=1. 1. 59 the Suburbs.= The suburbs were the outlying districts without the walls of the city. Cf. Stow, _Survey_, ed. Thoms, p. 156 f. They were for the most part the resort of disorderly persons. Cf. B. & Fl., _Humorous Lieut._ 1. 1.; Massinger, _Emperor of the East_ 1. 2.; Shak., _Jul. Caes._ 2. 1; and Nares, _Gloss_. Wheatley (ed. _Ev. Man in_, p. 1) quotes Chettle’s _Kind Harts Dreame_, 1592: ‘The suburbs of the citie are in many places no other but dark dennes for adulterers, thieves, murderers, and every mischief worker; daily experience before the magistrates confirms this for truth.’ Cf. also Glapthorne, _Wit in a Constable_, _Wks._, ed. 1874, 1. 219: ----make safe retreat Into the Suburbs, there you may finde cast wenches. In _Every Man in_, _Wks._ 1. 25, a ‘suburb humour’ is spoken of. =1. 1. 60 Petticoate-lane.= This is the present Middlesex Street, Whitechapel. It was formerly called Hog Lane and was beautified with ‘fair hedge-rows,’ but by Stow’s time it had been made ‘a continual building throughout of garden houses and small cottages‘ (_Survey_, ed. 1633, p. 120 b). Strype tells us that the house of the Spanish Ambassador, supposedly the famous Gondomar, was situated there (_Survey_ 2. 28). In his day the inhabitants were French Protestant weavers, and later Jews of a disreputable sort. That its reputation was somewhat unsavory as early as Nash’s time we learn from his _Prognostication_ (_Wks._ 2. 149): ‘If the Beadelles of Bridewell be carefull this Summer, it may be hoped that Peticote lane may be lesse pestered with ill aires than it was woont: and the houses there so cleere clensed, that honest women may dwell there without any dread of the whip and the carte.’ Cf. also _Penniless Parliament, Old Book Collector’s Misc._ 2. 16: ‘Many men shall be so venturously given, as they shall go into Petticoat Lane, and yet come out again as honestly as they went first in.’ =1. 1. 60 the Smock-allies.= Petticoat Lane led from the high street, Whitechapel, to _Smock Alley_ or Gravel Lane. See Hughson 2. 387. =1. 1. 61 Shoreditch.= Shoreditch was formerly notorious for the disreputable character of its women. ‘To die in Shoreditch’ seems to have been a proverbial phrase, and is so used by Dryden in _The Kind Keeper_, 4to, 1680. Cf. Nash, _Pierce Pennilesse_, _Wks._ 2. 94: ‘Call a Leete at _Byshopsgate_, & examine how euery second house in _Shorditch_ is mayntayned; make a priuie search in _Southwarke_, and tell mee how many Shee-Inmates you fin de: nay, goe where you will in the Suburbes, and bring me two Virgins that haue vowd Chastity and Ile builde a Nunnery.’ Also _ibid._, p. 95; Gabriel Harvey, _Prose Wks._, ed. Grosart. 2. 169; and Dekker, _Wks._ 3. 352.