A TALE OF A TUB.
ACT I. SCENE I.
Totten Court.
Before lady Tub's House.
Enter canon Hugh.
Hugh. Now on my faith, old bishop Valentine,
You have brought us nipping weather—Februere
Doth cut and shear—your day and diocese
Are very cold. All your parishioners,
As well your laics as your quiristers,
Had need to keep to their warm feather beds,
If they be sped of loves:[1] this is no season,
You have brought us nipping weather—Februere
Doth cut and shear—your day and diocese
Are very cold. All your parishioners,
As well your laics as your quiristers,
Had need to keep to their warm feather beds,
If they be sped of loves:[1] this is no season,
- ↑ If they be sped of loves:] i. e. already furnished with makes or mates; for then they need not rise early to find a Valentine. The good "old bishop" is somewhat oddly selected for the patron of this amatory device, as all that seems known of him is that he suffered martyrdom in the third century. Lady Tub, however, in the concluding scene of this act, gives a full, and, indeed, an elegant description of his virtues, as they are found perhaps in the Legend. It is probable that his name occupied, in the Calendar, the place of some heathen divinity, whose rites were thus celebrated; for the origin of the practice is lost in remote antiquity.
This pretty superstition exists in almost every part of the continent, as well as in England; and long may it continue to
