Ellinda's Glove. Sonnet

I.
Thou snowy farme with thy five tenements!<34.1>
    Tell thy white mistris here was one,
    That call'd to pay his dayly rents;
But she a-gathering flowr's and hearts is gone,
And thou left voyd to rude possession.

                    II.
But grieve not, pretty Ermin cabinet,
    Thy alabaster lady will come home;
    If not, what tenant can there fit
The slender turnings of thy narrow roome,
But must ejected be by his owne dombe?<34.2>

                    III.
Then give me leave to leave my rent with thee:
    Five kisses, one unto a place:
    For though the lute's too high for me,
Yet servants, knowing minikin<34.3> nor base,
Are still allow'd to fiddle with the case.

<34.1> i.e. the white glove of the lady with its five fingers.

<34.2> Doom.

<34.3> A description of musical pin attached to a lute. It was only brought into play by accomplished musicians. In the address of "The Country Suiter to his Love," printed in Cotgrave's WITS INTERPRETER, 1662, p. 119, the man says:—

    "Fair Wench! I cannot court thy sprightly eyes
     With a base-viol plac'd betwixt my thighs,
     I cannot lisp, nor to a fiddle sing,
     Nor run upon a high-strecht minikin."

In Middleton's FAMILIE OF LOVE, 1608 (Works by Dyce, ii. 127) there is the following passage:—

    "GUDGEON. Ay, and to all that forswear marriage, and can be
                 content with other men's wives.
     GERARDINE. Of which consort you two are grounds; one touches
                 the bass, and the other tickles the minikin."