Kitely, a cloth merchant, complains to his friend Downright about the poor behavior of Wellbred, a boarder in Kitely’s home and Downright’s half-brother. In describing the conduct ,which he regards as unacceptable, he uses a series of similes that compare his home to various forms of business:
He's grown a stranger to all due respect,
Forgetful of his friends, and not content
To stale himself in all societies,
He makes my house here common as a mart,
A theatre, a public receptacle
For giddy humour, and diseased riot;
And here (as in a tavern, or a stews)
He and his wild associates spend their hours,
In repetition of lascivious jests;
Swear, leap, drink, dance, and revel night by night;
Control my servants; and indeed what not?
Wellbred, Kitely complains, has been inviting guests over in the late hours of the night, making his house “common as a mart, / a theatre, a public spectacle.” In this simile, Kitely suggests that his private home has become a “common” or public business that does not discriminate between guests, in the manner of a “mart” (or store) or a theater. In an additional set of similes, he compares his home to a “tavern” or a “stews” (or stew-house.) Kitely, then, accuses Wellbred of using his home as a bar or meeting-house, engaging in “lascivious jests” (or dirty pranks) and other forms of boisterous revels at night when he ought to be sleeping.
