“Abraham. Sister Gillian,—I have the rarest news for you.
Gillian. For me? ’tis well. And what news have you got, sir?
Abr. Skipping news, lipping news, tripping news.
Gil. How! dancing, brother Abram, dancing?
Abr. Prancing, advancing, dancing. Nay, ’tis a match, a match upon a wager.
Gil. A match. Who be they?
Abr. Why all the wenches of our town Edmonton, and all the mad wenches of Waltham.
Gil. A match, and leave me out! When, when is’t, brother?
Abr. Marry, e’en this morning:—they are now going to’t helter-skelter. [A treble plays within.
Gil. And leave me out! where, brother, where?
Abr. Why there, Sister Gillian; there, at our own door almost,—on the green there, close by the may-pole. Hark! you may hear them hither.” (Sig. D.)
The stage-direction at the entrance of the dancers runs thus:—“Enter six country wenches, all red petticoats, white stitch’d bodies, in their smock-sleeves, the fiddler before them, and Gillian with her tippet up in the midst of them dancing.”
Page [73]. “It was the purest light of heaven” &c.—I am reminded of a fine passage in Drayton’s “Barons’ Wars,” canto VI.:—
“Looking upon proud Phaeton wrapped in fire,
The gentle queen did much bewail his fall;
But Mortimer commended his desire
To lose one poor life or to govern all.
‘What though,’ quoth he, ‘he madly did aspire
And his great mind made him proud Fortune’s thrall?
Yet, in despight when she her worst had done,
He perish’d in the chariot of the sun.’”
Page [74]. “The Bellman’s Song.”—In “Robin Goodfellow; his mad pranks and merry jests,” 1628, we have another specimen of a Bellman’s Song:—
“Sometimes would he go like a bellman in the night, and with many pretty verses delight the ears of those that waked at his bell-ringing: his verses were these:—
Maids in your smocks,
Look well to your locks,
And your tinder-box,
Your wheels and your rocks,
Your hens and your cocks,
Your cows and your ox,
And beware of the fox.
When the bellman knocks
Put out your fire and candle-light,
So they shall not you affright.
May you dream of your delights,
In your sleeps see pleasing sights!
Good rest to all, both old and young:
The bellman now hath done his song.
Then would he go laughing Ho ho ho! as his use was.”
Page [77]. “That kisses were the seals of love.”—Every reader will recall
“But my kisses bring again, bring again.
Seals of love but sealed in vain, sealed in vain.”