called Pinch, do go about from house to house: sometimes I find the doors
of the house open; that negligent servant that left them so, I do so nip
him or her, that with my pinches their bodies are as many colours as a
mackerel's back. Then take I them, and lay I them in the door, naked or
unnaked I care not whether: there they lie, many times till broad day, ere
they waken; and many times, against their wills, they show some parts about
them, that they would not have openly seen.

"Sometimes I find a slut sleeping in the chimney-corner, when she should be
washing of her dishes, or doing something else which she hath left undone:
her I pinch about the arms, for not laying her arms to her labour. Some I
find in their bed snorting and sleeping, and their houses lying as clean as
a nasty dog's kennel; in one corner bones, in another egg-shells, behind
the door a heap of dust, the dishes under feet, and the cat in the
cupboard: all these sluttish tricks I do reward with blue legs, and blue
arms. I find some slovens too, as well as sluts: they pay for their
beastliness too, as well as the women-kind; for if they uncase a sloven and
not untie their points, I so pay their arms that they cannot sometimes
untie them, if they would. Those that leave foul shoes, or go into their
beds with their stockings on, I use them as I did the former, and never
leave them till they have left their beastliness.

But to the good I do no harm,
But cover them and keep them warm:
Sluts and slovens I do pinch,
And make them in their beds to winch
This is my practice, and my trade;
Many have I cleanly made."

THE TRICKS OF THE FAIRY CALLED PATCH