Even for an autobiography it can be a tedious read. There are long Protestant theological musings, and often when you think you are about to get a juicy bit of social history, such as when he suddenly mentions being present during a plague outbreak, you instead get more pages of amateur theology.
It is redeemed, however, by what seem to be (apart from theology) his two main interests in life: women and music. The former is more interesting to a general audience, and indeed his attitude to and interactions with women are very curious. He is constantly finding himself in the company of amorous widows, servants and other 'dyverz young women’. And he is often issuing warnings and repeating sayings regarding women:
'lẏk all women, but loov nọn of þem'
'þei be az slippery as ẏs, and will turn az þe wynd and weþerkok'
'in kraftynes, flattering, dissembling and lyeng þei do exsell men'
'women be layzy, & low be lowd. fair be sluttish, and fowll be prowd'
There is also an amusing passage, at least for modern British readers accustomed to being the targets of such stereotypes, where Whythorne recounts travelling to 'low Duchland' and complains about the prevalence of drunkenness. He makes similar complaints about Germany and Italy: 'And whẏll I was in þọz kuntreiz I being sumwhat moleste[d] & trobled with drunkars þạr, bekawz I wold not drink karows and all owt when þ[ey] wold hạv had mee az þay did.'
'Þe Germans and Alman,' he later writes, 'be but blunt and riud, and also geven to delẏt in þeir dayly drink to much.' He then adds that, nevertheless, they aren't as bad as the 'french, Ita[l]iens, and Spanyardz'.
Let us end with a song by Whythorne, 'Buy New Broom':
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