Selected quad for the lemma: book_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A13524
|
The world runnes on vvheeles: or oddes, betwixt carts and coaches
|
Taylor, John, 1580-1653.
|
1623
(1623)
|
STC 23816; ESTC S101982
|
17,053
|
38
|
The meaning of the Embleme THe Deuill the Flesh the World doth Man opposâ— And are his mighty and his mortall foes The Deuill and the whorish Flesh drawes still The World on Wheeles runs after with good wille For that which wee the World may iustly call I meane the lower Globe Terrestriall Is as the Deuill and a Whore doth please Drawne here and there and euery where with ease Those that their Liues to vertue heere doe frame Are in the World but yet not of the same Some such there are whom neither Flesh or Deuill Can wilfully drawe on to any euill But for the World as 't is the World you see It Runnes on Wheeles and who the Palfreys bee Which Embleme to the Reader doth display The Deuill and thâ— Flesh runnes swift away The Chayn'd ensnared World doth follow fast Till All into Perditions pit be cast The Picture topsie-turuie stands kew waw The World turn'd vpside downe as all men knâ—â— The World runnes on VVheeles Or Oddes betwixt Carts and Coaches LONDON Printed by E. A. for Henry Gosson 1623. ¶ To the noble Company of Cordwainers the worshipfull Company of Sadlers Woodmongers To the worthy honest and lawdable Company of Water-men And to the Sacred Society of Hackney-men And finally to as many as are grieued and vniustly impouerished and molested with The Worlds Running on Wheeles GEntlemen and Yeomen maruell not that I writ this Pamphlet in Prose now hauing before times set forth so many Bookes in verse The First Reason that mooued me to write thus was because I was Lame and durst not write Verses for feare they should be infected with my Griefe be lame too The Second Reason is because that I finde no good rime for a Coach but Broach Roach Encroach or such like And you knowe that the Coach hath ouer-throwne the good vse of the Broach Broch-turner turning the one to Rackes and the other to Iackes quite through the Kingdome The Roach is a drie Fish much like the vnprofitable profit of a Coach It will cost more the dressing and Appurtnances then 't is worth For the word Encroach I thinke that best befits it for I think neuer such an impudent prowd sawcie Intruder or Encroacher came into the world as a Coach is for it hath driuen many honest Families out of their Houses many Knights to Beggers Corporations to pouerty Almes deedes to all misdeedes Hospitality to extortion Plenty to famine Humility to pride Compassion to oppression and all Earthly goodnes almost to an vtter confusion These haue beene the causes why I writ this Booke in Prose and Dedicated it to all your good Companies knowing that you haue borne a heauy share in the Calamitie which these hyred Hackney hell-Carts haue put this Common-wealth vnto For in all my whole Discourse I doe not enueigh against any Coaches that belong to Persons of worth or qualitie but onely against the Catterpiller swarme of hyrelings they haue vndone my poore Trade whereof I am a Member and though I looke for no reformation yet I expect the benefit of an old Prouerbe Giue the loosers leaue to speake I haue Imbroadered it with mirth Quilted it with materiall stuffe Lac'd it with similitudes Sowed it with comparisons and in a word so playd the Taylor with it that I thinke it will fitte the wearing of any honest mans Reading Attention and Liking But howsoeuer I leaue both it and my selfe to remayne Yours as you are mine Iohn Taylor ¶ The VVorld runnes on Wheeles WHat a Murraine what piece of work haue we here The WORLD runs a Wheeles On my Conscience my Dung-cart will be most vnsauourly offended with it Ihaue heard the wordes often The World runs on Wheeles what like Pompeies Bridge at Ostend The great Gridyron in Christ-church The Landskips of China or the new found Instrument that goes by winding vp like a Iacke that a Gentleman entreated a Musitian to Rost him Seleâ—â—ers Round vpon it Ha! how can you make this good Master Poet I haue heard that the World stands stock still neuer stirres but at an Earth-quake and then it trembles at the wickednes of the Inhabitants and like an olde Mother groanes vnder the misery of her vngracious Children well I will buy this volume of nuention for my Boyes to read at home in an Euening when they come from Schoole there may be some goodnes in it I promise you truely I haue found in some of these Bookes very shrewd Items yea and by your leaue somewhat is found in them now and then which the wisest of vs all may be the better for though you call them Pamphlets to tell you true I like em better that are plaine and merrily written to a good intent then those who are purposely stuffed and studyed to deceiue the world vndo a Country That tells vs of Proiects beyond the Moone of Golden Mines of Deuices to make the Thames run on the North side of London which may very easily be done by remouing London to the Banke-side of planting the I le of Dogs with Whiblins Corwhichets Mushromes Tobacco Tut I like none of these Let me see as I take it it is an inuectiue against Coaches or a proofe or tryall of the Antiquitie of Carts and Coaches T is so and Gods blessing light on his heart that wrote it for I thinke neuer since Phaeton brake his necke neuer Land hath endured more trouble molestation then this hath by the coÌ„tinual rumbling of these vpstart 4. wheel'd Tortoyses as you may perhaps find anone For as concerning the Antiquity of the Cart I think it beyond the limmits of Record or writing Besides it hath a Reference or allusion to the Motion of the Heauens which turnes vpon the Equinoctiall Axeltree the two wheeles being the Articke and Antarticke Poles Moreouer though it be Poetically feygned that the Sunne whom I could haue called Phoebus Tytan Apollo Soll or Hiperion is drawne by his foure hot and headstrong Horses whose names as I take it are Aeolus Aethon Phlegon and Pyrois Yet doe I not finde that Triumphant Refulgent extinguisher of darknes is Coach'd but that he is continually Carted through the twelue signes of the Zodiaque And if Copernicus his opinion were to be allowed that the Firmament with the Orbs and Planets did stand vnmoueable and that onely the Terrestriall Globe turnes round daily according to the motion of Time yet could the World haue no resemblance of a foure-wheel'd Coach but in all reason it must whirle round vpon but One Axeltree like a two wheeld Cart. Nor can the searching eye or most admirable Art of Astronomie euer yet finde that a Coach could attaine to that high exaltation of honour as to be placed in the Firmament It is apparently seene that Charles his Cart which we by custome call Charles his Waine is most gloriously stellifide where in the large Circumserence of Heauen it is a most vsefull beneficiall Sea-marke and somtimes a Land-marke too guiding
and directing in the right way such as trauaile on Neptunes waylesse Bosome and many which are often benighted in wilde and desert passages as my selfe can witnesse vpon Newmarket heath where if that good Waine had not Carted me to my Lodging I my Horse might haue wandred I know not whither Moreouer as Man is the most noblest of all Creatures and all foure-footed Beasts are ordayned for his vse and seruice so a Cart is the Embleme of a Man and a Coach is the Figure of a Beast For as Man hath two legges a Cart hath two wheeles The Coach being in the like sense the true resemblance of a Beast by which is Parabollically demonstrated vnto vs that as much as Men are superior to Beasts so much are honest and needfull Carts more nobly to be regarded and esteemed aboue needlesse vpstart fantasticall and Time-troubling Coaches And as necessities and things whose commodious vses cannot be wanted are to be respected before Toyes and trifles whose beginning is Folly continuance Pride and whose end is Ruine I say as necessity is to be preferred before superfluity so is the Cart before the Coach For Stones Timber Corne Wine Beere or any thing that wants life there is a necessity they should be caried because they are dead things and cannot goe on foot which necessity the honest Cart doth supply But the Coach like a superfluous Bable or an vncharitable Mizer doth sildome or neuer cary or help any dead or helplesse thing but on the contrary it helps those that can help themselues like Scoggin when he greazd the fat Sow on the Butt-end and carries men and women who are able to goe or run Ergo the Cart is necessary and the Coach superfluous Besides I am verily perswaded that the proudest Coxcombe that euer was iolted in a Coach will not be so impudent but will confesse that humility is to be preferred before pride which being granted note the affability and lowlines of the Cart and the pride and insoleney of the Coach For the Carman humbly paces it on foot as his Beast doth whilst the CoachmaÌ„ is mounted his fellow-horses himself being all in a liuery with as many varieties of Laces facings Cloath and Colours as are in the Rainebowe like a Motion or Pageant rides in state loades the poore Beast which the Carman doth not and if the Carmens horse be melancholly or dull with hard and heauy labour then will he like a kinde Piper whistle him a fit of mirth to any tune from aboue Eela to belowe Gammoth of which generosity and courtesie your Coachman is altogether ignorant for he neuer whistles but all his musicke is to rap out an oath or blurt out a curse against his Teame The word Carmen as I finde it in the Dictionarie doth signifie a Verse or a Song and betwixt Carmen and Carmen there is some good correspondencie for Versing Singing and Whistling are all three Musicall besides the Carthorse is a more learned beast then the Coachhorse for scarce any Coach-horse in the world doth know any letter in the Book when as euery Carthorse doth know the letter G. very vnderstandingly If Adultery or Fornication bee committed in a Coach it may be grauely and discreetely punished in a Cart for as by this meanes the Coach may be a running Bawdy-house of abhomination so the Cart may and often is the sober modest and ciuill pac'd Instrument of Reformation so as the Coach may be vices infection the Cart often is vices correction It was a time of famous memorable misery when the Danes had tyrannicall insulting domination in this lard for the flauery of the English was so insupportable that he must Plowe Sowe Reape Thrash Winnow Grinde Sift Leauen Knead and Bake and the domineering Dane would doe nothing but sleepe play and eate the fruit of the English mans labour which well may be alluded to the carefull Cart for let it plough carrie recarrie early or late all times weathers yet the hungry Coach gnawes him to the very bones Oh beware of a Coach as you would doe of a Tyger a Woolfe or a Leuiathan I 'le assure you it eates more though it drinkes lesse then the Coachman and his whole Teeme it hath a mouth gaping on each side like a monster with which they haue swallowed all the good housekeeping in England It lately like a most insatiable deuouring beast did eate vp a Knight a neighbour of mine in the County of N. a Wood of aboue 400. Akers as if it had beene but a bunch of Radish of another it deuoured a whole Castle as it had beene a Marchpane scarcely allowing the Knight and his Lady halfe a colde shoulder of Mutton to their suppers on a Thursday night out of which reuersion the Coachman and the Footeman could picke but hungry Vailes in another place passing through a Parke it could not be content to eate vp all the Deere and other grazing Cattell but it bit vp all the Oakes that stoode bareheaded there to doe homage to their Lord and Maister euer since the conquest crushing their olde sides as easily as one of our fine Dames with a poysoned breath will snap a Cinamon stick or with as much facility as a Bawde will eate a Pippin Tart or swallow a stewed Pruine For what call you the Towne where the great Oysters come from there it hath eaten vp a Church Chauncell Steeple Bells and all and it threatens a great Common that lyes neere which in diebus illis hath relieued thousands of poore people nay so hungry it is that it will scarcely endure in a Gentlemans house a poore neighbours childe so much as to turne a Spit nor a Yeomans sonne to enter the house though but in good will to the Chamber-maide who anciently from 16. to 36. was wont to haue his breeding either in the Buttry Celler Stable or Larder and to bid good man Hobs good-wife Grub or the youth of the parish welcome at a Christmasse time but those dayes are gone and their fellowes are neuer like to be seene about any of our top-gallant-houses There was a Knight an acquaintance of mine whose whole meanes in the world was but threescore pounds a yeare and aboue 20. of the same went for his Wiues Coach-hire now perhaps you shall haue an Irish Footman with a Iacket cudgell'd downe the shoulders and skirts with yellow or Orenge tawny Lace may trot from London 3. or 4. score miles to one of those decayed Mansions when the simpring scornfull Pusse the supposed Mistresse of the house with a mischiefe who is indeed a kinde of creature retired for a while into the Countrey to escape the whip in the Citie she demaunds out of the window scarce ready and dressing her selfe in a glasse at noone Fellow what is thine Errand hast thou letters to me and if it be about diâ—ner a man may sooner blow vp the Gates of Bergen ap Zome with a Charme then get entrance within the bounds of