Kaina kai palaia Things new and old, or, A store-house of similies, sentences, allegories, apophthegms, adagies, apologues, divine, morall, politicall, &c. : with their severall applications / collected and observed from the writings and sayings of the learned in all ages to this present by John Spencer ...

Drunkennesse, Whoredom, &c. the generality of them amongst us. [ 1066]

THere is a tale of St. Bridget,* 1.1 that she heard the blessed Virgin say to her Son, Rome is a fruitful Land; to whom he answered, sed zizaniae tantum, onely fruitfull of tares: And as Hugo Cardinalis said of Innocentius, when he departed from Lyons in France; That whereas there were four stews at his coming thither, he had left them but one,* 1.2 urbs tota lupanar, that one reached from one end of the City to the other. Thus it is, that Drunkards were heretofore as rare as Woolvs in Eng∣land, now they are as common as Hogs: Whores were like Owls, onely night-birds; now they keep open house,* 1.3 pay scot and lot with their honest Neighbours: Heretofore we had but some Families of Papists, Schismaticks, and Sectarians; now there's whole Colonyes, Streets, Lanes, and Parishes of the brood of that spotted, Harlot, and crooked Generation.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Cat. test. verit. tom. 2.
• * 1.2

  Mat. Paris in vita. Hen. 3.
• * 1.3

  Seb. Munsters Cosmograph.