and poems, all sorts of gorgeous raiments, boastful tales and flattering
mirrors; every pigment and lotion to beautify the face; every high office
and title--in short, everything is there which makes a man think better
of himself and worse of others than he ought. The chief officers of this
treasury are masters of the ceremonies, roysters, heralds, bards,
orators, flatterers, dancers, tailors, gamblers, seamstresses and the
like."

From this street we went to the next where the Princess of Lucre rules
supreme; this street was crowded and enormously wealthy; yet not half so
magnificent and clean as the Street of Pride, nor its people so foolishly
haughty, for here they were for the most part skulking and sly.
Thousands of Spaniards, Dutchmen, Venetians, and Jews were here, and also
a great many aged people. "Prithee, sir," said I, "what manner of men
might these be?" "They are pinchfists one and all. In the lower end
thou shalt see the Pope once more together with conquerors of kingdoms
and their soldiery, oppressors, foresters, obstructors of public paths,
justices and their bribers, and all their progeny from the barrister to
the constable; on the other side, physicians, apothecaries, leeches,
misers, merchants, extortioners, money lenders, withholders of tithes,
wages, rents or doles left to schools, almhouses and the like; drovers,
dealers who regulate the market for their own benefit; shopmen (or
rather, sharpers) who profit on the need or ignorance of their customers;
stewards of all grades; clippers {14a} and innkeepers who despoil the
idlers' family of their goods and the country of its barley, which would
otherwise be made into bread for the poor. All these are arrant robbers,
the others in the upper end of the street are mostly small fry, such as
highwaymen, tailors, weavers, millers, grocers and so on."

In the midst of this I could hear a terrible commotion towards the far