relish well in your palates, but the bare-rib of a bishop, or the jowl of a judge: truly I hold it better that so that some of you were taken_away with Gregories Voyder; the season is, there are caps with four corners, and those you distaste; there are creatures to be met in one corner, hold there; and there is a tree near Paddington with three corners; but no more of that (I pray) though it is necessary that some of you should escape no worse. I am so clear-sighted that I can see through the very veins and sinews of your consciences; for your religions you may, (many of you) cast cross 'GREGORIE'S VOYDER.-Gregory Brandon, the common hangman, succeeded Derrick, whose pupil and assistants he seems to have been in his declining years. In a paper called the Parliamentary Kite, 1648, is the following:: "What would you say to see them fall, With both their houses vile; Because they have deceived us all, Now Gregory they'll beguile." This functionary was very popular in his calling. The gallows was sometimes called by his Christian name :— ." and he Doth fear his fate from the Gregorian tree.' Gregory Brandon was succeeded by his son Richard, the infamous butcher of Charles I. "A TREE WITH THREE CORNERS.-The gallows at Tyburn formerly consisted of three posts, over which were laid three transverse beams. This clumsy machine gave place to an elegant (!) contrivance, called "The New Drop," by which the use of that vulgar vehicle a cart, or mechanical instrument a ladder, was avoided; the criminals being left suspended by the dropping down of that part of the floor on which they stand. You will ride a wooden horse, or the three-legged mare, were common expressions. and pile, and for your just dealing you may play at My Sow's Pigged.' Therefore it is wholesome for the times that such cocks as you should be let blood in the comb. It is a marvel that most of your perverse sects have not wry mouths, for very few of you do speak right at any time but out of the concupiscence of your consciences, and the learning you are indued withal in Crooked-Lane Latin hath got you with child with rebellion; and being with child you long to swallow churches and devour authority, but you will be told one time or other that there is some odds betwixt learning and libeling. I know some that will do their ill-good will to outlaw my soul for writing this, and they will serve an execution of damnation upon me, but if I be of their coining I will meet them with such a powder that shall make their bones to rattle in their skins like three blue beans in a blue bladder rattle bladder rattle.2 'My Sow's PIGGED.-A very old game, being mentioned in Taylor's Motto, 1622. It is thus alluded to in Poor Robin's Almanack, 1734: "The lawyers play at beggar my neighbour; the schoolmasters play at questions and commands; the farmers play at my son's pigg'd." "THREE BLUE BEANS, &c.-What is the origin of this whimsical combination of words, it may not now be easy to discover, unless we suppose it And for a conclusion, It is as lawful, for honest men by either speaking or writing to make the malicious facts and acts of knaves known, as it is for knaves to slander and abuse honest men; and most certain it is that the leaders of these factions do know they are out of the way, and would be glad to return again (were it not for some worldly respects) for which causes they must impudently go on, according to the old proverb over shoes, over boots. invented to create a difficulty in repeating the alliteration distinctly. least of long standing. F.-Hark, does't rattle? It is at S.-Yes, like three blue beans in a blue bladder, rattle, bladder, rattle. Prior has in his Alma : "They say— That putting all his words together, 'Tis three blue beans in one blue bladder." Canto i, v. 25. |