"'Good Sir William, let it rest' quoth shee, 'I know you will not
beleeue it when I haue reuealed it, neither is it a thing that you can
helpe: and yet such is my foolishnesse, had it not beene for that, I
thinke, verily I had granted your suite ere now. But seeing you vrge me
so much to know what it is, I will tell you: it is, sir, your
ill-fauoured great nose, that hangs sagging so lothsomely to your lips,
_that I cannot finde in my heart so much as to kisse you_.'"--_Pleasant
History of Thomas of Reading_, by T. D. circa 1597, p. 73 (ed. Thoms).
P. 26. _Of the Marchaunt that lost his bodgetie betwene Ware and
Lon[don]._
In _Pasquil's Jests_, 1604 occurs an account substantially similar to
the present, of "how a merchant lost his purse between
_Waltam_ and London."