Brewer's: Durden

(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.

'Twas Moll and Bet, and Doll and Kate, and Dorothy Draggletail; And John and Dick, and Joe and Jack, and Humphrey with his flail.

Anon.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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