"Hereupon presently they rake some dunghill for a few dirty boxes and plaisters, and toasted cheese and candles' ends, temper up a few ointments and syrips; which having done, far north, or into sume such rude simple country they get them, and set up.
"Scarce one month have they stayed there, but what with their vaunting and prating, and speaking fustian instead of Greek, all the shires round about do ring with their fame; and then they begin to get a library of three or four old rusty manuscript books, which they themselves nor any else can read; and furnish their shops with a thousand quid pro quos, that would choke any horse; besides, some waste trinkets in their chambers hung up, which may make the world half in jealousy they can conjure.
"They will ever more talk doubtfully, as if there were more in them than they meant to make public, or was applicable to every common man's capacity; when God be their rightful judge, they utter all that they know and a great deal more.
"To knit up their knaveries in short (which, insooth, is the hangman's office and none's else) having picked up their crumbs thus pretty well in the country, they draw after a time a little nearer and nearer to London; and at length into Lon-
