If
I had any profession, it was of this nature: I should never have denied
being a taylor, had I been one; for there is no calling so base, which
by God's mercy may not afford a livelihood; and had not my master
entertained me, I would have been of a very mean profession ere I would
have returned into the country again; so here ends the actions of
eighteen years of my life.
My master married his second wife for her estate; she was competently
rich; she married him for considerations he performed not, (nocturnal
society) so that they lived very uncomfortably; she was about seventy
years of age, he sixty-six or more; yet never was any woman more jealous
of a husband than she; insomuch, that whensoever he went into London,
she was confident of his going to women; by those means my life was the
more uncomfortable, it being very difficult to please two such opposite
natures: however, as to the things of this world I had enough, and
endured their discontents with much sereneness. My mistress was very
curious to know of such as were then called cunning or wise men, whether
she should bury her husband? She frequently visited such persons, and
this occasion begot in me a little desire to learn something that way,
but wanting money to buy books, I laid aside these motions, and
endeavoured to please both master and mistress.
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