again. Who, when he recovered, look’d as Wild as a Lunatick at full of the Moon; and then cry’d out as much against the Cold as he did before against the Heat. Upon which, we let run the Cock of Hot Water, till we had almost Parboil’d him; Then he fell into a second Fit, that we thought it proper to take him out of the Bath, and carry him into the Anti-Room for fear he should have Dy’d: Where we shaved one side of his Head and Beard, and fixed on a couple of Cupping-Horns (which we sometimes use) upon his Fore-Head, so carried him to the Back-Door, and turned him a Drift: Who was so Rejoyced, that he found Redemption from the Devils Clutches, that away he run as fast as a Thief under a pursuit; and after him all the Mob and Boys in the Street, crying out, A Mad Cuckold! A Mad Cuckold! And telling the Gentleman what we had done, he return’d us Hearty Thanks, and was mightily pleas’d at our Unluckiness.
THE
THE
London-Spy.
PART X.
A Description of the Wits Coffee-House; with a Character of the Modern Poets. The Character of a Critick. A Poetical Letter from a Lawyer in Town, to an Officer in the Country. Remarks upon the Play-House in Drury-Lane. A Description of Bartholomew-Fair. Remarks on the Cooks at Pye-Corner, and Bartholomew-Fair.
HAVING now, purified our Scorbutick Carcases in a Resemblance of Purgatory, tho’ in a Protestant Country; and made our Skins, by Sweating, Bathing, Rubbing and Scrubbing, as smooth as an old Drum-Head that had been long beaten, we satisfied the Demands of the House, gratified our Groom for extraordinary Pains in Dressing our Dirty Hides, and then departed, finding our Bodies so Refresh’d, and our Spirits so Enliven’d, that we were weary of Grovelling upon the Surface of this Gross World, and began to fancy, like the Flying Quaker, from the Nimble Motions of our Spirits, that we had got Icarus’s Wings, and were able at one Flight to Translate our Sublime Bodies into some Loftier Region, more suitable to our Refin’d Natures; being, as it were, renewed by this Fiery Tryal, and cleans’d of all Corruptions. From thence we adjourn’d to the Wits Coffee-house,
in