[318] Tricks upon blind persons naturally form a feature in the jest
books. The eighty-third adventure of Tyl Owlglass is a practical joke on
a blind man, and in _Scoggin's Jests_, 1626, there are one or two
examples.
[319] A cheat or rogue. See Rowland's _Knave of Clubbs_, 1600 (Percy
Soc. ed. p. 18). The word _Shifter_ is employed by Rowlands in the
_Knave of Harts_, 1613, and by others of our elder writers in the same
sense. In the following passage, shift is used to signify a piece of
knavery:--
_"Ferd._ Brother, you lie; you got her with a _shift_.
_Frank._ I was the first that lov'd her."
Heywood's _Fair Maid of the Exchange_, 1607 (Shakesp. Soc. ed. p. 87).
See also Taylor's _Works_, 1630, ii. 144. In his _Sculler_, 1612, the
last mentioned writer introduces a sharper into one of his epigrams
under the name _of Mounsieur Shift_, "cozen-german to Sir Cuthert
_Theft_" (_Works_, iii. 25).
[320] Antiently, no doubt, Long Lane ran between hedges into Smithfield;
but it appears that even in the early part of Elizabeth's reign building
had commenced in this locality. Stow (_Survey of London_, edit. 1720,
lib. iii. p. 122) says:--"Long Lane, so called from its length, coming
out of _Aldersgate Street_ against _Barbican_, and falleth into _West
Smithfield_. A Place also of Note for the Sale of Apparel, Linnen, and
Upholsters Goods, both Secondhand and New, but chiefly for old, for
which it is of note." See also p. 284 of the same book, and Cunningham's
_Hand Book of London_, edit. 1848, _in voce_, with the authorities and
illustrations there given. Rowlands, in his _Letting of Humors Blood in
the Head Vein_, 1611, Sign. C. 2 _verso_, celebrates this spot as one of
the principal haunts of the pawnbrokers. In _Wits Recreations_, 1640
(edit. 1817, p. 109), there is the following epigram:--
"He which for 's wife a widow doth obtain, Doth like to those that buy
clothes in _Long Lane_, One coat's not fit, another's too too old, Their
faults I know not, but th' are manifold."
Day, in the _Parliament of Bees_, 1641, 40, Sign. C, speaks very
disrespectfully of the population of Long Lane in his time. See
_Maroccus Extaticus_, 1595 (Percy Soc. ed. p. 16), Dekker's _Knights'
Conjuring_, 1607, ed. Rimbault, p. 54. Webster's Works, by Hazlitt, i.
94. and Taylor's Works, 1630, Sign. Ggg4. The _Swan_ Inn has
disappeared, but whether it has merged in the _Barley Mow_, or the _Old
Red Cow_, I do not know.
[321] Nearest.
[322] The original reading is, _so while they were doying_.
[323] Innkeeper. This form of the word continued to be used by English
writers even in the later half of the seventeenth century.
+ _How a mery man deuised to cal people to a playe._ cxxxiii.
+ A Mery man, called Qualitees,[324] on a tyme sette vp billes vpon
postes aboute London, that who so euer woulde come to Northumberlande
Place[325] should here suche an antycke plaie[326] that, both for the
mattier and handelyng, the lyke was neuer heard before. For all they
that shoulde playe therin were gentilmen.
Those bylles moued the people (whan the daye came) to come thyther
thycke and threfolde. Now he had hyred two men to stande at the gate
with a boxe (as the facion is), who toke of euery persone that came in a
peny, or an halfe peny at the least. So whan he thought the market was
at the best, he came to the gate, and toke from the men[327] the boxe
with money, and geuynge theym their duitie, bade them go into the hall,
and see the rome kepte: for hee shoulde gooe and fetche in the plaiers.
They went in, and he went out, and lockt the gate faste, and toke the
key with hym: and gat hym on hys geldynge, whiche stode ready saddilled
without Aldryshegate[328] at an In,[329] and towarde Barnet he roade
apace. The people taryed from twoo a clocke tyll three, from three to
foure, styll askyng and criyng: Whan shall the plaie begyn? How long
shall we tarye? Whan the clocke stroke foure, all the people murmured
and sayed: Wherefore tarye we any longer? Here shall be no playe. Where
is the knaue, that hath beguyled vs hyther? It were almes to[330]
thruste a dagger throughe hys chekes, sayeth one. It were well done to
cutte of hys eares, sayeth an other. Haue hym to Newgat! sayeth one:
nay, haue hym to Tyburne! sayed an other. Shall wee loose our money
thus, saieth he? Shall wee bee thus beguiled, sayeth this man? shulde
this be suffered, saieth that man? And so muttrynge and chydyng, they
came to the gate to goe oute; but they coulde not. For it was faste
lockt, and Qualitees had the key away with him. Now begynne they a
freshe to fret and fume: nowe they swere and stare: now they stampe and
threaten: for the locking in greeued them more than all the losse and
mockery before: but all auayle not. For there muste they abide, till
wayes may be founde to open the gate, that they maye goe out. The
maidens that shoulde haue dressed theyr maisters suppers, they wepe and
crye; boyes and prentises sorow and lament; they wote not what to say,
whan thei come home.
For al this foule araye,
For al this great frai,
Qualites is mery ridyng on his waie.[331]