He
was likewise the plague of all the tailors about town. He would
send for one of them to take measure of him, but would so
contrive it as to have a most immoderate rising in one of his
shoulders; when his clothes were brought home and tried upon him,
the deformity was removed into the other shoulder, upon which the
tailor begged pardon for the mistake, and mended it as fast as he
could; but on another trial found him as straight-shouldered a
man as one would desire to see, but a little unfortunate in a
hump back. In fact, this wandering tumour puzzled all the
workmen about town, who found it impossible to accommodate so
changeable a customer."
Florian Marchand, "the water-spouter," was another performer who
enjoyed considerable fame. Such was the dexterity of this
conjurer that, "drinking only fountaine-water, he rendered out of
his mouth in severall glasses all sorts of wine and sweete
waters." A Turk, who walked up an almost perpendicular line by
means of his toes, danced blindfold on a tight rope with a boy
dangling from his feet, and stood on his head on the top of a
high mast, shared an equal popularity with Barbara Vanbeck, the
bearded woman, and "a monstrous beast, called a dromedary."
These wondrous sights, together with various others of a like
kind, which were scattered throughout the town and suburbs during
the greater part of the year, assembled in full strength at the
fairs of St. Margaret, Southwark, and St.
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