n, and his beggary that knighthood. His birth and
bringing up will not suffer him to descend to the means to get wealth; but
he stands at the mercy of the world, and which is worse, of his brother.
He is something better than the serving-men; yet they more saucy with him
than he bold with the master, who beholds him with a countenance of stern
awe, and checks him oftener than his liveries. His brother's old suits and
he are much alike in request, and cast off now and then one to the other.
Nature hath furnished him with a little more wit upon compassion, for it
is like to be his best revenue. If his annuity stretch so far, he is sent
to the university, and with great heart-burning takes upon him the
ministry, as a profession he is condemned to by his ill fortune. Others
take a more crooked path yet, the king's high-way; where at length their
vizard is plucked off, and they strike fair for Tyburn: but their
brother's pride, not love, gets them a pardon. His last refuge is the
Low-countries,[17] where rags and lice are no scandal, where he lives a
poor gentleman of a company, and dies without a shirt. The only thing that
may better his fortunes is an art he has to make a gentlewoman, wherewith
he baits now and then some rich widow that is hungry after his blood. He
is commonly discontented and desperate, and the form of his exclamation
is, _that churl my brother_. He loves not his country for this unnatural
custom, and would have long since revolted to the Spaniard, but for
Kent[18] only, which he holds in admiration.

FOOTNOTES:

[17] The Low-countries appear to have afforded ample room for ridicule at
all times. In "_A brief Character of the Low-countries under the States,
being Three Weeks Observation of the Vices and Virtues of the
Inhabitants_, written by Owen Felltham, and printed Lond. 1659, 12mo. we
find them epitomized as a general sea-land--the great bog of Europe--an
universal quagmire--in short a green cheese in pickle. The sailors (in
which denomination the author appears to include all the natives,) he
describes as being able to "drink, rail, swear, niggle, steal, and be
_lowsie_ alike. P. 40.

[18] _Gavelkind_, or the practice of dividing lands equally among all the
male children of the deceased, was (according to Spelman,) adopted by the
Saxons, from Germany, and is noticed by Tacitus in his description of that
nation. _Gloss. Archaiol._ folio. Lond. 1664. Harrison, in _The
Description of England_, prefi