]16 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



one of them knew any reason to demand more, yet, like lords 

 and 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, Rook and Shark, and our 

 late English Gusman,* 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 as high a contention amongst 

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

 cloak ? 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 

 proposed 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 poets' nine muses) 

 talked all together 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 JBusk,^ created king of their corpora- 

 tion, was that night 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 questions, 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 and veriest virgin of the 

 company. And she sung Frank Davidson's song, which he made 

 forty years ago ; and all the others of the company joined to 

 sing the burthen with her. The ditty was this : but first the 

 burthen : 



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

 English Gusman, or The History of that unparalleled Thief, James Hind, 

 written by George Fidge. 4to. Loud. 1632. Hind made a considerable 

 fijrure 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 Parlia- 

 ment, in 1651. 



f- The comedy of The Royal Merchant, or, Beggar's Bush, was written 

 by Beaumont and Fletcher, and not by Ben Jonson. It has also been 

 attributed wholly to Fletcher. 



