feathers and no flesh; all show, and no
substance; all fashion, and no feeding; and fit for no service but masks
and May-games. The citizens have dealt with them as it is said the
Indians are dealt with; they have given them counterfeit brooches and
bugle-bracelets for gold and silver;[A] pins and peacock feathers for
lands and tenements; gilded coaches and outlandish hobby-horses for goodly
castles and ancient mansions; their woods are turned into wardrobes, their
leases into laces; and their goods and chattels into guarded coats and
gaudy toys. Should your Majesty fly to them for relief, you would fare
like those birds that peek at painted fruits; all outside." The writer
then describes the affected penurious habits of the grave citizens, who
were then preying on the country gentlemen:--"When those big swoln
leeches, that have thus sucked them, wear rags, eat roots, speak like
jugglers that have reeds in their mouths; look like spittle-men,
especially when your Majesty hath occasion to use them; their fat lies in
their hearts, their substance is buried in their bowels, and he that will
have it must first take their lives. Their study is to get, and their
chiefest care to conceal; and most from yourself, gracious sir; not a
commodity comes from their hand, but you pay a noble in the pound for
_booking_, which they call _forbearing_[B] They think it lost time if they
double not their principal in two years. They have attractive powders to
draw these flies into their claws; they will entice men with honey into
their hives, and with wax entangle them;[C] they pack the cards, and their
confederates, the lords, deal, by which means no other men have ever good
game. They have in a few years laid up riches for many, and yet can never
be content to say--_Soul, take thy rest, or hand receive no more; do no
more wrong:_ but still they labour to join house to house, and land to
land. What want they of being kings, but the name? Look into the shires
and counties, where, with their purchased lordships and manors, one of
their private letters has equal power with your Majesty's privy seal.[D]
It is better to be one of their hinds, than your Majesty's gentleman
usher; one of their grooms, than your guards. What care they, if it be
called tribute or no, so long as it comes in termly: or whether their
chamber be called Exchequer, or the dens of cheaters, so that the money be
left there."

[Footnote A: Sir Giles Mompesson and Sir James M