The London-Bawd: With Her Character and Life | Page 2

go to twenty _Honest-Houses_ and not Meet with. She brings more Wicked Wretches to Repentance than many a good _Preacher_; for, let 'em be as stubborn as they will, yet she'll leave them such a Twinging Remembrance in their Joynts, that their very Bones shall ake, but she'll make them repent that e'er they had to do with her. And to some Notorious Wretches, she'll fix such a visible Mark in their Faces, as shall make 'em the Derision and the Loathing of all People; and so bring 'em to Repentance _with a Pox to 'em_. Yet she has very little Conscience, for she makes nothing of Selling One Commodity to _Twenty Customers_: And for all she cheats them at that rate, she don't fear loosing their Custom. She's often broke, and as often _sets up again_; which She does without any great charge; for three strong Water-Bottles, Two ounces of Tobacco, and a Couple of Countrey Wenches, is as much as will set her up at any Time. Her Breath stinks worse than a Bear-garden, her Furniture consists of a Bed, a Plaister-Box and a Looking Glass: and a Pimp to bring in Customers. She sits continually at a Rack Rent, especially if her Landlord bears office in the Parish, because he may screen her from the Cart and Bridewel. She hath only this one shew of Temperance, that let any Gentleman send for Ten Pottles of Wine in her House, he shall have but Ten Quarts; and if he want it that way, let him pay for't and take it out in Stew'd flesh. She has an Excellent Art in Transforming Persons, and can easily turn a Sempstress into a Waiting-Gentlewoman: But there is a kind of Infection that attends it, for it brings them to the falling Sickness. The Justices Clerk is her very good Friend, and often makes her Peace with the Justice of _Quorum_; for which when he makes her a Visit, She always help him to a fresh Bit, which She lets him have upon her Word; and assures him she won't put a Bad Commodity into his Hand. There is nothing daunts her so much as the Approach of _Shrove-Tuesday_; for she's more afraid of the Mob, than a Debtor of a Serjeant, Or a Bayliff in an Inns of Court. He that hath past under her hath past the Equinoctial; and he that escapes her, has Escap'd a Rock which Thousands have been split upon to their Destruction.
Thus have I briefly represented my Bawd unto the Readers View in her own proper Colours, and set her forth in a true Light. I will therefore thus conclude her Character.
_A Bawd is the chief instrument of evil,_ _Tempter to Sin, and Factor for the _Devil__ Whose sly Temptations has undone more Souls _Than there are Stars between the Worlds two Poles._ _She ruines Families to advance her Treasure,_ _And reaps her Profit out of others _Pleasure_:_ _Pleasures attended with so black a stain,_ _That they at last end in Eternal Pain._ _Her ways so various are, they're hard to tell,_ _By which she does betray poor Souls to Hell._ _Smooth is her Tongue, and Subtile are her ways_ _And by false Pleasures to True Pain betrays._ _The Bane of Virtue, and the Bawd to Vice,_ _Pander to Hell, is this _She-Cockatrice_._ _She's like the Devil, seeking every hour_ _Whom she may first Decoy, and then _Devour_:_ _Let every thinking Mortal then beware,_ _And, that he comes not near her House, take care:_ _For She'll Betray (her fury is so fell)_ _Your Body to the Pox, your Soul to Hell._
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CHAP. II.
_Of Pimps and Panders, what they are: with a Dialogue between a Whore, a Pimp, a Pander, an old Bawd, and a Prodigal Spend-Thrift about Preheminence._
In the House of Sin; I mean in a Bawdy House, there are other Instruments of Wickedness besides Bawds and Whores: For tho' the Bawd be the Person that keeps the House, and manages all in cheif, yet there are other Necessary Hangers-on belonging thereunto; and these are called Pimps and Panders, which are indeed a Sort of He-Bawds, and Procurers of Whores for other Men; of which one who is called a Pimp, is cheifly employ'd abroad, both to bring in Customers, and to procure such Wenches as are willing to be made Whores of: And these are a sort of Persons so far degenerated below humanity that they will sometimes procure their own Wives to be Whore for other Men. As an instance whereof, not long since two Men went into a House, to drink, not thinking it to be a Bawdy-House; but as soon as the Beer was brought in, there came in a Female Creature to 'em, who quickly let 'em understand