_The lice bite us, ’tis not deny’d,_ } _We bite our masters when employ’d;_ } _And they bite all the world beside._ }
At the bottom of Cloth-fair, the Corpse was arrested at the suit of an old herb-woman for elevenpence halfpenny,[114] which had been due a long time to the hag, for cabbages and cucumbers, which the deceased had in his life-time: However the journeymen-taylors manfully released the Corpse,[115] and afterwards marched on in ample procession to the house of one Ned Kemp, an honest piece-broker, where there was a spacious grave dug, between a large cabbage and a cucumber plant.
The FUNERAL SERMON was preached by Obadiah Backstitch, and the words of the text were these:
After which, the journeymen taylors were admitted into the house,[117] and each of them served with a halfpenny-roll, and a pint of ale, and so went weeping home, for the loss of so good a master.
I will and bequeath unto Simon Whipstitch,[118] my needle and thimble; unto Peter Niggle, my sheers and bodkin; and unto Mrs. Mary Laycock[118] is my Pincushion, stuck full of needles and pins, to which I sewed a watch-chain, key, and seal with which I used to strut about like a crow in a gutter.[119]
_Gae canty book and win a name;_ _Nae lyrics ev’er shall ding thee:_ _Hope large esteem, and lasting fame,_ _For Leper’s name will raise thee._[120]
[The title of the edition reprinted here is:--‘The Folly of Witless Women Displayed; or, the History of Haverel Wives: Written by Humphray Clinker the Clashing Wives Clerk. Being a Comical Conference between Maggy and Janet his two old Aunties. Glasgow: Printed for the Company of Flying Stationers, in Town and Country, MDCCLXXXI.’ It has been collated with an undated edition issued by Morren of Edinburgh, and one published by the Robertsons of Glasgow in 1807; and also with a reprint by D. Webster & Son, Lothian Street, Edinburgh. This last named firm, considering the reprinting of old Scottish popular tales ‘in a more correct and neat form’ than hitherto to be a desideratum, issued this chap-book, along with _Janet Clinker’s Oration_, as the first number of what they called the ‘Caledonian Classics of the Common People.’ _John Cheap_ was announced as the second number. It should be stated that the 1781 edition here followed is exceptional in respect that the _History of the Haverel Wives_ is given as a separate and distinct publication. It is an 8 pp. 12mo. In all the other editions that have come under the editor’s notice this chap-book and _Janet Clinker’s Oration_ are issued together.]