[119] The blackness of colliers was employed of course from a very early
period as a ground for satirical insinuations as to their connection
with the Evil One. In 1568, Ulpian Fulwell, a distinguished writer of
the Elizabethan era, published _A Pleasant Interlude intituled Like will
to Like quoth the Devil to the Collier_; and in the old play of _Grim
the Collier of Croydon_, the epithet grim was intended to convey a
similar idea. In _Robin Goodfellow His Mad Pranks and Merry Jests_,
1628, however, Grim is the name of a Fairy.
[120] Shoemaker or Cobbler. Lat. _Sutor_.
+ _Of Seynt Peter that cryed cause bobe._ lxxvi.
+ I fynde wrytten amonge olde gestes,[121] howe God mayde Saynt Peter
porter of heuen, and that God of hys goodnes, sone after his passyon,
suffered many men to come to the kyngdome of Heuen with small
deseruynge; at whiche tyme there was in heuen a great company of
Welchemen, whyche with their crakynge and babelynge troubled all the
other. Wherfore God sayde to saynte Peter, that he was wery of them, and
that he wolde fayne haue them out of heuen. To whome saynte Peter sayd:
Good Lorde, I warrente you, that shal be done. Wherfore saynt Peter
wente out of heuen gates and cryed wyth a loud voyce _Cause bobe_, that
is as moche to saye as rosted chese, whiche thynge the Welchemen
herynge, ranne out of Heuen a great pace. And when Saynt Peter sawe them
all out, he sodenly wente into Heuen, and locked the dore, and so
sparred all the Welchemen out.
By this ye may se, that it is no wysdome for a man to loue or to set his
mynde to moche vpon any delycate or worldely pleasure, wherby he shall
lose the celestyall and eternall ioye.