P. [28]. Of the fatte woman that solde frute.
"Being thus dispatcht he layes downe Jacke
A peny for the shot:
'Sir, what shall this doe?' said the boy.
'Why, rogue, discharge my pot!
So much I cald for, but the rest
By me shall nere be paid:
For victualls thou didst offer me;
Doe and thou woot, I said.'"
The Knave of Clubbs, by S. Rowlands, 1600 (Percy Soc. ed. p. 20).
P. [31].—Wilson introduces the "notable historie" of Papirius Pretextatus into his Rule of Reason, 1551, 8o, and it had previously been related in Caxton's Game and Playe of the Chesse, 1474.
P. [33]. Of the corrupte man of law.
"An arch Barber at a certain Borough in the West, where there are but few Electors, had Art enough to suspend his Promise till the Voters, by means of Bribery, the old Balsam, were so divided, that the casting vote lay in himself. One of the Candidates, who was sensible of it, cameinto his little dirty Shop to be shaved, and when the operation was finish'd, threw into the Bason Twenty Guineas. The next Day came the other Candidate, who was shaved also, and left Thirty. Some Days after this, the first return'd to solicit the Barber's Vote, who told him very coldly, That he could not promise. Not promise! says the Gentleman; why I thought I had been shaved here! 'Tis true, says the Barber, you was, but another Gentleman has been trimm'd since that; however, if you please, I'll trim you again, and then tell you my mind."—Complete London Jester, ed. 1771, p. 99.
P. [35]. Conon peaked into the court.—So in Skelton's Colin Clout (Works by Dyce, I. 312), we have:—
"He cryeth and he creketh,
He pryeth and he peketh,
He chides and he chatters," &c.
In the Posthums Poems of Richard Lovelace, Esq. 1659, 80, p. 60, the word is employed in a different sense:—
"Have you not marked their C[oe]lestial play,
And no more peek'd the gayties of day?"