Sound an Allarum therefore (O thou my couragious
Muse) and, like a Dutch cryer, make proclamation
with thy Drum: the effect of thine O-_yes_ being,
That if any man, woman or child, be he Lord, be he
Lowne, be he Courtier, be he Carter of ye Innes of
Court, or Innes of Citty, that, hating from the
bottome of his heart, all good manners and generous
education, is really in loue, or rather doates on that
excellent country lady, _Innocent Simplicity_, being the
first, fairest, and chiefest Chamber-maide that our
great _grandame Eue_ entertained into seruice: Or if
any person aforesaid, longing to make a voyage in
the Ship of Fooles, would venture all the wit that his
mother left him, to liue in the country of _Guls_,
_cockneyes_, and _coxcombs_; to the intent that, ha[=u]ting
_theaters_, he may sit there, like a popiniay, onely to
learne play-speeches, which afterward may furnish
ye necessity of his bare knowledge, to maintaine
table talke, or else, beating _tauernes_, desires to take
the _Bacchanalian_ degrees, and to write himselfe _in
arte bibendi magister_; that at ordinaries would sit
like Biasse, and in the streets walk like a braggart,
that on foote longs to goe like a French Lacque, and
on horsebacke rides like an English Tailor, or that
from seuen yeares and vpward, till his dying day,
has a monethes mind to haue ye _Guls Hornebooke_
by hearte; by which in time he may be promoted to
serue any Lord in _Europe_, as his crafty foole, or his
bawdy Jester, yea and to be so deere to his Lordship,
as for the excellency of his fooling, to be admitted
both to ride in Coach with him, and to lie at his
very feete on a truckle-bed. Let all such (and I
hope the world has not left her olde fashions, but
there are ten thousand such) repaire hither. Neuer
knocke (you that striue to be Ninny-hammer), but
with your feete spurne open the doore, and enter
into our Schoole: you shall not neede to buy
bookes, no, scorne to distinguish a B from a battle
doore; onely looke that your eares be long enough
to reach our _Rudiments_, and you are made for euer.
It is by heart that I would haue you con my lessons,
and therefore be sure to haue most deuouring
stomaches. Nor be you terrified with an opinion,
that our _rules_ be hard and indigestible, or that you
shall neuer be good _Graduates_ in these rare sciences
of _Barbarisme_, and Idiotisme. Oh fie, vppon any
man that carries that vngodly minde! Tush, tush;
_Tarleton_, _Kemp_, nor _Singer_, nor all the litter of Fooles
that now come drawling behinde them, neuer played
the clownes more naturally then the arrantest Sot of
you all shall if hee will but boyle my Instructions in
his braine-pan.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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