YF some thinke no shame to displeasure many, for the pleasuring of a fewe (gentle Reader) then I néede not blush nor feare to profit manye by hurting of none: Whiche I hope I have done by the publishing of this my Booke abrode, not [penned] without paine, nor drawne without diligence, not ended with ease. Wherein are such and so manye notable, rare, pleasaunt, profitable and precious thinges (meaning one with an other) as never were yet set forth in anye volume in our vulgar or English tongue, nay divers of them were never hetherto printed, nor written, that ever I knew: but onely that I writ them at such tyme as I hearde them credibly reported. Thinking them such rare thinges, as was worthy to be regestred. Marry I must confesse, I have selected and pycked a great sorte out of Latine Wryters, the Authors or Wryters whereof, I have named most commonly at the ende of the same. And some notable and precious thinges I gathered out of some olde Englishe wrytten bookes, and some also not long since printed, unworthy to be hyd, and great pittie but they should bee knowne:...
6. If one use to rubbe chapped or rough lyppes, with the sweat behinde their eares, it wyll make them fyne, smothe, and well culloured: a thing proved.
*
8. Earth woormes fryed with Goose greese, then streynde, and a lytle therof dropt warme into the deaffe or payned eare, doeth helpe the same: you must use it halfe a dosen tymes at the least. This is true.
*
19. In the morning if salt be holden in the mouth, under the tongue, untyll it melt or consume into water, and the teeth being rubbed therewith, it wyll preserve the teeth safe and sounde: and it wyll keepe them from rotting, and that they shall not be worm-eaten: a thing often proved true.
*
26. If any [carry] upon him the seede of Sorrell, gathered of a boye, being a virgin, his sparme or nature shall not go from him, neyther sleeping nor waking: therfore it is sayde to be good against any pollution in the night [wet dreams].
*
37. A Robbyn [red] breast, fynding the dead body of a Man or Woman, wyll cover the face of the same with [Moss]. And as some holdes opinion, he wyll cover also the whole body.
The first known English edition of the fairy tale “Babes in the Woods” would not appear for some 20 years. Those who know the story know that item number 37 above seems well aware of the ending of the story — perhaps from an unknown source.
Also at Virtual Grub Street and Tudor Topics:
- Were Back-Scratchers Really Invented in Elizabethan Times? August 20, 2023. “...when the domestic manners of the aristocracy, as well as others, were not of the most refined and delicate kind,...”
- Rocco Bonetti's Blackfriars Fencing School and Lord Hunsdon's Water Pipe. August 12, 2023. “... the tenement late in the tenure of John Lyllie gentleman & nowe in the tenure of the said Rocho Bonetti...”
- A Triple Wedding and Surprise Visit from the King (1536). July 31, 2023. “History was rushing onward at that point toward many fateful events”
- Ambassador Noailles’ Account of Mary I’s Procession to Westminster: September 30, 1553. September 17, 2022. “…in matching cloth of silver, was Lady Elizabeth, sister of her majesty…”
Queen Elizabeth’s Greatest Love, Robert Dudley, died on September 4, 1588. September 3, 2022. “Even after matters had settled down, Robert’s special treatment was the source of smoldering jealousy.”
- Check out the English Renaissance Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
- Check out the Queen Elizabeth I Biography Page for many other articles.
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