"A Lawyer and his Clerk riding on the Road, the Clerk desired to know
what was the chief Point of the Law. His Master said, if he would
promise to pay for their Suppers that Night, he would tell him; which
was agreed to. Why then, said the Master, good Witnesses are the chief
Point in the Law. When they came to the Inn, the Master bespoke a couple
of Fowls for Supper; and when they had Supped, told the Clerk to pay for
them according to Agreement. O _Sir_, says he, where's your
witness."--_Complete London Jester_, ed. 1771, p. 102.
P. 72. One of _Pasquil's Jests_ is "how mad Coomes, when his wife was
drowned, sought her against the stream." It is merely a new application
of the present anecdote.
P. 75. _Of the foole that thought hym selfe deed._--A story of a similar
character occurs in _The Meeting of Gallants at an Ordinarie, or, the
Walkes in Powles_, 1604, (repr. 1841, p. 19), where "mine Host" gives an
account of "how a yong fellow was even bespoke and jested to death by
harlots."