Thomas Lodge - Broadview Press Publisher's Blog

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being led forth to his execution like an harmless
innocent, the people mustering about the place,
the cursed brother the occasion and compactor of
confusion accompany him, with these or such like
words he finished his life:
“Thou God that knowest the cause of my
untimely death, canst in justice punish my unjust
accusers. Meanwhile take mercy on my poor soul,
who am forsaken of my private friends. Be thou a
safeguard unto me, who am left without succours,
1 and help the desolate widow with her distressed
children.” This said, after some private
conference by permission between his brother and
him, he suffered torment. [...]
[...]
How William with the Long Beard Behaved
Himself to the Courtiers, and of His Love to
His Fair Leman Maudeline. [Chapter 3].
William—having by this means insinuated himself
into the favour of the King, and by that reason
brought citizens in fear of him— 2 like the untoward
child who having an inch stealeth an ell, 3
began to presume above the latchet 4 (as the
proverb is), setting light by all men, animating the
baser sort against the better; so that the nobility
put up much injury at his hands, the clergy were
badly used of him, and the officers of the city
highly offended. The Earl of Durham, then chan-
1 succours supporters, those who aid.
2 Previously, William has exposed Robert Besant’s attempt to
defraud a poor widow of her dead husband’s fortune (40 marks); the
dead man had entrusted this sum with Besant, which Besant had
agreed to invest with an eye to providing for the poor man’s wife and
children. William exposes Besant not out of any altruism, but in
order to curry favour with the citizens as their “champion,” and with
the King and council (William ensures that Besant ends up paying a
huge fine to the King).
3 having an inch … ell Proverb, “Give an inch and he will take an ell”
(Tilley I49), obviously an early modern version of “Give him an inch
and he’ll take a mile” (said of those who abuse a person’s generosity).
4 presume above the latchet Proverb, “to go above or beyond one’s
latchet,” meaning to interfere in matters that are none of a person’s
business.
T HOMAS L ODGE
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cellor and bishop, taking the part of a chapleine 5
of his, who was injuried by a mean and mechanical
townsman, was braved by him in Cheapside, 6
beaten of his horse, and had not the bailiffs of the
city rescued him, the common speeches went, he
should never have courted it more.
A gentleman in court at another time, upbraiding
William of his base estate and birth, told him
that the worst hair in his beard was a better gentleman
than he was, for which cause William,
mightily aggrieved and watching opportunity of
revenge, at last encountered him bravely, mounted
on his footcloth 7 in Friday Street, where taking
him forcibly from his horse, he carried him into a
barber’s shop, and caused both his beard and head
to be shaved close, pleasantly gibing at him in this
sort:
“Gallant, now have I cut off the whole train of
the best gentlemen, you durst compare with me
the last day, and if hereafter you bridle not your
tongue, (as base a gentleman as you make me), I’ll
have you by the ears.”
The King informed hereof, grew highly
offended, but William who wanted neither money,
friends, nor eloquence, so ordered the matter as
his maligners might bark but not bite him. But for
that all his mind was planted on ambition, and his
greatest fear was, lest by over-forward thrusting
himself into state, his cloaked aspiring should be
discovered, he began for a while to leave the court,
to intend 8 only the causes of the poor, and
complot those means, whereby labouring for
mightiness without suspect, he might attain the
same without countercheck; and first to make
show how much his mind was altered from high
climbing, he craftily pretended a new-conceited 9
5 taking the part of a chapleine i.e., taking up the cause of one of
William’s servants, his household chaplain.
6 Cheapside London’s Old Marketplace, extending from the NE
corner of St Paul’s churchyard to the Poultry (Topographical Dict., p.
111).
7 footcloth an ornamented cloth laid on the back of a horse, only
used by those of high rank; by extension, a horse that would be
worthy of such an accoutrement.
8 intend concentrate on.
9 new-conceited newly-conceived.