Durʹden (Dame)

A notable housewife. Dame Durden, of the famous English song, kept five serving girls to carry the milking pails, and also kept five serving men to use the spade and flail. The five men loved the five maids.

“ʹTwas Moll and Bet, and Doll and Kate, and

Dorothy Draggletail;

And John and Dick, and Joe and Jack, and

Humphrey with his flail.”

Anon.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.