y Smithfeeld (quoth he), and soo
left them, and sped him thether the next[321] waye. Whan he came to the
good man of the Swanne, he asked, if he would bye two good lodes of hey?
Yes marie, sayde he. Where be thei? Euen here they come (quoth
Makshyft). What shall I paye? sayde the inholder. Foure nobles (quoth
hee): but at length they agreed to xx shilling. Whan the hey was come,
Makshyft bad them vnlode. While they were doyng so,[322] he came to the
inholder,[323] and said: sir, I prai you let me haue my monei: for,
while my men be vnloding, I wil goe into the citee to buy a littell
stuffe to haue home with me. The good man was content, and gaue it hym.
And so he went his way. Whan the men had vnloded the hey, they came and
demanded their money. To whom the inholder saide: I haue paid your
maister. What master (quoth they)? Mary, quod he, the same man that made
you bring the hey hether. We know hym not, quod they. No more doe I
(quod he); that same man bargayned with me for the hey, and hym haue I
payed: I neyther bought nor sold with you. That is not enough for vs,
quod they; and thus thei stroue together. But what ende thei made, I
know not. For I thynke Makeshift came not againe to agree them.

FOOTNOTES:

[318] Tricks upon blind persons naturally form a feature in the jest
books. The eighty-third adventure of Tyl Owlglass is a practical joke on
a blind man, and in _Scoggin's Jests_, 1626, there are one or two
examples.

[319] A cheat or rogue. See Rowland's _Knave of Clubbs_, 1600 (Percy
Soc. ed. p. 18). The word _Shifter_ is employed by Rowlands in the
_Knave of Harts_, 1613, and by others of our elder writers in the same
sense. In the following passage, shift is used to signify a piece of
knavery:--

_"Ferd._ Brother, you lie; you got her with a _shift_.

_Frank._ I was the first that lov'd her."

Heywood's _Fair Maid of the Exchange_, 1607 (Shakesp. Soc. ed. p. 87).

See also Taylor's _Works_, 1630, ii. 144. In his _Sculler_, 1612, the
last mentioned writer introduces a sharper into one of his epigrams
under the name _of Mounsieur Shift_, "cozen-german to Sir Cuthert
_Theft_" (_Works_, iii. 25).

[320] Antiently, no doubt, Long Lane ran between hedges into Smithfield;
but it appears that even in the early part of Elizabeth's reign building
had commenced in this locality. Stow (_Survey of London_, edit. 1720,
lib. iii. p. 122) says:--"Long Lane, so called from its length, coming
out of _Aldersgate Street