THE COMPLETE ANGLEJR. 97 



courtiers, every gipsy envied him that was the gainer, and 

 wrangled with him, and every one said the remaining shilling 

 belonged to him : and so they fell to so high a contest about 

 it, as none that knows the faithfulness of one gipsy to 

 another will easily believe; only we that have lived these last 

 twenty years, are certain that money has been able to do 

 much mischief. However, the gipsies were too wise to go to 

 law, and did therefore choose their choice friends Hook and 

 Shark, and our late English Gasman,* to be their arbitrators 

 and umpires ; and so they left this honeysuckle hedge, and 

 went to tell fortunes, and cheat, and get more money and 

 lodging in the next village. 



When these were gone, we heard a liigh contention amongst 

 the beggars, whether it was easiest to rip a cloak, or to unrip 

 a c]oak. One beggar affirmed it was all one. But that was 

 denied by asking her if doing and undoing were all one. 

 Then another said 'twas easiest to unrip a cloak, for that was 

 to let it alone. But she was answered by asking her, how 

 she unripped it, if she let it alone : and she confessed herself 

 mistaken. These and twenty such like questions were pro- 

 posed, and answered with as much beggarly logic and earnest- 

 ness, as was ever heard to proceed from the mouth of the 

 most pertinacious schismatic : and sometimes all the beggars, 

 whose number was neither more nor less than the poet's nine 

 muses, talked altogether about this ripping and unripping, 

 and so loud that not one heard what the other said : but at 

 last one beggar craved audience, and told them that old father 

 Clause, whom Ben Jonson in his "Beggar's Bush/'t created 

 king of their corporation, was to lodge at an alehouse called 

 " Catch-her-by-the-way," not far from Waltham Cross, and 

 in the high road towards London ; and he therefore desired 

 them to spend no more time about that and such like ques- 

 tions, but refer all to father Clause at night, for he was an 

 upright judge, and in the meantime draw cuts, what song- 

 should be next sung, and who should sing it. They all agreed 

 to the motion ; and the lot fell to her that was the youngest 



* Alluding to a work that appeared a few years before, entitled " The 

 English Gusman ; or, The History of that Unparalleled Thief, James Hind," 

 written by George Fidge. 4to. London, 1652. Hind made a considerable 

 figure at the time of the great rebellion, and fought, both at Worcester and 

 Warrington, on the king's side. He was arrested by order of the Parliament 

 in 1651. Rook and Shark, imaginary associates of the English Gusman. H. 



t This comedy was not written by Jonson, but by Beaumont and Fletcher. 



G 



