THE SECOND ACT. THE FOURTH SCENE. DICCON, GAMMER. _Diccon._ Now this gear must forward go, for here my Gammer cometh. Be still a while, and say nothing; make here a little romth. _Gammer._ Good lord! shall never be my luck my nee'le again to spy? Alas, the while! 'tis past my help, where 'tis still it must lie! _Diccon._ Now, Jesus! Gammer Gurton, what driveth you to this sadness? I fear me, by my conscience, you will sure fall to madness. _Gammer._ Who is that? What, Diccon? cham lost, man! fie, fie! _Diccon._ Marry, fie on them that be worthy! but what should be your trouble? _Gammer._ Alas! the more ich think on it, my sorrow it waxeth double. My goodly tossing spurrier's nee'le chave lost ich wot not where. _Diccon._ Your nee'le? when? _Gammer._ My nee'le, alas! ich might full ill it spare, As God himself he knoweth, ne'er one beside chave. _Diccon._ If this be all, good Gammer, I warrant you all is safe. _Gammer._ Why, know you any tidings which way my nee'le is gone? _Diccon._ Yea, that I do, doubtless, as ye shall hear anon, 'A see a thing this matter toucheth within these twenty hours, Even at this gate, before my face, by a neighbour of yours. She stooped me down, and up she took up a needle or a pin. I durst be sworn it was even yours, by all my mother's kin. _Gammer._ It was my nee'le, Diccon, ich wot; for here, even by this post, Ich sat, what time as ich up start, and so my nee'le it lost: Who was it, leve son? speak, ich pray thee, and quickly tell me that! _Diccon._ A subtle quean as any in this town, your neighbour here, dame Chat. _Gammer._ Dame Chat, Diccon! Let me be gone, chill thither in post haste. _Diccon._ Take my counsel yet or ye go, for fear ye walk in waste, It is a murrain crafty drab, and froward to be pleased; And ye take not the better way, our needle yet ye lose [it]: For when she took it up, even here before your doors, "What, soft, dame Chat" (quoth I), "that same is none of yours." "Avaunt" (quoth she), "sir knave! what pratest thou of that I find? I would thou hast kiss'd me I wot where"; she meant, I know, behind; And home she went as brag as it had been a body-louse, And I after, as bold as it had been the goodman of the house. But there and ye had heard her, how she began to scold! The tongue it went on patins, by him that Judas sold! Each other word I was a knave, and you a whore of whores. Because I spake in your behalf, and said the nee'le was yours. _Gammer._ Gog's bread! and thinks that that callet thus to keep my nee'le me fro? _Diccon._ Let her alone, and she minds none other but even to dress you so. _Gammer._ By the mass, chill rather spend the coat that is on my back! Thinks the false quean by such a sleight, that chill my nee'le lack?