nd clay,
Sossing and possing in the dirt, still from day to day
A hundred things that be abroad, I'm set to see them weel;
And four of you sit idle at home, and cannot keep a neele."

_Gammer._ "My neele, alas, I lost, Hodge, what time I me up hasted,
To save milk set up for thee, which Gib our cat hath wasted."

_Hodge._ "The devil he take both Gib and Tib, with all the rest;
I'm always sure of the worst end, whoever have the best.
Where ha you ben fidging abroad, since you your neele lost?"

_Gammer._ "Within the house, and at the door, sitting by this same
post;
Where I was looking a long hour, before these folke came
here;
But, wel away! all was in vain, my neele is never the near!"

"Gammer Gurton's Needle," says Hazlitt, "is a regular comedy, in five
acts, built on the circumstance of an old woman having lost her needle
which throws the whole village into confusion, till it is at last
providentially found sticking in an unlucky part of Hodge's dress.
This must evidently have happened at a time when the manufactures of
Sheffield and Birmingham had not reached the height of perfection
which they have at present done. Suppose that there is only one sewing
needle in a village, that the owner, a diligent notable old dame,
loses it, that a mischief-making wag sets it about that another old
woman has stolen this valuable instrument of household industry, that
strict search is made every where in-doors for it in vain, and that
then the incensed parties sally forth to scold it out in the open air,
till words end in blows, and the affair is referred over to the higher
authorities, and we shall have an exact idea (though, perhaps, not so
lively a one) of what passes in this authentic document between Gammer
Gurton and her gossip Dame Chat; Dickon the Bedlam (the causer of
these harms); Hodge, Gammer Gurton's servant; Tyb, her maid; Cocke,
her 'prentice boy; Doll Scapethrift; Master Baillie, his master; Dr.
Rat, the curate; and Gib, the cat, who may fairly be reckoned one of
the _dramatis personae_, and performs no mean part."

From the needle itself the transition is easy to the needlework which
was in vogue at the time when this little implement was so valuable
and rare a commodity. We are told that the various kinds of needlework
practised at this time