In a May morninge.

[Page 383 of MS.]

I wished a babe in a nurse's arms was mine,

IN

a may morning I mett a sweet nursse with a babe in her armes, sweetly cold busse. I wold to god itt were mine! I shold be glad ont ! ffor it was a merry mumping thing, who ere was dad

ont.

4

and asked

her who was

I saluted her kindlye, & to her I sayd,
“god morrow, sweet honye, and you be a mayd;
or if you wold shew to me, I shold be glad ont;
or if you wold tell me who is the right dad ont."

the father of it.

8

She didn't know.

"The dad of my child, Sir, I doe not well know,
ffor all that lay with mee refuseth me now
from one to the other; still I wold be rid ont."
“but whosoeuer gott the Child, Ile be the dad ont.”

“ Ile take itt in mine armes, & wislye Ile worke,
Ile lay itt in the hye way as men come from kirke,
& euerye one that comes by shall haue a glegge 1 ont,
yntill I haue ffound out a man, the right dad ont.”

16

A Scotchman also

There came a kind Scot[c]hman whose name is not

knowne,
sayes hee to this sweet hart, “ this babye is mine

owne;
come bind it vpon my backe;

Ione shall be rid ont; for whosoeuer gott the child, Ile be the dad ont."

offered to be the child's dad.

20

A glance, a sly look—a word still used in Northamptonshire.-P.

refused him : he

Now, nay! now, nay!” shee sayes, soe itt may The girl not bee !

never got it.
your looke & his countenance doe not agree ;
for had hee beene sike a swayne, I had neere been

great ont;
for hee was a blythe young man that was the right

dad ont.

24

A rubylipped young man was the true father,

“his lippes like the rubye, his cheekes like the rose,
he tempteth all ffayre mayds where-ener he goes :
first he did salute mee; then was I right glad ont;
O hee was a blythe younge man that was the right

dad ont.

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and she'd tramp over England and Scotland

“Ile trauell through England & Scottland soe wyde,
& a-ffoote I will ffollow him to be his bryde;

Ile bind itt vpon my backe, Ile not be ryd ont 32. yntill I haue found out the man thats the right to find him

dad ont.

and marry him.

“Ile hussed itt, Ile busse itt, Ile lapp itt in say?;
Ile rocke itt, Ile lull itt, by night & by day;
Ile bind itt vpon my backe, Ile not be ridde ont
vntill I haue found out the man thats the right

dad ont.

36

“And thus to conclude, thoe itt ffall to my

Lott to ffind a dad ffor my barne 3 that I cannott; if an englishman gett a child, & wold be ridd ont, let him bring it to Scot[c]hman, & heele be the dad Scotchman.

But if she couldn't find him, why then she'd fall back on the

40

The Turk in Linen.

[Page 383 of MS.]

This is the eleventh song in Thomas Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1st ed. 1608. It was printed by Mr. Fairholt from the fifth edition, 1638, in his Satirical Songs and Poems on Costume, for the Percy Society, 1849, p. 141–2, but he modernised the spelling. “English Mutability in Dress” is the title that Mr. Fairholt gives the song, and he prints the first stanza of it, which our copy in the Folio omits. This stanza in the earliest and titleless copy of the play in the British Museum-which I suppose to be the edition of 1608, and the readings of which in the notes below are signed B.M.-runs thus :

In illustration of this Mr. Fairholt aptly quotes the wellknown passages from Andrew Borde and Coryat about the Englishman's changeableness in dress. The latter says, “We weare more fantastical fashions than any nation under the sun, the French only excepted (see l. 6 of our poem]; which hath

1

A kind of hose or breeches described by Stubbes. See the word in Nares.-F. 2 thrifty.–Fairholt. The fourth and

fifth editions both read threysly. ? from
A.-S. þræs, a hem, fringe-Somner. Or
breahs, rottenness--Lye.-F.

1

given occasion to the Venetian, and other Italians, to brand the Englishman with a notable mark of levity, by painting him stark naked, with a pair of shears in his hand, making his fashion of attire according to the vain conception of his brainsick head, not to comeliness and decorum."

Possibly this copy in the Folio is from one of those of which Heywood complains in his To the Reader :“.. some of my plaies haue (vnknowne to me, and without

any
of
my

direction) accidentally come into the Printers hands, and therefore so corrupt and mangled (coppied only by the eare) that I haue bin as vnable to know them as a-shamed to chalenge them. This therefore I was the willinger to furnish out in his natiue habit: first being by consent, next because the rest haue been so wronged in being publisht in such sauadge and ragged garments : accept it courteous Gentlemen, and prooue as fauorable Readers as we haue found you gratious Auditors.

Yours T. H.”

1 Linem in the MS.-F.
2 MS. in his ;-his in, B.M.-F.
3 Russe.-B.M.
4 Fealts.-B.M.

5 Fairholt says that beaver hats appear to have been first imported from Flanders. Cost. in England, p. 490. Stubbes, 1583, that they “were fetched from beyond the seas, from whence a great sort of other vanities do come besides.” In a satiric ballad on the knights of £40 per annum made by James I. (in Wit and Wisdom, Shaksp. Soc. 1846, p. 146–7) the shepherds are jestingly told to

Cast of for ever your twoe shillinge *

bonnetts, Cover your coxcombs with three-pound

beavers.-ib. p. 498. “Beaver hats were expensive articles of dress, as already noted. Dugdale, in his Diary (under April 13, 1661), notes: Payd for a bever hatte, £4 10s.'; the fashion of it may be seen in Hollar's print of that distinguished antiquary. Pepys records (under June 27 in the same year): This day Mr. Holden sent me a bever, which cost me £4 5s.””. ib. p. 503.

6

a

The Rush drinkes Quash®; Duche, lubickes beere,

& that is strong 8 and mightye; the Brittaine, he Metheglin Quaffes,

the Irish, Aqua vita; the ffrench affects his orleance 10

grape, the spanyard tasts his sherrye ; the English none of these escapes, 11

but with them 12 all makes merrye.