Gammer Gurton's Needle - Faculty & Staff Web Pages

Gammer Gurton's Needle 34
Chat: In faith, sir loose-breeches, had you tarried you should have found your match!
Gammer: Now 'ware thy throat, losel! Thou'se pay for all! 1
[Gammer gets up while Dame Chat is yelling and
attacks her from behind.]
[She throws Dame Chat down on the ground, sits
astride her, and beats her hard.]
Hodge: [from the safety of the doorway:] Well said, Gammer, by my soul!
Hoyse her! Souse her! Bounce her! Trounce her! Pull out her throat-bone!
Chat: Comest thou behind me, thou withered witch? And I get once on foot,
Thou'se pay for all, thou old tar-leather! I'll teach thee what 'longs to it! 2
[They roll around on the ground furiously. Dame Chat
gets on top of Gammer and beats her up again.]
Take this to make up thy mouth 'til time thou come by more! 3
[Dame Chat gets up and exits in triumph. Hodge
creeps cautiously and fearfully out and approaches
Gammer.]
Hodge: Up, Gammer! Stand on your feet. Where is the old whore?
Faith, would 'Chad her by the face! Could crack her callet crown! 4
Gammer: Ah, Hodge, Hodge, where was thy help, when [the] vixen had me down?
Hodge: By the Mass, Gammer, but for my staff, Chat had gone nigh to spoil you!
Ich think the harlot had not cared, and 'Chad not come, to kill you.
But shall we lose our nee'le thus? 5
Gammer: No, Hodge, 'Ch were loath [to] do so.
Thinkest thou 'Chi'll take her at that hand?
No, Hodge, Ich tell thee no! 6
Hodge: 'Chould yet this fray were well take up, 7 and our own nee'le at home.
'Twill be my chance else some[one] to kill, wherever it be or whom! 8
1
Now 'ware . . . all!: Now watch your throat, you louse! I'll make you pay for everything [you did to me]!
2
That is, "If I can get on my feet, again, I'll make you pay, you tough old biddy! I'll show you what you deserve!"
3
Dame Chat bloodies Gammer's mouth and tells her "let that last until you're ready for more!"
4
Faith, would . . . crown: By my faith, I wish I had her by the face – I'd crack her whore's skull!
5
That is, "I swear by the Mass, Gammer, if I hadn't come in with my club, Dame Chat would have nearly ended you – I think
the whore wouldn't have stopped, if I hadn't come, before she killed you." "Spoil" is "spyl" in the original, rhyming with
"kill."
6
That is, "No, Hodge, I'm not ready to do so [lose the needle]; do you think I'd take what she dished out quietly? No, I tell
you – no!"
7
'Chould well . . . up: I really wish this fight had turned out better
8
'Twill be . . . whom: It will be just my luck now to have to kill someone, no matter where it happens or to whom.