Essays on Wit No. 2
the Tree. He is so far from a courtly wit, as his breeding seems only to have been i' th' Suburbs; or at best, he seems only graduated good company in a Tavern (the Bedlam of wits) where men are mad rather than merry; here one breaking a jest on the Drawer, or a Candlestick; there another repeating the old end of a Play, or some bawdy song; this speaking bilk, that nonsense, whilst all with loud houting and laughter confound the

    Fidlers

   noise, who may well be call'd a noise indeed, for no

    Musick

   can be heard for them; so whilst he utters nothing but old stories, long since laught thridbare, or some stale jest broken twenty times before: His

    mirth

   compared with theirs, new and at first hand, is just like

    Brokers

   ware in comparison with

    Mercers

   , or

    Long-lane

   compar'd unto

    Cheap-side

   : his wit being rather the

    Hogs-heads

   than his own, favouring more of

    Heidelberg

   than of


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