15 Spight o' the
housewiues
cord, or her hot spit.
Ben Jonson - The Devil's Association
1, _Wks.
_ 4.
362).
George Wither,
in the _Britain's Remembrancer_, 1628, refers to the same thing:
And Hogsdone, Islington, and Tothnam-court,
For cakes and cream had then no small resort.
Tottenham Fields were until a comparatively recent date a favorite
place of entertainment.
=1. 1. 13 a tonning of Ale=, etc. Cf. _Sad Shep. _, _Wks. _ 6. 276:
The house wives tun not work, nor the milk churn.
=1. 1.
15 Spight o' the housewiues cord, or her hot spit. =
'There be twentie severall waies to make your butter come, which
for brevitie I omit; as to bind your cherne with a rope, to
thrust thereinto a red hot spit, &c. '--Scot, _Discovery_, p. 229.
=1. 1. 16, 17 Or some good Ribibe . . . witch. = This seems
to be an allusion, as Fleay suggests, to Heywood's _Wise-Woman
of Hogsdon_. The witch of that play declares her dwelling to
be in 'Kentstreet' (Heywood's _Wks. _ 5. 294). A ribibe meant
originally a musical instrument, and was synonymous with rebec.
By analogy, perhaps, it was applied to a shrill-voiced old
woman.
in the _Britain's Remembrancer_, 1628, refers to the same thing:
And Hogsdone, Islington, and Tothnam-court,
For cakes and cream had then no small resort.
Tottenham Fields were until a comparatively recent date a favorite
place of entertainment.
=1. 1. 13 a tonning of Ale=, etc. Cf. _Sad Shep. _, _Wks. _ 6. 276:
The house wives tun not work, nor the milk churn.
=1. 1.
15 Spight o' the housewiues cord, or her hot spit. =
'There be twentie severall waies to make your butter come, which
for brevitie I omit; as to bind your cherne with a rope, to
thrust thereinto a red hot spit, &c. '--Scot, _Discovery_, p. 229.
=1. 1. 16, 17 Or some good Ribibe . . . witch. = This seems
to be an allusion, as Fleay suggests, to Heywood's _Wise-Woman
of Hogsdon_. The witch of that play declares her dwelling to
be in 'Kentstreet' (Heywood's _Wks. _ 5. 294). A ribibe meant
originally a musical instrument, and was synonymous with rebec.
By analogy, perhaps, it was applied to a shrill-voiced old
woman.
