A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 01
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 01
English drama
Yea, but where is Hickscorner now?
IMAGINATION.
Some of these young men hath hid him in
Their bosoms, I warrant ye:
Let us make a cry, that he may us hear.
FREEWILL.
How now, Hickscorner, appear;
I trow thou be hid in some corner.
HICKSCORNER.
Ale[121] the helm, ale, veer, shoot off, veer sail, veer-a.
FREEWILL.
Cock's body, hark, he is a ship on the sea.
HICKSCORNER.
God speed, God speed; who called after me?
IMAGINATION.
What, brother, welcome by this precious body;
I am glad that I you see,
It was told me that you were hanged;
But out of what country come ye?
HICKSCORNER.
Sirs, I have been in many a country;
As in France, Ireland, and in Spain,
Portingal, Sevile, also in Almaine;
Friesland, Flanders, and in Burgoine,
Calabria, Pugle,[122] and Erragon,[123]
Britain, Biske, and also in Gascoine,
Naples, Greece, and in middes of Scotland;
At Cape,[124] Saint Vincent, and in the new found island,[125]
I have been in Gene[126] and in Cowe,
Also in the land of Rumbelow,[127]
Three mile out of hell;
At Rhodes, Constantine, and in Babylon[128]
In Cornwall, and in Northumberland,
Where men seethe rushes in gruel;
Yea, sir, in Chaldsea, Tartary, and India,
And in the Land of Women, that few men doth find:
In all these countries have I be.
FREEWILL.
Sir, what tidings hear ye now on the sea?
HICKSCORNER.
We met of ships a great navy,
Full of people that would into Ireland;
And they came out of this country:
They will never more come to England.
IMAGINATION.
Whence were the ships of them? knowest thou none?
HICKSCORNER.
Harken, and I will show you their names each one:
First was the _Regent_, with the _Michael_ of Brikilse;
The _George_, with the _Gabriel_, and the _Anne_ of Fowey;
The _Star_ of Saltash, with the _Jesus_ of Plymouth;
Also the _Hermitage_, with the _Barbara_ of Dartmouth,
The _Nicolas_ and the _Mary Bellouse_ of Bristow,
With the _Ellen_ of London and _James_ also:
Great was the people that was in them,
All true religious and holy women:
There was Truth and his kinsmen,
With Patience, Meekness, and Humility,
And all true maidens with their virginity,
Royal preachers, sadness and charity,
Right conscience and faith, with devotion,
And all true monks that keep their religion,
True buyers and sellers, and alms-deed doers,
Piteous people, that he of sin destroyers,
With just abstinence and good councillors,
Mourners for sin, with lamentation,
And good rich men that helpeth folk out of prison,
True wedlock was there also,
With young men that ever in prayer did go,
The ships were laden with such unhappy company,
But at the last God shope[129] a remedy,
For they all in the sea were drowned,
And on a quicksand they strake to ground;
The sea swallowed them everychone,
I wot well alive there scaped none.
IMAGINATION.
Lo, now my heart is glad and merry;
For joy now let us sing "Derry, derry."
HICKSCORNER.
Fellows, they shall never more us withstand;
For I see them all drowned in the Rase of Ireland.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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