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
When gain is no grandsire,[182]
And gauds nought set by;
Nor puddings nor pie-meat
Poor knaves will come nigh,
Then hap and Haphazard
Shall have a new coat.
And so it may happen
To cut covetousness’ throat.
Yea, then shall Judge Appius
Virginia obtain,
And geese shall crack mussels
Perhaps in the rain:
Larks shall be leverets,
And skip to and fro;
And churls shall be cods-heads,
Perhaps and also.
But peace, for man’s body!
Haphazard be mum!
Fie, prattling noddy,
Judge Appius is come.
_Here entereth_ JUDGE APPIUS _and_ CLAUDIUS.
The furies fell of Limbo lake
My princely days do short:
All drown’d in deadly ways I live,
That once did joy in sport.
I live and languish in my life,
As doth the wounded deer.
I thirst, I crave, I call and cry.
And yet am nought the near:[183]
And yet I have that me so match
Within the realm of mine:
But (Tantalus amids my care)
I hunger--starve, and pine.
As Sisyphus, I roll the stone
In vain to top of hill,
That ever more uncertainly
Revolving slideth still.
O, if to her ’twere as to me,[184]
What labours would I fly,
What raging seas would I not plough
To her commodity?
But out alas, I doubt it sore,
Lest drowsy Morpheus[185]
His slumb’ry kingdoms planted hath
With dews unbeauteous.[186]
O gods above that rule the skies:
Ye babes that brag in bliss:
Ye goddesses, ye Graces, you,
What burning brunt is this?
Bend down your ire, destroy me quick.
Or else to grant me grace,
No more, but that my burning breast
Virginia may embrace.[187]
If case your ears be dead and deaf,
The fiend and spirits below,
You careless carls of Limbo lake,
Your forced mights do show.
Thou caitif king of darksome dens,
Thou Pluto, plagued knave,
Send forth thy sacred vengeance straight,
Consume them to the grave,
That will not aid my case--
CLAUDIUS. Content, and if it like your grace,
I will attempt the deed:
I summon will Virginius
Before your seat with speed.
HAPHAZARD.Do so, my lord: be you not afraid,
And so you may happen to hazard the maid:
It is but in hazard and may come by hap:
Win her or lose her, try you the trap.
APPIUS. By the gods, I consent to thee, Claudius, now;
Prepare thee in haste Virginius unto.
Charge him, command him, upon his allegiance,
With all kind of speed to yield his obeisance,
Before my seat in my consistory,
_Subpœnâ_ of land, life and treasury.
No let, no stay, nor ought perturbance
Shall cause me to omit the furtherance
Of this my weighty charge.
[_Here let_ CLAUDIUS _go out with_ HAPHAZARD.
APPIUS. Well, now I range at large my will for to express;
For look, how Tarquin Lucrece fair by force did once oppress,
Even so will I Virginia use.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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