Gammer Gurton's Needle - Faculty & Staff Web Pages
Gammer Gurton's Needle - Faculty & Staff Web Pages
Gammer Gurton's Needle - Faculty & Staff Web Pages
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<strong>Gammer</strong> <strong>Gurton's</strong> <strong>Needle</strong> 31<br />
THE THIRD ACT<br />
The Third Scene<br />
[<strong>Gammer</strong> advances to Dame Chat; Hodge keeps at a<br />
safe distance.]<br />
<strong>Gammer</strong>: Dame Chat, 'Chould pray thee fair, let me have that is mine! 1<br />
'Chi'll not this twenty years 2 take one fart that is thine!<br />
Therefore give me mine own and let me live beside thee! 3<br />
Chat: Why, art thou crept from home hither to my own doors to chide 4 me?<br />
Hence, doting drab! 5 Avaunt, or I shall 'set thee further! 6<br />
Intends thou and that knave me in my house to murder?<br />
<strong>Gammer</strong>: Tush, gape not so on me, woman! Shalt not yet eat me! 7<br />
Nor all the friends thou hast in this shall not entreat me! 8<br />
My own goods I will have, and ask thee on believe. 9<br />
What, woman! Poor folks must have right, though the thing you aggrieve! 10<br />
Chat: Give thee thy rights, and hang thee up with all thy beggar's brood!<br />
What, wilt thou make me a thief and say I stole your goods?<br />
<strong>Gammer</strong>: 'Chi'll say nothing, Ich warrant thee, but that I can prove it well.<br />
Thou fet 11 my goods even from my door – 'Cham able this to tell!<br />
Chat: Did I, old witch, steal aught that was thine? How should this thing be known?<br />
<strong>Gammer</strong>: Ich cannot tell; but up thou tookest it, as though it had been thine own!<br />
Chat: Marry, fie on thee, thou old Gib, 12 with all my very heart!<br />
<strong>Gammer</strong>: Nay, fie on thee, thou ramp, 13 thou rig, 14 with all that take thy part! 15<br />
Chat: A vengeance on those lips that layeth such things to my charge!<br />
<strong>Gammer</strong>: A vengeance on those callet's 1 hips whose conscience is so large!<br />
1<br />
'Chould pray . . . mine: I would ask you fairly, let me have what is mine!<br />
2<br />
'Chi'll not . . . years: I would never in twenty years<br />
3<br />
Let me live beside thee: let's get along as neighbors<br />
4<br />
Chide: scold<br />
5<br />
Doting drab: foolish slovenly woman, foolish hussy<br />
6<br />
Avaunt, or . . . further: Get out of here, or I shall beset [punish] you further!<br />
7<br />
Tush, gape. . . me!: Shut up, and don't look at me so spitefully, woman! You won't eat me up [as a cat eats a mouse].<br />
8<br />
Nor all . . . me: And I won't listen to all your friends if they beg me to leave you alone!<br />
9<br />
That is, "I ask you believing you will give it to me."<br />
10<br />
That is, "Even poor folks have rights, though it might irritate you [to return my goods to me]."<br />
11<br />
Fet: fetched, filched, stole<br />
12<br />
Gib: cat, a term of abuse for an old woman<br />
13<br />
Ramp: slut<br />
14<br />
Rig: whore<br />
15<br />
With all . . . part: Essentially, "screw you and everyone on your side."
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