Ash.—Come, come, missus, as thee has not the grace to thank God for prosperous times, dan’t thee grumble when they be unkindly a bit.
Dame.—And I assure you Dame Grundy’s butter was quite the crack of the market.
Ash.—Be quiet woolye? always ding, dinging Dame Grundy into my ears—What will Mrs. Grundy zay? What will Mrs. Grundy think? Canst thee be quiet, let ur alone, and behave thyself pratty.
Though lost to sight, to memory dear.
This oft-quoted line is traced by a modern wag, of an inventive turn, to Ruthven Jenkyns, who wrote the following verses, published in the Greenwich Magazine for Marines, in 1701:—
Sweetheart, good-bye! the fluttering sail
Is spread to waft me far from thee;
And soon, before the fav’ring gale,
My ship shall bound upon the sea.
Perchance, all desolate and forlorn