Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	call_v	name_n	part_n	5,676	4	4.1716	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29768	Amusements serious and comical, calculated for the meridian of London by Mr. Brown.	Brown, Thomas, 1663-1704.	1700 (1700)	Wing B5051; ESTC R19929	56,419	166

get a Dinner and a Bottle but the Stingy Curr pop't me off with a Dish of Coffee and the old Talk that Trading was Dead that they suffer'd for other Mens Works as well as their own and in short finding not a Penny to be screw'd out of the Prig I pursued my Voyage to the City but it happening to Rain to shelter my self from it I run my Face into A Heralds Office HERE was a Confounded Noise of Descents Pedigrees Genealogies Coat Armour Bearings Additions Abatements and a deal of that insignificant Jargon While I was listening to this Gibberish in comes a Fellow with a Role of Parchment in his Hand to be made a Gentleman and to have a Coat of Arms finely Painted to hang up in his Dining-Room till his Wife Died and then to be transported on the Outside and Front of the House to Invite a Rich Widdow to Marty him My Father says he has bore Arms for His Majesty in many Honourable Occasions of Watching and Warding and has made many a Tall Fellow speak to the Constable at all Hours of the Night My Uncle was the first Man that ever was of the Honourable Order of the Black-Guard And we have had five Brave Commanders of our Family by my Father's side that have served the State in the Quality of Marshal's Men and Thief Takers and gave His Majesty a fair Account of all the Prisoners that were taken by them And by my Mothers side it will not be denied but that I am Honourably Descended for my Grandmother was never without a Dozen Chamber-Maids and Nurses in Family Her Husband wore a Sword by his Place for he was Deputy-Marshal and to prove my self a Man of Honour I have here a Testimonial in my Hand in Black and White and in my Pocket brave Yellow-Boys to pay for a Coat of Arms Which being produced and Finger'd by the Herald he immediately assign'd him a Coat viz. A Gibbet Erect with a Wing Volant A Ladder Ascendant A Rope Pendant and a Marshal's Man Swinging at the end on 't I am Sandalized says my Indian at your Custome in London in making every Saucy Iack a Gentleman And why are you not as well offended reply'd I to my Indian to hear almost every Gentleman call one another Iack and Tom and Harry They first dropt the Distinction Proper to Men of Quality and Scoundrels took it up and bestowed it upon themselves and hence it is that a Gentleman is sunk into plain Iack and Iack is rais'd into Gentleman In Days of Yore a Man of Honour was more Distinguishable by his Generosity and Affability than by his Lac'd Liveries but too many of them having degenerated into the Vices of the Vulgar Fry Honour is grown Contemptible the Respect that is due to their Births is lost in a Savage Management and is now assumed by every Scoundrel The Cobler is Affronted if you don't call him Mr. Translator The Groom Names himself Gentleman of the Horse and the Fellow that carries Guts to the Bears writes himself one of His Majesty's Officers The Page calls himself a Child of Honour and the Foot-Boy stiles himself my Ladies Page Every Little Nasty Whore takes upon her the Title of Lady and every Impudent Broken-Mouth'd Manteau-Maker must be call'd Madam Theodosia Br Every Dunce of a Quack is call'd a Physician Every Gown-Man a Counseller Every Silly Huff a Captain Every Gay thing a Chevalier Every Parish Reader a Doctor And every Writing Clerk in the Office Mr. Secretary Which is all but Hypocrisie and Knavery in Disguise for nothing is now called by its right Name The Heralds I see have but little to do Honour and Arms which used to employ all Men of Birth and Parts is now almost dwindled into an Airy Nothing Let us then go and see how the World wags in the City Circle Amusement XI The City Visiting-Day I Have given my Traveller Walking enough from Country to Country let us save him the trouble now of Beating the Hoof and shew him the rest of the World as he sits in his Chair To be acquainted with all the Different Characters of it it will be sufficient for him to frequent certain Numerous Assemblies a sort of City Circle they are set up in imitation of the Circle at Court The Circle in Foreign Courts is a Grave Assembly but ill seated upon Low Stools set in a Round Here all Women Talk and none of them Listen Here they make a Pother about nothing Here they Decide all things and their most diversified Conversations ons are a sort of Roundeaus that end either in Artificial Slanders or gross Flattery but this being in no wise applicable to the English Court I shall wave a further Description of it and come to The City Circle WHICH is a Familiar Assembly or a General Council of the Fair and Charming-Sex where all the Important Affairs of their Neighbors are largely discuss'd but Judged in an Arbitrary Manner without hearing the Parties speak for themselves Nothing comes amiss to these Tribunals Matters of High and no Consequence as Religion and Cuckoldom Commodes and Sermons Polliticks and Gallantry Receipts of Cookery and Scandal Coquettry and Preserving Jilting and Laundry in short every thing is subject to the Jurisdiction of this Court and no Appeal lies from it A Venerable Old Gentlewoman call'd Madam Whimsey whose Relations are dispersed into all Corners of the Earth is President of this Board She is Lineally Descended from the Maggots of the South an Illustrious and Ancient Family that were a Branch of the Wag-Tails of the East who boast themselves Descended in a Right Line from Madam Eve Here are to be found as many Different Opinions as there are Heads in the Room The same Judge is sometimes Severe and sometimes Indulgent sometimes Grave and sometimes Trifling and they Talk exactly there as I do in my Amusements They pass in a Moment from the most Serious to the most Comical Strain from the greatest things to the smallest from a Duke to a Chimney-Sweeper from a Council of War to a Christning and sometimes a sudden Reflexion upon a Womans Head-Dress hinders the Decision of a Case of Conscience under Examination In this Country Twenty several Sentences are pronounced all at once The Men Vote when they can the Women as often as they please They have two Votes for one The great Liberty that is allowed in the City Circle invites all sorts of Persons to come thither to see and to be seen Every one talks according to his Designs his Inclination and his Genius The Young Folks talk of what they are now a doing the Old Fellows Talk of what they have done in the Days of Queen Dick and your Sots and Coxcombs of what they have a design to do tho' they never go about it The Ambitious Rail at the Sluggards as a Company of Idle Fellows that take up a room in the World and do nothing The Sluggards return back the Compliment

one another All their Study and Labour is either about Profit or Pleasure and they have Schools for the Education of their Stalking-Horses which they call Apprentices in the Mystery of Trade A Term unintelligible to Foreigners and that none truly understand the Meaning of but those that practice it Some call it Over-witting those they deal with but that 's generally denied as a Heterodox Definition for Wit was never counted a London Commodity unless among their Wives and other City Sinners and if you search all the Warehouses and Shops from White-Chappel Bars to St. Clement's if it were to save a Man's Life or a Womans Honesty you cannot find one Farthing worth of Wit among them Some derive this Heathenish Word Trade from an Hebrew Original and call it Over-Reaching but the Iews deny it and say the Name and Thing is wholly Christian and for this Interpretation quote the Authority of a London Alderman who sold a Iew five Fat 's of Right-handed Gloves without any Fellows to them and afterwards made him purchase the Left-handed ones to Match them at double the Value Some call Trade Honest Gain and to make it more Palatable have lacker'd it with the Name of Godliness and hence it comes to pass that the Generality of Londoners are accounted such Eminent Professors but of all Guessers he comes nearest the Mark that said Trade was playing a Game at Losing Loadum or dropping Fools Pence into Knaves Pockets till the Sellers were Rich and the Buyers were Bankrupts About the Middle of London is to be seen a Magnificent Building for the Accommodation of the Lady Trade and her Heirs and Successors for ever so full of Amusements about Twelve a Clock every Day that one would think all the World was converted into News-Mongers and Intellingencers for that 's the first Salutation among all Mankind that frequent that Place What News from Scandaroon and Aleppo says the Turkey Merchant What Price bears Currants at Zant Apes at Tunis Religion at Rome Cutting a Throat at Naples Whores at Venice And the Cure of a Clap at Padua What News of such a Ship says the Insurer Is there any hope of her being Cast away says the Adventurer for I have Insured more by a Thousand Pounds than I have in her So have I through Mercy says a second and therefore let 's leave a Letter of Advice for the Master at the New Light-House at Plimouth that he does not fail to touch at the Good-win-Sands and give us Advice of it from Deal or Canterbury and he shall have another Ship for his Faithful Service as soon as he comes to London I have a Bill upon you Brother says one Alderman to another Go Home Brother says the other and if Money and my Man be Absent let my Wife pay you out of her Privy-Purse as your Good Wife lately paid a Bill at Sight for me I thank her Ladyship Hark you Mr. Broker I have a Parcel of Excellent Log-Wood Block-Tin Spiders Brains Philosophers Guts Don Qnixot's Windmills Hens-Teeth Ell-Broad Pack-Thread and the Quintescence of the Blue of Plumbs Go you Puppy you are fit to be a Broker and don 't know that the Greshamites buy up all these Rarities by Wholesale all the Year and Retail them out to the Society every first of April Hah Old Acquaintance Touch Flesh I have have been seeking thee all the Change over I have a pressing Occasion for some Seeds of Sedition Iacobite Rue and Whig Herb of Grace Can'st furnish me Indeed lau No saith the Merchant I have just parted with them to the several Coffee-Houses about the Town where the respective Merchants meet that Trade in those Commodities but if you want but a small Parcel you may be supplied by Mrs. Bald n or Da y and his Son-in-Law Bell and Clapper and most Booksellers in London and Westminster Da da I 'll about it immediately Stay a little Mr I have a Word in private to you If you know any of our Whig Friends that have occasion for any Stanch Votes for the Choice of Mayors or Sheriffs that were Calculated for the Meridian of London but will serve indifferently for any City or Corporation in Europe our Friend Mr. Pars l has abundance that lie upon his Hands and will be glad to dispose of them a good Pennyworth Enough said They are no Winters Traffick for tho' Mayors and Woodcocks come in about Michaelmas they don't lay Springes for Sheriffs till about Midsummer and then we 'll talk with him about those weighty Matters There stalks a Sergeant and his Mace smelling at the Merchants Backsides like a Hungry Dog for a Dinner There walks a Publick Notary tied to an lnkhorn like an Ape to a Clog to put off his Heathen-Greek Commodities Bills of Store and Charter Parties That Wheezing Sickly Shew with his Breeches full of the Prices of Male and Female Commodities Projects Complaints and all Mismanagements from Dan to Beersheba is the Devil's Broker and may be spoken withal every Sunday from Eleven in the Morning till Four in the Afternoon at the next Quakers Meeting to his Lodging and not after for the rest of his time on that Day he employs in adjusting his Accompts and playing at Back-Gammon with his Principal There goes a Rat-catcher in state Brandishing his Banner like a Blackamore in a Pageant on the Execution-Day of Rost Beef Greasie Geese and Custards And there Sneaks a Hunger-starv'd Usurer in quest of a Crasie Citizen for Use and Continuance-Money which the other shuns as carefully as a Sergeant or the Devil Now say I to my Indian Is not all this Hodge-Podge a Pleasant Confusion and a Perfect Amusement The Astonish'd Traveller reply'd Without doubt the Indigested Chaos was but an imperfect representation of this congregated Huddle But that which most Amuses my Understanding is to hear 'em speak all Languages and talk of nothing but Trucking and Bartering Buying and Selling Borrowing and Lending Paying and Receiving and yet I see nothing they have to dispose of unless those that have them fell their Gold Chains the Braziers their Leathern Aprons the Young Merchants their Swords or the Old Ones their Canes and Oaken-Plants that support their Feeble Carcases That doubt quoth I to my inquisitive Indian is easily solved for tho their Grosser Wares are at Home in their Store-Houses they have many Things of Value to Truck for that they always carry about them As Justice for Fat Capons to be delivered before Dinner A Reprieve from the Whipping-Post for a Dozen Bottles of Claret to drink after it Licences to sell Ale for a Hogshead of Stout to his Worship and leave to keep a Coffee-House for a Cask of Cold Tea to his Lady Name but what you want and I 'll direct you to the Walks where you shall find the Merchants that will Furnish you Would you buy the Common Hunt the Common Cryers the Bridge-Master's or the Keeper of Newgate's Places Stay till they fall and a Gold-Chain and