them variety The young Factor being fancy caught in his dayes of Innocency and before hee travaile so farre into experience as into forraigne Countries may lay such a foundation of first love in her bosome as no alteration of Climate can alter So likewise may Thomas the fore man of the Shop when beard comes to him as Apprentiship goes from him bee intangled and belymed with the like springs For the better is as easily surprized as the worse Some of our Clarkly men complaine the moysture of their palmes Others the Sorpego in their wrists both moving meanes With a little patience your daughter may light upon some Counsailor at Law who may bee willing to take the young Wench in hope of favor with the old Iudge An Attorney wil be glad to give all his profit of a Michaelmas Terme Fees and all but to wooe her through a Crevice And the Parson of the Parish being her Ladies Chaplaine will forsware eating of tithe Pig for a whole yeare for such a parcell of Gleb Land at all times And so much for your Sons and Daughters I now espye mine Host of the Bull here in S. Albons standing at his doore uppon his left leg like to the old Drummer of Parish-garden ready to entertaine us therefore I will heere conclude with that of the Poët Navibus atque Quadragis petimus benevivere quod petis hic est Est ang lis animus si te non deficit equais FINIS THE MISTERY AND MISERY OF LENDING AND BORROWING BY THO POWEL Gent. LONDON Printed by Thomas Harper for Benjamin Fisher and are to be sold at his shop in Aldersgate streete at the signe of the Talbot 1636. THE MISTERY and misery of Lending and Borrowing SETTING aside the contemplation of such Lending and Borrowing as wherby the soule of Traffique is breathed into the body of a Common-wealth I descend lower to that practice of mutuation whereby wee accommodate one another for our present necessity in monies and other requisites First for the Borrower I Will first shew who bee the most notable sort of Borrowers and Booke-men Next what method every one holds in his severall way of Borrowing and Booking Then their severall cause of failing and insolvency Next their sundry waies and weapons with which they fence with their Creditors Next their noted places of refuge and retirement Then their Jubilies and daies of priviledge Lastly the certaine markes of a conscious cautious Debtor with the Marshall discipline of the Mace according to the Moderne practise of these daies Next for the Creditor I Will first shew the charitable extent of the Creditors curtesie Then his Mystery of Multiplication Next how the Oyster caught the Crow The hand in the booke bred the wind-collicke in the ware-house And then how that winde being not able to force a passage through the cavernes of his credit shakt the very foundation of his shop-boord threatning a most sudden strange and stormy eruption Next the signes fore-running the wonderfull cracke Then the Reparation of the decaied man And lastly the singular comfort which the Common-wealth received by him when he was sent forth for current out of his Creditors mint with a new impression and a second edition And of these in order The chiefe and most notable Borrowers are The Courtier that neither cares for the call of the Counting house nor the Checke of the Chamber The Innes of Court-men that never was studient The Country Gentleman no Hospitall house-keeper The City Gallant that never arrived at his freedome by service The Courtiours method followes FIrst he invites his Creditor to a dish of Court-Ling with Masculine Mustard plenty Then hee shewes him the privie Lodgings and the new banqueting house Perhaps the Robes next Then the great Magolls tent in the Wardrope And so much serves for the first meeting and to procure an appetite to the second To the second meeting our Creditor is summoned and brings behinde him his Wife like to a broken wicker glasse bottle hanging at his taile and enters into the Masking roome Whereat the Courtiers skill in delivering of the Maskers names under their severall disguises did purchase an everlasting and indissoluble City-consanguinity with his female charge over whom the more sleepy her spouse the more vigilant was my Cousen Courtier And now hee hath made his party strong enough to visit my Citizen and to borrow and take up of him at his owne home in the most familiar phrase that can bee devised for such like use and purpose Then for the quickning continuing and enlargeing of of his credit our Courtier pretends how hee has received newes that his faign'd kindred is very sicke and thereupon a takes occasion in stead of venison to send her bottle of that famous and farre fetcht Frontineack Hee bids himselfe to dinner the same day and there in a cursory way of commending the excellent art of man in matter of Manufacture hee fals by chance upon the remembrance of an extraordinary stuffe which hee saw a great personage weare lately in Court not doubting but that his couzens shop did afford the like His purpose was to have a suit of the same very shortly if they would but lay it by till his moneyes come in Yet with a very little intreaty so cleanly exprompted hee was perswaded to take it along with him but onely for feare lest the whole peece might be sold by the foolish fore-man unawares before his returne Give us old Ale and booke it O give us old Ale and booke it And when you would have your money for al My couzen may chance to looke it The Innes of Court-man and his method FIrst hee makes himselfe acquainted with the Creditor by going to him in company with one who is a knowne customer there and an approved good pay-master Then hee procures this knowne customer to take the man of credence as it were modestly apart and at his backe while hee is walking downe the shop and aversed to whisper That this gentleman whom you see heere is son and heire to that worthy Knight so potent in the Peake or that most markable Malster of much Marlborne or the great Grasier of Grims borow or the like Then he returnes to the upper end of the shop and the Master takes an occasion to call to Thomas to give the Gentleman a stoole and tels him that hee knowes his friends very well The ancient Mannor house and the Mill and goodly medowes a little beneath in the bottome adding further that no doubt but if hee please the good old Gentleman hee may in time bee owner of them all himselfe Bee owner saies my Innes court man Why I tell you that Water-mill came by my mother with all the Meddowes of that Levell And my Father would hang himselfe hee cannot give them away from mee And whereas you say I may be owner in time I thinke the old man has held them long enough unlesse you would make his time endlesse and him a very
wandring Jew I wis my Grandfather serv'd not him so hee knew what he did when he dyed Hee did it out of true judgement in fulnesse of understanding able to penne his owne will himselfe when he was no longer serviceable to his Countrey hee would not live onely to mend the fire or preserve it by applying every circumstant cinder within his reach but though I pinch for it awhile a time I hope may come Whereat my Creditor interrupting him saies alas you pinch for it That shall not need God be thanked your credit it worthy to be rankt in a shop booke cheeke by jowle with any debitory disposed Gentleman of this towne whatsoever Besides if you would bee loath to have your name extant in so publicke a Repertory you are able by such estate as is inseparably annexed to your person to give farther assurance I doe but speake it if neede were by otherwaies and otherwise at your pleasure Further assurance replies my Gallant A pox on 't For assurance they shall have what they will And for price of any thing it is my desire they should gaine by mee yea they shall gaine by mee For otherwise how should you be able to live by it Now sir you speake like an honest gentleman saies hee againe gaine I would al our customers were of your minde there bee too few such as you are if you have neede of any thing heere either for your wearing or else for conversion wherein I hope you conceive mee sir it is at your command Hereupon the man of the sword sweares that he shall not out-doe him in noblenesse Had hee robbed the Statuaes of the new Standard of all their royall resolutions Hee vowes to returne thither againe and that speedily to bring his Tailor with him advisedly to take up for divers uses with much facility and to give assurance according to the direction of his owne Scriviner a Bow lane most legally And so leave we him like a horse put up to dyet whereby to bee prepared to runne his traine sents on the deepest ground of assurance that City counsell can finde out or devise Puppy runnes well but who shall winne the day Puppy or Noddy 'T is an even lay The Country Gentleman his Mothod THe Countrey Gentleman he is by this time come up to London and has brought his Atturney with him one that professes the taking up of money by writ of right His Atturny brings him to the Ship behind the Exchange and leaves him there while hee goes to fetch the onely Noverint in in those parts whom hee prepares at his shop with the purpose advising him withall in his eare so to handle the matter in hall that beards may wag all which hee delivered with a most familiar wringing of him by the hand to insinuate his meaning as unto his share Hee then brings the Scrivener unto the taverne good compliance is in all parties and the Scrivener according to the true practice of most of them at the first meeting especially while they are with the borrower in the taverne was more easie in promising then they in proposing The Atturney then softly tels the Gentleman apart that hee should doe well to bespeake supper instantly assuring him that if he could but fasten that courtesie upon the Scrivener for the present hee were their owne for ever after neither the summe nor the security could bee matter of any difficulty The counsell was held wholsome as unto the supper the Atturney was forthwith preferd to the Bar where he spake so learnedly in the cause that upon the same hearing they recovered three full dishes on their side the boyes drew the proceeding of the businesse very Clarke-like the Kirchinmaid supplied with the Tales The Mistresse call'd earnestly for the Postea and the Master he rated and allowed the bill of costs At the execution whereof my Scrivener fearing lest the shot should disperse and scatter it selfe amongst them while the Gentleman was feeling for mony to discharge it he to facilitate that hand askes him softly in his care What is the summe that he would have Then suspecting the long dwelling of his hand in his pocket hee tels him He shall have what summe he will Let mee see faies the Scrivener there comes in this night of Sir Samvan Skynkers money five hundred and to morrow as much more I can supply you from one hundred to ten out of that as your occasions require how say you Wee will have no dry reckoning replies the Gentleman Heer 's the full summe of the bil and and a pottle over though wee be Leicester-shire fed yet we be not Brackly bred I assure you And for the summe which I should or at least would have for especiall occasions Let me see there is a horse-race at Northampton on Munday come sevenight I must needs have new furniture for Crop-care which I will send downe by Leicester Waggon I wil have that Hawke which I saw in Southwarke this afternoone clothes would doe wel but that 's my least care of a thousand A poxe a pride I say Howsoever I must see the party I told you of by the way before I goe out of towne by any meanes if shee keepe the same lodging the same name that she was wont to doe that 's all now Le ts see a matter of some three hundred will doe 't so far forth as my present and most urgent occasions do presse me at this instant As for payment And for raiment For hedges and mounds And stocking of grounds For Corne for seed Or Cattle to breed Or the Wolfe at the doore And a thousand things more They are nothing so important and concerning as the least of these I would not misse Munday come sevenight for three such summes I tell you Sir Munday come sevenight That were a jest indeed For that and what you please beside saies the Scrivener you shall find no default on my partie This honest Gentleman that is with you knowes the course of these kinde of businesses He and I shall take my leave at this time The Scrivener departs and the Gentleman staies behinde onely to hugge and endeare the endowments of him that procured this meeting Hee praises the prosperity of their journey commands the comely carriage of the Scrivener and vowes everlasting acknowledgment of his Atturnies activity And so they betake themselves to their lodging likewise for that night The next morning my gentleman sends his Atturney to see that the money which he spake for be told out and made ready for him against his comming which should be when and where it shall please the honest Scrivener For by this time hee had attained so much of reputation among them The same day and the next were both spent in continuall quest of the Scrivener But the Boyes in the Shop according to their masters direction made answere one while that he was gone to Sir Sam for monies Another while that hee was at the sealing of writings
was enough for the Crow to smell upon the prey intending that never any more should come to his share Then the Crow who knew how to ticle a Trout at his pleasure did without assistance of Constable or advice of Counsell make a most violent entry upon the Oyster which presently claps to his doore shuts the Crow within and caught him so fast by his bill of entry that all Colchester and the custome-house can testifie to this day with what uncustomed and uncourteous entertainement he was there received Well might the Crow cry and call for his companion the Cormorant to redeeme him from captivity but all was in vaine The doores were shut up he could not so much as belch at the key-hole or let out the winde which troubled the warehouse by any meanes forward or backward the very foundation of the shop and shopbord were shaken with the violence thereof Being in this extremity and so taken with the winde that nothing applied inwardly could possibly helpe him he cals for the shop-booke and begins to conjure the collicke with such terrible charmes and incantations as the like were never devised nor put into any pentacle Then he raised the great Prince In primis out of his Easterne Emperie with a legion of Items attending him These two he sets to taske and enjoynes them to distinguish his Debtors in Spero from those in Despero and to deale more plainly with him herein than Widdowes use to doe by their Husbands estates in the Court of Orphans and elsewhere They performe his designe instantly and the greater number appeared to be perdues directly desperate and debilitate amongst the which my cousin Courtier and my Innes of Court-man were of the number The Courtiers suit did long languish and was palliated and upheld with letters commendatory it complain'd much of the disease called the reference it was a little lightened by a Cordiall certificat laterly yet in the end no meanes nor medicine could serve the turne but of a stopping and obstruction at the great seale it died The Innes of Court man was neither heire nor aged sufficiently for the enabling of any such act as he had undertaken publikely by deed or privately in the shop-booke The Scriver the City counsaile himself and all were fatally infatuated betraid with a beard and foold with formality The winde rises more and more the storme increaseth strange stitches on every side of the shop wonderfull weakenesse in the ware-house and convulsions in the Counter-boord and boxe complaine and cry out upon the Collicke at whose mercy we leave him expecting the eruption thereof very speedily The Signes fore-running the wonderfull Cracke THe certaine Signes in a Citizen are these He strives to be call'd into such office especially as whereby he may have the stocke of the Parish or Company in his custody He gives ground in matter of payment the longer he deales the more he leaves in the remainder upon every payment He leaves the plaine path of his profession and places more faith in a Project then in all the probabilities of his owne Trading and when a Citizen turns Projector he has the very tokens of the wonderfull Cracke upon him His Country house is too little for him and it wants a gatehouse for his Wife and Coach to come in at and therefore there must be laid out in building thrice as much as the Fee-simple of all when it is finished will affoord He takes up at interest to make good the building all his good debts he sets over to the immediate accountant in trust and with an intention to prevent his Creditors All his purchases are either in the name of his sonne or some trusty Kinsman of his wives The neerer the Cracke the faster he laies about him to take up in any kinde and upon any conditions then he conveyes all things of value out of his house And at last he gives fire with a report of his great losses at or beyond the seas where he God wot had never any factory or dealing in all his life time Then he sends his Wife to her Mothers where she must live a while that she may not be troubled with the noyse and clamour of the Creditor He betakes himselfe to his Chamber keepes the shop windowes shut and provides a Catalogue of all his desperate credits onely to deliver to his Creditors when they shall come to treat upon the subject of satisfaction The newes reaches to the Exchange by noone where they that have given credit to him looke so prettily and pittifully one upon another as you might know and challenge them by their faces Then they gather together and conferre their notes and cast up the whole summe what all their credits may come unto onely some of the more pragmaticall sort who feare to publish their losses lest their owne estates should come likewise in question doe dissemble the matter and speake with the least Others that suspect it may be their owne case very shortly pitty the mans misfortune blame the hardnesse of the times deadnesse of trade and scarcity of coyne recounting what he is out for forraign plantations abroad and other contributions at home and with what charge he hath gone through so many offices in so short time whereat every man relents and lets slacke his more strict purposes agreeing all to goe to his house to confer with him after dinner And so dismisse we them till then IT may be you looke I should have spoken somewhat of the Cracke of my City-gallant but it is improper to place him amongst Creditors that has been bred a borrower from his Cradle and that according to the custome of the Citie let it onely suffice that though he had not his country house yet he had his country Hostesse and though he dealt not in Court Projection yet he kept a vile coile for court Protection His Hostesse she paid the old Widdowes and his young Mistresse their debts in the same coyne that he tendred to them And at last when his insolvency appeared upon every post she preferr'd any Iustice of peace his Clarke thereabouts to her respectuality before him so that there was neither abiding at Rumford nor returne to London but he must of necessity make a voyage be it but to Britlesey where he lies close under a borrowed name which was the last commodity that ever he tooke up till his friends shall have rectified his credit and restored him to the estate from which he was so lately collapsed and fallen The recovery of the old man with the common comfort which it did beget hold the next place AFter dinner all the Creditors met againe on the Exchange where they hold full three houres conference during which time not any one of them did beleeve one word which another spake unto him for they were too wise and learned in the use and exercise of conformity to speake the simple truth because they were to deale in a matter mixt and compounded of many
bed chamber or a Littletons discipleship It is not your feathered Gallant of the Court nor your Taverne Roarer of the Citie becomes this place I assure you I finde not any Meson de dieu for relieving of mayned Marriners onely but that erected at Chattam by Sir Iohn Hawkins Knight Treasurer of the Navy of the late Queene Elizabeth wherein it was provided that there should be a deduction of Sixpence by the Moneth out of every man and boy their wages in every voyage towards the same Which I could wish were as well imployed as collected The Land Soldier followes IF the Land-Soldier thinke to thrive and rise by degrees of service from a Common Soldier to a Captaine in this age alas he is much deceived That custome is obsolete and growne out of use Doe what he can doe in Land-service he shal hardly rise by his single merit His happinesse shall be but to fill his hungry belly and satiate himselfe upon a Pay day But if he be of kin or a favorite to some great Officer he may carry the Colours the first day be a Lieutenant the second and a Captain before he knows how many dayes goe to the week in the Regiment The Land-service where a man may learn most experience of War discipline is in the Low-Countries by reason of the long exercise of wars and variety of Stratagems there Beyond that Northward the service is both more unprofitable and more dangerous and lesse experience is to be there learned The more your Sonne turnes his face to the South the more profitable the Land-service is Lastly if he have no friend or kindred to raise in the Land-service I assure you that there is no Law against buying and selling of Offices in the Low-Countries for ought that I have redd Neither is it markable amongst them After the Soldier returnes home it makes no matter what number of wounds he can reckon about him All the wayes of reliefe for him that I can nūber are these A poore Knights place of Windsor If the Herald report him a Gentleman And the Knights of the Honourable Order of the Garter wil accept him A Brother of Suttons Hospital If the Feoffes have not servants of their own to prefer before him A Pensioner of the County if the Justices finde him worthy And that he was prest forth of the same County S. Thomas in Southwarke and S. Bartholomews Smithfield only til their wounds or diseases be cured and no longer And that if the Masters of the said Hospitals please to receive them For the Savoy where Souldiers had a foundation I know none now And other Houses appropriated for reliefe of Souldiers now in use I remember none For the chiefe are long since demolished The Templarij are gone The Knights of S. Iohn of Ierusalem forgotten That famous House upon Lincolne green is rac'd to the ground And many the like now better known by the Records than the remaines of their ruins with their Revenue are all diuerted from the uses of their first foundation to private and peculiar Inheritances which I pitty more than the dissolution of all the Monasteries that ever were Here you see is preferment enough for your six Sons though you bestow every one upon a severall Profession Onely take this generall Rule for all viz. To what course soever your Sons shall betake them Be sure that they al have Grammar learning at the least So shall they be able to receive and retaine the impression of any the said Professions And otherwise shall scarce possibly become Masters in the same or any one of them Or if they doe It will be with more than ordinary paines and difficulty Your three Daughters challenge the next place FOr their Portions I shewed you before how and when to raise them That is by the Marriage of your eldest Sonne or out of that part of your personall estate which you may spare without prejudice of your selfe For their breeding I Would have their breeding like to the Dutch Womans cloathing tending to profit only and comelinesse And though she never have a dancing school-master a french Tutor nor a Scotch taylor to make her shoulders of the full breath of Bristow Cow-say It makes no matter For working in curious Italian purles or French borders it is not worth the while Let them learne plaine works of all kind so they take heed of too open seaming In stead of Song and Musick let them learne Cookery Laundry And in steade of Reading Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia let them read the grounds of good Huswifery I like not a Female Poëtresse at any hand let greater personages glory their skill in Musicke the posture of their bodies their knowledge in languages the greatnesse and freedome of their Spirits and their arts in arraigning of mens affections at their flattering Faces this is not the Way to breede a private Gentlemans daughter If the mother of them bee a good Huswife and Religiously disposed let her haue the bringing up of one of them Place the other two foorth betimes before they can judge of a good manly Leg. The one in the house of some good Merchant or Cittizen of civil and Religious goverment the other in the house of some Lawyer some Judge or well reported Justice or Gentleman of the Countrey where the Servingman is not too predominant In any of these she may learne what belongs to her improvement for Sempstry Confectionary and all requisits of Huswifery She shall be sure to bee restrained of all ranke company and unfitting Liberty which are the ouerthrow of too many of their Sexe there is a pretty way of breeding young maides in an Exchange shop or S. Martins le grand But many of them get such a Cricke with carrying the Band-boxe under their Apron unto Gentlemens chambers that in the ende it is hard to distinguish whither it be their belly or their band-boxe makes such a goodly show and in a trade where a womā is sole chapman she claims such a preheminence over her Husband that she wil not be held to give him an account of her dealings either in retaile or whole sale A Merchants Factor and a Citizens servant of the better sort cānot disparage your daughters with their society And the Iudges Lawyers Iustices followers are not ordinary Serving-men but of good breed their educatiō for the most part Clarkely whose service promiseth farther and future benefit Your daughter at home will make a good wife for some Yeomans eldest sonne whose father will be glad to crown his sweating frugality with alliance to such a house of Gentry Likewise the youngmans singers will itch to be handling of taffata and to bee placed at the table and to be carved unto by Mistris Dorothy it wil make him and the good plaine old Ione his mother to passe over al respect of portion or patrimony For your Daughter at the Merchants and her sister if they can carry it wittily the City affords