FullReads

New-Year.

Why, let one go to the spicery.

Chris.

Fy, fy, fy! it’s naught, it’s naught, boys.

Ven.

Why, I have cloves, if it be cloves you want. I have cloves in my purse: I never go without one in my mouth.

Car.

And Mumming has not his vizard, neither.

Chris.

No matter! his own face shall serve, for a punishment, and ’tis bad enough; has Wassel her bowl, and Minced-pie her spoons?

Offer.

Ay, ay: but Misrule doth not like his suit: he says the players have sent him one too little, on purpose to disgrace him.

Chris.

Let him hold his peace, and his disgrace will be the less: what! shall we proclaim where we were furnish’d? Mum! mum! a’peace! be ready, good boys.

Now their intent is above to present,
With all the appurtenances,
A right Christmas, as of old it was,
To be gathered out of the dances.

Which they do bring, and afore the king,
The queen, and prince, as it were now
Drawn here by love; who over and above,
Doth draw himself in the geer too.

Here the drum and fife sound, and they march about once. In the second coming up, CHRISTMAS proceeds in his song:

Hum drum, sauce for a coney;
No more of your martial music;
Even for the sake o’ the next new stake,
For there I do mean to use it.

And now to ye, who in place are to see
With roll and farthingale hooped:
I pray you know, though he want his bow,
By the wings, that this is Cupid.

He might go back for to cry, What you lack?
But that were not so witty:
His cap and coat are enough to note
That he is the love o’ the city.

And he leads on, though he now be gone,
For that was only his-rule:
But now comes in, Tom of Bosoms-inn,
And he presenteth Mis-rule.

Which you may know, by the very show,
Albeit you never ask it:
For there you may see what his ensigns be,
The rope, the cheese, and the basket.

This Carol plays, and has been in his days
A chirping boy, and a kill-pot:
Kit Cobler it is, I’m a father of his,
And he dwells in a lane called Fill-pot.

But who is this? O, my daughter Cis,
Minced-pie; with her do not dally
On pain o’ your life: she’s an honest cook’s wife,
And comes out of Scalding-alley.

Next in the trace, comes Gambol in place;
And, to make my tale the shorter,
My son Hercules, tane out of Distaff-lane,
But an active man, and a porter.

Now Post and Pair, old Christmas’s heir,
Doth make and a gingling sally;
And wot you who, ’tis one of my two
Sons, card-makers in Pur-alley.

Next in a trice, with his box and his dice,
Mac-pipin my son, but younger,
Brings Mumming in; and the knave will win,
For he is a costermonger.

But New-Year’s-Gift, of himself makes shift,
To tell you what his name is:
With orange on head, and his ginger-bread,
Clem Waspe of Honey-lane ’tis.

This, I tell you, is our jolly Wassel,
And for Twelfth-night more meet too:
She works by the ell, and her name is Nell,
And she dwells in Threadneedle-street too.

Then Offering, he, with his dish and his tree,
That in every great house keepeth,
Is by my son, young Little-worth, done,
And in Penny-rich street he sleepeth.

Last, Baby-cake that an end doth make
Of Christmas, merry, merry vein-a,
Is child Rowlan, and a straight young man,
Though he come out of Crooked-lane-a.