The Mad Pranks of Tom Tram, Son-in-law to Mother Winter / To Which Are Added His Merry Jests, Odd Conceits, and Pleasant Tales.

by active 1635-1671 Humphrey Crouch

TALE VI.

One in the country having bought a cloak of one that stole it, or made it by slight of hand, he was challenged for it; and being troubled in mind, asked a friend of his, a very witty fellow in the parish, How he might come off? His friend replied, he would tell him for a quart of sack. So to the tavern they went, and having drunk a pint, he desired to know how he might come off? When we have drunk the other pint of sack, quoth his friend, I'll tell you how you may come off. The quart being drunk off, he replied, he would not tell him till they were in the street. So going out of the tavern, Do you see, quoth he, yonder collour seller's shop, pointing as it were, with his finger; do but buy a rope there and hang thyself with it, and I warrant thee thou shalt come off, and never be troubled for that matter.