THE FIRST ACTE. THE FIFTH SCEANE. GAMMER. TYB. COCKE. HODGE. Gammer. How now, Tyb! quicke, lets here what newes thou hast brought hether? Tib. Chave tost and tumbled yender heap over and over againe, And winowed it through my fingers, as men wold winow grain; Not so much as a hen's turd, but in pieces I tare it. Gammer. 18 Alas, my neele we shall never meete! adue, adue for aye. Tib. Not so, Gammer, we myght it fynde, if we knew where it laye. Cocke. Gog's crosse, Gammer, if ye will laugh, looke in but at the doore, And see how Hodge lieth tomblynge and tossing amids the floure, Rakyng there, some fyre to find amonge the ashes dead, Where there is not one sparke so byg as a pyn's head: At last in a darke corner two sparkes he thought he sees, Which where indede nought els, but Gyb our cat's two eyes. 18 Alas, my neele we shall never mete! adue, adue for aye.] Adieu, adieu for ever. As in the following instances: For aye to be in shady cloister mew'd. Midsummer Night's Dream, A. 1. And sit for aye enthronized in heaven. Whereas the other makes us live for aye. Marlow's Edward 11. Tragedy of Crasus, 1604. p. 565 -Let this pernicious hour, Stand aye accursed in the Calendar. See Mr. Steevens's Shakspeare, vol. III. p. 7. vol. IV. Puffe, quod Hodge, thinking thereby to have fyre without doubt; With that Gyb shut her two eyes, and so the fyre was out; And by and by them opened, even as they were before, With that the sparkes appered even as they had done of yore; And even as Hodge blew the fire as he did thincke, Gyb, as she felt the blast, strayght way began to wyncke; Till Hodge fell of swering, as came best to his turne, The fier was sure bewicht, and therfore wold not burne: At last Gyb up the stayers, among the old postes and pinnes, And Hodge he hied him after, til broke were both his shinnes: Cursynge and sweering oths, were never of his makyng, That Gyb wold fyre the house, if that shee were not taken. Gammer. See here is all the thought that the foolish urchyn taketh! And Tyb methinke at his elbowe, almost as mery maketh. This is all the wyt ye have when others make their mone. Come downe Hodge, where art thou? and let the cat alone. Hodge. Gogs harte, help and come up, Gyb in her tayle hath fyre, And is like to burne all if she get a lytle hier: 1o Cum downe (quoth you ?) nay, then you might count me a patch, The house cometh down on your heads if it take ons the thatch. 19 Cum downe (quoth you ?) nay, then you might count me a patch,] "This term, says Mr. Malone, came into use from the name of a "celebrated fool. This I learn from Wilson's Art of Rhetorique, "1553: A word making, called of the Grecians Onomatopiea, Gammer. It is the cat's eyes, foole, that shineth in the darke. Hodge. Hath the cat, do you thinke, in every eye a sparke? Gammer. No, but they shyne as lyke fyre as ever man see. Hodge. By the masse, and she burne all, yoush beare the blame for mee. Gammer. Cum downe and help to seeke here our neele that it were found; Downe, Tyb on thy knees, I say, downe Cocke to the ground, 20 To God I make a vowe, and so to good saint Anne, A candell shall they have a peece, get it where I can, If I may my neele finde in one place or in other. Hodge. Now a vengeaunce on Gib lyght, on Gyb and Gyb's mother, "is when we make words of our own mind, such as be derived "from the nature of things.'-As to call one patche, or cowlson, "whom we see to do a thing, foolishly; because these two in "their time were notable fools. 66 Probably the dress which the celebrated patch wore was in "allusion to his name, patched or parti-coloured. Hence the stage-fool has ever since been exhibited in a motley coat. In Rowley's When you see me, you know me; or, Hist. of King Henry VIII. 1632, Cardinal Wolsey's Fool Patch is introduced. Perhaps he was the original patch of whom Wilson speaks." 66 Note on Merchant of Venice, A. 2. S. 5. In Chaloner's Translation of the Praise of Folly, by Erasmus, 1549, is the following passage: "And by the fayeth ye owe to the "immortal godds, may any thing to an indifferent considerer be "deemed more happie and blisful than is this kinde of men whome "commonly ye call fooles, poltes, ideotes, and paches?" Again, "I have subtraied these my selie paches, who not onelye "themselves are ever mery, playing, singing, and laughyng, but "also whatever they doo, are provokers of others lykewyse to pleasure, sporte, and laughter, as who sayeth ordeyned herefore by the Godds of theyr benevolence to recreate the sadnesse of mens lyves." 20 To God I make a vowe, and so to good saint Anne, A candell shall they have a peece, gel it where I can,] In all cases of distress, and whenever the assistance of a superior power And all the generacion of cats both far and nere. Looke on the ground, horson, thinks thou the neele is here? Cocke. By my trouth, Gammar, me thought your neele here I saw, But when my fyngers toucht it, I felt it was a straw. Tib. See, Hodge, what's tys; may it not be within it? Hodge. Breake it, foole, with thy hand, and see and thou canst fynde it. Tib. Nay, breake it you, Hodge, accordyng to your word. Hodge. Gog's sydes, fie! it styncks: it is a cat's tourd : It were well done to make thee eate it, by the masse. Gammer. This matter amendeth not, my neele is still where it wasse. Our candle is at an ende, let us all in quight, THE SECOND ACTE. Firste a SONGE. Back and syde go bare, go bare, But belley, God sende thee good ale ynoughe, was necessary, it was usual with the Roman Catholicks to promise their tutelary saints to light up candles at their altars, to induce them to be propitious to such applications as were made to them. The reader will see a very ridiculous story of this kind in the first volume of Lord Oxford's Collection of Voyages, p. 771, quoted in Dr. Gray's Notes on Shakspeare, vol. I. p. 7. Erasmus has a story to the same purpose in his Naufragium. I CAN not eate, but lytle meat, 22 I love no rost, but a nut-brown toste, 21 Alluding to the drunkenness of the Fryars. 22 I love no rost, but a nut-brown toste, and a crab layde in the fyre,] So, in the 3d Act. 4th Scene: "A cup of ale had in his hand, and a crab lay in the fyer." Again: "Now a crab in the fire were woorth a good grote, Again : "And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl, Midsummer Night's Dream, A. 2. S. 1. Upon this last passage, Mr. Steevens has given the following examples of the use of this word: "Yet we will have in store a crab in the fire, 66 Henry V. Anon. And sit down in my chaire by my faire Alison, 66 Damon and Pithias, vol. I. sitting in a corner turning crabs, "Or coughing o'er a warmed pot of ale." Description of Christmas in Summer's last Will and |