Mary, if either the company, or indisposition of
the weather binde you to sit it out, my counsell is
then that you turne plain Ape, take vp a rush, and
tickle the earnest eares of your fellow gallants, to
make other fooles fall a laughing: mewe at passionate
speeches, blare at merrie, finde fault with the
musicke, whew at the childrens Action, whistle at the
songs: and aboue all, curse the sharers, that whereas
the same day you had bestowed forty shillings on an
embrodered Felt and Feather (scotch-fashion) for
your mistres in the Court, or your punck in the city,
within two houres after, you encounter with the very
same block on the stage, when the haberdasher
swore to you the impression was extant but that
morning.
To conclude, hoard vp the finest play-scraps you
can get, vpon which your leane wit may most sauourly
feede, for want of other stuffe, when the _Arcadian_
and _Euphuizd_ gentlewomen haue their tongues
sharpened to set vpon you: that qualitie (next to
your shittlecocke) is the onely furniture to a Courtier
thats but a new beginner, and is but in his A B C of
complement. The next places that are fild, after
the Playhouses bee emptied, are (or ought to be)
Tauernes: into a Tauerne then let vs next march,
where the braines of one Hogshead must be beaten
out to make vp another.
CHAPTER VII
How a Gallant should behaue himself in a Tauerne.
WHOSOEUER desires to bee a man of good reckoning
in the Cittie, and (like your French Lord) to haue
as many tables furnisht as Lackies (who, when they
keepe least, keepe none), whether he be a yong _Quat_
of the first yeeres reuennew, or some austere and
sullen-facd steward, who (in despight of a great beard,
a satten suite, and a chaine of gold wrapt in cipers)
proclaimes himselfe to any (but to those to whom
his Lord owes money) for a ranck coxcombe, or
whether he be a country gentleman, that brings his /
wife vp to learne the fashion, see the Tombs at Westminster,
the Lyons in the Tower, or to take physicke;
or else is some yong Farmer, who many times makes
his wife (in the country) beleeue he hath suits in law,
because he will come vp to his letchery: be he of
what stamp he will that hath money in his purse, and
a good conscience to spend it, my councell is that
hee take his continuall diet at a Tauerne, which (out
of question) is the onely _Rende-vous_ of boone company;
and the Drawers the most nimble, the most
bold, and most sudden proclaimers of your largest
bounty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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