Uds bud, this is but a sad spectacle.  Oh, says Peg the maid, doth this come by marrying?  I’l never venture it as long as I live.  I do beleeve that it is very pleasurable to ly with a Gentleman, but the Child-bearing hath no delight at all in it.  Oh I am affraid, if there come not a sudden change, that my good Mistris will not be able to undergo it.  Oh sweet pretty blossom as she is.

’Tis most true, that here wants crums of comfort both for the husband and the wife; yea for the Midwife and all the rest of the Women beside; for they all cry that the tears run streaming down their cheeks; and neither their Cinamon-water, nor burnt wine, can any waies refresh or strengthen her.  Uds-lid:  if there come no other tiding the sweetness of this pleasure will prove but bitter to them.

But hark a little! there comes something of a tiding, that brings us five pounds worth of courage with it.  Two or three more such, would make every one of our hearts a hundred pound lighter, and the great Caudle Skellet would begin to quake and tremble.

Pray have a little patience, tarry, and in the twinkling of an eye you shall be presented with a Child, and saluted with the title of Father.

* * * * *

THE EIGHTH PLEASURE.

The Womans brought to bed.

Ha boys! after all the toiling, the happy hour is at last arrived, that the good Woman, finally is delivered & brought to bed:  well this is a mirth and pleasure that far surpasseth all the other; for the good man is, by a whole estate, richer than he was before.

Who can imagine or comprehend the jollity of this new Father?  O he is so overjoyed that it is inexpressible:  Doll and Peg must out immediately to give notice of it to all the friends and acquaintance; thinking to himself that every body else will be as jocund and merry at it as he is.  Do but see how busie he is! behold with what earnestness he runs up and down the house to give order that the great Caudle Skillet may be in a readiness!

[Illustration:  Folio 127. Published by the Navarre Society, London.]

What a pleasure is it for him that he sees Mistris Do-all attending the Midwife, and giving her all manner of warmed beds and other Clouts, the number and names whereof are without end; and that Mistris Swift-hand & Mistris Fair-arse are tumbling all things topsie-turvy forsooth to seek and prepare in a readiness all those things that are most necessary for the Child; but little doth he think that they do it more to be peeping into every hole and corner, and to have a full view of all the Child-bed linnen, then out of needfull assistance?  And wo be to the Child-bed woman, if they do but find any where a Clout, Napkin or Towel, that by chance hath either a hole or a rent in it:  for one or another of them will with grinning and laughing thrust her finger