The London-Bawd: With Her Character and Life: Discovering the Various and Subtle Intrigues of Lewd WomenAnonymous
General
The London-Bawd: With Her Character and Life: Discovering the Various and Subtle Intrigues of Lewd Women
Anonymous
Prostitution -- England -- London
being my Friend, I borrowed of her an old Mant and Petty-coat; which the
Fool of a Fop put on. I told him I must intreat his Patience for half an
hours time, till the Company was Drest, and so went down Stairs; and
telling of my Friend how it went, and we being to go half Snips in the
Booty, I went off with the things, which I pawn'd for about four Pounds,
keeping his Rings to my self, and left my Landlady to manage the rest.
After the Disrobed Spark had waited for the space of an hour with great
Petience, and longing Expectation, for this Comical Show, and no Body came
at him, his Patience was quite tir'd, and therefore knocking with his foot,
the Maid of the House came up, of whom he enquired for such a Person, as
well as he could, describing me. The Maid pretended an intire Ignorance of
the matter, and so whipp'd down Stairs again. But he knocking again, up
comes the Mistress, who seeming to take him for a Woman, ask'd him, _What
he would have?_ He answer'd, _Such a Woman to whom he'd lent his Cloaths_;
but she not only made her self Ignorant of the matter, but call'd him
_Bitch, Whore, Cheat, Pick-Pocket_, and all to nought, concluding her
Harmonious Harrangue in this manner, _Ye dirty Drab, don't think to put
your Cheats upon me: You came in here with a Spruce Young Man, and for
ought I know you have Pick'd his Pocket, and sent him away, and now you go
about to Cheat me of my Reckoning; but that shan't do ye _Whore_, for I'll
have my Reckoning quickly, or else I'll Strip your Gown off your Arse_; but
the poor Rogue having no Money to pay, she forthwith stript him of his
Mant: And thus half Naked, in a Petticoat slit up to the Breeches; an old
broken pair of Stays, and a few Ragged Head-Cloaths, he was kick'd down
Stairs into the Street. _And being willing to know the end of this Comical
Adventure, I had planted one to watch what he did: Who followed him at a
distance till he went into an _Alehouse_ in _Foster-Lane_, where my Spy
went in after him, and called for a Pot of Drink; and there heard him tell
a Lamentable Story how he was robb'd by some _Foot-Pads_ (as he came from
_Hampstead_, where he had been to see his _Uncle_) who had stript him of
all his Cloaths, and given him those things to cover his Nakedness: The
People of the House compassionated him very much, and lent him a Suit of
Cloaths, Hat and Wig, with which he went to his Master's, who was a
Goldsmith, and liv'd at the sign of the ---- in Cheapside.--And I appeal to
you Madam, whether he wasn't serv'd in his kind._
_I think_, reply'd the Goldsmiths Lady, _you are very happy and Ingenious
in all your Contrivances; and for ought I know, might have contributed more
to reclaim him from those Courses, than all the Lectures and Sermons that
could have been Preached against 'em; for one wou'd think he should have
but little Mind any more to those Sweet Meats which were attended with such
sower Sauce--But pray go on with the Story of your Life._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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