g pole and delivered, in sight of all the parish, who
stood aloofe stopping their noses, by the head boroughs owne selfe in
proper person." Nothing dismayed by this awful array, the tinker sits at
table, drinks deep, takes the corpse on his back and carries it to a
field. Before committing it to the earth he carefully searches its
pockets and empties them; he then makes a parcel of the clothes "and
carrying that at the end of his staffe on his shoulder, with the purse
of seven pounds in his hand, backe againe comes he through the towne,
crying aloud: 'Have you any more Londoners to bury; Hey downe a downe
dery; Have you any more Londoners to bury?' The Hobbinolls running away
from him as if he had beene the dead citizens ghost, and he marching
away from them in all the hast he could, with that song still in his
mouth."

Another sort of writing congenial to Dekker's temperament, and which
novelists of a later date continued to cultivate after him, are those
series of counsels or praises in which, with due seriousness, the thing
is recommended or praised which ought to be avoided. An example of this
kind of satirical composition is the famous "Quinze joyes de mariage,"
in which the pleasant humours of a young wife are described in such a
way as to deter even a Panurge from marrying. Another example is the
"Grobianus"[303] Latin poem of the German F. Dedekind, which enjoyed an
immense reputation throughout Europe in the sixteenth century; it
contains ironical advice to a gallant with regard to his behaviour so
that in any given circumstances he may be as objectionable and improper
as possible.

Dekker translated both works into English, but with many alterations, so
numerous indeed, especially in the last, that his book may be considered
almost original.[304] He called it "The Guls Horne-booke," or alphabet.
He gives in it a lively description of the humours of gallants in the
time of Shakespeare, of the places they used to frequent, and the
company they liked to meet. Grobianism differs from the picaresque tale
by the absence of a story connecting the various scenes, but it
resembles it in the opportunity it affords for describing a variety of
characters, humours, and places. In the same way as we follow the picaro
in the houses of his several masters, we here follow the gallant from
his rooms to his ordinary, and from St. Paul's to the play. We climb
with him to the top of the cathedral, we show our new garments in the