men and
suretiships. He is a man will spend his six-pence with a great deal of
imputation,[87] and no man makes more of a pint of wine than he. He is one
bears a pretty kind of foolish love to scholars, and to Cambridge
especially for Sturbridge[88] fair's sake; and of these all are truants
to him that are not preachers, and of these the loudest the best; and he
is much ravished with the noise of a rolling tongue. He loves to hear
discourses out of his element, and the less he understands the better
pleased, which he expresses in a smile and some fond protestation. One
that does nothing without his chuck[89], that is his wife, with whom he is
billing still in conspiracy, and the wantoner she is, the more power she
has over him; and she never stoops so low after him, but is the only woman
goes better of a widow than a maid. In the education of his child no man
fearfuller, and the danger he fears is a harsh school-master, to whom he
is alledging still the weakness of the boy, and pays a fine extraordinary
for his mercy. The first whipping rids him to the university, and from
thence rids him again for fear of starving, and the best he makes of him
is some gull in plush. He is one loves to hear the famous acts of
citizens, whereof the gilding of the cross[90] he counts the glory of this
age, and the four[91] prentices of London above all the nine[92]
worthies. He intitles himself to all the merits of his company, whether
schools, hospitals, or exhibitions, in which he is joint benefactor,
though four hundred years ago, and upbraids them far more than those that
gave them: yet with all this folly he has wit enough to get wealth, and
in that a sufficienter man than he that is wiser.

FOOTNOTES:

[87] _Imputation_ here must be used for _consequence_; of which I am,
however, unable to produce any other instance.

[88] _Sturbridge fair_ was the great mart for business, and resort for
pleasure, in bishop Earle's day. It is alluded to in Randolph's _Conceited
Pedlar_, 4to. 1630.

"I am a pedlar, and I sell my ware
This braue Saint Barthol. or _Sturbridge faire_."

Edward Ward, the facetious author of _The London Spy_, gives a whimsical
account of a journey to _Sturbridge_, in the second volume of his works.

[89] This silly term of endearment appears to be derived from _chick_, or
_my chicken_. Shakspeare uses it in Macbeth, Act iii. Scene 2.

"Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest _chuck_."

[90] The g