BEING TREATED. TO ELLINDA. For cherries plenty, and for corans Enough for fifty, were there more on's; For elles of beere,<35.1> flutes<35.2> of canary, That well did wash downe pasties-Mary;<35.3> For peason, chickens, sawces high, Pig, and the widdow-venson-pye;<35.4> With certaine promise (to your brother) Of the virginity of another, Where it is thought I too may peepe in With knuckles far as any deepe in;<35.5> For glasses, heads, hands, bellies full Of wine, and loyne right-worshipfull;<35.6> Whether all of, or more behind--a Thankes freest, freshest, faire Ellinda. Thankes for my visit not disdaining, Or at the least thankes for your feigning; For if your mercy doore were lockt-well, I should be justly soundly knockt-well; Cause that in dogrell I did mutter Not one rhime to you from dam-Rotter.<35.7> Next beg I to present my duty To pregnant sister in prime beauty, Whom well I deeme (e're few months elder) Will take out Hans from pretty Kelder, And to the sweetly fayre Mabella, A match that vies with Arabella; In each respect but the misfortune, Fortune, Fate, I thee importune. Nor must I passe the lovely Alice, Whose health I'd quaffe in golden chalice; But since that Fate hath made me neuter, I only can in beaker pewter: But who'd forget, or yet left un-sung The doughty acts of George the yong-son? Who yesterday to save his sister Had slaine the snake, had he not mist her: But I shall leave him, 'till a nag on He gets to prosecute the dragon; And then with helpe of sun and taper, Fill with his deeds twelve reames of paper, That Amadis,<35.8> Sir Guy, and Topaz With his fleet neigher shall keep no-pace. But now to close all I must switch-hard, [Your] servant ever; LOVELACE RICHARD. <35.1> This expression has reference to the old practice of drinking beer and wine out of very high glasses, with divisions marked on them. A yard of ale is even now a well understood term: nor is the custom itself out of date, since in some parts of the country one is asked to take, not a glass, but A YARD. The ell was of course, strictly speaking, a larger measure than a yard; but it was often employed as a mere synonyme or equivalent. Thus, in MAROCCUS EXTATICUS, 1595, Bankes says:-- "Measure, Marocco, nay, nay, they that take up commodities make no difference for measure between a Flemish elle and an English yard." <35.2> In the new edition of Nares (1859), this very passage is quoted to illustrate the meaning of the word, which is defined rather vaguely to be A CASK. Obviously the word signifies something of the kind, but the explanation does not at all satisfy me. I suspect that a flute OF CANARY was so called from the cask having several vent-holes, in the same way that the French call a lamprey FLEUTE D'ALEMAN from the fish having little holes in the upper part of its body.