'Master, what will you copen or by?
Fyne felt hattes, or spectacles to reede?
Lay down your silver, and here you may speede'"
Minor Poems of Lydgate [1420]. London, Lackpenny. Ed. Per. Soc. 1840, p. 105.
This is curious, as indicating that the word "Fleming," in the fifteenth century, had become almost synonymous with "trader."
II. "Julia. I have heard enough of England: have you nothing to return upon the Netherlands?
"Beamont. Faith, very little to any purpose. He has been beforehand with us, as his countrymen are in their Trade, and taken up so many vices for the use of England, that he has left almost none for the Low Countries."
Dryden's Dutch at Amboyna, Act II. Sc. 8.
"Towerson. Tell 'em I seal that service with my blood;
And, dying, wish to all their factories,
And all the famous merchants of our isle,
That wealth their generous industry deserves,
But dare not hope it with Dutch partnership."
Ibid. Act V. Sc. last.