments of the spacious kingdom of Pisces. For when they enter into their order first, they are enjoined never to touch or taste any manner of flesh whatsoever, which they do inviolably perform: for let Hunger and thin-gutted Famine assault them never so cruelly, so that there were no fish to be had, yet they hold it meritorious to receive and famish, rather then to eat flesh. For indeed in cases of necessity they haue power to metamorphose flesh into fish:( as for example) when any town is besieged and sharply assailed with war without, and famine within, that meate is fallen into such a Consumption that fish is gone, and flesh is scarce, then these venerable fathers( by apostatical power which they haue) can take a Sir loin of beef and thrust his knighthood into a tub of water, and command him to come forth transformed into a Ling, and so for all kind of flesh else, they can turn a big to a Pike, a Goose into a Gurnet, a Hen to a Herring, a Sow to a Salmon, and an owl to an Oyster: and all these are no wonders to them, for they are all as nothing to their exorcizing trick of Transubstantiation in the Sacrament: for it is not possible for any thing to be impossible to them that can make their Maker, and conjure their saviour into the form of bread, and eat him when they haue done. With these enemies of carnality Lent hath domestical perpetuity, th●se observe his laws more firmly then they do either the first or second Table, and twenty Citizens shall break politicly, and take up their lodging in Luds unlucky gate, before they will crack the least injunction that is articulated betwixt Lent and them. Thus having shewed the progress, egress and regress of this mediterranean, Atlantike, belgic, Gallobelgicus, this Caspian, Iberian, British, Celtick, Callidonian, commanding Marine countermaunder, I think it not amiss to declare what good he doth in this kingdom, the time of his being here, and how much more good he would do if he were rightly observed. As it is a matter of conscience to obey superior and supreme Magistrates, so in that respect I hold it a conscience to abstain from flesh-eating in Lent: not that I think it to be unclean to the clean, or that the eating or not eating is meritorious: for I am persuaded that a man may go to heaven as well with a leg of a Capon, as with a read Herring. But seeing Lent is ordained to a good intent, for the increase and preservation of calves, Lambs, Swine, and all kind of beasts and birds whatsoever, whereby the breeding and mulltiplicity of these creatures makes our Land the terrestrial Paradise of plenty, and so is( by the bountiful blessings of the Almighty all-giuing giver) able to maintain herself, and relieve many neighbouring realms and Regions: Surely they are no good Common-wealths man, that wilfully will break so tolerable an institution, as to refrain six or seven weekes in a year from flesh, having so much variety and change of fish and other sustenance more then sufficient. It is most certain, that if Lent were truly kept, and the fish-days in every week duly observed, and that every house in this kingdom did spend but the quantity of two Haberdine or Greenfish in a week, that then this Kingdom of Great britain both for meat and Mariners would be the mistress of the world, and for wealth and riches superlative to the Mines of America. But the nature of man is so perverse, that like Pandoraes box, he will be tooting and prying soonest into that which he is most restrained from, wherein he shows himself to be no changeling, but the natural son of Adam, and heir to his frailty and disobedience: for in common reason( for a common good) if there were no Statutes, no Precepts or Commands for the keeping of Lent and fish-days, men would of themselves,( and by their own imagination) bridle their fleshly appetites with the snaffle of discretion. It is an unmeasurable detriment to this kingdom, the abuse, neglect, and contempt of this so laudable and commodious an institution, and the due observing of it duly would be vnualuable, I think past the reach of arithmetic: but I haue often noted, that if any superfluous feasting or gormandizing paunch-cramming assembly do meet, the disordered business is so ordered, that it must bee either in Lent, vpon a Friday, or a Fasting day: for the meat doth not relish well, except it be sawc'd with disobedience and contempt of Authority. And though they eat Sprats on the Sunda●●, they care not, so they may bee full gorged with flesh on the Friday night. Then all the zealous Puritans will feast In detestation of the Romish Beast. For mine own part( as I haue before written) I hold fish or flesh no Maxims, Axioms, or grounds of Religion, but those that wilfully and contemptuously do eat flesh in the Lent( except such whose appetites are repugnant to fish, and whose nature hath not been used to it, except such as are sick, and women with child, for all which there is a lawful toleration) except such I say, he that feasts with flesh in Lent, I wish he might be constrained to fast with fish all the year after for his contempt. Wide and large is the way that I might travell in this spacious business: but few words are best, especially if they be spoken to the wise: and if my poor Iack-a-Lent do happen into the hands of a fool, 'tis but a fool and a jack, or two fools well met: but here is the odds, a wise man will make much of jack for his plain dealing and true speaking, when a fool will quarrel with him, and falling together by the ears, tear one anothers clothes, and then jacks paper-ierkin goes to wrack. Epilogue to Iack-a-Lent. FArewell thou Noble jack of jacks, farewell, Hye thee to Italy, to Rome or spain: There of thy welcome here report and tell, But look this tweluemonth come not here again. And when that time is full expired and run, Come here again, as yearly thou hast done. And thy poor Corps with hunger up to raise, Take with thee Ember-weekes and fasting dayes. certain blank Verses, written of purpose to no purpose, yet so plainly contriu'd, that a child of two yeeres old may understand them as well as a good scholar of fifty. GReat jack a Lent, clad in a rob of air, Threw mountaines higher then Alcides beard: whilst Pancradge Church, armed with a Samphier blade, Began to reason of the business thus: You squandering troglodytes of Amsterdam, How long shall Cerberus a Tapster be? What though stout ajax lay with proserpina, Shall men leave eating powdered beef for that? I see no cause but men may pick their teeth, Though Brutus with a sword did kill himself. Is shooters Hill turned to an Oyster pie, Or may a May-pole be a butterd Plaice? Then let Saint Katherines sail to Bridewell Court, And Chitterlings be worn for statute Lace: For if a Humble Bee should kill a Whale With the butt-end of the Antarticke Pole, 'tis nothing to the mark at which we aim: For in the Commentaries of Tower Ditch, A fat stewed Bawd hath been a dish of state. More might be said, but then more must be spoken, The weights fell down because the lack-rope broken. And he that of these lines doth make a doubt, Let him sit down and pick the meaning o●●▪ FINIS.