Wit that shall make thy name to last, A Way to tell who must be your Husband.—" Take a St. Thomas's onion, pare it, and lay it on a clean handkerchief under your pillow; put on a clean smock, and as you lie down, lay your arms abroad, and say these words : Good St. Thomas, do me right, And bring my love to me this night, Then, lying on thy back with thy arms abroad, go to sleep as soon as you can, and in your first sleep you shall dream of him who is to be your husband, and he will come and offer to kiss you; do not hinder him, but catch him in thy arms, and strive to hold him, for that is he. This I have tried, and it was proved true. Yet I have another pretty way for a maid to know her sweetheart, which is as follows:-Take a summer apple of the best fruit, stick pins close into the apple to the head, and as you stick them, take notice which of them is the middlemost, and give it what name you fancy; put it into thy left hand glove, and lay it under thy pillow on Saturday night after thou gettest into bed; then clap thy hands together, and say these words : If thou be he that must have me, To be thy wedded bride, Make no delay, but come away This night to my bedside."-(pp. 10-11.) 20. THE HISTORY OF THOMAS OF READING, AND OTHER WORTHY CLOTHIERS OF ENGLAND, setting forth their mirth, great riches, and hospitality to the poor, and the great favour they gained with their Prince. Concluding with the woeful death of Thomas of Reading, who was murdered by his host. 12mo. London, Aldermary Church-yard, n. d. An abridgement from the larger history by Deloney, 4to. 1632, which has been reprinted by Mr. Thoms. On the title is the annexed cut of a barber's shop: It is a curious illustration of the old custom of the person who was waiting for his turn playing on the ghittern. There are innumerable allusions to this practice in our old dramatists :-"A barber's cittern for every serving-man to play upon", Dekker's Honest Whore, Second Part, 1630. Stubbes, 1583, mentioning barbers and shaving, says :-" You shall have also your orient perfumes for your nose, your fragrant waters for your face, wherewith you shall bee all to besprinkled: your musicke againe and pleasant harmonie shall sound in your eares, and all to tickle the same with vaine delight." 21. THE HISTORY OF LAWRENCE LAZY, containing his Birth and slothful breeding; how he served the Schoolmaster, his Wife, the Squire's Cook, and the Farmer, which, by the laws of Lubberland, was accounted High Treason; his Arraignment and Trial, and happy deliverance from the many treasons laid to his charge. 12mo. London, Aldermary Church-yard, n. d. The following are the titles of the chapters:-1. Of his birth and heavy breeding, and of his being carried to school. 2. Of Lawrence's falling asleep in a grove, and so losing his walking mates; of his meeting with an old man, who gave him a charm with which he wrought many wonders. 3. How Lawrence served his master, and then made his escape. 4. Of his causing a gentleman's cook to lose his place. 5. The trick he served a country farmer, who would not give him the least morsel of meat. 6. Lawrence is taken and sent to Lubberland Castle. 7. Lawrence's Trial in the Town-hall of Never-work, and of his coming off at last with flying colours. This edition was printed about 1780, but it was a much earlier production, and is thus alluded to in a curious MS., called Great Britan's Honycombe, 1712 :-"There was a gentleman that had two sons: the one was gifted to rise very early in the morning, and goe out about his lawfull occasions; and his other son, having too much blood of the Lawrences in him, which occasioned a very lazy habit in him that he could not finde in his heart to rise in a morning before ten or eleven of the clock, notwithstanding his father's often calling him, which availed nothing, for Lawrence had made too deep an impression into his constitution." 22. DOCTOR MERRYMAN, OR NOTHING BUT Mirth, being a Poesy of Pleasant Poems and Witty Jests. 12mo. London, Bow-Church Yard, n. d. This piece is copied from an old work, called "Democritus, or Doctor Merryman his medecines against melancholy humors, written by S. R.: Printed for John Deane, and are to be sold at his shop at Templebarre under the gate", n. d., but entered on the registers of the Stationers' Company, Oct. 24th, 1607. There was also an edition in 1681, 4to. This is by Samuel Rowlands, the author of various other pieces. There are some omissions in this tract, and the two pieces at the end, the Savage and the Beggars, are not in the original edition. I extract the following, chiefly because it contains the remarkable phrase "naked gull," affording a better example of it than the commentators have produced. See Timon of Athens, act ii, scene 1. A country fellow had a dream which did his mind amaze; O, woman, rise and help your goose, for even the best we have The goose betwixt two foxes plac'd, On either side a lawyer sits, and they do feathers pull; That in the end you will be found Wife, in good truth, said he, I think My purse can witness to my grief 23. A PLEASANT AND DELIGHTFUL DIALOGUE BETWEEN HONEST JOHN AND LOVING KATE, with the contrivance of their marriage, and way to get a livelihood. 12mo. Readers, here's a loving pair Leicester, c. 1760. |