Balliol. The old man went back to his college, and informed his
fellows, "that he was assured there were no hurt in ale, so that now
they may be sots by authority." Christ Church men were not more
sober. David Whitford, who had been the tutor of Shirley the poet,
was found lying dead in his bed: "he had been going to take a dram
for refreshment, but death came between the cup and the lips, and
this is the end of Davy." Prideaux records, in the same feeling
style, that smallpox carried off many of the undergraduates, "besides
my brother," a student at Corpus.

The University Press supplied Prideaux with gossip. They printed "a
book against Hobs," written by Clarendon. Hobbes was the heresiarch
of the time, and when an unhappy fellow of Merton hanged himself, the
doctrines of Hobbes were said to have prompted him to the deed. To
return to the Press. "Our Christmas book will be Cornelius Nepos . .
. Our marbles are now printing." Prideaux, as has been said, took no
interest in his own work.


"I coat (quote) a multitude of authors; if people think the better of
me for that, I will think the worse of them for their judgement. It
beeing soe easyly a thinge to make this specious show, he must be a
fool that cannot gain whatsoever repute is to be gotten by it. If
people will admire him for this, they may; I shall admire such for
nothing else but their good indexs. As long as books have these, on
what subject may we not coat as many others as we please, and never
have read one of them?"


It is not easy to gather from this confession whether Prideaux had or