A Select Collection of Old English Plays: Originally Published by Robert Dodsley in the year 1744
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays: Originally Published by Robert Dodsley in the year 1744
English drama
Goodman Hob and goodman Lob, God be your speed:
As you two towards market did[244] walk,
Of the king’s cruelty I did hear you talk,
I insure you he is a king most vile and pernicious;
His doings and life are odious and vicious.
LOB.
It were a good deed zomebody would break his head.
HOB.
Bum vay, neighbour Lob, I chould he were dead.
AMBIDEXTER.
So would I, Lob and Hob, with all my heart.
Now with both hands will ye see me play my part? [_Aside_.
Ah, ye whoreson traitorly knaves;
Hob and Lob, out upon you, slaves!
LOB.
And thou call’st me knave, thou art another:
My name is Lob, and Hob my next neighbour.
AMBIDEXTER.
Hob and Lob, ah ye country patches!
Ah ye fools! ye have made wrong matches;
Ye have spoken treason against the king’s grace:
For it I will accuse ye before his face;
Then for the same ye shall be martyr’d:
At the least ye shall be hang’d, drawn, and quartered.
HOB.
O gentleman, ye shall have two pear-pies, and tell not of me.
LOB.
By God, a vat goose chill give thee:
I think no hurt, by my vather’s soul I swear.
HOB.
Chave lived well all my life-time my neighbours among,
And now chould be loth to come to zuch wrong:
To be hanged and quartered the grief would be great.
LOB.
A foul evil on thee, Hob! who bid thee on it treat?
Vor it was thou that first did him name.
HOB.
Thou liest like a varlet, and thou zay’st the same;
It was zuch a voolish Lob as thou.
LOB.
Speak many words, and by Cod’s nails I vow,
Upon thy pate my staff I will lay.
AMBIDEXTER.
By the mass, I will cause them to make a fray. [_Aside._
Yea, Lob, thou sayest true, all came through him.
LOB.
Bum vay, thou Hob, a little would make me ye trim;
Give thee a zwap on thy nose, till thy heart ache.
HOB.
If thou darest, do it; else, man, cry creke:
I trust, before thou hurt me,
With my staff chill make a Lob of thee.
[_Here let them fight with their staves, not
come near another by three or four yards;
the_ VICE _set them on as hard as he can:
one of their wives come out, and all to
beat the_ VICE, _he run away_.
_Enter_ MARIAN-MAY-BE-GOOD, HOB’S _wife, running
in with a broom, and part them._
MARIAN.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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