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Emblemes and Epigrames

Psal: Quum defecerit virtus mea, ne derelinquas me, Domine. [A.D. 1600, by Francis Thynne ... ]: Edited by F. J. Furnivall
  
  
  

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(49) Cutters.

‘Iack, I here thow hast leaft thine ould trade;
thow wilt noe more become a ripiers Iade.’
‘In fayth, good Will, thow sayest true,
for I haue left mine ould occupation for a newe,
for I cann braue it in the streetes with the rest,
beinge a right cutter, as good as the best.’
‘A cutter! what cutter, I praye the, maye that bee?
a cutter of Queene hithe, or a garment cutter, tell mee,
A Swashebuckler cutter, or one of the cutthrotes,
or a garden cutter, or a false cutter of groates?
Or art thow such a cutter as ostelers and tapsters be,
or a woode cutter, a stone cutter, or a heare cutter, letts see?’
noe, in faith, Will, for better or worse,
I am none of these, but a plaine cutpurse;
a life of such pleasinge, that I never feele payne
till the rope and the gallowes doe hinder my gaine.’