It is said, also, that the old verses, so well known, were appended to the brass, or, rather, engraved on his tombstone.
"As I was, so are ye, As I am, you shall be, That I had, that I gave, That I gave, that I have. Thus I end all my cost, That I felt, that I lost."
But there is one well must not be lost sight of; for, in its small way, it was tributary to the Fleet--and that is Clerk's Well, or Clerkenwell, which gives its name to a large district of London. It was of old repute, for we see, in Ralph Aggas' Map of London, published about 1560, a conduit spouting from a wall, into a stone tank or trough. This is, perhaps, the earliest pictorial delineation of it; but FitzStephen mentions it under "_fons Clericorum_" so called, it is said, from the Parish Clerks of London, who chose this place for a representation of _Miracle Plays_, or scenes from Scripture realistically rendered, as now survives in the Ober Ammergau Passion Play. This little Company, which still exists as one of the City Guilds, has never attained to the dignity of having a livery, but they have a Hall of their own (in Silver Street, Wood Street, E.C.), and in their time have done good service in composing the "Bills of Mortality;" and gruesome pamphlets they were--all skulls, skeletons, and cross-bones--especially during the great Plague.
These plays were, as I have said, extremely realistic. One, played at Chester A.D. 1327,[73] represented Adam and Eve, both stark naked, but, afterwards, they wore fig leaves. The language used in them, would to our ears be coarse, but it was the language of the time, and, probably, men and women were no worse than they are now. But, at all events this Guild, which was incorporated in the 17 Henry III. A.D. 1232, used occasionally to delight their fellow Citizens with dramatic representations in the open air (as have lately been revived in the "Pastoral plays" at Wimbledon) at what was then an accessible, and yet a rural, suburb of London.
Hence the name--but the well, alas, is no more--but when I say that, I mean that it is no longer available to the public. That it does exist, is well known to the occupier of the house where it formerly was in use, for the basement has frequently to be pumped dry. The neighbourhood has been so altered of late years, that its absolute site was somewhat difficult to fix; yet any one can identify it for themselves from the accompanying slight sketch of the locality as it existed over sixty years since. Ray Street (at least this portion of it) is now termed Farringdon Road, and what with Model lodging-houses, and underground railways, its physical and geographical arrangement is decidedly altered.