The last allusion made by Pepys on this subject forms an admirable commentary on the approving ecstasy expressed by the royalists at the lashing which the “Precisians” received at the hands of Lantern’s puppets in Jonson’s comedy. On the 5th September, 1668, Pepys is again on the old ground, “to see the play ‘Bartholomew Faire,’ and it is an excellent play; the more I see it, the more I love the wit of it; _only_” (he adds) “the business of abusing the Puritans begins to grow stale, and of no use, they being the people that at last will be found the wisest.” I began this chapter with a quotation from Puysieux—I may end it with that just cited from Pepys; and therewith, lowering the curtain of my little theatre, I beg the indulgence of my audience for the succeeding portions of what I have respectfully to bring before them; something more especially touching Tailors, and the Man whose making is to Tailors due! First, however, to treat the matter reverently, let us inquire what influenced the ancient corporation in their selection of a protecting Saint. TOUCHING TAILORS. “Rem acu tetigisti.”—HORACE. “You have treated of a matter about the needle.”—_Translated by a Merchant Tailors’ Pupil._ “Sit merita Laus!”—ST. WILLIAM, ABP. “Sit, merry Tailors.”—_Freely rendered by the Saint’s Chaplain._ WHY DID THE TAILORS CHOOSE ST. WILLIAM FOR THEIR PATRON? “King David’s confessor is worth a whole calendar of Williams.”—LUTHERAN TAILOR. Why did the tailors choose St. William for their patron? Ah, _why_? I confess it puzzles me to furnish a reply; and I would not be editor of that pleasant paper ‘Notes and Queries,’ if my official hours were to be passed in furnishing answers to such questions. I can understand why St. Nicholas is the patron of children. The Saint once came upon a dozen or two in a tub, cut up, pickled, and ready for home consumption or foreign exportation, and he restored them all to life by a wave of his wand,—of his hand, I should say, but I was thinking of Harlequin; and thenceforth parents very properly neglected their children, knowing that Nicholas was their commissioned curator.