第43章

At I'm for that. At the lusty brown boy.

At I take you napping. At greedy glutton.

At fair and softly passeth Lent. At the morris dance.

At the forked oak. At feeby.

At truss. At the whole frisk and gambol.

At the wolf's tail. At battabum, or riding of the At bum to buss, or nose in breech. wild mare.

At Geordie, give me my lance. At Hind the ploughman.

At swaggy, waggy or shoggyshou. At the good mawkin.

At stook and rook, shear and At the dead beast. threave. At climb the ladder, Billy.

At the birch. At the dying hog.

At the muss. At the salt doup.

At the dilly dilly darling. At the pretty pigeon.

At ox moudy. At barley break.

At purpose in purpose. At the bavine.

At nine less. At the bush leap.

At blind-man-buff. At crossing.

At the fallen bridges. At bo-peep.

At bridled nick. At the hardit arsepursy.

At the white at butts. At the harrower's nest.

At thwack swinge him. At forward hey.

At apple, pear, plum. At the fig.

At mumgi. At gunshot crack.

At the toad. At mustard peel.

At cricket. At the gome.

At the pounding stick. At the relapse.

At jack and the box. At jog breech, or prick him for-At the queens. ward.

At the trades. At knockpate.

At heads and points. At the Cornish c(h)ough.

At the vine-tree hug. At the crane-dance.

At black be thy fall. At slash and cut.

At ho the distaff. At bobbing, or flirt on the At Joan Thomson. nose.

At the bolting cloth. At the larks.

At the oat's seed. At fillipping.

After he had thus well played, revelled, past and spent his time, it was thought fit to drink a little, and that was eleven glassfuls the man, and, immediately after making good cheer again, he would stretch himself upon a fair bench, or a good large bed, and there sleep two or three hours together, without thinking or speaking any hurt. After he was awakened he would shake his ears a little. In the mean time they brought him fresh wine. There he drank better than ever. Ponocrates showed him that it was an ill diet to drink so after sleeping. It is, answered Gargantua, the very life of the patriarchs and holy fathers; for naturally I sleep salt, and my sleep hath been to me in stead of so many gammons of bacon. Then began he to study a little, and out came the paternosters or rosary of beads, which the better and more formally to despatch, he got upon an old mule, which had served nine kings, and so mumbling with his mouth, nodding and doddling his head, would go see a coney ferreted or caught in a gin.

At his return he went into the kitchen to know what roast meat was on the spit, and what otherwise was to be dressed for supper. And supped very well, upon my conscience, and commonly did invite some of his neighbours that were good drinkers, with whom carousing and drinking merrily, they told stories of all sorts from the old to the new. Amongst others he had for domestics the Lords of Fou, of Gourville, of Griniot, and of Marigny.

After supper were brought in upon the place the fair wooden gospels and the books of the four kings, that is to say, many pairs of tables and cards--or the fair flush, one, two, three--or at all, to make short work; or else they went to see the wenches thereabouts, with little small banquets, intermixed with collations and rear-suppers. Then did he sleep, without unbridling, until eight o'clock in the next morning.