Car. A good motion. We'll e'en have a household dinner, and let the fiddlers go scrape; let the bride and bridegroom dance at night together: no matter for the guests:-to-morrow, Sue, to-morrow. Shall's to dinner now? Thor. We are on all sides pleased, I hope. Sus. Pray Heaven I may deserve the blessing sent me! Now my heart's settled. Bless Car. Your marriage-money shall be received before your wedding shoes can be pulled on. ings on you both! Frank. [Aside.] No man can hide his shame from Heaven that views him: In vain he flees whose destiny pursues him.1 ACT II. SCENE I. The Fields near Edmonton. [Exeunt. Enter ELIZABETH SAWYER, gathering sticks. Saw. And why on me? why should the envious world Throw all their scandalous malice upon me? Thus far the hand of Ford is visible in every line. Of the act which follows, much may be set down, without hesitation, to the credit of Decker.-GIFFORD. Forespeaks their cattle,' doth bewitch their corn, Make me to credit it; and here comes one Enter Old BANKS. Banks. Out, out upon thee, witch! Saw. Dost call me witch? Banks. I do, witch, I do; and worse I would, knew I a name more hateful. What makest thou upon my ground? Saw. Gather a few rotten sticks to warm me. Banks. Down with them when I bid thee, quickly; I'll make thy bones rattle in thy skin else. Saw. You won't, churl, cut-throat miser!-there they be;-[Throws them down.]-would they stuck cross thy throat, thy bowels, thy maw, thy midriff. Banks. Say'st thou me so, hag? Out of my ground! [Beats her. Saw. Dost strike me, slave, curmudgeon! Now thy bones ache, thy joints be cramped, and convulsions stretch and crack thy sinews! Banks. Cursing, thou hag! take that, and that. [Beats her and exit. Saw. Strike, do!-and wither'd may that hand and arm Whose blows have lamed me, drop from the rotten trunk! Abuse me! beat me! call me hag and witch! What is the name? where, and by what art learn'd, What spells, what charms or invocations, May the thing call'd Familiar be purchased? Enter CUDDY BANKS, and several other Clowns. Cud. A new head for the tabor, and silver tipping 1 Forespeaks their cattle.] A very common term for bewitch. In Burton's" Anatomy of Melancholy," the two words are used together, as nearly synonymous. "They are in despaire, surely forespoken or bewitched." for the pipe; remember that: and forget not five leash of new bells. 1 Cl. Double bells;-Crooked-Lane-you shall have 'em strait in Crooked-Lane:-double bells all, if it be possible. Cud. Double bells? double coxcombs! trebles, buy me trebles, all trebles; for our purpose is to be in the altitudes. 2 Cl. All trebles? not a mean? Cud. Not one. The morris is so cast, we'll have neither mean nor base in our company, fellow Rowland. 3 Cl. What! nor a counter? Cud. By no means, no hunting counter; leave that to the Enfield Chase men: all trebles, all in the altitudes. Now for the disposing of parts in the1 morris, little or no labour will serve. 1 When the sports of our ancestors were rude and few, morrisdancers formed a very favourite part of their merry meetings. They were first undoubtedly a company of people that represented the military dances of the Moors (once the most lively and refined people in Europe), in their proper habits and arms, and must have been sufficiently amusing to an untravelled nation like the English; but, by degrees, they seem to have adopted into their body all the prominent characters of the other rustic May-games and sports, which were now probably declining, and to have become the most anomalous collection of performers that ever appeared at once upon the stage of the world. Besides the hobby-horse, there were the fool (not the driveller, as Tollet supposes, but the buffoon of the party), May, or Maid, Marian, and her paramour a friar, a serving-man, a piper, and two Moriscoes. These, with their bells, rings, streamers, &c. all in motion at one time, must have, as Rabelais says, made a tintamarre de diable! Their dress is prettily described by Fletcher: Soto. Do you know what sports are in season? Silvio. I hear there are some afoot. Soto. Where are your bells then, Your rings, your ribands, friend, and your clean napkins; When the right good-will with which these worthy persons capered is taken into consideration, the clean napkin, which was never omitted, will not appear the least necessary part of the apparatus. Thus Clod, in the mask of Gipsies, observes, "They should be morris-dancers by their jingle, but they have no napkins." The hobby-horse, who once performed the principal character in the dance, and whose banishment from it is lamented with such ludicrous pathos by our old dramatists, was a light frame of wickerwork, fur 2 Cl. If you that be minded to follow your leader, know me (an ancient honour belonging to our house), for a fore-horse i' the team, and fore-gallant in a morris, my father's stable is not unfurnish'd. 3 Cl. So much for the fore-horse; but how for a good hobby-horse? Cud. For a hobby-horse? let me see an almaMidsummer-moon, let me see you. "When nac. the moon's in the full, then wit's in the wane." more. No Use your best skill; your morris will suffer an eclipse. Cud. A strange one. 2 Cl. Strange? Cud. Yes, and most sudden. Remember the foregallant, and forget the hobby-horse! the whole body of your morris will be darkened.-There be of usbut 't is no matter:-forget the hobby-horse! 1 Cl. Cuddy Banks!--have you forgot since he paced it from Enfield Chase to Edmonton ?-Cuddy, honest Cuddy, cast thy stuff.' Cud. Suffer may ye all! it shall be known, I can take my ease as well as another man. Seek your hobby-horse where you can get him. 1 Cl. Cuddy, honest Cuddy, we confess, and are sorry for, our neglect. 2 Cl. The old horse shall have a new bridle. 3 Cl. The caparisons new painted. nished with a pasteboard head and neck of a horse. This was buckled round the waist, and covered with a footcloth which reached to the ground, and concealed at once the legs of the performer and his juggling apparatus. Thus equipped, he pranced and curvetted in all directions (probably to keep the ring clear), neighing, and exhibiting specimens of boisterous and burlesque horsemanship.-GIFFORD 1 Cast thy stuff.] The context might lead us to suppose that the author's word was snuff, did not Cuddy subsequently advert to it. Cuddy's anger arises from the unlucky question asked by 3d Clown, "How shall we do for a good hobby-horse?"-as he apparently expected, from his former celebrity in that respectable character, to have been appointed by acclamation.-GIFFORD. But, query ;-Is not the word cast used here in its old sense of to cast up; and stuff meant for that troublesome "stuff which weighs about the heart?" 4 Cl. The tail repaired. 1 Cl. The snaffle and the bosses new saffroned over. Kind,— 2 Cl. Honest, 3 Cl. Loving, ingenious,— 4 Cl. Affable, Cuddy. Cud. To show I am not flint, but affable as you say, very well stuffed, a kind of warm dough or puffpaste, I relent, I connive, most affable Jack. Let the hobby-horse provide a strong back, he shall not want a belly when I am in him-but-[seeing the witch.]-uds me, mother Sawyer! 1 Cl. The old witch of Edmonton!-if our mirth be not cross'd 2 Cl. Bless us, Cuddy, and let her curse her t' other eye out. What dost now? Cud. "Ungirt, unblest," says the proverb; but my girdle shall serve for a riding knot; and a fig for all the witches in Christendom! What wouldst thou? 1 Cl. The devil cannot abide to be crossed. 2 Cl. And scorns to come at any man's whistle. 3 Cl. Away- 4 Cl. With the witch! All. Away with the witch of Edmonton ! [Exeunt in strange postures. Saw. Still vex'd! still tortured! that curmudgeon Banks Is ground of all my scandal; I am shunn'd And hated like a sickness; made a scorn To all degrees and sexes. I have heard old beldams Talk of familiars in the shape of mice, Rats, ferrets, weasels, and I wot not what That have appear'd, and suck'd, some say, their blood; But by what means they came acquainted with them, I am now ignorant. Would some power, good or bad, |