[92] The full title of this Play is “The Fair Maid of the Exchange,
with the humours of the Cripple of Fenchurch.” The above Satire
against some Dramatic Plagiarists of the time, is put into the mouth
of the Cripple, who is an excellent fellow, and the Hero of the
Comedy. Of his humour this extract is a sufficient specimen; but he is
described (albeit a tradesman, yet wealthy withal) with heroic
qualities of mind and body; the latter of which he evinces by rescuing
his Mistress (the Fair Maid) from three robbers by the main force of
one crutch lustily applied; and the former by his foregoing the
advantages which this action gained him in her good opinion, and
bestowing his wit and finesse in procuring for her a husband, in the
person of his friend Golding, more worthy of her beauty, than he could
conceive his own maimed and halting limbs to be. It would require some
boldness in a dramatist now-a-days to exhibit such a Character; and
some luck in finding a sufficient Actor, who would be willing to
personate the infirmities, together with the virtues, of the Noble
Cripple.
* * * * *