A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 01
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 01
English drama
Yea, thereto ye would be ready;
To go to mirth, solace and play,
Your mind will sooner apply
Than to bear me company in my long journey.
FELLOWSHIP.
Now, in good faith, I will not that way;
But, and thou will murder, or any man kill,
In that I will help thee with a good will.
EVERYMAN.
Oh, that is a simple advice indeed:
Gentle fellows[hip,] help me in my necessity;
We have loved long, and now I need,
And now, gentle Fellowship, remember me.
FELLOWSHIP.
Whether ye have loved me or no,
By Saint John, I will not with thee go.
EVERYMAN.
Yet, I pray thee, take the labour, and do so much for me,
To bring me forward, for Saint Charity,
And comfort me, till I come without the town.
FELLOWSHIP.
Nay, and thou would give me a new gown,
I will not a foot with thee go;
But, and thou had tarried, I would not have left thee so:
And as now God speed thee in thy journey!
For from thee I will depart, as fast as I may.
EVERYMAN.
Whither away, Fellowship? will you forsake me?
FELLOWSHIP.
Yea, by my fay; to God I betake thee.
EVERYMAN.
Farewell, good Fellowship; for this my heart is sore:
Adieu for ever, I shall see thee no more.
FELLOWSHIP.
In faith, Everyman, farewell now at the end;
For you I will remember that parting is mourning.
EVERYMAN.
Alack! shall we thus depart in deed,
O Lady, help, without any more comfort,
Lo,[82] Fellowship forsaketh me in my most need:
For help in this world whither shall I resort?
Fellowship here before with me would merry make;
And now little sorrow for me doth he take.
It is said, in prosperity men friends may find,
Which in adversity be full unkind.
Now whither for succour shall I flee,
Sith that Fellowship hath forsaken me?
To my kinsmen I will truly,
Praying them to help me in my necessity;
I believe that they will do so;
For kind will creep, where it may not go.[83]
I will go say; for yonder I see them go:
Where be ye now, my friends and kinsmen [lo?]
KINDRED.
Here be we now at your commandment:
Cousin, I pray thee, show us your intent
In any wise, and do not spare.
COUSIN.
Yea, Everyman, and to us declare
If ye be disposed to go any whither;
For, wot ye well, we[84] will live and die together.
KINDRED.
In wealth and woe we will with you hold;
For over his kin a man may be bold.
EVERYMAN.
Gramercy, my friends and kinsmen kind,
Now shall I show you the grief of my mind.
I was commanded by a messenger,
That is an high king's chief officer;
He bad me go on pilgrimage to my pain,
But I know well I shall never come again:
Also I must give a reckoning strait;
For I have a great enemy that hath me in wait,
Which intendeth me for to hinder.
KINDRED.
What account is that which ye must render?
That would I know.
EVERYMAN.
Of all my works I must show,
How I have lived, and my days spent;
Also of ill deeds that I have used
In my time, sith life was me lent,
And of all virtues that I have refused:
Therefore, I pray you, go thither with me
To help to make mine account, for Saint Charity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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