Philo the gentleman, the fortune teller,
The schoolmaster, the mïdwife and the bawd,
The conjurer, the buyer and the seller
Of painting which with breathing will be thawed,
Doth practice physic, and his credit grows
As doth the ballad-singer's auditory,
Which hath at Temple Bar his standing chose,
And to the vulgar sings an ale-house story.
First stands a porter, then an oyster-wife
Doth stint her cry and stays her steps to hear him,
Then comes a cutpurse ready with his knife,
And then a country client presseth near him.
There stands the constable, there stands the whore,
And hearkening to the song mark not each other.
There by the sergeant stands the debtor poor,
And doth no more mistrust him than his brother.
Thus Orpheus to such hearers giveth music,
And Philo to such patients giveth physic.