“ . . . Yf a marchaunt and a messager · metten to-gederes, And scholde wende o way · where both mosten reste . . . The marchante mote nede be lette (kept) · lengere then the messagere; The messager doth na more · bote with hus mouthe telleth Hus erande and hus lettere sheweth · and is a-non delyvered. And thauh thei wende by the wey · tho two to-gederes, Thauh the messager make hus wey · a-mydde the whete, Wole no wys man wroth be · ne hus wed (pledge) take; Ys no haiwarde yhote (bidden) · hus wed for to take: _Necesitas non habet legem._ Ac yf the merchaunt make hus way · overe menne corne, And the haywarde happe · with hym for to mete, Other hus hatt, other hus hode · othere elles hus gloves The marchaunt mot for-go · other moneye of hus porse . . . Yut thauh thei wenden on way · as to Wynchestre fayre, The marchaunt with hus marchaundise · may nat go so swithe As the messager may · ne with so mochel ese. For that on (one) bereth bote a boxe · a brevet (letter) ther-ynne, Ther the marchaunt ledeth a male (trunk) · with meny kynne thynges, And dredeth to be ded there-fore · and (if) he in derke mete With robbours and revers (thieves) · that riche men dispoilen; Ther the messager is ay murye · hus mouthe ful of songes.”[312] Wayfarers there were in whom both characteristics were united, the slowness of pace of the merchant and the lightness of heart of the messenger. These were the pedlars, a very numerous race in the Middle Ages, one of the few sorts of wanderers that have not yet entirely disappeared. A jovial race they seem to have been; they are so now, most of them, for their way to success is through fair speech and enticing words; and how could they be enticing if they did not show good humour and jollity? “Gaiety” mends their broken wares, and colours the faded ones, and blinds customers to otherwise {235} obvious defects. They have always been described thus; they were merry and sharp-tongued; such was Shakespeare’s Autolycus; such is, in a novel of our time, the jovial owner of the dog Mumps, Bob Jakin of “The Mill on the Floss.” “‘Get out wi’ you, Mumps,’ said Bob, with a kick; ‘he is as quiet as a lamb, sir’—an observation which Mumps corroborated by a low growl, as he retreated behind his master’s legs.” About the exact scrupulousness prevailing among the tribe the opinion has perhaps not been quite so consistent, which is the best that can be said for it.