Elizabethan England Part 20

of three kinds, that is to { 5. The decaied housholder.

saie: { 6. The visited with greeuous disease.

3. The thriftles poore are three { 7. The riotor that consumeth all.

kinds in like wise, that { 8. The vagabond that will abide in no is to saie: place.

{ 9. The idle person, as the strumpet and others.

For these sorts of poore were prouided three seuerall houses. First for the innocent and fatherlesse, which is the beggers child, and is in deed the seed and breeder of beggerie, they prouided the house that was late Graie friers in London, and now is called Christes hospitall, where the poore children are trained in the knowledge of G.o.d, and some vertuous exercise to the ouerthrowe of beggerie. For the second degree, is prouided the hospitall of saint Thomas in Southworke, & saint Bartholomew in west Smithfield, where are continuallie at least two hundred diseased persons, which are not onelie there lodged and cured, but also fed and nourished.

For the third degree, they prouided Bridewell, where the vagabond and idle strumpet is chastised, and compelled to labour, to the ouerthrow of the vicious life of idlenes. They prouided also for the honest decaied housholder, that he should be relieued at home at his house, and in the parish where he dwelled, by a weekelie reliefe and pension. And in like manner they prouided for the lazer, to keepe him out of the citie from clapping of dishes, and ringing of bels, to the great trouble of the citizens, and also to the dangerous infection of manie, that they should be relieued at home at their houses with seuerall pensions."--_Holinshed_, iii. 1082. The rest of the page should be read about "blessed king" Edward VI., and his thanking G.o.d that he'd given him life to finish "this worke"

of relief to the poor "to the glorie of thy name": two days after, the good young king died.--F.

[166] At whose hands shall the blood of these men be required?--H.

[167] Objection 2, sign. e. i. "I praie you shewe me by what occasion or meanes, this huge nomber of Beggers and Vacaboundes doe breede here in Englande. And why you appointe twelue of them to euery Shipp: I thinke they maie carie the Shippe awaie, & become Pirates. [Answer.] If you consider the pouerty that is and doth remaine in the Shire tounes, and Market tounes, within this Realme of England and Wales, which tounes, being inhabited with greate store of poore householders, who by their pouertie are driue_n_ to bring vp their youth idlely; and if they liue vntil they come to mans state, then are they past all remedie to be brought to woorke. Therfore, at suche tyme as their Parentes fayles them, they beginne to shifte, and acquainte them selues with some one like brought vppe, that hath made his shifte, with dicyng, cosenyng, picking or cutting of purses, or els, if he be of courage, plaine robbing by the waie side, which they count an honest shift for the time; and so come they daiely to the Gallowes. Hereby growes the greate and huge nomber of Beggers and Vacaboundes, which by no reasonable meanes or lawes could yet be brought to woorke, being thus idely brought vp. Whiche perilous state and imminent daunger that they now stande in, I thought it good to auoide, by placeyng twelue of these poore people into euery fishynge Shippe, accordyng to this Platte." 1580. _Robert Hitchc.o.k's Pollitique Platt._--F.

[168] See the earliest known specimen of the Gipsy language, the "Egyptian rogues'" speech, in my edition of Andrew Boorde, Early English Text Society, first series, 1870, p. 218.--F.

[169] Thomas Harman. See the edition of his book, and Audeley's prior one, by Mr. Viles and myself, in the Early English Text Society's extra series, 1869, No. IX.--F.

[170] See Appendix.

[171] Law of the Marshal.--F.

[172] See my _Ballads from MSS._, 121-123, Ballad Society.--F.

[173] Harrison has confounded two very similar Keltic words. It should be a "d" in place of the second "c."--W.

[174] Here lacks.--H.

[175] _Principes longe magis exemple quam culpa peccare solent._--H.

[176] The Lord Mountjoy.--H.

[177] Here ends the chapter ent.i.tled "Minerals," and the one on "Metals"

begins.--W.

[178] Here follow two stories about crows and miners. See Appendix.--W.

[179] Some tell me that it is a mixture of bra.s.s, lead, and tin.--H.

[180] Harrison subst.i.tuted _inkle_ in 1587 for _packthread_ in 1577, a curious flight backward for modern readers. The inkle was a favourite pedlar-sold tape of the day, probably more at hand and more to the purpose than packthread.--W.

[181] Though boars are no longer bred, but only bred by, in Elizabethan days and before then the rearing of them for old English braun (not the modern subst.i.tute) was the chief feature of swine-herding; thus in "Cheape and Good Husbandry," the author says: "Now, lastly, the best feeding of a swine for Lard or of a Boare for Braune, is to feed them the first week with Barley, sodden till it breake, and sod in such quant.i.ty that it may ever be given sweete: then after to feed them with raw Mault from the floore, before it be dried, till they be fat enough: and then for a weeke after, to give them drie Pease or Beanes to harden their flesh. Let their drinke be the washing of Hoggesheads, or Ale Barrels, or sweete Whay, and let them have store thereof. This manner of feeding breeds the whitest, fattest, and best flesh that may be, as hath beene approved by the best Husbands." After this, Harrison's maltbugs well might ask: "Who would not be a hog?"--W.

[182] The proper English name of the bird which vulgar acceptance forces us to now call _bittern_.--W.

[183] See more in the second chapter of the Description of Scotland.--H.

[184] Here ends the first chapter of "fowls," that which follows being restricted to "hawks and ravenous fowls."--W.

[185] This on "venomous beasts" will be found included in the "savage beasts" of the following.

[186] Here follows an account of the extermination of wolves, and a reference to lions and wild bulls rampant in Scotland of old.--W.

[187] Misprints for "p.r.i.c.ket" and "sorel"; see Shakespeare's _Love's Labour's Lost_, IV. ii. 58-63; _The Return from Parna.s.sus_, etc., etc.--F.

[188] Here follows a discourse on ancient boar-hunting, exalting it above the degenerate sports of the day. This ends the chapter on "savage beasts."--W.

[189] Galenus, _De Theriaca ad Pisonem_; Pliny, lib. 10, cap. 62.--H.

[190] Sal.u.s.t, cap. 40; Pliny, lib. 37, cap. 2.--H.

[191] See Diodorus Siculus.--H.

[192] The like have I seen when hens do feed upon the tender blades of garlic.--H.

[193] This gentleman caught such an heat with this sore load that he was fain to go to Rome for physic, yet it would not save his life; but he must needs hie homewards.--H.

[194] Compare _Stubs's Anatomie_, p. 218. Turnbull.--F.

[195] See Percy Folio, _Loose and Humorous Songs_, p. 86, l. 31-4.--F.

[196] We've unluckily lost the distinction between _rabbit_ and _coney_.--F.

[197] Called "suckers" in _Babees Book_ and Henry VIII.'s _Household Ordinances_.--F.

[198] See Andrew Boorde's amusing bit about venison in his _Dyetary_ (my edition, p. 275).--F.

[199] Harrison was not quite up to the Dignity of Labour.--F.

[200] The decay of the people is the destruction of a kingdom: neither is any man born to possess the earth alone.--H.

[201] The fact is well known. See instances in W. de Worde's "Kerving,"

second edition, in _Babees Book_.--F.

[202] See the curious tract on this in Mr. John Cowper's _Four Supplications_, Early English Text Society, extra series.--F.

[203] The chapter ends with the forest laws of Canute. Born Londoner though he be, Harrison dwells lovingly upon the least point connected with his country home. His Saffron Walden is ever a fruitful source of discourse, Saffron being a prolific theme in other places of the work, and Walden here made to "point the moral and adorn the tale."--W.

[204] For her household in 1600-1601 see _Household Ordinances_, p.

281.--F.

[205] I suppose that Sir Thomas More, and Henry VIII., and Lady Jane Grey's parents began "the higher education of women" in England by having their daughters properly taught. On "Education in Early England" see my Forewords (tho' sadly imperfect) to the _Babees Book_ (Early English Text Society).--F.

[206] Compare Chaucer's _Prologue: The Squire_. On the evils of serving-men see Sir T. More's _Utopia_, and my _Ballads from MSS._, i.--F.

[207] The chapter concludes with the special penal regulations for disturbers in the court precincts.--W.

[208] See Ascham's _Toxophilus_. When our folk and government come to their senses every English boy and man'll be taught rifle-shooting; ranges will be provided by compulsory powers; and every male over sixteen be made sure of his man in any invading force. If then any foreign force wants to come, let it, and find its grave.--F.