The expedients for swindling which formerly throve, enter not a little into these miscellanies; and the drollery of the incidents of a fraud naturally outlive the temporary elements. The narrative of a sharper, who is, by the way, described as “a merry man,” and who distributed bills announcing the performance of a play, belongs to the earlier years of Elizabeth; but it was a trick repeated, doubtless, more than once. The particular story is laid somewhere about 1567, and it establishes several curious details respecting the theatrical exhibitions of that date. The scene was Northumberland Place, in the city of London, and the proceedings were to commence at two in the afternoon. Two men were stationed at the gate with a box to take the money--a penny or a halfpenny at least--and as soon as the fellow conceived that there was no likelihood of collecting more, he sent the two box-keepers in to “keep the room,” mounted a horse which waited for him at an adjoining inn, and rode off to Barnet. This episode is additionally curious and interesting, because it anticipates by almost forty years a precisely similar adventure placed on record by Chamberlain the letter-writer as having occurred within his knowledge in 1602. In both cases the actors were advertised to be _amateurs_, which, as the piece was to be presented on a scaffold in the market-place, was a novel attraction and a happy stroke. The epigram of Sir Thomas More on one who took the fly out of a glass of water, and replaced it when he had done drinking, has been made the basis for a jest; but was itself founded on the common superstition that such an act was lucky. The current pronunciation of an early West of England name underlies the pleasantry that Master You having wedded Mistress You, he was ever afterwards known as Master W. The old Devonshire Yeos were probably called _Yous_ by their provincial neighbours. There is an abundance of historical sayings with a facetious vein or tag; and some of them are highly interesting little traits and sidelights. During the Wars of the Roses, an unfortunate man met in succession with two parties, of whom one was for Edward IV. and the other for Henry VI. To the inquiry of the first he replied that he was Henry’s man, wherefore they beat him; and to the second that he was Edward’s, which brought him the same luck. So the next time, to be quite safe, he declared himself to be the Devil’s man; and when they said, “Then the Devil go with thee!” “Amen!” quoth he: “he is the best master I’ve served to-day.”