]
[Footnote 64:
St. Paul's Cathedral was, during the reigns of Elizabeth and James, a
sort of exchange and public parade, where business was transacted
between merchants, and where the fashionables of the day exhibited
themselves. The reader will find several allusions to this custom in the
_variorum_ edition of Shakspeare, _K. Henry IV._, part 2. Osborne, in
his _Traditional Memoires on the Reigns of Elisabeth and James_, 12mo,
1658, says, "It was the fashion of those times (James I.) and did so
continue till these, (the interregnum,) for the principal gentry, lords,
courtiers, and men of all professions, not merely mechanicks, to meet in
_St. Paul's _church by eleven, and walk in the middle isle till twelve,
and after dinner from three to six; during which time some discoursed of
business, others of news." Weever complains of the practice, and says,
"it could be wished that walking in the middle isle of _Paul's_ might be
forborne in the time of diuine service." _Ancient Funeral Monuments_,
1631, page 373.]
[Footnote 65:
In the _Dramatis Personal_ to Ben Jonson's _Every Man in his Humour_,
Bobadil is styled a _Paul's man_; and Falstaff tells us that he bought
Bardolph in _Pauls_. _King Henry IV_., part 2.]
[Footnote 66:
----"You'd not doe
Like your penurious father, who was wont
_To walk his dinner out in Paules._"
--Mayne's _City Match_, 1658.]
[Footnote 67:
The time of supper was about five o'clock.
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