Gammer Gurton's Needle - Faculty & Staff Web Pages

Gammer: Alas, my nee'le! We shall never meet! Adieu! Adieu for aye! 1
Tyb: Not so, Gammer; we might it find, if we knew where it lay.
[Cocke enters from the house, laughing]
Cocke: Gog's cross, Gammer! If ye will 2 laugh, look in but at the door,
And see how Hodge lies tumbling and tossing amid the flour!
Raking there some fire to find among the ashes dead –
Where there is not one spark so big as a pin's head –
At last in a dark corner two sparks he thinks he sees,
Which were, indeed, nought else but Gib our cat's two eyes!
"Puff!" went Hodge, thinking thereby to have fire without doubt; 3
With that Gib shut her two eyes – and so the fire was out!
And by and by them opened, even as they were before;
With that, the sparks appeared even as they had done of yore;
And even as Hodge blew the fire, as he did think,
Gib, as she felt the blast, straight-way 4 began to wink.
'Til Hodge fell off swearing, as came best to his turn, 5
The fire was sure bewitched, and therefore would not burn.
At last Gib [ran] up the stairs among the old post and pins,
And Hodge he hied him after 'til broke were both his shins –
Cursing and swearing oaths [that] were never of his making,
That Gib would fire the house if that she were not taken!
Gammer: See! Here is all the thought that the foolish urchin taketh!
And Tyb, methinks 6 at his elbow almost as merry maketh!
This is all the wit you have, when others make their moan – 7
Come down, Hodge! Where art thou? And leave the cat alone!
Gammer Gurton's Needle 12
Hodge: [Calling from inside the house]
Gog's heart, help and come up! Gib in her tail has fire,
And is like to burn all if she gets a little higher!
"Come down," quoth 8 you? Nay, then you might count me a patch! 9
The house cometh down on your head if it takes on the thatch! 10
1 Aye: ever
2 Will: want to
3 "Puff!" went . . . doubt: Hodge blew on the "sparks" to make them flame up into fire.
4 Straight-way: immediately
5 'Til Hodge . . . turn: Until Hodge started to curse, as he habitually does
6 Methinks: it seems to me
7 See! Here . . . moan: You see? This is all the sense that the foolish rascal Hodge has – and Tyb [who is laughing at Hodge's
misfortune], it seems to me that you are making fun of him – that's all the sense you have, making fun of people who are in
pain!
8 Quoth: says
9 Count me a patch: call me a fool
10 Hodge in his panic assumes the cat's tail is on fire; if she climbs up into the attic, he says, it will catch the thatch (reeds) on
fire, and then the whole house will fall on their heads.