Accordingly the next day she wrote letters of invitation to the young men and maids to repair to her house on St. Luke’s day; the maids she appointed to come in the morning to be first instructed, for these two reasons as she herself was a woman, she would teach the young women first, lest the batchelors should be too severe on them; the second was it being Horn Fair day, many of the batchelors would be employed in the morning, in handing old citizens young wives to the fair, and in the afternoon they might be at liberty. This was the determination of Old Mother Bunch.
THE SECOND PART OF
MOTHER BUNCH, ETC.
Now against the day appointed, Mother Bunch deck’d her house, and getting up very early that morning she placed herself in the closet where her treasure lay. Now the first that entered the room was Margery Loveman, a maltster’s maid, who with a low curtsey said, Good morrow, Mother Bunch, I am come to partake of your bounty; for I hear you have a second time opened your Golden Closet of Curiosities.—Yes, daughter, said she, so I have, and thou shalt partake of it.—Here are infallible rules and directions in all manner of love intrigues, that you may know what sort of man you’ll marry, and whether he will prove loving or no. Dear mother these are the things I would know; for believe me out of all my sweethearts I’d willingly chuse the best; ’tis true I have 150l. the noise of which has brought many sweethearts, and I’d willingly know which come for pure love and which for the lucre of the money. Daughter, said she, here is an experiment, if you will but try it, will make a full discovery of the reality of their love. Let a report be spread, that you are robbed of all you have in the world; if, after this, there is any one continues his love as before, you may be sure he is faithful. But be sure keep this counsel to yourself, that the mystery may not be discovered. I’ll take care of that, dear mother, quoth Margery, and I heartily thank you for this kind advice, so good morrow, for I must needs go.
Good morrow, daughter, she reply’d,
Young men are false and must be try’d.
She was no sooner gone, but in came Mrs. Susan, a young Sempstress from Salisbury, who entered wringing of her hands. How now, quoth she, what’s the matter daughter, you take on at this rate? Alas! Mother Bunch, quoth Susan, my, my, my——. What’s the matter? Why my sorrow is more than I am able to bear; for mother, dear Frank, the fiddler and I are fallen out and he swears he will not have me. Come, daughter, quoth she, be of good cheer, I’ll put you in a way to see whether he is angry or no. She that’s afraid of the grass must never piss in a meadow. One swallow never makes a summer, nor one woodcock a winter. Let your angry lover alone for a season, and he’ll come to himself again; for I know fond love is a puny darling, and wants humouring; therefore let him alone, in time he’ll forget his anger, and return to thee again, if he has any principle of good nature or loyal love in him, and if not, you had better be without him, than for your lifetime to be ty’d to a sour apple-tree. Remember the old proverb, Set thy stool in the sun, if a knave goes an honest man may come. I hope you have not play’d the wanton with him. No, mother, but he fain would have play’d a lesson on my lute the other market day only, but I had more grace than to let him. Say’st thou so, daughter? Why I tell thee, he did it to try thee, and since he finds that you withstood him, he will never leave you. Well, dear mother, she said, your words are comfortable to me, and when I find the good effects, I’ll return and give you an account; and now mother, farewel.