[158] Parishioners. This jest is included by Johnson in his _Pleasant
Conceits of Old Hobson, the Merry Londoner_, 1607 (reprinted 1843. p.
17).
[159] Sell away.
+ _Of the chaplen, that sayde our lady matens a bed._ xiiii.
+ A certayne lorde's chaplen bosted on a tyme, syttynge at his lorde's
table, that he sayde our lady matyns euery morninge besyde all his other
seruice and orisons. The lorde, to proue whether his chaplen did as he
sayde, arose yerly on a morninge, and went to his chaplen's chamber, and
called hym, saying: where be ye, syr wylliam? Here, and please your
lordshyp (quod he), in my bedde. Why, sayd the lorde, I thought ye had
ben vp and sayenge of our lady matyns. I am nowe sayinge it, quod the
chappleyn. What! lienge in your bedde, quod the lord? why, syr, sayd the
chapplain, where shudde women be serued but a bedde?
+ _Of him that lost his purse in London._ xv.
+ A certayn man of the countre, the whiche for busines came vp to
London, lost his purse as he wente late in the euenynge; and by cause
the somme therin was great, he sette vp bylles in dyuers places that, if
any man of the cyte had founde the purse, and wolde brynge it agayne to
him, he shulde haue welle for his laboure. A gentyll man of the Temple
wrote vnder one of the byls, howe the man shulde come to his chamber,
and tolde [him] where. So, whan he was come, the gentyll man asked him
fyrst what was in the purse; secondli, what countrey man he was, and
thirdly, what was his name? Syr, quod he, xx nobles was inne the pourse;
I am halfe a walshe man; and my name is John vp Janken.[160] John vp
Jankyn (sayde the gentyll man), I am gladde I knowe thy name: for so
longe as I lyue, thou nor none of thyn name shal haue my purse to kepe;
and nowe fare well, gentyll John vp Jankyn. Thus he was mocked to scorne
and went his way.
Hereby ye may perceyue, that a man can not haue a shrewde tourne, but
otherwhyle a mocke withall.