A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 13Dodsley, Robert
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 13
Dodsley, Robert
English drama
[214] The following seems to be the story here alluded to: "But the
strangest I have met with in this kinde, is the historie of Eve
Fleigen, out of the _Dutch_ translated into English, and printed at
London, Anno 1611: who being borne at Meurs, is said to have taken no
kinde of sustenance by the space of fourteen yeeres together; that is,
from the yeere of her age twenty-two to thirty-six, and from the yeere
of our Lord, 1597 to 1611; and this we have confirmed by the testimony
of the magistrate of the towne of Meurs, as also by the minister, who
made tryall of her in his house thirteene days together, by all the
meanes he could devise, but could detect no imposture. Over the picture
of this maiden, set in the front of the Dutch copie, stand these Latin
verses--
'Meursæ hæc quem cernis decies ter sexque peregit
Annos, bis septem prorsus non vescitur annis
Nec potat, sic sola sedet, sic pallida vitam
Ducit, et _exigui se oblectat floribus horti_."
Thus rendred in the English copie--
"This maid of Meurs thirty-six yeares spent,
Fourteene of which she tooke no nourishment:
Thus pale and wan shee sits, sad and alone,
_A garden's all shee loves to looke upon_."
--Hakewill's "Apologie," fol. 1635, p. 440.
In Davenant's "News from Plymouth," act i. sc. 1, the same person is
mentioned--
"How? Do you think I bring you tidings of
The Maid of Brabant, that liv'd by her smell;
That din'd on a rose, and supp'd on a tulip?"
[The narrative of Eve Fleigen, above referred to, is appended to an
excessively rare tract of eight 4º leaves, printed in 1611, and noticed
in Hazlitt's "Handbook," 1867, p. 277.]
[215] Or, as it was more frequently written, _tray-trip_. This game is
mentioned very frequently in our ancient writers, but it is by no means
clear what the nature of it was. Mr Steevens considers it as a _game at
cards_; and Mr Tyrwhitt, as a _game at tables_. In opposition to both,
Mr Hawkins was of opinion that it was the same play which is now called
"Scotch Hop," the amusement at present of the lower class of young
people. In support of this idea, the above passage was quoted by that
gentleman. See notes on "Twelfth Night," act ii. sc. 5.
The truth of Mr Tyrwhitt's conjecture will be established by the
following extract from "Machiavell's Dogge," 1617, 4º, sig. B.
"But leaving cardes, lett's goe to dice a while,
To passage, _trei-trippe_, hazarde, or mum-chance,
But subtill mates will simple mindes beguile,
And blinde their eyes with many a blinking glaunce.
"Oh cogges and stoppes, and such like devilish trickes,
Full many a purse of golde and silver pickes.
"And therefore, first for hazard, hee that list,
And passeth not, puts many to a blancke;
And _trippe without a treye_ makes hard, I wist,
To sitte and mourne among the sleepers ranke.
And for mum-chance howe'er the chance doe fall,
You must be mum for fear of marring all."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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