CHARACTER.

_Of one that_ Zanys _the good Companion_.


He is a wit of an under Region, grosly imitating on the lower rope,
what t'other does neatly on the higher; and is only for the laughter
of the vulgar; whilst your wiser and better sort can scarcely smile at
him: He talks nothing but kennel-raked fluff, and his discourse is
rather like fruit cane up rotten from the ground, than freshly
gathered from the Tree. He is so far from a courtly wit, as his
breeding seems only to have been i' th' Suburbs; or at best, he seems
only graduated good company in a Tavern (the Bedlam of wits) where men
are mad rather than merry; here one breaking a jest on the Drawer, or
a Candlestick; there another repeating the old end of a Play, or some
bawdy song; this speaking bilk, that nonsense, whilst all with loud
houting and laughter confound the _Fidlers_ noise, who may well be
call'd a noise indeed, for no _Musick_ can be heard for them; so
whilst he utters nothing but old stories, long since laught thridbare,
or some stale jest broken twenty times before: His _mirth_ compared
with theirs, new and at first hand, is just like _Brokers_ ware in
comparison with _Mercers_, or _Long-lane_ compar'd unto _Cheap-side_:
his wit being rather the _Hogs-heads_ than his own, favouring more of
_Heidelberg_ than of _Hellicon_, and he rather a drunken than a good
companion.

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