they should have it if I died, or after three years should repay it with one hundred and fifty pound again if I returned; which I hold a disadvantageous adventure to the giver of the money. Neither did I exact this money of any man by suit of law after my return, which they willingly and presently paid me, only some few excepted, who retaining the very money I gave them, dealt not therein so gentleman-like with me, as I did with them. And by the great expenses of my journey, much increased by the ill accidents of my brother's death, and my own sickness, the three hundred and fifty pounds I was to receive of gain after my return; and the one hundred pounds which my brother and I carried in our purses, would not satisfy the five hundred pound we had spent, (though my brother died within the compass of the first year ;) but I was forced to pay the rest out of my own patrimony. "Gentle reader, I will no longer trouble thee with these trifles only in the behalf of them, who for a reasonable gain, and upon long journies, and not upon ridiculous adventures, have put out their money in this sort. Give leave to me (howsoever I desisted from that course) to add this:-All manners of attire came first into the city and country from the court, which being once received by the common people, and by very stage-players themselves, the courtiers justly cast off, and take new fashions, (though somewhat too curiously;) and whosoever wears the old, men look upon him as upon a picture in arras hangings. For it is proverbially said, that we may eat according to our own appetites, but in our apparrel must follow the fashion of the multitude, with whom we live. But in the meantime it is no reproach to any, who of old did wear those garments, when they were in fashion. In like sort, many dances and measures are used in Court, but when they come to be vulgar and to be used upon very stages, Courtiers and Gentlemen think them uncomely to be used; yet it is no reproach to any man who formerly had skill therein. To conclude, (that I may not trouble you with like examples, which are infinite,) I say that this manner of giving out money upon these adventures, was first used in Court, and among the very Noblemen; and when any of them showed thereby extraordinary strength, the most censorious approved it, but when any performed a long journey, with courage and discretion, no man was found who did not more or less commend it, according to the condition of the journey performed. Now in this age, if bankrupts, stage-players, and men of base condition, have drawn this custom into contempt, I grant that Courtiers and Gentlemen have reason to forbear it, yet know not why they should be blamed, who have thus put out their money in another age, when this custom was approved. A man may justly say it is great injustice, that our actions should be measured by opinion, and not by reason; but when a man leaves any custom that hath been approved, lest he should oppose himself to the common people, a monster of many heads, the most envious hath nothing whereat they may justly carp. And if any measure may be imposed to detractors, surely they must spare them, who undertake long voyages, full of great dangers, who do not put out their money in Taverns, or at feasts to any man without distinction, but dispose of their money with their friends upon reasonable adventure of gain, (which in absence they cannot otherwise dispose to profit:) Finally, who being not rich by patrimony, take these journies only for experience, and to be enabled to that expense, do condition this reasonable gain. I say the detractors must spare these, and distinguish them from others, who make cursory journies, without any desire to better their understanding thereby, and more from those, who in these courses rather make trial of their bodies' strength, than of their minds' ability. And most of all from those, who expose themselves to the scorn of men, by base and ridiculous adventures, or that little differ from self-murderers, in undertaking desperate actions for gain."Fynes Moryson's Itinerary, Part i. p. 198. Such speculations appear to have been called Adventures upon Return. They led to wild wagering undertakings, of which no man engaged in more, or more hazardous ones than Taylor, the Water Poet. The last journey performed from a like motive was probably that of Jerusalem Whalley. St. Appollonia.-p. 379. "But as for your tethe I wene if they aked well, ye wold yourself think it a thing worthy and not to simple, to ask help of St. Appolyn and of God to. Ye mary, quod he, and of the Devyll to, rather than fayle, as the Lombard did for the gowte; that when he had long called upon God and our Lady, and all the holy company of Heaven, and yet felt himself never the better, he began at last to call for help as fast upon the Devyll. And when his wife and his frends sore abashed and astonyed, rebuked him for calling on the Devyll which he wist well was nought, and if that he holpe him it shold be for no good, he cried out as loud as he could, hogni aiuto e bono, all is good that helpeth. And so, I wene, wolde I, quod he, call on the Devyll and all, rather than abyde in payne. Nay, quod I, whatsoever ye say, I cannot think ye wolde byleve in the Devyll as that Lumbard did: ye wolde rather fare like another, that whan the frere apposed him in confession, whether he meddled anything with witchcraft, or necromancy, or had any byleve in the Devyll, he answered him, Credere en le Dyable my syr no. Io graund fatyge a credere in Dio. Byleve in the Devyll, quod he, naye, naye Sir, I have work enough to byleve in God, I. And so wolde I wene that ye were far from all bylevying in the Devyl; ye have so much work to byleve in himself, that ye be lothe methink to meddle much with his Saints."-Sir T. More's Dialoge, p. 78. St. Uncumber.-p. 379. This appellation was given to St. Wilgefortis, famous for her beard. The reason is whimsical, and might entitle her to be the Patroness of the Scotch Lawyers. a sore. "St. Loy we make an horseleche; and must let our horse rather renne unshod and marre his hoofe, than to sho him on his day which we must for that point more religiously kepe high and holy than Ester day. And bycause one smyth is to few at a forge, we set St. Ipolitus to helpe him. And on St. Stevyns day we must let all our horses blood with a knyfe, bycause St. Stephen was kylled with stones. St. Appolyne we make a tothe-drawer, and may speke to her of nothing but of sore teeth. St. Sythe women set to seek their keys. St. Roke we set to see to the great sykenes, bycause he had And with him they joyn St. Sebastian, bycause he was martyred with arrowes. Some serve for the eye onely. And some for a sore breast. St. Germayne onely for children; and yet will he not ones loke at them, but if the mother bring with them a white lofe, and a pot of good ale. And yet is he wiser than St. Wylgeforte, for she, good soul, is as they say served and content with otys. Whereof I cannot perceive the reason, but if it be bycause she shold provyde an horse for an evil housbonde to ride to the Devyll upon : for that is the thing that she is so sought for, as they say. In so much that women hath therefore chaunged her name, and in stede of St. Wylgeforte call her St. Uncumber, by cause they reken that for a pecke of otys she will not fayle to uncomber theym of theyr housbondys."-Sir T. More's Dialoge, p. 76. Sir Thomas More's Poems.-p. 395. Sir Thomas is mentioned by Taylor the Water Poet as one of those poets whose verses were still in repute the list which Taylor gives is curious for this reason, that all the other names, Dyer's excepted, retain their reputation. In Paper many a Poet now survives, Or else their lines had perished with their lives. Do live in spite of Death, and cannot die. And many there are living at this day Praise of Hemp Seed. |