Merrie England in the Olden Time, Vol. 1Daniel, George
General
Merrie England in the Olden Time, Vol. 1
Daniel, George
England -- Social life and customs
Faults that hidden be?
Calf great, in whose conceit
Lay much game and glee.
Bigge i' th' small, ancle all,
Footed broad and long,
In Motley cotes, goes Jacke Oates,
Of whom I sing this song.”
“Curled locks on idiot's heads,
Yeallow as the amber,
Playes on thoughts, as girls with beads,
When their masse they stamber.
Thicke of hearing, yet thin ear'd,
Long of neck and visage,
Hookie nosde and thicke of beard,
Sullen in his usage.
Clutterfisted, long of arme,
Bodie straight and slender'd,
Boistious hipt motly warm'd,
Ever went leane Leonard.
Gouty leg'd, footed long,
Subtill in his follie,
Shewing right, but apt to wrong,
When a'pear'd most holy.
Understand him as he is,
For his marks you cannot misse.”
Eugenio.--“'Tis said that he died penitent.” Uncle Tim.--“I hope he did.
I hope all have died penitent. I hope all will die penitent. Alas! for
the self-complacent Pharisees of this world; they cannot forgive the
poor player:' little reflecting of how many, not laughing but crying
sins they will require to be forgiven. The breath of such hearts would
wither even the flowers of Paradise.”
Could we sit at the Tabard, and not remember the Globe, * with its flag
floating in the air, the Boar's Head, and the Falcon!
* “Each playhouse,” says W. Parkes, in his Curtain-drawer
of the World, 4to. 1612, “advaneeth its flag in the air,
whither, quickly, at the waving thereof, are summoned whole
troops of men, women, and children.” And William Rowley, in
“A Search for Money, 1609,” whilst enumerating the many
strange characters assembled at a tavern in quest of “The
Wandering Knight, Monsieur L'Argent,” includes among them
four or five flag-falne plaiers, poore harmlesse merrie
knaves, that were now neither lords nor ladies, but honestly
wore their owne clothes (if they were paid for.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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