Bellman of London: Bringing to Light the Most Notorious Villanies that are now practised in this kingdom (1608)

主題 Topic
書刊名 Title	Bellman of London: Bringing to Light the Most Notorious Villanies that are now practised in this kingdom (1608)
作者 Author	Thomas Dekker
出版社 Publisher	EEBO, Proquest
出版年 Year	2010
語言 Language	English
裝訂 Binding	■ 平裝 Paperback　　　　□ 精裝 Hardcover
頁數 Pages	1064 pages
ISBN (10 / 13)	978-1171273073
Bibliography Reference	(STC, Duff, GW . . .)
來源網址 Web Link	http://ppt.cc/TU-N
劇本簡介撰稿者	王儀君
撰寫日期 Date	2014.2.

A.   簡介 Introduction (within 100 words, Chinese or English)

Dekker 是位社會批評者，對於社會各階層的人們觀察入微。在這本〈燈籠與燭光
〉的小冊子裡，Dekker描述行走在深夜，藉著一枚燭火，察探是否有人在街角為非作歹的小人物。Dekker 藉由地獄比喻暗巷，凸顯夜晚工作者，只有一隻狗兒相伴的孤寂感。

B.   文本摘錄 Extracts (4-6 Pages)

Chapter II
It was Term-time in hell (for you must understand, a Lawyer lives there as well as here) by which means Don Lucifer, being the Justice for that County where the Brimstone mines are, had better doings and more rapping at his gates than all the Doctors and Empirical Quack-salvers of ten cities have at theirs in a great Plague-time. The Hall where the Termers were to try their causes was very large and strongly built, but it had one fault: it was so hot that people could not endure to walk there. Yet to walk there they were compelled (by reason they were drawn thither upon occasions) and such jostling there was of one another that it would have grieved any man to be in the throngs amongst them. Nothing could be heard but noise, and nothing of that noise be un it was a sound of men in a kingdom when on a sudden it is in an uproar. Everyone brabbled with him that he walked with, or if he did but tell his tale to his Counsel, he was so eager in the very delivery of that tale that you would have sworn he did brabble. And such gnashing of teeth there was when adversaries met together, that the filing of ten thousand Saws cannot yield a sound more horrible. The Judge of the Court had a devilish countenance, and as cruel he was in punishing those that were condemned by law as he was crabbed in his looks, whilst he sat to hear their trials. But albeit there was no pity to be expected at his hands, yet was he so upright in Justice that none could ever fasten bribe upon him, for he was ready and willing to hear the cries of all comers. Neither durst any Pleader at the Infernal Bar or any officer of the court exact any Fee of Plaintiffs and such as complained of wrongs and were oppressed, but only they paid that were the wrong-doers, those would they see damned ere they should get out of their fingers. Such fellows they were appointed to vex at the very soul.
The matters that here were put in suit were more than could be bred in twenty Vacations, yet should a man be dispatched out of hand. In one Term he had his Judgment, for here they never stand upon Returns, but presently come to Trial. The causes decided here are many; the Clients that complained, many; the Counsellors that plead till they be hoarse, many; the Attorneys that run up and down, infinite; the Clerks of the Court, not to be numbered. All these have their hands full; day and night are they so plagued with the bawling of Clients that they never can rest.
The Ink wherewith they write is the blood of Conjurers. They have no Paper, but all things are engrossed in Parchment and that Parchment is made of Scriveners' Skins flayed off after they have been punished for Forgery. Their Standishes are the Skulls of Usurers; their Pens, the bones of unconscionable Brokers and hard-hearted Creditors that have made Dice of other men's bones, or else of perjured Executors and blind Overseers that have eaten up widows and Orphans to the bare bones. And those Pens are made of purpose without Nibs, because they may cast Ink but slowly, in mockery of those who in their lifetime were slow in yielding drops of pity.
Would you know what actions are tried here? I will but turn over the Records and read them unto you as they hang upon the File:
The Courtier is sued here and condemned for Riots. The Soldier is sued here and condemned for Murders.The Scholar is sued here and condemned for Heresies.The Citizen is sued here and condemned for the City-sins.The Farmer is sued here upon Penal Statutes, and condemned for spoilingthe Markets. Actions of Battery are brought against the Swaggerers, and here they are bound to the Peace. Actions of waste are brought against Drunkards and Epicures, and here they are condemned to beg at the Grate for one drop of cold water to cool their tongues, or one crumb of bread to stay their hunger, yet are they denied it. Harlots have process sued upon them here, and are condemned to Howling, to Rottenness and to Stench.
No acts of Parliament that have passed the Upper house can be broken, but here the breach is punished, and that severely and that suddenly. For here they stand upon no Demurs;no Audita-Queraela can here be gotten; no writs of Error to Reverse Judgment. Here is no flying to a Court of Chancery for relief, yet everyone that comes hither is served with a Subpoena. No, they deal altogether in this Court upon the Habeas Corpus, upon the Capias,upon the Ne exeat Regnum, upon writs of Rebellion, upon heavy Fines but no Recoveries, upon writs of Outlawry to attach the body forever, and last of all upon Executions after Judgment, which being served upon a man is his everlasting undoing.
Such are the Customs and Courses of proceedings in the Offices belonging to the Prince of Darkness. These hot doings hath he in his Term-times. But upon a day when a great matter was to be tried between an Englishman and a Dutchman, which of the two were the foulest Drinkers, and the Case being a long time in arguing by reason that strong evidence came in reeling on both sides, yet it was thought that the Englishman would carry it away, and cast the Dutchman. On a sudden, all was stayed by the sound of a Horn that was heard at the lower end of the Hall. And everyone looking back as wondering at the strangeness, "Room! Room!" was cried, and made through the thickest of the crowd for a certain spirit in the likeness of a post who made away on a little lean Nag up to the Bench where Judge Radamanth with his two grim brothers, Minos and Aeacus, sat. This Spirit was an Intelligencer sent by Beelzebub of Barathrum into some Countries of Christendom to lie there as a Spy, and had brought with him a packet of letters from several Lieges that lay in those Countries in Hell, were publicly read. The letter which stung most and put them all out of their Lawcases, were to this purpose:
That whereas the Lord of the Fiery Lakes had his Ministers in all kingdoms above the Earth, whose offices were not only to win Subjects of other Princes to his obedience but also to give notie own sworn Household or any other that held league with him should revolt or fly from their duty and allegiance, as also discover from time to time all plots, conspiracies, machinations, or underminings that should be laid (albeit they that durst lay them should dig deep enough) to blow up his Great Infernal City. So that if his Horned Regiment were not suddenly mustered together, and did not lustily bestir their cloven stumps, his Territories would be shaken, his Dominions left in time unpeopled, his forces looked into, and his Authority which he held in the world contemned and laughed to scorn. The reason was that a certain fellow, The Child of Darkness, a common Nightwalker, a man that had no man to wait upon him but only a Dog, one that was a disordered Person, and at midnight would beat at men's doors, bidding them in mere mockery to look to their Candles when they themselves were in their dead sleeps, and albeit he was an Officer yet he was but of Light carriage, being known by the name of the Bel-man of London, had oflate not only drawn a number of the Devil's own Kindred into question for their lives, but had also (only by the help of the lantern and candle) looked into the secrets of the Best trades that are taught in Hell, laying them open to the broad eye of the world, making them infamous, odious and ridiculous. Yea, and not satisfied with doing this wrong to his Devilship, very spitefully hath he set them out in print, drawing their pictures so to the life that now a Horsestealer shall not shew his head but a halter with the Hangman's noose is ready to be fastened about it; a Foist nor a Nip shall not walk into a Fair or a Playhouse but every crack will cry, "Look to your Purses"; nor a poor common Rogue come to a man's door but he shall be examined if he can Cant. If this Bawling Fellow therefore have not his mouth stopped, the light Angels that are Coined below will never be able to pass as they have done, but be nailed up for Counterfeits. Hell will have no doings and the Devil be Nobody.
This was the lining of the letter, and this letter drove them all to a Non-plus, because they knew not how to answer it. But at last advice was taken, the Court broke up, the Term was adjourned (by reason that the Hellhounds were thus Plagued) and a Common Council in Hell was presently called how to Redress these Abuses.
The Satanical Synagogue being set, up starts the father of Hell and Damnation,and looking very terribly with a pair of eyes that stared as wide as the mouthgapes at Bishopsgate, fetching four or five deep Sighs (which were nothing else but the Smoke of fire and brimstone boiling in his stomach, and shewed as if he were taking Tobacco, which he oftentimes does) told his children and servants and the rest of the Citizens that dwelt within the freedom of Hell and sat there before him upon narrow low forms, that they never had more cause to lay their heads together and to grow politicians. He and they all knew that from all the corners of the earth some did every hour in a. day creep forth to come and serve him; yea, that many thousands were so bewitched with hisfavors and his rare parts that they would come running quick to him. His dominions, he said, were great, and full of people. Emperors and Kings (in infinite numbers) were his slaves; his court was full of princes. If the world weredivided, as some report, but into three parts, two of those three were his, or if, as others affirm, into four parts, in almost three of that four had he firm footing.
But if such a fellow as a treble-voiced Bel-man should be suffered to pry into the infernal Mysteries and into those Black Acts which command the spirits of the Deep, and, having sucked what knowledge he can from them to turn it all into poison, and to spit it in the very faces of the professors with a malicious intent to make them appear ugly and so to grow hateful and out of favor with the world; if such a conjurer at midnight should dance in their circles and not be driven out of them, Hell in a few vears would not be worth the dwelling in. The great Lord of Limbo did therefore command all his Black guard that stood about him to bestir them in their places, and to defend the court wherein they lived, threatening, besides, that his curse and all the plagues of stinking hell should fall upon his officers, servants, and subjects unless they either advised him how, or to[o]k some speedy order themselves to punish that saucy intelligencer, the Bel-man of London. Thus he spake and then sat.
At fast, a foolish Devil rose up and shot the bolt of his advice, which flew thus far: that the Black dog of Newgate should again be let loose, and afar off follow the Bawling Bel-man, to watch into what places he went, and what deeds of darkness (every night) he did. Hinc risus: the whole Synodical assembly fell a-laughing at the Wiseacre, so that neither he nor his Black-dog durst bark any more. Another, thinking to cleave the very pin with his arrow, drew it home to the head of wisdom, as he imagined, and yet that lighted wide, too. But thus shot, his Council, that the Ghosts of all those Thieves, Cheaters, and others of the damned crew who by the Bel-man's discovery had been betrayed, were taken and sent Westward, should be fetched from those Fields of Horror where every night they walk, disputing with Doctor Story who keeps them company there in his corner cap; and that those wry-necked spirits should have charge given them to haunt the Bel-man in his walks and so fright him out of his wits. This devil, for all his roaring, went away neither with a plaudit nor with a hiss. Others stepped up, some pronouncing one verdict, some another. But at the last, it being put into their Devilish heads that they had no power over him farther than what should be given unto them, it was thus concluced and set down as a rule in Court that some one strange spirit who could transform himself into all shapes should be sent up to London and, scorning to take revenge upon so mean a person as a Bellringer, should thrust himself into such companies, as in awarrant to be signed for that purpose, should be nominated. And being once grown familiar with them, he was to work and win them by all possible means to fight under the dismal and black Colors of Grand Sophy, his Lord and master. The fruit that was to grow upon this Tree of Evil would be great, for it should be fit to be served to Don Lucifer's table as a new banqueting dish, sithence all his other meats, though they fatted him well, were grown stale.
Hereupon, Pamersiel the Messenger was called; a passport was drawn, signed and delivered to him, with certain instructions how to carry himself in this travel. And thus much was openly spoken to him by word of mouth:
"Fly, Pamersiel, with speed to the great and populous City in the West Wind thyself into all shapes. Be a Dog, to fawn; a Dragon, to confound; be a Dove (seem innocent); be a Devil, as thou art; and shew that thou art a Journeyman to Hell. Build rather thy nest amongst willows that bend every way, than on tops of oaks, whose hearts are hard to be broken. Fly with the Swallow, close to the earth, when storms are at hand, but keep company with birds of greater talons when the weather is clear, and never leave them till they look like Ravens. Creep into bosoms that are buttoned up in satin, and there spread the wings of thine infection. Make every head thy pillow to lean upon, or use it like a Mill, only to grind mischief. If thou meetest a Dutchman, drink with him; if a Frenchman, stab; if a Spaniard, betray; if an Italian, poison; if an Englishman, do all this.
"Haunt Taverns. There shalt thou find prodigals. Pay thy twopence to a Player; in his gallery mayst thou sit by a harlot. At Ordinaries mayst thou dine with silken fools. When the day steals out of the world, thou shalt meet rich drunkards tinder welted gowns. Search for threescore in the hundred; hug those golden villains: they shine bright, and will make a good shew in hell. Shriek with a Cricket in the brewhouse, and watch how they conjure there. Ride up and down Smithfield, and play the Jade there. Visit prisons, and teach Jailors how to make nets of iron there. Bind thyself prentice to the best trades, but if thou canst grow extreme rich in a very short t:ime (honestly), I banish thee my kingdom, come no more into hell. I have read thee a lecture. Follow it Farewell."
No sooner was "Farewell" spoken, but the spirit to whom all these matters were given in charge vanished. The Cloven-footed Orator arose, and the whole assembly went about their damnable business.