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Dic. Here is Gammer Gurton, your neighbour, a sad and hevy wight,

Her goodly faire red cock at home, was stole this last night.

Chat. Gog's soul! her cock with the yelow legs, that nightly crowed so just ?

Die. That cocke is stollen.

Chat. What, was he fet out of the hen's ruste ? Dic. I can not tel where the devil he was kept, under key or locke.

But Tib hath tykled in Gammer's eare, that you should steale the cocke.

Chat. 4 Have I strong hoore, by bread and salte

Dic. What softe, I say be styl. Say not one word for all this geare. Chat. By the masse, that I wyl,

I wil have the yong bore by the head, and the old trot by the throte.

Dic. Not one word, dame Chat, I say, not one word for my coté.

Chat. Shall such a begar's brawle as that, thinkest thou, make me a theefe? The pocks light on her hores sydes, a pestilence and mischeefe.

Come out, thou hungry nedy bytche; O that my nails be short!

Dic. Gog's bread, woman, hold your peace, this gere wil else passe sport;

I wold not for an hundred pound, this matter shuld be knowen,

That I am auctour of this tale, or have abrode it blowen.

Did ye not sweare ye wold be ruled, before the tale I tolde?

I said ye must all secret keëpé, and ye said sure ye wolde.

Chat. Wolde you suffer your self, Diccon, such a sort to revile you,

With

slaunderous words to blot your name, and so to defile you?

Dic. No, good wife Chat, I wold be loth such drabs shulde blot my name;

But yet ye must so order all, that Diccon beare no blame.

Chat. 42 Go to then, what is your fede, say on your minde, ye shall mee rule herein. Dic. Godamercye dame Chat, in faith thou must the gere begin:

It is twenty pound to a goose turd my Gammer will not tary.

But hether ward she comes as fast as her legs can her cary,

To brawle with you about her cocke; for well I hard Tyb say,

The cocke was rosted in your house, to breakfast yesterday:

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And when ye had the carcas eaten, the fethers ye out flunge,

And Dol, your maid, the legs she hid a foote depe in the dunge.

Chat. O gracyous God, my heart it burstes! Dic. Well, rule your self a space,

And Gammer Gurton, when she commeth, anon into thys place,

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41 Have I? strong hoore, by bread and salte—this oath occurs again, A. 5. §. 2 :—

"Yet shal ye find no other wight save she, by bread and salt.”

From the following passage, in Nash's Lenten Stuff, 1599, it may be inferred, that it was once enstomary to eat bread and salt previous to the taking an oath: "Venus, for Hero was her priest, and Juno Lucina the midwife's goddess, for she was now quickned, and cast away by the cruelty of Eolus, took bread and salt, and eat it, that they would be smartly revenged on that truculent, windy jailor," &c. 42 Go to then, what is your rede, say on your minde, ye shall mee rule herein-rede, i. e. counsel or advice. So, in A. 4. S. 2:

Again,

Therefore I rede you three, go hence, and within keepe close.

Well, if ye will be ordred, and do by my reade.

Again, A. 5. S. 2 ;~~

And where ye sat he said ful certain, if I wold folow his read.

Again, in Erasmus's Praise of Folie, by Chaloner, Sig. D 4: "Untes perchaunce some would chose suche a souldier as Demosthenes, who folowyng Archilocus, the poetes rede scarce lookynge his enemies in the face, threw downe his sheelde, and ranne awaie as cowardly a warriour as he was a wyle oratour."

The old version of the singing psalms also begins in this manner :

The man is blest, that hath not bent

To wicked rede his ear.

Then to the queane let's see ye 43 tell her your | But loke what lieth in both their harts, ye ar like

mynd, and spare not,

So shall Diccon blamelesse bee; and then go to,
I care not.

Chat. Then hoore, beware her throte, I can
abide no longer :

In faith, old witch, it shal be seene which of us two be stronger;

And Diccon, but at your request, I wold not stay one howre.

Dic. Well, keepe it in till she be here, and then out let it powre."

In the meane while, get you in, and make no wordes of this;

More of this matter within this howre to bere you shall not miss.

Because I know you are my friend, hide it I cold not doubtles:

Ye know your harin, see ye be wise about your owne busines.

So fare ye well.

Chat. Nay, soft Diccon, and drynke: what,
Dol, I say,

Bringe here a cup of the best ale, let's see, come
quicly awaye.

THE THIRD SCEANE.

HODGE, DICCON.

Dic. Ye see, masters, that one end tapt of this my short devise,

Now must we broche t'other to, before the smoke arise,

And by the time they have a while run,

I trust ye need not crave it,

sure to have it.

Hodge. Yea, Gog's soul, art alive yet? what
Diccon, dare ich come?

Dic. A man is wel hied to trust to thee, I wil
say nothing but mum.

But and ye come any nearer, I pray you see all

be sweete.

44

Hodge. Tush man, is Gammer's neele found? that chould gladly weete.

for

Dic. She may thanke thee it is not found;
if you had kept thy standing,
The devil he wold have fet it out, ev'n Hodge,
at thy commanding.

Hodge. Gog's hart! and cold he tel nothing
wher the neele might be found?
Dic. Ye foolysh dolt, ye were to seek, ear we
had got our ground;

Therfore his tale so doubtfull was, that I could
not perceive it.

Hodge. Then ich se wel somthing was said, chope one day yet to have it.

45 But Diccon, Diccon, did not the devill cry, ho, ho, ho?

Dic. If thou hadst taryed where thou stood'st, thou woldest have said so.

Hodge. Durst swere of a boke, chard him rore, streight after ich was gone;

But tel me, Diccon, what said the knave, let me here it anon.

Dic. The horson talked to mee, I know not well of what:.

46 One whyle his tonge it ran, and paltered of a

cat,

Another whyle he stammered styll upon a rat;

43 Addition.

4 Tush man,

is Gammer's neele found? that chould gladly weete-i. e. gladly know. So, in Shake. speare's Antony and Cleopatra, A. 1. S. 1 :

66 - in which, I bind,

On pain of punishment, the world to weete,
We stand up peerless.'

The word weet is also used by Spenser and Fairfax.

45 But Diccon, Diccon, did not the devill cry, ho, ho, ho?—In the ancient moralities, and in many of the earliest entertainments of the stage, the devil is introduced as a character, and it appears to have been customary to bring him before the audience with this cry of ho, ho, ho. See particularly the Devil is an Ass, by Ben Jonson, A. 1. S. 1. From the following passages, in Wily Beguiled, 1606, we learn the manner in which the character used to be dressed: "Tush! feare not the dodge: I'll rather put on my flashing red nose and my flaming face, and come wrap'd in a calf's skin, and cry, ho, ho, &c." Again," I'll put me on my great carnation nose, and wrap me in a rowsing calf's skin suit, and come like some hobgoblin, or some devil ascended from the grisly pit of hell; and like a scarbabe make him take his legs: I'll play the devil, I warrant ye."

46 One whyle his tonge it ran, and paltered of a cat—to palter is, as Dr Johnson explains it, to shuffle, with ambiguous expressions. Thus:

"And be these juggling fiends no more believ'd,

That palter with us in a double sense."

Macbeth, A. 5. S. 7.

In confirmation of Dr Johnson's explanation, Mr Steevens produces the following instances :—

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Last of all there was nothing but every word chat, chat;

But this I well perceyved before I wold him rid, Betweene chat and the rat, and the cat, the nedle is hyd:

Now wether Gyb our cat have eate it in her

mawe,

Or doctor Rat our curat have found it in the straw,

Or this dame Chat your neighbour have stollen it, God hee knoweth;

But by the morrow at this time, we shal learn how the matter goeth.

Hodge. Canst not learn to night, man; seest not what is here?

[Pointyng behind to his torne breeches. Dic. Tys not possyble to make it sooner appere. Hodge. Alas, Diccon, then chave no shyft; but least ich tary to longe,

Hye me to Sym Glover's shop, théare to seeke for a thonge,

Therwith this breech to tatche and tye as ich may. Dic. To morow, Hodge, if we chaunce to meete, shall see what I will say.

THE FOURTH SCEANE.
DICCON, GAMMER.

Dic. Now this gere must forward goe, for here my Gammer commeth:

Dic. Mary, fye on them that be worthy; but what shuld be your troble?

Gam. Alas, the more ich thinke on it, my sor row it waxeth double.

My goodly tossyng Sporyar's neele, chave lost ich wot not where.

Dic. Your neele? whan?

Gam. My ueele, alas! ich myght full ill it spare. As God himselfe he knoweth nere one besyde chave.

Dic. If this be all, good Gammer, I warrant you all is save.

Gam. Why, know you any tydings which way my neele is gone?

Dic. Yea, that I do, doubtlesse, as ye shall here anone,

A see a thing this matter toucheth, within these twenty howres,

Even at this gate, before my face, by a neyghbour of yours;

She stooped me downe, and up she toke a needle or a pyn;

I durst be sworne it was even yours, by all my mother's kyn.

Gam. It was my neele, Diccon, ich wot; for here even by this poste

Ich sat, what time as ich up starte, and so my neele is loste:

47 Who was it, leive son? speke ich pray the, and quickly tell me that.

Be still a while, and say nothing, make here a lit-Dic.

tle romth.

Gam. Good lord! shall never be my lucke my ncele agayne to spye?

A suttle queane as any in this towne, your neyghboure here, dame Chat. Gam. Dame Chat! Diccon, let me be gone,

48

Alas the whyle, tys past my helpe; where 'tis, .still it must lye.

Dic.

chil thyther in post haste. Take my councell yet, or ye go, 4o for feare ye walke in wast.

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murrion crafty drab, and froward to be pleased,

I feare me, by my conscience, you will sure fall to madnes.

Gam. Who is that? what, Diccon? cham lost, man: fye, fye.

take not the better way, your 49 nedle yet ye lose it:

For when she took it up, even here before your doores,

And ye

47 Who was it, leive son ?Who was it, dear son? So, in the Ballad of Adam Bell, Clym of the Clough, and William of Cloudesly:

Ye myght have asked towres and townes,

Parkes and forestes plente,

But none soe pleasant to my pay, shee sayd;

Nor none so lefe to me.

Percy's Reliques, Vol. I. 167.

48 Take my councell yet, or ye go-i. e. ere ye go. As in the following instances:

A. 3. S. Ich know who found it, and tooke it up shalt see or it be longe."
A. 4. S. 2 :-" That or ye cold go twyce to church, I warrant you here news."
1bid." But or all came to an ende, I set her in a dumpe."

Hall's Chronicle, Henry IV. 1550, p. 8 :-" But or this deposition was executed in time, he came to Westminster, &c."

Ibid. p. 28" Wherof the kyng beyng advertysed, caused a great army to be assembled and marched toward his enemies, but or the kyng came to Notyngham, &c."

Ascham's Toxophilus :-"For first, as it is manye a yeare or they begin to be great shooters, &c.”— See also Mr Steevens's Shakespeare, Vol. V. p. 101,

49 Your-our, first edition.

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The tonge it went on patins, by hym that Judas solde;

Ech other worde I was a knave, and you a hore of hores,

Because I spake in your behalfe, and sayde the
neele was yours.

Gam. 5 Gogs bread! and thinks the callet
thus to kepe my neele me fro?
Dic. Let her alone, and she minds non other,
but even to dresse you so.

Gam. By the masse, chil rather spend the cote
that is on my backe,

Thinks the false quean by such a slight 52 that chill my neele lacke?

Dic. Slip not your 53 gere, I counsell you, but of this take good hede,

Let not be knowen I told you of it, how well soever ye spede.

Gam. Chil in, Diccon, a cleene aperne to take, and set before me;

And ich may my necele once see, chil sure remember the.

THE FIFTH SCEANE,

Dic. Here will the sporte begin, if these two once may meete,

Their chere, durst lay money, will prove scarsly

sweete.

My Gammer sure entends to be uppon her bones,
With staves, or with clubs, or els with coble

$tones.

Dame Chat on the other syde, if she be far behynde,

I am right far deceived, she is geven to it of kynde.

He that may tarry by it a whyle, and that but
shorte,

I warrant hym trust to it, he shall see all the sporte,
Into the towne will I, my frendes to vysit there,
And hether straight againe to see th' end of this
gere.
54 In the meane time, felowes, pype upp your
fiddles, I saie take them,

And let your freyndes here such myrth as ye can
make them.

THE FIRST SCEANE.

THE THIRD ACTE.

Hodge. Sym Glover yet gramercy! cham meetlye well sped now,

Th'art even as good a felow as ever kyste a cowe.

Here is a thynge 55 in dede, by the masse though ich speake it,

56 Tom Tankard's great bald curtal, I thinke could not breake it.

50 And home she went as brag as it had ben a bodelouce" As brisk as a body-louse, was formerly proverbial."-See Ray's Proverbs, 1742, p. 210.

51 Gogs bread! and thinks the callet thus to kepe my neele me fro?" Callet, a lewd woman, a drab; perhaps so called from the French calote, which was a sort of head-dress worn by country girls.”—See Glossary to Urry's Chaucer.

So, in the Supposes, by Geo. Gascoigne, A. 5. S. 6: "Come hither, you old callat, you tattling huswife: that the devil cut out your tongue," See other instances in Dr Grey's notes on Shakespeare, Vol. II. p. 41.

Again, Ben Jonson's Fox, A. 4. S. 3:

"Why, the callet

52 Slygh. First edition,

You told me of, here I have ta'en disguis'd,"

53 Slept not you gere. First edition, 54 In the meane time, felowes, pype upp, &c.-This passage evidently shews, that music playing between the acts was introduced in the earliest of our dramatic entertainments.. 55 Mr Dodsley altered this word to thong.

56 Tom Tankard's great bald curtal-curtal is a small horse; properly one who hath his tail docked or curtailed. So, in Dekker's Villanies discovered by Lanthorne and Candlelight, &c. 1620, Sig. H: “Ho

66

And when he spyed my neede, to be so straight and hard,

Hays lent me here his naull, to set the gyb forward.

As for my Gammer's neele, the flyenge feynd go

weete,

Chill not now go to the doore again with it to

meete.

Chould make shyfte good enough, and chad a candels ende,

The cheefe hole in my breeche, with these two chill amende.

THE SECOND SCEANE.
GAMMER, HODGE.

Gum. How, Hodge! mayst nowe be glad, cha newes to tell thee,

Ich knowe who hais my neele, ich trust soone shalt it see.

Hodge. The devyll thou does: hast hard Gammer in deede, or doest hut jest? Gam. Tys as true as steele, Hodge. Hodge. Why, knowest well where dydst leese it?

Gam. Ich know who found it, and tooke it up, shalt see or it be longe.

Hodge. God's mother deere, if that be true, farwel both naule and thong.

But who hais it, Gammer, say? one chould faine

here it disclosed.

Gam. That false fixen, that same dame Chat, that counts her sclfe so honest.

Hodge. Who told you so?

Gam. That same did Diccon the bedlam, which saw it done.

Hodge. Diccon! it is a vengeable knave, Gammer, 'tis a bonable horson,

Can do mo things than that, els cham deceyved evil :

By the masse ich saw him of late cal up a great blacke devyll.

O, the knave cryed ho, ho, he roared and he thundred,

And ye'ad bene here, cham sure you'ld murrenly

ha wondred.

Gam. Was not thou afraide, Hodge, to see him in this place?

Hodge. No, and chad come to me, chould have laid him on the face, Chould have promised him.

Gam. But Hodge, had he no horns to pushe? Hodge. As long as your two armes. Saw ye

never fryer Rushe

Painted on a cloth, with a side long cowe's tayle, And crooked cloven feet, and many a hoked nayle?

For al the world (if I shuld judg) chould recken him his brother:

57 Loke even what face fryer Rush had, the devil had such another.

Gam. Now Jesus mercy, Hodge, did Diccon in him bring?

Hodge. Nay, Gammer, (heare me speke,) chil tel you a greater thing.

The devil, when Diccon bad him (ich hard him wondrous weel)

Sayd plainly (here before us) that dame Chat had your neele.

Gam. Then let us go, and aske her wherefore she minds to kepe it,

Seeing we know so much, 'tware madness now to slepe it.

Hodge. Go to her, Gammer, see ye not where she stands in her doores?

Byd her geve you the neele, 'tis none of hers but yours.

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could shewe more crafty foxes in this wild goose chase, then there are white foxes in Russia; and more strange horse-trickes plaide by such riders, then Bankes his curtal did ever practise (whose gambals of the two were the honester.)"

57 Loke even what face fryer Rush had-fryar Rush is mentioned in Reginald Scot's Discoverie of Witcheraft, 1584, p. 522: " Frier Rush was for all the world such another fellow as this Hudgin, and brought up even in the same schoole; to wit, in a kitchen: insomuch as the selfe-same tale is written of the one as of the other, concerning the skullian, which is said to have beene slaine, &c. For the reading whereof 1 referre you to frier Rush his storie, or else to John Wierus De prastigiis demonum.” 59 On.

51 Me.

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