There are other allusions that point to 1613. In II. 4, we find--"Make us for want coyn brasse and passe it current." The first patent for the coining of brass farthing-tokens was granted on 10th April, 1613, to John Stanhope, Lord Harrington; and the grant caused general dissatisfaction.[161] Again: in the same scene there is a reference to the exportation of broad cloth:--"I, an't please your honour, have a commoditie of good broad cloth, not past two hundred; may I shippe them over? and theres a hundred poundes." When we turn to the State Papers we discover that numerous complaints were made in 1613 about the exportation of undressed broadcloth. On 3rd March, 1612-13, the King forwarded to the Lords of the Council a petition from the clothworkers and dyers that the statutes against the exportation of undressed and undyed goods should be strictly enforced. I am inclined to think that these passages, taken collectively, afford strong proof that _The Costlie Whore_ was written in 1613--twenty years before the date of publication. In I. 2, we have the story of Bishop Hatto and the Rats told briefly but effectively. Mr. Baring-Gould in his _Curious Myths of the Middle Ages_ has investigated the sources of the legend with much fulness. He refers us specially to Wolfius's _Lect. Memorab_., Lavingae, 1600, tom. i. p. 343. From the Stationers' Registers it appears that a ballad of _The Wrathfull Judgement of God upon Bishop Hatto_ was licensed to H. Carre on 15th August, 1586. The dramatist has invested the story with the glamour of that poetical strangeness which is the very salt of such narrations:-- "_Alf_. He did proclaime reliefe unto the poore; Assembled them unto a private Barne, And, having lockt the doore, set it on fire, Saying hee'de rid the countrie of such Mice: And Mice and Rats have rid him from the World. * * * * * _Duke_. Could not this palace, seated in the _Rheine_ In midst of the great River, (to the which No bridge, nor convay, other then by boats Was to be had) free him from vermine Rats? _Alf_. Against their kind the land Rats took the water And swomme in little armies to the house, And, though we drownd and killed innumerable, Their numbers were like _Hydra's_ heads increasing; Ruine bred more untill our brother died. _Duke_. The house is execrable; Ile not enter. _Hat_. You need not feare, my Lord; the house is free From all resort of Rats; for _at his death, As if a trumpet sounded a retreat, They made a kind of murmure and departed_." THE COSTLIE WHORE. A COMICALL HISTORIE, Acted by the companie of _the Revels_. LONDON Printed by _Augustine Mathewes_, for WILLIAM SHEARES, and HVGH PERRIE, and are to be sold at their shoppe, in _Brittaines Burse_. 1633. The Actors Names.