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Per. No, like a bank, for love to lie and play on;

Not like a corse: or if,-not to be buried,

But quick and in mine arms. Come, take your flowers:
Methinks, I play as I have seen them do

In Whitsun' pastorals: sure, this robe of mine
Does change my disposition.

Flo.

What you do,

Still betters what is done. When you speak, sweet,
I'd have you do it ever: when you sing,

I'd have you buy and sell so; so give alms;
Pray so; and, for the ordering your affairs,

To sing them too: When you do dance, I wish you
A wave o'the sea, that you might ever do
Nothing but that; move still, still so, and own
No other function: Each your doing*,

So singular in each particular,

Crowns what you are doing in the present deeds,
That all your acts are queens.

O Doricles,

Per.
Your praises are too large: but that your youth,
And the true blood, which fairly peeps through it,
Do plainly give you out an unstain'd shepherd;
With wisdom I might fear, my Doricles,

You woo'd me the false way.

Flo.

I think, you have

As little skill to fear, as I have purpose

To put you to't.-But, come; our dance, I pray :
Your hand, my Perdita: so turtles pair,

That never mean to part.

Per.

I'll swear for 'em.

Pol. This is the prettiest low-born lass, that ever Ran on the green sward: nothing she does, or seems, But smacks of something greater than herself;

Too noble for this place.

Cam. He tells her something,

Each your doing, &c.] That is, your manner in each

act crowns the act.

That makes her blood look out: Good sooth, she is

The queen of curds and cream.

Clo.

Come on, strike up.

Dor. Mopsa must be your mistress: marry, garlick, To mend her kissing with.

Мор.

Now, in good time!

Clo. Not a word, a word; we stand upon our man

ners.

Come, strike up.

[Musick.

Here a dance of Shepherds and Shepherdesses.

Pol. Pray, good shepherd, what

Fair swain is this, which dances with your daughter? Shep. They call him Doricles; and he boasts himself To have a worthy feeding: but I have it

Upon his own report, and I believe it;

He looks like sooth: He says, he loves my daughter; I think so too: for never gaz'd the moon

Upon the water, as he'll stand, and read,

As 'twere, my daughter's eyes: and, to be plain,
I think, there is not half a kiss to choose,

Who loves another best.

Pol.

She dances featly.

Shep. So she does any thing; though I report it,
That should be silent: if young Doricles

Do light upon her, she shall bring him that
Which he not dreams of.

Enter a Servant.

Serv. O master, if you did but hear the pedler at the door, you would never dance again after a tabor and pipe; no, the bagpipe could not move you: he sings

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we stand, &c.] That is, we are now on our behaviour. a worthy feeding] I conceive feeding to be a pasture, and a worthy feeding to be a tract of pasturage not inconsiderable, not unworthy of my daughter's fortune. JOHNSON.

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He looks like sooth :] Sooth is truth. Obsolete.

several tunes, faster than you'll tell money; he utters them as he had eaten ballads, and all men's ears grew to his tunes.

Clo. He could never come better: he shall come in: I love a ballad but even too well; if it be doleful matter, merrily set down, or a very pleasant thing indeed, and sung lamentably.

Serv. He hath songs, for man, or woman, of all sizes; no milliner can so fit his customers with gloves: he has the prettiest love songs for maids; so without bawdry, which is strange; with such delicate burdens of dildos and fadings3: jump her and thump her; and where some stretch-mouth'd rascal would, as it were, mean mischief, and break a foul gap into the matter, he makes the maid to answer, Whoop, do me no harm, good man; puts him off, slights him, with Whoop, do me no harm, good man.

Pol. This is a brave fellow.

Clo. Believe me, thou talkest of an admirable-conceited fellow. Has he any unbraided wares'?

Serv. He hath ribands of all the colours i'the rainbow; points, more than all the lawyers in Bohemia can learnedly handle, though they come to him by the gross ; inkles, caddisses', cambricks, lawns; why, he sings them over, 'as they were gods or goddesses; you would think,

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-fadings:] An Irish dance of this name is mentioned by Ben Jonson, in The Irish Masque at Court. It is called Rinca fada, and is still practised in some parts of Ireland: but here fading means the burthen of a song.

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unbraided wares?] By unbraided wares, the clown' means, has he any thing besides laces, which are braided, and are the principal commodity sold by ballad-singing pedlers?

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caddisses,] Caddis is, I believe, a narrow worsted galloon. I remember when very young to have heard it enumerated by a pedler among the articles of his pack.

There is a very narrow slight serge of this name, now made in France. Inkle is a kind of tape also. MALONE.

a smock were a she-angel; he so chants to the sleevehand, and the work about the square on't'.

Clo. Pr'ythee, bring him in; and let him approach singing.

Per. Forewarn him, that he use no scurrilous words in his tunes.

Clo. You have of these pedlers, that have more in 'em than you'd think, sister.

Per. Ay, good brother, or go about to think.

Enter AUTOLYCUs, singing.

Lawn, as white as driven snow;
Cyprus, black as e'er was crow;
Gloves, as sweet as damask roses;
Masks for faces, and for noses;
Bugle bracelet, necklace-amber,
Perfume for a lady's chamber:
Golden quoifs, and stomachers,
For my lads to give their dears;
Pins, and poking-sticks of steel,

What maids lack from head to heel :

Come, buy of me, come; come buy, come buy;
Buy, lads, or else your lasses cry:

Come, buy, &c.

Clo. If I were not in love with Mopsa, thou should'st take no money of me; but being enthrall'd as I am, it will also be the bondage of certain ribands and gloves.

Mop. I was promised them against the feast; but they come not too late now.

Dor. He hath promised you more than that, or there be liars.

Mop. He hath paid you all he promised you: may

2 the sleeve-hand, and the work about the square on't.] Perhaps the sleeves and bosom part of a shift.

be, he has paid you more; which will shame you to give him again.

Clo. Is there no manners left among maids? will they wear their plackets, where they should bear their faces? Is there not milking-time, when you are going to bed, or kiln-hole', to whistle off these secrets; but you must be tittle-tattling before all our guests? 'Tis well they are whispering: Clamour your tongues, and not a word more.

Mop. I have done. Come, you promised me a tawdry lace, and a pair of sweet gloves.

Clo. Have I not told thee, how I was cozened by the way, and lost all my money?

Aut. And, indeed, sir, there are cozeners abroad; therefore it behoves men to be wary.

Clo. Fear not thou, man, thou shalt lose nothing here.

Aut. I hope so, sir; for I have about me many parcels of charge.

Clo. What hast here? ballads?

Mop. Pray now, buy some: I love a ballad in print, a'-life; for then we are sure they are true.

Aut. Here's one to a very doleful tune, How a usurer's wife was brought to bed of twenty money-bags at a burden; and how she longed to eat adders' heads, and toads carbonadoed.

Mop. Is it true, think you?

Aut. Very true; and but a month old.

Dor. Bless me, from marrying a usurer!

3 kiln-hole,] Kiln-hole is the place into which coals are put under a stove, a copper, or a kiln in which lime, &c. are to be dried or burned. To watch the kiln-hole, or stoking-hole, is part of the office of female servants in farm-houses.

4 Clamour your tongues,] Perhaps the meaning is, give one grand peal, and then have done. "A good clam" (as I learn from Mr. Nichols,) in some villages is used in this sense, signifying

a grand peal of all the beils at once.

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MALONE.

you promised me a tawdry lace,] Tawdries were a kind

of necklaces worn by country wenches.

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