| Hot fine Oat-Cakes, hot. Thus go the cries in Rome’s fair town, First they go up street, and then they go down. Small—Coals here. Thus go the cries in Rome’s fair town, First they go up street, and then they go down. Will you buy any Milk to day. Thus go the cries in Rome’s fair town, First they go up street, and then they go down. Lanthorn and Candle light here, Maid, a light here. Thus go the cries in Rome’s fair town, First they go up street, and then they go down. Here lies a company of very poor Women, in the dark dungeon, Hungary, cold, and comfortless, night and day; Pity the poor women in the dark dungeon. Thus go the cries where they do house them, First they come to the grate, and then they go lowse them. |
 Whiting Maids, Whiting. |  Hot Fine Oat Cakes. | |
 Small Coals Here. |  St. Thomas’ Onions. |
From “Deuteromelia: or, the Second Part of Pleasant Roundelayes; K. H. Mirth, or Freeman’s Songs, and such delightful Catches. London, printed for Thomas Adams, dwelling in Paul’s Church-yard, at the sign of the White Lion, 1609.”
| Who liveth so merry in all this land As doth the poor widdow that selleth the sand? And ever shee singeth as I can guesse, Will you buy any sand, any sand, mistress? The broom-man maketh his living most sweet, With carrying of brooms from street to street; Who would desire a pleasanter thing, Then all the day long to doe nothing but sing. The chimney-sweeper all the long day, He singeth and sweepeth the soote away; Yet when he comes home altho’ he be weary, With his sweet wife he maketh full merry. ***** Who liveth so merry and maketh such sport As those that be of the poorest sort? The poorest sort wheresoever they be, They gather together by one, two, three. And every man will spend his penny What makes such a shot among a great many? |
Thomas Morely, a musical composer, set music of four, six, eight and ten parts, to the cries in his time, among them are some used by the milliners’ girls in the New Exchange, which was on the south side of the Strand, opposite the now Adelphi Theatre, it was built in the reign of James I., and pulled down towards the end of the last century; among others are “Italian falling Bands,” “French Garters,” “Robatos,” a kind of ruff then fashionable, “Nun’s Thread,” &c.
The effeminacy and coxcombry of a man’s ruff and band are well ridiculed by many of our dramatic writers. There is a small tract bearing the following title—“A Merrie Dialogue between Band, Cuffe and Ruffe. Done by an excellent Wit, and lately acted in a Shew in the Famous Universitie of Cambridge. London, printed by W. Stansby for Miles Partrich, and are to be sold at his shop neere Saint Dunstone’s Church-yard in Fleet Street, 1615.” This brochure is a bonne-bouche of the period, written in dramatic dialogue form, and full of puns as any modern comedy or farcical sketch from the pen of the greatest word-twister of the day—Henry J. Byron (who, on Cyril’s Success, Married in Haste, Our Boys, and The Girls,)—and is of considerable value as an illustration of the history of the costume of the period. The band, as an article of ornament for the neck, was the common wear of gentlemen, though now exclusively retained by the clergy and lawyers; the cuff, as a fold at the end of a sleeve, or the part of the sleeve turned back from the hand, was made highly fantastical by means of “cut work;” the ruff, as a female neck ornament, made of plaited lawn, or other material, is well-known, but it was formerly worn by both sexes.
In a Roxburghe Ballad entitled “The Batchelor’s Feast,” &c., we have:—
| “The taylor must be pay’d for making of her gowne, The shoomakers for fine shoes: or else thy wife will frowne; For bands, fine ruffes, and cuffes, thou must dispence as free: O ’tis a gallant thing to live at liberty,” &c. |