All the fashions of his time--the rapier fighting of the gallants, the smoking madness of all classes at a time when tobacco was supposed to be the panacea for all the ills of human nature, the custom of garnishing conversation with oaths--are introduced into the books of Ben Jonson. The poet's love of good liquor and social intercourse made him a frequenter of inns. His acquaintance with the two rival taverns of Cheapside--the Mermaid and the Mitre--must have commenced early, because the names of both occur in the first quarto of _Every Man in His Humour_ (1601); in the later folio edition the Mitre is changed to the Star and the Mermaid to the Windmill. The ever-memorable Mermaid was situated on the south side of Cheapside, between Bread Street and Friday Street. From the mention of this tavern in the first draft of _Every Man In His Humour_ it may be inferred that Jonson was a frequenter before the famous club, consisting of Shakespeare, Jonson, Beaumont, Fletcher, Carew, Donne, Selden and others, was established by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1603. The Mitre was a rival house, and some writers tried to write it up at the expense of the Mermaid. Thus Middleton has the following dialogue in his comedy, _Your Five Gallants_ (1608):-- "_Goldstone._ Where sup we, gallants? _Pursenet._ At Mermaid. _Gold._ Sup there who list, I have forsworne the house. _Pur._ Faith! I'm indifferent. _Bungler._ So are we, gentlemen. _Pur._ Name the place, Master Goldstone. _Gold._ Why, the Mitre, in my mind, for neat attendance, diligent boys, and--Push! excels it far. _All._ Agreed. The Mitre then." The Windmill, in the old Jewry, which occupies so prominent a position in the revised edition of _Every Man in His Humour_, was a house with a long history. It was first of all a synagogue for the Jews of the neighbourhood; then it was granted by Henry III. to the prior and brethren of the Order of friars called the Fratres de Sacca, and in 1439 it was occupied by Lord [Illustration: WESTMINSTER.] Mayor Robert Large. In 1492 Sir Hugh Clopton, the worthy who built Clopton Bridge at Stratford-on-Avon, kept his mayoralty in the mansion, which, a hundred years afterwards, was turned into a tavern. The Devil, in Fleet Street, was one of the most famous of the places of entertainment of the time. It is not known when Ben Jonson started the "Apollo" Club here, but it was probably not long before 1616, when the _Devil is an Ass_ was acted. Herrick, in his well-known ode, mentions several other taverns to which Ben and "his sons" resorted:-- "Ah, Ben! Say how or when Shall we thy guests Meet at those lyric feasts Made at the Sun, The Dog, the Triple Tun? Where we such clusters had As made us nobly wild, not mad; And yet each verse of thine Outdid the meal, outdid the frolic wine."