for want of heed taking than
wilfully following or delighting in those errors of set mind and purpose.
It may be that divers of them living at home, with hard and pinching diet,
small drink, and some of them having scarce enough of that, are soonest
overtaken when they come into such banquets; howbeit they take it
generally as no small disgrace if they happen to be cupshotten, so that it
is a grief unto them, though now sans remedy, sith the thing is done and
past. If the friends also of the wealthier sort come to their houses from
far, they are commonly so welcome till they depart as upon the first day
of their coming; whereas in good towns and cities, as London, etc., men
oftentimes complain of little room, and, in reward of a fat capon or
plenty of beef and mutton largely bestowed upon them in the country, a cup
of wine or beer with a napkin to wipe their lips and an "You are heartily
welcome!" is thought to be a great entertainment; and therefore the old
country clerks have framed this saying in that behalf, I mean upon the
entertainment of townsmen and Londoners after the days of their abode, in
this manner:

"Primus jucundus, tollerabilis estque secundus,
Tertius est vanus, sed fetet quatriduanus."

The bread throughout the land is made of such grain as the soil yieldeth;
nevertheless the gentility commonly provide themselves sufficiently of
wheat for their own tables, whilst their household and poor neighbours in
some shires are forced to content themselves with rye, or barley, yea, and
in time of dearth, many with bread made either of beans, peas, or oats, or
of altogether and some acorns among, of which scourge the poorest do
soonest taste, sith they are least able to provide themselves of better. I
will not say that this extremity is oft so well to be seen in time of
plenty as of dearth, but, if I should, I could easily bring my trial. For,
albeit that there be much more ground eared now almost in every place than
hath been of late years, yet such a price of corn continueth in each town
and market without any just cause (except it be that landlords do get
licences to carry corn out of the land only to keep up the prices for
their own private gains and ruin of the commonwealth), that the artificer
and poor labouring man is not able to reach unto it, but is driven to
content himself with horse corn--I mean beans, peas, oats, tares, and
lentils: and therefore it is a true proverb, and never so well v