en should these men find that a wall
of men is farre better than stackes of corne and bags of monie, and
complaine of the want when it is too late to seeke remedie."

The sham beggars, he says, "are all theeues and caterpillers in the
commonwealth, and by the word of God not permitted to eat." Then he makes
extracts from Harman about the rogues, among whom, by statute, are
"plaiers and minstrels," Shakspere and his fellows, etc.

In the chapter on the "Punishments appointed for Malefactors," our author
notes that "our condemned persons doo go ... cheerfullie to their deths,
for our nation is free, stout, hautie, prodigall of life and bloud;" that
the punishment for "robbing by the high waie" (like Sir John Falstaff's),
"cutting of purses," "stealing of deere by night" (like Shakspere's, if
he ever stole deer from Sir Thomas Lucy, who had no park in his time), was
death; and that the punishment for adultery and fornication was not sharp
enough:--

"As in theft therfore, so in adulterie and whoredome, I would wish
the parties trespassant, to be made bond or slaues vnto those that
receiued the iniurie, to sell and giue where they listed, or to be
condemned to the gallies: for that punishment would proue more bitter
to them than halfe an houres hanging, or than standing in a sheet,
though the weather be neuer so called."

He also complains of the robberies by unthrift young gentlemen, and
"seruing-men whose wages cannot suffice so much as to find them breeches;"
and that selfish men, and even constables, in the country, won't leave
their work to follow up thieves and take them to prison:[45] this "I haue
knowne by mine owne experience."

The chapter, "Of the manner of Building and Furniture of our Houses," is
perhaps the best, and the best-known, in the book. It describes how
English houses were built, and notes these new things, 1. that rich men
were beginning to use stoves for sweating baths; while, 2. all men were
using glass for windows; 3. that timber-houses were giving way to brick
and stone; and that though our workmen were excellent, their demands for
high wages often causd strangers to be employd in building; 4. the
increast richness of furniture, not only in rich men's houses, but in
those of "the inferiour artificers and manie farmers," who "now garnish
their cupbords with plate, their ioined beds with tapistrie and silke
hangings, and their tables with carpets & fi