[207] Adultery. The word occurs in Bacon's Essays. In his _Essay of
Empire_, the writer says:--"This kind of danger is then to be feared
chiefly when the wives have plots for the raising of their own children,
or else that they be _advoutresses_." Sir Simonds D'Ewes, in his account
of the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury, in 1613, describes the Countess of
Essex as "Somerset's _advoutress_" (_Autobiography and Correspondence of
Sir Simonds D'Ewes_, ed. Halliwell, I. 74).
+ _Of hym that payde his dette with crienge bea._ xlv.
+ There was a man on a tyme, which toke as moche ware of a marchaunt, as
drewe to fyftie li. and riottously playde and spente the same awaye
within shorte space. So whanne the day of payemente came, he hadde
nother[208] moneye nor ware to paye: wherfore he was arrested, and muste
come before the Justyce; whan he sawe there was none other remedye, but
that he shulde be constrayned eyther to pay the dette, or else to go to
prison. Wherfore he went to a subtyle man of lawe, and shewed to hym his
matter, and desyred of hym[209] his counsayle and helpe. What wylt thou
gyue me (quod the man of lawe), if I rydde the of this dette? By my
faythe, sayde the dettour, v marke: and lo, here it is redy; as sone as
I am quitte, ye shall haue hit. Good inough, quod the man of lawe; but
thou muste be ruled by my counsaile, and thus do. Whan thou comest
before the Justice, what som euer be saye[210] vnto the, loke that thou
answere to nothing, but cry bea styl: and lette me alone with the reste.
Content, quod he.
So, whan they were com before the Justice, he said to the dettour: doste
thou owe this marchant this somme of money or no? Bea! quod he. What
beste! (quod the Justice) answere to thy plaint, orels thou wilte be
condemned. Bea! quod he agayne. Than his man of lawe stode forth, and
sayd: Sir, this man is but an ideot. Who wolde beleue that this
marchaunt, whiche is both wyse and subtyle, wolde truste this ideot,
that can speke neuer a redy worde, of xl peny worth of ware? and so with
suche reasons he perswaded the Justyce to caste the marchaunt in his
owne action. So whan the sentence was gyuen, the man of lawe drewe the
dettour asyde, and said: Lo, howe sayst thou nowe? Haue not I done well
for the? Thou arte clere quitte of the dette that was demanded of the:
wherfore giue me my money, and God be with the. Bea! quod he. What, quod
the laweer, thou nedest not to crie bea no longer; thy matter is
dispatched; all is at a poynt, there resteth nothynge but to gyue me my
wages, that thou promysyddest. Bea! quod he agayne. I saye, quod the man
of lawe, crie bea no longer nowe, but gyue me my money. Bea! quod he.
Thus the man of lawe, neyther for fayre nor foule, coulde gette any
other thinge of his client but Bea: wherfore all angerly he departed,
and went his waye.
By this tale ye may perceyue, that they whiche be the inuenters and
diuisers of fraude and disceit, ben often times therby deceyued them
selfe. And he, that hath hyd a snare to attrap an other with, hath hym
selfe ben taken therin.