Gammer Gurton's Needle - Faculty & Staff Web Pages

Diccon: Nay, nay, there is no tarrying; I must be gone again.
But first, for you in counsel 1 I have a word or twain.
Gammer Gurton's Needle 22
Chat: Come hither, Doll!
[Doll, Dame Chat's maid, enters from Dame Chat's
house]
Doll, sit down and play this game,
And as thou sawest me do, see thou do even the same.
There is five trumps beside the queen – the hindmost thou shalt find her2 Take heed of Sam Glover's wife; she has an eye behind her! 3
[Doll takes the hand of cards and exits into the house]
Now Diccon, say thy will.
Diccon: Nay, soft a little yet!
I would not tell it my sister, he matter is so great.
There I will have you swear by our dear Lady of Bullaine,
Saint Dunstan, and Saint Dominic, with the three Kings of Coloyn, 4
That you shall keep it secret.
Chat: Gog's bread, that will I do!
As secret as my own thought, by God, and [by] the Devil too!
Diccon: Here is Gammer Gurton, your neighbor, a sad and heavy wight 5 –
Her goodly fair red cock 6 at home was stolen this last night.
Chat: Gog's soul! Her cock with the yellow legs, that nightly crowed so just? 7
Diccon: That cock is stolen.
Chat: What! Was he fet 8 out of the hen's roost?
Diccon: I cannot tell where the devil he was kept, under key or lock,
But Tyb has tickled 9 in Gammer's ear that you should steal the cock. 10
Chat: Have I, young whore? By bread and salt –
1
Counsel: secret
2
The hindmost . . . her: You will find her at the end of the row of five cards
3
Take heed . . . her: Be careful in passing Sam Glover's wife that she doesn't see my hand – she has eyes in the back of her
head!
4
Lady of Bullaine . . . Cullaigne: The Lady of Bullaine is an icon of the Virgin Mary at the Cathedral of Boulogne; St.
Dunstan was an Archbishop of Canterbury who died in 988 and who in a legend is said to have nipped the Devil's nose with
red-hot tongs; St. Dominic died in 1221 and was a Spanish friar who founded the Dominican Order; the Three Kings of
Coloyn were the Three Wise Men, supposed to have come from Cologne to the Holy Land.
5
Sad and heavy wight: a sad and depressed individual
6
Cock: Rooster. Of course.
7
Just: accurately, right on time
8
Fet: fetched, taken
9
Tickled: whispered
10
That is, Tyb has whispered to Gammer that you're the one who took her chicken.