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Clo. Not a word, a word; we stand upon our

manners.

Come, strike up!

[Music. Here a dance of Shepherds and Shepherdesses. Pol. Pray, good shepherd, what fair swain is this

Which dances with your daughter?

Shep. They call him Doricles; and boasts himself

To have a worthy feeding: but I have it

Upon his own report and I believe it;

He looks like sooth. He says he loves my daughter :

I think so too; for never gazed the moon
Upon the water as he 'll stand and read

As 'twere my daughter's eyes: and, to be plain,
I think there is not half a kiss to choose

Who loves another best.

Pol.

She dances featly.

Shep. So she does any thing; though I report it,
That should be silent: if young Doricles

Do light upon her, she shall bring him that
Which he not dreams of.

Enter Servant.

Serv. O master, if you did but hear the pedlar at the door, you would never dance again after a tabor and pipe; no, the bagpipe could not move you he sings several tunes faster than you'll tell money; he utters them as he had eaten ballads and all men's ears grew to his tunes.

164. Not a word. The clown checks Mopsa's angry retort in the presence of the strangers.

170

180

169. a worthy feeding, ample pasture-lands.

176. featly, daintily.

Clo. He could never come better; he shall come in. I love a ballad but even too well, if it be doleful matter merrily set down, or a very pleasant thing indeed and sung lamentably.

190

Serv. He hath songs for man or woman, of all sizes; no milliner can so fit his customers with gloves he has the prettiest love-songs for maids; so without bawdry, which is strange; with such delicate burthens of dildos and fadings, 'jump her and thump her;' and where some stretchmouthed rascal would, as it were, mean mischief and break a foul gap into the matter, he makes the maid to answer " Whoop, do me no harm, good man;' puts him off, slights him, with 'Whoop, 200 do me no harm, good man.'

Pol. This is a brave fellow.

Clo. Believe me, thou talkest of an admirable conceited fellow. Has he any unbraided wares?

Serv. He hath ribbons of all the colours i' the rainbow; points more than all the lawyers in Bohemia can learnedly handle, though they come to him by the gross inkles, caddisses, cambrics, lawns: why, he sings 'em over as they were gods or goddesses; you would think a smock were a 210 she-angel, he so chants to the sleeve-hand and the work about the square on 't.

187. better, more opportunely. 192. milliner, dealer in fancy articles of dress; in Shakespeare's time a masculine occupation.

195. dildos and fadings, meaningless burdens found in songs.

198. break a foul gap, make a foul parenthesis in the song (by violence).

'imitation.'

206. points, (1) the tagged laces used for supporting the hose; (2) points of law,' legal subtleties.

208. inkles, tapes.

ib. caddisses, worsted rib

bons.

211. sleeve-hand, cuff.

212. the work about the square, the embroidery of the front-piece

204. unbraided, (probably) genuine, not counterfeit or or bosom.

Clo. Prithee bring him in; and let him approach singing.

Per. Forewarn him that he use no scurrilous words in 's tunes. [Exit Servant. Clo. You have of these pedlars, that have more in them than you 'ld think, sister.

Per. Ay, good brother, or go about to think.

Enter AUTOLYCUS, singing

Lawn as white as driven snow;
Cyprus black as e'er was crow;
Gloves as sweet as damask roses;
Masks for faces and for noses;
Bugle bracelet, necklace amber,
Perfume for a lady's chamber;
Golden quoifs and stomachers,
For my lads to give their dears:
Pins and poking-sticks of steel,

What maids lack from head to heel:

220

Come buy of me, come; come buy, come buy; 230 Buy, lads, or else your lasses cry:

Come buy.

Clo. If I were not in love with Mopsa, thou shouldst take no money of me; but being enthralled as I am, it will also be the bondage of certain ribbons and gloves.

Mop. I was promised them against the feast; but they come not too late now.

Dor. He hath promised you more than that, or there be liars.

221. Cyprus, crape.

222. Gloves were often arti

ficially perfumed.

224. Bugle, an elongated bead of black glass.

225. Perfume, viz. the amber,

240

which was used for this purpose also.

226. quoifs, coifs, hoods. 228. poking-sticks, used in ironing the starched frills of the Elizabethan ruff.

Mop. He hath paid you all he promised you: may be, he has paid you more, which will shame you to give him again.

Clo. Is there no manners left among maids? will they wear their plackets where they should bear their faces? Is there not milking-time, when you are going to bed, or kiln-hole, to whistle off these secrets, but you must be tittletattling before all our guests? 'tis well they are whispering clamour your tongues, and not : word more.

Mop. I have done.

a 250

Come, you promised me a tawdry-lace and a pair of sweet gloves.

Clo. Have I not told thee how I was cozened by the way and lost all my money?

Aut. And indeed, sir, there are Cozeners abroad; therefore it behoves men to be wary.

Clo. Fear not thou, man, thou shalt lose nothing here.

Aut. I hope so, sir; for I have about me 260 many parcels of charge.

Clo. What hast here? ballads?

Mop. Pray now, buy some: I love a ballad in print o' life, for then we are sure they are true.

Aut. Here's one to a very doleful tune, how a usurer's wife was brought to bed of twenty

245. plackets, stomachers, or petticoats. 'Will they expose what they ought to keep private ?'

247. kiln-hole, the opening of an oven, used especially for preparing malt, -a process which the female servants of a farm had to watch.

250. clamour, constrain, repress. This expression, a puzzle to the older commentators, has been almost certainly identified

with M.E. clameren, 'thrust closely together,' cognate with Scand. klome, a screw; Germ. klamm, narrow defile; O.E. clom, fetter ; clamber, cling closely.

253. tawdry-lace, rustic necklace (so called from the fineries sold at the fair of St. Audrey, held in the Isle of Ely on her day, 17th October).

264. o' life, a rustic asseveration, as I live.'

money-bags at a burthen and how she longed to eat adders' heads and toads carbonadoed.

Mop. Is it true, think you?

Aut. Very true, and but a month old.

Dor. Bless me from marrying a usurer !

Aut. Here's the midwife's name to 't, one Mistress Tale-porter, and five or six honest wives that were present. Why should I carry lies abroad?

Mop. Pray you now, buy it.

Clo. Come on, lay it by: and let's first see moe ballads; we 'll buy the other things anon.

270

Aut. Here's another ballad of a fish, that appeared upon the coast on Wednesday the four- 280 score of April, forty thousand fathom above water, and sung this ballad against the hard hearts of maids it was thought she was a woman and was turned into a cold fish for she would not exchange flesh with one that loved her: the ballad is very pitiful and as true.

:

Dor. Is it true too, think you?

Aut. Five justices' hands at it, and witnesses

more than my pack will hold.

Clo. Lay it by too: another.
Aut. This is a merry ballad, but a very pretty

one.

Mop. Let's have some merry ones.

Aut. Why, this is a passing merry one and goes to the tune of 'Two maids wooing a man :' there's scarce a maid westward but she sings it; 'tis in request, I can tell you.

268. carbonadoed, sliced for broiling.

279. ballad of a fish. In the absence of newspapers, ballads a common vehicle of 'Strange Newes.' The Station

were

290

ers' Register, among many similar entries, records (1604): 'A strange report of a monstrous fish that appeared in the form of a woman from her waist upward, seen in the sea.'

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