This said, the slave hugged himself, and bussed the bawd for joy: when presently I left them in the midst of their wicked smack, and descended to my bill-men that waited in the pernicious alley for me, their master constable. And marching forward to the third garden-house, there we knocked up the ghost of mistress Silverpin, who suddenly risse out of two white sheets, and acted out of her tiringhouse window: but having understood who we were, and the authority of our office, she presently, even in her ghost's apparel, unfolded the doors and gave me my free entrance; when in policy I charged the rest to stay and watch the house below, whilst I stumbled up two pair of stairs in the dark, but at last caught in mine eyes the sullen blaze of a melancholy lamp that burnt very tragically upon the narrow desk of a half bedstead, which descriede all the pitiful ruins throughout the whole chamber. The bare privities of the stone-walls were hid with two pieces of painted cloth,d but so ragged and tottered, that one might have seen all nevertheless, hanging for all the world like the two men in chains between Mile-end and Hackney. The testern, or the shadow over the bed, was made of four ells of cobwebs, and a number of small spinner's-ropes hung down for curtains: the spindle-shank spiders, which shew like great lechers with little legs, went stalking over his head as if they had been conning of Tamburlaine. To conclude, there was many

bill-men] See note, p. 513.

arisse] i. e. rose.

b tiring-house] i. e. dressing-room,-in theatrical language.

descried] i. e. discovered.

d

painted cloth] See note, vol. iii. p. 97.

e tottered] i. e. tattered.

f

as if they had been conning of Tamburlaine] From this passage Malone conjectured that the play of Tamburlaine, generally ascribed to Marlowe, was written either wholly or in

such sights to be seen, and all under a penny, beside the lamentable prospect of his hose and doublet, which, being of old Kendal - green, fitly resembled a pitched field, upon which trampled many a lusty corporal. In this unfortunate tiringhouse lay poor Pierce upon a pillow stuffed with horse-meat; the sheets smudged so dirtily, as if they had been stolen by night out of Saint Pulcher's churchyard when the sexton had left a grave open, and so laid the dead bodies wool-ward :i the coverlet was made of pieces a' black cloth clapt together, such as was snatched off the rails in King's-street at the queen's funeral. Upon this miserable bed's-head lay the old copy of his Supplication, in foul-written hand, which my black Knight of the Post conveyed to hell; which no sooner I entertained in my hand, but with the rattling and blabbing of the papers poor Pierce began to stretch and grate his nose against the hard pillow; when after a rouse or two, he muttered these reeling words between drunk and sober, that is, between sleeping and waking:-I should laugh, i'faith, if for all this I should prove a usurer before I die, and have never a penny now to set up withal. I would build a nunnery in Pict-hatch here, and part by Nash,-Shakespeare (by Boswell), vol. iii. p. 357: but Mr. J. P. Collier has most satisfactorily shewn that it was the work of the former; see Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poetry, vol. iii. p. 113, sqq.-The present tract, and the one which follows it (Father Hubburd's Tales), both published in 1604, prove that Nash died during that year: he is here described (I fear too truly) as living in a state of squalid poverty; in the next piece he is spoken of as deceased. hose] i. e. breeches.

Saint Pulcher's] A corruption of Saint Sepulchre's.

i wool-ward] i. e. in wool,-without linen (a word generally applied to persons who went so clothed for penance or humiliation see notes of the commentators on Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost, act. v. sc. 2, and Nares's Gloss. in v.)

Pict-hatch] See note, p. 512.

turn the walk in Paul's into a bowling alley: I would have the Thames leaded over, that they might play at cony-holes with the arches under London Bridge. Well (and with that he waked), the devil is mad knave still.

How now, Pierce? quoth I, dost thou call me knave to my face? Whereat the poor slave started up with his hair a-tiptoe; to whom by easy degrees I gently discovered myself; who, trembling like the treble of a lute under the heavy finger of a farmer's daughter, craved pardon of my damnable excellence, and gave me my titles as freely as if he had known where all my lordships lay, and how many acres there were in Tartary. But at the length, having recovered to be bold again, he unfolded all his bosom to me; told me that the Knight of Perjury had lately brought him a singed letter sent from a damned friend of his, which was thus directed as followeth,

From Styx to Wood's-close,

or

The Walk of Pict-hatch.

After I saw poor Pennyless grow so well acquainted with me, and so familiar with the villany of my humour, I unlocked my determinations, and laid open my intents; in particular1 the cause of my uprising, being moved both with his penetrable petition and his insufferable poverty, and therefore changed my shape into a little wapper-eyed m constable, to wink

the walk in Paul's] See note, vol. i. p. 418. k Tartary] See note, p. 524.

1 particular] Old ed. "particulars."

m

wapper-eyed] "Wapper-eyed, sore-eyed." Grose's Class. Dict. of Vulg. Tongue." Wapper-eyed, goggle-eyed, having

and blink at small faults, and through the policy of searching, to find him out the better in his cleanly tabernacle; and therefore gave him encouragement now to be frolic, for the time was at hand, like a pickpurse, that Pierce should be called no more Pennyless, like the Mayor's bench at Oxford," but rather Pierce Pennyfist, because his palm shall be pawed with pence. This said, I bade him be resolved and get up to breakfast, whilst I went to gather my noise of villains together, and made his lodging my convocation-house. With that, in a resulting humour, he called his hoseP and doublet to him (which could almost go alone, borne like a hearse upon the legs of vermin), whilst I thumped down stairs with my cow-heel, embraced mistress Silverpin, and betook me to my bill-men; when, in a twinkling, before them all, I leapt out of master constable's night-gown into an usurer's fusty furred jacket; whereat the watchmen staggered, and all their bills fell down in a swoon; when I walked close by them, laughing and coughing like a rottenlunged usurer, to see what Italian faces they all made when they missed their constable, and saw the black gown of his office lie full in a puddle.

Well, away I scudded in the musty moth-eaten habit; and being upon Exchange-time, I crowded

full rolling eyes; or looking like one scared; or squinting like a person overtaken with liquor." Vocab. to An Exmoor Scolding, ed. 1839.

"the Mayor's bench at Oxford] There was a public seat at Oxford "adjoining to the east end of Carfax Church" (Warton's Companion to the Guide, p. 15, sec. ed.), which bore the name of Pennyless- Bench.

• noise] i. e. band, company-properly, of musicians: see note, vol. ii. p. 498.

Phose] i. e. breeches.

bill-men] See note, p. 513.

myself amongst merchants, poisoned all the Burse in a minute, and turned their faiths and troths into curds and whey, making them swear that things now which they forswore when the quarters struck again; for I was present at the clapping up of every bargain, which did ne'er hold, no longer than they held hands together. There I heard news out of all countries, in all languages; how many villains were in Spain, how many luxurs in Italy, how many perjurds in France, and how many reelpots in Germany. At last I met, at half-turn, one whom I had spent mine eyes so long for, an hoary money-master, that had been off and on some sixand-fifty years damned in his counting-house, for his only recreation was but to hop about the Burse before twelve, to hear what news from the Bank, and how many merchants were banqrout" the last change of the moon. This rammish penny-father I rounded in the left ear, winded in my intent, the place and hour; which no sooner he sucked in, but smiled upon me in French, and replied,—

O mounsieur Diabla,

I'll be chief guest at your tabla !

With that we shook hands, and, as we parted, I

the Burse] Means here the Royal Exchange: see note,

p. 485.

u

villains] Old ed. "Villainies."

luxurs] i. e. lechers.

banqrout] i. e. bankrupt.

penny-father] "A pennie-father, Vn homme riche et chiche." Cotgrave's Dict.

"Ranck peny-fathers scud (with their halfe hammes Shadowing their calues) to saue their siluer dammes,

At euery gun they start, tilt from the ground,

One drum can make a thousand Vsurers sownd [i.e. swoon]." Dekker's Wonderfull Yeare, 1603, sig. в 3.

w rounded] i. e. whispered.