Who was it, leive son? speke ich pray the, and quickly tell me that. Diccon. A suttle queane as any in this towne, your neyghboure here, dame Chat. Gammer. Dame Chat! Diccon, let me be gone, chil thyther in post haste. Diccon. 48 Take my councell yet, or ye go, for feare ye walke in wast. It is a murrion crafty drab, and froward to be pleased, And take not the better way, your 49 nedle yet ye ye lose it: For when she tooke it up, even here before your doores, What soft, dame Chat (quoth I) that same is none of yours. Avaunt (quoth she) syr knave, what pratest thou of that I fynd? I wold thou hadst kist me I wot whear: (she ment I know behind) 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, or ye go,] i. e. ere ye go. As in the following instances: A. 3. S. 2: "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." Ibid. "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 West"minster, &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 Shakspeare, vol. V. p. 101. 49 your] our, first edition. 50 And home she went as brag as it had ben a bodelouce, And I after her, as bold as it had ben the goodman of the house: But there and ye had hard her, how she began to scolde, 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. Gammer. 51 Gogs bread! and thinks the callet thus to kepe my neele me fro? Diccon. Let her alone, and she minds non other, but even to dresse you so. Gammer. 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? Diccon. 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. 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. 219. 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 Shakspeare, vol. II p. 41. Again, Ben Jonson's Fox, A. 4. S. 3: Why, the callet "You told me of here I have ta'en disguis'd." Callett is elsewhere used for stupid, inactive: Bid maudlin lay the cloth, take up the meat; Englishman for my Money, 4to. 1631. 52 slygh. First Edition. 53 Slepe not you gere. First Edition. O. G. Gammer. Chil in, Diccon, a cleene aperne to take, and set before me; And ich may my neele once see, chi! sure remember the. THE SECOND ACTE. THE FIFTH SCEANE. Diccon. Here will the sporte begin, if these two Their chere, durst lay money, will prove scarsly sweete. And let your freyndes here such mirth as ye can make them. THE THIRD ACTE. THE FYRST SCEANE. Hodge. Sym Glover yet gramercy! cham meetlye well sped now, Th'art even as good a felow as ever kyste a cowe. * coble stones] i. e. pebble-stones. A cobble, in the north, signifies a pebble. To cobble, is to thraw stones. See Ray. S. t of kynde.] i. e. by nature. S. 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. 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. 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 THIRD ACTE. THE SECOND SCEANE. GAMMER. HODGE. Gammer. 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 but jest? Gammer. Tys as true as steele, Hodge. Hodge. Why, knowest well where dydst leese it? 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.: "He 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)." to set the gyb forward.] A naval phrase. The gib is the gib-sail. To set a sail, is also the technical term. S. Gammer. Ich know who found it, and tooke it up, shalt see or it be longe. Hodge. God's mother dere, if that be true, farwel both naule and thong. But who hais it, gammer, say? one chould faine here it disclosed. Gammer. That false fixen, that same dame Chat, that counts her selfe so honest. Hodge. Who tolde you so? Gammer. 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 devill. O, the knave cryed ho, ho, he roared and he thundred, And ye'ad bene here, cham sure you'ld murrenly ha wondred. Gammer. 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. Gammer. But Hodge, had he no horns to pushe? Hodge. As long as your two armes. fryer Rushe Saw ye never Painted on a cloth, with a side long cowe's tayle, 57 Loke even what face frier Rush had, the devil had such another. - bonable] I suppose he means to say banable, from to ban, to curse; a rogue that ought to be execrated. S. 57 Loke even what face frier Rush had,] Fryar Rush is mentioned in Reginald Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft, 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 selfesame tale is written of the one as of the |