The Weavers will dine at the Shuttle,
The Glovers will unto the Glove,
The Maydens all to the Mayden Head,
And true Louers unto the Doue.
The Sadlers will dine at the Saddle,
The Painters will to the Greene Dragon,
The Dutchmen will go to the Froe,[22]
Where each man will drinke his Flagon.
The Chandlers will dine at the Skales,
The Salters at the signe of the Bagge;
The Porters take pain at the Labour in Vaine,
And the Horse-Courser to the White Nagge.
Thus every Man in his humour,
That comes from the North or the South,
But he that has no money in his purse,
May dine at the signe of the Mouth.
The Swaggerers will dine at the Fencers,
But those that have lost their wits:
With Bedlam Tom let that be their home,
And the Drumme the Drummers best fits.
The Cheter will dine at the Checker,
The Picke-pockets in a blind alehouse,
Tel on and tride then up Holborne they ride,
And they there end at the Gallowes.”
Thomas Heywood introduced a similar song in his “Rape of Lucrece.” This, the first of the kind we have met with, is in all probability the original, unless the ballad be a reprint from an older one; but the term Puritan used in it, seems to fix its date to the seventeenth century.
“THE Gintry to the Kings Head,
The Nobles to the Crown,
The Knights unto the Golden Fleece,
And to the Plough the Clowne.
The Churchmen to the Mitre,
The Shepheard to the Star,
The Gardener hies him to the Rose,
To the Drum the Man of War.
[16]
The Huntsmen to the White Hart,
To the Ship the Merchants goe,
But you that doe the Muses love,
The sign called River Po.