Doctor Rat. A man were better twenty times be a bandog and bark,

Than here among such a sort be parish priest or clerk.

Where he shall never be at rest one pissing while[273] a day,

But he must trudge about the town this way, and [then] that way,

Here to a drab, there to a thief, his shoes to tear and rent,

And that which is worst of all, at every knave's commandment.

I had not sit the space to drink two pots of ale,

But Gammer Gurton's sorry boy was straightway at my tail;

And she was sick, and I must come, to do I wot not what:

If once her finger's-end but ache: trudge, call for Doctor Rat.