Page:The Works of Ben Jonson - Gifford - Volume 6.djvu/184

And with a shovel make clean the highways,
Than have this office of a constable,
And a high constable! the higher charge,
It brings more trouble, more vexation with it.
Neighbours, good neighbours, 'vize me what to do;
How we shall bear us in this hue and cry.
We cannot find the captain, no such man
Lodged at the Lion, nor came thither hurt.
The morning we have spent in privy search;
And by that means the bride-ale is deferr'd:
The bride, she's left alone in Puppy's charge;
The bridegroom goes under a pair of sureties,
And held of all as a respected person.
How should we bustle forward? give some counsel
How to bestir our stumps in these cross ways.

 Clench. Faith, gossip Turfe, you have, you say, remission
To comprehend all such as are despected:
Now would I make another privy search
Thorough this town, and then you have search'd two towns.

 Med. Masters, take heed, let us not vind too many:
One is enough to stay the hangman's stomach.
There is John Clay, who is yvound already,^[1]

1. There is John Clay, who is yvound already,] This play is in the western dialect, as the Sad Shepherd is a specimen of the Lowland Scottish: the letter y is commonly prefixed to participles passive, as well as a poetical augmentation: Quo minus mireris, says Mr. Davis in Junius. B. Jonsonum in fabulâ cui titulus Tale of a Tub, inter alia istius (scil. occidentalis) idiomatis exempla, hæc verba protulisse,
   There is John Clay, who is yvound already. Etymol. Liter. Y. Whal.
   The dialect (which is only partially western) was, I believe, once more general than is commonly supposed, and, in any case, it is quite certain that the Saxon prefix was as universal as the language. Aubrey, who is very careless in his gossipping tales,