Tarleton; 'does my jest savour?' 'I,' saies the gull, 'and bite too.'
'If you had had better wit,' saies Tarleton, 'you would have bit first;
so, then, conclude with me, that dumbe unfeeling mustard hath more wit
than a talking, unfeeling foole, as you are.' Some were pleased, and
some were not; but all Tarleton's care was taken, for his resolution was
ever, before he talkt any jest, to measure his opponent."

[Illustration: RICHARD TARLETON, THE ACTOR (_copied from an old wood
engraving_) [_see page 275_].]

A modern antiquary has with great care culled from the "Gull's Horn
Book" and other sources a sketch of the sort of company that might be
met with at such an ordinary. It was the custom for men of fashion in
the reign of Elizabeth and James to pace in St. Paul's till dinner-time,
and after the ordinary again till the hour when the theatres opened. The
author of "Shakespeare's England" says:--

"There were ordinaries of all ranks, the _table-d'hote_ being the almost
universal mode of dining among those who were visitors to London during
the season, or term-time, as it was then called. There was the
twelvepenny ordinary, where you might meet justices of the peace and
young knights; and the threepenny ordinary, which was frequented by poor
lieutenants and thrifty attorneys. At the one the rules of high society
were maintained, and the large silver salt-cellar indicated the rank of
the guests. At the other the diners were silent and unsociable, or the
conversation, if any, was so full of 'amercements and feoffments' that a
mere countryman would have thought the people were conjuring.

"If a gallant entered the ordinary at about half-past eleven, or even a
little earlier, he would find the room full of fashion-mongers, waiting
for the meat to be served. There are men of all classes: titled men, who
live cheap that they may spend more at Court; stingy men, who want to
save the charges of house-keeping; courtiers, who come there for society
and news; adventurers, who have no home; Templars, who dine there daily;
and men about town, who dine at whatever place is nearest to their
hunger. Lords, citizens, concealed Papists, spies, prodigal 'prentices,
precisians, aldermen, foreigners, officers, and country gentlemen, all
are here. Some have come on foot, some on horseback, and some in those
new caroches the poets laugh at."

"The well-bred courtier, on entering the room, saluted those of his
acquaintances who were in w