Chat. Gog's bread, that will I doo, As secret as mine owne thought, by God and the devil too,40 Diccon. 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 crowded so just? * Diccon. That cocke is stollen. Chat. What, was he fet out of the hen's ruste? Diccon. I can not tel where the devil he was kept, under key or locke, But Tib hath tykled in Gammer's eare, that you shoulde steale the cocke. Chat." Have I? strong hoore, by brea dand salte- Say not one word for all this geare. I wil have the yong hore by the head, and the old trot by the throte. Diccon. Not one word, dame Chat, I say, not one word for my cote. 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. 40 Two. * crowded] A crowd is a small fiddle. Hence the name of Crowdero, in Hudibras. Crowded means-made a musical noise. See Note on Alexander and Campaspe, p. 103. S. 41 Have I? strong hoore by bread and salte-] This oath occurs again, A. 5. S. 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 customary 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." + begar's brawle] I suppose she means beggar's brawling, or squalling infant. See note 22, to The Jovial Crew, vol. 10, p. 357. VOL. J. D Come out, thou hungry nedy bytche; O that my nails be short! Diccon. Gog's bred, woman, hold your peace, this gere wil els 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 keepe and ye said sure ye wolde. Chat. Wolde you suffer your selfe Diccon, such a sort to revile you With slaunderous words to blot your name, and so to defile you? Diccon. 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 rede, say on your minde, ye shall mee rule herein. Diccon. 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, 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: Therefore I rede you three, go hence and within keepe close. Again, 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. D4: "Unles "perchaunce some would chose suche a souldier as Demosthenes, "who folowying Archilocus, the poetes rede scarce lookynge his ene"mies in the face, threw downe his sheelde and ranne awaie as cowardly a warriour as he was a wyse 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. To brawle with you about her cocke, for well I hard Tib say, The cocke was rosted in your house, to breakfast yester day: And when ye had the carcas eaten, the fethers ye out flunge, And Doll, your maid, the legs she hid a foote depe in the dunge. Chat. O gracyous God, my heart it burstes! Diccon. Well, rule your self a space, And gammer Gurton when she commeth anon into thys place, Then to the queane let's see ye 43 tell her your mynd, and spare not, So shall Diccon blamelesse bee; and then go to, I not. care 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. ་་ Diccon. 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 here you shall not miss. Because I know you are my friend, hide it I cold not doubtles: Ye know your harm, see ye be wise about your owne busines, ye well. So fare Chat. Nay, soft Diccon, and drynke: what, Doll, I say, Bringe here a cup of the best ale, let's see, come quicly awaye. 43 Addition. Ye is an unnecessary addition. The construction is-Then let us see to the queane, &c. S. THE SECOND ACTE. THE THIRD SCEANE. HODGE. DICCON. Diccon. 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, But loke what lieth in both their harts, ye ar like sure to have it. Hodge. Yea, Gog's soul, art alive yet? what Diccon, dare ich come? Diccon. A man is well hied to trust to thee, I wil say nothing but mum. But and ye come any nearer, I pray you see all be sweete. Hodge. 44 Tush man, is gammer's neele found? that chould gladly weete. Diccon. She may thanke thee it is not found, for if you had kept thy standing, The devil he wold have fet it out, ev'n Hodg, at thy commanding. Hodge. Gog's hart! and cold he tel nothing wher the neele might be found? Diccon. Ye foolysh dolt, ye were to seek, ear we had got our ground; Therfore his tale so doubtfull was, that I cold not perceive it. Hodge. Then ich se wel somthing was said, chope one day yet to have it. 44 Tush man, is gammer's neele found? that chould gladly weete.] i. e. gladly know. So, in Shakspeare's Anthony and Cleopatra, A. 1. S. 1: 66 in which, I bind "On pain of punishment, the world to weete, The word weet is also used by Spenser and Fairfax. 45 But Diccon, Diccon, did not the devill cry, ho, ho, ho? Diccon. 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. Diccon. 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; 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: 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! fear 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 66 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." 66 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, Macbeth, A. 5. S. 7. In confirmation of Dr. Johnson's explanation, Mr. Steevens produces the following instances: "Now fortune frown, and palter if thou please." Marius and Sylla, 1594. Romans that have spoke the word, 111 "And will not palter." Englishmen for money, C. 3. O. G. |