Enter the old JULIAN MOREMAN.

JULIAN. Labbe, labbe, soze, labbe.—Gi' o'er, gi' o'er:-Tamzen and thee be olweys wother egging or veaking, jawing or sneering, blazing or racing, kerping or speaking cutted, chittering or drowing vore o spalls, purting or jowering, yerring or chounting, taking owl o' wone theng or pip o'tether, chockling or pooching, ripping up or roundshaving wone tether, stivering or grizzling, tacking or busking, a prill'd or a muggard, blogging or glumping, rearing or snapping, vrom candle-douting to candle-teening in the yeavling,gurt hap else.

* Speaking to Wilmot, who had pulled Thomasin's cap.

SO ENDS THE SCOLDING.

AN

EXMOOR COURTSHIP;

OR A

SUITORING DISCOURSE,

IN THE

DEVONSHIRE DIALECT AND MODE,

NEAR

THE FOREST OF EXMOOR.

THE PERSONS.

ANDREW MOREMAN, a young farmer.

MARGERY VAGWELL, his sweetheart.

Old Grammer NELL, grammer to Margery.

THOMASIN, sister to Margery.

AN

EXMOOR COURTSHIP.

SCENE MARGery's home.

To Margery enter Andrew.

ANDREW. HOW goeth et, cozen Magery?

MARGERY. Hoh! cozen Andra, how d'ye try?

ANDREW. ing be scarce.

Come, let's shake honds, thof kiss

MARGERY. Kissing's plenty enow; bet chud zo leefe kiss the back o' ma hond es e'er a man in Challacomb, or yeet in Paracomb; no dispreze. ANDREW. Es dont believe thate,* yeet es believe well too.

[Zwop! he kisses and smuggles her.

* Thate is the proper word here, according to the Exmoor Dialect; though thek was in the former editions improperly inserted instead thereof. 'Tis true the word thek, as well as well as theckee or thecka, is (generally but not always) used for that, when it is a pronoun demonstrative; but never when it is a pronoun relative, or a conjunction, in which cases thet or thate is the word used. The Devonians however in their distinction between theck or theckee, and that, do not altogether conform to that which our Saxon ancestors made between THYLLIC or THYLC (whence the Scotch thilk), THYLLICE or THYLCE, hic & hæc talis, and their THAT OF THAET, by which they commonly expressed id, illum, illud, istud, also hoc, istoc, &c. The Devonshire use of these words may be exemplified by the following phrases: "Hot's thet tha zest? What a gurt lee es thate! The man thet told tha thecka story, thof 'a murt zey theeze

MARGERY. Hemph!-Oh! tha vary vengeance out o' tha!-Tha hast a creem'd ma yearms, and a most a bost ma neck.-Well, bet, vor all, how dost try, es zey, cozen Andra? Es hant a zee'd ye a gurt while.

ANDREW. Why, fath, cozen Magery, nort marchantable, e'er zince es scoast a tack or two wey Rager Vrogwell tether day.-Bet zugs! es trem'd en and vagg'd en zo, that he'll veel et vor wone while, chell warndy.

theng and thicky, whan a had a parwobble weth tha, to make hes tale hang vittily together, cou'dn't bleeve et 'es own zell shore and shore, thek man shou'd a' had the whitstone."

This is the proper Exmoorian language, and in plain English runs thus:

"What's that thou sayest? What a great lye is that! The man who told thee that story, though he might say this and that thing when he held a parley (or conference) with thee, the better to connect and embellish his tale, could not believe it himself: verily and indeed that man should have had the whetstone."

And here it may be requisite to observe, that the whetstone is deemed a proper present for a notorious liar, or one who has asserted the truth of an incredible story: but for what reason I know not, unless it be by way of allusion to the story of Attius Navius,† the celebrated augur; who being required by Tarquinius Priscus, when questioning the utility of his art, to determine thereby whether his then concealed design was feasible or not, performed the usual auguries on that occasion, and answered him in the affirmative then the king informing him that his design was to have such a stone as he then produced to be cut in two with a razor that had been whetted thereon, the augur is said to have established his credit by cutting through the whetstone with the razor, in the king's presence.

and

+ This augur's name is spelt differently by different authors:-By Cicero, de Divinatione, Lib. I. § 17. Attius Navius by Lactantius, de Origine Erroris, Lib. II. § 7. Accius Navius and so by Livy, Lib. I. Chap. 36. But in some MSS. Nævius. By Dionysius Halicar. Ant. Rom. Hist. Lib. Navus. 'ATTIOs Neßios. Val. Maximus de Auspiciis, Atius

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