﻿PLAGIARIS:^! 



AMONG ELIZABETHAN PAMPHLETEERS 



169 



^Y^ts Miserie. 



This usury is jumpe of tlie complexion of tlie Baboun liis father, he 

 is haired like a great Ape. »fc swart lil^e a tawny Indian, his homes are 

 sometime hidden in a button cap (as Tli. N. described liim) but now he is 

 fallen to his flat cap because lie is eliiefe warden of his company : he is 

 narrow browd, & Squirril eied. and the chiefest ornament of his face is, 

 that his nose sticks in the midst like an embosnient in Tarrace work, here 

 and there embelished and decked with vemcae for want of purging witli 

 Agarick ; . . . . double chinned hee is. and over his throat hangs a bunch 

 of skin like a mony bag band weares hee none, but a welt of course Hoi- 

 land, «& if you see it stitcht with blew thred. it is no workiday wearing : 

 his tnisse is the piece of an old packcloth. the marke washt out; and if 

 you spie a paire of Bridges satten sleeves to it, you may be assured it is 

 a holy day : . . . . : his jacket forsooth is faced with moth-eaten budge, 

 and it is no losse then Lisle Grogeram of the worst : it is bound to his 

 body with a Cordeliers girdle, died black for comelines sake: »& in his 

 bosom he beares his handkerchiefe made of the reversion of his old table- 

 cloth : his spectacles hang beating over his codpiece like the flag in the 

 top of a maypole &c," 



The latter portion of ' ' Greenes Ghost "seems more or less original- 

 However, neither "A notable Exploit performed by a Lift"^^ nor 

 "HoAY a Citizen was served by a Curtizan" have much to recom- 

 mend them. They are weak, if not altogether pointless. On the 

 other hand, this portion of the pamphlet has something to say 

 about prentises, draymen and watermen that is not without value. 

 In "Doctor Pinchbacke," the last story in the tract, Rowlands is 

 simply Avorking over old material. The trick of recovering stolen 

 property by magic is an old one. But the author of "Greenes 

 Ghost" did not have to go far for a suggestion. The trick is turned 

 by the "Visiter" in the "Grounclworke of Conny-catching. " Chet- 

 tle's "cunning man" in "Kind Harts Dreame" about wdiose skill 

 "the whole town talks" but who "oneh^ conny-catcht his host" is 

 another "Pinclibacke, " playing indeed the same game. Then too in 



^ AUARICIA. 



He was bitelbi'owed 1 1 and baborlipped also. 



With two blered eyglien 1 1 as a bly nde liagge ; 



And as a letheren purs i \ lolled his chekes, 



W^el sydder than his chyn ] | thei chiueled for elde : 



And as a bondman of his bacoun 1 1 his berde was bidraiu k'd. 



With an hode on his hed 1 1 a lousi hatte aboue. 



And in a tauny tabarde | ] of twehie wynter age, 



Al totorne and bandy 1 1 and ful of lys cropgyne ; 



But if that a lous couthe ] | hauo lopen the bettre, 



Sli(> slioldo noughto luinc walked on that wolcho |I so was it thredebare. 



Piers tlic Plnirinan. 



^^Wits 2Iiserie (Hunterian Club ed. 1875). 2(5-31. 

 Cf. The Literature of Roguery, I, 247 n. 



