12 WILD FLO WEES. 



its application; and, as they believe, increase its 

 virtues : 



"Nettle in, dock out, 



Dock in, nettle out, 



Nettle in, dock out, 



Dock rub nettle out :" 



or, as the children in Wiltshire word it, 



" Out 'ettle, 



In dock ; 



Dock shall ha' a new smock, 

 Ettle shant 

 Ha' narrun:" 



a familiar charm ; the antiquity of which is 

 shewn by its employment in old English writings 

 to express instability of action ; thus, Chaucer 



says : 



" But canst thou playen racket to and fro, 

 Nettle in, dock out, now this, now that, Pindare ?" 



Trolius and Creside. 



And again, 



" I have not plaid raket, nettle in, dock out 

 And with the weather-cocke waned." 



Testament of Love. 



Bishop Andrews, also, in his sermon " Of the 

 Resurrection," says, " Off and on, fast or loose, in 

 docke out nettle, and in nettle out docke," &c. ;* 

 while Middleton, in his " More Dissemblers besides 

 Women/' has the passage : 



" Is this my in dock, out nettle ?" 

 The poor nettle has, I fear, been but disrespect- 

 * See "Notes and Queries ;" "Athenaeum," &c. 



