THE PERCY REPRINTS ia. 
 
 s 
 
 THE SEVEN J§* 
 
 DEADLY SINNES g| 
 
 OF LONDON fy 
 
 By THOMAS DEKKER 
 
 OXFORD £|} 
 
 BASIL BLACK.WELL 
 
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 Book ^A_ 
 
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The Percy %eprints, ${o. 4 
 
 THE SEVEN DEADLY SINNES 
 OF LONDON 
 
The Tercy Reprints 
 
 I NASHE'S VNFORTVNATE 
 
 TRAVELLER 
 
 II GAMMER GVRTONS NEDLE 
 
 III PEACOCK'S FOUR AGES OF 
 
 POETRY 
 
 SHELLEY'S DEFENCE OF 
 
 POETRY 
 BROWNING'S ESSAY ON 
 SHELLEY 
 IV DEKKER'S SEVEN DEADLY 
 
 SINNES OF LONDON 
 V CONGREVE'S INCOGNITA 
 VI THE WORKS OF SIR GEORGE 
 ETHEREGE 
 VII THE POEMS OF RICHARD 
 
 CORBET 
 VIII BECKFORD'S THOUGHTS ON 
 HUNTING 
 
THE SEVEN DEADLY 
 SINNES OF LONDON 
 
 By THOMAS DEKKER 
 
 Edited by H. F. B. BRETT-SMITH 
 
 OXFORD 
 
 BASIL BLACKWELL 
 
 1922 
 
u 
 
 A&aa-S? 
 34 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 THOMAS DEKKER had a full share of the versatility 
 of his age in literature ; he was a ready pamphleteer, 
 ' had poetry enough for anything,' and was valued, 
 even to the point of being bailed out of prison, as a vigorous 
 writer for the tragic or comic stage. If we think more 
 to-day of the critic of Satiro-Mastix than of the singer of 
 Sweet Content, more of the creator of Orlando Eriscobaldo 
 and Bellafront and Simon Eyre than of the popular journalist, 
 it is because of the overshadowing height of Elizabethan 
 drama, and the greater accessibility of his plays. Yet as a 
 prose author he has a claim upon us which none of his con- 
 temporaries can match, for upon him fell the mantle of 
 Greene and Nashe, with a generous share of their skill. It is 
 to Dekker's pamphlets that we go for a knowledge of London 
 life in the reign of James I. 
 
 The tract now reprinted marks a half-way stage, in subject 
 as well as in date, between The Wonderfull Yeare 1603 and 
 the most famous of Dekker's prose pieces, The Guls Horn- 
 booke. The descriptions of the Plague in The Wonderfull 
 Yeare have a command of anecdote which can hardly be 
 expected at a distance from the event ; there are ghastly 
 things to be found in The Seven Deadly Sinnes, but they are 
 not so thick-coming and absorbing, and their interest is one 
 among many. The Guls Hornebooke, on the other hand, has 
 the sole object of ridiculing the extravagances of the man 
 about town and the life of public places in 1609, and the task 
 is joyously performed, with an unrivalled wealth of detail, 
 In The Seven Deadly Sinnes Dekker had other game in view, 
 
vi INTRODUCTION 
 
 yet its first editor held that apart from one other of his 
 productions there was ' perhaps no tract, in our language 
 which contains so many and such curious illustrations of the 
 language, opinions and manners of our ancestors,' and 
 whether for invention, or for accuracy and vividness of 
 description, he confessed to being aware of nothing precisely 
 like it in the English tongue. Without going quite so far 
 as Collier, it is still possible to maintain that in all these 
 points the pamphlet, however hastily written, is a remarkable 
 one ; and indeed the evidence lies at hand. 
 
 It is probable enough that there is no exaggeration in the 
 motto Opus septem Dierum ; we have little knowledge of 
 Dekkef's life, but he wrote to supply his necessities, and 
 there is no intrinsic reason why The Seven Deadly Sinnes 
 should have taken longer to compose than The History of 
 Rasselas. Invention is there in plenty, but without laborious- 
 ness. The times favoured any author of ease and spirit, 
 especially if he had some tincture of the classics as well as 
 an eye for the life around him. During the reign of Elizabeth, 
 the New Learning and the Grammar Schools had prepared 
 a public very ready to appreciate a Latin quotation and a 
 curious turn of phrase. The strong allegorical vein, in which 
 Dekker so often reminds his reader of Bunyan, was welcome 
 to an England which had just digested The Faerie Queene, 
 and now that printing had become cheap, it was profitable 
 to gratify the natural interest of the public in its own appear- 
 ance, manners and shortcomings. The latter were made a 
 special target, and Dekker's judgement is shown in his choice 
 of a title ; mediaeval literature had been full of the seven 
 deadly sins. By adding ' of London,' he increased and 
 specialised an attraction which Marlowe had not scorned, and 
 by dressing up his seven victims in the fashions of the time, 
 and bedevilling them roundly, he gave rein to that impulse 
 towards edification which has been felt by so many writers 
 of imaginative English prose. His Induction opens with a 
 set piece in praise of the Bible, and in many moralising 
 
INTRODUCTION vii 
 
 passages he instinctively adopts the language of the Hebrew- 
 prophets. 1 This tendency is the more striking, because his 
 attitude towards Puritanism is not altogether conciliatory ; 
 it was evidently on the general support of the public that he 
 relied. At the same time, the moral trend of the piece may 
 easily be overestimated ; Dekker knew, no doubt, the secret 
 of popular preaching, and his readers were given every 
 opportunity of damning sins they had no mind to. 
 
 But he did not confine himself to one kind of appeal, or 
 to a single model. He saw the journalistic importance, 
 never greater than in that age, of writing an artificial style 
 and showing agility in word-play. Much of it is wasted upon 
 us now for one reason or another ; ' latten,' no longer known 
 as a metal, has taken with it many a jest, and an age which 
 has lost that excellent epithet ' key-cold ' loses all the neat- 
 ness of its application to a sleepy porter. Moreover, the 
 taste in wit has changed ; puns upon lictores and lectores 
 are too classical for us ; upon Freestone prisons, too far- 
 sought ; upon Sack-butts, as instruments both of music 
 and of carousing, too unfamiliar. We take no pleasure in 
 the kind of wit that makes heaven an Upper House, or God 
 a reader of Hebrew lectures, or the moon pale with sitting 
 up for the night. If this were the best Dekker could do, we 
 should find excuse for the readers who ' stand somtimes at a 
 Stationers stal, looking scuruily (like Mules champing vpon 
 Thistles) on the face of a new Booke bee it never so worthy : 
 & goe (as il fauouredly) mewing aw r ay.' 2 But this quotation 
 itself, with its vivid touches of life, answers the momentary 
 suspicion, so clearly does it convey the discontented face of 
 the book-stall loiterer three hundred years ago. Even at 
 that distance the picture of Sloth, ' yawning, and his Chin 
 knocking nods into his brest,' induces drowsy conjectures as 
 
 1 For example, in the continual use of doublet repetitions, as at 
 page 25 : ' For oathes are wounds that a man stabs into himselfe, 
 yea, they are burning words that consume those who kindle them.' 
 
 2 P. 5. 
 
viii INTRODUCTION 
 
 to the number of centuries over which it may be possible 
 to catch a yawn. And Dekker has the true journalist's love 
 of the unexpected; he will begin a sentence in his heavy 
 tragic manner, only to fly out and mock our solemn faces in 
 the hinder end, as in the exploits of Candle-light ' about the 
 houre when Spirits walke, and Cats goe a gossipping.' His 
 very tags and proverbs have pictorial quality ; the prisoners 
 swarm about Bankruptism ' like Bees about Comfit-makers,' 
 and the followers of Lying march ' as pert as Taylours at a 
 wedding.' It is true that fashions change, and the out-of-date 
 is always first observed, but there is much of Dekker's clever- 
 ness that age cannot wither, and for a stroke of secular wit, 
 so easy in delivery as to make no vulgar show, not even 
 Swift could improve upon the thanks offered to his encomiast 
 by Bankruptism, who gave the poor orator ' very good 
 words . . . vowing he would euer Hue in his debt.' 
 
 The value of the pamphlet lies more in its general portrait 
 of the times than in any literary allusions, though in these it 
 is far from barren. To Marlowe we owe references to both 
 Tamburlaine and Gaveston, and an echo of his famous fine 
 ' Infinite riches in a little roome ' makes clear the origin of 
 ' the rich lew of London, Barabbas Bankruptisme.' * No 
 Elizabethan could be ignorant of The Spanish Tragedie, and 
 Dekker speaks of the things that took the fancy of Shake- 
 speare and Beaumont and Fletcher — the tragic entry of old 
 Jeronimo, and the insistent cry of the Ghost of Andrea upon 
 Revenge. 2 To Euphues there is no specific reference, but 
 an author is not to seek in his Lyly or his Pliny who can 
 compare a scoundrel in one breath to ' a Harpy that lookes 
 smoothly, a Hyena that enchants subtilly, a Mermaid that 
 sings sweetly, and a Cameleon, that can put himself e into all 
 colours.' 3 With Jonson there is perhaps one link ; Dekker 
 writes that ' Man (doubtlesse) was not created to bee an idle 
 fellow ... he was not set in this Vniuersall Orchard to 
 
 1 Pp. 46, 1. 26 ; 43, 1. 7 ; 52, 1. 1 ; 23, 1. 5. 
 » Pp. 34, 1. 6 ; 54, 1. 7. 3 Pp. 15-16. 
 
INTRODUCTION ix 
 
 stand still as a Tree, and so to bee cut downe, but to be cut 
 downe if he should stand still.' x This is a curious parallel 
 to Jonson's well-known lines : 
 
 It is not growing like a tree 
 
 In bulk, doth make Man better be ; 
 
 Or standing long an oak, three hundred year, 
 
 To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere. 
 
 So too with the greatest name of all. Who can read ' Some- 
 times hee's a Puritane ' 2 without thinking of Maria's account 
 of Malvolio ; or hear that Candle-light's Coachman so sweats 
 with yarking his cattle ' that he drops tallowe, and that 
 feedes them as prouender,' 3 without remembering a whorson 
 Candle-mine, or greasy Tallow-Catch, who larded the lean 
 earth as he walked along ? Even the epithets of the attack 
 on prosperous citizens, ' O veluet-garded Theeues ! O yea- 
 and-by-nay Cheaters ! ' 4 recall Hotspur's instructions : 
 
 Swear me, Kate, like a lady as thou art, 
 
 A good mouth-filling oath, and leave ' In sooth,' 
 
 And such protest of pepper-gingerbread, 
 
 To velvet guards, and Sunday-citizens. 
 
 There is no need to lay stress on such resemblances ; they 
 may be accidental. Certain tricks of phrase, certain subjects, 
 were in the air. Dekker, like all his fellows, must needs be 
 critical of his countrymen's catholic taste in clothes. ' An 
 English-man's suite,' he complains, ' is like a traitors bodie 
 that hath beene hanged, drawne, and quartered, and is set 
 vp in seuerall places : his Codpeece is in Denmarke, the 
 collor of his Dublet, and the belly in France : the wing and 
 narrow sleeue in Italy : the short waste hangs ouer a Dutch 
 Botchers stall in Vtrich : his huge sloppes speakes Spanish : 
 Polonia giues him the Bootes.' 5 It has a familiar tang ; 
 the accent is that of Portia's concise strictures on young 
 Faulconbridge : ' I think he bought his doublet in Italy, 
 his round hose in France, his bonnet in Germany, and his 
 
 1 P. 36. } P. 16. 3 p. 35. * P. 17. 5 p 44< 
 
x INTRODUCTION 
 
 behaviour everywhere.' Dekker may have known that 
 passage, just as he may have known the cheery lines of Tom 
 Heywood : 
 
 The Spaniard loves his ancient slop, 
 
 The Lombard his Venetian, 
 And some like breechless women go — 
 
 The Russ, Turk, Jew, and Grecian. 
 The thrifty Frenchman wears small waist, 
 
 The Dutch his belly boasteth ; 
 The Englishman is for them all, 
 
 And for each fashion coasteth. 
 
 But the hit was confessedly suggested to him by another 
 which had been in print a score of years before either Heywood 
 or Shakespeare was born. There had been published in 
 1542 a treatise, more humane than its title warrants, called 
 ' The fyrst boke of the Introduction of knowledge. . . . Made 
 by Andrew Borde, of Physycke Doctor,' and it opens, after 
 the Dedication and Table, with a woodcut of a bearded and 
 bewildered Englishman, extremely lightly clad, holding a 
 great pair of tailor's shears and a roll of cloth, while beneath 
 it run the opening lines of the text, treating of ' the naturall 
 dysposicion of an Englyshman, and of the noble realme of 
 England ' : 
 
 I am an English man, and naked I stand here, 
 
 Musyng in my mynde what rayment I shal were ; 
 
 For now I wyl were thys, and now I wyl were that ; 
 
 Now I wyl were I cannot tel what. 
 
 All new fashyons be pleasaunt to me ; 
 
 I wyl haue them, whether I thryue or thee. 
 
 Andrew Borde's woodcut grew famous, and to it many an 
 Elizabethan writer must have been more or less consciously 
 indebted. 
 
 Such matters have their interest, but the parallels of 
 Elizabethan authorship are a scholar's pastime, 1 and Dekker 
 was no plagiary but a free captain of mercenary literature. 
 
 1 See Appendix, p. 61. 
 
INTRODUCTION xi 
 
 He wrote, to our good fortune, for the London of his prime 
 on an absorbing subject, its own likeness. That he loved the 
 city none can doubt who reads his descriptions of it. Some- 
 times it is London at midday, in the full tide of business ; 
 ' in euery street, carts and Coaches make such a thundring 
 as if the world ranne vpon wheeles : at euerie corner, men, 
 women, and children meete in such shoales, that postes are 
 set vp of purpose to strengthen the houses, least with iustling 
 one another they should shoulder them downe. Besides, 
 hammers are beating in one place, Tubs hooping in another, 
 Pots clincking in a third, water-tankards running at tilt in 
 a fourth : heere are Porters sweating vnder burdens, there 
 Marchants-men bearing bags of money, Chapmen (as if they 
 were at Leape-frog) skippe out of one shop into another : 
 Tradesmen (as if they were dauncing Galliards) are lusty at 
 legges and neuer stand still : all are as busie as countrie 
 Atturneyes at an Assizes.' 1 Or again he limns a night scene, 
 ' when al doores are lockt vp, when no eyes are open, when 
 birds sit silent in bushes, and beasts lie sleeping vnder hedges ' ; 
 this is the time, when darkness, like a thief out of a hedge, 
 has crept upon the earth, that ' the Banckrupt, the Fellon, 
 and all that owed any mony, and for feare of arrests, or 
 Iustices warrants, had like so many Snayles kept their houses 
 ouer their heads al the day before, began now to creep out 
 of their shels, & to stalke vp & down the streets as vprightly, 
 & with as proud a gate as if they meant to knock against 
 the starres with the crownes of their heads.' 2 It is good 
 descriptive prose, with yet a touch of the high astounding 
 terms of the age in that crowned and starred comparison. 
 
 To such a writer nothing comes amiss. The comedy of 
 addresses of welcome from public orators armed with an 
 extemporall speech, of the learned rules of Drunkenness, of 
 the Morralls of Manningtree and the triumphing on Mid- 
 summer night, mingles with the tragedy of the Plague and 
 
 1 Pp. 37-8. 2 Pp. 3°-32. 
 
xii INTRODUCTION 
 
 St. Bartholomew's Day, and the oppression of usurers, 
 jailors and the rich guildsmen who dealt hardly with their 
 apprentices. The sober Perpetuana-suited Puritan, the 
 serving man and his wench, the barber bidding his customer 
 1 winck hard ' while he runs to the door to see what is afoot, 
 the Beadle and the Bell-man, the damask-coated citizen, the 
 Grape-monger and the unthrifts who walk at night at a wise 
 distance from the brown bills of Master Constable and his 
 men — all these pass before us in living puppet-show. For so 
 clear a vision we owe much to Thomas Dekker, who knew 
 by experience the underworld of his l,ondon as well as its 
 cheerful bustle, who was bailed out of the Counter in 1598 
 at a cost of forty shillings, and was discharged next year, 
 at near double the rate, from the arrest of my lord chamber- 
 lain's men. Misfortune had not soured him, nor warped his 
 sense of life, in an age when such matters were philosophically 
 viewed, according to the maxim of his great predecessor in 
 free-lance pamphleteering, ' Debt and deadly sinne, who is 
 not subiect to ? ' 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 
 
 ' A BOOK called The Seuen deadly synnes of London 
 
 I \ drawen in 7 seuerall coaches throughe the 7 gates of 
 
 J^ \_ the city ' was entered in the Stationers' Register on 
 October 6, 1606, in the name of Nathanael Butter, for whom 
 it was printed in the same year. In spite of its alluring title, 
 the pamphlet did not attain to a second edition. Most of 
 the little quartos must have been thumbed to pieces early ; 
 few now survive, and a manuscript note in the Grenville 
 copy calls this the rarest of Dekker's pieces. 
 
 The book has been four times reproduced by modern 
 editors. Forty copies only were privately printed in 1866 
 by J. Payne Collier, who issued it in the second volume of 
 his Illustrations of Old English Literature. In 1879 Hdward 
 Arber made it the seventh volume of his English Scholar's 
 Library. Alexander Grosart, in 1885, included it in the 
 second volume of his limited and privately printed edition of 
 Dekker's Non-Dramatic Works, and in 1905 the Cambridge 
 University Press issued it as a plain quarto text, without 
 editorial matter, two hundred and fifty copies only being 
 printed. All four editions reproduce to a considerable 
 extent the spelling and differentiations of type of the original, 
 though the Cambridge reprint is handicapped by the use of 
 roman type only in the text. Unfortunately Arber's volume, 
 which is the most accessible, is often at fault in the omission 
 or misreading of words ; Grosart's text is more accurate, but 
 he omits the Bpistle. 
 
 The present text is a reprint of the first edition, and 
 follows the Douce copy in the Bodleian library, shelf-mark 
 Douce P. 692. In cases of doubt (e.g. where a letter or stop 
 
xiv BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 
 
 is blurred, or has not taken the ink) the other Bodleian copy, 
 Malone 602, has been consulted. For certain points I have 
 also referred to the only other examples of this book which 
 I have seen, viz. the Grenville copy in the British Museum, 
 G. 10452 ; George Steevens's copy, bearing his autograph 
 on the back of the title, also in the British Museum, 291 e. 34 ; 
 the copy formerly in the collection of Thomas Jolley and now 
 in the Guildhall Library, A. vii. 3 ; and the Christie-Miller 
 copy, since sold, in the dispersal of a section of the Britwell 
 Court library in February of this year, to an American 
 purchaser. 
 
 A word-for-word comparison of the text of these six copies, 
 with a view to the variations frequent in Elizabethan printing, 
 would be beyond the scope of the present edition, which aims 
 at presenting a trustworthy reprint of the Douce copy. But 
 a brief comparison on certain chosen points and passages 
 makes it probable that variations (apart from the title-page) 
 are few, and are limited to the usual correction of minor 
 errors discovered during the process of printing, after a certain 
 number of sheets had been pulled. Most of these errors are 
 to be found in the Malone copy, which must include an early 
 pull of sheet E. At sig. E 3, 1. 26 (p. 41, 1. 15 of the present 
 edition) , the Malone copy reads ' riding by a Sumpter-horse 
 with prouander \ The mistake was evidently discovered in 
 good time, and the compositor inserted the missing preposi- 
 tion, justified his line by turning the letters ' an ' into ' a/ 
 and produced the correct reading, ' riding by on a Sumpter- 
 horse with prouader ', which is found in the other five copies. 
 Similarly, six lines lower, the Malone copy reads ' that weare 
 his cloth are Anglus,' Again the misprint was observed, 
 ' Anglus,' altered to ' Anglers, 7 the line justified by reading 
 ' wear ' for ' weare ', and the correct reading of the other five 
 copies produced. The Malone copy is also the only one of 
 the six to be guilty of a turned; letter at sig. [E4] verso, 
 1. 34 (p. 45, 1. 3 of the present edition), ' Conrt ' for ' Court '. 
 On the other hand, while in all six copies the first word of 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE xv 
 
 the text on sig. E is ' very ' (p. 36, 1. 19 of the present edition), 
 the Douce copy gives an incorrect catchword ' way ' on the 
 previous page. This too was corrected, and the catchword 
 in the other five copies is ' veary.' The Douce copy also errs 
 in reading ' Many ' (for the correct ' Mary ' of the Malone 
 copy) at p. 28, 1. 7 ; unfortunately this point escaped my 
 notice till after the Britwell copy had been sold, and I have 
 consequently — as there is nothing at stake — neither attempted 
 to ascertain its reading, nor investigated that of the three 
 copies in London. 
 
 In Elizabethan title-pages uniformity is not to be expected. 
 Those of The Seven Deadly Sinnes were no doubt produced 
 at intervals, as required, and each one of the six copies varies 
 to some extent in typographical detail from all the rest, 
 though the two Museum copies are almost identical. The 
 chief difference is in the ornamental block. The Douce 
 copy alone has the device of the Deity sitting in clouds 
 above the cherubim, with a dove with outspread wings in 
 the foreground. This is clearer in the original than in the 
 full-size reproduction of the Douce title in the present edition, 
 because the dove and its fan-shaped background, and the 
 head of the Deity, are coloured a faint red (not obscuring 
 the black outlines) in the original, while in the reproduction 
 this red necessarily takes form as a black blur. Instead of 
 this device, the two Museum copies contain a rectangular 
 block, rather more high than broad, representing the Good 
 Shepherd carrying a lamb across his shoulders, with the 
 motto PERHT ET INVENTA EST on an encircling band, 
 and scroll-work, palms, etc., fining up the corners and sides 
 outside the band. A landscape and buildings occupy the 
 background on both sides of the central figure. A third 
 device is found in the Malone, Guildhall, and Britwell copies ; 
 a conventional design of a filleted head, with laurel branches 
 on each side of it, surmounting a semicircular piece of 
 scroll-work. There are also, among the title-pages of the 
 six copies, so many minor and unimportant variations of 
 
xvi BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 
 
 spelling, punctuation, capitals, and typographical detail, 
 that specification of them would be as uninteresting as 
 laborious. All six copies have the title partially rubricated, 
 the words concerned being ' seuen ' and ' Coaches ' in 1. 4 ; 
 1 seuen ' and ' Gates ' in 1. 5 ; ' plague ' in 1. 7 ; the date 
 (which however is clipped away from the Malone copy, and 
 torn out of that in the Grenville collection) and the whole 
 of lines 2, 6, 8 and 10. It is improbable that copies varied 
 at all in rubrication, except that as none of the other five has 
 the block found in the Douce title, they lack also the two 
 touches of red previously described. For the name of the 
 book, the spelling of the running title is more likely than 
 that of the title-page to be the author's, and I have followed 
 it ; it may however be worth while to point out, in corrobora- 
 tion, that the Douce title-page is alone among the six in 
 reading ' deadlie ' for ' deadly,' and may have been alone 
 also in reading ' Sinns ' for ' Sinnes,' though the mutilation 
 of this word in the Malone and Guildhall copies makes it 
 impossible to establish the point. 
 
 The collation of the 1606 edition is as follows : [A 1] a 
 blank ; [A 2] the Title, verso blank ; A 3 and verso The 
 Epistle ; [A 4] and verso To the Reader, followed (in lower 
 part of verso) by The names of the Actors ; A to [A 4] The 
 Induction to the Booke ; [A 4] verso blank ; then the main 
 text occupying B to G in fours, with [G4] verso blank. 
 The Douce, Malone, Guildhall and Steevens copies have the 
 preliminary matter in correct order, except that the Steevens 
 copy (which Grosart must have used) lacks the Epistle ; 
 the binder of the Grenville copy has misplaced in the order 
 Reader, Epistle, Induction ; and the binder of the Britwell 
 copy in the order Epistle, Induction, Reader. The correct 
 order has been preserved in all subsequent editions except 
 that produced by the Cambridge University Press, which 
 prints the Epistle after the address to the Reader and the 
 names of the Actors. 
 
 The original quarto printed by Edward Allde contains 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE xvii 
 
 few obvious errors, and Collier is perhaps a little severe in 
 his statement that ' inaccuracies and bad workmanship shew 
 the haste with which the piece was composed by the typo- 
 grapher.' Bad workmanship is no doubt a term of wide 
 application, but in important points the accuracy of the 
 1606 text can seldom be impugned, though some dozens of 
 trivial slips in text or punctuation are to be found. Where 
 such errors have been corrected in the text of the present 
 edition, the original reading and the correction are duly 
 noted, for the information of scholars, in the appendix of 
 Textual Emendations. The original punctuation has been 
 preserved, and readers unf amiliar with the system of pointing 
 in use in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries should bear 
 in mind that Elizabethan punctuation was rhythmical or 
 even rhetorical, while that of to-day is based on logic or 
 syntax. 
 
 The roman type, varied by italic, of the Dedication, 
 Address to the Reader, Names of the Actors, and Induction, 
 is followed exactly in the present text, but the black letter, 
 with occasional roman, of the main body of the book is here 
 replaced respectively by roman and italic type. Latin 
 quotations, printed in italic in the original, are also repro- 
 duced in italic. The italic side-notes, printed in the margin 
 of the original, are inset in the present text. The 1606 
 compositor occasionally used a wrong fount ; I have noted a 
 roman x used among black letter in the words ' next ' (p. 42, 
 1. 12), ' Executors ' (p. 48, 1. 26), and ' examples ' (p. 53, 1. 11), 
 and there may be other instances. To have perpetuated 
 such accidents by a difference of type would have been 
 absurd. The long f, which is a mere source of annoyance 
 to modern readers, has everywhere been replaced by s. The 
 running titles of the original are in upper and lower case 
 roman (except that of The Epistle, which is italic) , thus : 
 'To the Reader.' 'The Induction to the Booke.' 'The 
 seuen deadly Sinnes of London.' Of the main running title 
 this last is the more frequent form, and is found throughout 
 b 
 
xviii BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 
 
 sigs. B and C, though in sigs. D, B, F and G the spelling 
 ' Seauen ' or ' seauen ' occurs eight times to seven of the 
 spelling ' seuen/ The latter has been adopted throughout 
 the present edition, in which however the running titles have 
 been uniformly represented in roman capitals. No attempt 
 has been made to reproduce the bands of printer's ornament, 
 or the occasional decorative initial capitals of the original ; 
 the latter have been represented by plain drop capitals, and 
 the former have been omitted. 
 
 H. F. B. B.-S. 
 Oxford, 
 May 1922. 
 
THE 
 
 Seuen deadlie Sinns 
 
 of London.* 
 
 Vr atone in feuenfeueraH 'Coaches, 
 Through the feuenfeueraH <jate$ of the 
 
 Gtie~> 
 
 Bringing the plague with them. 
 
 Ofwfytem Durum, 
 Tho.Dekker f 
 
 At London 
 
 Printedby E.o/.for 'HatbankltButter^iaxi to be fold 
 at his fhop neere tfairit Auftens gate, 
 S*o$, ° 
 
"To the IVorshipfull and very worthy 
 
 Gentleman Henry Fermor Es- 
 quire, Clarke of the Peace for the 
 
 Countie of Middlesex. 
 
 I Am sory (deare Sir) that in a time (so abudat with 
 wit) I shold send vnto you no better fruit then the 
 sins of a City : but they are not comon, (for they were 
 neuer gathered till this yeare) and therefore I send them for 
 the Rarity : Yet now I remember my selfe, they are not 
 the Sinnes of a Citie, but onely the picture of them. And 
 a Drollerie (or Dutch peece of Lantskop) may sometimes 
 breed in the beholders eye, as much delectatio, as the best 
 & most curious master-peece excellet in that Art. Bookes 
 being sent abroad after they are begotte into the world, as 
 This of mine is, are in the nature of Orphans ; But being 
 receiued into a Gardianship (as I make no doubt but this 
 shall) they come into the happie state of adopted children. 
 That office must now be yours, and you neede not bee 
 ashamed of it, for Kings haue beene glad to doe them honour, 
 that haue bestowed such a neuer-dying honour vppon them. 
 The benefite you shall receiue, is this, that you see the build- 
 ing vp of a tombe (in your life time) wherein you are sure so 
 
 3 
 
4 THE EPISTLE 
 
 to lie, as that you cannot bee forgotte ; & you read that 
 very Epitaph that shal stand ouer you, which by no Enuie can 
 bee defaced, nor by any time worne out. I haue made choise 
 of you alone, to bee the onely Patron to these my labours : 
 by which word {onely) I chalenge to my selfe a kinde of 
 Dignitie : for there hath beene a Generation of a sort of 
 strange fellowes (and I thinke the race is not yet eaten out) 
 who when a Booke (of theire owne) hath bin borne in the 
 lawfull Matrimonie of Learning, and Industrie, haue basely 
 compeld it either like a bastard, to call a great many father 
 (and to goe vnder all their names) or else (like a common 
 fellow at a Sessions) to put himselfe (as the tearme is) vpon 
 twelue godfathers. In which case (contrarie to all law) the 
 Foreman is most dishonoured. That art of Skeldring I 
 studie not, I stand vpon stronger Bases. The current of 
 a mans Reputation, being diuided into so manie Riuolets 
 must needes grow weake. If you giue intertainment to 
 this in your best affection, you will binde me (one 
 day) to heigthen your name, when by some 
 more worthy Columne (by me to be erected) 
 I shall consecrate that and your selfe 
 to an euerlasting and sa- 
 cred Memorie. 
 
 Most affectionately desirous 
 to be yours : 
 
 Tho. Dekker. 
 
Reader, 
 
 IT is as ordinarie a custome (for vs that are Bookish) to 
 haue a bout with thee, after wee haue done with a 
 Patron, as for Schollers (in the noble Science) to play 
 at the woodden Rapier and Dagger at the ende of a Maisters 
 prize. In doing which we know not vpon what Speeding 
 points wee runne, for you (that are Readers) are the most 
 desperate and fowlest players in the world, you will strike 
 when a mans backe is toward you, and kill him (if you could 
 for shame) when he lies vnder your feete. You are able 
 (if you haue the tokens of deadly Ignorance, and Boldnes at 
 one time vpon you) to breede more infection on in Pauls 
 Church-yard, then all the bodies that were buried there in the 
 Plague-time, if they had beene left still aboue ground. You 
 stand somtimes at a Stationers stal, looking scuruily (like 
 Mules champing vpon Thistles) on the face of a new Booke 
 bee it neuer so worthy : & goe (as il fauouredly) mewing 
 away : But what get you by it ? The Booke-seller euer after 
 when you passe by, pinnes on your backes the badge of 
 f ooles to make you be laught to scorne, or of sillie Carpers 
 to make you be pittied : Conradus Gesner neuer writ of the 
 nature of such strange beasts as you are : for where as we 
 call you Lectores, Readers, you turne your selues into Lie- 
 tores, Executioners, & tormenters. I wold not haue him that 
 writes better than I, to Reade this, nor him that cannot doe 
 so well, to Raile, or if hee cannot chuse but Raile, let him doe 
 it to my face : otherwise (to me being absent) it is done 
 
 5 
 
6 TO THE READER 
 
 cowardly : for Leonem mortuum mordent etiam Catuli : Cats 
 
 dare scratch Lions by the face when they lie dead, and none 
 
 but Colliers will threaten a Lord Maior when they are f arre 
 
 enough from the Cittie. I haue laide no blockes 
 
 in thy way : if thou findest Strawes, 
 
 (Vade, vale,) cane ne 
 
 titubes. 
 
 The names of the Actors in this 
 
 old Enterlude of Iniquitie. 
 
 i Politike Banke- 
 ruptisme. 
 
 2 Lying. 
 
 3 Candle-light. 
 
 4 Sloth. 
 
 5 Apishnesse. 
 
 6 Shauing. 
 
 7 Crueltie. 
 
 Seuen may easily 
 play this, but not 
 without a Diuell. 
 
The Induction to the 
 
 Booke. 
 
 IFinde it written in that Booke where no vntruthes 
 can be read : in that Booke whose leaues shall ont-last 
 sheetes of brasse, and whose lynes leade to eternity : yea 
 euen in that Booke that was pend by the best Author of 
 the best wisedome, allowed by a Deity, licensed by the 
 Omnipotent, and published (in all Languages to all Nations) 
 by the greatest, truest, and onely Diuine, thus I find it 
 written, that for Sinne, Angels were throwne out of heauen ; 
 for Sinne, the first man that euer was made, was made an 
 outcast : he was driuen out of his liuing that was left vnto 
 him by his Creator : It was a goodlier liuing, than the 
 Inheritance of Princes : he lost Paradice by it (he lost his 
 house of pleasure :) hee lost Eden by it, a Garden; where 
 Winter could neuer haue nipt him with cold, nor Summer 
 haue scorcht him with heate. He had there all fruits 
 growing to delight his taste, all flowers flourishing to allure 
 his eye, all Birds singing to content his eare ; he had more 
 than he could desire : yet because he desired more than 
 was fit for him, he lost all. For Sinne, all those buildings 
 which that greate Worke-master of the world had in sixe 
 dayes raysed, were swallowed at the first by waters, and 
 shall at last be consumed in fire. How many families hath 
 this Leuiathan deuoured ? how many Cities ? how many 
 Kingdoms ? Let vs awhile leaue Kingdomes, and enter into 
 
 7 
 
8 THE INDVCTION 
 
 Cities. Sodom and Gomorrah were burnt to the ground 
 with brimstone that dropt in flakes from heauen ; a hot and 
 dreadfull vengeance. Ierusalem hath not a stone left vpon 
 another of her first glorious foundation : a heauy and 
 fearefull downefall. Ierusalem, that was Gods owne dwell- 
 ing house ; the Schoole where those Hebrew Lectures, 
 which he himselfe read, were taught ; the very Nursery 
 where the Prince of Heauen was brought vp; that Ierusalem, 
 whose Rulers were Princes, & whose Citizens were like the 
 sonnes of Kings : whose Temples were paued with gold, and 
 whose houses stood like rowes of tall Cedars ; that Ierusalem 
 is now a dezert ; It is vnhallowed, and vntrodden : no 
 Monument is left to shew it was a Citty, but only the 
 memoriall of the Iewes hard-hartednes, in making away 
 their Sauiour : It isjnow a place for barbarous Turks, and 
 poore despised Grecians ; it is rather now (for the.abomina- 
 tions committed in it) no place at all. 
 
 Let vs hoyst vp more Sayles, and lanch into other Seas, 
 till wee come in ken of our owne Countrey. Antwerp (the 
 eldest daughter of Brabant) hathfalne in her pride, the Citties 
 of rich Burgundy in theyr greatnes. Those seuenteene 
 Durch Virgins of Belgia, (that had Kingdomes to theyr 
 dowries, and were worthy to be courted by Nations) are now 
 no more Virgins : the Souldier hath deflowred them, and 
 robd them of theyr Mayden honor : Warre hath still vse of 
 their noble bodyes, and discouereth theyr nakedness like 
 prostituted Strumpets. Famine hath dryed vp the fresh 
 bloud in theyr cheekes, whilst the Pestilence digd vp theyr 
 Fields, and turned them into Graues. Neither haue these 
 punishments bin layd vpon them onely ; for bloud hath bin 
 also drawne of their very next neighbours. France lyes yet 
 panting vnder the blowes which her owne Children haue 
 giuen her. Thirty yeeres together suffred she her bowels to 
 be torne out by those that were bred within them : She was 
 full of Princes, and saw them all lye mangled at her feete : 
 She was full of people, and saw in one night a hundred 
 
TO THE BOOKE 9 
 
 thousand massacred in her streetes : her Kings were eaten 
 vp by Ciuill warres, and her Subiects by fire and famine. 
 O gallant Monarchy, what hard fate hadst thou, that when 
 none were left to conquer thee, thou shouldst triumph ouer 
 thy selfe ! Thou hast Wynes flowing in thy veynes : but 
 thou madest thy selfe druncke with thine owne bloud. The 
 English, the Dutch, and; the Spanish, stoode aloofe and 
 gaue ayme, whilst thou shotst arrowes vpright, that fell 
 vpon thine owne head, and wounded thee to death. Wouldst 
 thou (and the rest) know the reason, why your bones haue 
 bin bruzed with rods of Iron ? It was, because you haue 
 risen in Arch-rebellion against the Supremest Soueraigne : 
 You haue bin Tray tors to your Lord, the King of heauen 
 and earth, and haue armed your selues to fight against the 
 Holy Land. Can the father of the world measure out his 
 loue so vnequally, that one people (like to a mans yongest 
 child) should be more made of than all the rest, being more 
 vnruly than the rest ? O London, thou art great in glory, 
 and enuied for they greatnes : thy Towers, thy Temples, 
 and thy Pinnacles stand vpon thy head like borders of fine 
 gold, thy waters like frindges of siluer hang at the hemmes 
 of thy garments. Thou art the goodliest of thy neighbors, 
 but the prowdest ; the welthiest, but the most wanton. 
 Thou hast all things in thee to make thee fairest, and all 
 things in thee to make thee foulest ; for thou art attir'de 
 like a Bride, drawing all that looke vpon thee, to be in loue 
 with thee, but there is much harlot in thine eyes. Thou 
 sitst in thy Gates heated with Wines, and in thy Chambers 
 with lust. What miseries haue of late ouertaken thee ? yet 
 (like a f oole that laughs when hee is putting on fetters) thou 
 hast bin merry in height of thy misfortunes. She that (for 
 almost halfe a hundred of yeeres) of thy Nurse g M- Eliza . 
 became thy Mother, and layd thee in her beths death - 
 bosome, whose head was full of cares for thee, whilst thine 
 slept vpon softer pillowes than downe. She that wore 
 thee alwayes on her brest as the richest Iewell in her king- 
 
io THE INDVCTION 
 
 dome, who had continually her eye vpon thee, and her heart 
 with thee : whose chaste hand clothed thy Rulers in 
 Scarlet, and thy Inhabitants in roabes of peace : euen she 
 was taken from thee, when thou wert most in feare to lose 
 her : when thou didst tremble (as at an earth-quake) to 
 thinke that bloud should runne in thy Channels, that the 
 Canon should make way through thy Portcullises, and fire 
 rifle thy wealthy houses, then, euen then wert thou left 
 full of teares, and becamst an Orphan. But behold, thou 
 hadst not sat many howres on the banks of sorrow, but thou 
 Kins iames na dst a louing Father that adopted thee to be 
 Us corona- his owne : thy mourning turnd presently to 
 gladnes, thy terrors into triumphs. Yet, lest 
 this fulnesse of ioy should beget in thee a wantonnes, and 
 to try how wisely thou couldst take vp affliction, Sicknes 
 was sent to breathe her vnholsome ayres into thy 
 nosthrils, so that thou, that wert before the only Gallant 
 and Minion of the world, hadst in a short time more 
 diseases (then a common Harlot hath) hanging vpon thee ; 
 thou suddenly becamst the by-talke of neighbors, the scorne 
 and contempt of Nations. 
 
 Heere could I make thee weepe thy selfe away into waters, 
 *a Booke so °y calling back those sad and dismall houres, 
 caiud, writ- wherein thou consumedst almost to nothing 
 
 ten by the 
 
 Author, de- with shrikes and lamentations, in that *Won- 
 korror 8 of the derfull yeere, when these miserable calamities 
 i6ofr«**» entred in at thy Gates, slaying 30000. and more 
 fosytof as thou heldst them in thine armes, but they 
 that disease. are f^g^ i n thy memory, and the story of them 
 (but halfe read ouer) would strike so coldly to thy heart, 
 and lay such heauy sorrow vpon mine (Namque animus 
 meminisse horret, luctuque refugit) that I will not be thine 
 and my owne tormentor with the memory of them. How 
 quickly notwithstanding didst thou forget that beating ? 
 The wrath of him that smot thee, was no sooner (in meere 
 pitty of thy stripes) appeased, but howrely (againe) thou 
 
TO THE BOOKB n 
 
 wert in the company of euill doers, euen before thou couldst 
 finde ley sure to aske him forgiuenes. 
 
 Buer since that time hath hee winckt at thy errors, and 
 suffred thee (though now thou art growne old, and lookest 
 very ancient) to goe on still in the follyes of thy youth : 
 he hath ten-fold restor'de thy lost sonnes and daughters, 
 and such sweete, liuely, fresh colours hath hee put vpon 
 thy cheekes, that Kings haue come to behold 
 thee, and Princes to delight their eyes with thy land, and ng 
 bewty. None of all these fauours (for all this) King of™ 
 can draw thee from thy wickednes : Graces Denmarke - 
 haue powrd downe out of heauen vpon thee, and thou 
 art rich in all things, sauing in goodnes : So that now once 
 againe hath he gone about (and but gone about) to call thee 
 to the dreadfull Barre of his Iudgement. And no maruaile : 
 for whereas other Citties (as glorious as thy selfe,) and other 
 people (as deare vnto him as thine) haue in his indignation 
 bin quite taken from the face of the earth, for some one 
 peculiar Sinne, what hope hast thou to grow vp still in the 
 pride of thy strength, gallantnes and health, hauing seuen 
 deadly and detestable sinnes lying night by night by thy 
 lasciuious sides ? O thou beawtifullest daughter of two 
 vnited Monarchies ! from thy womb receiued I my being, 
 fro thy brests my nourishment ; yet giue me leaue to tell 
 thee, that thou hast seuen Diuels within thee, and till they 
 be cleane cast out, the Arrowes of Pestilence will fall vpon 
 thee by day, and the hand of the Inuader strike thee by 
 night. The Sunne will shine, but not be a comfort to thee, 
 and the Moone looke pale with anger, whe she giues thee 
 light. Thy Iyouers will disdayne to court thee : thy Temples 
 will no more send out Diuine oracles : Iustice will take her 
 flight, and dwell else-where ; and that Desolation, which 
 now for three yeeres together hath houered round about 
 thee, will at last enter, and turne thy Gardens of pleasure, 
 into Church-yards ; thy Fields that seru'd thee for walks, 
 into Golgotha ; and thy hye built houses, into heapes of dead 
 
12 THE INDVCTION 
 
 mens Sculs. I call him to witnes, who is all Truth, I call 
 
 the Cittizens of heauen to witnes, who are all spotlesse, 
 
 that I slander thee not, in saying thou nourishest seuen 
 
 Serpents at thy brests, that will destroy thee : let all thy 
 
 Magistrates and thy officers speake for me : let Strangers 
 
 that haue but seene thy behauiour, be my Iudges : let all 
 
 that are gathered vnder thy wings, and those that sleepe 
 
 in thy bosome, giue their verdict vpon me ; yea, try me 
 
 (as thy brabblings are) by all thy Petit and Graund Iurors, 
 
 and if I belye thee, let my Country (when I expire) deny me 
 
 her common blessing, Buriall. Lift vp therefore thy head 
 
 (thou Mother of so many people :) awaken out of thy 
 
 dead and dangerous slumbers, and with a full and fearelesse 
 
 eye behold those seuen Monsters, that with extended 
 
 iawes gape to swallow vp thy memory : for I will into 
 
 so large a field single euery one of them, that thou 
 
 and all the world shall see their vglinesse, for by 
 
 seeing them, thou mayst auoyd them, and by 
 
 auoyding them, be the happiest 
 
 and most renowned 
 
 of Citties. 
 
Politick Bankruptisme, 
 
 Or, 
 
 The first dayes Triumph 
 of the first Sinne. 
 
 IT is a custome in all Countries, when great personages 
 are to be entertained, to haue great preparation made 
 for them : and because London disdaines to come short 
 of any City, either in Magnificence, State, or expences vpon 
 such an occasion, solemne order was set downe, and seuen 
 seuerall solemne dayes were appointed to receiue these 
 seuen Potentates : for they carry the names of Princes on 
 the earth, and wheresoe're they inhabit, in a short time 
 are they Lords of great Dominions. 
 
 The first dayes Triumphs were spent in meeting and 
 conducting Politick Bankruptisme into the Freedome : to 
 receiue whom, the Master, the Keepers, and all the Prisoners 
 of Ludgate in their best clothes stood most Thcmaner 
 officiously readie : for at that Gate, his Deadli- h r ° u w pt f s Z k ' is 
 nesse challenges a kind of prerogatiue by the alTta'wfat 
 Custome of the Citie, and there loues he most Gate - 
 to be let in. The thing they stood vpon, was a Scaffold 
 erected for the purpose, stuck round about with a few greene 
 boughes (like an Alehouse booth at a Fayre) and couered 
 with two or three threed-bare Carpets (for prisoners haue 
 
 13 
 
14 THE SEVEN DEADLY 
 
 no better) to hide the vnhandsomnes of the Carpenters 
 worke : the boughes with the very strong breath that was 
 prest ont of the vulgar, withered, & like Autumnian 
 leaues dropt to the ground, which made the Broken Gentle- 
 man to hasten his progresse the more, and the rather, 
 because Lud and his two sonnes stood in a very cold place, 
 waiting for his comming. Being vnder the gate, there 
 stood one arm'd with an extemporall speech, to giue him 
 the onset of his welcome : It was not (I would you should 
 well know) the Clarke of a country parish, or the Schoole- 
 master of a corporate towne, y* euery yeere has a saying 
 to Master Maior, but it was a bird pickt out of purpose 
 (amongst the Ludgathians) that had the basest and lowdest 
 voice, and was able in a Terme time, for a throat, to giue 
 any prisoner great ods for y e box at the grate : this Organ- 
 pipe was tunde to rore for the rest, who with a hye sound & 
 glib deliuery, made an Encomiastick Paradoxicall Oration 
 in praise of a prison, prouing, that captiuity was y e only 
 blessing y* could happen to man, and that a Politick 
 Bankrupt (because he makes himselfe for euer by his owne 
 wit) is able to Hue in any common wealth, and deserues to 
 go vp the ladder of promotion, whe hue hundred shallow- 
 pated fellowes shall be turnd off. The poore Orator 
 hauing made vp his mouth, Bankruptisme gaue him very 
 good words, & a handful or two of thanks, vowing he would 
 euer Hue in his debt. At which, all the prisoners rending 
 the ayre with shouts, the key was turnd, & vp (in state) 
 was he led into king Luds house of Bondage, to suruey the 
 building, and to take possession of y e lodgings ; where he 
 no sooner entered, but a lusty peale of welcomes was shot 
 out of Kannes in stead of Canons, and though the powder 
 soiamen was exceeding wet, yet off they went thick and 
 
 ^h^isse threefold. The day was proclaymed HoHday 
 doioris. - m a n ^he war d es ; euery prisoner swore if he 
 
 would stay amongst them, they would take no order about 
 their debts, because they would lye by it too ; and for that 
 
SINNBS OF LONDON 15 
 
 purpose swarmd about him like Bees about Comfit-makers, 
 and were drunke, according to all the learned rules of 
 Drunkennes, as Vpsy-Freeze, Crambo, Parmizant, &c. the 
 pimples of this ranck and f ull-humord ioy rising thus in their 
 faces, because they all knew, that though he himselfe was 
 broken, the linings of his bags were whole ; & though he 
 had no conscience (but a crackt one) yet he had crownes 
 y* were sound. None of all these hookes could fasten 
 him to them : he was (like their clocks) to strike in more 
 places than one, & though he knew many Citizens hated 
 him, and that if he were encountred by some of them, it 
 might cost him deere, yet vnder so good a protection did 
 he go (as he said) because he owed no ill will euen to those 
 that most sought his vndoing ; and therefore tooke his 
 leaue of the house, with promise, to be with them, or send 
 to the once euery quarter at the least. So 
 that now, by his wise instructions, if a Puny mlulmen 
 were there amongst them, he might learne more cunmng - 
 cases, and more quiddits in law within seuen dayes, than 
 he does at his Inne in fourteene moneths. 
 
 The Politician beeing thus got into the City, caries 
 himself so discreetly, that he steales into the hearts of 
 many : In words, is he circumspect : in lookes, graue : in 
 attire, ciuill : in diet, temperate : in company His K . 
 affable : in his affaires serious : and so cunningly ties - 
 dooes he lay on these colours, that in the end he is welcome 
 to, and familiar with the best. So that now, there is not 
 any one of all the twelue Companies, in which (at one time 
 or other) there are not those that haue forsaken their owne 
 Hall, to be free of his : yea some of your best Shop-keepers 
 hath he enticed to shut themselues vp from the cares and 
 busines of the world, to Hue a priuate life ; nay, there is 
 not any great and famous Streete in the City, wherein 
 there hath not (or now doth not) dwell, some one, or other, 
 that hold the points of his Religion. For you must vnder- 
 stand, that the Politick Bankrupt is a Harpy that lookes 
 
16 THE SEVEN DEADLY 
 
 smoothly, a Hyena that enchants subtilly, a Mermaid 
 that sings sweetly, and a Cameleon, that can pnt himselfe 
 msdisgui- i^o all colours. Sometimes hee's a Puritane, 
 *«*• he sweares by nothing but Indeede, or rather 
 
 does not sweare at all, and wrapping his crafty Serpents 
 body in the cloake of Religion, he does those acts that would 
 become none but a Diuell. Sometimes hee's a Protestant, 
 and deales iustly with all men, till he see his time, but in 
 the end he turnes Turke. Because you shall beleeue me, I 
 will giue you his length by the Scale, and Anatomize his 
 body from head to foote. Heere it is. 
 
 Whether he be a Tradesman, or a Marchant, when he 
 His policy. first sets himselfe vp, and seekes to get the world 
 into his hands, (yet not to go out of y° City) or first talks of 
 Countries he neuer saw (vpon the Change) he will be sure to 
 keepe his dayes of payments more truly, then Lawyers 
 keepe their Termes, or than Executors keepe the last lawes 
 that the dead inioyned them to, which euen Infidels them- 
 selues will not violate : his hand goes to his head, to his 
 meanest customer, (to expresse his humilitie ;) he is vp 
 earlier then a Sarieant, and downe later than a Constable, 
 to proclaime his thrift. By such artificiall wheeles as 
 these, he winds himselfe vp into the height of rich mens 
 fauors, till he grow rich himselfe, and when he sees that 
 they dare build vpon his credit, knowing the ground to 
 be good, he takes vpon him the condition of an Asse, to any 
 man that will loade him with gold ; and vseth his credit 
 like a Ship freighted with all sorts of Merchandize by 
 ventrous Pilots : for after he hath gotten into his hands so 
 much of other mens goods or money, as will fill him to the 
 vpper deck, away he sayles with it, and politickly runnes 
 himselfe on ground, to make the world beleeue he had 
 suffered shipwrack. Then flyes he out like an Irish rebell, 
 and keepes aloofe, hiding his head, when he cannot hide 
 his shame : and though he haue fethers on his back puld 
 fro sundry birds, yet to himselfe is he more wretched, 
 
SINNES OF LONDON 17 
 
 then y e Cuckoo in winter, that dares not be seene. The 
 troupes of honest Citizens (his creditors) with whom he 
 hath broken league and hath thus defyed, muster themselues 
 together, and proclaime open warre : their bands consist 
 of tall Yeomen, that serue on foot, comanded by certaine 
 Serieants of their bands, who for leading of men, are knowne 
 to be of more experiece then the best Iyow-countrey Cap- 
 taines. In Ambuscado do these lye day & night, to cut 
 off this enemy to the City, if he dare but come downe. 
 But the politick Bankrupt barricadoing his Sconce with 
 double locks, treble dores, inuincible bolts, and pieces of 
 timber 4. or 5. storyes hye, victuals himselfe for a moneth 
 or so ; and then in the dead of night, marches vp higher 
 into y e country with bag and baggage : parlies then are 
 summond ; compositions offred ; a truce is sometimes 
 taken for 3. or 4. yeeres ; or (which is more common) a 
 dishonorable peace (seeing no other remedy) is on both 
 sides concluded, he (like the States) being the only gayner 
 by such ciuill warres, whilst the Citizen that is the lender, 
 is the loser : Nam crimine ab vno disce omnes, looke how 
 much he snatches from one mans sheafe, hee gleanes from 
 euery one, if they bee a hundred. 
 
 The victory being thus gotten by basenes & trechery, 
 back comes he marching with spred colours againe to the 
 City ; aduances in the open streete as he did before ; sels 
 the goods of his neighbor before his face without blushing : 
 he iets vp and downe in silks wouen out of other mens 
 stocks, feeds deliciously vpo other mes purses, rides on his 
 ten pound Geldings, in other mens saddles, & is now a new 
 man made out of wax, thats to say, out of those bonds, 
 whose seales he most dishonestly hath canceld. veluet- 
 garded Theeues ! yea-and-by-nay Cheaters ! ciuill, 6 
 Graue and Right Worshipfull Couzeners ! 
 
 What a wretchednes is it, by such steps to clime to a 
 counterfetted happines ? So to be made for euer, is to be 
 vtterly vndone for euer : So for a man to saue himselfe, is 
 2 
 
18 THE SEVEN DEADLY 
 
 to venture his own damnation ; like those that laboring 
 by all meanes to escape shipwrack, do afterwards desperatly 
 drown themselues. But alas ! how rotten at the bottom 
 are buildings thus raised ! How soone do such leases grow 
 out of date ! The Third House to them is neuer heard of. 
 What slaues then doth mony (so purchast) make of those, 
 who by such wayes thinke to find out perfect freedome ? 
 But they are most truly miserable in midst of their ioyes : for 
 their neighbors scorn them, Strangers poynt at them, good 
 men neglect them, the rich man will no more trust them, 
 the begger in his rage vpbraydes them. Yet if this were all, 
 this all were nothing. O thou that on thy pillow (lyke a 
 Spider in his loome) weauest mischeuous nets, beating thy 
 braynes, how by casting downe others, to rayse vp thy 
 selfe ! 
 
 Thou Politick Bankrupt, poore rich man, thou ill-painted 
 foole, when thou art to lye in thy last Inne (thy loathsome 
 graue) how heauy a loade will thy wealth bee to thy weake 
 corrupted Conscience ! those heapes of Siluer, in telling of 
 which thou hast worne out thy fingers ends, will be a passing 
 bell, tolling in thine eare, and calling thee to a fearefull 
 Audit. Thou canst not dispose of thy riches, but the naming 
 of euery parcell will strike to thy heart, worse then the 
 pangs of thy departure : thy last will, at the last day, will 
 be an Inditement to cast thee ; for thou art guilty of 
 offending those two lawes (enacted in the vpper House of 
 heauen) which directly forbid thee to steale, or to couet 
 thy neighbors goods. 
 
 But this is not all neither ; for thou lyest on thy bed 
 of death, and art not carde for : thou goest out of the 
 world, and art not lamented : thou art put into the last 
 linnen y* euer thou shalt weare, (thy winding-sheete) with 
 reproch, and art sent into thy Graue with curses : he that 
 makes thy Funerall Sermon, dares not speake well of thee, 
 because he is asham'd to belye the dead : and vpon so 
 hatefull a fyle doest thou hang the records of thy life, that 
 
SINNES OF LONDON 19 
 
 euen when the wormes haue pickt thee to the bare bones , 
 those that goe ouer thee, will set vpon thee no Epitaph but 
 this, Here lyes a knaue. 
 
 Alack ! this is not the worst neither : thy Wife being in 
 the heate of her youth, in the pride of her beawty, and in 
 all the brauery of a rich London Widow, flyes from her 
 nest (where she was thus rledg'd before her time) the City, 
 to shake off the imputation of a Bankrupts Wife, and per- 
 haps marries with some Gallat : thy bags then are emptied, 
 to hold him vp in riots : those hundreds, which thou 
 subtilly tookst vp vpon thy bonds, do sinfully serue him 
 to pay Tauerne bills, and what by knauery thou gotst from 
 honest men, is as villanously spent vpon Pandars and 
 Whores : thy Widow being thus brought to a low ebbe, 
 grows desperat : curses her birth, her life, her fortunes, 
 yea perhaps curses thee, when thou art in thy euerlasting 
 sleepe, her conscience perswading strongly, that she is 
 punished from aboue, for thy faults : and being poore, 
 , f riendlesse, comfortlesse, she findes no meanes to raise her 
 selfe, but by Falling, and therfore growes to be a common 
 woma. Doth not y e thought of this torment thee ? She 
 Hues basely by the abuse of that body, to maintaine which 
 in costly garments, thou didst wrong to thine owne soule : 
 nay more to afflict thee, thy children are ready to beg 
 their bread in that very place, where the father hath sat 
 at his dore in purple, and at his boord like Diues, surfeting 
 on those dishes which were earnd by the sweat of other 
 mens browes. The infortunate Marchant, whose estate 
 is swallowed vp by the mercilesse Seas, and the prouident 
 Trades-man, whom riotous Seruants at home, or hard- 
 hearted debters abroad vndermine and ouerthrow, blotting 
 them with the name of Bankrupts, deserue to be pitied 
 and relieued, when thou that hast cozend euen thine owne 
 Brother of his Birth-right, art laught at, and not remembred, 
 but in scorne, when thou art plagued in thy Generation. 
 
 Be wise therefore, you Graue, and wealthy Cittizens ; play 
 
20 THE SEVEN DEADLY 
 
 with these Whales of the Sea, till you escape them that are 
 deuourers of your Merchants ; hunt these English Wolues 
 to death, and rid the land of them : for these are the Rats 
 that eate vp the prouision of the people : these are the 
 Grashoppers of Egypt, that spoyle the Corne-fields of the 
 Husbandman and the rich mans Vineyards : they will 
 haue poore Naboths piece of ground from him, though they 
 eate a piece of his heart for it. These are indeede (and 
 none but these) the Forreners that Hue without the f reedome 
 of your City, better than you within it ; they Hue without 
 the freedome of honesty, of conscience, and of christian- 
 itie. Ten dicing-houses cheate not yong Gentlemen of so 
 much mony in a yeare, as these do you in a moneth. The 
 theefe that dyes at Tyburne for a robbery, is not halfe so 
 dangerous a weede in a Common-wealth, as the Politick 
 Bankrupt, I would there were a Derick to hang vp him too. 
 
 The Russians haue an excellent custome : they beate 
 them on the shinnes, that haue mony, and wiU not pay 
 their debts ; if that law were well cudgeld from thence 
 into England, Barbar-Surgeons might in a few yeeres build 
 vp a Hall for their Company, larger then Powles, only 
 with the cure of Bankrupt broken-shinnes. 
 
 I would faine see a prize set vp, that the welted Vsurer, 
 and the poHtick Bankrupt might rayle one against another 
 for it : o, it would beget a riming Comedy. The ChaUenge 
 of the Germayne against all the Masters of the Noble Science, 
 would not bring in a quarter of the money : for there is not 
 halfe so much loue betweene the Iron and the Loadestone, 
 as there is mortall hate betweene those two Furies. The 
 Vsurer Hues by the lechery of mony, and is Bawd to his 
 owne bags, taking a fee, that they may ingender. The 
 Politick Bankrupt Hues by the gelding of bags of Siluer. 
 The Vsurer puts out a hundred poud to breede, and lets 
 it run in a good pasture (thats to say, in the lands that are 
 mortgag'd for it) till it grow great with Foale, and bring 
 forth ten pound more. But the PoHtick Bankrupt playes 
 
SINNES OF LONDON 21 
 
 the Alchimist, and hauing taken a hundred pound to multi- 
 ply it, he keepes a puffing and a blowing, as if he would 
 fetch the Philosophers stone out of it, yet melts your 
 hundred pound so long in his Crusibles, till at length he 
 either melt it cleane away, or (at the least) makes him that 
 lends it thinke good, if euery hundred bring him home fiue, 
 with Principall and Interest. 
 
 You may behold now in this Perspectiue piece which I 
 haue drawne before you, how deadly and dangerous an 
 enemy to the State this Politick Bankntptisme hath bin, 
 & still is : It hath bin long enough in the Citty, and for any 
 thing I see, makes no great haste to get out. His triumphs 
 haue bin great, his entertainement rich and magnificent. 
 He purposes to lye heere as Lucifers Legiar : let him there- 
 fore alone in his lodging (in what part of the Citty soeuer 
 it be) tossed and turmoyled with godlesse slumbers, and 
 let vs take vp a standing neere some other Gate, to behold 
 the Entrance of the Second Sinne : but before you go, 
 looke vpo the Chariot that this First is drawne in, and take 
 speciall note of all his Attendants. 
 
 The habit, the qualities and complexion of this Embas- 
 sador sent from Hell, are set downe before. He rides in a 
 Chariot drawne vpon three wheeles, that run fastest away, 
 when they beare the greatest loades. The bewty of the 
 Chariot is all in-layd work, cunningly & artificially wrought, 
 but yet so strangely, and of so many seuerall-fashioned 
 pieces, (none like another) that a sound wit would mistrust 
 they had bin stolne from sundry worke-men. By this 
 prowd Counterfet ran two Pages; on the left side Con- 
 science, raggedly attirde, ill-fac'd, ill-coloured, and mis- 
 shapen in body. On the right side runs Beggery, who if 
 he out-liue him, goes to serue his children. Hipocrisy 
 driues the Chariot, hauing a couple of fat well-coloured and 
 lusty Coach-horses to the eye, cald Couetousnes and Cose- 
 nage, but full of diseases, & rotten about the heart. Behind 
 him follow a crowd of Trades-men, and Merchants, euery 
 
22 THE SEVEN DEADLY SINNES OF LONDON 
 
 one of them holding either a Shopbooke, or an Obligation 
 in his hand, their seruants, wiues and children strawing 
 the way before him with curses, but he carelesly runnes 
 ouer the one, and out-rides the other ; at the tayle of whom 
 (like the Pioners of an Army) march troopewise, and with- 
 out any Drum struck vp, because the Leader can abide 
 no noyse, a company of old expert Sarieants, bold Yeomen, 
 hungry Baylifs, and other braue Martiall men, who because 
 (like the Switzers) they are well payd, are still in Action, and 
 oftentimes haue the enemy in execution ; following the 
 heeles of this Citty-Conqueror, so close, not for any loue 
 they owe him, but only (as all those that follow great men 
 do) to get mony by him. We will leaue them lying in 
 Ambush, or holding their Courts of Gard, and take a muster 
 of our next Regiment. 
 
2. Lying. 
 
 O, 
 
 The second dayes Triumph. 
 
 WHen it came to the eares of the Sinfull Syna- 
 gogue, how the rich lew of London, (Barabbas 
 Bankruptisme) their brother, was receyued into 
 the Citty, and what a lusty Reueler he was become, the rest 
 of the same Progeny (being 6. in number) vowd to ryde 
 thither in their greatest State, and that euery one should 
 challenge to himselfe (if he could enter) a seuerall day of 
 Tryumph ; for so he might doe by their owne Customes. 
 Another therefore of the Broode, being presently aptly 
 accoustred, and armed Cap-a-pe, with all furniture fit for 
 such an Inuader, sets forward the very next morning, and 
 arriu'de at one of the Gates, before any Porters eyes were 
 vnglewd. To knocke, hee thought it no policy, because such 
 fellowes are commonly most churlish, when they are most 
 intreated and are key-cold in their comming downe to 
 Strangers, except they be brybed : to stay there with such a 
 confusion of faces round about him, till light should betray 
 him, might call his Arriuall, being strange and hidden, into 
 question ; besides, he durst not send any Spy he had, 
 to listen what newes went amongst the people, and whether 
 any preparation were made for him, or that they did 
 expect his approche, because indeede there was not any one 
 of the Damned Crewe that followed his tayle, whom he 
 durst trust for a true word. He resolues therefore to make 
 
 23 
 
24 THE SEVEN DEADLY 
 
 his entrance, not by the sword, but by some sleyght, 
 what storme or f ayre weather soeuer should happen : And 
 for that purpose, taking asunder his Charriot, (for it stood 
 altogether like a Germane clock, or an English lack or 
 Turne-spit, vpon skrewes and vices) he scatters his Troope 
 vpon the fields and bye-way, into small companies, as if 
 they had bene Irish beggers ; till at last espying certayne 
 Colliers with Carts most sinfully loaden, for the Citty, and 
 behind them certayne light Country Horse-women ryding 
 to the Markets, hee mingled his Footemen carelesly 
 amongst these, and by this Stratagem of Coales, brauely 
 thorow Moore-gate, got within the walles ; where marching 
 not like a plodding Grasyer with his Drones before him, but 
 like a Citty-Captayne, with a Company (as pert as Tay lours 
 at a wedding) close at his heeles, (because nowe they knewe 
 they were out of f eare) hee musters together all the Hackney- 
 men and Horse-coursers in and about Colman-streete. 
 
 No sooner had these Sonnes and Heyres vnto Horse- 
 shooes, got him into their eyes, but they wept for ioy to 
 behold him ; yet in the ende, putting vp their teares into 
 bottles of Hay, which they held vnder their armes, and 
 wyping their slubberd cheekes with wispes of cleane Strawe, 
 (prouyded for the nonce) they harnessed the Grand Signiors 
 Caroach, mounted his Cauallery vpon Curtals, and so sent 
 him most pompously (like a new elected Dutch Burgo- 
 master) into the Citty. 
 
 He was lookt vpon strangely by all whom he met, for at 
 the first, few or none knew him, few followed him, few 
 bid him welcome : But after hee had spent heere a very 
 little peece of time, after it was voyc'd that Monsieur 
 Mendax came to dwell amongst them, and had brought 
 with him all sorts of politick falshood and lying, what a 
 number of Men, Women and Children fell presently in loue 
 with him ! There was of euery Trade in the City, and of 
 euery profession some, that instantly were dealers with 
 him : For you must note, that in a State so multitudinous, 
 
SINNES OF LONDON 25 
 
 where so many flocks of people must be fed, it is impossible 
 to haue some Trades to stand, if they should not Lye. 
 
 How quickly after the Art of Lying was once publiquely 
 profest, were false Weights and false Measures inuented ! 
 and they haue since done as much hurt to the inhabitants 
 of Cities, as the inuention of Gunnes hath done to their 
 walles : for though a Lye haue but short legs (like a Dwarf es) 
 yet it goes farre in a little time, Et crescit eundo, and at last 
 prooues a tall fellow : the reason is, that Truth had euer 
 but one Father, but Lyes are a thousand mens Bastards, 
 and are begotten euery where. 
 
 Looke vp then ( Thou thy Country es Darling,) and behold 
 what a diuelish Inmate thou hast intertained. The Genea- 
 logy of Truth is well knowne, for she was borne in Heauen, 
 and dwels in Heauen : Falshood then and Lying must of 
 necessity come out of that hot Country of Hell, from the 
 line of Diuels : for those two are as opposite, as day and 
 darkenes. What an vngracious Generation wilt thou 
 mingle with thine, if thou draw not this from thee : What 
 a number of vnhappy and cursed childre will be left vpo 
 thy hand ? for Lying is Father to Falshood, and Grandsire 
 to Periury : Frawd (with two faces) is his Daughter, a 
 very Monster : Treason (with haires like Snakes) is his 
 kinseman ; a very Fury ! how art thou inclos'd with 
 danger ? The Lye first deceiues thee, and to shoote the 
 deceit off cleanly, an oath (like an Arrow) is drawne to the 
 head, and that hits the marke. If a Lye, after it is molded, 
 be not smooth enough, there is no instrumet to burnish it, 
 but an oath : Swearing giues it cullor, & a bright complexion. 
 So that Oathes are Crutches, vpon whych Lyes (like lame 
 soldiers) go, & neede no other pasport. little oathes 
 are able to beare vp great lyes : but great Lyes are able to 
 beate down great Families : For oathes are wounds that a 
 man stabs into himselfe, yea, they are burning words that 
 consume those who kindle them. 
 
 What fooles then are thy Buyers and Sellers to be abused 
 
26 THE SEVEN DEADLY 
 
 by such hell-hounds ? Swearing and Forswearing put into 
 their hands perhaps the gaines of a little Siluer, but like 
 those pieces which Iudas receiued, they are their destruc- 
 tion. Welth so gotten, is like a tree set in the depth of 
 winter, it prospers not. 
 
 But is it possible (Thou leader of so great a Kingdome) that 
 heretofore so many bonfires of mens bodies should be made 
 before thee in the good quarrell of Trueth ? and that now 
 thou shouldst take part with her enemy ? Haue so many 
 Triple-pointed darts of Treason bin shot at the heads of 
 thy Princes, because they would not take Truth out of thy 
 Temples, and art thou now in League with false Witches 
 y* would kill thee ? Thou art no Traueler, the habit of 
 Lying therefore will not become thee, cast if off. 
 
 He that giues a soldier the Lye, lookes to receiue the 
 stab : but what danger does he run vpon, that giues a 
 whole City the Lye ? yet must I venture to giue it thee. 
 Let me tell thee then, that Thou doest Lye with Pride, and 
 though thou art not so gawdy, yet art thou more costly 
 in attiring thy selfe than the Court, because Pride is the 
 Queene of Sinnes, thou hast chosen her to be thy Concubine, 
 and hast begotten many base Sonnes and Daughters vpon 
 her body, as Vainglory, Curiosity, Disobedience, Opinion, 
 Disdaine, &c. Pride, by thy Lying with her, is growne 
 impudent : She is now a common Harlot, and euery one 
 hath vse of her body. The Taylor calls her his Lemman, 
 he hath often got her great with child of Phantasticallity 
 and Fashions, who no sooner came into the world, but the 
 fairest Wiues of thy Tennants snatcht them vp into their 
 armes, layd them in their laps and to their brests, and after 
 they had plaid with them their pleasure, into the country 
 were those two children (of the Taylors) sent to be nurst 
 vp, so that they Hue sometimes there, but euer and anon 
 with thee. 
 
 Thou doest likewise Lye with Vsury : how often hast thou 
 bin found in bed with her ! How often hath she bin 
 
SINNES OF LONDON 27 
 
 openly disgraced at the Crosse for a Strumpet ! yet still 
 doest thou keepe her company, and art not ashamed of it, 
 because you commit Sinne together, euen in those houses 
 that haue paynted posts standing at the Gates. What 
 vngodly brats and kindred hath she brought thee ? for 
 vpon Vsury hast thou begotten Extortion, (a strong, but an 
 vnmannerly child,) Hardnes of heart, a very murderer, and 
 Bad Conscience, who is so vnruly, that he seemes to be sent 
 vnto thee, to be thy euerlasting paine. Then hath she 
 Sonnes in law, and they are all Scriueners : those Scriueners 
 haue base sonnes, and they are all common Brokers ; those 
 Brokers likewise send a number into the world, & they are 
 all Common Theeues. 
 
 All of these may easily giue Armes : for they fetch their 
 discent from hell, where are as many Gentlemen, as in any 
 one place, in any kingdome. 
 
 Thou doost lye with sundrie others, and committest 
 strange whoredomes, which by vse and boldnesse grow so 
 common, that they seeme to be no whoredomes at all, Yet 
 thine owne abhominations would not appeare so vilely, 
 but that thou makest thy buildings a Brothelry to others : 
 for thou sufferest Religion to lye with Hipocrisie : Charity 
 to lye with Ostentation : Friendship to lye with Hollow- 
 heartednes : the Churle to lye with Simony : Iustice to 
 lye with Bribery, and last of all, Conscience to lye with 
 euerie one, So that now shee is full of diseases : But thou 
 knowest the medicine for al these Feauers that shake thee : 
 be therfore to thy selfe thine owne Phisitian, and by strong 
 Pilles purge away this second infection that is breeding 
 vpon thee, before it strike to the heart. 
 
 Falshood and Lying thus haue had their day, and like 
 Almanackes of the last yeare, are now gon out : let vs follow 
 them a step or two farther to see how they ride, and then 
 (if we can) leaue them, for I perceiue it growes late, because 
 Candle-light (who is next to enter vpo the stage) is making 
 himself ready to act his Comicall Scenes. The Chariot 
 
28 THE SEVEN DEADLY SINNES OF LONDON 
 
 then that Lying is drawne in, is made al of whetstones ; 
 Wantonnes and enil custome are his Horses : a Foole is the 
 Coachman that driues them : a conple of swearing Fencers 
 sometimes leade the Horses by the reynes, and sometimes 
 flourish before them to make roome. Worshipfully is this 
 Lord of Limbo attended, for Knights theselues follow close 
 at his heeles ; Mary they are not Post and Poyre- Knightes 
 but one of the Post. Amongst whose traine is shuffled in 
 a company of scambling ignorant Petti-foggars, leane 
 Knaues and hungrie, for they Hue vpon nothing but the 
 scraps of the Law, and heere and there (like a Prune in 
 White-broth) is stucke a spruice but a meere prating 
 vnpractised Lawyers Clarke all in blacke. At the tayle of 
 all (when this goodly Pageant is passed by) follow a crowde 
 of euerie trade some, amongst whome least we be smothered, 
 and bee taken to bee of the same list, let vs strike downe 
 my way. 
 
 Nanif) odi profanu Valgus. 
 
3- Candle-light. 
 OR, 
 The Nocturnal] Tryumph. 
 
 O Candle-light ! and art thou one of the Cursed 
 Crew ? hast thou bin set at the Table of Princes, & 
 Noblemen ? haue all sortes of people doone reuer- 
 ence vnto thee, and stood bare so soone as euer they haue 
 seene thee ? haue Theeues, Traytors, and Murderers been 
 arTraide to come in thy presence, because they knewe thee 
 iust, and that thou wouldest discouer them ? And art thou 
 now a harborer of all kindes of Vices ? nay, doost thou 
 play the capitall Vice thy selfe ? 
 
 Hast thou had so many learned Lectures read before thee, 
 & is the light of thy Vnder standing now cleane put out, 
 and haue so many profound schollers profited by thee ? 
 hast thou doone such good to Vniuersities, beene such a 
 guide to the I,ame, and seene the dooing of so many good 
 workes, yet doest thou now looke dimly, and with a dull 
 eye vpon al Goodnes ? What comfort haue sickmen taken 
 (in weary and irkesome nights) but onely in thee ? thou hast 
 been their Phisition and Apothecary, and when the rellish 
 of nothing could please them, the very shadow of thee 
 hath beene to them a restoritiue Consolation. The Nurse 
 hath stilled her wayward Infant, shewing it but to thee : 
 What gladnes hast thou put into Mariners bosomes, when 
 thou hast met them on the Sea ? What Ioy into the faint 
 and benighted Trauailer when he has met thee on the land? 
 
 29 
 
30 THE SEVEN DEADLY 
 
 How many poore Handy-crajtes men by Thee haue earned 
 the best part of their luring ? And art thou now become a 
 Companion for Drunkards, for leachers, and for prodi- 
 galles ? Art thou turnd Reprobate ? thou wilt burne for 
 it in hell, And so odious is this thy Apostacy, and hiding 
 thy self fro y e light of the truth, y* at thy death & going out 
 of the world, euen they y* loue thee best, wil tread thee 
 vnder their feete : yea I y* haue thus plaid the Herrald, 
 & proclaimd thy good parts, wil now play the Cryer 
 and cal thee into open court, to arraigne thee for thy 
 misdemeanors. 
 
 Let the world therefore vnderstand, that this Tallow- 
 facde Gentleman (cald Candle-light) so soone as euer the 
 Sunne was gon out of sight, and that darkenes like a thief 
 out of a hedge crept vpon the earth, sweate till hee dropt 
 agen, with bustling to come into the Cittie. For hauing no 
 more but one onely eye (and that fierie red with drinking & 
 sitting vp late) he was ashamed to be seene by day, know- 
 ing he should be laught to scorne, and hooted at. He 
 makes his entrance therefore at Aldersgate of set purpose, 
 for though the streete be faire and spatious, yet few lightes 
 in mistie euenings, vsing there to thrust out their golde 
 heads he thought that the aptest circle for him to be 
 raised in, because there his Glittering would make greatest 
 show. 
 
 What expectation was there of his coming ? setting 
 aside y e bonfiers, there is not more triumphing on Mid- 
 sommer night. No sooner was he aduaunced vp into the 
 moste famous Streetes, but a number of shops for ioy 
 beganne to shut in : Mercers rolde vp their silkes and 
 Veluets : the Goldsmithes drew backe their Plate, & all 
 the Citty lookt like a priuate Play-house, when the windowes 
 are clapt downe, as if some Nocturnal, or dismall Tragedy 
 were presently to be acted before all the Trades-men. 
 But Caualiero Candle-light came for no such solemnitie : 
 No he had other Crackers in hand to which hee watcht 
 
SINNES OF LONDON 31 
 
 but his houre to giue fire. Scarce was his entrance blown 
 abroad, but the Banckrupt, the Fellon, and all that owed 
 any mony, and for feare of arrests, or Iustices warrants, 
 had like so many Snayles kept their houses ouer their heads 
 al the day before, began now to creep out of their shels, & 
 to stalke vp & down the streets as vprightly, & with as 
 proud a gate as if they meant to knock against the starres 
 with the crownes of their heads. 
 
 The damask-coated Cittizen, that sat in his shop both 
 forenoone and afternoone, and lookt more sowerly on his 
 poore neighbors, then if he had drunke a quart of Vineger 
 at a draught, sneakes out of his owne doores, and slips into 
 a Tauerne, where either alone, or with some other that 
 battles their money together, they so plye themselues with 
 penny pots, which (like small-shot) goe off, powring into 
 their fat paunches, that at length they haue not an eye to 
 see withall, not a good legge to stand vpon. In which pickle 
 if anye of them happen to be iustled downe by a post 
 (that in spite of them will take the wall) and so reeles them 
 into the kennell, who takes them vp or leades them home ? 
 who has them to bed, and with a pillow smothes this stealing 
 so of good liquor, but that brazen-face Candle-light ? Nay 
 more, hee intices their verie Prentices to make their 
 desperate sallyes out, & quicke retyres in (contrarie to the 
 Oath of their Indentures) which are seuen yeares a swearing, 
 onely for their Pintes, and away. 
 
 Tush, this is nothing : yong shopkeepers that haue but 
 newly ventured vpon the pikes of marriage, who are euery 
 houre shewing their wares to their Customers, plying their 
 businesse harder all day then Vulcan does his Anuile, and 
 seeme better husbands than Fidlers that scrape for a poore 
 liuing both day and night, yet euen these if they can but 
 get Candle-light, to sit vp all night with them in any house 
 of Reckning (thats to say in a Tauerne) they fall roundly to 
 play the London prize, and thats at three seuerall weapons, 
 Drinking, Dauncing, & Dicing, Their wiues lying all that 
 
32 THE SEVEN DEADLY 
 
 time in their beds sighing like widowes, which is lamentable : 
 the giddie-braind husbads wasting the portions they had 
 with them , which lost once, they are (like Maiden-heades) 
 neuer recouerable. Or which is worse, this going a Bat- 
 fowling a nights, beeing noted by some wise yong-man or 
 other, that knowes how to handle such cases, the bush 
 is beaten for them at home, whilest they catch the bird 
 abroade, but what bird is it ? the Woodcocke. 
 
 Neuer did any Cittie pocket vp such wrong at the hands 
 of one, ouer whom she is so iealous, and so tender, that in 
 Winter nights if he be but missing, and hide himself e in the 
 darke, I know not how many Beadles are sent vp and downe 
 the streetes to crie him : yet you see, there is more cause 
 she should send out to curse him. For what Villanies 
 are not abroad so long as Candle-light is stirring ? The 
 Seruing-man dare then walke with his wench : the Priuate 
 Puncke (otherwise called one that boords in London) 
 who like a Pigeon sits billing all day within doores, and 
 feares to steppe ouer the thresholde, does then walke the 
 round till midnight, after she hath beene swaggering 
 amongst pottle pots and Vintners boyes. Nay, the sober 
 Perpetuana suited Puritane, that dares not (so much as 
 by Moone-light) come neere the Suburb-shadow of a house, 
 where they set stewed Prunes befor you, raps as boldly 
 at the hatch, when he knowes Candle-light is within, as if 
 he were a new chosen Constable. When al doores are lockt 
 vp, when no eyes are open, when birds sit silent in bushes, 
 and beasts lie sleeping vnder hedges, when no creature can 
 be smelt to be vp but they that may be smelt euery night 
 a streets length ere you come at them, euen then doth this 
 Ignis fatuus {Candle-light) walke like a Fire-drake into 
 sundrie corners. If you will not beleeue this, shoote but 
 your eye through the Iron grates into the Cellers of Vint- 
 ners, there you shall see him hold his necke in a Iin, made 
 of a clift hoope-sticke, to throttle him from telling tales, 
 whilest they most abhominably iumble together all the 
 
SINNES OF LONDON 33 
 
 papisticall drinkes that are brought from beyond-sea : 
 the poore wines are rackt and made to confesse anie thing : 
 the Spanish & the French meeting both in the bottome of 
 the Cellar, conspire together in their cups, to lay the 
 Englishman (if he euer come into their company) vnder 
 the boord. 
 
 To be short, such strange mad musick doe they play vpon 
 their Sacke-buttes, that if Candle-light beeing ouer come 
 with the steeme of newe sweete Wines, when they are at 
 worke, shoulde not tell them tis time to goe to bedde, they 
 would make all the Hogges-heads that vse to come to 
 the house, to daunce the Cannaries till they reeld againe. 
 When the Grape-mongers and hee are parted, hee walkes 
 vp and downe the streetes squiring olde Midwiues to anie 
 house, (verie secretly) where any Bastards are to be brought 
 into the worlde. From them, (about the houre when 
 Spirits walke, and Cats goe a gossipping) hee visits the 
 Watch, where creeping into the Beadles Cothouse (which 
 standes betweene his legges, that are lapt rounde about 
 with peeces of Rugge, as if he had newe strucke off Shackles) 
 and seeing the Watch-men to nodde at him, hee hydes 
 himselfe presently, (knowing the token) vnder the flappe 
 of a gowne, and teaches them (by instinct) howe to steale 
 nappes into their heades, because hee sees all their 
 Cloakes haue not one good nappe vppon them : and vppon 
 his warrant snort they so lowde, that to those Night-walkers 
 (whose wittes are vp so late) it serues as a Watch-worde to 
 keepe out of the reach of their browne Billes : by which 
 meanes they neuer come to aunswere the matter before 
 maister Constable, and the Bench vppon which his men 
 (that shoulde watch) doe sitte : so that the Counters are 
 cheated of Prisoners, to the great dammage of those that 
 shoulde haue their mornings draught out of the Garnish. 
 
 O Candle-light, Candle-light ! to howe manie costly 
 Sacke-possets, and reare Banquets hast thou beene inuited 
 by Prentices and Kitchen-maidens ? When the Bell-man 
 3 
 
34 THE SEVEN DEADLY 
 
 for anger to spie (such a Purloyner of Cittizens goods) so 
 many, hath bounced at the doore like a madde man, At 
 which (as if Robin Good-fellow had beene coniur'd vp 
 amongst them) the Wenches haue falne into the handes of 
 the Greene-sicknesse, and the yong fellowes into colde 
 Agues, with verie f eare least their maister (like olde Ieronimo 
 and Isabella his wife after him) starting out of his naked 
 bed should come downe (with a Weapon in his hande) and 
 this in his mouth : What out-cry es 'pull vs from our naked 
 bedde ? Who calles ? &c. as the Players can tell you. O 
 Candle-light, howe hast thou stuncke then, when they haue 
 popt thee out of their companye : howe hast thou taken 
 it in snuffe, when thou hast beene smelt out especially the 
 maister of the house exclayming, that by day that deede 
 of darknesse had not beene. One Vennie more with thee, 
 and then I haue done. 
 
 How many lips haue beene worne out with kissing at the 
 street doore, or in y e entry (in a winking blind euening ?) 
 how many odde matches and vneuen manages haue been 
 made there betweene young Prentises and there maisters 
 daughters, whilest thou (O Candle-light) hast stood watching 
 at the staires heade, that none could come stealing downe 
 by thee, but they must bee seene ? 
 
 It appeares by these articles put in against thee, that 
 thou art partly a Bawd to diuerse loose sinnes, and partly 
 a Coozener : for if any in the Cittie haue badde wares 
 lying deade vppon their handes, thou art better than Aqua 
 vitce to fetch life into them, and to sende them packing. 
 Thou shalt therefore bee taken out of thy proude Chariot, 
 and bee carted : yet first will wee see what workmanship, 
 and what stuffe it is made of, to the intent that if it bee 
 not daungerous for a Cittie to keepe anie Relique belonging 
 to such a crooked Saint, It may bee hung vp as a monu- 
 ment to shewe with what dishonour thou wert driuen out 
 of so noble a lodging, to deface whose buildings thou hast 
 beene so enuious, that when thou hast beene left alone by 
 
SINNES OF LONDON 35 
 
 any thing that woulde take fire, thou hast burnt to the 
 ground many of her goodlyest houses. 
 
 Candle-lights Coach is made all of Home, shauen as thin 
 as Changelinges are. It is drawne (with ease) by two 
 Rats : the Coachman is a Chaundler, who so sweats with 
 yearking them, that he drops tallowe, and that feedes them 
 as prouender : yet are the lashes that hee giues the squeak- 
 ing V ermine more deadly to them then al the Ratsbane 
 in Bucklersburie. Painefulnesse and Studdy are his two 
 I^ackeyes and run by him : Darknesse, Conspiracy, Oppor- 
 tunities Stratagems and Feare, are his attendants : hee's 
 sued vnto by Diggars in Mines, Grauers, Schollers, Mariners, 
 Nurses, Drunkards, Vnthriftes and shrode Husbands : hee 
 destroyes that which feedes him, & therefore Ingratitude 
 comes behinde all this, drilling them before her. The next 
 Diuel that is to be commaunded vp, is a very lazie one, and 
 will be long in rising : let vs therefore vnbinde this, and 
 fall to other Charmes. 
 
4- Sloth : 
 OR 
 The fourth dayes Tryumph. 
 
 MAn (doubtlesse) was not created to bee an idle 
 fellow, for then he should bee Gods Vagabond : 
 he was made for other purpose then to be euer 
 eating as swine : euer sleeping as Dormise : euer dumb as 
 fishes in the Sea, or euer prating to no purpose, as birdes 
 of the ayre : he was not set in this Vniuersall Orchard 
 to stand still as a Tree, and so to bee cut downe, but 
 to be cut downe if he should stand still. And to haue 
 him remember this, he carries certaine Watches with 
 Larums about him, that are euer striking : for all the 
 Enginous Wheeles of the Soule are continually going : 
 though the body lye neuer so fast bownde in Slumbers, 
 the imagination runnes too and fro, the phantasie flyes 
 round about, the vitall Spirits walke vp and downe, yea 
 the very pulses shew actiuitie, and their hammers are 
 still beating, so that euen in his very dreames, it is 
 whispered in his eare that hee must bee dooing some- 
 thing. 
 
 If hee had not these prompters at his elbows, yet euerie 
 member of his body (if it could speake) would chide him if 
 they were put to no vse, cosidering what noble workman- 
 ship is bestowed vpon them. For man no sooner gets vpon 
 his legges, but they are made so that either hee may run 
 or goe : when he is weary, they can giue him ease by 
 
 36 
 
THE SEVEN DEADLY SINNES OF LONDON 37 
 
 stading still, if he will not stand, the Knees seme like 
 Hindges to bow vp and downe, and to let him kneele. His 
 armes haue artificiall cordes and stringes, which shorten 
 or flye out to their length at pleasure : They winde about 
 the bodye like a siluer Girdle, and being held out before, 
 are weapos to defend it : at the end of the armes, are two 
 beautiful Mathematicall Instruments, with hue seuerall 
 motions in each of them, and thirtie other mouing Engines, 
 by which they stirre both. His head likewise standes 
 vppon three Skrewes, the one is directly forward to teach 
 him Prouidence, the other two are on eather side one, to 
 arme him with Circumspection : How busie are both the 
 eyes, to keepe danger from him euerie way. 
 
 But admit hee had none of these Wonderfull Volumes to 
 reade ouer, yet hee sees the clowdes alwaies working : the 
 waters euer labouring : the earth continuallye bringing 
 foorth : he sees the Sunne haue a hye colour with taking 
 paines for the day. The Moone pale and sickly, with sitting 
 vp for the night : the Stars mustring their armyes together 
 to guard the Moone. All of them, and all that is in the 
 world, seruing as Schoolemaisters, & the world it selfe as 
 an Academ to bring vp man in knowledge, and to put him 
 still into action. 
 
 How then dares this nastie, and loathsome sin of Sloth 
 venture into a Citie amongst so many people ? who doth 
 he hope wil giue him entertainmet ? what lodging (thinks 
 he) can be taine vp, where he & his heauy-headed copany 
 may take their afternoones nap soundly ? for in euery 
 street, carts and Coaches make such a thundring as if the 
 world ranne vpon wheeles : at euerie corner, men, women, 
 and children meete in such shoales, that postes are sette vp 
 of purpose to strengthen the houses, least with iustling one 
 another they should shoulder them downe. Besides, 
 hammers are beating in one place, Tubs hooping in another, 
 Pots clincking in a third, water-tankards running at tilt in a 
 fourth : heere are Porters sweating vnder burdens, there 
 
38 THE SEVEN DEADLY 
 
 Marchants-men bearing bags of money, Chapmen (as if 
 they were at Leape-frog) skippe out of one shop into 
 another : Tradesmen (as if they were daticing Galliards) 
 are lusty at legges and neuer stand still : all are as busie 
 as countrie Atturneyes at an Assises : how then can 
 Idlenes thinke to inhabit heere ? 
 
 Yet the Worship full Sir, (that leades a Gentlemans life, 
 and dooth nothing) though he comes but slowly on (as if 
 hee trodde a French March) yet hee comes and with a 
 great trayne at his tayle, as if the countrie had brought 
 vp some Fellon to one of our Gayles, So is he conuaide by 
 nine or tenne drowsie Malt-men, that lye nodding ouer 
 their Sackes, and euen a moste sleepie and still Triumph 
 begins his entrance at Bishopsgate. 
 
 An armie of substantiall Housholders (moste of them 
 liuing by the hardnesse of the hand) came in Battaile 
 array, with spred Banners, bearing the Armes of their 
 seuerall occupations to meete this Cowardly Generall and 
 to beate him backe. But hee sommoning a parlee, ham- 
 mered out such a strong Oration in praise of Ease, that they 
 all strucke vp their Drums, flung vp their Round-Cappes, 
 and (as if it had beene another William the Conqueror) came 
 marching in with him and lodged him in the quietest 
 streete in the Cittie, for so his Lazinesse requested. 
 
 Hee then presently gaue licenses to all the Vintners, to 
 keepe open house, and to emptye their Hogsheades to all 
 commers, who did so, dying their grates into a drunkards 
 blush (to make them knowne from the Grates of a prison) 
 least customers should reele away from them, and hanging 
 out new bushes, that if men at their going out, could not 
 see the signe, yet they might not loose themselues in the 
 bush. He likewise gaue order that dicing-houses, and 
 bowling alleyes should be erected, whereupon a number of 
 poore handy-crafts-men, that before wrought night and day, 
 made stocks to theselues of ten groates, & crowns a peece, 
 and what by Betting, Lurches, Rubbers and such tricks, 
 
SINNES OF LONDON 39 
 
 they neuer tooke care for a good daies worke afterwards. 
 For as Letchery is patron of al your Suburb Colledges, and 
 sets vp Vaulting-houses, and Daunsing-Schooles : and as 
 Drunkennesse when it least can stand, does best hold vp 
 Alehouses, So Sloth is a founder of the Almeshouses first 
 mentioned, & is a good Benefactor to these last. 
 
 The Players prayed for his comming, they lost nothing by 
 it, the comming in of tenne Embassadors was neuer so 
 sweete to them, as this our sinne was : their houses smoakt 
 euerye after noone with Stinkards, who were so glewed 
 together in crowdes with the Steames of strong breath, 
 that when they came foorth, their faces lookt as if they had 
 beene perboylde : And this Comicall Tearme-time they 
 hoped for, at the least all the summer, because tis giuen 
 out that Sloth himselfe will come, and sit in the two-pennie 
 galleries amongst the Gentlemen, and see their Knaueries 
 and their pastimes. 
 
 But alas ! if these were the sorest diseases (Thou noblest 
 City of the now-noblest Nation) that Idlenes does infect thee 
 with : thou hast Phisick sufficient in thy selfe, to purge thy 
 bodie of them. No, no, hee is not slothfull, that is onelye 
 lazie, that onelye wastes his good houres, and his Siluer in 
 Luxury, & licentious ease, or that onely (like a standing 
 water) does nothing, but gather corruption : no, hee is the 
 true Slothfull man that does no good. And how many 
 would crie Guilty vnto thee, if this were their Inditement ? 
 Trry Maiestrates that (when they see thee most in danger) 
 put vp the swordes, that Iustice hath guided, to their 
 loynes, & flie into the countrie, leauing thee destitute of 
 their Counsell, they would crie guilty, they are slothfull. 
 
 Thy Phisitions, that fearing to die by that which they 
 Hue, (sicknes) doe most vnkindely leaue thee when y u art 
 ready to lye vpon thy death bed, They are slothful, They 
 would crie Guilty. Thy great men, and such as haue been 
 thy Rulers, that being taken out of poore Cradles, & 
 nursed vp by thee, haue fild their Cofers with golde,*and 
 
40 THE SEVEN DEADLY 
 
 their names w 6 honour, yet afterwards growing weary of 
 thee, (like Mules hauing suckt their dammes) most ingrate- 
 fully haue they stolne from thee, spending those blessings 
 which were thine, vpon those that no way deserue them, 
 Are not These Slothful ? They would crie guiltye. There 
 is yet one more, whome I would not heare to Cry Guilty, 
 because (of all others) I would not haue them slothfull. 
 O you that speake the language of Angels, and should 
 indeed be Angels amogst vs, you that haue offices aboue 
 those of Kinges, that haue warrat to comaund Princes, & 
 controle them, if they doe amisse : you that are Stewards 
 ouer the Kings house of heauen, and lye heere as Embas- 
 sadors about the greatest State-matters in the world : 
 what a dishonour were it to your places, if it should bee 
 knowne that you are Sloathfull ? you are sworne labourers, 
 to worke in a Vineyard, which if you dresse not carefully, 
 if you cut it not artificially, if you vnderprop it not wisely 
 whe you see it laden, if you gather not the fruites in it, 
 when they bee ripe, but suffer them to drop down, and 
 bee eaten vp by Swine, O what a deere account are you 
 to make him that must giue you your hire ? you are the 
 Beames of the Sun that must ripen the Grapes of the Vine, 
 & if you shine not cleerely, he will eclipse you for euer : 
 your tongues are the instruments y* must cut off rancke & 
 idle Sprigs, to make the bearing-braunches to spred, and vn- 
 lesse you keep them sharpe, and be euer pruning with them, 
 he will cast you by, and you shall be eaten vp with rust. 
 The Church is a garden and you must weede it : it is a 
 Fountaine, & you must keepe it cleere : it is her Husbands 
 Iewell, and you must pollish it : it is his best belooued, and 
 you must keepe her chast. 
 
 Many Merchants hath this Cittie to her Sonnes, of al 
 which you are the most noble, you trafficke onely for mens 
 Soules, sending them to the Land of Promise, and to the 
 heauenly Ierusalem, and receiuing from thence (in Exchange) 
 the ritchest Commoditie in the world, your owne saluation. 
 
SINNES OF LONDON 41 
 
 O therefore bee not you Slothfull : for if being chosen 
 Pilots, you Sleepe, and so sticke vpon Rockes, you hazard 
 your owne shipwracke more then theirs that venture with 
 you. 
 
 What a number of Colours are heere grounded, to paint 
 out Sloth in his vglines, and to make him loathed, whilst 
 he (yawning, and his Chin knocking nods into his brest) 
 regardes not the whips of the moste crabbish Satyristes. 
 Let vs therfore looke vpon his Horse-litter that hee rides 
 in, and so leaue him. 
 
 A couple of vnshodde Asses carry it betweene them, it is 
 all sluttishly ouergrowne with Mosse on the out-side, and 
 on the inside quilted through out with downe pillowes : 
 Sleepe and Plenty leade the Fore-Asse ; a pursie double 
 chind Lcena, riding by on a Sumpter-horse with prouader 
 at his mouth, & she is the Litter-Driuer : shee keepes two 
 Pages, & those are an Irish Beggar on the one side, & One 
 that sayes he has been a Soldier on the other side. His 
 attendants are Sicknes, Want, Ignorace, Infamy, Bddage, 
 Palenes, Blockishnes, and Carelesnes. The Retayners 
 that wear his cloth are Anglers, Dumb Ministers, Players, 
 Exchange-Wenches, Gamsters, Panders, Whores and F idlers. 
 
Apishnesse : 
 
 OR 
 
 The fift dayes Triumph. 
 
 SLoth was not so slow in his march, when hee entred 
 the Citie, but Apishnesse (that was to take his turne 
 next) was as quick. Do you not know him ? It 
 cannot be read in any Chronicle, that he was euer with 
 Henrie the eight at Bulloigne or at y e winning of Turwin & 
 Turnay : for (not to belie the sweete Gentleman,) he was 
 neither in the shell then, no nor then when Paules- steeple 
 and the Weathercocke were on fire ; by which markes 
 (without looking in his mouth) you may safely sweare, 
 that hees but yong, for hees a feirse, dapper fellow, more 
 light headed then a Musitian : as phantastically attyred as 
 a Court Ieaster : wanton in discourse : lasciuious in be- 
 hauiour ; iocond in good companie : nice in his trencher, 
 and yet he feedes verie hungerly on scraps of songs : he 
 drinkes in a Glasse well, but vilely in a deepe French-bowle : 
 yet much about the yeare when Monsieur came in, was 
 hee begotten, betweene a French Tayler, and an English 
 Court-Seamster. This Signior Ioculento (as the diuell 
 would haue it) comes prawncing in at Cripplegate, and he 
 may well doe it, for indeede all the parts hee playes are 
 but con'd speeches stolne from others, whose voices and 
 actions he counterf eites : but so lamely, that all the Cripples 
 in tenne Spittle-houses, shewe not more halting. The 
 Grauer Browes were bent against him, and by the awfull 
 
 42 
 
THE SEVEN DEADLY SINNES OF LONDON 43 
 
 Charmes of Reuerend Authoritie, would haue sent him downe 
 from whence he came, for they knew howe smooth soeuer 
 his lookes were, there was a diuell in his bosome : But hee 
 hauing the stronger faction on his side, set them in a 
 Mutenie, Sceuitque animis ignobile vulgus, the manie headed 
 Monster fought as it had beene against Saint George, won 
 the gate, and then with showtes was the Gaueston of the 
 Time, brought in. But who brought him in ? None but 
 richmens sonnes that were left well, and had more money 
 giuen by will, then they had wit how to bestow it : none 
 but Prentises almost out of their yeers, and all the Tailors, 
 Haberdashers, and Embroderers that could be got for loue 
 or money, for these were prest secretly to the seruice, by 
 the yong and wanton dames of the Citie, because they would 
 not be seene to shewe their loue to him themselues. 
 
 Man is Gods Ape, and an Ape is Zani to a man, doing 
 ouer those trickes (especially if they be knauish) which hee 
 sees done before him : so that Apishnesse is nothing but 
 counterfetting or imitation : and this flower when it first 
 came into the Citie, had a prettie scent, and a delightfull 
 colour, hath bene let to run so high, that it is now seeded, 
 and where it f als there rises vp a stinking weede. 
 
 For as man is Gods ape, striuing to make artificiall 
 flowers, birdes, &c. like to the natural : So for the same 
 reason are women, Mens Shee Apes, for they will not bee 
 behind them the bredth of a Taylors yard (which is nothing 
 to speake of) in anie new-fangled vpstart fashion. If men 
 get vp French standing collers, women will haue the 
 French standing coller too : if Dublets with little thick 
 skirts, (so short that none are able to sit vpon them,) 
 w omens foreparts are thick-skirted too : by surfetting vpon 
 which kinde of phantasticall Apishnesse in a short time, they 
 fall into the disease of pride : Pride is infectious, and breedes 
 prodigalitie : Prodigalitie after it has runne a little, closes 
 vp and festers, and then turnes to Beggerie. Wittie was 
 that Painter therefore, that when hee had limned one of 
 
44 THE SEVEN DEADLY 
 
 euery Nation in their proper attyres, and beeing at his 
 wittes endes howe to drawe an Englishman : At the last 
 (to giue him a quippe for his follie in apparell) drewe him 
 starke naked, with Sheeres in his hand, and cloth on his 
 arme, because none could cut out his fashions but himselfe. 
 
 For an English-mans suite is like a traitors bodie that 
 hath beene hanged, drawne, and quartered, and is set vp 
 in seuerall places : his Codpeece is in Denmarke, the collor 
 of his Dublet, and the belly in France : the wing and narrow 
 sleeue in Italy : the short waste hangs ouer a Dutch 
 Botchers stall in Vtrich : his huge sloppes speakes Spanish : 
 Polonia giues him the Bootes : the blocke for his heade 
 alters faster then the Feltmaker can fitte him, and thereupon 
 we are called in scorne Blockheades. And thus we that 
 mocke euerie Nation, for keeping one fashion, yet steale 
 patches from euerie one of them, to peece out our pride, 
 are now laughing-stocks to them, because their cut so 
 scuruily becomes us : 
 
 This sinne of Apishnesse, whether it bee in apparell, or in 
 diet, is not of such long life as his fellowes, and for seeing 
 none but women and fooles keepe him companie, the one 
 wil be ashamed of him when they begin to haue wrinckles, 
 the other when they feele their purses light. The Magis- 
 trate, the wealthy commoner, and the auncient Cittizen, 
 disdaine to come neare him : wee were best therefore, take 
 note of such things as are aboute him, least on a suddaine 
 hee slip out of sight. 
 
 Apishnesse rides in a Chariot made of nothing but cages, 
 in which are all the strangest out-landish Birds that can 
 be gotten : the Cages are stucke full of Parats feathers : 
 the Coach-man is an Italian Mownti-banck who driues a 
 Fawne ,'and a Lambe, for they drawe this Gew-gaw in 
 Winter, when such beasts are rarest to be had : In Sommer, 
 it goes alone by the motion of wheeles : two Pages in light 
 coloured suites, embrodered full of Butterflies, with wings 
 that flutter vp with the winde, run by him, the one being a 
 
SINNES OF LONDON 45 
 
 dauncing boy, the other a Tumbler : His attendants are 
 Folly, Laughter, Inconstancie, Riot, Nicenesse, and Vain- 
 glorie : when his Court remoues, hee is folowed by Tobac- 
 conists, Shittlecock-makers, Feather -makers, Cob-web-lawne- 
 weauers, Perfumers, young Countrie Gentlemen, and Fooles, 
 In whose Ship whilest they all are sayling, let vs obserue 
 what other abuses the Verdimotes Inquest doe present on 
 the lande, albeit they bee neuer reformed, till a second 
 Chaos is to bee refined. In the meane time, In noua fert 
 Animus. 
 
H 
 
 Shauing : 
 OR 
 The sixt dayes Triumph. 
 
 Ow ? Shauing ! Me thinkes Barbers should crie to 
 their Customers winck hard and come running out 
 of their shoppes into the open streetes, throwing 
 all their Suddes out of their learned Latin Basons into my 
 face for presuming to name the Mysterie of Shauing in so 
 villanous a companie as these seuen are. Is that Trade 
 (say they) that for so many yeares hath beene held vp by 
 so many heades, and has out-bearded the stowtest in 
 England to their faces, Is that Trade, that because it is 
 euermore Trimming the Citie, hath beene for many yeers 
 past made vp into a Societie, and hath their Guild, and their 
 Priuiledges with as much freedome as the best, must that 
 nowe bee counted a sinne (nay and one of the Deadly sinnes) 
 of the Cittie ? No, no, be not angry with me, (O you that 
 bandie away none but sweete washing Balles, and cast 
 none other then Rose-waters for any mans pleasure) for 
 there is Shauing within the walles of this Great Metropolis, 
 which you neuer dreamed of : A shauing that takes not 
 only away the rebellious haires, but brings the flesh with 
 it too : and if that cannot suffice, the very bones must 
 follow. If therfore you, and Fiue companies greater then 
 yours, should chuse a Colonel, to lead you against this 
 mightie Tamburlaine, you are too weake to make him 
 Retire, and if you should come to a battell, you would 
 loose the day. 
 
 4 6 
 
THE SEVEN DEADLY SINNES OF LONDON 47 
 
 For behold what Troopes forsake the Standard of the 
 Citie, and flie to him : neither are they base & common 
 souldiers, but euen those that haue borne armes a long 
 time. Be silent therfore, and be patient : and since there 
 is no remedie but that (this combatant that is so cunning 
 at the sharp) wil come in, mark in what triumphant and proud 
 manner, he is marshalled through Newgate : At which 
 Bulwarke (& none other) did he (in policy) desire to shew 
 himself. First, because he knew if the Citie should play 
 with him, as they did w* Wiat, Newgate held a nuber, that 
 though they were false to all the world, would be true to 
 him. Couragiously therfore does he enter : All of them 
 that had once serued vnder his colors (and were now to 
 suffer for the Truth, which they had abused) leaping vp 
 to the Iron lattaces, to beholde their General, & making 
 such a ratling with shaking their chaines for ioy, as if 
 Cerberus had bin come fro hell to Hue and die amongst them. 
 Shauing is now lodged in the heart of the Citie, but by 
 whom ? and at whose charges ? Mary at a common purse, 
 to which many are tributaries, & therfore no maruell if he 
 be feasted royally. The first that paid their mony towards 
 it, are cruel and couetous I,and-lords, who for the building 
 vp of a Chimny, which stands them not aboue 30. s. and 
 for whiting the wals of a tenement, which is scarce worth 
 the daubing, raise the rent presently (as if it were new put 
 into y e Subsidy book) assessing it at 3. li. a yeer more then 
 euer it went for before : filthy wide-mouthd bandogs 
 they are, that for a quarters rent will pull out their minis- 
 ters throte, if he were their tenat : And (though it turn to 
 the vtter vndoing of a man) being rubd with quicksiluer, 
 which they loue because they haue mangy consciences, 
 they will let to a drunken Flemming a house ouer his own 
 coutry-mans head, thinking hees safe enough from the 
 thunderbolts of their wiues and children, and from curses, 
 and the very vengeance of heauen, if he get by the bargaine 
 but so many Angels as will couer the crowne of his head. 
 
48 THE SEVEN DEADLY 
 
 The next that laide downe his share, was no Sharer 
 among the Players, but a shauer of yong Gentlemen, before 
 euer a haire dare peepe out of their chinnes : and these 
 are Vsurers : who for a little money, and a greate deal of 
 trash : (as Fire-shouels, browne-paper, motley cloake-bags, 
 &c.) bring yong Nouices into a fooles Paradice till they 
 haue sealed the Morgage of their landes, and then like 
 Pedlers, goe they (or some Familiar spirit for them, raizde 
 by the Vsurers) vp and downe to cry Commodities, which 
 scarce yeeld the third part of y e sum for which they take 
 them vp. 
 
 There are likewise other Barbers, who are so well cus- 
 tomed, that they shaue a whole Citie sometymes in three 
 dayes, and they doe it (as Bankes his horse did his tricks) 
 onely by the eye, and the eare : For if they either see no 
 Magistrate comming towardes them, (as being called back 
 by the Common-weale for more serious imployments) or 
 doe but heare that hee lyes sicke, vpon whom the health 
 of a Cittie is put in hazard : they presently (like Prentises 
 vpon Shoue-tuesday) take the lawe into their owne handes, 
 and doe what they list. And this L,egion consists of Market- 
 folkes, Bakers, Brewers, all that weigh their Consciences in 
 Scales. And lastly, of the two degrees of Colliers, viz. 
 those of Char-coles, and those of New-castle. Then haue 
 you the Shauing of Fatherlesse children, and of widowes, 
 and thats done by Executors. The Shauing of poore 
 Clients especially by the Atturneyes Clearkes of your Courts, 
 and thats done by writing their Billes of costs vpon 
 Cheuerell. The Shauing of prisoners by extortion, first, 
 taken by their keepers, for a prison is builded on such ranke 
 and fertil ground, that if poore wretches sow it with hand- 
 fulles of small debts when they come in, if they He there 
 but a while to see the comming vp of them : the charges 
 of the house will bee treble the demaund of the Creditor. 
 Then haue you Brokers y* shaue poor men by most iewish 
 interest : marry the diuils trimme them so soone as they 
 
SINNES OF LONDON 49 
 
 haue washed others. I wil not tell how Vintners shaue 
 their Guestes with a little peece of Paper not aboue three 
 ringers broade ; for their roomes are like Barbars Chaires : 
 Men come into them willingly to bee Shauen. Onely (which 
 is worst) bee it knowne to thee (0 thou Queene of Cities) thy 
 Inhabitants Shaue their Consciences so close, that in the 
 ende they growe balde, and bring foorth no goodnesse. 
 
 Wee haue beene quicke (you see) in Trimming this Cutter 
 of Queene Kith, because tis his propertie to handle others 
 so, let vs bee as nymble in praysing his Household-stuff e : 
 The best part of which is his Chariot, richly adorned, It is 
 drawen by foure beasts : the 2. formost are a Wolfe (which 
 will eate till he be readie to burst) and hee is Coach-fellow 
 to a she-Beare, who is cruell euen to women great with 
 childe : behinde them are a couple of Blood-houndes : the 
 Coach-man is as Informer : Two Pettifoggers that haue 
 beene turned ouer the barre, are his Lackies : his Hous- 
 hold seruants are Wit (who is his Steward) : Audacitie : 
 Shifting : Inexorabilitie : and Disquietness of mind : The 
 Meanie are (besides some persons before named) skeldring 
 soldiers, and begging schollers. 
 
Crueltie : 
 
 OR 
 
 The seuenth and last dayes Triumph. 
 
 What a weeke of sinfull Reueling hath heere bin 
 with these six proud Lords of Misrule ? to 
 which of your Hundred parishes (O you 
 Citizens) haue not some one of these (if not all) remoued 
 their Courts, and feasted you with them ? your Percullises 
 are not strong inough to keepe them out by day, your 
 Watchmen are too sleepy to spie their stealing in by 
 night. There is yet another to enter, as great in power 
 as his fellowes, as subtill, as full of mischiefe : If 
 I shoulde name him to you, you would laugh mee to 
 scorne, because you cannot bee perswaded that such a 
 one should euer bee suffered to liue within the freedome : 
 yet if I name him not to you, you may in time, by him 
 (as by the rest) bee vndone. It is Crueltie, O strange ! mee 
 thinkes London should start vp out of her sollid founda- 
 tion, and in anger bee ready to fall vppon him, and grinde 
 him to dust that durst say, shee is possest with such a 
 deuill. Cruelty ! the verie sound of it shewes that it is no 
 English word : it is a Fury sent out of hel, not to inhabit 
 within such beautif ull walles, but amongst Turkes and Tar- 
 tars. The other sixe Monsters transforme themselues into 
 Amiable shapes, and set golden, inticing Charmes to winne 
 men to their Circcean loue, they haue Angelical faces to 
 allure, and bewitching tongues to inchaunt : But Cruelty 
 is a hag, horred in forme, terrible in voice, formidable in 
 
 50 
 
THE SEVEN DEADLY SINNES OF LONDON 51 
 
 threates, A tyrant in his very lookes, and a murderer in all 
 his actions. 
 
 How then commeth it to passe that heere he seekes 
 entertainment ? For what Cittie in the world, does more 
 drie vp the teares of the Widdowe, and giues more warmth 
 to the fatherlesse then this ancient and reuerend Grandam 
 of Citties ? Where hath the Orphan (that is to receiue great 
 portions) lesse cause to mourne the losse of Parents ? He 
 findes f oure and twentie graue Senators to bee his Fathers in- 
 stead of one: the Cittie it selfe to bee his Mother : her Officers 
 to bee his Seruants, who see that hee want nothing : her 
 lawes to suffer none to doe him wrong : and though he be 
 neuer so simple in wit, or so tender in yeares, shee lookes 
 as warily to that welth which is left him, as to the Apple 
 of her owne eye. Where haue the Leaper and the Lunatick 
 Surgery, and Phisicke so good cheape as heere ? their pay- 
 ment is onely thankes : large Hospitalls are erected (of 
 purpose to make them lodgings) and the rent is most easie, 
 onely their prayers : yet for all this, that Charitie hath 
 her Armes full of children, & that tender-brested Compas- 
 sion is still in one street or other dooing good workes : 
 off from the Hindges are one of the 7. Gates readie to bee 
 lifted, to make roome for this Giant : the Whiflers of your 
 inferior and Chiefe companies cleere the wayes before him, 
 men of all trades with shoutes & acclamations followed in 
 throges behinde him, yea euen the siluer-bearded, & 
 seuearest lookt cittizes haue giuen him welcomes in their 
 Parlors. 
 
 There are in Lond. & within the buildings, y* roiid 
 about touch her sides, & stand within her reach, Thirteene 
 strong houses of sorrow, where the prisoner hath his heart 
 wasting away sometimes a whole prentiship of yeres in 
 cares. They are most of them built of Freestone, but none 
 are free within the : cold are their imbracemets : vnwhol- 
 som is their cheare : dispaireful their lodgings, vncofort- 
 able their societies, miserable their inhabitants : O what 
 
52 THE SEVEN DEADLY 
 
 a deale of wretchednes can make shift to lye in a little 
 roome ! if those 13. houses were built al together, how rich 
 wold Griefe be, hauing such large inclosures ? Doth cruelty 
 challegea freemans roome in the City because of these places? 
 no, the politicke body of the Republike wold be infected, 
 if such houses as these were not maintained, to keepe vp 
 those that are vnsound. Claimes he then an inheritance 
 here, because you haue whipping postes in your streetes 
 for the Vagabond ? the Stocks and the cage for the vnruely 
 beggar ? or because you haue Carts for the Bawde and the 
 Harlot, and Beadles for the Lecher ? neither. Or is it 
 because so many mothly Sessions are held ? so many 
 men, women and Children cald to a reconing at the Bar 
 of death for their Hues ? and so many lamentable hempen 
 Tragedies acted at Tiburne ? nor for this : Iustice should 
 haue wrong, to haue it so reported. No (you Inhabitants 
 of this little world of people) Crueltie is a large Tree & 
 you all stand vnder it : you are cruel in compelling your 
 Against children (for wealth) to goe into loathed beds, 
 
 Mariages. for therby you make jthem bond-slaues : 
 what ploughman is so foolish to yoake young hecfars & 
 old bullocks together ? yet such is your husbandry. In 
 fitting your Coaches with horses, you are very curious to 
 haue them (so neere as you ca) both of a colour, both of a 
 height, of an age, of proportion, and will you bee carelesse 
 in coupling your Children ? he into whose bosome three- 
 score winters haue thrust their frozen fingars, if hee be 
 rich (though his breath bee rancker then a Muck-hill, his 
 bodye more drye than Mummi, and his minde more lame 
 than Ignorance it selfe) shall haue offered vnto him (but it is 
 offered as a sacrifice) the tender boosome of a Virgin, vpon 
 whose fore-head was neuer written sixteene yeares : if she 
 refuse this liuing death (for lesse than a death it cannot 
 be vnto her) She is threatned to bee left an out-cast, cursd 
 for disobedience, raild at daily, and reuylde howerlye : to 
 saue her selfe from which basenes, She desprately runnes 
 
SINNBS OF LONDON 53 
 
 into a bondage, and goes to Church to be married, as if 
 she went to be buried. But what glorye atcheiue you in 
 these conquests ? you doe wrong to Time, inforcing May 
 to embrace December : you dishonour Age, in bringing it 
 into scorne for insufficiency, into a loathing for dotage, 
 into all mens laughter for iealousie. You make your 
 Daughters looke wrinckled with sorrowes, before they be 
 olde, & your sonnes by riot, to be beggars in midst of their 
 youth. Hence come it, y* murders are often contriued, 
 & as often acted : our countrie is woful in fresh 
 examples : Hence comes it, y t the Courtier giues you an 
 open scoffe, y e clown a secret mock, the Cittizen y* dwels 
 at your threshald, a ieery frup : Hence it is, y* if you goe 
 by water in the calmest day, you are driuen by some 
 f atall storme into y e vnlucky & dangerous hauen betweene 
 Greenewich & London. You haue another cruelty in keep- 
 ing men in prison so long, til sicknes & death deal mildely 
 with them, and (in despite of al tyranny) baile Against 
 them out of all executions. When you see a d£on. 
 poore wretch that to keep life in a loathed body hath not 
 a house left to couer his head from the tempestes, nor a 
 bed (but the common bedde which our Mother the earth 
 allowes him) for his cares to sleepe vppon, when you haue 
 (by keeping or locking him vp) robd him of all meanes to 
 get, what seeke you to haue him loose but his life ? The 
 miserable prisoner is ready to famish, yet that canot mooue 
 you, the more miserable wife is readye to runne mad with 
 dispaire, yet that cannot melt you : the moste of all 
 miserable, his Children lye crying at your dores, yet nothing 
 can awaken in you compassion : if his debts be heauie, the 
 greater and more glorious is your pitty to worke his free- 
 dome, if they be light, the sharper is the Vengeance that will 
 be heaped vpon your heades for your hardnes of heart. 
 Wee are moste like to God that made vs, when wee shew 
 loue one to another, and doe moste looke like the Diuell 
 that would destroy vs, when wee are one anothers 
 
54 THE SEVEN DEADLY 
 
 tormenters. If any haue so much flint growing about his 
 bosome, that he will needes make Dice of mens bones, I 
 would there were a lawe to compell him to make drinking 
 bowles of their Sculs too : and that euerie miserable debter 
 that so dyes, might be buried at his Creditors doore, that 
 when hee strides ouer him he might thinke he still rises vp 
 (like the Ghost in Ieronimo) crying Reuenge. 
 
 Crueltie hath yet another part to play, it is acted (like the 
 Against v n - old Morralls at Maningtree) by Trades-men, 
 
 consionable n . . ., /-v,j- i 
 
 Maisters. marrye seuerall companies in the Cittie haue 
 it in study, and they are neuer perfect in it, till the end of 
 seauen yeares at least, at which time, they come off with 
 it roundly. And this it is : When your seruants haue made 
 themselues bondmen to inioy your fruitefull hand-maides, 
 thats to say, to haue an honest and thriuing Art to Hue 
 by : when they haue fared hardly with you by Indenture, 
 & like your Beasts which carry you haue patiently borne 
 al labours, and all wrongs you could lay vpon them. 
 
 When you haue gathered the blossomes of their youth, 
 and reaped the fruites of their strength, And that you can 
 no longer (for shame) hold them in Captiuitie, but that by 
 the lawes of your Country and of conscience, you must 
 vndoe their fetters, Then, euen then doe you hang moste 
 weightes at their heeles, to make them sincke downe for 
 euer : when you are bound to send them into the world 
 to Hue, you send them into the world to beg : they seru'd 
 you seuen yeeres to pick vp a poore liuing, and therein you 
 are iust, for you will be sure it shaU be a poore Huing 
 indeede they shall pick vp : for what do the rich cubs ? 
 like foxes they lay their heads together in conspiracy, 
 burying their leaden consciences vnder the earth, to the 
 intent that aU waters that are wholesome in taste, and haue 
 the sweetnes of gaine in going downe, may be drawne 
 through them only, being the great pipes of their Company, 
 because they see tis the custome of the Citty, to haue all 
 waters that come thither, conueyed by such large vessels, 
 
SINNBS OF LONDON 55 
 
 and they will not breake the customes of the Citty. When 
 they hane the fullnesse of welth to the brim, that it runs 
 ouer, they scarce will suffer their poore Seruant to take that 
 which runs at waste, nor to gather vp the wind-fals, when 
 all the great trees, as if they grew in the garden of the 
 Hesperides, are laden with golden apples : no, they would 
 not haue them gleane the scattered eares of corne, though 
 they themselues cary away y e full sheafes : as if Trades 
 that were ordaind to be Communities, had lost their first 
 priuiledges, and were now turned to Monopolyes. But 
 remember (6 you Rich men) that your Seruants are your 
 adopted Children, they are naturalized into your bloud, 
 and if you hurt theirs, you are guilty of letting out your 
 owne, than which, what Cruelty can be greater ? 
 
 What Gallenist or Paracelsian in the world, by all his 
 water-casting, and minerall extractions, would iudge, that 
 this fairest-fac'de daughter of Brute, (and good daughter 
 to King Lud, who gaue her her name) should haue so much 
 corruption in her body ? vnlesse that (beeing 2700 and 
 now two thousand and seuen hundred yeeres odde yf ere -j 
 
 J since London 
 
 old) extreme age should fill her full of diseases ! was . fat 
 Who durst not haue sworne for her, that of all Brute, 
 loathsome sinnes that euer bred within her, she had neuer 
 toucht the sinne of cruelty ? It had wont to be a Spanish 
 Sicknes, and hang long (incurably) vpon the body of their 
 Inquisition ; or else a French disease, running all ouer that 
 Kingdome in a Massacre ; but that it had infected the 
 English, especially the people of this now once-againe 
 New-reard-Troy, it was beyond beliefe. But is she cleerely 
 purg'd of it by those pills that haue before bin giuen her ? 
 Is she now sound ? Are there no dregs of this thick and 
 pestilenciall poyson, eating still through her bowels ? Yes : 
 the vgliest Serpent hath not vncurld himselfe. She hath 
 sharper and more black inuenomed stings within her, than 
 yet haue bin shot forth. 
 
 There is a Cruelty within thee (faire Troynouant) worse 
 
56 THE SEVEN DEADLY 
 
 and more barbarous then all the rest, because it is halfe 
 a ainst against thy owne selfe, and halfe against thy 
 
 want of pia- Dead Sonnes and Daughters. Against thy dead 
 C r?aii°in ex- children wert thou cruell in that dreadfull, 
 s7cK.° horrid, and Tragicall yeere, when 30000 . of them 
 
 l6 ° 2 ' (struck with plagues from heauen) dropt downe 
 
 in winding-sheets at thy feet. Thou didst then take away 
 all Ceremonies due vnto them, and haledst them rudely to 
 their last beds (like drunkards) without the dead mans 
 musick (his Bell.) Alack, this was nothing : but thou 
 tumbledst them into their euerlasting lodgings (ten in one 
 heape, and twenty in another) as if all the roomes vpo earth 
 had bin full. The gallant and the begger lay together ; 
 the scholler and the carter in one bed : the husband saw 
 his wife, and his deadly enemy whom he hated, within a 
 paire of sheetes. Sad & vnseemely are such Funeralls : 
 So felons that are cut downe from the tree of shame and 
 dishonor, are couered in the earth : So souldiers, after a 
 mercilesse battaile, receiue vnhansome buriall. But suppose 
 the Pestiferous Deluge should againe drowne this little world 
 of thine, and that thou must be compeld to breake open 
 those caues of horror and gastlinesse, to hide more of thy 
 dead houshold in them, what rotten stenches, and con- 
 tagious damps would strike vp into thy nosthrils ? thou 
 couldst not lift vp thy head into the aire, for that (with 
 her condensed sinnes) would stifle thee ; thou couldst not 
 diue into the waters, for that they being teinted by the ay re, 
 would poison thee. Art thou now not cruell against thy 
 selfe, in not prouiding (before the land-waters of Affliction 
 come downe againe vpon thee) more and more conuenient 
 Cabins to lay those in, that are to goe into such farre 
 countries, who neuer looke to come back againe ? If thou 
 shouldst deny it, the Graues when they open, will be 
 witnesses against thee. 
 
 Nay, thou hast yet Another Cruelty gnawing in thy 
 bosome ; for what hope is there y* thou shouldst haue 
 
SINNES OF LONDON 57 
 
 pitty ouer others, when thou art vnmercifull to thy self ! 
 Looke ouer thy walls into thy Orchards and Against 
 Gardens, and thou shalt see thy seruants and S^f ' 
 apprentises sent out cunningly by their Masters ^°/J M ^ 
 at noone day vpon deadly errands, when they f lelds - 
 perceiue that the Armed Man hath struck them, yea euen 
 whe they see they haue tokens deliuered them from heauen 
 to hasten thither, then send they them forth to walke vpon 
 their graues, and to gather the flowers theselues that 
 shall stick their own Herse. And this thy Inhabitants do, 
 because they are loth & ashamd to haue a writing ouer 
 their dores, to tell that God hath bin there, they had rather 
 all their enemies in the world should put them to trouble, 
 then that he should visit them. 
 
 Looke againe ouer thy walls into thy Fields, and thou 
 shalt heare poore and forsaken wretches lye groaning in 
 ditches, and trauailing to seeke out Death vpon thy com- 
 mon hye wayes. Hauing found him, he there throwes downe 
 their infected carcases, towards which, all that passe by, 
 looke, but (till common shame, and common necessity 
 compell) none step in to giue them buriall. Thou setst vp 
 posts to whip them when they are aliue : Set vp an Hospitall 
 to comfort them being sick, or purchase ground for them to 
 dwell in when they be well, and that is, when they be dead. 
 
 Is it not now hye time to sound a Retreate, after so terrible 
 a battaile fought betweene the seuen Electors of The CoM . 
 the Low Inf email Country es, and one little Citty ? clusion - 
 What armyes come marching along with them ? What 
 bloudy cullors do they spread ? What Artillery do they 
 mount to batter the walls ? How valiant are their seuen 
 Generalls ? How expert ? How full of fortune to conquer ? 
 Yet nothing sooner ouerthrowes them, than to bid them 
 battaile first, and to giue them defiance. 
 
 Who can denye now, but that Sinne (like the seuen-headed 
 Nylus) hath ouerflowed thy banks and thy buildings (6 thou 
 glory of Great Brittaine) and made thee fertile (for many 
 
58 THE SEVEN DEADLY 
 
 yeeres together) in all kindes of Vices ? Volga, that hath 
 fifty streames f ailing one into another, neuer ranne with so 
 swift and vnresistable a current, as these Black-waters do, 
 to bring vpon thee an Inundation. If thou (as thou hast 
 done) kneelest to worship this Beast with Seuen Crowned 
 Heads, and the Whore that sits vpon it, the fall of thee 
 (that hast out-stood so many Citties) will be greater then that 
 of Babylon. She is now gotten within thy walls ; she rides 
 vp and downe thy streetes, making thee drunke out of her 
 cup, and marking thee in the forhead with pestilence for 
 her owne. She causes Violls of wrath to be powred vpon 
 thee, and goes in triumph away, when she sees thee falling. 
 If thou wilt be safe therefore and recouer health, rise vp 
 in Armes against her, and driue her (and the Monster that 
 beares her) out at thy Gates. Thou seest how prowdly 
 and impetuously sixe of these Centaures (that are halfe 
 man, halfe beast, and halfe diuell) come thundring alongst 
 thy Habitations, and what rabbles they bring at their heeles; 
 take now but note of the last, and marke how the seuenth 
 rides : for if thou findest but the least worthy quality in 
 any one of them to make thee loue him, I will write a 
 Retractation of what is inueyd against them before, and 
 pollish such an Apology in their defence, that thou shalt 
 be enamored of them all. 
 
 The body and face of this Tyrannous Commander, that 
 leades thus the Reareward, are already drawne : his Chariot 
 is framed all of ragged Flint so artificially bestowed, that as 
 it runnes, they strike one another, and beate out fire that 
 is able to consume Citties : the wheeles are many, and 
 swift : the Spokes of the wheeles, are the Shinbones of 
 wretches that haue bin eaten by misery out of prison. A 
 couple of vnruly, fierce, and vntamed Tygers (cald Murder 
 and Rashnes) drew the Chariot : Ignorance holds the reynes 
 of the one, and Obduration of the other : Selfe-will is the 
 Coachman. In the vpper end of the Coach, sits Cruelty alone, 
 vpon a bench made of dead mens sculls. All the way that 
 
SINNES OF LONDON 59 
 
 he rides, he sucks the hearts of widdowes and father-lesse 
 children. He keepes neither foote-men nor Pages, for none 
 will stay long with him. He hath onely one attendant 
 that euer followes him, called Repentance, but the Beast 
 that drawes him, runnes away with his good Lord and 
 Master so fast before, that Repentance being lame (and 
 therefore slow) tis alwayes very late ere he comes to him. 
 It is to be feared, that Cruelty is of great authority where 
 he is knowne, for few or none dare stand against him : 
 Law only now and then beards him, and stayes him, in 
 contempt of those that so terribly gallop before him : but 
 out of the Lawes hands, if he can but snatch a sheathed 
 sword (as oftentimes hee does) presently hee whips it out, 
 smiting and wounding with it euery one that giues him 
 the least crosse word. He comes into the Citty, commonly 
 at All-gate, beeing drawne that way by the smell of bloud 
 about the Barres, (for by his good will he drinks no other 
 liquor :) but when hee findes it to be the bloud of Beasts 
 (amongst the Butchers) and not of men, he flyes like 
 lightning along the Causey in a madnes, threatning to 
 ouer-runne all whom he meetes : but spying the Brokers 
 of Hownsditch shuffling themselues so long together (like a 
 false paire of Cards) till the Knaues be vppermost, onely to 
 doe homage to him, he stops, kissing all their cheekes, calling 
 them all his deerest Sonnes ; and bestowing a damnable 
 deale of his blessing vpon them, they cry, Roome for Cruelty, 
 and are the onely men that bring him into the Citty : 
 To follow whom vp and downe so farre 
 as they meane to goe with him, 
 
 — Dii me terrent, & lupiter hostis. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 Tho. Dekker. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 I AM indebted to my friend Mr. F. P. Wilson for the 
 suggestion that the elaborate descriptions of the chariot, 
 wheels, horses, coachmen etc., of the seven Sins, with 
 which the entry of each of them into London is concluded, 
 may owe something either directly to St. Bernard (whom 
 Dekker quotes in his Foure Birdes of Noah's Arke, 1613), 
 or to the account of the ' Foure wheeles of the chariot of 
 coueteousnesse ' given in 1584 by George Whetstone, in his 
 book A MIROVR \ For Magestrates \ Of CYTIES. The 
 passage occurs at sig. I. i. verso, and runs : ' S. Bernard 
 saith, y* the accursed chariot of coueteousnesse, is drawen 
 with foure disloyal wheeles of vices, vz. Pusalanimite, Crueltie 
 misprising of God, and forgetfulnesse of certaine death. The 
 two horses are named Theft, & Hardnesse. The waggoner 
 is Earnest desire to haue, who vseth two sharpe whippes : 
 the one called Disordered appetite to get, the other, Feare to 
 loose.' 
 
 To anyone who reads Dekker's seven descriptions after 
 this passage, there can remain no doubt of his indebtedness, 
 and I fear to weaken a good case by suggesting that there may 
 be an acknowledgement (whether conscious or not) of the 
 debt in the fact that Dekker's ' Chariot . . . that Lying is 
 drawne in, is made al of whetstones ' (28. 1.). Still, on the 
 1584 title-page the earlier author's name was given as 
 Whetstones, as it was on that of his English Myrror in 1586 ; 
 and Dekker enjoyed a pun. 
 
 61 
 
NOTES 
 
 THE following notes, with some rare exceptions, are 
 intended only for the brief explanation of such 
 terms as might puzzle the average reader of 
 to-day. Abbreviations are not annotated ; they consist 
 of y e (the), y* (that), y u (thou), w* (with), and the sign - 
 over a vowel, denoting the omission of a following n or m 
 (the = then or them). 
 
 P. 3, 2. Henry Fermor : apparently a minor patron of literature. 
 To him, in 1608, George Wilkins dedicated his novel of The 
 Painfull A dventures of Pericles Prince of Tyre. 
 
 P. 4, 14. Skeldring : this word has two chief senses ; to beg 
 (especially with the aid of pretending to be an old soldier) ; 
 and to swindle, cheat, defraud. See 49, 20 and note. 
 
 P. 5, 21. Conradus Gesner : famous for his series of five books on 
 natural history, completed by 1587. 
 
 P. 9, 1. in her streetes : in the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, 1572 ; 
 see 55, 27. 
 
 P. 10, 25. that Wonderfull yeere : in his side-notes, here and on 
 p. 56, Dekker gives this year as 1602. We should call it 1603, 
 as Dekker himself did in the title of his pamphlet The Wonder- 
 full Yeare 1603 (published in that year), but he was working 
 from the yearly Bills of Mortality, which extended from Decem- 
 ber to December. 
 
 P. 10, 31. Namque . . . refugit : Dekker has in mind Aeneas' 
 mournful words to Dido, JEneid ii. 10-13: 
 
 Sed, si tantus amor casus cognoscere nostros, 
 Et breviter Trojae supremum audire laborem, 
 Quanquam animus meminisse horret, luctuque refugit, 
 Incipiam. 
 
 The allusion gains peculiar point from the supposed Trojan 
 origin of the victims of the plague ; see 55, 17-36, and note. 
 P. 13, 1. Politick : premeditated and fraudulent. 
 
 63 
 
64 NOTES 
 
 P. 14, 8. one arm'd with an extentporall speech : the Elizabethan 
 journalist was well aware of the comic side of civic or academic 
 addresses of welcome, and indeed of rhetorical exercises in 
 general. See Percy Reprints No. I, Nashe's Vnfortunate 
 Traueller, pp. 43-8. 
 
 P. 14, 16. tunde : i.e. tuned. The t is clear enough in the Douce 
 and Malone copies, and is evidently correct, though Arber 
 reads ' f[o]unde ' and the Cambridge edition ' funde.' 
 
 P. 14, 23. turnd off : ' turning off the ladder ' is good Elizabethan 
 for ' hanging.' The phrase is neatly used here to give an 
 unexpected meaning to ' the ladder of promotion ' in the 
 previous line. Nashe uses ' turnd ouer ' in the same sense 
 (Percy Reprints No. I, 55, 3). 
 
 P. 15, 3. Vpsy-Freeze, Crambo, Parmizant ■ these were regular 
 tippling terms. The first was applied to swilling in the Frisian 
 manner, and the last commemorates the drinkers of Parma, 
 but Crambo still awaits precise definition. 
 
 P. 15, 17. a Puny : a junior student in the Inns of Court. 
 
 P. 15, 21. Politician : in the usual Elizabethan sense of schemer, 
 conspirator. See 16, 31. 
 
 P. 16, 10. Anatomize : dissect. 
 
 P. 17, 20. Nam crimine : a reminiscence of the words, et crimine 
 ab uno Disce omnes, with which ^Eneas introduces the treachery 
 of Sinon ; Mneid ii. 65-66. 
 
 P. 17, 31. veluet-garded ; a velvet-guard was either a trimming of 
 velvet, or its wearer. These trimmings were affected by 
 prosperous citizens, and Hotspur's inimitable lines on such 
 precisians in dress and speech are well known (I. Hen. IV., III. 
 i. 250-60). 
 
 P. 18, 5. The Third House ; perhaps successive possession by three 
 generations in the owner's family (cf. tertius heres in Roman 
 law). 
 
 P. 19, 20. Falling I the husband of Juliet's nurse (Romeo and 
 Juliet, I. iii.) is the only fit commentator for this passage. 
 
 P. 20, 16. Derick : he became hangman about 1601, and continued 
 in the office till about 1647. The modern derrick, a crane, 
 preserves his memory. 
 
 P. 20, 23. welted : Dekker's Newes from Hell shows that usurers 
 ' went in black veluet coats, and welted gownes '. 
 
 P. 20, 26. the Noble Science : see 5, 4, and note. This challenge 
 by a German swordsman was evidently well known at the 
 time, but I have not found other allusions to it. 
 
 P. 21, 14. Legiar : ambassador. 
 
 P. 22, 10. execution : of a writ ; see 53, 19. 
 
NOTES 65 
 
 P. 24, 21. bottles: the usual word for a bundle of hay suggests 
 
 the pun. 
 P. 27, 4. paynted posts : the accepted sign of such houses. 
 P. 27, 14. giue Armes : exhibit armorial bearings. 
 P. 28, 6-8. Knights . . . Post 1 a knight of the post was the 
 
 regular term for a professional false witness. For Post and 
 
 Pair the N.E.D. quotes Nares : ' A game on the cards, played 
 
 with three cards each, wherein much depends on vying, or 
 
 betting on the goodness of your own hand.' 
 P. 28, 9. Scambling : rapacious. 
 P. 30, 23. circle : that drawn by a magician for purposes of 
 
 conjuration. 
 P. 30, 32. a private Play-house : the private playhouses, not being 
 
 open to the weather, could be darkened for scenic illusion. 
 P. 31, 14. battles : clubs. 
 
 P. 32, 8. Woodcocke : habitual Elizabethan slang for a simpleton. 
 P. 32, 22, Perpetuana suited Puritane : Perpetuana was ' a durable 
 
 fabric of wool manufactured in England from the sixteenth 
 
 century. ' — N.E.D. 
 P. 32, 24. stewed Prunes: these appear to have been regularly 
 
 provided in the houses already referred to at 27, 4. Such 
 
 houses were naturally most frequent in the suburbs, which were 
 
 outside the jurisdiction of the city. 
 P. 33, 2. rackt : to rack wine is the technical phrase for drawing 
 
 it from off the lees ; hence the pun. 
 P. 33, 12. the Cannaries : a lively Spanish dance, supposed to have 
 
 originated in the Canary Islands. There is a punning suggestion 
 
 that they had ' drunk too much canaries ', which was (as Mistress 
 
 Quickly told Doll Tearsheet) ' a marvellous searching wine. ' 
 P. 33, 18. the Beadles Cothouse : the N.E.D., quoting this passage, 
 
 defines cothouse as ' a slight shelter, a shed, outhouse, etc' 
 
 Presumably it resembled those still in use by road-menders. 
 P. 33, 28. browne Billes : halberds. 
 P. 33, 31. the Counters : the three Counters were chiefly employed 
 
 as prisons for debt and minor offences. 
 P- 33, 33. the Garnish : ' money extorted from a new prisoner, 
 
 either as a jailer's fee, or as drink-money for the other prisoners.' 
 
 — N.E.D. 
 P. 33, 35. reare : imperfectly cooked, underdone. 
 P. 33, 36. the Bell-man : the public watchman, equipped with 
 
 bell and lantern. 
 P. 34, 6. What out-cryes . . . calles : a free version of the famous 
 
 opening of the fifth scene of the second act of Kyd's Spanish 
 
 Tragedie, when old Jeronimo rushes down to find his son 
 
 5 
 
66 NOTES 
 
 Horatio hanged in the bower in his garden. This in his mouth 
 suggests that Dekker has in mind the woodcut on the title- 
 page of the quarto, which represents Jeronimo, Bel-imperia, 
 and one of the murderers, each with a scroll of words issuing 
 from the mouth. Jeronimo's words are ' Alas it is my son 
 Horatio ', but Dekker would remember merely the scroll. 
 Naked bed may serve to remind the reader of to-day that 
 night-gowns are a modern invention. 
 
 P. 34, 1 3. in snuffe : in bad part. 
 
 P. 34, 15. Vennie : bout (at fencing). 
 
 P. 35, 6. yearking : lashing. 
 
 P. 35, 9. Bucklersburie : a street, well known for its druggists, off 
 Walbrook. 
 
 P. 35, 13. shrode Husbands: I take shrewd to be used here in a 
 good sense, to give the opposite of Vnthriftes : those who 
 husband their resources carefully. 
 
 P. 37, 2-10. Hindges . . . Mathematical! Instruments . . . Engines 
 . . . Skrewes : the comparison of man to a machine was 
 familiar to Elizabethan thought ; Hamlet touches on it in his 
 letter to Ophelia (II. ii. 124), and Dowden, commenting on the 
 passage, cites the full treatment of the subject in T. Bright's 
 Treatise of Melancholy, 1586. 
 
 P. 37, 30. as if the world ranne vpon wheeles : as it does in old 
 Merrythought's song in the fifth act of The Knight of the 
 Burning Pestle : 
 
 With hey, trixy, terlery-whiskin, 
 The world it runs on wheels. 
 
 P. 38, 16. by the hardnesse of the hand : by manual occupations, 
 like the ' hard-handed men, that work in Athens here ' who 
 presented Bottom's tedious brief scene. 
 
 P. 38, 27. their grates : the red lattices (through which Bardolph 
 called to Falstafi's page) which betokened the windows of an 
 alehouse. 
 
 P. 38, 30. bushes : another usual sign of a drinking-house ; whence 
 the proverb ' Good wine needs no bush.' 
 
 P. 38, 36. Lurches, Rubbers : the term ' lurch ' was ' used in various 
 games to denote a certain concluding state of the score, in 
 which one player is enormously ahead of the other.' — N.E.D. 
 ' Rubber ' is still in regular use for a set of games, extending if 
 necessary to three, in which the third is decisive. 
 
 P. 39, 32. vnkindely : unnaturally. 
 
 P. 40, 12. The Kings house of heauen : we should now write 'the 
 King of heaven's house.' This is a very late use of the genitive 
 construction normal in Chaucer's time (e.g. ' the Greekes hors 
 
NOTES 67 
 
 Sinon '), but Dekker is using biblical language in this passage, 
 and the archaism runs naturally from his pen. 
 
 P. 41, 15. LcBna : bawd. 
 
 P. 42, 8. Turwin 6- Turnay t Henry VIII besieged and took 
 Terouanne and Tournay in the late summer of 15 13. See 
 Percy Reprints No. I, 7, 6. 
 
 P. 42, 10. when Paules-steeple . . . on fire : the steeple was set on 
 fire by lighting on June 4, 1561. 
 
 P. 42, 13. feirse : brisk, vigorous ; the word is still used in this 
 sense in Derbyshire dialect. 
 
 P. 42, 19. much about the yeare when Monsieur came in : Francis, 
 Duke of Anjou, younger brother of Henry III, came to England 
 to treat of marriage with Elizabeth towards the end of October, 
 158 1, and left in the following February. 
 
 P. 43, 7. the Gaueston of the Time : we probably owe the allusion 
 to Marlowe's character of Gaveston in Edward II. 
 
 P. 43, 16. Zani : mimic. 
 
 P. 43, 19. flower when ; i.e. flower which when. 
 
 P. 43, 36. that Painter : Andrew Borde ; see Introduction, p. x. 
 
 P. 44, 8. Codpeece : the nearest modern equivalent would be a 
 sporran. 
 
 P. 44, 11. Botcher : a tailor who mends old clothes. 
 
 P. 45, 7. Verdimotes Inquest : ' a judicial inquiry made by a 
 wardmote.' — N.E.D. A wardmote is ' a meeting of the 
 citizens of a ward ; esp. in the City of London, a meeting of 
 the liverymen of a ward under the presidency of the alderman.' 
 
 P. 46, 1. Shauing t Cheating. 
 
 P. 46, 5. winch hard : while the customers, fearing soap-suds, 
 followed these instructions, the barbers made good their escape. 
 
 P. 46, 7. learned Latin Basons : latten was ' a mixed metal of 
 yellow colour, either identical with, or closely resembling, brass.' 
 — N.E.D. Puns upon it were very frequent. 
 
 P. 47, 10. Wiat : in his rising to prevent Queen Mary's Spanish 
 match, Sir Thomas Wyatt attempted to surprise Ludgate at 
 two o'clock in the morning of February 8, 1553-4. Findingthe 
 gate shut, and being hopeless of carrying it by assault, he was 
 obliged to retreat and surrender. Dekker wrote, in collabora- 
 tion with John Webster, a play called The Famous History of 
 Sir Thomas Wyat. With the Coronation of Queen Mary, and 
 the coming in of King Philip, which was first printed, also by 
 Edward Allde, in 1607. 
 
 P. 47, 25. presently ; immediately. The natural procrastination 
 of mankind had not yet given to ' presently ' and ' by and by ' 
 their modern meaning. 
 
68 NOTES 
 
 P. 47, 26. Subsidy book : the register of those liable to contribute 
 to Government subsidies. 
 
 P. 47, 30. quicksiluer : the ' quick ' is presumably introduced 
 only to give excuse for ' mangy ' in the following line. 
 
 P. 48, 5-9. Fire-shouels . . . Commodities : a good illustration of 
 the unsaleable nature of the goods which the usurer of the 
 time employed for the swindling of his clients, who were forced 
 to accept them as the whole or part of a loan, and re-sell them 
 at a heavy loss. The object was to evade the law, which allowed 
 no interest higher than 10 per cent. 
 
 P. 48, 14. Bankes his horse : one of the many references in Eliza- 
 bethan and later literature to the famous Morocco, reputed to 
 have been capable of arithmetic, divination, and dancing. 
 
 P. 48, 29. Cheuerell : kid-leather, easily stretched. Its pliability 
 is alluded to by Shakespeare also : ' a sentence is but a cheveril 
 glove to a good wit,' says Feste (Twelfth Night, III. i. 12). 
 
 P. 49, 8. Cutter of Queene Hith : bravo, bully. Queenhithe was 
 noted for its roughs. 
 
 P. 49, 17. Turned ouer the barre : deprived of the status of a 
 barrister. Nashe speaks of Lucifer as having been ' turnde 
 ouer heauen barre for a wrangler ' (Percy Reprints No. I, 
 105, 25). 
 
 P. 49, 20. skeldring : begging on fraudulent grounds : see 41, 
 17, One that sayes he has been a Soldier, and 4, 14 and note. 
 
 P. 51, 21. workes : the colon makes an effective pause, though 
 modern punctuation would use nothing heavier than a comma 
 after the two clauses in opposition to ' all this '. 
 
 P. 51, 32. prentiship : see note to 54, 12. 
 
 P. 52, 1. a deale of wretchednesse . . . roome : Dekker has in mind 
 Marlowe's line in The Jew of Malta, I. 72, ' Infinite riches in a 
 little roome.' 
 
 P. 52, 21. hecfars : heifers. 
 
 P. 53, 15. hauen : Cuckold's Haven was a point on the Thames 
 below Greenwich. Allusions to it are naturally frequent in 
 Elizabethan literature ; the N.E.D. quotes from Day's lie 
 of Guls, 1606, ' A young girle, married to an old man, doth 
 [long] to run her husband ashore at Cuckolds haven.' 
 
 P. 53, 19. executions : see 22, 10, and note. 
 
 P. 54, 7. the Ghost in Ieronimo : the ghost of Andrea, in Kyd's 
 Spanish Tragedie, appears in the Induction and between the 
 acts, inciting Revenge (personified) to greater activity. The 
 ghost is particularly insistent before the final act. 
 
 P. 54, 9. Morralls : Morality plays. Manningtree was famous for 
 its Whitsun fair. 
 
NOTES 69 
 
 P. 54, 12. seauen y eaves : the period of a ' prentiship.' 
 P. 55, 17-36. daughter of Brute . . . Troynouant 1 according to 
 the popular myth of the Trojan colonisation of Britain, Brute, 
 the great-grandson of JEneas, reigned over England from 
 Troynovant (London). 
 P. 59, 23. paire : pack ; this regular use for a set (pair of stairs, 
 pair of beads, etc.) probably survives, in modern English, only 
 of stairs in old collegiate buildings, where such directions as 
 ' two pair left ' may still be had from any porter. 
 
TEXTUAL EMENDATIONS 
 
 THE following list enumerates such obvious misprints 
 in the Douce copy of the edition of 1606 as have 
 been tacitly corrected in the present text. The list 
 is of no interest to the general reader, and is given merely 
 for the information of textual critics and as a guarantee that 
 the text has been altered only where evident misprints 
 occur. One of the errors — ' Many ' for ' Mary ' at 28, 7 
 — was in fact corrected during the printing of the 1606 
 edition, and the Malone copy has ' Mary.' At 52. 31, the 
 spelling might at first suggest an original ' blossome,' but 
 bosom is required for antithesis with 52, 26 (and possibly 
 54, 2), though the long f of the period gives, it must be con- 
 fessed, no such possibility of mistaking s for o as is afforded 
 by modern script. However, as ' bossome ' is not an 
 Elizabethan (or any other) spelling, and ' boosome ' is, I have 
 ventured to make the change to the latter, which at any 
 rate retains the same number of letters. 
 The sign > stands for ' has been emended to.' 
 
 Page 4, line 12, they > the : 5. 20, Comadus > Conradus: 14. 23, 
 feollwes > f ellowes : 21. 26, mony > many: 28. 7, Many > 
 Mary : 28. 18, profanu > profanu : 30. 10, count > court : 
 33. 20, of > off : 39. 26, there > their : 44. 9, Duble > 
 Dublet : 48. 32, thery lie thee > they lie there : 51. 36, scocieties 
 > societies: 52. 31, bossome > boosome: 53. n, Courtiers > 
 Courtier. 
 Mispunctuation : 
 
 Page 9, line 31, (that > that(: 24. 15, because > (because: 28. 12, 
 White-broth > White-broth) : 30. 17, )and > (and : 36. 23, 
 
 7* 
 
72 TEXTUAL EMENDATIONS 
 
 speake > speake) : him) > him : 38. 3, Galliards ( > Galliards) : 
 
 38. 22, (and > and(: came >) came: 38. 23, him) > him: 
 
 39. 27, (that > that( : 40. 20, Swine. > Swine, : 48. 6, &c> 
 &c.) : 48. 9, Commodities) > Commodities, : 48. 26, Executors, 
 > Executors. : 50. 9, day. > day, : 52. 24, ca, > ca) '. 53. 24', 
 vp, > vp) : 55. 19, (that > that(. 
 
 Printed in Great Britain by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., 
 London and Aylesbury. 
 
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