of plaisterers and dirt-dawbers, the gaine of glasiers, joyners, carpenters, tylers, and bricklayers; and, which is worse, to the contempt of justice; for what avails it for a constable with an army of reverend rusty bill-men to command peace to these beastes, for they with their pockets, instead of pistols, well charged with stone-shot, discharge against the image of authority whole volleys as thicke as hayle, which robustious repulse puts the better sort to the worser part, making the band of unscowred halberdiers retyre faster than ever they come on, and shew exceeding discretion in proving tall men of their heeles. Thus, by the unmanerly maners of Shrove Tuesday, constables are baffled, punckes are pillaged, panders are plagued, and the chiefe commanders of these valourous villiacoes, for their reward of all this confusion, doe in conclusion purchase the inheritance of a jayle, to the commodity of jailers, and the discommodity to themselves, with a fearfull expectation that Tiburne shall stoppe their throats, and the hangman take possession of their coates, or that some beadle in bloody characters shall imprint their faults on their shoulders. So much for Shrove Tuesday, Jacke-a-Lent's gentleman usher; these have beene his humours in former times, but I have some better hope of reformation in him hereafter and indeed I wrote this before his coming this yeere 1617, not knowing how hee would behave himselfe; but tottering betwixt despaire and hope I leave him." With the apprentices of London this season was more particularly a time of revel; according to Dekker they "take the lawe into their own hands and doe what they liste."* One of their amusements was hunting and beating the poor creatures of the town, and it has been suggested from certain passages in the old dramatists that it was the custom at this period of the year for the consta * "Seven Deadly Sins of London." Quarto, 1606, p. 35. bles to search out women of ill fame, and to confine them during Lent, while a still more degenerate class were carted. Evidences of both these habits may be gathered from the following passages. SENSUALITY says in Microcosmos (Act 5) —“ But now welcome a cart, or a Shrove Tuesday's Tragedy." Again, in Nabbes' comedy, called TOTTENHAM COURT ROAD, quarto, London, 1638, p. 6—" If I doe, I have lesse mercy than prentices at Shrove tide." Still more striking is a passage in a Satyre against Separatists, quarto, London, 1765; and other passages there are, but somewhat too coarse for the delicacy of modern ears, when vice may be tolerated, but must not be named, and we shall therefore content ourselves with merely referring to them for the gratification of the curious.-Second Part of the "Honest Whore," quarto, London, 1630. L. 6. et seq. As to the carting part of the story in the first of the above extracts, though it has been overlooked by Brand and his commentator, to ride in a cart was from very remote times reckoned ignominious; thus, in the old romance of Launcelot de Lac, we are told "en ce temps la estoit accoutumée que Charette estoit si vil que nul' n'estoit dedans qui tout loz et tout honneur n'eust perdu; et quant s'invouloit a aucun tollir honneur si le faisoit s'en monter en un charette; car charette servit en ce temps la de ceque pilloris servent orendroit ; ne en chascune bonne ville n'en avoit, en ce temps la, que une -in those days it was the custom to consider the cart so base, that no one could be in it without losing all fame and all honour; and when it was wished to deprive any one of his reputation, he was made to mount in a cart; for the cart served at that time for what pillories serve now; nor in those days in each good town was there more than one. Another amusement, if amusement it can be called, and which prevailed both in court and country, was the tying of a cock to a stake, and flinging sticks at the poor bird till it was beaten to death. If well trained it would often elude for a long time the missiles of its persecutors, thereby earning a considerable sum of money for its master; and, when killed, it was put into a hat, and won a second time by the person, who could strike it out. Erasmus accounts for this cruel folly by observing in an ironical tone that the English eat on Shrove Tuesday "quoddam placentæ genus," a certain kind of cake-meaning thereby pancakes—“ quo comesto protinus insaniunt et gallos trucidant;" which being devoured they immediately run mad, and kill the cocks. This brutal custom has been variously derived. Some assert that it originated in an old story of the discovery of an adulterous amour by the crowing of a cock, which we need hardly say is utter nonsense; others have thought that the cock was thus made to suffer, in punishment for Saint Peter's crime in denying his master, which is no less ridiculous, although we have Sir Charles Sedley's authority for it in the following epigram; "May'st thou be punished for Saint Peter's crime, A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine for July 1783, tells us that he had somewhere heard or read of its being an allusion to the indignities offered to Christ by the Jews before his crucifixion. Cranenstein relates an idle story how "when the Danes were masters of England, and lorded it over the natives of the island, the inhabitants of a certain great city, grown weary of their slavery, had formed a secret conspiracy to murder their masters in one bloody night; and twelve men had undertaken to enter the town-house by a stratagem, and seizing the arms surprize the guard, which kept it; and at which time their fellows upon a signal given were to bles to search out women of ill fame, and to confine them during Lent, while a still more degenerate class were carted. Evidences of both these habits may be gathered from the following passages. SENSUALITY says in Microcosmos (Act 5)—" But now welcome a cart, or a Shrove Tuesday's Tragedy." Again, in Nabbes' comedy, called TOTTENHAM COURT ROAD, quarto, London, 1638, p. 6-" "If I doe, I have lesse mercy than prentices at Shrove tide." Still more striking is a passage in a Satyre against Separatists, quarto, London, 1765; and other passages there are, but somewhat too coarse for the delicacy of modern ears, when vice may be tolerated, but must not be named, and we shall therefore content ourselves with merely referring to them for the gratification of the curious.-Second Part of the 66 Honest Whore," quarto, London, 1630. L. 6. et seq. As to the carting part of the story in the first of the above extracts, though it has been overlooked by Brand and his commentator, to ride in a cart was from very remote times reckoned ignominious; thus, in the old romance of Launcelot de Lac, we are told "en ce temps la estoit accoutumée que Charette estoit si vil que nul' n'estoit dedans qui tout loz et tout honneur n'eust perdu ; et quant s'invouloit a aucun tollir honneur si le faisoit s'en monter en un charette; car charette servit en ce temps la de ceque pilloris servent orendroit ; ne en chascune bonne ville n'en avoit, en ce temps la, que une " -in those days it was the custom to consider the cart so base, that no one could be in it without losing all fame and all honour; and when it was wished to deprive any one of his reputation, he was made to mount in a cart; for the cart served at that time for what pillories serve now; nor in those days in each good town was there more than one. Another amusement, if amusement it can be called, and which prevailed both in court and country, was the tying of a cock to a stake, and flinging sticks at the poor bird till it was beaten to death. If well trained it would often elude for a long time the missiles of its persecutors, thereby earning a considerable sum of money for its master; and, when killed, it was put into a hat, and won a second time by the person, who could strike it out. Erasmus accounts for this cruel folly by observing in an ironical tone that the English eat on Shrove Tuesday "quoddam placentæ genus," a certain kind of cake-meaning thereby pancakes-" quo comesto protinus insaniunt et gallos trucidant;" which being devoured they immediately run mad, and kill the cocks. This brutal custom has been variously derived. Some assert that it originated in an old story of the discovery of an adulterous amour by the crowing of a cock, which we need hardly say is utter nonsense; others have thought that the cock was thus made to suffer, in punishment for Saint Peter's crime in denying his master, which is no less ridiculous, although we have Sir Charles Sedley's authority for it in the following epigram; “May'st thou be punished for Saint Peter's crime, A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine for July 1783, tells us that he had somewhere heard or read of its being an allusion to the indignities offered to Christ by the Jews before his crucifixion. Cranenstein relates an idle story how "when the Danes were masters of England, and lorded it over the natives of the island, the inhabitants of a certain great city, grown weary of their slavery, had formed a secret conspiracy to murder their masters in one bloody night; and twelve men had undertaken to enter the town-house by a stratagem, and seizing the arms surprize the guard, which kept it; and at which time their fellows upon a signal given were to |