A Rod for Run-awayes Gods Tokens Of his feareful Iudgements sundry wayes pronounced vpon this City and on seuerall persons both flying from it and staying in it Expressed in many dreadfull Examples of sudden Death falne vpon both young and old within this City and the Suburbes in the Fields and open Streets to the terrour of all those who liue and to the warning of those who are to dye to be ready when God Almighty shall bee pleased to call them By THO. D. Lord haue mercy on London 〈…〉 London for Iohn Trundle and are to be sold 〈…〉 TO THE NOBLE Gentleman Mr. Thomas Gilham CHIRVRGIAN SIR IN this Vniuersall sicknesse giue mee leaue in a few Leaues to salute your Health and I am glad I can do so To whom in an Epidemiall confusion of Wounds should a man flye but to Physicke and Chirurgery In both which you haue skill In the last the World crownes your Fame as beeing a great Master Many of your excellent Pieces haue beene and are to bee seene in this City No Painter can shew the like no Limner come neere such curious Workemanship What you set out is truely to the life their 's but counterfeit I honour your Name your Art your Practice your profound Experience And to testifie I doe so let this poore Monument of my loue bee looked vpon and you shall finde it The Sender beeing sorry it is not worth your acceptation But if you thinke otherwise he shall be glad And euer rest at your seruice THO. Dekker To the Reader REader how farre soeuer thou art thou maist here see as through a Perspectiue-Glasse the miserable estate of London in this heauy time of contagion It is a picture not drawne to the life but to the death of aboue twelue thousand in lesse then six weekes If thou art in the Countrey cast thine eye towards vs here at home and behold what wee indure If as thou canst not choose thou art glad thou art out of this Tempest haue a care to man thy Ship well and doe not ouer-lade it with bad merchandize foule Sins when thou art bound for this place for all the danger will be at thy putting in The Rockes of insection lye hid in our deepe Seas and therefore it behoues thy soule to take heed what sayles she hoyses and thy body what Pylote it carries aboord Wee doe not thinke but numbers of you wish your selues here againe for your entertainement a far off cannot be courteous when euen not two miles from vs there is nothing but churlishnesse But it is to be feared some of you will get such falls in the Corne-Fields of the Country that you will hardly bee able without halting to walke vp and downe London But take good hearts and keepe good legges vnder you and be sure you haue hung strong Pad-loâ—…es vpoâ—… your doores for in many Streetes there are none to guard your goods but the Houses themselues If one Shop be open sixteene in a row stand shut vp together and those that are open were as good to be shut for they take no Money None thriue but Apothecaries Butchers Cookes and Coffin-makers Coach-men ride a cock-horse and are so full of Iadish trickes that you cannot be iolted sixe miles from London vnder thirty or forty shillings Neuer was Hackney-flesh so deare Few woollen Drapers sel any Cloth but euery Church-yard is euery day full of linnen Drapers and the Earth is the great Warehouse which is piled vp with winding-sheetes To see a Rapier or Feather worne in London now is as strange as to meet a Low-countrey Souldier with Money in his Purse The walkes in Pauls are empty the walkes in London too wide here 's no lustling but the best is Cheape-side is a com fortable Garden where all Phisicke-Herbes grow Wee wish that you the Run-awayes would suffer the Market-Folkes to come to vs or that they had hearts to come for the Statute of fore-stalling is sued vpon you Wee haue lost your companies and not content with that you robbe vs of our victuals but when you come backe keepe open house to let in ayre and set good cheere on your Tables that we may bid you welcome Yours T. D. Gods Tokens Of His fearefull Iudgements WEE are now in a set Battaile the Field is Great Britaine the Vantguard which first stands the brunt of the Fight is London the Shires Counties and Countries round about are in danger to be prest to come vp in the Reare the King of Heauen and Earth is the Generall of the Army reuenging Angels his Officers his Indignation the Trumpet summoning and sounding the Alarum our innumerable sinnes his enemies and our Nation the Legions which he threatens to smite with Correction Sinne then being the quarrell and ground of this warre there is no standing against so inuincible a Monarch as God is no defending a matter so foule as our sinnes are Would you know how many Nations for sinne haue beene rooted vp and swept from the face of the earth that no memory of them is left but their name no glories of their Kings or great Cities remaining but only this Here they liued Here they stood Reade the Scriptures and euery Booke is full of such Histories euery Prophet sings songs of such lamentable desolations For Iehouah when he is angry holds three Whips in his hand and neuer drawes bloud with them but when our Faults are heauy our Crimes hainous and those three Whips are the Sword Pestilence and Famine What Country for sinne hath not smarted vnder these Ierusalem felt them all Let vs not trauell so farre as Ierusalem but come home looke vpon Christendome and behold Hungaria made desolate by sword and fire Poland beaten downe by battailes Russia by bloudy inuasions the Turke and Tartar haue here their insolent triumphs Looke vpon Denmarke Sweden and those Easterne Countries How often hath the voice of the Drumme called them vp Euen now at this houre the Marches are there beating How hath the Sword mowed downe the goodly Fields of Italy What Massacres hath in our memory beene in France Oh Germany what foundations of bloud haue thy Cities beene drowned in what horrors what terrors what hellish inuentions haue not warre found out to destroy thy buildings demollish thy Free States and vtterly to confound thy 17. Prouinces Gods three whips haue printed deepe markes on thy shoulders the Sword for many yeeres together hath cut thy people in pieces Famine hath beene wearied with eating vp thy children and is not yet satisfied the Pestitence hath in many of thy Townes in many of thy Sieges and Leagers plaid the terrible Tyrant In all these thy miseries the Spaniard hath had his triumphs his Fire-brands haue been flung about to kindle and feede all thy burnings his furies haue for almost foure score yeeres stood and still stand beating at the Anuils and forging Thunder-bolts to batter thee and all thy neighbouring Kingdomes in pieces
is not safe to kisse Lightning mocke at Thunder or dally with diuine Iudgements The Bells euen now toll and ring out in mine eares so that here againe and againe I could terrifie you with sad Relations An ample Volume might be sent downe to you in the Country of dismall and dreadfull Accidents not onely here within London but more in the Townes round about vs. Death walkes in euery street How many step out of their Beds into their Coffins And albeit no man at any time is assured of life yet no man within the memory of man was euer so neere death as now because he that breakes his fast is dead before dinner and many that dine neuer eat supper more Let these then as terrifying Scourges serue to admonish the proudest of vs all to haue a care to our footing lest we fall suddenly How many euery day drop downe staggering being strucke with infection in the open Streets What numbers breathe their last vpon Stalles How many creepe into Eatries and Stables and there dye How many lye languishing in the common High-wayes and in the open Fields on Pads of Straw end their miserable liues vnpittyed vnrelieued vnknowne The great God of mercy defend vs all from sudden death and so defend you the rich Run-awayes at your comming backe to this desolate and forsaken City that as you fled hence to scape the Stroke of Contagion you bring not nor lay heauier strokes of mortality and misery vpon vs when you returne to your Houses It so fell out in the last great time of Pestilence at the death of the Queene and comming in of the King The Weekes did rize in their numbers of dead as the numbers of the liuing did increase who then came flocking to Towne As the fresh houses were filled with their old Owners so new Graues were opened for the fresh commers A heauy and sad welcome they had at home after their peaceable being in the Countrey and how could it happen otherwise They went out in haste in hope to preuent death in iollity to preserue life But when they came backe then began their terrours then their torments The first foot they sit out of their Countrey-Habitations was to them a first step to their Graues the neerer to London the neerer to death As condemned persons going to execution haue oftentimes good colour in their faces cheerefull contenances and manly lookes all the way that they are going but the neerer and neerer they approch the place where they are to leaue the World the greater are their feares the paler they looke the more their hearts tremble so did it fare with Londoners in those dayes but we that are heere pray that you may speed better that you may returne full of health full of wealth full of prosperity that your Houses may bee as Temples to you your Chambers as Sanctuaries that your Neighbours Kindred Friends and acquaintance may giue you ioyfull and hearty welcomes that the City may not mourne then for your thronging in vpon it as shee lamented to behold you in shoales forsaking her in her tribulation but that God would be pleased to nayle our sinnes vpon the Crosse of his Sonne Christ Iesus restore vs to his mercy render vs a Nation worthy of his infinite blessings and plucking in his reuengefull Arme from striking vs downe continually into Graues wee all abroad and at home in Countrey and City may meete and imbrace one another and sing an Allelniah to his Name FINIS Sinne the cause of the Plague All Nations upon earth punished for sinne Gods three whips Hungary Poland Russia Denmarke Sweden Norway c. Itâ—…y France The miseries of â—…ermany 〈…〉 for them Englands security Gods three whips ready to scourge England Sin the offence It is not the numerous multitude of people causeth the Plague The number that dyed When Queene Elizabeth dyed Sinnes like the Bels neuer lie still The Plague dreadfull for three causes How the rich are buried How the poor â—… Newes for Run-awayes Much wayling â—…ttle weeping Thursday the â—…1 of Iuly Coffins and corslcts No gates keepe out Thunder The rich fly the poore dye London growes leaues The Countrie too fâ—… Both sicke of 〈◊〉 disease Foure thousand doores shut vp Foure thousand croâ—…es set 〈◊〉 Now to the Run-awayes We may flye and we may not flye Londoners must not liue vpon dead pay The poore perish The Prisoners pine And Run-awaies all in long of you A new policy good for the City A Phoenix in London Shops shut vp Schooles shut vp Our sâ—…es stand open A Festiuall Fasting No 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 Gâ—… must haue faire pâ—…ay A wound well cared for is balse cured Angels are Heauens Harbingers and appoynt our Lodgings A Londoner a Bugbeare A digression a little merrily taxing the inciuility of the common people The old Brittaines opprest by the Pictes call in the Saxons The Country people the bold Brittaines Wâ—… of Moneys are the Pictes and Londoners the Saxons at first called in but now they care not if the Diuell fetched them Ouerthrâ—… horse and foot The foolish feare of the Corydons An Essex Calfe killed without a Butcher Sparrowblastings A Hounds-ditch Broker entertained like a brother This was aboue threescore in the hundred The wisdome of Pancridge-Parish The world is altered with Londoners A Retreate founded There be Iuries enough to sweare bis To wash money is against the Statute Burials still passing Bels still going Churchyards still receiving Graues still gaping for more The horrors of the tune A woman and her childe A Souldier A Flax-man A country fellow Another A woman in Barbican Whosoeuer in my Name giueâ—… a cup of cold water c. T is the Prey makes the Thiefe A Gentleman in Thames street A Kentish tale but truer then those of Changers Thirty pound 〈◊〉 lost well recouered The like was done three and twenty yeeres agoe Madnesse in merriment â—…iserable obiects Merry mornings goe before sad euenings
Whilst these dreadfull Earth-quakes haue shaken all Countries round about vs we haue felt nothing England hath stood and giuen aime when Arrowes were shot into all our bosomes But alas hath this Happinesse falne vpon her because of her goodnesse Is shee better then others because of her purity and innocence Is shee not as vgly as others Yes yes the Sword is how whetting Dearth and Famine threaten our Corne-fields and the rauing Pestilence in euery part of our Kingdome is digging vp Graues The three Rods of Vengeance are now held ouer vs. And shall I tell you why these Feares are come amongst vs Looke vpon the Weapon which hath struck other Nations and the same Arme that wounded them smites now at vs and for the same quarrell Sinne. The Gospell and Gods Heralds Preachers haue a long time cryed out against our iniquities but we are deafe sleepy and sluggish and now there is a Thunder speakes from Heauen to wake vs. We flatter our selues that the Pestilence serues but as a Broome to sweep Kingdomes of people when they grow ranke and too full when the Trees of Cities are ouer-laden then onely the Plague is sent to shake the Boughs and for no cause else As in Turky and Barbary where when a mortality happens they fall sometimes ten thousand in a day by the Pestilence But we that are Christians and deale in the merchandise of our soules haue other bookes of account to turne ouer then to reckon that we dye in great numbers onely because we are so populous that we are ready as the Fishes of the Sea to eat vp one another Our eyes haue beene witnesses that for two whole Reignes together of two most excellent Princes now at the beginning of a third as excellent as they we haue liued in all fulnesse yet at the end of Queene Elizabeths foure and forty yeeres when she dyed she went not alone but had in a traine which followed her in a dead march of a twelue-moneth long onely within London and the Liberties the numbers of 38244. those who then dyed of the Plague being 35578. the greatest totall in one weeke being 3385. of all diseases and of the Plague 3035. Thus shee went attended from her earthly Kingdome to a more glorious one in Heauen it being held fit in the vpper-House of the Celestiall Parliament that so great a Princesse should haue an Army of her subiects with her agreeing to such a Maiesty But what numbers God will muster vp to follow our Peace-maker King Iames of blessed memory none knowes by the beginning of this Prest which Death makes amongst the people it is to bee feared they shall be a greater multitude To Queene Elizabeth and to King Iames wee were an vnthankfull and murmuring Nation and therefore God tooke them from vs they were too good for vs we too bad for them and were therefore then at the decease of the one and now of the other are deseruedly punished our sinnes increasing with our yeeres and like the Bells neuer lying still We are punished with a Sicknesse which is dreadfull three manner of wayes In the generall spreading in the quicknesse of the stroke and in the terror which waites vpon it It is generall for the spotted wings of it couer all the face of the Kingdome It is quicke for it kills suddenly it is full of terror for the Father dares not come neere the infected Son nor the Son come to take a blessing from the Father lest hee bee poysoned by it the Mother abhors to kisse her owne Children or to touch the sides of her owne Husband no friend in this battell will relieue his wounded friend no Brother shake his brother by the hand at a farewell This is something yet this is nothing many Physicians of our soules flye the City and their sicke Patients want those heauenly medicines which they ear tyed to giue them those that stay by it stand aloofe The rich man when hee is dead is followed by a troupe of Neighbours a troupe of Neighbours not a troupe of Mourners But the poore man is hurried to his Graue by nasty and slouenly Bearers in the night without followers without friends without rites of buriall due to our Church due to our Religion to our Nation to the Maiesty of our Kingdome nay to the decency of a Christian. O lamentable more honour is giuen to a poore Souldier dying in the field more regard to many a Fellon after hee is cut downe from the Gallowes I need not write this to you my fellow Sufferers in London for you know this to be too true you behold this you bewaile this But I send this newes to you the great Masters of Riches who haue for saken your Habitations left your disconsolate Mother the City in the midst of her sorrowes in the height of her distresse in the heauinesse of her lamentations To you that are merry in your Country houses and fit safe as you thinke from the Gun-shot of this Contagion in your Orchards and pleasant Gardens into your hands doe I deliuer this sad Discourse to put you in minde of our miseries whom you haue left behind you To you that are fled and to you to whom they flye let me tell thus much That there were neuer so many burials yet neuer such little weeping A teare is scarce to be taken of from the cheeke of a whole Family nay of a whole Parish for they that should shead them are so accustomed and so hardned to dismall accidents that weeping is almost growne out of fashion Why saies a Mother doe I showre teares downe for my Husband or Childe when I before to morrow morning shall goe to them and neuer haue occasion to weepe any more Whilst I am setting these things downe word is brought me that this weeke haue departed 3000. soules within 200. and that the Plague is much increased O dismall tidings O discomfortable Relation Three thousand men would doe good seruice in desending a City but when in euery weeke so many thousands and more shall drop downe of our great Armies what poore handfuls will be left To see three thousand men together in Armour in a field is a goodly sight but if wee should behold three thousand Coffins piled in heapes one vpon another or three thousand Coarses in winding sheetes laid in some open place one on the top of each other what a sight were this Whose heart would not throb with horror at such a frightfull obiect What soule but would wish to be out of her body rather then to dwell one day in such a Charnell house O London thou Mother of my life Nurse of my being a hard-hearted sonne might I be counted if here I should not dissolue all into teares to heare thee powring forth thy passionate condolements Thy Rampiers and warlike prouision might haply keepe out an Enemy but no Gares none of thy Percullises no nor all
thy Inhabitants can beate backe the miseries which come rushing in vpon thee Who can choose but break his heart with sighings to see thee O London the Grandame of Cities sit mourning in thy Widdowhood Thy rich Children are runne away from thee and thy poore ones are left in sorrow in sicknesse in penury in vnpitied disconsolations The most populous City of Great Brittaine is almost desolate and the Country repines to haue a Haruest before her due season of Men Women and Children who fill their Houses Stables Fields and Barnes with their inforced and vnwelcommed multitudes Yet still they flie from hence and still are they more and more feared and abhorred in the Country How many goodly streets full of beautifull and costly houses haue now few people or none at all sometimes walking in the one and not so much as any liuing rationall creature abiding in the other Infection hath shut vp from the beginning of Iune to the middle of Iuly almost or rather altogether foure thousand doores Foure thousand Red-Crosses haue frighted the Inhabitants in a very little time but greater is their number who haue beene frighted and fled out of the City at the setting vp of those Crosses For euery thousand dead here fiue times as many are gotten hence with them must I haue about to them onely doe I now bend my Discourse To the Run-awaies from London WE are warranted by holy Scriptures to flie from Persecution from the Plague and from the Sword that pursues vs but you flye to saue your selues and in that flight vndoe others In Gods Name flye if you flye like Souldiers not to discomfort the whole Army but to retire thereby to cut off the Enemy which is Famine amongst the poore your fellow Souldiers and discomfort amongst your brethren and fellow-Citizens who in the plaine field are left to abide the brunt of the day Fly so you leaue behind you your Armour for others to weare some pieces of your Money for others to spend for others to defend themselues by Liue not as Captaines doe in the Low-Countries vpon dead pay you liue by dead pay if you suffer the poore to dye for want of that meanes which you had wont to giue them for Christ Iesus sake putting the Money vp into your fugitiue purses How shall the lame and blinde and halfe starued be fed They had wont to come to your Gates Alas they are barred against them to your doores woe vnto misery you haue left no Key behinde you to open them These must perish Where shall the wretched prisoners haue their Baskets filled euery night and morning with your broken meat These must pine and perish The distressed in Ludgate the miserable soules in the Holes of the two Counters the afflicted in the Marshallseas the Cryers-out for Bread in the Kings Bench and White Lyon how shall these be sustayned These must languish and dye You are fled that are to feed them and if they famish their complaints will flye vp to heauen and be exhibited in the open Court of God and Angels against you For you be but Gods Almoners and if you ride away not giuing that siluer to the needy which the King of Heauen and Earth puts into your hands to bestow as he inioynes you you robbe the poore and their curse falls heauy where it once lights This is not good it is not charitable it is not Christian-like In London when Citizens being chosen to be Aldermen will not hold they pay Fines why are they not fined now when such numbers will not hold but giue them the slip euery day It were a worthy act in the Lord Maior and honourable Magistrates in this City if as in the Townes to which our Merchants and rich Tradesmen flye the Countrey-people stand there with Halberds and Pitchforkes to keepe thē out so our Constables Officers might stand with Bils to keepe the rich in their owne houses when they offer to goe away vntill they leaue such a charitable piece of Money behinde them towards the maintenance of the poore which else must perish in their absence They that depart hence would then no doubt prosper the better they that stay fare the better and the generall City nay the vniuersall Kingdome prosper in blessings from Heauen the better To forsake London as one worthy Citizen did were noble it would deserue a Crowne of commendations for hee being determined to retyre into the Countrey sent for some of the better sort of his Neighbours asked their good wils to leaue them and because the poyson of Pestilence so hotly reigning hee knew not whether they and he should euer meet againe he therefore deliuered to their hands in trust as faithfull Stewards fourescore pounds to be distributed amongst the poore I could name the Gentleman and the Parish but his charity loues no Trumpet Was not this a rare example but I feare not one amongst a thousand that goe after him will follow him But you are gone from vs and we heartily pray that God may go along in all your companies Your doores are shut vp and your Shops shut vp all our great Schooles of learning in London are shut vp and would to Heauen that as our numbers by your departing are lessened so our sinnes might be shut vp and lessened too But I feare it is otherwise For all the Kings Iniunction of Prayer and Fasting yet on those very dayes acceptable to God were they truely kept and comfortable to our soules in some Churches you shall see empty Pewes not filled as at first not crowding but sitting aloofe one from another as if whilest they cry Lord haue mercy vpon vs the Plague were in the holy Temple amongst them Where if you looke into the Fields looke into the Streetes looke into Tauernes looke into Ale-houses they are all merry all iocund no Plague frights them no Prayers stirre vp them no Fast tyes thē to obedience In the Fields they are in the time of that diuine celebration walking talking laughing toying and sporting together In the Streets blaspheming selling buying swearing In Tauernes and Ale-houses drinking roaring and surfetting In these and many other places Gods Holy-day is their Worke-day the Kings Fasting-day their day of Riot I wash an Aethiope who will neuer be the whiter for all this water I spend vpon him and therefore let mee saue any further labour And now to you who to saue your houses from Red Crosses shift your poore seruants away to odde nookes in Gardens O take heed what you doe in warding off one blow you receiue sometimes three or foure I haue knowne some who hauing had a Childe or Seruant dead and full of the TOKENS it has beene no such matter a little bribe to the Searchers or the conniuence of Officers or the priuate departure and close buriall of such a party hath hushed all but within a day or two after three
Preacher they were threatned by the worshipfull wisdome of the Parish to bee set in the Stockes if they put but a foot within the Church-doores Hath not God therefore iust cause to be angry with this distrust this infidelity of our Nation How can wee expect mercy from him when wee expresse such cruelty one towards another When the Brother defies the Brother what hope is there for a Londoner to to receiue comfort from Strangers Who then would flye from his owne Nest which hee may command to be lodged amongst Crowes and Rauens that are ready to picke out our Eyes if we offer to come amongst them The braue Parlors stately dining-Roomes and rich Chambers to lye in which many of our Citizens had here in London are now turned to Hay-lofts Apple-lofts Hen-roosts and Back-houses no better then to keepe Hogges in I doe not say in all places but a number that are gone downe and were lodged daintily heere wish themselues at home as complayning Letters testifie but that the heat of Contagion frights them from returning and it were a shame they thinke to come so soone backe to that City from whence with such greedy desire they were on the wings of feare hurryed hence Flocke not therefore to those who make more account of Dogges then of Christians The smelling to your Iuory Boxes does not so much comfort your Nosthrils as the Sent of your perfumed brauery stinkes in the Noses now of Countrey-people It may bee perceyued by the comming backe of many Carts laden with goods which in scorne are returned to London and cannot for any Gold or Siluer be receyued What talke I of Cart-loades of Stuffe If some more tender-hearted amongst the rest giue welcome to his brother kinseman or friend a Beare is not so woorried by Mastiffes as hee shall bee by vncharitable Neighbours when the Stranger is departed They loue your Money but not your persons yet loue not your money so well but that if a Carrier brings it to them from London they will not touch a penny of it till it be twice or thrice washed in a Pale or two of water But leauing these Creatures to be tormented by their owne folly and ignorance yet praying that God would open their eyes and inlighten their soules with a true vnderstanding of his diuine Iudgements I will now shut vp my Discourse with that which is first promised in the Title-page of the Booke and those are Gods Tokens c. Gods Tokens ANd now O you Citizens of LONDON abroad or at home be you rich bee you poore tremble at the repetition of these horrors which here I set downe and of which ten thousand are eare-witnesses great numbers of you that are in the City hauing likewise beheld some of these or their like with your eyes Neither are these warnings to you of London onely but to you who-euer you bee dwelling in the farthest parts of the Kingdome Shall I tell you how many thousands haue been borne on mens shoulders within the compasse of fiue or six weekes Bills sent vp and downe both Towne and Countrie haue giuen you already too fearefull informations Shall I tell you that the Bels call out night and day for more Burials and haue them yet are not satisfied Euery street in London is too much frighted with these terrors Shall I tell you that Church-yards haue letten their ground to so many poore Tenants that there is scarce roome left for any more to dwell there they are so pestred The Statute against Inmates cannot sue these for hauing taken once possession no Law can remoue them Or shall I tell you that in many Church-yards for want of roome they are compelled to dig Graues like little Cellers piling vp forty or fifty in a Pit And that in one place of buriall the Mattocke and Shouell haue ventured so farre that the very Common-shore breakes into these ghastly and gloomy Ware-houses washing the bodies all ouer with foule water because when they lay downe to rest not one eye was so tender to wet the ground with a teare No I will not tell you of these things but of These which are true as the other and fuller of horror A woman with a Child in her armes passing thorow Fleet-street was strucke sicke vpon a sudden the Childe leaning to her cheeke immediatly departed the Mother perceiuing no such matter but finding her owne heart wounded to the death she sate downe neere to a shop where hot Waters were sold the charitable woman of that shop perceiuing by the poore wretches countenance how ill she was ranne in all haste to fetch her some comfort but before she could come the Woman was quite dead and so her childe and she went louingly together to one Graue A Gentleman knowne to many in this Towne hauing spent his time in the Warres and comming but lately ouer in health and lusty state of body going along the streets fell suddenly downe and dyed neuer vttering more words then these Lord haue mercy vpon me Another dropped downe dead by All gate at the Bell-Tauerne doore A Flax-man in Turnebull street being about to send his Wife to market on a sudden felt a pricking in his arme neere the place where once he had a sore and vpon this plucking vp his sleeue he called to his Wife to stay there was no neede to fetch any thing for him from Market for see quoth he I am marked and so shewing Gods Tokens dyed in a few minutes after A man was in his Coffin to be put into a Graue in Cripple-gate Church-yard and the Bearers offring to take him out he opened his eyes and breathed but they running to fetch Aqua vita for him before it came he was full dead A lusty country fellow that came to towne to get Haruest-worke hauing sixteene or eighteene shillings in his Purse fell sicke in some lodging he had in Old-street was in the night time thrust out of doores and none else receiuing him he lay vpon Straw vnder Suttons Hospitall wall neere the high way and there miserably dyed A woman going along Barbican in the moneth of Iuly on a Wednesday the first of the Dog-daies went not farre but suddenly fell sicke and sate downe the gaping multitude perceiuing it stood round about her afarre off she making signes for a little drinke money was giuen by a stander by to fetch her some but the vncharitable Woman of the Ale-house denyed to lend her Pot to any infected companion the poore soule dyed suddenly and yet albeit all fled from her when she liued yet being dead some like Rauens seized vpon her body hauing good clothes about her stripped her and buried her none knowing what she was or from whence she came Let vs remoue out of Barbican into one of the Churches in Thames-street where a Gentleman passing by who on a sudden felt himselfe exceeding ill and