Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/163

 ii B. v. FEB. IT, 1M2.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

131

In the Ilfracombe registers we have this note : " George Milton sen. wrote this Register book in yere of our Lord 1602." Ha? the handwriting of the " parchment transcriptions " in any set of contiguous parishes been shown to be that of one man t Many of these transcriptions are beautifully done and are very legible, in most cases offering a great contr s ; to the writing for the years 1603-4-5. &c. J. H. R.

'THE MARRIED MEN'S FEAST;

)R, THE BANQUET AT BARNET,' 1671.

(11 S. v. 29.)

THE full title-page of this pamphlet is as follows :

" The | married mens Feast, | or, | the Banquet at | Barnet | being I an invitation to all those married persons | who are master over their wives to a great dinner provided | at Barnet on Michael- mas day next. | Together \ with the articles to be enquired on of all | those that are to be ad- mitted to the Feast with the several | dishes and dainties provided for them |

Come all away do not this feast neglect Unless it be such men as are Hen-peckt, For these there is no room as you shall see, The others welcome, welcome, welcome be. London. | Printed by Peter Lillicrap for John Clark at the Harp and Bible in I West-Smith- Field. 1671." Pp. 6.

The following extracts will give the character of this " Banquet," which was evidently a jest :

" Oh yes, O yes, O yes, All manner of married persons, high or low, rich or poor, wise or simple, gentlemen or beggars, that can truly and honestly answer in the affirmative to all these questions hereafter mentioned : You are hereby invited gratis to a special feast provided for you at Barnet, in the county of Hertford upon Michael- mas day next between the hours of eleven and twelve, where you shall be accommodated with all things necessary for the dignity of such a feast."

Then follow the questions to be asked of the " married men " about their wives, some of which are not suitable to print :

" Does she rise before you in the morning and make you a fire against your rising, warming your slippers or shoes against your putting them on ?

" Does she if dinner or supper be ready when you are at the Ale house or Tavern submissively stay for your coming home and not eat one bit thereof until you are come ?

" Does she keep silence when you bid her hold her peace and not talk in her "sleep ? In sum does she go at your command, come at your call, and be obedient to you in everything she is appointed to do."

" Most women have tongues as long as a Bell rope and as loud as the Clapper, like to a river always running and making as big a noise as the cataracts of Nilus, that deaf [sic] all the inhabit- ants thereabouts."

It continues :

" The premisses considered, it is to be thought there will not be such a great appearance of these married masters, but that the town of Barnet will be able to contain and maintain them all without the help of adjacent parishes .... And therefore I believe the butchers may have no great trading for this feast, since some suppose the leg of a lark may satisfle all those that can swear truly their wives are obedient to them in everything they are bidden to do . ..."

" The manner how ihis Feast is to be ushered on to the table.

" Before the dishes first march six trumpeters playing on bagpipes the tune of Chevy Chase- a very martial tune.

" In the second place go four fidlers playing on Jews harps ....

" Then just before the dishes two lusty men such as was Ascapart, page to Bevis of Southamp- ton, to make way and to keep the people off from thronging upon the servitors.

" Then marches a gentleman usher in a red scarlet cloak with white silver lace upon it.

" And after that comes the servitors bareheaded, with the dishes in their hands, all of them Hen- peckt fellows, and therefore wearing ropes about their shoulders, instead of towels, to signifie what they deserve for suffering their wives to become their masters.

" Then let all Land men that would not go to sea in the Henpeckt friggot at their first mitation [? initiation] into the state of matrimony, be sure to keep the bridle in their own hands [that] they be not jade-ridden by a scolding wife, for win a day at first and you may with ease keep it afterwards, but if (fie on such a but) you yield the day at first, your case is very pitiful, yes so pitiful that next to a man riding up Holborn Hill westwards .... I know none worse.

Fore warn'd, fore armed for this you may protest Those that are Henpeckt come not to this Feast."

The above is the pith of the pamphlet, a copy of which is in the Bodleian, and is entered in the Catalogue under ' Barnet.' It belongs to Antony Wood's collection (press-mark, Wood, 654 a. 26), and is evidently part of the collection of printed books left by Antony Wood in November, 1695, to the Ashmolean Museum, and trans- ferred to the Bodleian in October, 1858. No separate catalogue of this strange and valuable collection of books has been printed, and the ' D.N.B.' is wrong in saying that such a catalogue was published by William Huddesford. Huddesford published a Cata- logue of Wood's MSS. in 1761, but not of his books. The pamphlet in question is bound up with about thirty other pamphlets upon kindred subjects. It is a fine copy, with