that he was more inclinable to listen to present gain. They took the hint, and promised him, that immediately upon his conversion to their persuasion he should become as rich as a Jew. They made use likewise of several other arguments; to wit, That the wisest man that ever was, and inasmuch the richest, beyond all peradventure, was a Jew, videlicet, Solomon. That David, the man after God's own heart, was a Jew also. And most of the children of Israel are suspected for holding the same doctrine. This Mr. Curll at first strenuously denied; for indeed he thought them Roman Catholics, and so far was he from giving way to their temptations, that to convince them of his Christianity he called for a pork griskin. They now promised, if he would poison his wife, and give up his griskin, that he should marry the rich Ben Meymon's only daughter. This made some impression on him. They then talked to him in the Hebrew tongue, which he not understanding, it was observed, had very great weight with him. They now, perceiving that his godliness was only gain, desisted from all other arguments, and attacked him on his weak side, namely, that of avarice. Upon which John Mendez offered him an eighth of an advantageous bargain for the apostles' creed, which he readily and wickedly renounced. He then sold the nine and thirty articles for a bull;* but insisted hard upon black puddings, being a great lover thereof. Joshua Pereira engaged to let him share with him in his bottomry; upon this he was persuaded out of his Christian name; but he still adhered to black puddings. Sir Gideon Lopez tempted him with forty pound subscription in Ram's bubble, for which he was content to give up the four evangelists; and he was now completed a perfect Jew, all but black pudding and circumcision, for both of which he would have been glad to have had a dispensation. At his But on the 17th of March, Mr. Curll (unknown to his wife) came to the tavern aforesaid. entrance into the room he perceived a meagre man, with a sallow countenance, a black forky beard, and long vestment. In his right hand he held a large pair of shears, and in his left a red-hot searing-iron. At sight of this, Mr. Curll's heart trembled within him, and fain would he retire; but he was prevented by six Jews, who laid hands upon Bulls and bears. He who sells that of which he is not possessed, is proverbially said to sell the skin before he has caught the bear. It was the practice of stockjobbers in the year 1720, to enter into contract for transferring S. S. stock at a future time for a certain price; but he who contracted to sell had frequently no stock to transfer, nor did he who bought intend to receive any in consequence of his bargain; the seller was therefore called a bear, in allusion to the proverb; and the buyer a bull, perhaps only as a similar distinction. The contract was merely a wager to be determined by the rise or fall of stock; if it rose, the seller paid the difference to the buyer proportioned to the sum determined by the same computation to the seller. Warton. him, and unbuttoning his breeches, threw him upon the table, a pale pitiful spectacle. He now entreated them in the most moving tone of voice to dispense with that unmanly ceremonial, which if they would consent to, he faithfully promised, that he would eat a quarter of paschal lamb with them the next Sunday following. All these protestations availed him nothing; for they threatened him, that all contracts and bargains should be void, unless he would submit to bear all the outward and visible signs of Judaism. Our apostate hearing this, stretched himself upon his back, spread his legs, and waited for the operation: but when he saw the high priest take up the cleft stick, he roared most unmercifully, and swore several Christian oaths, for which the Jews rebuked him. The savour of the effluvia that issued from him, convinced the old Levite, and all his assistants, that he needed no present purgation; wherefore, without further anointing him, he proceeded in his office; when, by an unfortunate jerk upward of the impatient victim, he lost five times as much as ever Jew did before. They, finding that he was too much circumcised, which, by the levitical law, is worse than not being circumcised at all, refused to stand to any of their contracts: wherefore they cast him forth from their synagogue; and he now remains a most piteous, woeful, and miserable sight at the sign of the Old Testament and Dial in Fleet-street; his wife, poor woman, is at this hour lamenting over him, wringing her hands, and tearing her hair; for the barbarous Jews still keep, and expose at Jonathan's and Garraway's, the memorial of her loss, and her husband's indignity. PRAYER. [To save the stamp.] Keep us, we beseech thee, from the hands of such barbarous and cruel Jews, who albeit they abhor the blood of black puddings, yet thirst they vehemently after the blood of white ones. And that we may avoid such like calamities, may all good and welldisposed Christians be warned by this unhappy wretch's woeful example, to abominate the heinous sin of avarice, which, sooner or later, will draw them into the cruel clutches of Satan, Papists, Jews, and stockjobbers. Amen. |