Why art thou angry? quoth our king merrilye; In faith, I take it now very unkind: I thought thou wouldst pledge me in ale and wine heartily. Quoth Dicke, You are like to stay till I have din'd: You feed us with twatling dishes soe small; 95 Zounds, a blacke-pudding is better than all.
Aye, marry, quoth our king, that were a daintye thing, Could a man get but one here for to eate. With that Dicke straite arose, and pluckt one from his hose, Which with heat of his breech gan to sweate. 100 The king made a proffer to snatch it away:-- 'Tis meat for your master: good sir, you must stay.
Thus in great merriment was the time wholly spent; And then the ladyes prepared to dance. Old Sir John Cockle, and Richard, incontinent[402] 105 Unto their places the king did advance. Here with the ladyes such sport they did make, The nobles with laughing did make their sides ake.
Many thankes for their paines did the king give them, Asking young Richard then, if he would wed; 110 Among these ladyes free, tell me which liketh thee? Quoth he, Jugg Grumball, Sir, with the red head: She's my love, she's my life, her will I wed; She hath sworn I shall have her maidenhead.
Then sir John Cockle the king called unto him, 115 And of merry Sherwood made him o'er seer; And gave him out of hand three hundred pound yearlye: Take heed now you steale no more of my deer: And once a quarter let's here have your view; And now, sir John Cockle, I bid you adieu. 120
[396] [The head, feet, and ears of swine boiled and pickled for eating.--_Halliwell's Dictionary._]
[397] [Ver. 80. courtnalls, that courteous be. _MS. and P._]
[398] [A favourite liquor among the common people, composed of ale and roasted apples, the pulp of the apple worked up with the ale till the mixture formed a smooth beverage. _Nares' Glossary._]
[399] [Ver. 57. _for good hap_: _i.e._ for good luck; they were going on an hazardous expedition.]
[401] [Ver. 60. Maid Marian in the Morris dance, was represented by a man in woman's cloaths, who was to take short steps in order to sustain the female character.]
This beautiful old song was written by a poet, whose name would have been utterly forgotten, if it had not been preserved by _Swift_, as a term of contempt. _Dryden_ and _Wither_ are coupled by him like the _Bavius_ and _Mævius_ of Virgil. _Dryden_, however, has had justice done him by posterity: and as for _Wither_, though of subordinate merit, that he was not altogether devoid of genius, will be judged from the following stanzas. The truth is, _Wither_ was a very voluminous party-writer: and as his political and satyrical strokes rendered him extremely popular in his life-time; so afterwards, when these were no longer relished, they totally consigned his writings to oblivion.