warlike arms to subdue
and to over-run countries; every species of arms of gentility, banners,
escutcheons, books of pedigree, stanzas and poems relating to ancestry,
with every species of brave garments; admirable stories, lying portraits;
all kinds of tints and waters to embellish the countenance; all sorts of
high offices and titles; and, to be brief, there is every thing there
that is adapted to cause a man to think better of himself, and worse of
others than he ought. The chief officers of this treasury are masters of
ceremonies, vagabonds, genealogists, bards, orators, flatterers, dancers,
tailors, mantua-makers, and the like." From this great street we
proceeded to the next, where the princess Lucre reigns; it was a full and
prodigiously wealthy street, yet not half so splendid and clean as the
street of Pride, nor its people half so bold and lofty looking; for they
were skulking mean-looking fellows, for the most part.

There were in this street thousands of Spaniards, Hollanders, Venetians,
and Jews, and a great many aged, decrepit people were also there. "Pray,
sir," said I, "what kind of men are these?" "They have all gain in
view," said he. "At the lowest extremity, on one side, you will still
see the Pope; also subduers of kingdoms and their soldiers, oppressors,
foresters, shutters up of the common foot-paths, justices and their
bribers, and the whole race of lawyers down to the catchpole. On the
other side," said he, "there are physicians, apothecaries, doctors,
misers, merchants, extortioners, usurers, refusers to pay tithes, wages,
rents, or alms which were left to schools and charity houses; purveyors
and chapmen who keep and raise the market to their own price; shopkeepers
(or sharpers) who make money out of the necessity or ignorance of the
buyer; stewards of every degree, sturdy beggars, taverners who plunder
the families of careless men of their property, and the country of its
barley for the bread of the poor. All these are thieves of the first
water," said he; "and the rest are petty thieves, for the most part, and
keep at the upper end of the street; they consist of highway robbers,
tailors, weavers, millers, measurers of wet and dry, and the like." In
the midst of this discourse, I heard a prodigious tumult at the lower end
of the street, where there was a huge crowd of people thronging towards
the gate, with such pushing and disputing as caused me to imagine that
there was a general fra