Gammer Gurton's Needle - Faculty & Staff Web Pages

Chat: Come out, hog!
Gammer: Come out, hog! And let me have right!
Chat: Thou arrant 2 witch!
Gammer: Thou bawdy bitch! 'Chi'll make thee curse this night!
Chat: A bag and a wallet! 3
Gammer: A cart for a callet! 4
Chat: Why, weenest 5 thou thus to prevail?
I hold a groat I shall patch thy coat! 6
Gammer Gurton's Needle 32
Gammer: Thou wert as good kiss my tail! 7
Thou slut! Thou cut! Thou rakes! Thou jakes! Will not shame make thee hide? 8
Chat: Thou scald! Thou bald! Thou rotten! Thou glutton! I will no longer chide,
But will teach thee to keep home! 9
Gammer: Wilt thou, drunken beast?
[They fight furiously, biting, scratching, pulling hair,
and so forth]
Hodge: [keeping a safe distance]
Stick to her, Gammer! Take her by the head!
'Chi'll warrant you this feast! 10
Smite, I say, Gammer! Bite, I say, Gammer! I trow 11 you will be keen!
Where be your nails? Claw her by the jaws! Pull out both her eyen! 12
[Dame Chat gets Gammer down on her back,
straddles her, and pummels her with her fists]
Gog's bones, Gammer, hold up your head!
1
Callet's: whore's
2
Arrant: conspicuous, offensive
3
A bag and a wallet: How many ways did they have to call each other "whore," anyway? These are two more.
4
Women arrested for prostitution were humiliated by being hauled through town in an open cart.
5
Weenest: do you think
6
I hold. . . coat: I'll bet you a nickel I'll bruise you up! (A groat was actually a small coin worth four pennies.)
7
That is, "You might as well kiss my arse [as make such a bet]."
8
More bad names: slut is self-explanatory; "cut" may be short for "cutpurse" or thief; "rakes" is a rake-hell, an evil-doer;
"jakes" is an outhouse, an outdoor toilet.
9
And yet more insults: "scald" is "scold, scolding old woman"; "bald, rotten, and glutton" are self-explanatory. "Will teach
thee to keep home" means "I'll teach you that you ought to stay at home [and not bother me]."
10
'Chi'll warrant . . . feast: "I'll guarantee you'll get enough to satisfy you!"
11 Trow: think
12 Eyen: eyes