Philo, the lawyer,[537] and the fortune-teller, The school-master, the midwife,[538] and the bawd, The conjurer, the buyer and the seller Of painting which with breathing will be thaw'd, Doth practise physic; and his credit grows, As doth the ballad-singer's auditory, Which hath at Temple-Bar his standing chose, And to the vulgar sings an ale-house story: First stands a porter; then an oyster-wife Doth stint her cry and stay her steps to hear him; 10 Then comes a cutpurse ready with his[539] knife, And then a country client presseth[540] near him; There stands the constable, there stands the whore, And, hearkening[541] to the song, mark[542] not each other; There by the serjeant stands the debitor,[543] And doth no more mistrust him than his brother: This[544] Orpheus to such hearers giveth music, And Philo to such patients giveth physic. FOOTNOTES: [537] Isham copy and MS. "gentleman." [538] MS. "widdow." [539] So Isham copy and MS.--Other eds. "a." [540] So Isham copy.--Other eds. "passeth."--MS. "presses." [541] So Isham copy, ed. A, and MS.--Eds. B, C "listening." [542] So Isham copy, ed. A, and MS.--Eds. B, C "heed." [543] So eds. B, C.--Isham copy, MS., and ed. A, "debtor poor."--With the foregoing description of the "ballad-singer's auditory" compare Wordsworth's lines _On the power of Music_, and Vincent Bourne's charming Latin verses (entitled _Cantatrices_) on the Ballad Singers of the Seven Dials. [544] So MS.--Eds. "Thus." IN FUSCUM. XXXIX. Fuscus is free, and hath the world at will; Yet, in the course of life that he doth lead, He's like a horse which, turning round a mill, Doth always in the self-same circle tread: First, he doth rise at ten;[545] and at eleven He goes to Gill's, where he doth eat till one; Then sees a play till six;[546] and sups at seven; And, after supper, straight to bed is gone; And there till ten next day he doth remain; And then he dines; then sees a comedy; 10 And then he sups, and goes to bed again: Thus round he runs without variety, Save that sometimes he comes not to the play, But falls into a whore-house by the way. FOOTNOTES: [545] Cf. a somewhat similar description in Guilpin's _Skialetheia_ (Ep. 25):-- "My lord most court-like lies abed till noon, Then all high-stomacht riseth to his dinner; Falls straight to dice before his meat be down, Or to digest walks to some female sinner; Perhaps fore-tired he gets him to a play, Comes home to supper and then falls to dice; Then his devotion wakes till it be day, And so to bed where unto noon he lies."